“What is Saviors about, you ask?” Green Day captioned, in part, their Instagram album announcement. “Power pop, punk, rock, indie triumph. disease, war, inequality, influencers, yoga retreats, alt right, dating apps, masks, MENTAL HEALTH, climate change, oligarchs, social media division, free weed, fentanyl, fragility.”
“Dilemma” checks punk, mental health, free weed, fentanyl, and fragility from that list. The Ryan Baxley-directed black-and-white video starts with Billie Joe Armstrong pancaked on the floor. “Welcome to my problems,” he sings. “It’s not an invitation / This is my dilemma / And it’s my obsession.”
From there, we retroactively experience what landed Armstrong on the floor: A fast-paced, high-flying night out filled with endless alcohol, cocaine in the bathroom, and substance-based camaraderie. “I was sober now I’m drunk again,” Armstrong sings in the chorus. “I’m in trouble and in love again / I don’t want to be a dead man walking.” Inevitably, as the night wears on, Armstrong devolves until he finally breaks into someone’s home and topples their Christmas tree.
“‘Dilemma’ was one of those songs that was kind of easy to write because it was so personal to me,” Armstrong said in a statement, as per NME. “We’ve seen so many of our peers struggle with addiction and mental illness. This song is all about the pain that comes from those experiences.”
Watch the “Dilemma” video above.
Saviors is out 1/19/2024 via Reprise Records. Find more information here.
Green Day is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Although “Me & U” singer Cassie Ventura had already agreed to settle her abuse and sexual assault lawsuit against ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, the fallout from the suit refuses to do the same. In the aftermath of the quick settlement, three more women have filed similar lawsuits against Combs. While Combs’ representatives have denied the accusations, calling the lawsuits a string of “money grabs,” Rolling Stone has published an open letter from songwriter Tiffany Red, who worked with Cassie, in which she corroborates some of the singer’s accusations against Diddy.
In the letter, Red cites fears for her safety as her reason for coming forward now; the lawsuit alludes to her while not mentioning her by name. She writes that she hopes that publicly revealing her identity will help protect her. She details how she and Cassie became close while writing songs together in 2015 and how one song in particular, “Loyal,” caught Diddy’s attention as it appeared to push back against the alleged pattern of abuse and manipulation he’d established in their relationship.
Red says Diddy confronted her at a surprise birthday party he threw for Cassie in 2015, where he also allegedly threatened Ventura while she was surrounding by his security guards. Later, Red describes an intoxicated Combs yelling at her at Cassie’s home, commanding her to tell Cassie “she wants some birthday dick.” The letter also reaffirms many of the accusations from Cassie’s lawsuit — that Diddy coerced her into taking drugs (getting “so high,” Red was worried she’d overdose), threatening her, and using her terminated record deal to keep her from speaking out.
Although Cassie and Diddy have settled the original lawsuit, the effects of having additional witnesses for her accusations of abuse could harm Diddy’s standing in the public eye — which could also spell trouble for him should the new lawsuits proceed to trial.
The Yellowstone bad blood between Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan seemingly culminated with the former not being invited back for the cowboy soap opera’s final episodes. That was the suggestion from Costner when he admitted that he’d possibly sue producers, but there’s another actor who is still onboard the series — with no indication that he is leaving — and who might find the filming situation mighty awkward.
That’s the case after Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch sued Cole Hauser’s Free Rein Coffee Company brand. Hauser, of course, portrays fan favorite Rip Wheeler, and in a 2022 interview with Men’s Journal, he actually revealed that being on a horse does not come naturally to him, but “[f]*ck it, you just gotta get back on the horse and do it.” Yet he clearly embraced the cowboy vibes, which he was spreading with the coffee brand as well, to the point where Sheridan’s ranch felt that the logos were too similar and therefore “confusing” (possibly because Yellowstone has filmed at Bosque Ranch).
As a result, the ranch filed a trademark infringement/false advertising lawsuit, and that has led people to notice another excerpt in that Men’s Journal interview when asked if he’d “been in a bar fight.”
