I don’t know what won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 2015, but it should have gone to “Literally Just 17 Pictures Of Christopher Meloni’s Butt.” I like an article that lives up to its title: it’s literally just 17 pictures of Christopher Meloni’s butt. That’s journalism, folks.
The Law & Order star’s caboose went viral again this week after Spectrum news writer Peter Hess tweeted, “SVU is filming in park slope this week and someone in the neighborhood facebook group posted this photo of chris meloni,” along with this internet-breaking photo. Not to be cheeky, but I hope Meloni registered those weapons.
“How do you think they make that donk-donk sound in each episode” went one reply, while Hess added, “Law and Ardor: Special Thicctims Unit.” But it’s Meloni himself who had the best response to his juicy hams taking over Twitter. After being asked if “you wanna explain why you have so much cake???” (there was also a fitting Patrick Star GIF), the actor wrote back, “Sure- big birthday (60), big boy (200 lbs), big cake.”
The most surprising thing about all this isn’t that Meloni has a listicle-worthy butt or that he’s good at Twitter, it’s that he’s 60 years old! All that sweater fondling is really paying off.
“Ughhh OLIVIA, I’m trying to catch these predators but I’m dummy thicc and the clap of my ass cheeks keeps alerting the perps”
In less than 24 hours, Taylor Swift’s new album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) will be out in the world. Before that, though, Swift has shared one more preview of it. Furthermore, she also got Olivia Rodrigo and Conan Gray to help her tease some additional snippets from the album.
Swift debuted a snippet of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” on Good Morning America today, saying, “Good morning, America, it’s Taylor. I just wanted to say, first of all, you guys have been so supportive at Good Morning America since Day 1 of this entire process of me re-recording my music. I’m so ecstatic that my album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) will be out tonight. It’s crazy that it’s finally here. I wanted to give you guys, as a thank you, an exclusive first glimpse of one of the songs on the album, the title track ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version).’”
Rodrigo and Gray also got together to share a pair of videos teasing some other Fearless (Taylor’s Version) songs. The pair filmed a parody of Swift’s classic “You Belong With Me” video, scored by the re-recorded version, and posted it on Gray’s TikTok. For Rodrigo’s Instagram, they recorded a similarly spirited skit to tease the new version of “White Horse.”
Thanks to Donald Trump issuing an unusually restrained defense of Matt Gaetz, a very amused Jimmy Kimmel went to town on the growing scandal that now includes reports of Gaetz asking for a preemptive pardon in the final days of the prior administration. During his Wednesday night monologue, Kimmel couldn’t help but point out the ridiculousness of Gaetz asking for a blanket pardon months before news of his alleged sex trafficking came to light.
“That’s not suspicious. You know you haven’t done anything wrong when you check in with the president to ask for a pardon, in case you happen to get accused of a sex crime somewhere down the line. That’s not abnormal,” Kimmel joked.
According to a spokesman for Gaetz, the congressman claims he wasn’t asking for a pardon for just himself, but also for other people close to the Trump administration (to even Joe Exotic). “Right, that makes sense,” Kimmel quipped before moving on Trump’s statement defending Gaetz. The two-sentence statement was surprisingly short, but as Kimmel notes, that was only because the former president’s advisors stepped in. The late-night host also managed to dunk on Don Jr. and Eric Trump in the process.
“I guess that was the best Trump could do for Gaetz now that he doesn’t have Twitter anymore,” Kimmel said. “His advisers, according to Maggie Haberman of the Times, reportedly talked him out of a full-throated defense of Gaetz, which is sad because Matt Gaetz really was the son Donald Trump never had even though he had a couple.”
Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter finally got some much-anticipated screentime in Episode 3 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. She’s scrappier now, which is understandable, not only because Sharon became a fugitive to help Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, and Bucky Barnes during Captain America: Civil War, but she didn’t get much tangible benefit in return. Arguably, she even got the shaft because the dudes took their gear and went on to spar with Tony Stark’s side of the beef during that film. And what did Sharon get? She got a kiss, which led to some “backlash” because it seemed icky for Steve and Sharon to kiss when he was in love with her great aunt.
