Month: June 2021

Ultra-conservative media outlet Newsmax has rarely met an ally of Donald Trump’s whose a** they didn’t want to kiss. But it seems that even they are willing to draw the line somewhere, and right now they appear to have determined that line is running right in front of beleaguered congressman Matt Gaetz.

According to Reuters, Nestor’s dad—who is currently being investigated for possible sex trafficking and now for obstruction of justice in that investigation—reached out to Newsmax earlier this year about the possibility of working for the outlet… and was promptly rejected.

Reports Reuters:

A source familiar with Newsmax’s policies said: “Earlier this year, [Gaetz] reached out and said he might leave Congress early and was interested in TV work.” The three-term Florida congressman’s approach to Newsmax management was “just a conversation” and Newsmax “never told him we were interested” in hiring him, the source said.

It is, of course, worth noting the timing of Gaetz’s alleged request, which just so happened to have come at just about the same time news was breaking that he could be facing some serious charges. It was also around then that Gaetz reportedly reached out to Fox News about the potential of partnering up, too (also unsuccessfully).

Whereas other politicians would understand that keeping a low profile is the smarter way to go in situations like these, Gaetz—a man dumb enough to be tricked into retweeting a photo honoring Lee Harvey Oswald on Memorial Day—seems to have missed that day in How to Be a Failure 101 and keeps doubling down on his proclaimed innocence and plans for the future. He recently even teased the idea of a 2024 presidential run because, yes, that’s exactly what America needs.

As for Newsmax, spokesperson Brian Peterson has simply said: “Newsmax has had no plans to hire Rep. Gaetz.”

(Via Reuters)

Keira Knightley previously opened up about being uninterested in sex scenes helmed by male directors, given that she’s “very uncomfortable now trying to portray the male gaze.” The Pirates of the Caribbean actress is getting even more real now while speaking to Harper’s Bazaar for a July cover feature, in which she doesn’t hold back when asked about experiencing sexual harassment.

In fact, Knightley puts the truth right out there when she says that every woman she knows has experienced sexual harassment in some form, whether that’s extreme catcalling or being flashed or receiving a violent threat or actual assault and battery. The woman who portrayed Anna Karenina on the big screen tells it straight:

“Yes! I mean, everybody has. Literally, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been, in some way, whether it’s being flashed at, or groped, or some guy saying they’re going to slit your throat, or punching you in the face, or whatever it is, everybody has.”

She’s not wrong, and she’s not exaggerating. “It’s f*cking depressing,” Knightley remarks, especially when she notes all the precautions that women must take while walking around in public. Those precautions are a matter of routine, even, and she mentions how a British politician, Baroness Jones recently suggested a curfew for men in the wake of a young woman’s disappearance, which resulted in some very angry remarks from male politicians, including Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage, who described the proposal as “deranged.” Yet that actually appeared to be the point, with Jones highlighting how absurd it feels for women to always be on the defense. “There’s a curfew for women and there always has been,” Knightley pointed out to Harper’s Bazaar. Truth.

(Via Harper’s Bazaar)

It was around this time last year that Kanye West (who turns 44 years old today, June 8) and Gap officially announced their Yeezy Gap partnership. Now, nearly 12 months later, the line is starting to make its way out into the world, even if it feels like more of a soft launch than a full release. In the wee small hours of the morning today (at 3 a.m. ET, as Complex notes), the Yeezy Gap line launched with just one item: a puffy blue coat.

The listing for the item on the Gap website dubs it the “round jacket,” and it’s only available in a light blue color. The jacket is made of recycled nylon, is designed to have a unisex fit, and is priced at $200. The jacket is currently available for pre-order in the US only and is set to ship this upcoming fall. There is no indication of when more Yeezy Gap items are set for release. Complex also notes that West was photographed wearing the jacket while out in Los Angeles a few days ago.

To promote the jacket, Kanye went with an attention-grabbing stunt: An image of the jacket was projected on the sides of some buildings in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Also included on the projection are the Yeezy Gap logo and a QR code.

