Month: November 2020

It’s Wednesday, Nov. 4th, the day after the presidential election of 2020 and, as almost everyone predicted, America’s electoral system is a complete sh*tshow. Currently, Democratic nominee and former vice president Joe Biden is leading by a slim margin of 225 electoral votes to President Trump’s 213 but with key battleground states too early to call and millions of mail-in ballots yet to be counted, it’s still anyone’s game. And that’s not sitting well with Trump, who has, predictably, taken to Twitter to rant about coverage on Fox News and spew conspiracy theories about “ballot dumping” in states like Pennsylvania, which leaned red early in the night but has started to turn blue.

Trump’s claim that, somehow, states like Pennsylvania were handing in “surprise” ballots is so dangerously false and misleading that Twitter of all platforms started censoring his tweets, but that wasn’t enough for Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman, who’s clearly fed up with the administration’s misinformation tactics.

Fetterman held an interview with MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson early Wednesday to defend his state and assure the people of Pennsylvania that every vote will be counted. He also managed to get a brutal dig in at Trump, calling him a “random Internet troll” who’s making claims that have “no basis in reality.” And he’s not entirely wrong. Trump’s accusation that Pennsylvania is a Dem-controlled state that’s out to get him is false on a few levels. The swing state is actually controlled by a Republican legislature that reached a stalemate with Democratic Governor Tom Wolf over allowing counties to canvass mail-in ballots ahead of election day. If the measure had passed, early voting — which has largely skewed in Biden’s favor in the state — could’ve been tallied before in-person voting, meaning we’d likely already know the outcome in Pennsylvania.

That might be why Lt. Governor Fetterman had such strong words for Trump and his Republican backers, who are already threatening legal action when it comes to counting mail-in ballots.

(Sidenote: You know things are bad when the voting process for American Idol runs smoother than the 2020 presidential election. Someone call Ryan Seacrest to get this straightened out.)

Despite dropping online not even two full weeks ago, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm has already secured its spot as the number two most-watched streaming movie in America this year, just behind the Disney+ release of Hamilton, according to Variety. Considering the wide popularity of the hit Broadway musical, which absolutely dominated streaming charts over the summer, the Borat sequel’s performance is pretty impressive. While there are no raw numbers provided, Variety’s reporting is based on data from VIP by ScreenEngine/ASI, “who surveyed 1,200 U.S. video viewers aged 13-64 weekly on which titles they’ve watched in 7 days following their release.” Here’s how those results played out:

1. Hamilton: The Movie – Disney+
2. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – Amazon Prime Video
3. My Spy – Amazon Prime Video
4. Extraction – Netflix
5. Phineas & Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe – Disney+

Variety notes that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm‘s success demonstrates that there is “high-demand for premium content among SVOD subscribers, boosting the consumer perception of services able to release titles that make their way to the cultural zeitgeist.” Also, it doesn’t hurt that we’re all stuck at home.

Of course, Borat 2 dominating charts shouldn’t come as a total surprise. Shortly after its debut weekend at the end of October, Amazon told media outlets that the film was viewed by “tens of millions of customers.” The sequel also benefitted from a strong and hilarious social media campaign involving Sacha Baron Cohen in character as Borat. The satirical film also took aim at America’s current political climate, which made Borat a constant fixture in headlines, particularly after the movie’s final scene caught Rudy Giuliani in a very compromising position. After details of the unflattering scene were widely reported, Giuliani repeatedly lost his cool on both social media and Fox News, which only brought more attention to the film.

(Via Variety)

If you go to Donald Trump’s Twitter account (I would not suggest doing this), you’ll notice that three of the president’s five most recent tweets or quote-tweets have been flagged by Twitter for being “misleading about an election or other civic process.” A totally normal post-Election Day tradition. Tomi Lahren must have been inspired by her socialist-fearing king, as one of her tweets has also received a warning for being, well, full of crap.

“The Left weaponized coronavirus to push mail-in voting, the most fraud-ridden method and easiest to manipulate. This is no coincidence. This was their backup plan. But it ain’t over till it’s over,” Lahren wrote, leading Twitter to slap the “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process” label on her ramblings. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of non-flagged nonsense.

“The Left believes it has a moral obligation to win by any means necessary. They believe in their socialism, in their big government, in their control and they will do anything to get it. Now we just have to pray the patriots of this country were strong enough to overwhelm it,” reads one, followed soon after by, “Honestly the fact that a single person would vote for a man who promises to raise taxes, doesn’t know what state he’s in, and can’t put a sentence together is absolutely mind-boggling as it is. Liberalism: a disease.” A more deadly disease than the virus that’s killed 233,000 Americans, I’m sure.

