Month: May 2021

Nick Jonas had a bit of a scare over the weekend: TMZ reported that on Saturday night (May 15), Jonas was hurt while filming a new show and his injuries were severe enough that he was taken to a nearby hospital via ambulance. The publication also noted that by Sunday night, Jonas was back home and ready to appear on Monday’s episode of The Voice. Sure enough, he was on the show last night and he addressed his injury, revealing that he cracked a rib in a bike accident.

Host Carson Daly asked Jonas how he was feeling and Jonas responded, “I’m feeling OK. I’ve been better, but I’m doing all right. Cracked rib from a spill on a bike and a few other bumps and bruises. I just want to go ahead and say that in case I’m not as physically enthusiastic as I usually am.”

He then addressed Blake Shelton, adding, “Blake, please don’t make me laugh too much, because it kind of hurts to laugh.” Shelton quipped, “You’re just trying to get sympathy votes on this show, that’s all you’re doing.”

While Jonas was on last night’s The Voice episode, that won’t be the case for that much longer: After the current season, he will be replaced by Ariana Grande.

On Friday afternoon, BuzzFeed published a story in which the outlet detailed how their reporters had uncovered Joe Biden’s “secret” Venmo account—and few people were as shocked by this tech-savvy turn of events than Jimmy Kimmel. On Monday night, the Jimmy Kimmel Live host devoted several minutes of his opening monologue to the story, which detailed how Biden, who maintained a small list of less than 10 “friends” on Venmo, used the app to send money to his grandchildren.

While Kimmel found the whole thing funny, mostly because, at age 78, the folksy president is hardly the typical Venmo user. For the most part, the app is looked at as a way for Millennials to split the cost of a pizza or pay for their portion of the rent. But given the sordid reasons politicians like Matt Gaetz have used Venmo, Kimmel admitted that “it’s weird to hear about a politician using Venmo to pay teenagers for something other than sex.”

Kimmel commented on how easy it was for BuzzFeed to apparently track down Biden’s now-deleted account, which reportedly took less than 10 minutes to do. And jokingly shared some of the services rendered Biden used the app to pay for:

Kimmel wasn’t done yet though:

“If somebody said to you, ‘What are the odds Joe Biden has Venmo?,’ you’d be like, ‘Well, there’s no way,’ right? This is like finding out the Pope wears VR goggles.”

You can watch the full monologue above (the Biden bit starts around the 3:06 mark).

The Los Angeles Lakers are getting ready to try and make a massive run through the play-in and playoffs to defend their 2020 championship, starting with a showdown with the Warriors on Wednesday night for the 7-seed and a series with the Suns.

L.A. is finally getting healthy at the right time, with LeBron James insistent his ankle tweak on Sunday night was nothing, Anthony Davis playing some of his best basketball of the season, and Dennis Schröder back from health and safety protocols. When the Lakers take the court on Wednesday night, they hope they’ll be back to normal and back to the form they showed early in the year when at full strength, but one player will be making a bit of a change.

While Schröder is back on the court, you won’t see him in a large chunk of his sneaker collection. The Lakers point guard had been among the many players who are fans of Nike’s Kyrie line, but as he said recently as he was going through his shoe collection, after his on-court kerfuffle with Irving back in April, he won’t be wearing them going forward and plans on giving away all of his Kyries.

It’s not a huge change for this season, as Schröder has been wearing a lot of Kobes during his time in L.A., but for someone with 30-plus pairs of Kyries it’s certainly a sizable chunk of his rotation. Dennis is far from the first player to stop wearing someone’s sneakers, but usually guys will do that in games they’re playing against the player whose signature they typically wear. In this case, Schröder is making this change wholesale, so if you wear a size 12 and have a way to get in touch with him, there’s some sneakers available.

Maybe you remember Parler. It was the least offensive of the far right, “free speech” social media services that stood in opposition to the mainstream likes of Twitter — which is to say it was pretty awfully offensive. It seemed to die after the failed MAGA insurrection of January 6, many of whose participants used it to help coordinate their attack. Some four months later it was back on places like Google and Apple that had once banned it — but only Apple is asking them to shape up.

As per Vox, Apple allowed the app version of Parler back into the fold, but with a major caveat: Its “anything goes” approach had to end. Users operating on it on iOS could no longer spread hate speech or incite violence. Posts will be monitored by an AI program, and it will label offending posts as “hate,” making them unavailable over their service. It’s something! Though perhaps nothing would be better.

It’s also more than their rival is doing. Though the app remains banned in the Google Play Store, Android users can still bypass it and download the unfiltered version to their phones. Unencumbered by AI police, they can let rip with racial slurs and whatever else might get them flagged on Apple’s “Parler Lite.”

Mind you, even the Apple version of Parler can be dangerous. As Vox points out, there’s “the risk that people use the Apple version of Parler to attract followers, and then organize violence on the non-Apple versions of Parler.” The truce, though, is not necessarily long-lived: They’re still being monitored by the tech giant over the long run, and things could always — and easily — get out of hand.

