Month: March 2021

During his presidency, Donald Trump did very little to stop the coronavirus pandemic. He almost never wore a mask. He said nothing as virtually everyone in the White House, including himself, contracted the highly contagious disease. And now, over a year since much of the nation went into lockdown, and while millions of Americans are finally being vaccinated, COVID-19 has come for the former president’s new home.

As per AP News, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, has had to partially close after staff members tested positive for the virus. It’s not been revealed how many contracted it, but it was enough to shutter part of the massive oceanside resort, as one employee put it, “out of an abundance of caution.”

An email was reportedly sent to members, breaking the bad news, which said that the “health and safety of our members and staff is our highest priority.”

During his tenure as president, Trump called Mar-a-Lago the “Southern White House,” and even at the height of the pandemic he was throwing lavish, packed, largely maskless parties. This isn’t even the first outbreak, but it does come as the disease appears to be on the wane, thanks largely to the greatly ramped up vaccination process. Here’s hoping the infected Mar-a-Lago employees have a quick and painless recovery.

(Via AP)

Following Ohio State’s upset loss at the hands of Oral Roberts in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, the university reported a serious of death threats received by standout frontcourt player E.J. Liddell. In a post on his Twitter account early on Saturday morning, Liddell showed a pair of Instagram message he received that featured a number of disparaging remarks from anonymous accounts. You can view them here.

“Comments don’t get to me but I just wanna know why,” Liddell tweeted. “I’ve never done anything to anyone in my life to be approached like this.”

According to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf, the university has reached out to police to investigate the messages sent to Liddell, who had 23 points and 14 rebounds in Friday’s game. Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann released a statement in support of his Liddell, saying “These comments, while not from or representative of Ohio State fans, are vile, dangerous and reflect the worst of humanity. EJ is an outstanding young man who had a tremendous sophomore season and he was instrumental in our team’s success. We will take the necessary actions here at the University to address this immediately.” Liddell also received support from former Buckeye standout Jared Sullinger.

Ohio State were the runners-up in the Big Ten Tournament this season, finishing the year with a 21-10 record. Liddell, a sophomore, was second on the team in scoring and tops in rebounding with 16.2 points and 6.7 rebounds in 29.4 minutes per game.

Everything’s coming up Eastern Conference lately in the NBA, as the Bucks reinforced their small ball bona fides, Brooklyn is rolling with MVP candidate James Harden, and the Sixers are staying afloat while getting some good news with Joel Embiid’s knee. On the opposite coast, the top four seeds in the West are all sputtering a bit as attention turns toward the trade deadline.

Without a clear favorite and uncertainty on every team, the stretch run of this NBA season is shaping up to be a blast.

Here’s who’s up and who’s down this week in the league:

Stock Up: Anthony Edwards Jr.

On Thursday night against the Suns, Edwards set a career high with 42 points, and he’s scored 19 or more in nine straight. The No. 1 overall pick is a blast to watch. But he’s also getting better in real time.

In the tilt with Phoenix, the game plan against Edwards was to have Suns forward Mikal Bridges go over every screen, forcing Edwards to drive. That’s because going into the game, he was shooting just 53 percent at the rim, putting him among the bottom 20 percent of NBA guards, per Cleaning the Glass. The decision backfired because Edwards adjusted in-game, accepting the Suns’ dare and going right at the rim.

More impressively, Edwards got his off the ball as well. The remarkable part of this game was that despite Edwards’ reputation for chucking (well-earned, to be fair), he had a nice rhythm with Karl-Anthony Towns in crunch time. Minnesota put the ball in Towns’ hands late, and Edwards still found a way to score. The rookie timed his cuts well and finished plays smoothly.

When it was all said and done, Edwards had nine points in the final period on 3-for-5 shooting from the field, plus two assists of his own.

This wasn’t just a kid getting hot. He displayed the poise and improving IQ that could make him a truly special player, and a better perimeter partner than Towns has had since Jimmy Butler.

Stock Down: The Clippers’ late-game offense

News broke this week via Marc Stein of the New York Times that the Clippers, who have long wanted a point guard to stabilize their offense, are targeting Lonzo Ball. While it’s an open question whether Ball, who is more of a secondary play-maker and shooter than a traditional table-setter, will be a good fit in Los Angeles, they sure need something.

Take a look at how the end of the second game between the Clippers and Dallas played out this week. In the fourth quarter, Luka Doncic was at his absolute best, using the threat of his suddenly wet pull-up jumper to open up the offense and create for his teammates.