This follows rumors that Yeezy Gap was set to launch in June, so perhaps that means we’ll see more from Yeezy Gap soon.

Donald Trump and his pals have concocted a lot of wild conspiracy theories in their time. But on Monday night’s show, Seth Meyers laid out what might be one of the GOP’s most bizarre, and bizarrely specific, ideas yet: that Italy deployed military technologies to tamper with America’s voting machines from across the Atlantic Ocean to change votes for Trump to votes for Joe Biden.

As Meyers explained, this was one of apparently many theories Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, pushed the Department of Justice to investigate in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency. In a clip from MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski quoted an article in The New York Times which described the idea as “a fantastical theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States and switch votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr.”

Meyers spoke for pretty much all sane people when he basically said what everyone was thinking already: Italy?!?

“For one thing, have you ever been to Italy? If you asked them to tamper with an election in November they might get around to it by March… Seriously, these insane GOP conspiracy theories are starting to sound like election truth or Mad Libs. In Arizona, they’re looking for bamboo in the ballots because they think they were smuggled in from China. And now we find out the former chief of staff thought the election was stolen by Italian satellites. In fact, this insane theory got so far in the White House that according to the Times, ‘An email to another Justice Department official indicated that Mr. Rosen had refused to broker a meeting between the FBI and a man who had posted videos online promoting the Italy conspiracy theory, known as Italygate.”

While Meyers found a lot to laugh about, he did say that Democrats “must take stock of the fact that this is the Republican party they’re dealing with. A Republican party whose most powerful figures are disseminating insane conspiracy theories about the election, calling for coups, trying to use the levers of power to subvert elections, and whose functionaries are trying to weaponize those lies as we speak by turning them into voter suppression laws.” He also imagines that at least a few people are pronouncing coup as “coop,” and—yep, that sounds about right.

You can watch the full segment above, starting around the 7:15 mark.

In addition to his other talents, like setting up Jennifer Lawrence for this perfect joke, Zach Galifianakis is also a skilled voice performer. He was Joker in The Lego Batman Movie, one of the best comic book movies of the 2010s; the titular bigfoot (great band name) in Missing Link; and in Ron’s Gone Wrong, he’s a clumsy, mischievous, adorable robot.

Ron’s Gone Wrong is directed by Sarah Smith, who told Entertainment Weekly that the film, with its message about keeping real-life connections even when surrounded by technology, has gained significance during the pandemic. “The bad guy of the film says, ‘Stay home, stick to your screens, you don’t need to see each other.’ Of course, for most kids, they desperately need to see each other,” she said. “So, in a way, our film became more poignant and about the pitfalls of relationships conducted entirely through screens and messages online, because you just don’t have all those other human cues. It means everyone has to work hard to communicate with each other.”

Here’s the official plot summary:

Ron’s Gone Wrong is the story of Barney, a socially awkward middle-schooler and Ron, his new walking, talking, digitally-connected device, which is supposed to be his “Best Friend out of the Box.” Ron’s hilarious malfunctions, set against the backdrop of the social media age, launch them into an action-packed journey in which boy and robot come to terms with the wonderful messiness of true friendship.

Ron’s Gone Wrong, which also features the voices of Jack Dylan Grazer, Olivia Colman, Ed Helms, Justice Smith, and Rob Delaney, opens on October 22.

It’s been a long year and some change since the pandemic wiped out live music as we know it, but the return to form is coming with lots of epic special bills. Today’s edition features none other than the Foo Fighters, one of the best live rock acts still going, and a little old beloved New York venue — Madison Square Garden. On June 20, the Foos will rock MSG at full capacity, ringing in the first show since March of 2020 and the clocking in the first full-speed event of this year. To celebrate the special event, dubbed Rock & Roll Returns To The Garden, a special flyer can be found below. Didn’t you miss show flyers? I certainly did.

