Month: December 2020

Outgoing president Donald J. Trump is in the middle of a pardon frenzy. He’s already dolled one out to convicted former staffer Michael Flynn. Joe Exotic may be next. It’s claimed Rudy Giuliani has asked for a pre-emptive one, though it’s not clear what, specifically, he’s done to break the law. (Though one can imagine.) To add to the swelling pile, The New York Times is reporting that Trump is also looking at extending pardons to his three eldest children, as well as son-in-law Jared Kushner. What for, you may ask? Good question!

According to the Times, Trump concern is more vague. They report that the president “has told others that he is concerned that a Biden Justice Department might seek retribution against the president by targeting the oldest three of his five children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump — as well as Ms. Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser.” (Rest easy, Tiffany and Barron.)

That said, there are specific actions for which they could be charged. As per the Times:

Donald Trump Jr. had been under investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, for contacts that the younger Mr. Trump had had with Russians offering damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, but he was never charged. Mr. Kushner provided false information to federal authorities about his contacts with foreigners for his security clearance, but was given one anyway by the president.

As for Eric and Ivanka, there aren’t specific known crimes they may have committed, though the latter is under investigation by the Manhattan D.A. over tax write-offs on millions of dollars in consulting fees that may have gone her way.

Still, social media found it a touch fishy to hear about potential pardons for people who are supposed to be innocent.

There were jokes, too.

And contrasts with the previous White House family.

And some weren’t so shocked.

Tuesday was a pretty pardon-heavy day. On top of all this, the Department of Justice — which, under William Barr, had long acted as Trump’s personal legal counsel — reportedly began an investigation into one as-yet-unrevealed allegedly taking part in a bribery-for-pardon scheme. That time Trump pardoned an actual turkey seems like a long time ago.

(Via NYT)

The 2020-21 NBA season begins on Dec. 22 and, after the shortest offseason on record, there is a frenzied feel to the proceedings. There is always majesty and hype surrounding the league’s slate of Christmas Day games and, on Tuesday evening, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news of the five matchups that basketball fans will be able to observe on Dec. 25.

The headliner of the day may be the matchup between Luka Doncic and LeBron James in the 8:00 p.m. primetime window, as the reigning champion Lakers take on an up-and-coming Mavericks team. Elsewhere, Kyrie Irving will return to Boston as a headlining member of the Brooklyn Nets, and he will be joined by Kevin Durant, who projects to be healthy after missing the entire 2019-20 season.

To start the day, Zion Williamson leads the Pelicans against the reigning Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat and, as the NBA established in its pre-bubble hype, Williamson is a significant draw for the league. The league will be banking on the Warriors to bounce back from an ugly 2019-20 season, with Steph Curry and Draymond Green now joined by Kelly Oubre and others as they face Giannis Antetokounmpo and the new-look Bucks.

In the night cap, the Clippers and Nuggets do battle in a rematch of the already infamous 3-1 collapse from the 2020 NBA Playoffs. L.A. will undoubtedly have a measure of revenge on their minds, while Denver is a tremendous squad that should be ready to give the Clippers another fight behind Nikola Jokic.

As always, there will be fan bases decrying the absence of their team on the day of the league’s No. 1 regular season showcase, and a few of them may even have some legs to stand on. However, the NBA put together five highly intriguing matchups, and Christmas should be a smorgasbord for die-hards with plenty to appeal to casual observers.

BTS is having a phenomenal year, with two No. 1 albums and a chart-topping single in “Dynamite.” But the group has long worried that a law in their native South Korea would force its oldest member to enlist for the country’s military when he turns 28. Thankfully, that won’t happen. According to the New York Times, the South Korea National Assembly revised its Military Service Act, allowing the country’s top K-pop stars to delay their military service until they turn 30. The new revision also allows K-pop acts that have been recognized by the government for their cultural impact to request a deferment from the military.

The revision of the Military Service Act comes just in time to save Kim Seok-jin, a.k.a. “Jin,” who turns 28 this Friday. According to Consequence Of Sound, the group was asked about eventually having to join the military back in 2019. “As a Korean, it’s natural,” Jin said. “And some day, when duty calls, we’ll be ready to respond and do our best.”

The news comes after BTS saw the deluxe version of their album Be top the Billboard album charts, a mere eight months after their first album of the year, Map Of The Soul: 7, did the same.