Parler all but disappeared from the internet on January 9, when Apple, Google, as well as Amazon, who hosted its services, cut ties with them, in response to the events of January 6. It returned in mid-February, having found an alternative to Amazon but still without an Apple- or Google-okayed app.

One other thing: In addition to getting back on Apple, Parler also announced a new CEO. His name is George Farmer, and he’s the former chairman of Turning Point UK, the British wing of the conservative organization that targets students. His wife? Rightwing firebrand Candace Owens. When that news broke, some found it even worse than the return of Parler.

Meanwhile, others noted things had returned to normal over at Parler.

(Via Vox)

Baseball is a sport that often feels safe, as it’s not a contact sport in the way football and hockey (or even basketball) are, and the slower pace of play can lull you into a sense that there isn’t danger. However, with how hard guys throw and how fast the ball comes off of the bat, the moments where those things get away from someone are unsettling reminders of just how dangerous it is just simply hitting and pitching.

Earlier this season, Bryce Harper got a scare when he took a fastball to the face, but was able to get a hand up and pull his head back in time to avoid a direct hit. On Monday Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar wasn’t as fortunate when a 94 mph fastball from Braves pitcher Jacob Webb got away from him, riding up and in to Pillar’s face where it hit him square in the nose in a terrifying scene in Atlanta.

[WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO]

That Pillar was able to get up and walk off the field as quickly as he did seems like a minor miracle, but he was bleeding profusely from the bridge of the nose where he got hit. You could see Webb’s immediate reaction was to snap around and crouch to the ground in horror, clearly feeling awful for what just happened and hoping that Pillar would be OK. Freddie Freeman and everyone else on the infield had the same reaction, as the sound it made when it hit Pillar was awful. Webb was very shaken up in the dugout afterwards, being spoken to by his pitching coach and manager.

Hopefully Pillar will be alright long-term, but he will surely miss some time and the work to get back both physically and mentally from that kind of moment is going to be a process. We’ll provide further updates when made available on his injury and status.

Ever since it was revealed he was being investigated by federal authorities for his alleged role in a sex trafficking ring, Matt Gaetz has tried to pretend everything’s normal. When the Republican congressman has acknowledged he’s in trouble, it’s mostly been to paint himself as a victim, even using his plight to beg for donations. That’s only inspired some to troll him with even more gusto, as happened on Monday, when someone flew a banner reminded him that he’s in deep doo-doo.

According to Newsweek, after Joel Greenberg, his former confidant and “wingman,” plead guilty to six felony charges that may involve Gaetz, a banner could be seen over the Florida courthouse where it took place. Its message was simple: “TICK TOCK MATT GAETZ.”

Among the charges to which Greenberg plead guilty are sex trafficking of a child, as well as production of a false document, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, stalking and conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. The first charge involves a 17-year-old girl who was allegedly paid for sex and travel.

Gaetz is not mentioned in the 86-page plea agreement, which found the feds dropping 27 of the 33 charges made against Greenberg in exchange for “substantial assistance” with the investigation. Greenberg admits he was in what he called “sugar daddy” relationships with young women, in which he introduced them to adult men who paid them for sex. Gaetz, who has been under investigation since the last months of the Trump administration, has denied involvement.

(Via Newsweek)

The 2020-21 season was a roller coaster for the Sacramento Kings. The highs were high, with various winning streaks and upset victories. However, each winning stretch was met with an equal or more lopsided losing skid, with the Kings losing nine consecutive games on two separate occasions. Much of that unevenness can be traced to the league’s worst defense but, after months of speculation that a coaching change could be in the offing, word broke from James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area that head coach Luke Walton will reportedly stick around for at least one more season.

Shortly after Ham’s report emerged, Sam Amick and Jason Jones confirmed the news.

Walton is under contract, so it may seem odd that this kind of reporting would be needed. After all, the Kings didn’t fall terribly short of their preseason expectations in the standings, finishing at 31-41 despite injury issues. With that said, Walton’s name has been associated with the “hot seat” for so long that it will come as a surprise, at least to some, to see him projected to return.

Defensive aptitude is often linked, at least to some degree, to coaching and the Kings allowed 116.5 points per 100 possessions for the season. That isn’t entirely Walton’s fault, of course, but it would also be accurate to say that Sacramento underachieved defensively when compared to their talent level.

It seems that after months of speculation, Walton has seemingly managed to wiggle off the hot seat… for now.

Some people — including some entertainment journalists — are still trying to wrap their heads about cryptocurrency, as well as NFTs, those digital collectibles that have taken the entertainment industry…well, not by storm, exactly, but which have at least gotten some not-always-appreciative attention. But it appears Dan Harmon is aiming to be the first animation maven to bridge the crypto divide. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the next show from the co-creator and mastermind of Rick and Morty is leaning hard into Blockchain and those pesky NFTs.

