Disney is working on two different reboots of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise: (1) A Margot Robbie-starring girl-power verison; (2) A Craig Mazin-penned full-on refresh with details yet unknown. Despite all of that (and Disney probably nowhere near interested in touching anything do do with Johnny Depp, after he lost his “wife beater” libel trial against a tabloid in the U.K.), there appears to be a focused fan effort on… getting Depp back into the Pirates universe?
Yeah, it’s a thing (currently a 308K+-signature strong thing) even though it doesn’t sound like a fantastic idea for any studio to cast Depp in a blockbuster. Warner Bros. forced him to exit the Fantastic Beasts franchise following his legal debacle (being described repeatedly as a “monster” in court documents doesn’t bode well). Depp will still receive his full, eight-figure salary for the next film, but apparently, some people still want him to set sail again as Jack Sparrow. Here’s how the Change.org petition presents its case:
Johnny Depp has been out recently as Captain Jack Sparrow. One of the reasons is his personal issues as well.
He has been playing this role since 2003 when we first saw him arriving at the Port Royal in his boat with that epic background music playing. But can you imagine someone else portraying this instead of him? Or no Jack Sparrow at all?
Disney is rebooting Dead Men Tell No Tales because of its box office but don’t they know that without Johnny Depp or Jack Sparrow they will sink, they will never be able to reach that horizon they are looking for.
The campaign further urges followers to boycott the Pirates reboots, and… is this real? The petition certainly exists, but there’s literally no way to verify if all the signatures represent real people, whether they actually exist or are otherwise part of some behind-the-scenes shenanigans.
Meanwhile, Depp appears to be devoted to appealing the U.K. court decision, and he may still push forward with the U.S. defamation case he filed against Heard. Since the U.S. standard for defamation is even tougher to meet than the U.K. one — and based on how Heard never even named Depp in the op-ed that led to his U.S. lawsuit — that seems like an effort that might do Depp even more reputation harm than good.
Following a bizarre commercial which raised many questions and led to the company becoming a meme last year (as well as certain global events that led to a lot more people exercising at home), stationary bike brand Peloton decided to expand their reach by signing a multi-year partnership with Beyonce. After the deal with Bey was officially announced, Jay-Z decided that he’d position himself as a rival by reportedly making a similar move to break into the fitness industry.
Per a report from TMZ, Jay-Z is investing a chunk of his money into the startup brand CLMBR, which is gearing up to launch its first two products. CLMBR is a home equipment company which specializes in vertical climbing machines. The equipment is made to simulate a climbing wall and, much like Peloton, includes a touch screen which offers a range of in-depth workout classes with instructors on-demand.
Further establishing himself as competition, Jay-Z’s fellow CLMBR investors include a name familiar to Bey. The couple’s longtime fitness consultant Marco Borges is financially backing the startup, as well as renowned tennis champion Novak Djokovic and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.
Jay-Z’s workout equipment endeavor isn’t the only company he’s invested in lately. The rapper recently broke ground on his own brand of cannabis products, Monogram, which seeks to grow high quality strains in small batches.
It’s been a while since we last saw Nelly grace the big screen but the St. Louis sneaker rap pioneer is returning to film in the near future, playing a rock and roll legend in the Bruce Beresford-directed Clear Lake according to Variety. The biopic will tell the story of guitar hero Buddy Holly, the bespectacled 1950s superstar who was killed in a plane crash at just 22 years old.
While Nelly will depict fellow rock Wayfinder Chuck Berry, Colin Hanks will star as Holly’s manager Norman Petty, with Diane Guerrero from Orange Is The New Black as Maria Elena Holly, Buddy’s wife. Variety previously reported that the role of Buddy Holly was given to Irish actor Ruairi O’Connor, best known for his role as Prince Harry Tudor (aka King Henry VIII) in the Starz miniseries The Spanish Princess.
Nelly bounced back this year after being accused of sexual assault in 2018. While he denied the charges, he spent much of 2019 lying low until he was booked as a surprise headliner at J. Cole’s inaugural Dreamville Festival. This spring, he participated in a good-natured Verzuz battle with fellow 2000s hitmaker Ludacris, then joined the cast of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, where he debuted an eye-catching, custom pair of Jordans. With a new movie role in the works, it seems Nelly is proof that no one is ever really “canceled.”
