Month: May 2021

Demi Lovato had a big personal moment a couple weeks ago when they announced that they now identify as non-binary. Now, on a recent episode of Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays, they revealed what they believe held them back from making the announcement sooner: the patriarchy.

Lovato said:

“After years of living my life for other people, trying to make myself smaller for the patriarchy, they run the industry, they are at the center of everything. When I realized that, I thought, ‘What are the ways that the patriarchy has been holding me back?’ And for me, it was putting me in a box telling [me], ‘You are a female, this is what you’re supposed to like, this is what you’re supposed to do, don’t dream bigger and don’t speak louder.’”

When Lovato officially came out as non-binary, they wrote, “Today is a day I’m so happy to share more of my life with you all — I am proud to let you know that I identify as non-binary and will officially be changing my pronouns to they/them moving forward. This has come after a lot of healing and self-reflective work. I’m still learning and coming into myself, and I don’t claim to be an expert or a spokesperson. Sharing this with you now opens another level of vulnerability for me. I’m doing this for those out there that haven’t been able to share who they truly are with their loved ones.”

Watch the full Fire Drill Fridays interview below.

Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Still D.R.E.” is an all-time hip-hop classic, and last year, Snoop dropped a major knowledge bomb about it: Jay-Z wrote the whole song. It was known previously that he had worked on the track, but it was a surprise to learn that Jay was behind all the lyrics. Now, Jay has spoken about the song and the reference track he made for it, on which he raps both Dre and Snoop’s parts.

Chatting on an episode of HBO’s The Shop, Jay said, “On that reference track, I’m doing Dre and Snoop, both of them. […] The reference track, it sounds like them.” He added with laughter, “I’m glad nobody can find that one.”

He continued, “But yeah, you gotta have like somewhat of a reverence for them. The music they were making and The Chronic and all of that. In order for me to really nail the essence of Dre and Snoop, it had to be like a studied reverence of what they were doing.”

Snoop previously said of Jay’s work on the song, “Jay-Z is a great writer to begin with for himself, so imagine him striking it for someone he truly loves and appreciates,” Snoop said. “He loves Dr. Dre and that’s what his pen showed you, that I can’t write for you if I don’t love you.”

Watch Jay talk about the song above.

A few weeks ago, Showtime shared a teaser for their new series Ziwe, which stars comedian and writer Ziwe Fumudoh. In that teaser, Bridgers went ahead and directed her instrument destruction efforts towards a ukulele. Yesterday, the full episode featuring Bridgers, titled “Allyship,” aired, and she really participated in the full spectrum of intensity. When she wasn’t smashing stringed instruments, she was engaging in some ASMR.

In a clip from the show, Fumudoh pointed out Bridgers’ enthusiasm about ASMR and then asked her to read some statements in a whispery way. The statements included, “I will do my own emotional labor,” “I apologize for all racism,” “I will never get married on a plantation,” and “Gay rights.” Once Bridgers reached a certain point in her note cards, though, she had to laugh and stop, saying, “I’m not reading these, these are ridiculous.”

Beyond her Ziwe appearance, Bridgers has been busy lately. Earlier this month, she put her record label leader hat on and introduced Muna as the latest Saddest Factory signing. She also helped out regular collaborator Jackson Browne by making an appearance in his “My Cleveland Heart” video, in which she snacked on his (formerly) internal organs.

Watch Bridgers do ASMR on Ziwe above.

For a 1-8 series, the Utah Jazz-Memphis Grizzlies matchup has been a whole lot of fun. Utah has been the best team in the NBA this season, and there’s a decent enough chance that they end up winning this whole thing in five games, especially since Donovan Mitchell is back from an ankle injury and looks awfully spry.

But man, these Grizzlies are making it a point to push them. After winning Game 1, Memphis put up fights in Games 2 and 3 despite losing both by double-digits. Led by the individual brilliance of Ja Morant, who is using this series as a chance to announce himself to basketball fans who might not have paid close attention to him since he went with the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, the Grizzlies are playing entertaining ball and doing what they can to be competitive against a team with title aspirations.

On Monday, the two teams will go toe-to-toe for a game of outsized importance. If Utah wins, they’ll head back to Salt Lake City for Game 5 with a 3-1 lead and the chance to put the series away. But if Memphis can defend their home court, things are tied up at 2, and this frisky 8-seed will have every reason to believe they can win this series.

Game 4 TV Info

Tip Time: Monday, May 31; 9:30 p.m. ET
TV Network: TNT

Game 4 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Series Prices: Jazz (-2500), Grizzlies (+1000)
Spread: Jazz -5 (-114), Grizzlies +5 (-107)
Total: Over 225 (-108), Under 225 (-113)
Money Line: Jazz (-215), Grizzlies (+175)

The Washington Wizards’ last stand is on the horizon. After a difficult year that saw a slow start to the season, a COVID-19 pause, a lengthy effort to incorporate Russell Westbrook into the rotation, and trade rumors that swirled around Bradley Beal for months, Washington played just enough winning basketball to break through into the Eastern Conference play-in tournament and, eventually, earn a playoff berth by beating the Indiana Pacers.

