Month: March 2021

On Sunday, there wasn’t a Super Bowl game or a Golden Globes ceremony. But there was this: Oprah Winfrey scored the first big interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, aka the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, since they ditched the Royal Family to live in California, with the expectation that there would be much dirt about the British monarchy. There was a lot of heavy revelation. But there was one other major moment, at least according to social media: Their young son has a chicken coop called “Archie’s Chick Inn.”

Winfrey dropped in on the couple in their home in Montecito, near Santa Barbara. It looks like a lovely place, with big hills and an ocean nearby. And though they’ve mostly severed their ties with the Royal Family, they’re not doing bad on their own. Back in the fall they signed a deal with Netflix, for whom they’ll make films and TV.

But anyway, this chicken coop with the cute name. It looks like this.

And everyone fell in love with the charming pun.

And it made people even more protective of Prince Harry and Meghan than they were before.

But wait, there was another, even sillier pun. Markle talked about her life before meeting Prince Harry, even going back to her teenage years. In fact, her first job, when was 13, was working at a yogurt shop called — wait for — “Humphrey Yogurt.”

Yes, there were more important revelations. Markle didn’t know much about the ins and outs of the royal life before becoming one of them. She and Prince Harry were actually married three days before their lavish royal wedding. She didn’t feel they “protected: her enough. She felt “lonely.” Some royal family members even expressed concerns to Prince Harry, though not to her, about the potential darkness of their son Archie’s skin. There was a lot. Luckily there was also a much lighter side to things. And luckily that included some top shelf pun-ishment.

Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are in Atlanta, but aren’t at the All-Star Game at State Farm Arena after it was learned that their barber back in Philadelphia tested positive for COVID-19. As such, the two were removed from the game as a result of contact tracing and tonight’s games will be played with 11-man rosters as a result of them being late scratches — Embiid was a starter for Team Durant and Simmons was a reserve for Team LeBron, so the only shuffling needed was moving Zion Williamson into the starting lineup.

On Sunday night, Embiid was watching the game from his hotel room in Atlanta as he deals with quarantine rules, and as he watched the intros he couldn’t help but notice how many players came out with fresh haircuts, the thing that led to his removal from the rosters.

It’s a pretty funny observation from Embiid, and it’s not a surprise that he’d make jokes through this. The obvious hope is that he and Simmons continue to test negative over the next week, and for now it seems spirits are high at least with Embiid even with him being unable to play in Sunday’s All-Star Game. If nothing else, him watching the game live on Twitter will surely provide some funny running commentary.

After Domantas Sabonis took down Nikola Vucevic in an all-center Skills Challenge finals, the Mtn Dew Three-Point Contest took center stage on Sunday night, as the NBA’s best shooters took the floor in Atlanta to see who could pile up the most makes.

In the first round, three players stood well above the rest, as Boston’s Jayson Tatum set the early mark to beat at 25 with a strong opening round, including three moneyballs to close as he placed his moneyball rack at the end.

Mike Conley topped him with 28 as he looked to become the first lefty in competition history to win, as he put his moneyball rack at the top of the key and cleared it, going 5-for-5.

However, the prohibitive favorite in the competition was the last man up in the first round and Stephen Curry did not disappoint as he put up a record-setting 31, lighting it up from all over, including the long-distance Dew shot.

In the final round, Tatum struggled to just 17, but Conley went off for 27 once again as he applied plenty of pressure to Steph if he was to win his second Three-Point Contest trophy.

Curry started slow, hitting only the moneyball on his first rack, but he hit both of the Dew 3-point zone shots and, on the final rack, it came down to the moneyball for the win as he sat on 26 points. Naturally, he drilled it.

It was the early highlight of the night, as the Three-Point Contest has become the most consistently competitive and fun event on the All-Star Saturday slate each year — with the Dunk Contest being much more hit or miss. Sunday’s edition was no different and Curry walks away with a second Three-Point title in his career.

Conservatives have been a little distracted recently. First there was the controversy around Mr. Potato Head which turned out be BS. Then they came for the Dr. Seuss foundation, so angry that they pulled six of the writer’s books from circulation over racist content that they…bought a bunch of Dr. Seuss books, therefore making them even richer. So perhaps it was understandable that they’ve missed a recent New York Times column, which called out Pepé Le Pew, saying the Looney Tunes character “added to rape culture.” And now news has broken that the skunk has been yanked from the forthcoming sequel to Space Jam.