This led to an admission that Hauser and Sheridan “got into a fight” upon their second meeting, along with Hauser discussing how he finds nothing wrong with two guys who decided to “beat the sh*t out of each other.” Hmm:
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fighting. Sometimes I’m just tired of words, so let’s beat the sh*t out of each other. Maybe at the end of it you’ll buy me a Guinness and I’ll buy you a Bushmills, and we’ll be done. It’s kind of what guys do.”
Do guys also have their companies file lawsuits against each other, years after said physical fight? That remains unclear, and neither Sheridan nor Hauser has commented on the new legal proceedings. Again, this sounds uncomfortable as hell, and it seems like if everything was just fine, then the logo subject could been worked out before it got to the lawsuit stage. Or not?
There was a new episode of Celebrity Jeopardy! last night (December 6). Given that Taylor Swift had a massive 2023 that she just capped off by being named the 2023 Time Person Of The Year, they decided to embrace the moment with a whole Swift-themed category. That proved to be bad news for Kyra Sedgwick, who, based on her responses, does not appear to be a Swiftie.
The category was “Also A Taylor Swift Song,” and while the prompts weren’t about Swift directly, the correct responses shared titles with Swift tracks. Sedgwick buzzed in three times, and her first attempt was about a low-spin washing machine cycle. Her guess was “gentle,” but the correct response was “delicate.”
Her next try asked for the word preceding “craft” and “sweeper” in the titles of popular video games. The correct response was “mine,” and Sedgwick got close with her incorrect buzz-in with “mined.” Almost!
On her third and final attempt in the category, the prompt was about what a sign seen while entering New York City says. Sedgwick guessed “where have you been,” while the correct response was “welcome to New York.”
Sedgwick’s husband Kevin Bacon, meanwhile, likely would have done a better job in the category, as he recently said Swift is his dream collaborator.
“Taylor Swift has a cult-like following that would drink poisoned Kool Aid for her,” the cursed X account known as End Wokeness wrote. “The next step? Politics. If you don’t think the regime has plans to weaponize her just in time for 2024, you clearly have not been paying attention.” Meanwhile, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark is bizarrely worried that “if we reach the point where Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Taylor Swift run for office together we will have truly reached full-on Idiocracy.” Maybe he should be concerned about other things, like being one of the 19 people accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia to keep Donald Trump in power.
Axios reports that if Trump is elected president in 2024, he would “fill the most powerful jobs in government with men like Stephen Miller, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, and Kash Patel — with the possible return of Steve Bannon… He’d turn to loyalists who share his zeal to punish critics, purge non-believers, and take controversial legal and military action.”
Joanna Sternberg treated fans to a ton of news today. Not only did they announce some new 2024 tour dates, but they also shared their single, “Without You,” as a follow-up to their recent record, I’ve Got Me.
As they noted in a statement, the song serves as their “attempt at writing a 1920s style jazzy number,” one they do succeed greatly at doing.
“This song is meant to be sung in a sort of half-joking manner and the tempo is meant to keep speeding up throughout the song to show the emotion I am trying to convey: nervousness from co-dependent attachment to something or someone you love,” Sternberg added.
During the forthcoming tour, they are set to play festivals like Kilby Block Party and Primavera Sound Barcelona. The list of tickets for their 2024 shows, along with more information, is available through their website.
Check Out “Without You” above. Continue scrolling for a complete list of Sternberg’s 2024 tour dates.
02/23/2024 — Vashon Island, WA @ House Show
02/24/2024 — Seattle, WA @ Fremont Abbey
02/25/2024 — Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
02/27/2024 — San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
03/01/2024 — Los Angeles CA @ Barnsdall Gallery Theater
03/22/2024 — Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
05/10/2024 – 05/12/2024 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party
05/29/2024 — Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound Barcelona
06/06/2024 — Porto, Spain @ Primavera Sound Porto
Jimmy Kimmel has a well-documented history of brutally mocking Mike Lindell, which somehow didn’t stop the MyPillow CEO from making a Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance while inside a claw machine. Well, this holiday season, Kimmel pulled out all the stops.
Once again enlisting the aid of actor James Adomian who always does a hell of a job capturing Lindell’s manic speaking style, Kimmel unleashed the “Mike Lindell MyChristmas Spectacular.” In the holiday short, Lindell touts a right-wing lineup that includes the QAnon Shaman, Herschel Walker, and George Santos Clause, who spends most of his time asking children where their parents hide the cash and jewelry.