Their reward, however, was a brutally difficult task: a first-round date with the 1-seed Philadelphia 76ers. Through three games, it’s gone about as well as one would expect, as the Sixers have looked fantastic and are now on the verge of the sweep. For Philly, this series has been an opportunity to announce to the NBA-watching world why, exactly, they are the top dogs in the conference. Led by the nightly brilliance of Joel Embiid, the best version of Tobias Harris, and Ben Simmons being one of the most unique players on earth, the Sixers look like a team that can win a championship.

Game 4 TV Info

Tip Time: Monday, May 31; 7:00 p.m. ET
TV Network: TNT

Game 4 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Series Prices: Wizards (+16000)
Spread: Sixers -8 (-110), Mavericks +8 (-110)
Total: Over 230 (-108), Under 230 (-113)
Money Line: Clippers (-360), Mavericks (+285)

Well the numbers are officially in, and not only is Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour a No. 1 album, it’s the biggest opening week of 2021. After rumors were swirling that at least four songs on the record were going to hit the top ten spots on the Billboard chart, and now the final album numbers support this theory and more. The album has been certified gold within its first week, and the album’s second single “Deja Vu” has been certified platinum, while the third single “Good 4 U” is also already been certified gold. Not too shabby for a first week out, eh?

Aside from being a No. 1 album in America — along with the No. 1 single with “Good 4 U” — Rodrigo also claimed that double No. 1 status in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia. She’s officially a global sensations, and considering the international buzz, who is she but not exploited? In case you didn’t catch that reference, it’s a lyric from album opener, “Brutal,” which as of yet isn’t a top ten single, but is likely on its way there. Of course, none of this can eclipse the success of her initial single “Drivers License,” which has already gone triple platinum, among other things. Congratulations Olivia!

AEW held its latest pay-per-view event, Double or Nothing, at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville on Sunday night. Well, that’s not totally right — one match, a Stadium Stampede match between The Pinnacle and The Inner Circle, took place at TIAA Bank Field, which is also in Jacksonville and is home to the Jaguars.

It’s been a busy couple of months for the Jags, which hired first-time NFL head coach Urban Meyer to man the ship, drafted Clemson standout Trevor Lawrence No. 1 overall to be the new franchise quarterback, and signed Tim Tebow to play tight end, for some reason. Since AEW is using their home field for a match, they were able to get in on the fun.

One spot involved Chris Jericho and MJF stumbling into a room where Meyer and assistant head coach/inside linebacker coach Charlie Strong were chilling out. Upon their arrival, Strong and Meyer gave Y2J some footballs and a computer to use against MJF. There was some other scrapping — all while Meyer and Strong watched — and eventually, Jericho got MJF in a chair and threw him into another room, which drew a “holy sh*t” out of Meyer.

Jags fans will hope that this is not the most exciting thing that happens involving their football team in the year 2021. Anyway, hopefully whatever was written on that whiteboard wasn’t important.

The Brooklyn Nets knocked off the Boston Celtics on Sunday night in Beantown. The Nets’ showed off their high-powered offense en route to a 141-126 win in TD Garden, giving them a 3-1 lead in the series as things shift back to Brooklyn for Game 5.

In the aftermath, all of the attention has been on one incident in particular. A Celtics fan opted to throw a bottle of water at Nets star and former Boston standout Kyrie Irving as the team was making its way to the locker room. It narrowly missed Irving’s head, and after the game, Irving and Kevin Durant both commented on the situation, with Durant saying the dude (who, it must he said, has been arrested and now faces a lifetime ban from the arena) who threw the bottle needs to “grow the f*ck up.”

Unsurprisingly, this got under the skin of Charles Barkley, who commented on the incident during halftime of the Clippers-Mavericks game.

“Look at that little punk ass,” Barkley said as footage aired of the fan getting arrested. “Just take him downstairs, let Kyrie handle that.”

Now, Irving is one of the most graceful and mild-mannered people in the NBA, so he almost certainly would not do what Barkley implied here if presented the opportunity. But Barkley is right that this is the lowest of low moves by the fan in question, and he will end up facing serious consequences as a result.

The final episode of Mare of Easttown was a solid hour of twists and personal trauma, which should not have been a huge shock to any of us, mostly because the first six hours of the series were also filled with twists and personal trauma. The confession from Billy Ross seemed suspect from the jump, for a handful of reasons, the biggest one being that the show had too much time left to fill to wrap up its WhoDunnitAndWhy that cleanly. Something else was always coming. It was just a matter of what that was. And guess what: it was devastating, too. Surprise!

