Category: News

Once upon a time China was one of Marvel’s best customers. Avengers: Endgame made $629 million there alone. For Iron Man Three, they added multiple scenes in which characters tout the Chinese-made technology saved Tony Stark’s life. The affair has been over for a while now. Since Black Widow, MCU titles have not been granted permission to play in one of the largest moviegoing markets on the planet. That will likely include Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, possibly for a specific — and unsurprising — reason.

China never formally announces that they’ve blocked films from release, much less the reason(s) why. But as per The Hollywood Reporter, among the possible explanations for why the sequel — whose predecessor Hoovered up some $105 million in China almost five years back — doesn’t appear to be headed for the People’s Republic of China is this: It has gay characters. In the film, Michaela Coel, who earned accolades for her show I May Destroy You, plays the Wakandan warrior Aneka, who is in a relationship with the Dora bodyguard Ayo (Florence Kasumba).

There are other likely reasons, too. THR speculates that there may be a de facto band on any Marvel product. Others wonder if they’re still peeved about comments made by Shang-Chi star Simu Liu and Eternals director Chloé Zhao that were critical of China.

Chinese censors have a history of demanding cuts from films that feature gay content and blocking them when studios refuse to comply. Fox played ball with Bohemian Rhapsody, and Warner Bros. elided dialogue about Dumbledore’s homosexuality from the most recent Fantastic Beasts. Disney, however, has held firm, refusing to budge on their Beauty and the Beast redo, Eternals, and Lightyear. But if Wakanda Forever has no chance of playing China, then those talks don’t even need to happen.

Black Panther 2 isn’t the only film China probably won’t let its citizens see. Black Adam is also expected to be denied to the world’s second largest moviegoing market. Star Dwayne Johnson is a huge draw in China, so why block it? THR has a theory: Third-billed Pierce Brosnan posted a photo of him meeting the Dalai Lama 19 years ago, and kissing up to Tibet is a good way to get your movies banned. Still, both will almost certainly do just fine in the end.

(Via THR)

Two of the best fighters in the world will step into the Octagon early next year. The UFC announced on Saturday that Alexander Volkanovski (25-1), the promotion’s featherweight champion and the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the game today, will go toe-to-toe with Islam Makhachev (23-1), the No. 3 P4P fighter and the recently-crowned lightweight champ, at UFC 284 on Feb. 12, 2023.

The announcement came right before UFC 281, and included that this will serve as Makhachev’s first defense of his title.

A native of Australia, Volkanovski, who has not lost since 2013 and is undefeated in all 12 of his bouts in UFC, will have an advantage in that the event is happening on home soil at RAC Arena in Perth. But he’ll be moving up a weight class for the fight and be at a notable size disadvantage, while Makhachev is on quite the hot streak right now.

A student of former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev won the lightweight title at UFC 280 with a dominant performance over Charles Oliveira. After the fight was over, both Makhachev and Volkanovski made clear that they wanted to step into the Octagon with one another.

“We’re obviously pushing for it,” Volkanovski recently said of a fight between the two. “Everyone wants it. We’re going to make it happen.”

Volkanovski has not fought at lightweight since 2016.

This article originally appeared on June 5, 2015

Have you ever wondered if you have a “gay voice”?

If you’re anything like me, the answer is yes. Many times.

For anyone who’s laid awake wondering if your voice is just as gay as you are, I’ve created a rigorous test for you to finally get some answers. Follow the chart below to see if you, in fact, sound like a homosexual. ***(Image needs to pulled from Robbie Couch who wrote the article.)

Temporary pic pulled as a place holder

Yes, that’s correct: You do not have a “gay voice” — because a “gay voice” is not really a thing.

Unlike humans, voices do not identify as certain genders or sexual orientations. They’re just … sounds. (Crazy, I know!)

Stereotypes about what LGBTQ people sound like lead some to think their gay-dar can accurately sniff out queer folks in a crowd based on voices alone. However, research shows we actually do a pretty poor job at guessing another person’s sexual orientation solely using our ears.

Even if we do wear our queerness on the tips of our tongues, though, why should it matter?

Some LGBTQ people fret over their voice, fearful their queerness is on display every time they speak. And that concern is understandable. Sometimes, it’s not a matter of accepting yourself, but a matter of survival: When your voice outs you as an “other” in an environment that’s hostile toward gay, transgender, or otherwise queer people, personal safety becomes a priority.

“A lot of gay men are self-conscious about sounding gay because we were persecuted for that when we were young,” LGBTQ activist and media personality Dan Savage said in the 2014 documentary “Do I Sound Gay?”

CNN’s Don Lemon, who is openly gay, also chimed in on the topic. Has he ever felt insecure about “sounding gay”? “I’d have to say, if I told you ‘no,’ I’d be lying,” Lemon admitted in the documentary.