For the record, the two incidents appear to be unrelated. Deadline broke the news that Pepé was removed from the film a while back, namely when original director Terrence Nance left. His replacement, Malcolm D. Lee, removed a scene that put the character inside the classic film Casablanca. The scene found him as a bartender in a bar modeled after Rick’s Café Américain. As per Deadline, the scene found him hitting on a woman at the bar, played by Jane the Virgin’s Greice Santo. As per Deadline:

He begins kissing her arm, which she pulls back, then slamming Pepe into the chair next to hers. She then pours her drink on Pepe, and slaps him hard, sending him spinning in a stool, which is then stopped by LeBron James’ hand. James and Bugs Bunny are looking for Lola, and Pepe knows her whereabouts. Pepe then tells the guys that Penelope cat has filed a restraining order against him. James makes a remark in the script that Pepe can’t grab other Tunes without their consent.

But you’ll likely never see this scene because it was cut long ago. As for Pepé, he’s been back in the public eye of late, thanks to HBO Max, which bears a large number of classic Looney Tunes shorts. One of them, 1949’s For Scent-imental Reasons, won an Oscar for Best Animated Short, and it lays the template for almost all of his 18 Golden Era cartoons: Pepé relentlessly pursues a female animal — sometimes a cat — who does not return his affections, often forcing himself upon her.

The Times column aside, there has been no concerted attempt to “cancel” Mr. Le Pew, and you can still watch his shorts on HBO Max and the cartoon streamer Boomerang. And, of course, you can see him Space Jam.

(Via Deadline)

The first event of Sunday’s 2021 NBA All-Star festivities was the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, and this year with only All-Stars and HBCU alum Robert Covington participating, the field was cut to six and the two guards in the field — Chris Paul and Luka Doncic — earned first round byes.

That meant the big fellas had the stage to start, as Domantas Sabonis took on Julius Randle and Nikola Vucevic faced Covington in the opening round. Sabonis and Vucevic cruised to the second round by not missing anything — the pass, layup, or three-pointer — and the expectation from most was that the competition would get a bit stiffer in Round 2 with the guards getting their chance.

However, Sabonis torched Doncic, who didn’t exactly look to be dialed in as he stayed in sweats for the competition, as the Mavs star couldn’t get the pass to go in and Sabonis made his three before Doncic even got into the frame.

Vucevic then faced Chris Paul in a more competitive battle that saw both hit the pass but Paul blow the layup, giving Vucevic a brief lead. The two missed initial threes but the big man from Orlando was able to knock it down under CP3’s attempt to punch his ticket to the all-big man finals.

In the finals, it once again came down to the three-point shot, and after both missed badly on early efforts, Sabonis found the bottom of the net for the win.

Remember the Star Trek movies? The brand is doing just fine, at least on the TV end, with numerous new shows hanging out on Paramount Plus (née CBS All Access). But it’s going on five years since the last big screen effort, namely 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, which actually more like one of the original shows than its two predecessors (minus that explosive, Beastie Boys-backed climax, of course). Now it appears a new Trek movie is in the works…although it might not involve Chris Pine and crew.

As per Deadline, Kalinda Vazquez — a writer on Fear the Walking Dead, Prison Break, Roadmarks (alongside no less than George R.R. Martin), and Star Trek: Discovery — has been tasked with penning the screenplay, based on her own idea. Details are thin on the ground, though it’s said to be an “original” movie, which sounds a touch ambiguous. Will it recast Captain Kirk and team? Will it be about another ship cruising around the known universe, righting wrongs and getting into alien skirmishes? Who knows!

The last few years have seen numerous attempts to relaunch the film franchise, which J.J. Abrams brought back in 2009. (He’ll be handling this new one as well, having finished up work on those Star Wars movies.) Two sequels followed, but since Beyond — which was co-written by resident Scottie Simon Pegg — there’s been nada. Quentin Tarantino teased his own Trek film — an R-rated affair that could have wound up his final film. That seemed to fall apart, as did another version by Fargo’s Josh Hawley. Paramount has talked about taking the film wing in a new direction, so perhaps this is it.

(Via Deadline)

One of the major bummers of the last few seasons has been the status of Blake Griffin. The man who was once known for spectacular dunks had slowly formed himself into one of the most complete players in the NBA, while playing for the Detroit Pistons. Despite this, the Pistons were anywhere from mediocre to terrible while he was in Detroit so no one really got to appreciate Griffin playing some of the most skilled basketball of his career. Eventually, injuries took their toll and Griffin has just sadly not been the same.

With Griffin past his prime, and tired of playing for a team that is clearly in a rebuilding phase, the Pistons and agreed to a buyout, with the team waiving him so he could go sign with a contender. According to The Athletic, the Brooklyn Nets are on their way to bringing him in now that he’s cleared waivers. He’ll be playing alongside Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant. This will also pair him with former Los Angeles Clippers teammate Deandre Jordan.

