Month: June 2020

The vinyl fabric collectible figurine company Funko has unveiled its latest design. The popular company’s newest figure is My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way. The design depicts Way sporting fiery red hair and was inspired by the band’s 2010 Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys era.

Way’s figurine is only available exclusively through Hot Topic but this isn’t the first time the singer has been celebrated with a Funko Pop. In the past, the company has issued a Funko of Way inspired by their 2006 album The Black Parade wearing his signature skeleton costume.

The Funko figure’s announcement arrives shortly after My Chemical Romance was forced to cancel their highly-anticipated reunion tour. Before the pandemic hit, the band was able to make a few tour stops. The band performed their first show in seven years in LA and excited fans lined up outside the venue several days in advance. Though this year’s reunion tour has been put on hold, the band just announced they will be headlining Riot Fest’s 2021 event.

Check out Gerard Way’s Funko collectible above. Pre-order it from Hot Topic here.

My Chemical Romance is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

TMZ reports that Nicole Young, Dr. Dre’s wife of 24 years, filed for divorce today, June 29, citing irreconcilable differences. The pair have been married since May 1996 and have two adult children together. According to TMZ’s sources, the couple did not have a prenuptial agreement and Dr. Dre’s net worth has been estimated at $800 million.

Dr. Dre has been hard at work on a collaborative project with Kanye West, of which Snoop Dogg posted a preview over the weekend. Dre is also billed as a possible participant in Swizz Beats and Timabaland’s Verzuz Livestream series in a head-to-head with Sean “Diddy” Combs. The date has not been set yet, but is one of the most anticipated hit battles on the agenda thanks to both producers’ arsenal of massive, genre-defining songs.

The news that Dre is splitting up with his wife comes in the middle of a year that seemed like it was going pretty well for him. Earlier this year, Dr. Dre’s iconic and groundbreaking solo debut album, The Chronic, was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress and re-released to streaming services on 4/20, the day widely hailed as a celebration of marijuana — just like the album itself. Dre also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

When it comes to iconic Hollywood badasses, it doesn’t get tougher than Danny Trejo who worked his way from a convict to one of today’s most prolific actors. But the big screen muscle also has a heart of gold and a true devotion to paying his blessed life forward, and his journey from behind bars to behind the cameras is explored in the upcoming documentary Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo.

In an exclusive clip for The Hollywood Reporter, the documentary reveals how Trejo caught his first Hollywood break, and it involves a fortuitous colliding of the actor’s work helping recovering addicts and his past as a prison boxer. (Did we mention Danny Trejo was a prison boxing champ? Danny Trejo was a prison boxing champ.) According to Trejo, he was called down to the set of the 1985 film Runaway Train, which was filming a scene at a nearby warehouse full of extras dressed as convicts. A young man who Trejo was mentoring was concerned about the amount of drugs floating around the production, so being the dedicated sponsor that he was, he booked it over in the middle of the night to be his moral support.

While on the set, Trejo was asked if he wanted to play an extra, and he jumped at the easy money and opportunity to bring some authenticity to the production, which he felt was sorely lacking. After taking off his shirt to put on his convict blues, screenwriter Eddie Bunker immediately recognized Trejo from his prison boxing days and offered him a job coaching Eric Roberts for his role in the film. Although, Trejo was warned that Roberts was a little wild and there was a good chance he could get hit. Trejo, naturally, was not concerned.

“I said for $320, give him a stick!” Trejo laughs in the clip. “Are you crazy? I’ve been beat up for free, holmes.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo is the feature documentary experience revealing the extraordinary life journey of Hollywood’s most unlikely hero, Danny Trejo. From an early life of drugs, armed robbery and hard prison time, to the red carpets of Hollywood blockbusters and helping troubled addicts. Danny gives a first hand account of one of the greatest transformations of human character ever put to film. To this day, Danny continues to council recovering addicts and speak at state prisons.

Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo hits VOD on July 7.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Anthony Mackie entered the MCU as Sam Wilson/Falcon in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was the first of his seven Marvel Studios movies. Sam became the new Captain America in Avengers: Endgame, and he’ll soon appear in buddy-comedy form alongside Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes/Winter Solder in Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but Mackie’s not afraid to call Disney and Marvel Studios out for their shortcomings in the diversity realm. Mackie did so while chatting with Snowpiercer star Daveed Diggs “for Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” quarantine video interview series, and these remarks should resonate.

The Hurt Locker actor declared that he’s got the ability and the platform to raise these issues, and that’s why he’s openly wondering why “every producer, every director, every stunt person, every costume designer, every PA” in nearly every Marvel movie that he’s worked on has been white. From Mackie’s point of view, the issue became even more glaring when Black Panther became the “only” exception in the MCU:

“We’ve had one Black producer; his name was Nate Moore. He produced ‘Black Panther.’ But then when you do ‘Black Panther,’ you have a Black director, Black producer, a Black costume designer, a Black stunt choreographer. And I’m like, that’s more racist than anything else. Because if you only can hire the Black people for the Black movie, are you saying they’re not good enough when you have a mostly white cast?”

Will Disney and Marvel Studios issue a formal response to Mackie throwing down the gauntlet? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, Mackie also told Variety that Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier will feel like “a six or eight-hour movie.” That’s fantastic news, as is the tentative release date: August 2020. Not 2021! 2020.

(Via Variety)

Sports teams and leagues around the United States are currently trying to figure out how they should proceed with regards to the Black Lives Matter movement and not just supporting their players’ voices, but impacting change as organizations themselves.

One such way is to look internally at their own hiring practices and look to elevate more Black people to executive level positions and positions of power within the organization. Having prominent Black voices in the organization can also help them focus their efforts to create change in their communities as well, as evidenced by the Atlanta Hawks. Lloyd Pierce has been the head coach of the Hawks for the last two seasons and while he’s at the helm of a young, rebuilding squad that’s gone through its ups and downs on the court, his work off the court and in the community has been nothing short of spectacular.

Pierce has spoken previously about his work with the Georgia Innocence Project, and takes his role as a Black man with a prominent platform in the Atlanta community very seriously. Pierce has played a major role in the Hawks’ response to the current Black Lives Matter movement, speaking at marches and encouraging the team to look at what it can do as an organization in the community.

While many have pointed to voting as an important part of the process of initiating change in this country, the issue of voter suppression has often been glossed over. Seeing that issue pop up again during primary voting recently — notably in the predominantly Black areas of Atlanta — prompted LeBron James to get fellow star athletes from the sports world to start More Than A Vote, a nationwide program to not only encourage voter registration and being active in elections, but to combat voter suppression efforts in communities nationwide.

The Hawks made an announcement on Monday that they were taking a major step to try and make it easier for more people in Atlanta to vote, as the Fulton County Board of Elections made State Farm Arena an official voting precinct — which will now be Georgia’s largest-ever voting precinct. The significance of the Hawks getting their arena approved starting with the upcoming primary runoff elections on August 11 — with early voting July 20 — and the general elections this November is huge, particularly given the issues Fulton County voters have faced in recent elections.

The disparity between the voting experience in predominantly white neighborhoods in Atlanta and Black communities is preposterous — and the variance is not just from county to county but within counties as well. Voting machines that fail to work create long lines and wait times that can be many hours in predominantly Black areas, and the hope is that by opening such a large precinct in downtown Atlanta, more people will be able to vote — and do so faster.

It’s not just that the Hawks offered up their arena as a voting precinct, but are clearly putting time and resources into making it happen that offers some optimism that it can help the problem. Having an entity with the financial resources and influence in the city taking notice of this problem is important to highlight these issues and hopefully actually make a difference in changing the voting experience for the often underserved communities in Atlanta.

