Category: Worldwide

The time has finally arrived. Rihanna will hit the stage to perform at the Super Bowl LVII Halftime show tonight. Anticipation has been building since the Barbadian-bred mogul made the announcement last September. The “Work” hitmaker released a teaser trailer ahead of her upcoming show, only further amping up excitement. Ever the businesswoman, Rihanna capitalized on the monumental moment by releasing a limited edition NFL-themed apparel through her Savage X Fenty brand.

With the clock winding down, social media has been buzzing as fans await Rihanna’s upcoming performance. #FentyBowl has been trending all over Twitter today. Fans have been posting various funny memes, videos, and even some of their favorite songs from the singer.

“#FENTYBOWL NAVY See you in a couple hours @rihanna!” one user tweeted.

Another fan pointed out how excited they were to see Rihanna and that she would add a “little island flavor” to the evening.

“Rihanna is going to be amazing tonight! She has a PLETHORA of hits to perform, all while adding a little island flavor to the mix! She’s coming! #FentyBowl #HalftimeShow,” they wrote.

Before Rih takes the stage, a few other performers are expected to appear, including Country star Chris Stapleton, Emmy award-winning Abbot Elementary actress Sherly Lee Ralph, and iconic producer, singer, and songwriter Babyface.

Rihanna has been tight-lipped about her setlist, but she recently revealed that she changed it over 39 times. So we’ll finally get to see what she comes up with tonight.

Tune into Super Bowl LVII on FOX Sunday, February 12, with kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Mario is the most iconic video game character ever (sorry, Turtle Goofy), but you wouldn’t know it from his shows and movies. There aren’t many of them, and the ones that do exist, like the notorious flop Super Mario Bros., aren’t very good. But at least the theme song to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! still rips.

The latest teaser for The Super Mario Bros. Movie replaces Lou Albano and Danny Wells with Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, but don’t worry, there’s no “Mushroom Kingdom, here we come.” Instead, it takes on the form of a low-budget local plumbing commercial for Super Mario Bros. Plumbing, complete with an actress reading off a teleprompter and the Mario rap. There’s also a number (929-556-2746) that’s worth calling.

If you call the number, you are greeted with a message recorded by Charlie Day’s Luigi for Super Mario Bros. Plumbing… It ends with the slogan, “At Super Mario Bros. Plumbing, we don’t say ‘Let’s-a-wait,’ we say ‘Let’s-a-go!’” The team behind Super Mario Bros. Plumbing really thought of everything as the number is even a New York one and Luigi makes a reference to Luigi’s Mansion.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which also stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Charles Martinet, opens on April 7, 2023.

Legendary rap trio De La Soul has been making a musical comeback in a major way. Not only has the group managed to work through its legal dispute with its former label, Tommy Boy Records, but fans were enjoying the possibility of potential new music. Unfortunately, it has been revealed that founding member, Trugoy The Dove (real name David Jolicoeur) has died at the age of 54.

A representative close to the group has confirmed the news with several outlets, including The Grio and AllHipHop.com.

Although the details of his passing have not yet been released, in the past has been public about his health battles. Back in 2018, he opened up about his fight with congestive heart failure on social media confessing to his group member that he was struggling with being sidelined while they made professional progress relating to touring.

Saying, “I’m ready just to get back to the stage. I miss that. I love traveling. I love being around my guys, and I want that back.”

Jolicoeur was again hospitalized in 2020, but following a live stream with Posdnous and Maseo (also of De La Soul), it seemed that he was making progress.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jolicoeur’s family, close friends, and his fans currently mourning the news.

Over the weekend, Avatar: The Way of Water added another $25.3 million to its gigantic worldwide haul. That brings its total to a whopping $2.214 billion. James Cameron’s latest also would have crossed yet another milestone off its list, overtaking the third highest-grossing movie ever, i.e., James Cameron’s Titanic. And that’s what it would have done had it not been for…Titanic.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron’s 1997 monster hit — the highest-grossing movie ever made until Cameron’s Avatar unseated over a decade later — was reissued for Valentine’s Day. It only grossed $22.3 million worldwide ($6.4 million in North America), but that was enough to stave off Avatar 2 for just a little while longer. Titanic’s historical worldwide total now stands at $2.217 billion, up from the $2.194 billion it had before. It managed to make some extra money despite the emergence of a wacko conspiracy theory that the sinking of the ship never happened.