But we should never let a bully’s bigotry convince us our voices should be silenced. You sound perfect the way you are, honey — and don’t you forget it.

Checking out the documentary “Do I Sound Gay?”, available on multiple streaming platforms. Here’s a look at the trailer:

One of the most dominant college football players in all of America is a true freshman. LSU linebacker Harold Perkins Jr., the No. 8 player in the nation in the class of 2022 according to his 247Sports’ Composite rating, has burst onto the scene recently and turned in one of the best performances we’ve seen out of any player this season during the Tigers’ 13-10 win over Arkansas on Saturday afternoon.

By the time the game ended, Perkins had eight tackles (four of which were for loss) and four sacks. There were also a pair of forced fumbles, including one as the Razorbacks were trying to drive down the field that secured a win for the No. 7 team in America.

He is very, very, very good at football despite being a teenager who is just starting his collegiate career. Anyway, the whole “being a teenager” thing reared its ugly head for those of us who are washed on Saturday, as Perkins played the game despite suffering from the flu and puking prior to kick. LSU coach Brian Kelly referenced the obvious — Michael Jordan’s famous Flu Game in the 1997 NBA Finals — but made the mistake of calling him MJ.

In response, Perkins asked Kelly who, exactly, is MJ.

I am operating under the assumption that if Kelly said “Michael Jordan” instead of “MJ,” Perkins would know who his coach meant.

Who’s responsible for the weak Republican results in this year’s midterm elections? Many — including prominent GOPers — say it’s Donald Trump. One MAGA candidate after another either underperformed or flamed out, signaling that conservative voters (and maybe even Fox News) may have finally tired of the big guy. Has that spooked Trump from re-running for president, even if he has to do it from jail? Of course not.

Sources tell The Daily Beast that Trump is holding fast with his plan to announce his third campaign on Tuesday night, nearly two full years before the 2024 election. One source even wrote back, “Rock and Roll!” A Trump adviser told The Daily Beast that they’re not afraid of any Republican challengers, advising that they “show up ready for war, because nothing is off the table.”

Should Trump proceed with the announcement — and given that he’s spent his entire life avoiding true comeuppance (aside, of course, from losing an election), that’s likely — it will arrive despite dramatic pushback from much of the GOP. Since their promised/threatened “red wave” failed to materialize, Republicans have called on the party to move on, to focus instead on a younger impersonator, Ron DeSantis. Trump even lost the Dilbert guy, in part because he keeps making racist taunts.

Others simply want him to hold off. Trump adviser and Getter guy Jason Miller said on Newsmax that Trump doing a premature Kool Aid man burst into the 2024 presidential election could affect the Georgia runoffs, which find incumbent senator Raphael Warnock battling Trump pick Herschel Walker in a neck-and-neck race. Heck, even Trump’s most sycophantic press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, wants him to hold off.

But Trump may do so regardless, putting his party — which may not gain control of either/both the House or the Senate after all — in further jeopardy. One reason? To get ahead of DeSantis, whom he’s already christened with an uncharacteristically weak nickname. Or he may think that being a declared presidential candidate may discourage the Justice Department, which may come for him over all those government documents he dragged down to his resort home. Or maybe he’ll do it simply because he’s Donald John Trump.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The Miami Heat‘s arena got renamed a little more than a year ago, and due to recent events, the name is about to change again. After being known as American Airlines Arena for more than two decades, the Heat and cryptocurrency firm FTX struck a deal for the stadium to be renamed FTX Arena.

But on Friday, the Heat and Miami-Dade County, which officially owns the building, announced that they’re on the lookout for a new stadium name. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier in the day in what was the largest crypto-related bankruptcy in history.

“The reports about FTX and its affiliates are extremely disappointing,” the statement read. “Miami-Dade County and the Miami HEAT are immediately taking action to terminate our business relationships with FTX. We will be working together to find a new naming rights partner for the arena.”

Brian Windhorst of ESPN laid out the financials of the deal, which was supposed to be a 19-year naming rights agreement.

The county, which owns the arena, signed a 19-year, $135 million deal for the bayfront Heat homecourt’s name in 2021. After an initial balloon payment of $14 million, FTX was scheduled to make a $5.5 million payment in January.

The Heat are not the only NBA team that named its stadium after a crypto company. In late 2021, the Lakers and Clippers’ stadium, previously known as Staples Center, was renamed Crypto.com Arena.

In the last days of October, Elon Musk took control of Twitter, but he’s already accomplished so much. No, he hasn’t saved the social media service from racist and bigoted trolls. Quite the opposite. Instead, he’s implemented “bold” moves, hoping to turn the famously unprofitable joint profitable. But those plans have backfired spectacularly, and are now even hurting other businesses.

