Month: May 2021

John Cena is apologizing after causing an international incident while promoting F9. During a Taiwanese broadcast, the wrestler turned actor referred to Tawain as a country, which sparked a major backlash in China as the People’s Republic does not recognize Taiwan as such. While speaking in Mandarian, Cena filmed a message on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, where he apologized to his Chinese fans as well as the entire nation.

“I’m sorry for my mistake,” Cena said. “I must say now, [it’s] very, very, very, very important [that] I love, and respect even more, China and the Chinese people.”

As for the comment that sparked the backlash, Cena was pumped to promote F9 debuting in eight international markets ahead of its opening in the U.S. next month, and he excitedly said, “Taiwan is the first country that can watch F9,” during a Taiwanese broadcast. While seemingly innocuous, the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty is a powder keg when it comes to China. Via PEOPLE:

Taiwan has been a self-governed democratic island since the end of the Chinese Civil War over 70 years ago, but it’s still considered by Beijing as a territory claimed by the People’s Republic of China. Any suggestion of Taiwan’s independence is considered a major offense by China.

With the Chinese box office being an even more crucial revenue source as Hollywood films slowly return to theaters following a year of shutdowns and delays, it behooved Cena and Universal to apologize for the faux pas. Plus, F9 is Cena’s franchise debut, and he probably doesn’t want to be the guy that accidentally detonated the foreign box office for one of the biggest film series of all time.

(Via PEOPLE)

Mare of Easttown is zooming toward a conclusion and, presumably, answers to questions like “Who killed Erin McMenamin?” and “Why did they kill her?” and “Who was the father of her baby?” It looked for a second in the penultimate episode like the show had already provided these answers. After a whole season of looking shifty and just generally like a guy who is hiding a secret as heavy as “committed murder and dumped a body in the woods,” Billy Ross confessed and left for one last fishing trip with his brother, John.

Which was nice. And seemed to settle things. And Mare was in a car speeding toward the cabin without backup, because Mare is a loose cannon who plays by her own rules and was, just a few episodes ago, literally told to turn in her badge and gun when she was taken off the case by a cranky chief even though, dammit, she gets results. It looked like we were all one tense stand-off away from a conclusion.

But then.

Young Jess showed up at the police station after getting chased through Easttown by a very angry Dylan, her cohort in the raiding and alleged burning of Erin’s diaries. And then this happened.

All of which raised an important question, one that was not answered by the show before the credits started rolling: Who and/or what was in that picture, and why was whoever/whatever it is so important that the chief would immediately shout for someone to get Mare on the phone? It’s one last big twist in a show littered with them. And it’s killing me.

So, in an effort to get it out of my own brain if nothing else, here are a handful of possibilities of what could be depicted in that photograph. Some of them are legitimate theories. Others… less so.

Probably.

8. Something that implicates Lori somehow

I do not actually think Lori is involved in either the paternity-hiding fiasco or the murder, but it’s worth mentioning her right away for a few reasons:

• Every member of the Ross family seems to have some kind of secret or troubles they are carrying around like a sack of hoagies and I assume she is no different, and she was at the cabin for the reunion, and she might know something, and she, like every character on this show, gets really shifty when pressed with what appear to be simple questions
• There was that whole thing about the gun that killed Erin being an old police-issue weapon, like the one Mare’s father probably used, and Mare has an attic no one goes in anymore, and Lori seems like the kind of friend who would clean your attic after your troubled son committed suicide in it, so maybe there something there
• I needed a place to start this list before I get into the better possibilities

Moving on.

7. Richard doing something creepy

I’m sorry, but you cannot just go around casting Guy Pearce — GUY PEARCE — as some sort of famous one-hit-wonder author who now bounces from college to college as a lecturer and expect me to assume he doesn’t have an awful dark secret somewhere under that Professor Sweetheart exterior. Come on. What are we doing here? Come on.

And now he’s showing up with a hoagie gift basket and shrugging off Mare standing him up on his big day to go on a date with another guy? Come on. He’s just some extremely nice dude? No. No. I cannot square this information in my brain. I don’t think any character in television history has ever been more guilty of something on paper than “roving bachelor English professor played by Guy Pearce who shows up in a small town right around the time a teenage girl gets murdered.” This is outrageous. Come on.

Now, do I think Richard was actually involved in Erin’s murder? No. Probably not. Almost definitely not. There’s been nothing to imply that he was involved in any way and he probably has a slew of alibis. But that dude has secrets. He’s hiding something, somewhere. Like, I would not be surprised to learn that he’s in Easttown because he was run out of his last job due to unproven but very suspicious allegations involving former students and disappearances. Maybe there’s a whole string of missing teenage teens that lines up perfectly with various colleges he’s taught at. I don’t see how we can rule any of that out at this point.