Griffin might not be the same player he used to be, but this could be a spectacular addition to a Nets team already filled with All-Stars. In Detroit, Griffin became very accustomed to running the offense and the Nets play a style that lends itself to offensive creators. It would not be weird to see Griffin bring up the ball every once in a while and play pick and roll with Kevin Durant, or to be the screener for Harden.

The Nets themselves also gain yet another offensive piece without any real risk, or needing to unload any assets to do so. Brooklyn has one of the most efficient offenses in the NBA this season and it’s hard to not see Griffin making it even better, even in small doses.

NBA All-Star is always a big weekend for sneaker companies, as they launch new colorways for their stars to honor their appearance in the midseason festivities. This year, there is obviously a different feel to the proceedings, as a number of players have voiced concern with having the game and, on Sunday, we learned the Sixers two All-Stars, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, will both miss the game due to contact tracing from a barber in Philly.

The other 22 players are set to play in this evening’s game and competitions, along with the four additional players participating in the Skills Competition and Dunk Contest, and many of them are breaking out some special kicks for the night.

Stephen Curry will wear a “Wish Flow” colorway of his signature sneaker, with Under Armour and Foot Locker donating $1,000 for each point he scores to Good Sports, Inc.

Damian Lillard broke out a new “Rose City” colorway of his Dame 7s for the All-Star Game.

Kawhi Leonard has a bright pair of his New Balance signature for the occasion, while teammate Paul George has a bright green edition of his PG5.

The Nike crew of George, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving each have a special All-Star colorway of their signature lines releasing for the weekend.

A closer look at the Nets duo of Kyrie and James Harden’s kicks for the evening.

Chris Paul will wear a colorway of his signature sneaker honoring HBCUs on Sunday, as he’s been among those spearheading efforts to have this year’s game benefit HBCUs, among other initiatives he’s been a part of in the last few years.

Jaylen Brown will wear some T-Macs for his All-Star debut.

Donovan Mitchell has a bright colorway of his D.O.N. Issue 2 cued up.

Bradley Beal, Luka Doncic, Mike Conley, and Obi Topping will have special Jordan 35s on Sunday.

Julius Randle and Domantas Sabonis will wear the All-Star Kobe 6 Protro for the game.

The Blazers duo competing in the Skills Competition and Dunk Contest both broke out the Nike Cosmic Unity’s for the events.

Nikola Vucevic will wear some Kyrie 7s for his second All-Star appearance.

Morgan Wallen’s chart dominance has entered its second month, as his album Danergous has yet again maintained its position at No. 1 this week. The singer shared his sophomore effort at the beginning of the year and it quickly broke records on the Billboard 200. Dangerous tallied biggest streaming week in country music history, with 240 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs. This kicked off a lengthy streak of chart-topping weeks that continued despite a racial slur controversy that resulted in his record label contract being suspended. Despite that, Wallen’s album has continued to sell big, now entering its eighth week atop to the charts.

The feat makes Wallen one of five country artists to land eight or more total weeks at No. 1, while he remains the only country artist to spend their first eight weeks atop the charts. The singer extended his streak thanks to 82,000 units sold on the chart dated March 13. The number is backed by 75,000 streaming equivalent album units and 6,000 pure album sales. Wallen is currently tied with Eagles’ Hotel California and Garth Brooks’ The Hits for the fourth-most weeks at No. 1 for a country album. Dangerous has also also tied Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, Folklore, for the second-most weeks at No. 1 in the last five years. Drake’s Views has the most thanks to thirteen non-consecutive weeks in 2016.

This week marks a year since much of the nation went into lockdown, in an attempt to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of people have been marking the occasion in one way or another. Some are piling on an old Elon Musk tweet, in which the moneyed entrepreneur predicted it wouldn’t be that bad. (Whoops.) Meanwhile, one of the first public figures to test positive — Rita Wilson, along with her husband Tom Hanks — took to Instagram to note the first anniversary of when she thinks she caught it.

“One year ago today I was playing the Sydney Opera House @sydneyoperahouse , the next day started feeling very tired and achy, two days later hospitalized with Covid 19,” the actress wrote in the caption. She then thanked the medical team that helped her and Hanks while they were in Australia, as well as musicians she’s been listening to. “Music has been very healing this year. So thankful for that, too.”

When the two revealed that they tested positive, Hanks was set to appear in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic about Elvis Presley, playing his manager Colonel Tom Parker. That, of course, never happened. Hanks and Wilson were treated, went into quarantine, and eventually came back to their home in Los Angeles. Hanks later revealed that Wilson had it much rougher than he did, although his was no walk in the park either. Hopefully by this time next year we’ll all be in a much, much better place.

(Via Deadline)