Yep, that means had Titanic not been reissued then Avatar 2 would sit in its place as the third highest-grossing movie ever made. For now it has to settle for fourth. It will surely take its spot in the next couple days, but already three of the top four biggest moneymakers (not adjusted for inflation) belong to James Cameron, a filmmaker who once thought his latest film wouldn’t make that much scratch.

(Via THR)

All eyes are on Super Bowl LVII. Whether you are a fan of either football team looking to take home the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy, the halftime performance, or the commercials, the sporting event of the year has something for just about everyone. Although Savage x Fenty boss Rihanna is billed as this year’s featured performer, legendary rock group U2 has something special planned up their sleeves.

Based on their latest post on Twitter, the band may be using the big game as the platform to announce their Las Vegas residency formally. Last July, rumors began to circulate that the act would be tapped as the featured act for MSG’s newest proper, The Sphere. Now, it seems like the day has come. Along with the caption, “Tonight. Superbowl LVII. #U2SPHERE,” the band is gearing up for the big reveal later this evening.

In the past, when asked about the rumors, frontman Bono told actor told podcast host Sean Hayes, “We haven’t signed off on it, but if we do, if we do sign off on this, I will say that if we can pull off what we’re talking about, it’s not like anything we’ve ever done before. It’s nothing like Las Vegas has ever seen before. If this happens, this will be really extraordinary.”

For now, little is known about the residency except the venue’s capacity (17,500 seats), but its official website (www.u2xsphere.com) will be updated with the residency schedule and the ticket prices.

Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox may have just called it quits (yet again). While the rapper-turned-metalhead should be riding the high of performing during the Super Bowl LVII pre-game festivities, according to fans across social media, the musician is likely somewhere licking his emotional wounds after a few scathing actions Fox took on Instagram.

Earlier this morning (February 12), the actress wiped her Instagram timeline of all photos and videos with Machine Gun Kelly. Fox then went on to upload a video of a letter burning captioned, “You can taste the dishonesty / it’s all over your breath.” The caption is none other than lyrics from Beyoncé’s song “Pray You Catch Me” from her acclaimed Lemonade album, which was inspired by romantic heartbreak.

Taking it a step further, Fox then went on to update the accounts she followed on the platform, only to include Harry Styles, Timothée Chalamet, and Eminem. What makes this interesting is the fact that Eminem and MGK have had a very public musical feud for years.

While this isn’t the first time rumors that the pair have split have hit the net. Back in July, fans began to question if the couple were still an item after not being spotted together for weeks but that was quickly shot down. However, this was Fox herself is at the center of the rumors. Since her initial posting on Instagram, Fox has gone on to deactivate her Instagram page entirely.

The couple has gone to questionable lengths to prove their love to one another including drinking each other’s blood so whatever caused Fox to hint at a breakup must’ve been just as extreme.

Donald Trump loves his nicknames. Sometimes they’re even funny, in a mean-spirited way. So when the former president debuted his taunt for one of his likely 2024 rivals, Ron DeSantis — i.e., “Ron DeSanctimonious” — it couldn’t but feel like a misfire. He could do better. And now he reportedly has.

A new report from The New York Times looks at DeSantis’ attempts to avoid getting into direct tussles with a famed bully, who always emerges from scrapes looking stronger. What would he do if/when he had to duke it out on stage with Trump? Would he freeze up, like he did when Charlie Crist called him out for refusing to say he wouldn’t ditch his governor duties to run for president? Could he even hope to return fire?

So far DeSantis has managed to evade Trump’s taunts, if just barely. In the meantime, sources say Trump has come up with some new nicknames. One is “Shutdown Ron,” alluding to him enacting COVID restrictions in the early days of the pandemic. DeSantis infamously ditched such efforts earlier than most, so it’s not much of a dig. Better, though also meaner, is this one: “Meatball Ron,” an apparent dig at DeSantis’ figure.

Not that Trump’s in much better shape. But it may not matter. He’s always been able to get away with saying whatever he wants despite the facts or hypocrisy. He’s still claiming an election he lost was stolen, without a shred of evidence, over two years later. Then again, the majority of Republicans may have moved on from juvenile taunts and will go with the more sensible maniac. Or maybe they won’t.