I guess what I’m saying is this: A last-second twist revealing that Richard killed Erin would still only be the second wildest twist I can think of, just behind a roving bachelor English professor played by Guy Pearce who shows up in a small town bright around the time a teenage girl gets murdered somehow not being involved in the murder. I mean, again… come on.

6. This dog that was carrying a grocery bag

I swear to God this happened in the sixth episode, the one that just aired, smack between Lori and Mare talking about infidelity and John hauling a mattress into his dad’s house. I went back and checked again today just to be sure I wasn’t imagining it all. Nope. It was right there on the screen. And look at this guy! I choose to believe that bag contains two soft pretzels and a half-gallon jug of Wawa iced tea.

As to why the chief would want Mare to see it immediately, in the middle of a murder investigation, right as she’s thrusting herself into danger, I mean… I’m basically writing this entire article just to show it to you guys, so at the very least I would understand.

5. Proof that Brianna Delrasso orchestrated the entire thing like Keyser Soze

The overwhelming odds here point to Brianna Delrasso just being a screwed up teen who was playing Mean Girl to cover up whatever stuff she’s dealing with in her own life, and that her last-minute decision to tell the cops about Dylan not being in the house at 2 a.m. was an attempt to clear a guilty conscience, but still, consider:

• We saw her be a manipulative weirdo at the very beginning when she posed as someone else online to lure Erin to the woods for a videotaped ambush
• Admit it, you could totally see her walking out of that room after telling the truth about Dylan and breaking into a self-satisfied smirk about it all
• I kind of want her to be guilty of something?

I don’t know. The short version here is “I don’t trust her.”

I have watched that video maybe 800 times this week. I suspect you will too now. Anyway…

4. A picture of Dylan involved in something shady

So many questions about Dylan. Many of them will probably go unanswered and drive me nuts. Is he a sociopath or just your standard Delco dirtbag? What was he doing out at 2 a.m. the night Erin was killed? What kind of maniac makes up “I was driving around smoking weed” as his alibi right to the murder detectives’ faces? Why did he want to go burn the journals and why is he so threatened by Jess talking about it?

Further complicating matters is the thing where it was Erin’s picture and therefore has to be something she would keep hidden and stored away for her own reasons, not just “because it would wrap things up in a way that makes me happy,” although more shows should consider this when planning out their seasons. My working theory is that it’s a picture of the kid’s real father and Dylan has been blackmailing him. And that he’s both a sociopath and a Delco dirtbag. People can be two things.

3. An alien

The sliver of me that loves chaos and watching things burn would absolutely adore if the show hooked a hard left in the finale and just introduced extraterrestrial hijinks in like the last 20 minutes of the finale. It’s not that I think it would improve the show in any substantial way. It would do quite the opposite, actually. It would be awful, just the stupidest thing ever, and somehow the second show Jean Smart has appeared in that featured surprise aliens in the finale. The difference is that Fargo is weird enough to make it work.

No, the allure here is that people everywhere would be so, so mad about it and it would make me laugh very much. I recognize this is a character flaw I have. I’m not exactly proud of it. And yet, here it is at number three. I do not know why I am like this.

2. Billy with Erin

Too easy. Too convenient. Entirely too simple. Especially since Mare already suspects him. And he had that strange confession. No, this will not do at all. Let’s connect some other dots here. Like, for example, why Billy was so mad at John about John not ever facing consequences. And why John was so pushy about making Billy confess. And why John has that gun in the tackle box.

Hmm.

Hmmmmmm.

This brings us to…

1. John with Erin

It adds up. Kind of. It explains why the chief would be so desperate to get Mare on the phone right after seeing the picture. It explains why Billy was so cranky about John’s repeated infidelity. It explains the gun and the fishing trip, probably, if John was nervous about Billy cracking. I’m still not sure which one of them is the father and why Billy was covered with blood the night of the murder, although I have a number of suspicions. I feel like they’re both guilty of something and covering all of it up. And I’m still not sure exactly how Dylan was involved in it all but I’m sure he is somehow. Probably.

Maybe.

Unless he wasn’t.

But he was.

Unless…

Unless it was an alien.

For some fans, J. Cole is as much a Queens rapper as he is one from the South. His journey to rap stardom more or less started in New York, where he attended St. John’s University and met his collaborators and Dreamville co-founders Bas and Ibrahim Hamad. In the video for “Applying Pressure,” Cole revisits some of the most meaningful locales around the city for him in a gritty, nighttime shoot reminiscent of the ’90s rap aesthetic that informs much of his work. Dave East, who Cole name-checks in the song’s lyrics, also makes a cameo appearance.