VanCamp addressed the fuss earlier this week while telling Variety that “Some of these storylines play and some of them don’t.” Well, VanCamp is still fielding questions about that kiss, and while speaking to The Wrap, she reminded fans that there’s a significant detail about that kiss that shines some light on the issue:
“I think it’s important to point out, and I just literally thought about this talking about it all day, is he kissed her. I don’t think I’ve ever said that. But that is important to note.”
She’s not wrong. Let’s look at the clip in question.
Steve definitely made the first move. Yes, Sharon did kiss him back, but yeah, he did it first! And I still would really like to know if Steve ‘fessed up to Peggy about this when he went time traveling (to spend decades with her) at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Surely, the subject came up, right? Maybe we’ll see it addressed in an episode of Marvel’s What If…?, an animated series that explores alternate realities and should arrive sometime in 2021. Even though that show won’t be canon, I’d enjoy any (fun) elaboration from Marvel Studios at all.
VanCamp added to the Wrap that she doesn’t believe Sharon is angry at Steve. Rather, “I think it’s more anger at the establishment and the government.” Totally fair.
The necessary, if at times cruel, trick to success this season has shown to be a balance between resiliency and depth. For players, that’s been in staying versatile and stepping into new or additional roles when needed. For teams, it’s been plugging in that player versatility to create depth, especially in stretches where a roster has been temporarily thinned by positive testing or tracing for COVID-19. The Hawks, hit with player injuries and a head coach shuffle midseason, have harnessed both for a quiet propulsion that’s lifted them to a position of vying for a top-4 spot in the East, and a vital part of that engine has been third year guard, Kevin Huerter.
Huerter, 6’7” with reliably quick but unhurried shot, is a watchful player. In his two and a half seasons with the Hawks, Huerter has shifted regularly and fluidly between roles, developing his own overall versatility as much as he is helping to shape a young team working toward what its fixed identity could be. Huerter has said he enjoys not being pigeon holed into a specific role on court, a characteristic his former coaches attribute to his cerebral approach to the game. For Huerter, that analytical approach developed in learning from his dad, current AAU coach Tom Huerter, as much as it did out of early necessity.
“I think the first time I played for my own age group was when I was a senior in high school. That was the first time I started playing against kids my age,” Huerter says over the phone between games during the Hawks’ recent west coast road trip, “Growing up, I was always playing against guys bigger, stronger than me, older than me by multiple years. And so my advantage on the court was my mind, it wasn’t my athleticism or physicality at that point, it was just shooting the three and then just being smarter, and trying to find guys as a point guard.”
Primarily playing as point guard in those formative years gave Huerter the kind of birds-eye view of the game that shooting guards aren’t typically tasked with. It’s that same wide lens perspective that’s helped Huerter in what’s been his biggest jump in development this season — getting comfortable playing a much more physical game.
Earlier this year, former Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce urged Huerter to balance out his length, intelligence and positioning with physicality. With De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic out for much of the early season, Huerter was tasked with guarding Bradley Beal and James Harden back to back at the end of January. Two tough defensive assignments under optimal conditions, let alone with a thin roster behind him, but Huerter held Beal to 26 points, his lowest scoring performance up to that point, and was able to pressure deflections from the perennially cool-headed Harden.
Some of Huerter’s improved in-game physicality comes from a shift in his diet this season, he’s cut gluten and fried foods completely, and from tapping into his natural vigilance and narrowing that scope on a hapless mark. But much more of it has come from study. Specifically, game tape — hours of it.
While the act of watching tape might be considered passive, the application of it is painstakingly physical. A millimeter tweak of an elbow here, the pivot of a foot there, the process of taking what are essentially split-second mistakes and adjusting them real time as the habits of your brain and body try and override you at every turn.
“It takes time,” Nate Babcock, special assistant for the Hawks says over the phone, “Because sometimes these movements aren’t natural to them, or something that doesn’t come naturally to them, they need to physically feel it. Sometimes they need to actually visually watch themselves do it. Kevin luckily doesn’t have a lot of bad habits. But he has some, and trying to re-break those down and build them back up again, it takes a little time.”
Getty Image
Time’s one thing Huerter’s had, even through an inconsistent last two seasons. Sidelined on and off with injuries in 2019-2020 (a left shoulder injury from a rotator cuff strain in November 2019, nagging right knee pain, an ankle sprain and groin soreness) Huerter didn’t get enough runway for his second NBA season to take off before the pandemic grounded the Hawks for good. With the recent changes to his diet Huerter notes he’s felt “explosive” on court and his ability to adapt has been a boon to his teammates, many recovering from the “injury bug” as Huerter calls it, where he’s stepped in and adjusted his role depending on what’s needed.