(via New York Times)

Donald Trump may yet to concede to Joe Biden, but he’s still in the middle of one activity favored by many outgoing presidents: pardoning friends and allies. He sure has a lot of options; a good number of former staff members and confidants have been sent to prison on federal charges, and some current ones are expecting to join them. (One of them, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, has already received his.) But as per ABC News, on his short list (which probably isn’t very short) is a famous jailed TV star, Joe Exotic.

The Tiger King breakout is currently serving a 22-year sentence on 17 charges of animal abuse and two charges of murder for hire, after a plot to kill nemesis Carole Baskin. Over the summer the former private zoo owner, real name Joseph Allen Schreibvogel, reached out to Trump, hoping he’d extend him the presidential pardon he’d given to people like far-right commentator, filmmaker, and former convict Dinesh D’Souza.

It’s unclear how well Trump knows of Joe Exotic, or how sympathetic he is to his plight. They do have some things in common. For one, Joe has run for president one more time than Trump ever has. But the news that he could be sprung by a president who may try to pardon himself became the butt of many a Twitter joke.

Or some people were just exhausted by 2020.

(Via ABC News)

On Tuesday, Elliot Page — the Oscar-nominated star of Juno, who has appeared in films like Hardy Candy and Inception, as well as the Netflix show The Umbrella Academy — came out as transgender and non-binary. He received an outpouring of support, across the entertainment industry and over social media. Among the many who came out in support was his wife, dancer and choreographer Emma Portner, who he married in 2018.

“I am so proud of @elliotpage,” Portner wrote next to the open letter Page wrote when he made the announcement. “Trans, queer and non-binary people are a gift to this world. I also ask for patience & privacy but that you join me in the fervent support of trans life every single day. Elliot’s existence is a gift in and of itself. Shine on sweet E. Love you so much.”

In the letter, Page wrote, “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self.”

He also sent out a message of support to those in the community who’ve faced discrimination and violence:

“I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive. To all the trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse, and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you, and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better.”

(Via EW)

Brooklyn rapper Casanova is wanted by the New York FBI after authorities connected him to a gang known as the “Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation.” On their Twitter page, the institution revealed that 18 members of the gang were arrested and charged with racketeering, murder, narcotics, firearms, and fraud offenses. They then called for information on Casanova, who is allegedly a part of their gang, and the only one who has not been taken into police custody.

Assistant Director In Charge William F. Sweeney also shared additional information on the “Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation” gang in a statement posted to their Twitter page.

As the indictment alleges, the violence and drug activity committed by these gang members threatened the safety of our communities and placed innocent lives at risk. Their unabashed criminal behavior, as alleged, included the murder of a 15 year-old and even extended to defrauding programs meant for people suffering economic hardship due to the pandemic. But thanks to the partnership and hard work of all law enforcement agencies involved in this investigation, we were able to stop this violent criminal organization — and show that Gorilla Stone is actually not”untouchable.”

You can read the tweets from the New York FBI above.

In just a matter of two years, Lil Nas X has become one of music’s most popular names, thanks to the smash hit “Old Town Road.” The track has currently sold 13X Platinum, and it holds the record for the longest streak at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart, racking in nineteen weeks. The singer is rolling out his next project, but before it arrives, he took a moment to honor two artists who helped ensure he felt like he belonged in the music world.

During a sit down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Lil Nas X thanked Frank Ocean and Tyler The Creator for allowing him to express his true self to the world. “I think artists like Frank in general and, like, Tyler and whatever, they made it easier for me to be where I am, comfortably,” he said, adding that he hopes his coming out will push other queer artists to do the same.

I was just getting signs, “OK. It’s time we do this thing.” Because it’s like I’m already moving forward and I’m becoming more free with everything I do, so let’s take this to the next level and do this. Because I mean, it was either going to be that or what? Pretend this for the rest of my entire life? … And also being one of those people that was like, “OK, I want to make room for you now.” So everybody who’s coming behind me, “OK. This is going to be cool. It’s going to work out fine.” Yeah. But that’s another reason why I knew that I had to do it. Because the day before I was like, “Damn, should I really do this? Is this what…” And I’m like, “No, this is definitely what I should do.” Especially given my platform, where I am, the communities that I stand in between. It’s like little shit like this shouldn’t be a problem

He also showed love to Billie Eilish, calling her “f*cking amazing and talented,” saying she does “whatever the f*ck she wants” without “apologizing for it.”