After a huge breakout in the NBA Bubble, Jimmy Butler has signed a signature shoe deal with Chinese apparel company Li-Ning to become the “face of the brand” in place of fellow Heat icon Dwyane Wade, according to Nick DePaula of ESPN.
BREAKING: Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler has agreed to a significant multi-year signature shoe deal with Li-Ning.
Seeing the deal listed as “significant” is great sign for Butler’s pocketbook as he becomes an increasingly prominent face of the league. Butler led the Heat to an unexpected run all the way to Game 6 of the NBA Finals, going toe-to-toe with LeBron James for large parts of the series.
The deal with Li-Ning comes after Butler took his Big Face Coffee brand to the next level through a partnership with Peloton, which developed Big Face merch for Butler to wear in the Bubble. Butler also appeared in a big Michelob Ultra ad spot throughout the NBA playoffs in which he belted out a wonderful rendition of “You Make My Dreams” by Hall and Oates.
Pro hoopers have in many instances recently gone to Chinese brands for apparel and shoe deals as money begins to flow there at an even larger scale and competition increases for deals with American companies like Nike and adidas. Current players like C.J. McCollum and D’Angelo Russell have deals with Li-Ning, while Wade has a lifetime deal with the company.
In a stunning sign of the times, noted capitalist Jim Cramer and Democratic socialist Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez are both in agreement that Donald Trump has doomed millions of Americans by not aggressively pursuing a second round of stimulus funding. Despite the president and his supporters claim that the stock market is doing great, the CNBC host and congresswoman spent Wednesday highlighting the fact that the success of Wall Street has little effect on what’s happening on Main Streets across America where small business are folding and people are struggling to find work.
Cramer was the first to tackle the dire situation on CNBC’s Halftime Report, where he blasted Trump and government officials for failing to pass a new COVID stimulus package. “I really hate to say this, but I think that Congress has doomed so many companies,” Cramer said. “The president has doomed so many companies.” According to Cramer, independent businesses will not survive the pandemic, which will leave nothing but large chains like Walmart, Target, and Olive Garden:
“I think a lot of these companies… have picked up just a giant amount of allegiance. I do think that these companies have wiped out a lot of smaller companies because there’s no stimulus,” the “Mad Money” host said. Those business, he added, “don’t have credit lines. You can’t keep up. They’re the empty storefronts of the country.”
Later that day, AOC echoed Cramer’s remarks after learning that the administration is using the stock market as an excuse not to rush a second round of stimulus funds even as COVID cases continue to rapidly spike.
“30 million people in this country are at risk of eviction,” AOC tweeted. “Millions of people are unemployed or underemployed from cut-back hours. The economy is not the stock market. We are NOT doing fine. People need help in red states and blue, & our job is to help everyone. This is basic.”
30 million people in this country are at risk of eviction.
Millions of people are unemployed or underemployed from cut-back hours.
The economy is not the stock market. We are NOT doing fine. People need help in red states and blue, & our job is to help everyone. This is basic. https://t.co/M9NwZPGp2p
If AOC and the host of Mad Money are in agreement on government spending, that seems like a pretty good sign that a second round of stimulus funds has transcended partisan politics and needs to happen for the good of the country.
The most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie, 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, made nearly $800 million at the worldwide box office, but that was a big drop from the billion dollar-grossing film preceding it, On Stranger Tides. Plus, no one liked it. But rather than letting the franchise sink to the bottom of the ocean (which is probably where star Johnny Depp should go after losing his libel case against British tabloid the Sun for labeling him a “wife beater”), Disney is making at least two more Pirates movies: a reboot from Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, and another starring Margot Robbie.
The Birds of Prey star told Collider that it’s “too early” to discuss specifics about the “female-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean,” but she did tease that it will have “lots of girl power… I’m not a producer on Pirates, so I’ll sit back and kind of wait for the process. We’re really, really excited at the prospect of adding obviously a very key female element to that world.” The script is being penned by Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson.
Is it too soon to replace the Depp’s Jack Sparrow animatronic in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride with one of Margot Robbie? (It’s not. Start now.)
Getting to make a guest appearance on Sesame Street is a real sign that you’ve made it as an entertainer, and now Maggie Rogers can proudly say she is among those ranks. Today, the classic show shared a new clip of Rogers’ time on the show, during which she sings a lovely song called “It’s Nighttime.”