Orville Peck’s debut album Pony earned the infamously masked singer a reputation as a lead voice in queer country music. To celebrate Pride, Peck teamed up with Spotify to share a cover as part of their Spotify Singles series. The singer chose to give a rendition of ’80s group Bronski Beat’s anthem “Smalltown Boy.”

Peck holds on to the integrity of Bronski Beat’s 1984 track with lush synths but adds his own style by infusing country twang. The song itself is an ode to growing up gay in a small town and feeling like you don’t belong. “Mother will never understand why you had to leave / But the answers you seek will never be found at home / The love that you need will never be found at home,” Peck sings.

In other Orville Peck news, the singer was supposed to release the EP Show Pony several weeks ago but has since shelved the project to instead focus on supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. “We’re undergoing a huge overdue worldwide transformation thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement and that is mainly what I want to put my focus on at the moment,” he wrote on Instagram. “The momentum is currently so strong, and it needs to keep going in order to dismantle the injustices of oppression, so if your voice hasn’t been heard yet just use it, or walk out and hear the protesters, and if you’re scared, tell them Orville sent you!”

Listen to Orville Peck cover Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” above.

Haim shared their spectacular third album, Women In Music Pt. III, last week. To celebrate its release, the sisters return with a playful video to accompany their single “Don’t Wanna.”

The track was the sixth song Haim shared as a preview to their record and the “Don’t Wanna” video reflects the simplicity of their songwriting. Directed by Jake Schreier, Haim enjoy some friendly competition. The visual opens with the three walking in step but the sisters eventually find their competitive side and break out into a full-on sprint.

Sharing the video to social media, the group wrote that they chose to film on location outside of LA’s The Forum. They were originally scheduled to play a headlining show at the iconic venue before the pandemic canceled their plans.

Alana spoke about how the band “really loved” the song in a recent interview with Apple Music: “I think this is classic Haim. It was one of the earlier songs which we wrote around the same time as ‘Now I’m In It.’ We always really, really loved this song, and it always kind of stuck its head out like, ‘Hey, remember me?’ It just sounded so good being simple. We can tinker around with a song for years, and with this one, every time we added something or changed it, it lost the feeling. And every time we played it, it just kind of felt good. It felt like a warm sweater.”

Watch Haim’s “Don’t Wanna” video above.

Women In Music Pt. III is out now via Columbia. Get it here.

J.K. Rowling’s Twitter account has become more toxic than the cesspool at Hogwarts.

Earlier this month, the Harry Potter author made an offensive joke about trans people, later adding, “I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.” (Never listen to anyone who ends a tweet with “…to speak the truth.”) Rowling also published a lengthy essay that trans activists called “devastating.” Yet despite all the criticism, she continues to tweet, including sharing a graphic about unisex “unsafe spaces” (she previously expressed concern that “when you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman… then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside”) and a quote from feminist activist Andrea Dworkin. The quote caught the attention of Stephen King, maybe the only other author the average person could recognize walking down the street, who retweeted it.

“I’ve always revered @StephenKing, but today my love reached – maybe not Annie Wilkes levels – but new heights,” Rowling wrote following the RT. “It’s so much easier for men to ignore women’s concerns, or to belittle them, but I won’t ever forget the men who stood up when they didn’t need to. Thank you, Stephen.” That tweet has since been deleted, as hours after King’s retweet, he was asked by a follower to “address the TERF tweet. By telling us constant readers if you believe trans women are women.” His reply:

Rowling not only deleted her praise of King, she also unfollowed him.

Go back to writing about wizard poop, J.K. Rowling. We beg you.

Snoop Dogg is being called out by fans online after posting a video previewing Kanye West’s upcoming collaboration with Dr. Dre. In the video, which Snoop took while lounging around the studio during a recording session for the forthcoming project, Snoop hypes up the collaboration, saying, “Kanye West got some hot music. Shhhhh. Kanye West got some hot shit. Only I can get exclusive footage.”