The “special” also featured appearances by the “Local County Whistleblowers Choir” and a “performance of the Nutcracker suite from the East Browersville Kill Shelter Players.”
However, there was one person missing from the festivities: Donald Trump. Despite Lindell promising an appearance from his most favorite president, Jimmy Kimmel shows up instead to break the news. In true Lindell style, the conspiracy pusher entirely misses the point that Trump bailed on him.
“Gosh darn it, I’ve been such a fool. I’ve been waiting for a real president to come and now I realize I don’t need to, because Donald Trump has been here all along,” Lindell said while pointing to his and Kimmel’s hearts.
“Trump is more than a man who’s going to round up all the commies and deviant perverts. He lives in the hearts of all who still believe in the magic of Christmas.”
With that matter settled, Lindell turned to what he does best: Merchandising! As Kimmel and the gaggle of right-wing loonies sip egg nog, Lindell starts pushing MyPillow products featuring the beheading of John the Baptist that’s 80% off (get it) if use a code celebrating Jesus’ birthday.
There has been quite a bit of discussion about sex scenes in cinema this year, spurred in part by reactions to Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy baring all in Oppenheimer and in part by a UCLA study that claims young people want less sex on TV and in movies. Sex scenes have almost always been a part of cinematic storytelling because sex has always been a part of the human experience, but there has actually been a serious decline in the movie sex scene in the past decade. In 2019 writer Kate Hagen dug into publicly available data on IMDb and posited that there are fewer sex scenes in contemporary mainstream cinema than at any time during the medium’s history, so less sex in movies means almost none at all. Thankfully, there’s a wonderfully sexy, sort of silly thriller from this year that feels like a ‘90s throwback with the gloss of an arthouse indie to shake up the sex scene debate:Sanctuary.
Sanctuary, directed by Zachary Wigon from a script by Micah Bloomberg, is set during the final “date” between a dominatrix named Rebecca (Margaret Qualley) and her submissive, Hal (Christopher Abbott), the heir to an international hotel chain. After enjoying a session together that was scripted by Hal, he gives her an expensive watch and tells her that he’s taking over the business in the wake of his father’s death and he cannot continue to see her. She takes it pretty badly and tries to blackmail him into paying her millions because she helped him come out of his shell, which sends the whole film into a vicious back-and-forth between Rebecca and Hal.
Though Sanctuary starts as a thriller, it changes genres a few times throughout, eventually ending as something like a romantic comedy (yes, really). What never changes is the film’s sexuality and the deeply sexual relationship between its only two onscreen characters, and honestly feels like the perfect response to the idea of sex scenes being “unnecessary.” Sanctuary couldn’t work without its sex scenes, and it’s a refreshingly fun erotic thriller that gives Abbott and Qualley the chance to really shine. The words “fun” and “erotic thriller” are all too rarely used together, because there seems to be an idea that movies based around sex either have to be deadly serious or raunchy comedies, but the genre-bending delights of Sanctuary prove otherwise.
Look, there aren’t many movies about BDSM, and the only thing that comes close to Sanctuary in both tone and execution is the 2002 erotic dark comedy Secretary starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader as a secretary and her dominating boss. Sanctuary turns some of the typical gender roles in the genre on their head, though it’s interesting to note that economic roles remain the same, as Qualley’s Rebecca is still dependent on Hal for income. It forces the audience to question how they view different power dynamics, especially as the genres shift and the story reveals more about its central pair. This is a very different kind of relationship than the ones from Secretary or even the most famous BDSM-inspired series, Fifty Shades of Grey, because Rebecca and Hal both have power over one another, just in different ways. Their relationship is pretty dysfunctional, of course, as no healthy couple threatens to have their partner killed and say that it would cost less than a watch, but healthy couples don’t make for good erotic thrillers.
It’s worth noting that Sanctuary is nearly bookended by its sex scenes. The movie starts with an extended sexual fantasy scripted by Hal that capitalizes on his humiliation fetish, while the climax centers around a sex scene where Rebecca claims she is going to trap Hal for life with a pregnancy. Both have very different reasons for happening and depict very different elements of Hal and Rebecca’s relationship, but they are pivotal to understanding these two characters. Not every sex scene has to be “necessary” to justify its existence, of course, but both of Sanctuary’s scenes prove that sex can sometimes be an integral part of storytelling.