Rogers walks through the neighborhood with Elmo, Abby, Rudy, and Charlie and begins the song, “The moon is shining, the stars are out / And it’s time to start settling down / It’s dark outside, it’s hard to see / and lots of people getting ready to sleep / But just ’cause the sun’s not up in the sky / There’s plenty of creatures that really don’t mind / So much is happening in the nighttime.” From there, she goes on to sing about some of the creatures that thrive at night, like owls and fireflies.
Rogers shared the video and wrote simply, “*wholesome content*.”
Elsewhere in the show, Rogers joins the aforementioned characters for a camping sleepover, but they end up having to go on a neighborhood quest when their treats go missing.
Speaking of things from childhood (for some of us, anyway), Rogers recently joined Phoebe Bridgers on a cover of the Goo Goo Dolls classic “Iris,” which Bridgers had promised to cover if Donald Trump did not secure his re-election.
Watch Rogers sing “It’s Nighttime” on Sesame Street above.
Selena Gomez had a lot on her plate this year. Not only did the singer release a comeback album, but she also launched a beauty company, worked as executive producer on a Netflix movie, and premiered her first cooking show Selena + Chef on HBO. The series sees her linking up with some of today’s biggest chefs to learn their most popular recipes. So to celebrate her success run as a musician, producer, actor, and now chef, Selena decided to give back.
Gomez announced that she and her HBO team would help ensure that some families in need are able to celebrate Thanksgiving with enough food. Together, they will be donating $100,000 to Feeding America, a non-profit organization which serves as a nationwide network of food banks. Speaking about the generous act in a statement, Gomez said, “With so many people in the US facing food insecurity and to help ensure people in need also celebrate Thanksgiving, Selena + Chef will be donating $100,000 to Feeding America.”
Selena Gomez donates $100k to feed families across America this Thanksgiving on new episode of ‘Selena + Chef.’ pic.twitter.com/W3RUbTrxq5
In other Gomez news, the singer has also been a major advocate for mental health this year. After revealing she is diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, the singer opened up about going through a depression at the onset of quarantine. Gomez said was able to pull herself out of the depressive episode by focusing on her work, beauty business, and other charitable goals.
Approximately 36 years ago, we went through a bunch of news cycles where LaVar Ball, then known as the father of Lonzo and the guy behind Big Baller Brand, would say stuff that got him on TV. Nothing got him as much publicity — not even the time he went onto CNN and got into a war of words with Donald Trump — than his insistence that he could beat Michael Jordan in a game of 1-on-1.
It was a whole thing, and it is hard not to laugh at the fact that it happened when remembering that the Charlotte Hornets, the team owned by Jordan, took LaVar’s youngest son, LaMelo, with the No. 3 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. And according to Tim Keown of ESPN, who attended the Ball family Draft party, the irony isn’t lost on LaVar, either.
Keown appeared on the ESPN Daily podcast on Thursday morning and gave a bit of a debrief on the whole saga, which included a wonderful anecdote about LaVar — who wore an “I Told You So” Big Baller Brand baseball cap — reacting to the pick around the 1:35 mark of the below video.
“And when the pick was announced, LaVar, who was relatively quiet for part of the night, announced, ‘Tell MJ we’re coming!’” Keown recalled. “So we may get that 1-on-1 we’ve been waiting for.”
LaMelo actually fills some holes as a dynamic playmaker for the Hornets, so it was a pretty good pick, regardless. Nonetheless, I think I speak for most people when I say I really want LaVar Ball and Michael Jordan to play basketball against one another.
It’s that time of year again. The season where pairing powerful beers with butter, spice, and sugar-laden foods occupies your thoughts. Whereas summer is focused on chilling in the backyard and quenching your thirst, the holidays are all about feasts and big drinks to enhance those meals while washing them down.
We’re calling out substantial, flavor-forward beers that pair well with substantial, flavor-forward holiday meals.
To help us in this endeavor, we reached out to serious beer experts and asked them: “What’s the best beer to pair with a big holiday meal?” These are folks who live and breathe beer, write books about brewing, and have been certified to talk about and judge beer on the international stage. Still, their answers vary pretty widely.
Most of these beers will be available in specialty beer shops or online. A few of them might be harder to find (even in their home countries) outside of the brewery that produces them. In those cases, read about what the beer is and what it tastes like and track down an analog from your favorite local craft brewery.