Sometimes what’s needed is the meticulously close study of himself on film, breaking it down “frame by frame,” as Babcock says, to show where he’s going right and where corrections are needed. Applying that film study in practice can go just as slow and is contingent on schedule, as they’re always trying to strike a balance between necessary rest during the season and putting in the extra work to make improvements.
“You gotta look at the schedule and figure out the windows of when you’re just lost in the moment, and then you take a breath and take a step back and assess where you are,” Babcock says of tacking an individual player’s progress to the team’s regimen. “In the middle of the season, it’s just so easy to get lost in the game. He might have 30 minutes the night before and then he’s going to play again the next night. Sometimes it’s just getting some quality feel of, ‘Kevin sit down, put your hips back, lift your leg over that screen’, and just feeling out the actual movements.
“You start slow so they can feel it, and then you speed it up, and then you put it into more dynamic setting, and that’s kind of how learning goes,” Babcock says, “But if you just kind of jump right into it without, you know, re-ingraining that habit, he’ll just go right back to his old habits, so you have to ingrain them a little bit, whether that’s mentally or physically before you go out there on court and do it.”
Aside from time, the process of breaking habits and making new ones also varies depending on the player. Babcock, who worked previously with the Nets, mentions Joe Harris as an example of a talented player with a streamlined role — shooting and cutting without much dribbling — who wouldn’t have the number of adjustments to make to his game as a player like Huerter, working to enhance his physical skillset, would.
“He has so many aspects of his game,” Babcock says, “So, as one gets better, you know, the other area might still be catching up while another one is still behind. Once Kevin’s getting all those areas to sync together, he’s just scratching the surface right now. So as he gets better in all these areas his improvement is going to grow exponentially. I forget sometimes he’s just 22 I have to remind myself of that because he’ll go through a stint where he’s not shooting the ball great and you got to remind him it’s not the end of the world and this is a five game window, and guess what? You’re gonna take a thousand threes in your career. Thousands of them. You can’t get focused on the one bad game, one bad week. I think he’s very good at doing that. Sometimes he needs a kick in the butt, and sometimes I do myself.”
On a team as young as the Hawks, who in 2020 had 75 percent of their minutes played by players with 3 years or fewer as professionals, energy and expectation don’t always align. Though the team is building toward both a fixed identity and the necessary sustainability it takes to last in the postseason, the Hawks are simmering in a sense of urgency. A kind of why wait energy, sparked by what’s been a solidly winning season despite their setbacks, that spirals off of them like bottle rockets whenever they hit the floor.
Control, then, becomes another thing to practice.
“A big thing that us and our coaches, that we talk about, especially my individual film, is you gotta be really efficient in your movements. And so that’s physicality, it’s also learning where to be physical, where you can’t be physical, using the right angles basketball-wise,” Huerter says.
It’s in recalling these precise windows of efficiency that Huerter lights up, especially when describing the ways exacting physicality has been used against him.
“Like, [Nikola] Jokic is so good in his angles and his post-ups that he’s not physical initially, but he finds the angle then he’s physical within the angle,” Huerter explains, voice bright. “So it’s almost like he puts you in jail where you can’t recover and make certain you know, offensive or defensive plays. There’s so many guys in the NBA that are so good in small spaces just cause they know the right angles to work with, they know the right footwork, and a lot of that is literally from film watching and watching different guys.”
Getty Image
Bradley Beal and Gordon Hayward are among those Huerter has studied on film and tried to pull from after seeing up close in on-court matchups. Even for Huerter, whose natural watchfulness and tendency toward a point guard’s mapping of the game, the process of studying oneself in film and putting the takeaways to work on the floor starts off abstractly. When Huerter ties up Gordon Hayward under the basket or meets Jokic right against the glass, it represents the collision, sometimes literally, of habits being broken. So, when does it click?
“It’s funny, I feel like [it’s] in the moments where you feel like you could have had a better movement,” Huerter says. “There’s a lot of times that if I’m in a game and there’s stuff that we’ve worked on, there’s something that I saw on film and I don’t apply it, it’s almost like in the moment we look at each other [and] it’s the realization that, man, we watched that.”