For starters, the show — announced back in February and revealed to concern Ancient Greece — has a name: Krapopolis, which, as a representative for parent company Fox described it during a presentation Monday, is “centered on a flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.”

But that’s not quite groundbreaking. This, however, is: Fox says it will be “the first-ever animated series curated entirely on the Blockchain.” What does that mean, exactly? Essentially that it will be interactive, but in a new way. In their presentation, Fox said the show will “connect directly with fans and enthusiasts through NFTs,” and they’ll “curate and sell digital goods, ranging from NFTs of one-of-a-kind character and background art and GIFs, as well as tokens that provide exclusive social experiences to engage and reward superfans.”

Fox also describes themselves as a “advertiser-focused, artist-first and animation-obsessed company.” That’s a lot to unpack, but the idea of being both “advertiser-focused” and “artist-first” certainly sounds fishy.

Though NFTs have been embraced by some artists, mostly in the music industry, such as Post Malone, Doja Cat and Eminem. So welcome to the cutting edge, the guy who got McDonald’s Szechuan sauce from 1998 back in the news.

(Via THR)

Purchasing a team in any sport seems like a pretty cool enterprise. Is it always the best business decision? No, not always, because it’s not hard for teams to lose gobs of money, but some of the stuff that you get to do — great seats, merely say you’re an owner, hang out with athletes sometimes — is really terrific.

Apparently, the owner of one soccer team in China’s second division is taking this to a new level. A man named He Shihua, age 35 is the principle shareholder of Zibo Cuju Football Club, and during a match against Sichuan Jiuniu, he got subbed on just before injury time while wearing the No. 10 shirt.

His Transfermarkt page indicates he has been registered with clubs in the past, so I suppose it’s not the most wild thing on earth that he got on the pitch. But I would recommend taking a big deep breath because baby, we are in for some nonsense: He Shihua, during the team’s game on Friday, got his son on the dang pitch.

According to TUDN, the mandate is to always make sure that his son is in the team’s starting XI. I think I can speak for everyone and say this rules. Anyway, Zibo Cuju has one point through five matches and is in last place.

If you didn’t know where Ricky Schroder stood on the political spectrum before last year, don’t be ashamed. It’s been ages since Silver Spoons, the sitcom that made his name. That all changed in November, when it was revealed the former child actor had joined the likes of Scott Baio as ‘80s stars who had gone full-rightwing. First he helped bail out Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who shot two protesters to death late last summer. And this weekend he posted a video of him harassing a Costco employee who was simply asking him to wear a mask when entering their premises.

Schroder got hell for the video, with a lot of the blowback involving a Hollywood player, even a fallen one, pestering someone just doing their job. After his name went viral, and not in a good way, he tried to douse the flames, offering an apology that amounted to “sorry, not sorry.”

The not-quite-mea culpa came towards the start of what a 7 ½-minute video that finds him sitting at an outdoor table, offering a meandering précis on thoughts that appear to be largely shaped by rightwing media sites. He addressed the video, which finds him pressing his smartphone camera close to the Costco employee, who patiently explains that the company still requires customers to put a simple piece of cloth over the face due to a still-going once-in-a-century pandemic.

“I was trying to make a point to the corporate overlords and I’m sorry that I had to use you to do it,” Schroder told the employee, who he turned into an unwitting social media hero for putting up with a belligerent former celebrity. “I’m not upset with you or anybody in the position like you have, who works for a living. I understand you were following your laws and rules. I was trying to make a point to the corporate overlords and I’m sorry that I had to use you to do it. And if I hurt your feelings, I apologize.”

But he wasn’t that sorry. “I do think that independence for medical tyranny is more important than hurting people’s feelings,” he said. “I want us all to go back to the way it was. I don’t want this COVID reality they want, these COVID passports. I just don’t want it. And neither should you.”

There was more — a lot more. Schroder, who seems to regularly record similar videos on his Instagram page, had some thoughts. They ranged from single mothers (which he blamed on “feminist-liberal-socialist policies”) to police (“back the Blue!”) to a, um, long dissertation on Rhodesia, which he described as a “place where whites live in fear.” He told “the black community” that they should listen to Candace Owens.

Schroder also repeatedly gushed about the ‘80s, when things were better, he claimed — or at least when he was famous and made lots of money. He painted it with the same nostalgic brush Donald Trump uses to whitewash the ’50s, with the exception of the “crack-filled streets in the inner cities.” He then said, “We’ve gotta kill all the drug dealers,” albeit just “the big drug dealers.”

But most people, including the Costco employee he accosted, probably didn’t make it that far. Still, if you ever wondered what the guy whose breakthrough was a movie where no less than Jon Voight played his dad thinks about Marxism, well, now’s your chance.

(Via The Wrap)