Month: July 2020

Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight was centered on the Uighur concentration camps in China (watch the segment here), but host John Oliver also took some time to condemn Donald Trump and Fox News’ dishonest coverage of the Portland protests.

“The protests in Portland have actually been going on daily for nearly two months now, since the killing of George Floyd,” Oliver said. “But the deployment of federal agents was a sharp escalation of questionable legality, and yet, to hear the president tell it, he had no choice and it was a terrific idea.” The exact words Donald Trump used to praise the federal officers he sent to Portland to squash the peaceful protests were “great job,” which is also how he described his response to the coronavirus in early May, thousands and thousands of deaths ago. That should be a warning sign to everyone.

“OK, first: It’s never good when Trump says he’s doing a ‘great job,’ given that he thinks his administration is doing a ‘great job’ dealing with the coronavirus, and he once proclaimed Ben Affleck would do a ‘great job’ as Batman. Clearly, this man has no sense of what a ‘great job’ actually looks like,” Oliver said, referring to this immortal tweet.

He must’ve felt very conflicted when Pattinson was picked as the next Batman.

Oliver also singled out Hannity, who has been accused of sexual harassment, and his deceitful portrayal of the “insane” protests. “Yeah, it is insane,” he said. “Because that tone does not honestly reflect the conditions on the ground.” Watch the segment here.

(Via the Daily Beast)

Post Malone is music’s most fervent ambassador for the time-honored game of beer pong. Heck, he even went and played the party game with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show last year. The rapper might be getting ready to mix business and pleasure, though: TMZ reports that Malone has filed a trademark for the name “World Pong League.”

The filing reportedly says that World Pong League would “operate official beer pong tournaments, competitions, events, and exhibitions,” and would also have merch printed on virtually any sell-able item you can name. The idea for this endeavor apparently came from Malone and his manager Dre London, but is so far only in its early stages.

Malone has a long and storied history of enthusiasm for beer pong. He’s been tweeting about it as far back as 2014. Near the end of 2019, Malone challenged Tyla Yaweh to a game ahead of a concert, and emerged from the contest $50,000 richer. Earlier this year, he also took some time to play some pong on Adult Swim, which prompted Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong to tell the world that the first game of beer pong he ever played was with Post Malone.

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

Three years ago, the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, jumped ship at AMC — against which he suffered a setback in a high-profile lawsuit last week — for a production deal over on Amazon. Kirkman, whose credits also obviously include Fear the Walking Dead and The World Beyond, in addition to the underrated Outcast on Cinemax, is making good on that production deal with Amazon with an animated series based on his second longest-running comic, Invincible.

Invincible, which ran for 144 issues between 2003 and 2017, is about a teenager named Mark Grayson, who is normal except for the fact that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet. Around Mark’s seventh birthday, he develops superpowers of his own, which makes his teenage years challenging. Veteran animation writer Simon Racioppa (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) is set to run the series.

Meanwhile, during his Comic-Con@Home virtual panel this past weekend, Robert Kirkman announced six new additions to the voice cast from the world of The Walking Dead: Lauren Cohan, who will play War Woman; Chad Coleman as Martian Man; Michael Cudlitz as Red Rush; Lennie James will play Darkwing; Ross Marquand is set to voice The Immortal & Aquarius; and Sonequa Martin-Green joins the series as Green Ghost. Those six current and former The Walking Dead cast members join two others who have already been cast, Khary Payton as Black Samson, and Steven Yeun, who plays the character, Mark Grayson.

In addition to the heavy The Walking Dead presence, the rest of the voice cast is down right phenomenal: J. K. Simmons as Grayson’s father, Nolan; Sandra Oh as Debbie Grayson; Mark Hamill as Art Rosebaum; Seth Rogen as Allen the Alien; and Gillian Jacobs as Atom Eve. Additionally, the voice cast includes Andrew Rannels, Zazie Beetz, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Zachary Quinto, and Mae Whitman, among others.

Seth Rogen, who is in the voice cast, was at one point attached to co-write and co-direct a feature film version of Invincible for Universal Pictures, but it is unclear what happened to that project.

Meanwhile, for The Walking Dead fans who missed it, the series will return on October 4th with the 16th episode of the season, while Angela Kang has announced an additional 6 The Walking Dead season 10 episodes set to air in 2021. The World Beyond will premiere afterward on October 4th, while Fear the Walking Dead is set to return the next week on October 11th. The Talking Dead will air each week, as well.

This past weekend saw San Diego Comic Con rework their annual shindig for an at-home quarantine world, and things seemed to go swimmingly. There were Zoom panels galore, a ton of trailers and first looks, and, of course, Keanu Reeves. There were also some virtual panels that weren’t a part of SDCC at all. There was one for Rick and Morty as well as one for Netflix’s dearly departed Daredevil. Entitled #SaveDaredevil, it was intended to exhume the show, which was cancelled in 2018 when Marvel was setting up shop at its future home, Disney+.