“Applying Pressure” was also the title for the documentary Cole released as part of the rollout for his new album The Off-Season. In it, he explains the process behind the creation of the album, which was inspired and influenced by the drills he would run while training for basketball. Both sets of drills paid off for him; not only did The Off-Season reach No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart as many of his previous works had done, but all of the songs from the album also landed in the top 40 of the Hot 100, including the four most-streamed songs landing in the top 10. Meanwhile, his basketball workouts got him a spot on the roster of the Basketball Africa League’s Rwanda team.

Watch the “Applying Pressure” video above and stream The Off-Season here.

Elton John has had a career worth celebrating, which is exactly what is going to happen at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards. The event will air on Thursday, May 27 at 8 p.m. on Fox, and during the ceremony, John will receive the iHeartRadio Icon Award. John will be the second-ever recipient of this award, following Bon Jovi three years ago. As part of the proceedings, John will be honored by a trio of vocalists: HER, Demi Lovato, and Brandi Carlile.

The singers were chosen because they “each reflect an aspect of John’s varied musical personality,” as Billboard notes. John also has a connection with two of the three artists performing in his honor: John collaborated with Carlile on her 2009 song “Caroline,” and aside from being friends with Lovato, the two have also performed together live.

Additionally, the award will be presented to John by Lil Nas X and Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

Aside from all the aforementioned artists, the iHeartRadio Music Awards are set to be star-studded. Usher is hosting and performing, and also making appearances will be The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak), Doja Cat, and Dan + Shay.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s managing to upset the far-right (and that’s saying something, since that’s her voting base) with incoherent rants on COVID restrictions, which she’s repeatedly compared to the Holocaust. She first embarrassed the Republican party with a temper tantrum over masks on the House floor, which left her with a lighter paycheck as she tore up Nancy Pelosi’s directive on the subject. In doing so, she accused the House Majority Leader of fostering a Holocaust-style environment while suggesting that she’s being made to wear the Star of David. In response, multiple GOP lawmakers (including Rep. Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, and Rep. Peter Meijer) accused MTG of “evil lunacy,” and then she went even further while repeating her Holocaust remarks. Days later, she’s drawing criticism from the far-right’s Ben Shapiro.

The latest round of MTG bizarro thinking began when she tweeted about a grocery store that aimed to create badge notifications of their vaccinated status. “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” Greene wrote. “Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.”

Shapiro, who writes for the Jewish Journal among his other endeavors, responded to Greene while calling her words “demented nonsense.” He added, “It is nothing like the Holocaust, and any comparison thereto is both insulting and insane.”

Greene was not deterred and denied that she’s making a Holocaust analogy at all (although that’s what she did), and she added, “Stop feeding into the left wing media attacks on me. Everyone should be concerned about the squads support for terrorists and discrimination against unvaxxed people. Why aren’t they?” That last part’s a reference to AOC, who has criticized the U.S. sale of arms to Israel in light of the current developments with Palestine.

However, Shapiro is not alone (not even close) in calling out Greene over her Holocaust comparison, and other Republicans are slowly climbing aboard that perspective. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (via CNN correspondent Lauren Fox) described Greene’s latest round as “once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment,” although he stopped short of commenting upon whether action should be taken beyond removing her from House committees.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a statement to she same effect. “Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,” McCarthy said via NBC News. “The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling.”

As Lauren Fox also notes, though, Nancy Pelosi isn’t impressed by McCarthy’s overdue statement: “Leader McCarthy waited days to even issue a statement in response to one of his Members demeaning the Holocaust, and he clearly intends to continue to welcome Marjorie Taylor Greene in the GOP.”

(Via NBC News & CNN)

Akon was pumping gas at an Atlanta gas station when the unthinkable happened. While filling up his white Range Rover SUV on the passenger side, the musician reportedly turned and saw it being driven away by a thief.

Akon was able to contact the police and report the SUV stolen. Per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the gas station’s security camera showed a black sedan pull up right next to Akon’s car. A man got out of the sedan’s passenger seat a slid right into Akon’s Range Rover, quickly pulling off as the black sedan followed.

At the time of the crime, Akon had a number of valuable items in the car, including a $25,000 diamond necklace and a $6,500 Louis Vuitton bag. Thankfully, the musician’s iPhone was also in the car, so he was able to use the FindMyPhone app to track his phone and stolen car to Lawton Street in southwest Atlanta. However, the car was already gone by the time police pulled up to the location.

Akon was able to once again locate his phone in Forest Park, where Officer Steve Avery reported it was successfully recovered early Tuesday morning. While the car has been found and returned to Akon, there are currently no suspects in the case.

There is nothing politicians love more than trying to boost their approval ratings by showing they are just a normal person through their love of the local sports team. It is a tried and true method of relating to the voter base and even in a city like New York that has two teams in most every sport, that won’t stop mayor Bill de Blasio from trying to show his loyalty to all of them.