She’s already working on next year’s Halloween costume: a ballot dump.

Sometimes the best tweet is no tweet at all, considering how many backlashes have erupted on Twitter. High profile figures step in it often, and brands have a tough time navigating even semi-political waters. A seemingly well-intended tweet might actually come across as chaos-inducing and tone deaf, like when people threatened to boycott Thin Mints (the tastiest cookie of all) after the Girl Scouts tweeted-and-deleted support for arch-conservative, newly installed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Now Gap is dealing with fallout from a not-great tweet while the U.S. anxiously awaits vote counting results after Trump falsely claimed victory over Joe Biden.

In the now-deleted tweet, the caption to a red-and-blue-split hoodie read like this: “The one thing we know, is that together, we can move forward.” (And yep, red and blue hearts did appear.)

The suggestion that a hoodie can solve all problems that divide the U.S. (and “close the gap” by literally closing the hoodie in GIF form) is not, uh, going over well when so many American people are hurting in 2020. After all, Congress can’t close their gap long enough to pass a second stimulous bill. So, people hopped on the sentiment all of with the silliness that it beckoned: “This tweet will divide the United States of America more than any election.”

And the similarities to Kendell Jenner’s Pepsi commercial did not go unnoticed.

Sapna Maheshwari of the New York Times relays word from a Gap spokesperson, who asserts that this hoodie (unlike the tweet) wasn’t real, and it wasn’t for sale.

Further, the Gap would like to stress that “[t]he intention of our social media post, that featured a red and blue hoodie, was to show the power of unity.” The spokesperson also states that “[i]t was just too soon for this message. We remain optimistic that our country will come together to drive positive change for all.”

While many Americans watched the results of the election roll in Tuesday from their homes, Lana Del Rey instead waited it out in a Denny’s. Before she vehemently denied a fan’s claim that she voted for Trump, Lana issued an exciting announcement from her Denny’s table. Because the production of her upcoming record Chemtrails Over The Country Club has been delayed, the singer is going to release an LP of American classics in time for Christmas.

Speaking about Chemtrails, Lana said the record has a “16-week delay on the vinyl process, so in the meantime, I’m going to give you a digital record of American standards and classics for Christmas because I can’t get the record plants to open until March 5. That probably goes for a lot of people out there.”

Continuing to speak about her upcoming project, Lana said:

“In the meantime, I did this beautiful acapella version of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ for this awesome documentary about a Liverpool football manager and a bunch of other little things. But yes, I’ll still be recording. Chemtrails is done. I love it, it’s folk-y, it’s beautiful, it’s super different from Norman. I just thought that was the best option. I was stressed out when I heard the production was going to take 16 to 17 weeks but it is what it is. But in the meantime, I have some Patsy Cline songs I’ve been wanting to cover for a really long time, a couple of really cool Americana songs with Nikki Lane that I’ve just kind of had in my back pocket.”

After teasing her upcoming Christmas project, Lana shared a clip of her singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” acapella.

Watch Lana Del Rey full statement above.

Kat Dennings came to Billie Eilish’s defense after a paparazzi photo of the Grammy-winning pop star went viral last month. “Anyone reacting to @billieeilish having a normal body has to take a hard look at themselves,” the 2 Broke Girls star tweeted. “As someone who looked exactly like that at her age, it’d be nice for this unhealthy nonsense to fuck right off. She’s beautiful and normal goodbye!” Dennings expanded on why she spoke up for Eilish (who responded to the whole thing by encouraging people to “normalize real bodies”) during a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“Any woman in the spotlight is already under a tremendous amount of pressure. I mean, the internet is gross and awful and I hate it,” she said. “But she [is] especially… I don’t know if it’s because she’s so young and it just feels so inappropriate for anyone to comment on any young person’s body ever, it’s just gross.” Dennings felt “personally affronted” to what Eilish, who she called a “beautiful young girl who is making unbelievable, earth-changing art,” was going through because “I looked exactly like that when I was her age and I had a horrible time. I think things have improved as far as body image for girls and boys and everybody — things are more inclusive now.” She added, “I hope people know that people are in their corner and that [body-shaming] is not okay.”

She had at me “the internet is gross and awful and I hate it.”