There was one disturbing revelation made during the virtual panel, though, as per Entertainment Weekly. Peter Shinkoda played the character of Nobu, a member of super-villain organization The Hand over nine episodes. He claims former Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb told the writers room not to give Nobu nor Madame Gao, played by Wai Ching Ho, backstories, because, he allegedly told them, “nobody cares about Chinese people and Asian people.”

Shinkoda said he as “reluctant” to break the news, but seemed to eventually talk himself into doing it, even at the risk of possible backlash. “I’m not into really protecting certain things anymore,” Shinkoda told the virtual crowd. He then soldiered on:

“Jeph Loeb told the writers’ room not to write for Nobu and Gao — and this was reiterated many times by many of the writers and showrunners — that nobody cares about Chinese people and Asian people. There were three previous Marvel movies, a trilogy called Blade that was made where Wesley Snipes kills 200 Asians each movie. Nobody gives a s—, so don’t write about Nobu and Gao, so they were forced to put their storyline down and drop it.”

Shinkoda said the writers were at one point considering exploring Nobu’s journey to America, which would involve Gao. “All that backstory was dropped,” Shinkoda calimed. “The writers told me they regret it and they were reluctant to do it because they were stoked about including that in the storyline but they were prevented so I had to concoct this other storyline and rock that material I was given.”

Under Loeb’s watch, Marvel produced such shows as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Legion, Jessica Jones, Runaways, and more. One of them, Iron First, came under fire for the representation of Asian characters. Loeb has of this writing not publicly addressed the allegations.

(Via EW)

There are a lot of billionaires in the world, but few as colorful as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The same weekend the entrepreneur appeared to possibly enrage his wife, Grimes, over a cryptic tweet about pronouns, a New York Times profile with him was released, in which, among other things, he threatened to throw it down with Johnny Depp over allegations he made about the latter’s ex, Amber Heard.

Musk’s name came up during Depp’s London trial, in which the actor is suing the British Tabloid The Sun, which labeled him a “wife-beater” in an April 2018 article. Heard has had to appear in court as well, and numerous, sometimes scandalous details have emerged about their marriage, with both parties accusing each other of forms of abuse. Musk briefly dated Heard after their split, but Depp claimed they’d hooked up while the two were still wed. Not so, said Musk.

“I definitely was not having an affair with Amber while she was married to Johnny, this is totally false,” Mr. Musk told the NYT. He also shot down another accusation: that he’d had a threesome with Heard and her friend Cara Delevingne. “We did not have the threesome, you know. So I think people think these things are generally more salacious than they are.”

As for another revelation — that Depp referred to him, unflatteringly, as “Mollusk” — Musk reportedly chuckled, then added, “Well, yeah, I hope he recovers from this situation.” What he didn’t take too kindly to was a text from Depp to Heard, in which the actor threatened to slice off the mogul’s nether-regions. That crossed a line.

“If Johnny wants a cage fight, just let me know,” Musk replied. It’s not clear how serious he was; the NYT described his response as “mischievous” and that he broke “into his famous giggle.”

Musk also had some sage advice for Depp and Heard. “For the two of them,” he said. “I would just recommend that they bury the hatchet and move on.”

So it’s unlikely that humanity will be gifted with a Depp-Musk tussle, possibly beamed on pay-per-view. Then again, we do appear to be trapped in the weirdest timeline.

(Via The New York Times)

Last year’s AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander picked up a win in his first start of the season, as the Astros beat the Mariners 8-2 on opening day, but that first win will apparently be his last of the season as well.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the Astros will soon make official the end of Verlander’s season as he deals with an elbow injury — one that was not apparent in Friday’s six-inning, seven strikeout performance.

The Astros will announce that reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander is out for the season with an elbow injury, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Chronicle on Sunday.

It’s a huge blow to the reigning AL champs to see their ace go down so soon into the shortened season, and will make their quest for a third straight American League crown that much more difficult. Verlander, at age 37, was still at the top of his game and, with Gerritt Cole now in New York, was the clear top starter for Houston. Houston will have a tough time filling that hole in the rotation, and hopefully Verlander is able to make a full recovery for next season, although as of now we do not know details on what exactly is the injury or the severity of it.

Last week, Juice WRLD’s first posthumous album, Legends Never Die, topped the Billboard albums chart, selling 497,000 units in its first week. It broke a number of records: It was the biggest first-week number for an album in 2020, the fourth-biggest streaming week ever, and it helped make the biggest week for a hip-hop album or a male artist since 2018. With Pop Smoke’s Shoot For The Moon Aim For The Stars coming in at No. 2, it was also the first time posthumous albums occupied the top two positions on the albums chart. Juice WLRD’s album wound up holding onto the top position for its second week.

Legends Never Die sold an additional 162,000 equivalent album units for its second week. Coming in at No. 2, once again, is Pop Smoke’s Shoot For The Moon Aim For The Stars, which sold a total of 138,000 equivalent album units.