As per Fortune, on Friday the pharmaceutical company Elli Lilly became the latest victim of practical jokers exploiting — or even showing the underlying problems with — Musk’s Twitter Blue, his since put-on-pause feature, in which users can fork over a mere $8 for a coveted blue check mark. The original checks were there to verify the veracity of accounts belonging to celebrities, journalists, and other public figures. But the new one has perhaps inevitably led to a rash of impersonators. Some of them were satirical. Whoever created one faux-Elli Lilly account sure was.

“We are excited to announce insulin is free now,” said the ersatz account, which bore the name and avatar of the one for the real Elli Lilly.

It might have been a joke — a dark, angry joke about what pharmaceutical companies charge those with diabetes just to survive — but it had real life consequences. No, Elli Lilly didn’t actually announce insulin was now free of charge. Instead, hours after the post, the company’s stock plummeted.

Something similar happened to the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin, when a joke account claimed they were “halting all weapon sales to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States until further investigation into their record of human rights abuses.” Their stocks, too, sank.

In other words, what was supposed to make Twitter profitable may doom it to financial peril.

(Via Fortune)

An interview with Joni Mitchell is about as rare as they come in the music world these days. But when Mitchell does give an interview, it might as well be with Elton John, right? Mitchell did just that, sitting down with John for the latest episode of his Rocket Hour radio show and detailed her plans to release a brand new live album.

This past summer, Joni Mitchell gave a surprise performance heard ’round the world at the Newport Folk Festival. Accompanied by Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford, Wynona Judd, and Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, Mitchell delivered a 13-song setlist which included staples like “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Help Me,” and “Case Of You.” It’s this performance that Mitchell plans to release on her next live album she tells John. “People out there…you haven’t heard things from the Newport Folk Festival yet, but I think there’s going to be an album coming out of that one?” John said, baiting Mitchell. “Yeah, we’re trying to put that out,” Mitchell confirmed.

Mitchell revealed that she didn’t have any rehearsals ahead of the Newport Folk Festival performance and spoke about re-learning how to play guitar following a 2015 brain aneurysm. “I’m learning. I’m looking at videos that are on the net, to see where to put my fingers. It’s amazing… when you have an aneurysm, you don’t know how to get into a chair. You don’t know how to get out of bed. You have to learn all these things again. You’re going back to infancy, almost.”

She says she was proud of herself for standing up to play electric guitar on “Just Like This Train,” even though she can’t sing it anymore. “I couldn’t sing the key, I’ve become an alto, I’m not a soprano anymore, so I couldn’t sing the song. And I thought people might feel lighted that if I just played the guitar part, but I like the guitar part to that song. So anyway, it was very well received, much to my delight.”

Listen to the full episode of Elton John’s Rocket Hour on Apple Music here.

After Takeoff was tragically killed in Houston last week, family and friends gathered at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on Friday afternoon for a celebration of life for the late Migos rapper. While the life celebration was large scale in nature at the 21,000 person arena, it was still private and closed off to the media. So today, Takeoff’s uncle and band-member in Migos, Quavo, shared his heartfelt and beautiful tribute to Takeoff.

“It’s so hard to tell you Ima miss you because you always with me and we did everything together,” Quavo wrote on Instagram. “This whole time I’ve been trying to figure what you really are to me because nephew wasn’t it. We hated that word “nephew” or when they said “Unc and Phew” cuz we always knew we were way closer than that and it made me feel old too. But I knew you weren’t my brother cuz you are my sister’s son, so I couldn’t say brother. Now I finally get it… you are OUR angel watching me and watching us this whole time in living form making sure EVERYONE FELT UR LOVE AND HUGS while u here and u made our dreams come true.”

For all of the downright emotional moments in Quavo’s eulogy, there were equally as many words that’ll make you smile. He spoke about their mutual love of pro wrestling and how Takeoff, “Imitated all the wrestlers so good.” And he also encapsulated Takeoff’s whole aura with a simple anecdote: “Whenever we would be running late to the shows He would always say ‘God will get us there on time.’ Some shows God did, some shows we were late. Point is he trusted God though.”

Read Quavo’s complete tribute to Takeoff via his Instagram below.

Notre Dame is coming off of a pair of season-defining wins in the last two weeks. After an embarrassing start to the season that included a loss to Marshall, the Fighting Irish appeared to have gotten things back on track, as they picked up ranked wins over Syracuse and Clemson.

Next up is a rivalry game against Navy, and while the troops aren’t as good as they have been in the past, things can get weird when these two teams take the field. But fortunately for Notre Dame, they have Braden Lenzy, who pulled off one of the catches of the season to haul in a touchdown during the first quarter.

Fighting Irish signal caller Drew Pyne escaped the pocket to evade pressure and launched one down the field. Lenzy should not have been able to get to it thanks to some good positioning by a Navy defensive back, but instead of giving up on the play, he just hugged the opposing player and managed to reel it in for six.

This was Lenzy’s second touchdown grab of the season and the eighth of his college career. I am very confident when I say that he’s not going to have a better one than this.