Month: July 2020

Of the three most recent actors to depict the Joker on the big screen, two won an Oscar: Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. Then there’s Jared Leto. Many of his scenes in Suicide Squad were cut, either because he “brought so much to the table in every scene that it was probably more about filtering all of the insanity,” or “it just didn’t make sense” (guess which explanation belongs to Leto). The edgelord Joker, the one with the “damaged” tattoo, is not without his defenders, though.

Over the weekend, Justice League director Zack Snyder was asked, “What are your thoughts on Jared Leto Joker? Would you have liked to see an interaction between him and Batfleck too?” He replied, “I always loved him in the part.” David Ayer, who directed Leto in Suicide Squad, saw Snyder’s praise and quote-tweeted the interaction.

In other Ayer news, he’s being accused of “brownfacing” Shia LaBeouf in his new movie The Tax Collector, including by Pulitzer Prize-nominated cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz (“Tell all the kids how you’re Hollywood’s top cholo auteur, and your pretzel reasons Shia Lebeouf is sort of kind of playing a weird movie cholo in a cop movie and how all of this isn’t really #brownfacing”). After being asked whether LaBeouf was playing a Latino character, and if so, why the part didn’t go to a Latin actor, Ayer wrote, “Really important answer – Shia is playing a whiteboy who grew up in the hood. This is a Jewish dude playing a white character. Also the only white dude in the movie.” He later added, “Shia’s not playing Latinx he’s playing a whiteboy who grew up hood and is a Southsider.”

The Tax Collector is scheduled to come out on August 7.

J. Cole seemingly addressed Noname on “Snow On Tha Bluff” last month, and that sparked a bit of a feud between the two rappers. That conversation mostly died down a couple weeks ago, but Noname addressed the situation again over the weekend.

When Cole elaborated on the song following its release, he implored his fans to follow Noname on Twitter, saying, “I love and honor her as a leader in these times.” However, Noname doesn’t agree with Cole’s assessment about her being a leader and doesn’t want the followers he sent her way. In a tweet that has since been deleted, Noname wrote, “if cole brought you here because ‘she’s a leader in these times’ unfollow me. i’m not a f*cking leader. im a confused n**** reading difficult books trying to understand this sh*t like everyone else. i tweet recklessly and smoke reggie. im nobodies leader.”

Noname also further discussed Beyonce, after doing so last month and getting an earful from Beyonce’s fans. Addressing the use of the word “queen” by Beyonce and others, Noname wrote, “the idea that blk americans are only legitimate human subjects because we are descendants of ‘kings and queens’ is ahistorical and continues to push capitalist logic. most africans werent royalty and thats ok. beyonce is great but she got rich from a system that exploits the many.”

Meanwhile, Noname has a new album, Factory Baby, on the way, but it could be her last.

Seven years since it left the air on NBC, The Office continues to be one of the most popular television series on the planet, as it still regularly appears among the top shows on Netflix, week after week (it will move over to The Peacock in 2021, where a spin-off is possible, though unlikely). Viewers never seem to tire of the series, its brilliant cold opens, new revelations about the series (like how Creed was nearly written out), gossip about its stars (like the only time famous nice guy Steve Carell lost his temper), and news about what could have been (like, how close we were to The Office starring Bob Odenkirk as Michael Scott).

We have not, however, heard that much from Leslie David Baker, who played Stanley on the long-running hit sitcom. Recall that, at the end of The Office, Leslie David Baker’s character, Stanley, retired from Dunder Mifflin and moved to Florida, where presumably he has been living grumpily ever after.

Until now.

This week, Leslie David Baker launched a Kickstarter campaign in an effort to bring his character back to the screen in a spin-off project called Uncle Stan: Coming Out of Retirement. “After several years of enjoying a relatively uneventful retirement lifestyle,” Baker’s announcement reads, “Uncle Stan receives an urgent call for help from his favorite nephew, Lucky: a recent widower with two small children and a motorcycle repair/flower shop in Los Angeles. Soon Uncle Stan finds himself dishing out all the support and guidance he has to offer in his new California home.”

Baker is attempting to raise $300,000 to get the project going, although it is unclear if he’s even received permission to use the character in another project, which would otherwise have very little to do with the original The Office. It would not, however, be the first for a project of this ilk. Recently, the Coen Brothers gave John Turturro permission to spin-off his The Big Lebowski character into a stand-alone film, Jesus Rolls, which came out earlier this year.

Meanwhile, here’s Baker, in character as Stan, giving his pitch for the spin-off:

(Via Kickstarter)

The first weekend of The Basketball Tournament in their Columbus, Ohio bubble was, by all accounts, a success as they offer something of a test case for a bubble basketball league.