(Via NYT)

The New York Jets are rather desperate to get some good quarterback play. The Jets have been searching for a franchise quarterback for well over a decade, having not had the same starter for more than three consecutive seasons since Chad Pennington from 2002-2007.

Since then, they’ve struck out with high draft picks on a number of occasions, most recently with Zach Wilson who was benched rather unceremoniously this season for Mike White after continued struggles in his second year under center and the Jets being competitive in the first half of the year in spite of that play. Given their inability to successfully draft and develop a QB, the Jets are taking their search to the trade market in hopes of landing a veteran signal-caller, and as they did in 2008, they’re turning to the Green Bay Packers in hopes of landing a future Hall of Famer.

According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the Jets have reached out to the Packers about Aaron Rodgers’ availability, as the four-time MVP is trying to figure out his future — currently doing so on something called a darkness retreat.

Rodgers would, unquestionably, be an upgrade for the Jets, but there has to be at least a bit of concern that they’d end up paying a premium for a quarterback on the decline — the Broncos, of course, serving as the current cautionary tale with Russell Wilson. Still, the Jets will probably be thrilled to take that risk given how poor their QB play has been for years, but that can only come to fruition if Rodgers signs off on New York as a destination.

The Jets started this past season 7-4, showing there is some talent on both sides of the ball, but closed the year on a six-game losing streak amid QB struggles despite some stout defensive performances. Rodgers may see the Jets as closer to contending than the Packers, who likewise might be ready for a fresh start.

For the last two-plus years, Donald Trump has been falsely asserting that he won re-election in 2020. It was “stolen” from him, he claims, never providing evidence, much like Kari Lake. But he and his team at least did try to find proof. In fact, they even hired an outside research team to prove them right. When they found none, Trump and his gang simply ignored it.

A new report from The Washington Post reveals that in the final weeks of 2020, in a mad dash to keep Trump in office, his campaign hired Berkeley Research Group, who looked into the election results in six states. They looked for irregularities, voter machine malfunctions, whether dead people had mysteriously “voted.” As per The Post:

“They looked at everything: change of addresses, illegal immigrants, ballot harvesting, people voting twice, machines being tampered with, ballots that were sent to vacant addresses that were returned and voted,” said a person familiar with the work who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private research and meetings. “Literally anything you could think of. Voter turnout anomalies, date of birth anomalies, whether dead people voted. If there was anything under the sun that could be thought of, they looked at it.”

Sources say that they returned with not much. A few states had some anomalies and unusual data patterns, but not enough to warrant widespread fraud. What’s more, their findings contradicted some of Trump’s wilder claims, such as rigged voting machines.

When the research group presented their findings to Trump’s then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, he simply expressed skepticism at what they’d found (or didn’t find). The call even grew “contentious.” Afterwards, they continued to spread voter fraud claims they couldn’t prove.

Trump’s still at it, moaning about a “rigged” election without a shred of evidence. Meanwhile, the party he once took over seems to be moving on without him, although at least some of his copycats seem to be taking the GOP down with them.

(Via WaPo)

No one insists on brand synergy quite like large entertainment corporations, and that can lead to some very strange crossover content.

On Sunday, Animal Planet hosted the 19th annual Puppy Bowl, and with TNT now part of Warner Bros. Discovery, that meant they got the Inside the NBA crew to do a spot for it. For some reason, they chose to have them breakdown Puppy Bowl XIX as a serious sports competition, doing a straight-faced look at Team Fluff and Team Ruff — while Ernie Johnson tried to squeeze as many dog puns into 90 seconds as possible.

The problem with this plan is, despite being pre-taped, they couldn’t get all the way through it without Shaq laughing at how absurd it was, as he couldn’t help but start snickering as Charles Barkley discussed Team Fluff’s size, as they have a great dane puppy named Velma.

To Shaq’s credit, he held it together long enough to do his read and for them to get through the promo, but I do wonder how many takes this took to get through because this was clearly the best one they had and Shaq was still laughing in it. I have to imagine there are dozens on the cutting room floor where Shaq couldn’t hold it together.