For their part, musicians are more than amped to be getting back on stages across the country — especially Dave Grohl and co. “We’ve been waiting for this day for over a year,” Grohl said the show. “And Madison Square Garden is going to feel that HARD. New York, get ready for a long-ass night of screaming our heads off together to 26 years of Foos.” The staff at the venue is equally excited to get back to live entertainment: “The Garden is ready to rock,” said James Dolan, Executive Chairman and CEO of MSG Entertainment. “We’ve been waiting for this moment for 15 months and are excited to finally welcome a packed house of roaring, fully-vaccinated Foo Fighters fans to Madison Square Garden.”

Tickets for the show will go on sale Friday, June 11 at 10 a.m. local time. Snag a spot right here.

Better Call Saul is currently shooting its final season in New Mexico, but outside of the folks in the writers’ room, there aren’t many people who know how the series will ultimately end, and that includes series’ star Bob Odenkirk. The series will continue to shoot until November, but Odenkirk says that he refuses to read ahead. He doesn’t know anything about the final season beyond the episode he is currently shooting.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have thoughts about how it will end. This week, in an interview with Esquire UK, he reiterated that the events of the final season of Better Call Saul will change the way audiences perceive Breaking Bad. “When Better Call Saul is done it will shed new light… you will see Breaking Bad and the story of Breaking Bad in a different way. It will be different from what you think you know.”

It’s unclear exactly what Odenkirk means by that, but he is on the record stating that we should not assume that Kim Wexler — who is never seen on Breaking Bad — is dead during the events of Breaking Bad. Beyond that, we don’t know much. Vince Gilligan has stated that he expects that Saul will have a “better” ending than Breaking Bad, but not necessarily happier. Meanwhile, Peter Gould says that there “is a lot of sadness” to where the final season is going.

What does that mean for the fate of Jimmy McGill? Again, Bob Odenkirk does not officially know, but he does know showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould very well after working with them for all of these years. While Odenkirk himself likes to believe that Jimmy McGill will learn some valuable lessons from his experiences during the Breaking Bad timeline and adjust accordingly, he doubts very much that the showrunners see it that way, as he told Esquire:

“Vince and Peter refuse to account for my argument that sometimes people do learn the right lessons from their mistakes and their traumas and problems. I’d like to think that after all he went through with the story of Breaking Bad, where he was gonna become wealthy by representing a meth kingpin, that he somehow decides to fly right and maybe use his various talents to help people who really need help. I don’t think that’s where he’ll end up but I think people sometimes do make a better choice based on experiences that they’ve had. But I don’t think they agree with that theory

“Their glass seems pretty half-empty.

“Their glass is always half-empty. And it’s draining fast.”

An ending where Jimmy McGill straightens himself up and flies right really would be out of character for Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan, who like to tell stories about characters who are done in by their own egos. It would be nice to think that Jimmy and Kim meet up in Omaha and live happily ever after, but that wouldn’t be on brand for the Breaking Bad universe. Whatever happens, however, we can expect an intense and exciting final season, says Odenkirk. Vince Gilligan “starts knocking things down and starts lighting fires and burning everything down,” Odenkirk told Esquire. “It’s really going into overdrive. And it’s pretty exciting.

(Via Esquire)

When Kid Rock makes news these days, it’s usually not based on the merits of his music career. Recent Kid Rock narratives, for example, include his keeping his bar open despite coronavirus concerns early in the pandemic and Morgan Wallen’s first post-controversy show taking place at that same bar. Now, Kid Rock is making headlines once again and it’s not for a flattering reason: During a concert from over the weekend, he was filmed using a homophobic slur.

During a performance at FishLipz Bar & Grill in Smithville, Tennessee, the musician was annoyed with audience members who were filming him with their phones. In a video obtained by TMZ, he looks directly into one phone while singing a song, he shouted, “F*ck your iPhone, yeah!” Staying in song, he pointed at his crotch and continued, “You can post this, you can post this, you can post this dick right now.” He then added, “You f*cking f*****s with your phones out!”

Following the incident, Kid Rock became a trending topic on Twitter. A lot of the responses to the news were hilariously sarcastic, feigning surprise at the incident. One Twitter user noted, “I, for one, am shocked that noted LGBTQ ally Kid Rock would say something homophobic.” Another noted, “Sad to find out Kid Rock is homophobic when he is so incredibly talented.” Somebody else added, “When I heard Kid Rock made a homophobic comment, I got so mad I drove 12 hours to my parents house, went in the attic, found Kid Rock’s latest cassette, and threw it out.”