The first round of play (the Round of 24) saw some exciting finishes as the bottom 16 seeds played their way into the “Super 16” for this week’s play. One of those teams was 12th seeded Brotherly Love, which took down the Stillwater Stars in a fairly dominant 87-71 performance to set up a matchup with fifth-seeded Eberlein Drive. However, that matchup will not take place as Eberlein Drive had a player test positive for COVID-19 during their quarantine period after arriving in Columbus.

As is TBT’s policy, a positive player test means the team is removed from the tournament and their opponent moves on to the next round. In the release, TBT offered the testing stats, noting that as the quarantine period has gone on their positive percentage has dropped precipitously.

It’s unfortunate for Eberlein Drive, but also shows how seriously TBT is taking the situation and trying to keep the rest of the teams safe. While the NBA won’t be taking as aggressive steps towards positive tests, the Tournament’s decline in cases since reaching their bubble offers some hope that the league will see a similar trend once players are at Disney.

We’re living in the strangest timeline, so it probably didn’t seem too weird when, on July 4, Kanye West announced he was running for president, against the very man who made the MAGA hat he used to wear everywhere. It was still an announcement worth mocking. That’s what Tiffany Haddish did. As caught by Entertainment Weekly, the comic and actress took to Twitter to troll the musician but good.

Haddish’s tweet borrowed from West’s verbiage, writing, “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I too am running for president of the United States.” There followed a hashtage: #2020Vision. She followed that up by announcing her running mate, Dave Chappelle.

Haddish wasn’t the only celebrity who chimed in with similar jokes. Paris Hilton did one:

And so did Toni Braxton.

Hilary Duff did so, too, burying the big message at the bottom of a lengthy July 4 family post.

Bob Saget also announced his faux-run.

Saget later doubled down, even announcing his own running mate: longtime fellow Full/er House cast member John Stamos.

So which of these celebrities, all of whom have as much government experience as our current president did when he ran for president, would make a better president than our current one? Our vote’s for the one who deservedly won several awards for Girls Trip.

(Via EW)

While the NBA is preparing to head to Orlando for its restart at Disney, The Basketball Tournament has already begun in Columbus, Ohio, as the 24-team tournament tipped off this weekend as a first glimpse at what bubble basketball will look like.

With the return of TBT brought us the return of the Elam Ending, last seen in this year’s All-Star Game, in which once they reach the first stoppage inside four minutes to play in the game, the game clock is turned off and it becomes a race to eight more points than the leading team has. On Sunday, the 22-seed Sideline Cancer took down 11-seed Team Hines in a thriller, in which Marcus Keene had a big game, including hitting the game-winner to give Sideline Cancer a 93-91 win in the race to 92.

What makes the Elam Ending work is how the stakes of each possession late in the game are heightened not by a dwindling clock but instead by a need to reach a certain score first. In blowouts, it can allow things to come to an end quickly, while in close games it allows runs and creates an intensity on both ends. In this instance, Keene comes off a (very) high pick and roll and is able to get the big that steps out on him off balance to clear space for a pull-up jumper to win it.

That shot moves Sideline Cancer on to the “Super 16” to face off with the 8-seed, Challenge ALS, later this week.

It’s been nearly a month since J.K. Rowling went from beloved author to despised transgender critic, and though many have turned against her — including Harry Potter fansites, which no longer acknowledge her existence — she continues to stand her ground. On Sunday the now controversial writer took to Twitter and tripled — or is it quadrupled? — down on beliefs that look as though they may permanently tarnish her legacy.

This round was instigated when someone pointed out that Rowling had liked a tweet that was critical of hormone prescriptions, calling them “the new antidepressants,” and that while “they are sometimes necessary and lifesaving,” they “should be a last resort – not the first option.” The tweet concluded by saying it’s “Pure laziness for those who would rather medicate than put in the time and effort to heal people’s minds.”
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The person who caught the like wrote, “oh cool so it’s not just trans people getting to benefit from JK’s reactionary anti-healthcare activism. she’ll no doubt be helpfully helping people with depression overcome their ‘pure laziness’ too!”

That caused yet another backlash against Rowling, eventually causing her to join in and make things even worse. “I’ve ignored fake tweets attributed to me and RTed widely. I’ve ignored porn tweeted at children on a thread about their art. I’ve ignored death and rape threats. I’m not going to ignore this,” Rowling wrote at the outset of what turned out to be a lengthy thread. (Although why she was ignoring those nasty uses of social media but not this is telling.)