Two notes before we get into discussing the business of it all:

• Even though the show was relentlessly bleak and sad straight up through the final minutes, it was kind of nice to have a show we all watched together and speculated about, especially given how many of the quote-unquote big shows of the last year were dumped as full seasons on streaming platforms and therefore impossible to talk about together in any sort of structured format
• What I’m going to do here is rank the twists that happened in the finale, not necessarily by what was most shocking as much as by what I felt was most noteworthy or important given the events leading up to them

This is all art, not science. It’s not even really art, now that I think about it. It’s not art or science. But we sure are doing it anyway. Here we go. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

8. John was DJ’s father

One of the most important lessons you can learn in life is to not be the guy who shouts “I TOLD YOU SO” when you get something right. It is not a great look, in general, and it is not very chill, and so I will not be engaging in any of that kind of behavior now that we all know John was the father of Erin’s child. I may, possibly, drop a link to an unidentified article I may or may not have put together last week, but that’s all. I know. I’m sorry. I never said I learned the lesson, just that it’s important.

But anyway, yes, this was the first big twist of the episode, the reveal that the picture from the cliffhanger depicted a sleeping John in bed with Erin. It’s not like I decoded the Voynich manuscript by figuring it out. The show was winking pretty hard at us in the previous episode. Between Billy getting suspiciously extra annoyed about John’s repeated avoidance of consequences, and the urgency in the Chief’s eyes when he told anyone who would listen to get Mare on the phone, and the thing with the near-Fredoing of Billy at the lake, I mean… yeah. Didn’t take a ton of clairvoyance to put this one together.

And let’s focus for a second on John. What a putz. What an ass. Fathered the kid with an underage Erin and was prepared to dump the blame for the baby and the murder on his failson brother, and then was prepared to kill Billy at the first sign of wavering. Even the thing where he copped to the murder to protect his family was kind of weak because, like, buddy, that is the absolute least you can do at this point. Get him outta here.

7. Mare kind of got her life together?

There was growth here. Baby steps. And given everything Mare went through before and during the time period depicted on the show (dead son, dead partner who she wanted to smooch a little, murder investigation that destroyed her best friend’s family, teen daughter who got drunk and then got real honest about things, custody battle with the mother of her grandson that included planting drugs on a recovering addict, taken off the big case for being a loose cannon, etc.), baby steps count for something.

And most of it was done by letting go. Siobhan left for college, Richard left for a new teaching gig, Carrie came clean about using again and Mare thawed a bit toward her. It all led to her finally going up into that attic. It’s good. It’s not great, for sure, because nothing on this show worked out great for anyone, but it’s good. Growth is good. Ideally, you can grow in your own life without going through… all of the stuff I listed in the parenthetical earlier, but still. Baby steps.

6. Old Man Carroll was the owner of the mysterious murder weapon

Love this guy. Favorite character on the show, no contest. First, he blurts out the secret about his fling with Helen in front of half the town, which was delightful if only for the little showcase of embarrassment and horror that Jean Smart got to put on in its aftermath. Then, this week, he reveals that the gun he keeps in his shed just mysteriously went missing the night of a very prominent local murder, all casual-like, to the degree he named it third on the list of items that have gone missing lately, right behind his Eagles Super Bowl cup and a really good pizza slicer. Terrific television character. Make a whole spinoff about his missing football cup.

Also: On a show littered with glorious Philly/Delco-accented pronunciation (“overdose” = eau-ver-deause; “hoagie” = heaugie; “call him on the phone” = CallimOnnaFeaun), it is incredible to me that it took them this long to drop a good “Iggles” instead of Eagles. I’m glad they snuck one in, I guess, but if this series had been a truly accurate depiction of southeastern Pennsylvania, at least 60 percent of all the conversations would have been about — or veered toward at some point — the 2018 Super Bowl. They can fix it in the spinoff about the cup. I am barely joking.

5. Richard was just, like, a good dude

Unbelievable. Shocking to me on a very deep level. It shouldn’t be at this point, if I’m being honest with myself, because the series at no point gave any real indication that Richard was anything other than a sweet man with crippling writer’s block and a fabulous head of hair, but still, I repeat: You simply cannot have a more suspicious character on paper than “roving handsome college professor played by Guy Pearce who shows up in a small town right around when a teenage girl is found dead in the woods.” I’m still convinced he is guilty of some horrifying act that the show just never got around to discussing.

In fact, I’m extra convinced now that I know he drives a Jaguar. I don’t know why. But I am. His whole aura screams “has skeletons in his closet that he hides by jumping from town-to-town before people start poking around.” I don’t like him. It’s to the point that when this happened…

… I was rooting for him to crash his Jag into every single one of the parked cars on the street. Just scrape them all and mangle his paint job. I bet he stole Old Man Carroll’s Eagles cup. It’s probably in the trunk. Screw him.