“Imagine being the fact checker that gets that call?”

That was one of Jimmy Kimmel’s main takeaways following Donald Trump’s weekend appearance at a GOP conference in Greenville, North Carolina. Though not even Fox News aired the event (which Kimmel described as being akin to TBS passing on showing a new episode of The Big Bang Theory), the former president caught the interest of the internet when some people pointed out that it looked as if his pants might be on backwards.

Discussing the “detailed online investigation” that followed the vomit-inducing images from the event (close-ups weren’t invented for this reason), Kimmel correctly pointed out that, “Usually if you got this close to Trump’s crotch he’d pay you $130,000.” But he wasn’t done:

“Turns out it was just a revolting illusion that resulted in these hilarious headlines: ‘No, Trump Didn’t Wear His Pants Backwards at That North Carolina Rally,’ ‘Actually, Trump Was NOT Wearing His Pants Backwards At A Weekend Rally,’ [and] ‘Trump Successfully Wore Pants at Rally: Report.’ Well, good for you!”

Kimmel went on to imagine what the calls to the fact-checkers tasked with getting to the bottom of Pantsgate must have sounded like, and reminded viewers that “Backwards-seeming pants seem to be a problem for Republican politicians in general,” then shared a few throwback photos of other GOPers in similarly confusing pants-related situations. Among the images was this photo of Chris Christie, which seems to have been taken by Satan himself. Kimmel described it as looking like the former New Jersey governor “tried sneaking a meatloaf into the game.”

No, you can’t unsee that.

Kimmel had more to say about Trump’s appearance—his first since February—in which the former president reminded onlookers that he has the best words when he uttered nonsensical sentences such as “We’re going to take back our country and we’re going to take it back at a level that is very, very… good.”

Consider yourselves warned.

You can watch the full clip above, starting around the 6:55 mark.

The Los Angeles Clippers needed seven games, including three road wins, to topple the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs. In contrast, the Utah Jazz stumbled out of the gate without Donovan Mitchell, only to reel off four consecutive victories over the Memphis Grizzlies in their opening round series. On Tuesday evening, the Clippers and Jazz square off in Salt Lake City for Game 1 of a highly anticipated matchup featuring star power, intriguing stylistic approaches and all kinds of drama.

By virtue of the No. 1 seed and a breezy opening victory, the Jazz are seen as at least slight favorites in the series. Utah put together the best regular season in the NBA this season, dominating on the offensive end of the floor while deploying an artistically beautiful approach that featured ball movement, high-end shooting and unselfish play. Defensively, Utah was keyed at an elite level by Rudy Gobert, the presumptive Defensive Player of the Year, and the Jazz operate with their A-plus rim protector in mind.

However, the Jazz did struggle a bit defensively against Memphis, particularly in dealing with Ja Morant. Utah allowed 1.15 points per possession in the series and, in general, it was Utah’s offense driving their success more than their defense. While the matchup is quite a bit different, the Jazz could also have their hands full with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Leonard was absolutely electric in willing the Clippers over the Mavericks, and George also enjoyed some lofty highs in that series. While neither replicates the exact nature of Morant’s attack, one of Utah’s perceived weaknesses is the absence of big, two-way wings, with only Royce O’Neale approaching the profile of the “wing stopper” that so many teams look for. Furthermore, there will be pressure on Mitchell to at least breathe the same air as Leonard as the No. 1 creator in this series, and some of the questions, on both ends, should be answered with Game 1.

Game 1 TV Info

Tip Time: Tuesday, June 8; 10 p.m. ET
TV Network: TNT

Game 1 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Series Prices: Jazz (-130), Clippers (+105)
Spread: Jazz -4 (-112), Clippers +4 (-109)
Total: Over 220 (-112), Under 220 (-109)
Money Line: Jazz (-165), Clippers (+138)