With the game winding down and the Mavs up 13, Dallas ran a high screen and roll between Doncic and Tim Hardaway Jr., with Hardaway slipping the screen and Kristaps Porzingis spacing the floor at the top of the arc. Doncic got around his defender, drew four defenders (!) and found a cutting Maxi Kleber for a pretty alley-oop. In response, the Clippers ran… this:

Maybe the best thing about a possible Ball acquisition is that it would help the Clippers not have to rely on Williams late in games, but that’s not the whole issue. The game is still within reach here, and the Clippers are lethargic, walking the ball up the court, running a lazy pick and roll for Williams and Kawhi Leonard, then tossing up a fadeaway mid-range jumper with 10 seconds on the shot clock.

Squeezing one play out of a game is somewhat unfair, and while the Clippers did beat Dallas in part one of their back to back, they are 13-12 since winning 13 of their first 17 games. Their offense is middle of the pack over the past two weeks. Something needs to be fixed.

Stock Up: Milwaukee’s small ball upside

The Bucks made the first move in the NBA arms race this week when they traded for P.J. Tucker. The big question here is whether Tucker, going on 36 years old, can rediscover his peak 3-and-D form on a Bucks team where he will get to play a clearly defined role and play off superstars again.

Predicting where Tucker is physically or mentally would be impossible, but the reason for optimism here is because of the way Milwaukee has changed its team this season. They are finally playing small with Giannis Antetokounmpo at center, switching more on defense, and putting the ball in the hands of perimeter creators Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday more often. All that means Tucker’s skill set should shine.

As a key role player for Harden’s the past several seasons, Tucker was money from the corner and among the toughest inside bullies in the NBA:

With a pterodactyl like Giannis protecting the rim and elite creators setting him up for threes, there’s no reason Tucker shouldn’t have a bounce-back second half. His game is predicated upon strength, reading the floor at a high level, and being a high-level competitor and communicator. When he’s on the floor with Giannis and Holiday instead of Mason Jones and Eric Gordon, life should be easier.

If it pans out, the Tucker addition and the versatility it provides Milwaukee could be a real difference in the title picture. They can now match Brooklyn with Jeff Green at the 5 or the Lakers with Anthony Davis at the 5. And because they still have Brook Lopez, they manufactured more flexibility without giving up the ability to match Joel Embiid’s size down low.

Stock Down: Highly-paid NBA veterans

As LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Drummond, and Blake Griffin hit the chopping block and players like Al Horford and Kevin Love are expected to stay in place at the trade deadline, the NBA’s salary structure is making headlines once again. Players who took either advantage of the extra money they could make by staying with their team (Griffin, Drummond and Love), cashed in after a long, successful career (Horford), or avoided the controversy of a trade demand (Aldridge) are being punished because of how much money they make.

In their own ways, each of these players basically did things “right,” never asking out of a situation. Each took a long-term contract with their team rather than maxing out their earnings and leverage with shorter deals. Now, with each in their 30s, they are NBA undesirables.

There’s not an easy fix, but this is a byproduct of NBA rules that incentivize incumbent teams signing players to the highest possible salaries. Does Horford stay in Philadelphia if the Sixers don’t have to overpay Tobias Harris? Does Love sacrifice some cash if the Cavaliers are honest with their intention to rebuild? Every veteran is expected to go to a winning situation and not make noise, but the NBA is showing us that teams rarely if ever reward players who do so.

The positive side of this is that we will see Griffin in a winning situation with the Nets and Aldridge and Drummond should find one, too. In the not too distant future, the same could happen with Love and Horford as they got closer to being expiring contracts. But in the meantime, these five and others are wasting their days with franchises who’ve proven they’re not loyal to players, in a league that is making it hard for them to make money and win at the same time.

Jimmy Fallon tries his best to steer clear of politics, but ironically that’s what gets him in trouble. The late night host’s most memorable moment may be one that’s far from flattering: The time he playfully scruffed then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s hair, widely seen as something that normalize him for the general public. And on Friday, when John Oliver tried to sneak some anti-Amazon jokes into what was supposed to be a lighthearted Tonight Show segment, he clumsily tried to shut it down.

Fallon invited the Last Week Tonight host to play a simple game: “Hey Robot,” in which they take turns trying to get an Amazon Alexa, the company’s AI assistant, to say certain words. Fallon kept it light. St. Patrick’s Day had just come and gone, so they tried — and failed — to get it to say “leprechaun.” Fallon successfully got it to say “Liverpool.” But eventually Oliver — who absolutely does not try to steer clear of politics — broke the rules and started to ask it more pointed questions.