4. Dylan had nothing to do with any of it

What’s interesting here is that Dylan’s apparent innocence means two things:

• His alibi of “I was driving around by myself smoking pot at 2 a.m. the night my ex was murdered, after me and my new girlfriend catfished and ambushed her” was legitimate, which is hilarious
• The whole thing with him terrorizing and basically threatening to kill Jess in the previous episode was just because the journal-burning looked sketchy in hindsight, which is also hilarious because Jess hanging on to the picture of Erin and John is one of the main reasons Dylan was fully cleared

My money had been on Dylan blackmailing the real father. I was sure he was involved somehow. But it turns out he’s just a garden variety local dirtbag, not a murderous dirtbag. I regret the error.

3. Erin got double-catfished the night she died

Poor Erin. The last night of the girl’s life was spent getting catfished back-to-back, first by Brianna and Dylan with the whole “secret admirer who wants to see her dance” thing, and then by Ryan when she was trying to meet with John. Just a heartbreaking punctuation mark on a heartbreaking life, complete with a crappy dad and crappy ex and a crappy dude who took advantage of all of that and left her with a baby to raise herself. It’s a huge bummer to think about, all the way around. Let’s move on!

2. Ryan killed Erin

Here’s a question: When did you know it was Ryan who killed Erin? Not when you suspected, or when you developed a hunch. When you honestly, truly knew. Because I want to sit here and tell you I knew before the show spelled it out. I want to tell you I was sure when Old Man Carroll told Mare that Ryan had access to the shed that contained the same kind of gun that was used to kill Erin. But the truth is that I wasn’t 100 percent sure until I saw the look on his face in the screencap up there, right before he tore off over the fence.

I think I just didn’t want it to be him. I was hoping someone stole his key, or someone else took the gun after he grabbed it, or something. He’s another one like Erin who was betrayed by the adults in his life and is now paying the consequences for the terrible decisions all of it led to. Another huge bummer! Let’s try to find a silver lining here…

Hmm.

Hmmmmmmm.

He is pretty good at climbing fences, I guess? Can’t take that one away from him.

1. Loriiiiiiiiiiiiii

Let’s look at what Lori is dealing with by the end of the season:

• Her repeatedly unfaithful husband is in jail for fathering a child with an underage girl and covering up her murder
• Her son is in juvy for killing the girl her husband had the affair with
• Her best friend was the one who sent both of them to prison
• She’s now raising the child her husband had with the teenage girl her son murdered

What a lay-up line of misery. I feel so bad for her, even knowing that she was helping to cover it up at the end, even after watching her let her son confess to premeditated murder without an attorney in the room. (Come on, Lori!) If there is a second go-round with this show, if they listen to me and do a full seven-episode examination of who took the Eagles cup and why, I hope it starts with Lori and Mare on a beach in Hawaii sipping umbrella drinks and building sandcastles with the small children they are now both raising alone. Those two need a vacation desperately. Mare of Lahaina. It could work.

Kyrie Irving has been the center of attention for Boston Celtics fans so far this postseason, and that derision turned dangerous on Sunday night after a Game 4 loss at TD Garden. A fan threw a bottle at Irving as he left the floor, drawing the attention of Nets players and staff as they were walking off after the 141-point outing put Brooklyn on the brink of a series win against the Celtics.

Some people speculated wildly about why the person threw the bottle and who it was, with images of someone being escorted out of the seating bowl in a Kevin Garnett jersey making the rounds on social media in the aftermath. There was also a video of Irving greeting teammates at halfcourt after the game, appearing to intentionally step on the face of the Celtics logo.

If that’s an intentional slight at the Celtics and all the storied history Irving failed to add to in his time in Boston, well, so be it. That’s apparently what Celtics fans are upset about in the first place when it comes to the Nets star. Still, there’s no excuse to throw a projectile at a human being for simply walking off the floor. And Irving’s comments in postgame were reflective of that, comparing the way some fans see players as “being treated like you’re in a human zoo.”

But perhaps the most astute comments in postgame came from Kevin Durant, who said after a week of demeaning fan behavior in venues across the NBA that fan behavior like that simply cannot be tolerated.

“Your mother wouldn’t be proud of you throwing water bottles at basketball players. Grow the f*ck up and enjoy the game,” Durant said in postgame on Sunday night. “It’s bigger than you.”

That’s certainly true, though this one particular fan in Boston certainly did their best to make themselves a story along with another Celtics loss. Reports emerged late Sunday night that the fan in question had been arrested, so they certainly succeeded in making a name for themselves here. Just for all the wrong reasons.