Style: English Strong Ale Brewery: Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, Coalville, UK ABV: 7.4%
The Beer:
I don’t eat meat anymore, so there’ll be no turkey on my table. But that makes no difference as to the beer I open. You see, you can pair turkey with any beer you like and it’ll work because the bird is such a neutral flavor. The reality is that you’re matching your beer to the sides and the gravy.
My go-to choice is Belgian, or Belgian-style: A malty Brune or Dubbel, a rich Tripel (not a lean bitter one), or a Quadrupel. You need booze. You want some malt sweetness for the root veg and gravy, some refreshing bubbles, and a little spiciness to match the food’s herbs and seasoning.
Tasting Notes:
Tynt Meadow is a Dubbel-inspired beer brewed with all English ingredients (including the yeast) at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire. It has a sweet tea and biscuity malt body. There are aniseed and dried fruits. The texture is full enough to handle big food flavors, and the yeast brings some extra fruitiness and a little peppery spice.
Regardless of the centerpiece proteins, this is a great beer for all the veg and sides of a big festive feast.
San Miguel Cerveza Negra — Latiesha Cook, certified Cicerone and president of Beer Kulture
San Miguel Brewery
Style: European Dark Lager Brewery: San Miguel Brewery, Mandaluyong City, Philippines ABV: 5%
The Beer:
For a big meal, my immediate favorite beer pairing screams for a dark lager. I’ve always enjoyed San Miguel’s Cerveza Negra because it’s well balanced between its sweet-yet-roasty malt notes.
This brew is rich in flavor but stands up very nicely when paired with a large and hearty meal. It’s such a good beer. Probably one of the best I’ve had in this style.
Tasting Notes:
It pours with a creamy foam-like head and has a beautiful dark brown to ruby color. On the nose, it smells of malt and brown sugar. It reminds me of a bread my grandmother used to make for us called Macheteadas.
The beer has no warming alcohol, which is nice with a hearty meal, and quite expected from a five percent dark lager. You’ll immediately be greeted with roasted malts and molasses on the first sip. Then your tongue gets a follow up of milk chocolate, sugar, and cream.
Saison D’Erpe-Mere — Breandán Kearney, founder & Editor-in-Chief of Belgian Smaak
KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren
Style: Saison Brewery: KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren, Erpe-Mere, Belgium ABV: 6.5%
The Beer:
The two brewers who produce this beer have colorful backstories. Jef Van Den Steen, now in his seventies, was a rockstar in Belgium with chart hits in various European countries. He went on to become a mathematics teacher, a politician, an author, and then a brewer. His colleague Dirk De Pauw, in his sixties, was a financial director for a group of hospitals.
The glass tower of the brewery’s name comes from the road on which their brewery is housed, Glazentorenweg, named originally for the glass windows of the prostitution houses that were once located at the bottom of the street. The Saison D’Erpe-Mere was launched in November 2004, making the beer 16-years-old this month.
Tasting Notes:
Saison D’Erpe-Mere is as classic a Belgian Saison as you will find outside Saison Dupont. The grist bill of 80 percent pilsner malt and 20 percent wheat malt deliver a biscuity, refreshing grain quality which compliments many types of fish as well as white meats such as chicken and turkey. Magnum bittering hops and Saaz aroma additions give a background spiciness that lifts herbs and spices deployed in many dishes as well as complimenting bitter green vegetables.
It’s extremely dry and effervescent, cleansing your palate with its carbonic bite. The ester characteristics of its yeast give citrus notes which liven up the fruitier aspects of your lemon drizzle sauces, vinegar, and oils.
Drink it as an aperitif before dinner to whet the appetite, pair it with the main meal to compliment the flavors of dinner, or, because you deserve it right now, sip on it as a dessert.
Turmeric Saison — Miguel Rivas, host of the “Every Beer Has a Story. Every Story Has a Beer” storytelling series on IGTV Live
Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Saison Brewery: Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, Maine ABV: 5.3%
The Beer:
Food and beer, beer and food, personally I don’t think it gets the respect it deserves. Usually, when people think about pairing food, the immediate reaction/suggestion goes to wine. I am a huge advocate of promoting beer with food. After all, wine only uses one ingredient, grapes. Beer, on the other hand, has four main ingredients (water, malt, hops, and yeast) where you can then explore an infinite palette of flavors and colors.