(Via People)

Political activist Michael Moore emerged Wednesday morning with message of hope and a surprising amount of praise for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. In a Facebook post touting the former vice president’s ability to flip states that Trump won in 2016, Moore commended Biden for turning Michigan blue after the filmmaker went to bed at 4 a.m. He also encouraged Democrats to hang in there because a Biden victory just might happen when all votes are counted. Via Facebook:

When I fell asleep, the map of Michigan showed Flint as red! Hahaha!!

And here’s the bottom line: After all the hoopla of the last 12 hours, ONLY Biden has been able to flip a state AND an electoral college delegate district that had gone the other way in 2016. That state is Arizona and it went to Biden (and THAT was called by FOX News!). The one other elector that changed from 2016 to last night was the 2nd Congressional district of Nebraska which had gone for Trump in 2016 — and it was won by Biden yesterday. Trump has not flipped a single state that Hillary won! Only Biden is flipping states and electors that Trump won in 2016. And he will flip more today as the ballots continue to be counted.

You can see Moore’s full post below:

Moore’s recent remarks are a stark reversal from his prediction just a few days ago. Going into the Halloween weekend, the author talked with The Hill and warned that Trump would win because his voter support is always being “undercounted” especially in Moore’s home state of Michigan. Moore has been a vocal critic of the Biden campaign and even went so far to say that it might be performing worse than Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign in Michigan. Obviously, that has proven not to be the case as Biden looks to be the winner in Michigan, and it appears that Moore won’t be pulling a repeat of accurately predicting a Trump win like he did four years ago.

(Via Michael Moore on Facebook)

With all the people in the world, it’s bound to sometimes be the case that some celebrities share similar names. For example, there is actress Michelle Williams and Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams, actor Adam Scott and golfer Adam Scott, and rappers Nas, Lil Nas X, DaBaby, and Lil Baby. Another one of these connections is Khalid and DJ Khaled, who are both prominent musicians whose names are only a few letters apart. Confusing the two would be forgiven, and that’s just what Kerry Washington did on Election Day.

Khalid tweeted a message expressing his desire that his home state of Texas vote for Joe Biden, writing simply, “MAKE TEXAS BLUE.” The tweet got a lot of attention, as it currently has over a quarter million views. Washington is one of the many people who saw it, but she thought Khalid was DJ Khaled. So, in a now-deleted tweet, Washington showed her support for the cause and who she thought was DJ Khaled by replying, “Yes!!!!!! We da best!!!!!! (I couldn’t resist).”

Meanwhile, DJ Khaled is in the process of readying a new album, and he previewed it earlier this year with a pair of Drake-featuring singles. As for Khalid, he expects to have a new album out in the next few months.

Wheel of Fortune is a show that often gets a bad rap compared to its syndication partner, Jeopardy! Gaffes on The Wheel are just more frequent, and there’s a perception that word puzzle games are easier in general compared to a highbrow trivia contest.

The latest gaffe will certainly add to that perception, as a toss-up about a very famous person went awry on Monday night. Proper Names was the category, and after a few letters most people could figure out that scientist Issac Newton was the answer. But the clue had three words in it, and Alex really struggled with the figuring out what that first word is.

She rang in first, though, and then invented someone named “Tom Issac Newton.”

That was quickly shot down, and Brad just as quickly rang in and gave the correct answer. The guess in the toss up round obviously was worth far less than some other misses could be. But of all the gaffes we’ve seen on the show in recent months, this one perhaps got the biggest reaction from people on social media.

You only ever really make a noteworthy appearance on Wheel of Fortune if you do something either very impressive or embarrassing. In this case, at least it was extremely funny.

This year, Arcade Fire celebrated a decade of their Grammy Award-winning album The Suburbs. The group have been busy working on new music to offer a follow-up to their 2017 LP Everything Now, and though quarantine put some of their plans on pause, the group took to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to offer a hopeful message in the form of a new song.

Over driving synths and echoing back-up vocals, Arcade Fire sings of dismissing voices who tell them to wait for change on the new track “Generation A.” In announcing Arcade Fire to the stage, Colbert said the song is “inspired by the current climate of the country with a hopeful message to the youths.”

Ahead of their late-night performance, vocalist Win Butler said the group has turned an intense focus to creating material as of late: “For my part, I’m pouring my heart, soul and all of my precious time into the music and recording (Not closing the door on doing some online performances, but it feels like many artists have that covered;) […] When you listen to the music that’s coming (…eventually…not soon…if you don’t have patience by now, you definitely aren’t reading this), you will know what we were working on under quarantine.”

Watch Arcade Fire perform “Generation A” on Colbert above.