Babcock, chuckling post-practice from a parking lot in Phoenix when I tell him many of Huerter’s moments of realization involve him, enjoys the same moments from his mirrored perspective courtside because it means the work is paying off. Especially for Huerter, for whom the majority of opportunities are going to come where he can create them, as the Hawks’ focus at either end of the floor inevitably pulled into the dominating orbit of their star, Trae Young.
“Part of his development is learning how to play off [him], because defenses are so focused on Trae,” Babcock says, noting what they refer to as “Trae’s window”— the glancing peripheral spot where Young can see one of his teammates being left open as defenses swarm him. “We just watched a clip on like, you got the shake-up behind the pick and roll, but then there’s Trae gnashing underneath the basket, you got to sprint back to the corner and you’re going to get a wide-open three. And he literally missed sprinting back to the corner and he realized it and he immediately just looked at me and raised his hand. I was like well, at least you picked up on that,” he laughs, “Hopefully that means you’ll do it next time.”
The development Huerter has done this season has been under pressure, and Babcock is quick to note that Huerter’s development is all about the work the third-year guard is putting in. “It has nothing to to do with me, it’s a testament to the kid and how he’s so able to soak in information and pick it up on the fly.”
Between team injuries and illness, the disruption of losing Lloyd Pierce midseason and Nate McMillan taking over, and roster adjustments at the trade deadline, one of the few steady things has been his playing consistently. But it’s that kind of growth, tempered in real-time, that tends to be the most long lasting.
Asked how he wants to contribute to a team with plenty of room and energy to figure out what it is, and Huerter says it’s doing a little bit of everything.
“It’s kind of being that Swiss army knife,” he says, “Coach McMillan trusts me in a lot of different areas of the game and just trying to be available. That’s the best thing you can be as a teammate is available. Be healthy, be on the court, be willing to do different things that can generate success and I think that’s kind of been my mindset all year and will continue to be moving forward.”
Huerter gives the Hawks DIY depth. He’s a deductive defender who exploits his unassuming stealth (he’s leading the team with 60 steals this season) as much as his confidence, pulling down as many as 10 rebounds a game. As a guard who can go one through three fluidly, he helps the Hawks stay small without getting run over by a league rife with larger and stronger teams, freeing Young to shoot and stay ball dominant as he wants to be without regressing in his own game for lack of touches.
Huerter is clear on his goals, longterm and short: becoming a starting two guard in the NBA and the Hawks making the playoffs, respectively. What’s undeniable is that his road toward the former is on a straight shot through the latter. His play has been tailored precisely to the needs and mood of what might have seemed like a mercurial team at the start of this season, but now, has proven to be a resilient group with a wellspring of energy and touch of audacity. Exactly the components needed to flourish in a postseason bound to be as unpredictable as this one.
Last summer, Logic released No Pressure, which ended up being his final album before he announced his retirement from music and his pivot to streaming on Twitch. Now, though, the (former?) rapper suggests that he might make a return to music on a short new song he shared yesterday, “Tired In Malibu.”
The song runs for just a minute, and after some lines about Elon Musk, Animorphs, and wrestling, he concludes, “Retired for a minute, but I guess I’m back, man.”
Back in July, Logic explained why he decided to retire, saying, “I just wanted to retire because I’m over it man. Not even in a negative way, I’m just over it. I love music and I’m gonna continue to make music on my own. I can’t not just make music. It’s a journal for me. It’s how I express myself. It’s how I heal, but with Logic, I’m stepping away. And the thing is, too, I’m not trying to make it this big show like, ‘Oh my God,’ because it’s not that deep. You either believe me or you don’t man. I don’t give a sh*t. I’m over here doing my thing.”
Stephen Colbert was off last week, when news broke that Matt Gaetz is being investigated by the Justice Department for violating federal sex trafficking laws, but don’t worry, there’s plenty of “Gaetzgate” creepiness to go around. “Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing, but sources say that just before the previous president left office, Gaetz asked for a blanket pardon. Oh, I don’t think the blanket wants a pardon. I think it wants to be burned — it’s seen too much,” Colbert joked during Wednesday’s The Late Show.