Elsewhere on the charts, The Chicks’ first album since 2006, Gaslighter, arrives at No. 3 with 84,000 units. The album also led the weeks in album sales, with 71,000 units. The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton: An American Musical comes in at No. 4 and to round out the top 5, Lil Baby’s My Turn holds it down at No. 5.

Elsewhere on the top ten, Jhene Aiko’s Chilombo jumped 37 positions to No. 6, thanks to its re-issued deluxe album Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding came in at No. 7, DaBaby’s Blame It on Baby pulled in at No. 8, Harry Styles’ Fine Line was No. 9, and The Weeknd’s After Hours can be found at found at No. 10.

You can read our review of Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die here.

(via Billboard)

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

Joe Rogan has a lot of takes. Sometimes those takes, usually dropped on his immensely popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, offend and enrage people; sometimes they offend and enrage his guests, like when Bill Burr took umbrage with him calling people who wear masks “b*tches.” The latest Rogan controversy involves video games. He doesn’t like him. And now people online don’t like Joe Rogan.

Granted, the NewsRadio vet didn’t always feel this way. He was once an avid gamer, which, he says, was the problem. In a recent broadcast, the actor, comic, and podcast king says he “used to have a real problem with them.” Now he’s seen the light. “They’re a real problem. You know why? Because they’re f*cking fun. You do them, and they’re real exciting, but you don’t get anywhere.”

He continued:

“You [could be] doing something exciting and fun, or you could just be playing f*cking video games. Three years later you could just be that same kid, playing video games, waiting for the next whatever the f*ck game is… You’re gonna waste your time.”

People on Twitter were not amused with this take. Some called him “ignorant” of video games’ full potential.

Some pointed out he’ll probably wind up reneging on his take anyway.

Some pointed out that a man whose podcasts sometimes last three or four or five hours shouldn’t be talking about wasting time.

Others were simply annoyed that Rogan was trending again.

(Via GameRant)

The Orlando Magic enter their hometown bubble looking to improve on their current standing as the 8-seed in the Eastern Conference, hoping to vault to seventh and set up a rematch of last year’s first round series with Toronto.

One of the biggest questions facing Orlando’s bubble roster was the status of budding star big man Jonathan Isaac, who has been sidelined since January 1 with a sprained knee. When entering the bubble, the Magic said Isaac would be brought along slowly, and the expectation was that they’d err on the side of caution with the 22-year-old. However, it appears as though Isaac has shown the Magic’s medical staff he is recovered enough to get back on the court in game action, as The Athletic’s Josh Robbins reports he will play in Orlando’s final scrimmage game.

“It’s been a very long time since he’s played,” Magic president Jeff Weltman told Robbins. “As always, we will take a very cautious approach, and his playing time will be placed under a very limited minute restriction as he gets reacclimated to the NBA game.”

Even if only playing in short bursts, Isaac’s return bodes well for the Magic and their chances of vaulting the shorthanded Nets for the seventh spot in the East (and avoiding the Bucks in the process). Isaac averaged 12 points and 6.9 boards per game this season, but his impact is most felt on the defensive end where he is truly one of the league’s best and most versatile players. He has the length to disrupt shots at the rim and the quickness and agility to stay with players on the perimeter when he gets switched in pick-and-roll, and averaged a robust 2.4 blocks and 1.6 steals per game this season before his injury.

The Magic’s long-term success rides on their ability to build around a player like Isaac, and that is the reason they will remain cautions with his minutes in his return. Still, getting his presence back for the season restart — and, most importantly, a playoff series — is big for his continued development and is a good sign for Orlando.

Beginning the year in surprise fashion, Eminem gave fans a new album, Music To Be Murdered By. Standing as his eleventh album, it saw contributions from the late Juice WRLD, Don Toliver, Young M.A, Anderson .Paak, and more while also serving as the second consecutive Eminem album to be released without any prior announcement. Quite possibly beginning work on what could be his twelfth album, a new collaboration has revealed to be in the works by the Detroit rapper’s marketing firm.

On Saturday, Burn It Down Group, the firm that reportedly handles marketing for Shady Records according to XXL, hinted at a potential collaboration between Eminem and Rihanna on their Instagram story. The firm posted a photo that shows Rihanna’s “R” logo, most notably used for her Rated R album, woven into Eminem’s trademark backward “E” logo. To add to the tease from the photo, the firm added a pair of eye emojis.

If the hint does, indeed, indicate work between the two it will mark Eminem and Rihanna’s fifth collaboration following their worldwide 2010 hit “Love The Way You Lie,” its sequel “Love The Way You Lie (Part II),” 2012’s “Numb,” and 2013’s “The Monster,” which won a 2014 Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. That same year, the duo embarked on The Monster Tour which ended up being one of 2014’s highest-grossing tours.

The rumor arrives after Eminem joined Kid Cudi for their first-ever collaboration, “The Adventures Of Moon Man And Slim Shady.”