Rowling then tried to redirect the conversation to her own history with mental illness, while trying to make herself out to be less despised by that she feels “nothing but admiration and solidarity” for “this trans woman.” She then tried to argue that young people who transition are merely “being shunted towards hormones and surgery,” which she feels is, somehow, a “new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people.”

As Rowling caused yet another uproar — and since Rowling ended her thread by saying “I can’t pretend to care much about your bad opinion of me,” at least she’ll be okay with it — the person who posted the original tweet decided to make their own clarification.

“I take hormones. I take antidepressants. I would never shame their use. Once again extremists leave no space for nuanced conversations. One size does not fit all, and patients are failed every day by doctors who take the easy way out,” they posted. “We have many tools, some more proven than others, to address mental health. My point was talk and behavioral therapy should not be skipped over. Experimenting with brain and body chemistry should not be the first avenue we explore. That is all I meant.”

In the meantime, if you’d like to donate to a charity for LGBTQ+ youth, we recommend The Trevor Project, as well as GLSEN.

(Via The A.V. Club)

Lil Baby’s streak atop the Billboard albums chart continues, with his sophomore album My Turn coming in at No. 1 for the fourth consecutive week (and its fifth week overall, having initially hit the top spot when it dropped in February). Throw in the success of his “The Bigger Picture” single, and Lil Baby has had a pretty great 2020 .

For the week ending on July 2, My Turn sold 70,000 equivalent album units, meaning it’s spent more weeks at No. 1 than any album this year. It also spent the most weeks at No. 1 since Post Malone’s 2019 album Hollywood’s Bleeding. On top of that, My Turn also ties Boyz II Men’s II for the most weeks at No. 1 for a Motown album in the last four decades.

As for the rest of the top 5, Lil Durk’s Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 jumps from No. 56 to its new peak of No. 2, with 43,000 units sold. The leap comes after Durk delivered the deluxe version of Just Cause Y’all Waited 2. DaBaby’s Blame It on Baby can be found at No. 3, with 40,000 units sold. Rounding out the top 5 is Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding at No. 4 and The Weekend’s After Hours at No 5.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

[via Billboard]

Joining the long list of shows forced to change their normal routines as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular opted for a livestream in order to ensure the show went on without crowds. The spectacular was hosted by Today Show anchor Craig Melvin and meteorologist Dylan Dreyer and featured at-home performances from Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Lady A, Brad Paisley, and more. The Killers’ also joined the show for a performance of their own and they used the opportunity to honor the late George Floyd.

Floyd was killed by police officers on May 25 in Minnesota after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. Performing “Land Of The Free,” The Killer used their opportunity on national television to honor him by changing the song’s lyrics as they performed the track from their Prairie Sun Recording Studio in Sonoma, California.

Speaking about Floyd’s death, band frontman Brandon Flowers performed the song, changing its lyrics to read: “When I go out in my car/ I don’t think twice/ But if you’re the wrong color skin/ You grow up lookin’ over both your shoulders/ In the land of the free/ And how many killings must one man watch in his home/ Till he sees the price on the tab/ Eight measured minutes and 46 seconds/ Another boy in the bag/ Another stain on the flag.”

The Killers’ performance arrived after the group honored Jimmy Buffet last month with a cover of his song “A Pirate Looks At 40” for iHeart Radio’s Living Room Concert Series. Press play on the video above and fast-forward to the 27-minute mark to hear The Killer’s “Land Of The Free” performance.

D Smoke’s 2020 has been a well-deserved step up following his Season 1 win on Netflix’s Rhythm & Flow. The west coast rapper began the year with his phenomenal album Black Habits and followed it up with a pair of videos as well as appearances on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and the 2020 BET Awards. Pushing onward, D Smoke joined Rapsody and PJ Morton for a new take on a standout effort off Rapsody’s 2019 album Eve.

Supplying his talents for “Afeni,” D Smoke appears in the second half of the song, sliding through with a verse focused on the impact he as a father can have on the daughter he raises. Alluding to the turbulent summer the world has experienced, he raps, “Envision him planning summer trips, take her to raging waters / Challenges of July made this father afraid of August.” To conclude his verse he honors the women in his life saying he received his name and his game from them and, as a result, he will do whatever is needed to protect them.

Keeping her verse the same, the new version of Rapsody arrives after they performed on the 2020 BET Awards alongside Nas, The Roots, and Public Enemy, for a remixed performance of “Fight The Power.” She also recently joined Femme It Forward’s Revolutionary Reads book club with Meg Thee Stallion.

Press play on the video above to hear the remix.