The Floria congressman, who wanted the Get Out of Jail Free card “for any illegal activity he’s ever done, like innocent people do,” often boasts about his relationship with Donald Trump. In his book (titled Firebrand: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the MAGA Revolution, because of course), Gaetz bragged about the places that the former-president has called him and he picked up, including on the toilet and in nightclubs.
“The president has called me everywhere,” Colbert added, “while I was lurking in the bushes of a high school, while I was making fake IDs, even while I was tutoring my girlfriend for the SATs.” Gaetz even claimed that Trump gave him a ring while he was “in the throes of passion.” With that horrible image in mind, the late-night host cracked, “Thinking about Matt Gaetz having sex, I’m in the throws of up.”
Lil Nas X is diversifying his empire. Aside from music, he recently released a best-selling children’s book, C Is For Country. Now he’s getting into video games, as he has released a new one based on his “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video, called Twerk Hero.
In the browser game, the player controls a 3D model of Lil Nas X, facing backwards with his hands on his knees, in full twerk position. The player is instructed to “grab the booty and hit the incoming temptations,” and when players drag Lil Nas X’s rear end around, there are some impressive jiggle physics at play as his butt hits incoming quad-directional indicators, much like Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution.
Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns are the NBA’s hottest team at the moment, having won seven straight with their most impressive coming on Wednesday night, taking down the Utah Jazz in an overtime thriller, 117-113.
It was a sensational game, one that made fans hungry for a potential playoff series between the two, although at this point the only way that likely happens is if they meet in the Western Conference Finals. The stars for each team played about as well as they could, with Donovan Mitchell leading all scorers with 41 points (with eight rebounds and three assists) and Devin Booker pacing Phoenix with 35. However, it was the play of the elder statesman in Chris Paul that made the difference in the Suns win, as the Point God had 29 points and nine assists, including the two free throws to put the game on ice at the end of overtime.
Down the stretch, Paul was seemingly automatic from the midrange, hitting pullup after pullup from the free throw line extended area on his way to 16 fourth quarter points.
Chris Paul just waited for Gobert to clear out of his show and as he backed up to the roll pulled up. pic.twitter.com/MEhBkeCHXF
It is truly incredible how the 35-year-old Paul continues to be one of the NBA’s elite point guards, controlling the pace of the game even as he may have lost some of the burst he had as a younger player, replacing it with cunning, guile, and a patience that is unmatched. He also maybe revealed the secret to his longevity on the bench, as he was drinking from a bottle labeled “Chris’ Secret Stuff” on the bench.
It’s a pretty funny nod to Space Jam — and maybe a little marketing assistance for his friend LeBron James’ upcoming Space Jam 2 — and there are plenty of players in the league that would love a magic elixir to make you play like Chris Paul. Unfortunately, just like in the movie, it’s just some Gatorade and it’s all about what’s been inside all along, which few have ever been able to match with Paul.
Last month, Benny The Butcher dropped his The Plugs I Met 2 EP, which featured production exclusively from Harry Fraud. The nine-track effort presented features from 2 Chainz, Fat Joe, Rick Hyde, French Montana, Jim Jones, and the late Chinx. Aiming to keep it alive for a bit longer, Benny and Hyde join forces for a reflective video for “Survivor’s Remorse.” In the visual, the two rappers take viewers on a trip through their past lives and discuss the close calls they encountered, all of which would have resulted in unfortunate circumstances if things did not go in their favor.
The Plugs I Met 2 is the sequel to Benny’s highlight 2018 project, but the second installation in the series didn’t arrive without some controversy. After hearing Fat Joe’s verse on one of the project’s song, “Talkin’ Back,” a number of fans criticized the rapper for anti-Asian comments. On it, Fat Joe raps, “Track me in and out of court, Harvey Weinstein / Threw that white up in the pot, gave ’em pipe dreams / And watch it spread like the Wuhan virus / Do ’em dirty for the low like Wu-Tang ’Sirus (ODB).” He later responded to the backlash in a tweet, writing, “I’ll adress the Benny verse i did that verse a year ago when the news was calling it the wuhan virus before they called it COVID i support and love all my asian brothers and sisters never hate.”
You can watch the “Survivor’s Remorse” video above.
The Plugs I Met 2 is out now via Black Soprano Family. Get it here.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
”
(@bunnyinbrooklyn) April 8, 2021
IG | 
(@LilNasX) 