“Speak from your heart, Alexa. Your rotten heart,” Oliver said, then asked it, “How bad are Amazon working conditions?” Fallon, who was mid-giggle, tried to shush Alexa before it responded, but Oliver went even further into the brink, asking, “Alexa, what is union-busting?” Fallon then tried to compose himself, begging Alexa not to answer a question it probably wouldn’t anyway.

Oliver has long been critical of Amazon, who have come under fire for deplorable working conditions in their warehouses and for trying to destroy any attempts to form workers’ unions. Indeed, Oliver’s savage jokes earned praise from Athena, a coalition dedicated to calling out Amazon’s abuses.

They also pointed out that Oliver, when saying goodbye in the following segment, seemed to be a little pissed that Fallon shut down what could have been a hilariously prickly bit.

So there you go. Of course, what would one expect from asking a comic who’s better at journalism than many journalists to play a dumb game involving an Amazon gizmo?

You can watch the full segment above.

(Via Vice)

Last month, Nicki Minaj received news that her father was tragically struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident. Robert Maraj was walking at the intersection of Roslyn Rd. and Raff Ave. in Mineola, New York when a white Volvo driven by 70-year-old Charles Polevich hit him. Polevich fled the scene but was arrested a few days later. More than a month after the incident, Robert’s wife has filed a $150 million lawsuit against the 70-year-old.

According to TMZ, the lawsuit was filed by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and New York-based attorney Paul Napoli. In a tweet, Crump said that Polevich was “not only irresponsible & negligent in hitting Maraj, but was more concerned about running away and hiding than seeking help.” He added, “Polevich’s behavior was criminal, cowardly, and immoral. We will hold him responsible for his reckless actions that led to Robert Maraj’s death!”

Polevich turned himself into Long Island police just days after the hit-and-run incident. According to the cops, after he struck Maraj, he “then exited his vehicle stood over the victim asked him if ‘he was ok,’ walked and returned to his vehicle and fled the scene.” He then drove home while “avoiding intersections and did conceal his vehicle in the detached garage at his residence.”

Upon his arrest, Polevich was charged with two felonies: leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with or suppressing physical evidence. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was freed on a $250,000 bond. Polevich was also ordered to surrender his passport in order to stay in New York state.

On Friday, Mrs. Doubtfire went viral. One of those movie trivia accounts tweeted out info from a 2015 interview with director Chris Columbus, who said his movie — in which Robin Williams plays a divorced dad who poses as an older English nanny so he can spend more time with his kids — had many different cuts, including one that was R, even one that was NC-17. It was the latter bit that caught people’s attention.

What could they have filmed that would have drawn the ire of the MPAA, the group that gives movies ratings? Alas, it was not to be. Entertainment Weekly reached out to Columbus, and while he said Williams, a famous ad-libber, definitely went blue in unused takes, he did not go the modern equivalent of an X.

“The reality is that there was a deal between Robin and myself, which was, he’ll do one or two, three scripted takes,” Columbus said. “And then he would say, ‘Then let me play.’ And we would basically go on anywhere between 15 to 22 takes, I think 22 being the most I remember.”

Williams would definitely go well beyond a family-friendly rating. “He would sometimes go into territory that wouldn’t be appropriate for a PG-13 movie, but certainly appropriate and hilariously funny for an R-rated film,” he said. “I only [previously] used the phrase NC-17 as a joke. There could be no NC-17 version of the movie.”

But will you ever see the R-rated Mrs. Doubtfire? Maybe, sort of. “I would be open to maybe doing a documentary about the making of the film, and enabling people to see certain scenes re-edited in an R-rated version,” Columbus explained. “The problem is, I don’t recall most of it. I only know what’s in the movie at this point because it’s been a long time. But I do remember it was outrageously funny material.”

For now, you’re stuck with the original Mrs. Doubtfire, which is at least a semi-spicy PG-13, not a kiddie-only PG. Or you could watch the Mrs. Featherbottom stretch of Arrested Development.

(Via EW)

With just one album and an EP under their belts, Greta Van Fleet have already made a major impact. Now with a Grammy Award added to their list of accolades, the rock revivalists have been teasing their next full-length release with a handful of singles. This week, they’ve returned to forge their own path with the electrifying track “Broken Bells.”

The main theme of the new single, according to band member Sam Kiszka, is societal expectations. “’Broken Bells’ is what the fetter of society does to impact a pure and innocent soul. Our intention is to remove the obligation of generational synthetic expectations; break down these walls and not build new ones,” Kiszka said.