For my food pairing, I chose to merge some Asian influences for the food and Belgian influences for the beer. The dish I like preparing at the moment is an Asian-style rice noodle. I make it in a wok with finely chopped and sliced mushrooms, carrots, peppers, and asparagus all lightly sautéed in a fish broth. I then sprinkle some sesame seeds. Lastly, I mix the rice noodles with a splash of soy sauce.
For the beer, I chose Allagash Turmeric Saison. As per the brewery description, “Turmeric has a long history of culinary use, so we decided to try it in one of our beers. We’re glad we did. The earthy and unique flavor of whole turmeric root, alongside the bit of pepper that we add during brewing, gives a lightly spicy quality to this fruity and aromatic certified organic Saison.” This combination of ingredients in the beer combined with the spicy character of the yeast creates a beautiful combination with the vegetables and the noodles.
Tasting Notes:
Pours a straw yellow/golden color with some slight haze, a foamy white/creamy head with good retention with spotty lacing. The aroma is citrusy, spicy, fruity, and barley with hints of turmeric and pepper. The taste is very consistent with the nose with a refreshing and slightly dry finish. Adding to the complexity, there are spicy flavors and light peppery phenols. It has a light to medium body, medium carbonation, and the mouthfeel is very smooth. It’s well balanced, has a really nice complexity of flavors, and has a very high drinkability.
Overall a spectacular beer. It’s delicate yet complex and very versatile when it comes to pairing it with food. I believe it will go well with a great variety of dishes.
I’m always looking for drinks that deeply connect to where they are made rather than products that could come from anywhere. Jitka Ilčíková’s Wild Creatures makes special brews with a pronounced sense of place. Jitka grows the fruit she uses herself and ferments 100 percent spontaneously, using the microorganisms that exist in her family’s vineyard in Mikulov (the legendary wine-producing town in South Moravia).
Tears of Saint Laurent is made with St. Laurent grapes, the most widely planted red variety in the Czech Republic. If you’re just about anywhere in the Czech lands, it tastes like here. For a long time, bottles from Wild Creatures have been very hard to find, despite (or maybe because of) international interest. But thanks to a recently announced expansion — including a new facility with much more room for barrels — it should be easier to get your hands on stuff from Wild Creatures soon. Add that to the list of good things that happened in 2020.
Tasting Notes:
This wine-like grape ale is moderately acidic with complex, fruity notes like those of a great Gamay or Merlot. Lots of plum, blackberry, and black currant flavors upfront followed by an elegant, dry finish. Pairs well with stimulating conversation, shared plates, and close friends.
It’s often said that Belgium has all four seasons and a beer for every style of food. And it’s true, leaving me torn between bright, spritzy saisons with a hint of tartness and a complex funkiness, and a strong dark ale full of dark spices, roast, and with a hefty alcoholic kick.
With the nights drawing in and the weather going from bad to worse, my big meal preferences lean towards a roasted chunk of meat and some trimmings. And that means my go-to beer has to come from the dark side of Belgian brewing. But I don’t want to have just one beer with my dinner, I’d like a couple. So, I usually eschew some of the chewier quadrupels and dark strong ales and instead go for something a little more sessionable, a reliable classic: Westmalle Dubbel.
Tasting Notes:
Ruby red and checking in at seven percent ABV (I said it was relatively sessionable; this is Belgium after all), Westmalle Dubbel always reminds me of dates, plums, and sticky toffee pudding but without the cloying sweetness of stronger beers. It has a light mouthfeel and dry finish. It’s balanced and fruity and moreish.
I’m a sucker for beers from Seattle. Part of it is that it’s my home. Another part of it is that Washington State has a seriously awesome roaster of craft beer breweries. One of my favorites is a craft brewery that helped introduce me to craft beer in the late 1990s, Elysian Brewing. One of those beers was their winter ale, BiFrost.
The beer screams out to be paired with a big, wintry meal. It’s rather light/dry in the body while packing a punch taste-wise. It’s also fairly high in the ABV department and usually comes in 22-oz. bottles, making it the perfect beer to pour into small glasses for sharing over a meal.
Tasting Notes:
The malts are present up top with a malty caramel over a tart apple that’s spiced with cinnamon. The taste delivers on those promises and adds in a dose of orange oils with more Christmas spice and a malty body. The hops kick in late and offer a good, bitter/dank counterpoint to the sweet malts. The taste ends slightly dry with another hit of that orange zest citrus brightness.
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