You can watch the Lil Nas X interview above.

Humans, by nature, do their best to adapt, and that’s what society has tried to do during the pandemic. Even frivolous things, like awards shows, have been forced to evolve. The BET Awards and the Emmys even created some of their most charming and watchable telecasts with shows done mostly remotely, with armies of equipment actually mailed to nominees all over the world. It’s a lesson, alas, that one major awards show is not taking to heart.

As per Variety, next year’s Academy Awards will not be a virtual affair, with casts and crew delivering impassioned speeches from their couches. “The Oscars in-person telecast will happen,” a source bluntly told the publication, suggesting the show will go on as it did in the before-time, in a bygone era when there wasn’t a highly contagious virus running roughshod over the planet.

Early into the pandemic, the Academy bumped the show back from late February to April 15, hoping that a year was enough time for humans to sort this out. Humans did not sort it out. Perhaps they’re remaining optimistic, hoping that the public health crisis that is currently worse than it ever has, and with no end in sight, could still get better in the next four and a half months. But they’ll still need to cram untold stars into the Dolby Theatre’s 3,400 seats, and a good number of them are definitely in the immunocompromised bracket.

Of course, it’s still December, with a month — still, somehow — left in this cursed year. Maybe once Jack Nicholson says he’s not risking his life to fête some movie that never got the chance to play in an actual movie theater, the Academy may sing a different tune.

(Via Variety)

The Godfather is back in the news! Granted, it’s always sort of in the news, the saga always playing somewhere on cable at any given moment. But we’re about to get a new, pretty different cut of the trilogy’s semi-infamous threequel. And at some point in the future we’ll get to binge The Offer, a limited series for the forthcoming streamer Paramount+ that looks at its making. And as per The Hollywood Reporter, when it lands it will star no less than pretty boy Armie Hammer.

The Call Me By Your Name vet won’t be playing director Francis Ford Coppola, nor any of its legendary actors. Heck, he won’t even take on impersonation-friendly super-producer Robert Evans. He’s playing [drum roll] Albert S.. Ruddy. If you have no idea who that is, he was one of the big cheeses responsible for the first film existing at all — a producer whose credits include a number of Burt Reynolds vehicles, Million Dollar Baby, and, of course, The Godfather, though not the sequels. (He also tried to get Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged made into a movie, but, alas, his version failed.)

Ruddy’s experiences have, as per the press released, never been made public, and if you’ve read Robert Evans’ The Kid Stays in the Picture, you know there’s definitely more trashy intel about how the first Godfather came to be. Speaking of Coppola, how long will it be till someone gets around to a splashy behind-the-scenes on the far, far more chaotic making of Apocalypse Now, in which multiple key players suffering heart attacks aren’t even Top 10 events. In the meantime, you can see Hammer try to live up to Laurence Olivier in Netflix’s new remake of the Alfred Hitchcock Best Picture winner Rebecca.

(Via THR)

Nate Robinson getting knocked out by YouTuber Jake Paul on Saturday night on the undercard of a Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. exhibition fight became the story of the sports world over the weekend. That is somehow a real sentence and is kind of a perfect encapsulation of the strangeness of this year.

Robinson got knocked out cold by Paul in the second round of their fight, and while he ended up being OK, the way he dropped face first to the canvas was something you knew would lead to jokes and memes on the internet. Some of his fellow NBA colleagues even got in on the jokes, as they couldn’t help themselves, but also made sure to offer Nate some support and point out his resiliency, which Robinson offered appreciation for in his post-fight social media post.

Robinson’s rather disastrous boxing debut will always be something folks remember, but eventually the jokes and memes will go away. For now, though, people will continue to poke fun at the knockout and the jokes have made their way to TikTok where the Nate Robinson Challenge has arrived, with people laying face down on whatever surface they can in a number of different ways.

My personal favorite is the guy who goes full commitment collapsing onto the box in the first video. It’s all in good fun, and Robinson’s friends in the league have said he’s taking all of the jokes in stride, which is good to hear. The irony of all of this is you just know someone’s going to actually hurt themselves by overcommitting and faceplanting on the ground for this TikTok challenge, and, in turn, play themselves trying to make fun of Nate.