However, it wasn’t all that long ago that Snoop was cussing out Kanye in interviews for questionable statements he made about slavery and his incessant support of Donald Trump. Kanye’s “red cap era” made him a target of many in the hip-hop community who believed that his actions were reckless and contradicted Kanye’s previously expressed political views. That Kanye would so fervently support a politician who made openly racist statements repeatedly signaled support for the worst elements of his professed party irked many of hip-hop’s most outspoken artists, including Snoop, who said in a 2018 interview, “If you like that n****, you’re motherf*cking racist. Kanye too, don’t forget about him. Throw him in the bag ’cause he right with them motherf*ckers.”

Now, though, it seems that Snoop is once again on Team Kanye, since Kanye is working with Snoop’s longtime partner and benefactor, Dr. Dre. Fans were quick to call out the perceived hypocrisy of this position, as in their eyes, Snoop went from being a Kanye “hater” to one of his cheerleaders because Kanye’s work with Dre benefitted Snoop.

It’s certainly got a funky smell to it. Kanye may have stopped sporting and trying to defend his “Make America Great Again” cap with thin excuses about changing the stitching, but he hasn’t backed off his support of Trump in any way. Earlier this year, just before Trump’s waffling on the growing COVID-19 pandemic left the United States vulnerable to the virus’ spread, Kanye even admitted he’d still vote for Donald in the upcoming national elections, if he voted at all, while demonstrating he still didn’t get why the public decried his Trump support. While it seems that many of those calling out Snoop Dogg are Kanye fans holding a grudge, Snoop’s new stance still seems to run counter to his previous outspoken feelings toward Kanye. Perhaps he’ll make some sort of statement clearing the air soon.

See more responses to Snoop’s Kanye support below.

As protests around the country against police brutality and systemic racism erupt once again, there has been a tone change surrounding Colin Kaepernick within the NFL. As stars from around the league have begun voicing their intentions to follow in Kaepernick’s footsteps and kneel in protest during the anthem this season, it seems the messaging — that, it should be noted, was always made clear by Kaepernick — is finally being recognized and understood by the rest of the league that allowed it to be hijacked and misconstrued as being anti-flag or anti-military.

That sea change seemed to take place when Drew Brees found himself in hot water with teammates, stars from around the league, and from the likes of LeBron James for trotting out the tired “disrespect the flag” line. Brees publicly backtracked and even went so far as to explain to Donald Trump how he had gotten it wrong after the president tried to insert himself once again into the situation. Stars from around the league then put pressure on Roger Goodell and the NFL to publicly condemn racism and voice their support for Black Lives Matter, which Goodell did and has since said he’d support a team signing Kaepernick.

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but it seems that — unfortunately years too late — enough support internally for Kaepernick has pushed the league to change its tune, at least publicly, regarding the former star QB. While we wait to see if Kaepernick does indeed get his long deserved shot at resuming his career, we are set to learn a lot more about Kaepernick’s life and upbringing that led him to become the face of a movement and have such passion for activism.

On Monday, Netflix announced a limited, six-episode scripted series, “Colin in Black & White,” is on its way, narrated and executive produced by Kaepernick and written by Ava Duvernay and Michael Starrbury. The series will look at the experiences Kaepernick had in high school as a young Black man who had been adopted by a white family and lived in a predominantly white community.

“Too often we see race and Black stories portrayed through a white lens,” said Kaepernick, via the Los Angeles Times. “We seek to give new perspective to the differing realities that Black people face. We explore the racial conflicts I faced as an adopted Black man in a white community, during my high school years. It’s an honor to bring these stories to life in collaboration with Ava for the world to see.”

“With his act of protest, Colin Kaepernick ignited a national conversation about race and justice with far-reaching consequences for football, culture and for him, personally,” said DuVernay. “Colin’s story has much to say about identity, sports and the enduring spirit of protest and resilience. I couldn’t be happier than to tell this story with the team at Netflix.”

There is no release date currently offered for the series, but it promises to provide a unique and, as Kaepernick mentioned, rarely offered look at race, racism, and the Black experience.