Sanctuary is a movie that subverts expectations at every turn, taking what could be a pretty standard erotic thriller and making it a little funny, a little sweet, and extremely stylish. Qualley and Abbott are both perfect in their respective roles, with Abbott playing the part of scared, stunted little boy trapped in a man’s body with equal parts seething wrath, entitlement, and self-pity. Meanwhile Qualley is electric and it’s hard not to fall in love with her while also being a tiny bit terrified of her, because it’s clear that this is a woman that will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Combined with Ludovica Isidori’s stunning cinematography, Qualley and Abbott become impossible to look away from. It’s not a masterpiece, but it is well-acted and shot and, more importantly, a hell of a lot of fun. The world needs more movies like Sanctuary that are willing to get loose with material that’s traditionally a bit more serious, because isn’t life serious enough?
Nicki Minaj is less than one day away from finally dropping Pink Friday 2, her first full-length album since 2018’s Queen. On Wednesday night, December 6, Minaj amped up the already-fervent anticipation by using her “Barb Alert System” to warn the Barbz that they are quickly “approaching Gag City.”
“As we begin to prepare for landing, please make sure your tray tables are put back up & your seat belts are tightly fastened,” Minaj wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) earlier in the day. “The captain has activated the ‘no bathroom’ sign. If you look out the window, you’ll begin to see the beauty…clear waters, pink dolphins…#GagCity #PF2.”
As we begin to prepare for landing, please make sure your tray tables are put back up & your seat belts are tightly fastened. The captain has activated the “no bathroom” sign. If you look out the window, you’ll begin to see the beauty…clear waters, pink dolphins…#GagCity#PF2
Well, that sounds lovely. Wait, PINK DOLPHINS?! What (and where) in the world is Gag City?
According to various outlets — such as Know Your Meme, Reddit, and The Mirror — Barbz created Gag City using AI based on the Pink Friday 2 cover art Minaj shared in early September. On the first of two album covers, Minaj appears angelic while standing on what could be described as a subway platform floating above pink clouds. Everything is pink, except for Minaj’s white outfit.
“Her fans, lovingly called the Barbz, decided that the city below her on the album cover was named Gag City, a play on the word ‘gagged,’ which can be used to describe something, usually a celebrity, as amazing or stunning,” The Mirror explained. “After Gag City was named, fans were left wondering what the city could possibly look like, so they turned to AI.”
This morning, December 7, Power 105. 1 posted that it “is the official radio station of #GAGCity” alongside an AI-generated, pink-tinged photo of a boombox turned to the station. Republic Records posted the Statue Of Liberty wearing a pink wig. All over the internet, people continue to post their visions for Gag City ahead of Pink Friday 2‘s arrival at midnight ET (December 8), which is also Minaj’s birthday. See some below.
Yesterday (December 6), Taylor Swift was named Time‘s Person Of The Year for 2023. Throughout the in-depth cover story, Swift discussed how she is currently re-recording the last two (her self-titled and Reputation) of her first six albums — and what led to that point.
For those who don’t know, Swift had been with Big Machine Records before moving to Universal Music Group. However, instead of reportedly giving her the chance to buy her masters, they were sold to her enemy, Scooter Braun.
“With the Scooter thing, my masters were being sold to someone who actively wanted them for nefarious reasons, in my opinion,” Swift said. “I was so knocked on my ass by the sale of my music, and to whom it was sold. I was like, ‘Oh, they got me beat now. This is it. I don’t know what to do.’”
However, thanks to the help of another pop star, she was given the idea to re-record them — and would own them completely through her new deal at UMG.
“I’d run into Kelly Clarkson and she would go, ‘Just redo it,’” she added. “My dad kept saying it to me, too. I’d look at them and go, ‘How can I possibly do that?’ Nobody wants to redo their homework if on the way to school, the wind blows your book report away.”
The effort has clearly paid off, as the “Taylor’s Version” rerecordings have earned Swift a bunch more more No. 1’s and accolade.
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| Category called “Also A Taylor Swift Song” on Jeopardy
(@shesthat4oreign) 