Last week, de Blasio showed up to a press conference wearing a Nets jersey under a dress shirt, like some kind of basketball fan Clark Kent deal, and doubled down this week by arriving in a Knicks hat and not just showing his support that way, but addressing the truly pressing issue facing New York: Trae Young’s shameless foul hunting. While not new, Young’s mastery of the dark arts of drawing fouls led to very loud “F*ck Trae Young” chants at MSG which he silenced with glee on his game winning floater.

On Tuesday, de Blasio said he needs to “play the game the right way” and “stop hunting for fouls,” citing Steve Nash’s critique of Young from earlier in the year.

The best part of these efforts is that I don’t think they work anymore in terms of getting people to like you, they just make politicians look like they’re groveling. In any case, whether they feel this was genuine or not, most Knicks fans would probably agree that they are already tired of the Trae Young foul show and would say something similar, albeit much more colorfully than de Blasio did. As for Young, I don’t foresee him suddenly changing his heart because the mayor of New York City asked him to, and if anything he’s probably just going to turn up the villain act for Game 2 as Atlanta looks to take a 2-0 lead back home.

In Moneybagg Yo’s breezy new “A Gangsta’s Pain” video, the Memphis native takes a break from promoting his new album of the same name to celebrate that album’s success. Not only was it his first album to reach No.1 on the Billboard albums chart, it did so twice, returning to the top spot just weeks later.

The video follows Moneybagg and his crew as they party in a fancy vacation home in the tropics, lounging in its pool, boating on a nearby body of water, and enjoying a big bag of green nuggets of you-know-what.

In addition to keeping his album rollout going, Moneybagg Yo also introduced the newest member of his Bread Gang crew on social media today. Not a lot is known about Tripstar at the moment, other than he’s also a Memphian and appears on the song “I Believe U” from A Gangsta’s Pain. Yo posted a video of the young, up-and-coming artists on his Instagram, writing, “AnyTime I Stamp Sum It’s Det, So If U Rock Wit Me And My Brand I Need Yall To Go Get In Tune Wit Da Newest Member.”

Watch Moneybagg Yo’s “A Gangsta’s Pain” video above.

A Gangsta’s Pain the album is out now on CMG/N-Less/Interscope Records. Get it here.

Throughout her career, Ingrid Andress has put in the work, from studying at Berklee to making appearances on The Sing-Off to collaborating behind the scenes with folks like Alicia Keys, Sam Hunt, and Charli XCX. This level of effort remains true with her fashion choices as well, as she proves on a new episode of On Repeat, presented by Uproxx and Straight Talk.

In the video, Andress starts with a stark white sweatsuit, dye, and patches before combining those elements to make a stylish outfit that’s greater than the sum of its parts. The country star explained that blazing her own fashion trail is a practice that goes back to her childhood, saying, “I had a lot of siblings growing up. Sometimes, my mom would buy us all similar outfits and I was like, ‘That’s not for me.’ I would definitely go out of my way to try to make something that would make me stand out… which is probably why I became a musician.”

Through the process, she also found a connection between tie-dying some clothes and navigating the world: “Not having a plan is okay sometimes, and just making it up as you go is kind of the beauty of life.”

As Andress puts her outfit together, she also offers some insights about her life and career, so check all that out in the video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake’s well-known for his displays of wealth, which have ranged from ostentatious to borderline ridiculous over the years. However, after receiving a Billboard Artist of the Decade Award at the Billboard Music Awards this weekend, he certainly had a good enough excuse for his latest over-the-top expenditure. According to Variety, Drake rented out the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California so he could have dinner on the 50-yard line with his OVO crew. The recently opened stadium normally seats 70,000, but for Drake’s dinner party, the attendance was limited to a guest list that included DJ Khaled, Doja Cat, SZA, and The Weeknd.

E! News reported that a source said, “He rented the entire stadium for the night. The stadium has a gigantic banner with his name and ‘Artist of the Decade.’… There are huge champagne towers and several bars set up throughout the stadium. Drake also has cute album books featuring his favorite moments through his career set up around the stadium.”

It’s likely Drake went all-out to make up for prior missed opportunities to do so; as he noted in his acceptance speech, which he gave with his son Adonis by his side, “I’ve spent an incalculable amount of hours trying to analyze all the things I did wrong. I’m really self-conscious about my music, and even if I do a good job, I always wonder how I could have done it better. I rarely celebrate anything. And just for anyone watching this, that’s wondering how this happened, that’s really the answer: being so unsure how you’re getting it done that you just kind of keep going in the hopes of figuring out the formula. But tonight, for once, I’m sure as hell we did something right.”