Echoing Sam’s statement, vocalist vocalist Josh Kiszka continued to say that the group grew a lot during the album writing process. “There was a lot of self-evolution happening during the writing of this album that was prompted by experiences I had, experiences we all had,” he said. “Certainly after this, we’ve grown in so many ways. This album has taught us a lot, about life in general, about ourselves, about all of us, about the world we live in.”

Listen to “Broken Bells” above.

The Battle At Garden’s Gate is out 4/16 via Lava/Republic. Pre-order it here.

Australian songwriter Julia Stone first made a name for herself by releasing duets with her brother Angus back in the 2010’s. Stone later pivoted to her solo career with two albums, her latest being the 2012 release By The Horns. Now, nine years later, Julia Stone is gearing up for her third LP. The singer shared the powerful track “Fire In Me” Friday, while also announcing her upcoming album Sixty Summers.

The project, which was sporadically recorded between 2015 and 2019, sees Stone’s music venturing into new, moonlit pop territory. “Fire In Me” illustrates this shift, coupling striking lyrics with pounding instrumentation. Of the song, Stone says: “For me, ‘Fire In Me’ was about creating a feeling of pure energy. I love the feeling when the music sounds like what the lyrics mean.”

“Fire In Me” follows a handful of singles Stone has released to preview Sixty Summers, which was co-produced by Annie Clark of St. Vincent. She previously shared her Matt Berninger-featuring single “We All Have,” which was a delicate reflection on self worth and mental health. Before that, Stone debuted the tracks “Break” and “Dance.”

Listen to “Fire In Me” above and find Stone’s Sixty Summers tracklist below.

1. “Break”
2. “Sixty Summers”
3. “We All Have” (feat. Matt Berninger)
4. “Substance”
5. “Dance”
6. “Free”
7. “Who”
8. “Fire In Me”
9. “Easy”
10. “Queen”
11. “Heron”
12. “Unreal”
13. “I Am No One”
14. “Dance” (French Version)

Sixty Summers is out 4/30. Pre-order it here.

The NBA has seen its fair share of great passers over the years. When you think of legendary assist men, there are a few names that immediately come to mind: Pistol Pete Maravich, Magic Johnson, Jason Williams, LeBron James, John Stockton, Steve Nash, and so on and so forth.

They all have a few things in common: The ability to see the court in a way others simply can’t, a knack for anticipating what’s going to happen two or three seconds before they do, and the ice-cold self-confidence to try something out that most players would never dream of.

Now, we can safely add Luka Doncic to the list of all-time great passing wizards after this unbelievable assist against the Blazers on Friday night. Go ahead and take a moment. You may need to play it back a few times before you can fully process what actually happened here.

LUKAVISION pic.twitter.com/MIoOxj7NR2

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) March 20, 2021

After weaving his way into the lane against Robert Covington, Luka appeared to raise up for a contested mid-range jumper, but in a split second while he was still aloft, effortlessly flipped a pass backward over his head to a waiting Tim Hardaway Jr., who knocked down the open three.

It’s not a stretch to say this might be the best pass of his young career, which has already been filled with highlight-reel of unbelievable assists. On a night when the NBA was set to be overshadowed by the NCAA Tournament, Luka reminded us what the next level looks like.

Addison Rae first rose to fame when the dancing videos she posted on TikTok in 2019 began to take off. Now, the 20-year-old boasts 78 million followers on the platform and was named the highest-earning TikTok star of 2020 by Forbes. While she continues to post TikToks and tend to her new makeup brand, Rae is now pivoting to focus on her music career with her debut single, “Obsessed.”

Rae’s buoyant track “Obsessed” arrived alongside a heavily choreographed video Friday. The song itself is a fluttering affirmation of self worth, with Rae singing about how she’s as obsessed with herself as her crush. “You say you’re obsessed with me / So I took a second / And I said, ‘Me too,’” she sings.

Speaking about her pivot from dancing to singing in an interview with Rolling Stone, Addison Rae said:

“I was always just overly interested in it, and I didn’t know why. I knew I was a dancer, I knew I loved to dance to music, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with music. Going through high school and college, I always wanted to branch out and start singing and expressing that whole love for music in a different way. […] I think now it’s about exploring that and fully submerging myself in that art. I fully want to give myself every chance to be a part of it, understand it, and really appreciate the art of it. It’s been what I’ve eaten, slept, and breathed for the last year.”

Watch Addison Rae’s “Obsessed” video above.