Month: July 2021

Seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton wants to change the sport for good by finding ways to improve racial diversity and give Black people more opportunities in a STEM field overwhelmingly dominated by white men. On Tuesday, The Hamilton Commission – an organization founded and co-chaired by Hamilton – published a 94-page report in association with the Royal Academy of Engineering, which highlights the lack of racial and ethnic representation in UK motorsport.

The report, titled “Accelerating Change: Improving Representation of Black People in UK Motorsport,” analyzes the UK education system from the ground up and provides 10 recommendations to addressing the barriers to the recruitment and progression of Black people within the sport. The report notes that the UK — home to seven of 10 Formula 1 teams and over 4,000 companies involved in competitive racing and car design, development and manufacturing — is a global powerhouse in motorsport. Despite this, less than one percent of the workforce in F1 is from Black or other ethnic minority backgrounds. In Formula 1’s 71-year history, there have been zero Black team principals, while only two women have held the role.

In the report’s foreword, Hamilton – the first and only Black driver to race in Formula 1 – discussed his motivations for starting these conversations and opened up about growing up with dreams of becoming a driver despite being consistently chastised and told he would never amount to anything.

“I, like so many other Black students, lost my confidence in school and struggled to see a future where I could be successful. But like any other child, I was born with potential,” Hamilton wrote. “It was the system that failed me and almost destroyed my sense of confidence and any dream of living to my full potential. Looking back, it’s all so clear to me. Why would I believe in myself, if my school never believed in me?”

While drivers are some of the most popular and well-known figures around the world, engineering roles make up the largest single occupation group in motorsport. However, the representation of Black people in engineering and technician roles is sorely lacking. When asked about pursuing a career in engineering, a majority of young Black interviewees said they believed engineering was “not for them” and that they “won’t fit in” given their lack of understanding about the pathways to technical careers and the sector’s existing underrepresentation of people of color.

The report states that the reasons for the lack of Black employees in UK motorsport are largely systemic: Black people are less likely to achieve 1st class honours degrees (which is often how recruits are selected by F1 teams), less likely to study engineering at universities because of a historic lack of access and exposure to the field, and are heavily underrepresented in apprenticeships. Additionally, the majority of the sport’s engineering sector is concentrated in “Motorsport Valley,” a rural area in southern England that is inaccessible for many young Black communities that live in major cities.

Once in the field, it can be difficult for many Black engineers to feel comfortable and stay in the sector due to its exclusionary culture and emphasis on tradition. Many people interviewed by the research team described a perceived lack of progression for Black professionals, a lack of Black engineers in leadership roles, and instances of microaggressions that seemed entrenched in the competitive and “elite” image of the sport. The Commission argues that these issues often originate in the UK school system, where many young Black students are placed into lower ability groups based on low teacher expectations, stereotypes, and a lack of equal resources.

In the report, the Commission lays out ten recommendations to improve diversity in motorsport, which include expanding apprenticeship programs, the establishment of a fund that would provide more resources for Black students, a new approach to teaching STEM to encourage more Black students to participate, and the creation of scholarship programs to enable Black STEM graduates to progress into specialist roles in the sport.

Following the publication of The Hamilton Commission’s report, F1 announced details of scholarships and internships for students from underrepresented ethnic, gender and socio-economic groups as part of its commitment to improving diversity and inclusion in the sport.

“Our #WeRaceAsOne platform is our commitment to make real change and shows our recognition that we know we must make a positive contribution to the world we live in,” said Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of F1. “All of the teams are committed to this and the work of the Hamilton Commission shows the dedication to addressing these issues across Formula 1.”

It’s been two years since Game of Thrones ended, and since that time, HBO has not stopped chasing spinoff opportunities in an effort to bring the powerhouse series back, along with its legion of viewers. This time around, HBO Max has announced a new animated spinoff that will explore a corner of the Game of Thrones world that never made it to the first series: The Golden Empire of Yi Ti. Located on the continent of Essos in the southeast corner of the fictional world, the area will have a link to character in the upcoming House of the Dragon live-action prequel.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

The society is considered one of the oldest and most advanced societies in creator George R.R. Martin’s sprawling fantasy realm and is inspired by Imperial China (much the same way Westeros, which was the primary setting for GoT, was inspired by Medieval Europe).

Yi Ti had only a brief reference in Game of Thrones, though a character in HBO’s upcoming prequel series, House of the Dragon, Lord Corlys Velaryon the “Sea Snake,” famously sailed to Yi Ti.

The Yi Ti-focused series is in addition to a previous animated Game of Thrones series that was announced back in March. That project is still in very early development, so little is known in the way of details. However, while the number of animated projects has grown, the Yi Ti series arrives with news that a previously announced live-action prequel concept called Flea Bottom has been scrapped.

To bring everyone up to speed, here’s the current list of Game of Thrones spinoffs in development:

House of the Dragon
9 Voyages
The Tales of Dunk and Egg
A prequel series set in Nymeria
Untitled animation project with no details
Untitled animation project about Yi Ti

We’ll keep you updated as that list continues to change with the wind.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Listen to me

You know how sometimes you can be aware of something for years, maybe even decades, without it really moving to the front of your brain, into the bright lights where it becomes more than just a passing thought? Or is that just me? It does happen to me a lot. I was almost 30 before I realized I actually liked mushrooms. It’s not like I had been picking them off my food or anything. I had been eating them for years. But one day I was suddenly like, “Whoa, I really like mushrooms.” I’ll get them on anything now. I’m a maniac.

This type of thing happened again recently when I saw the news about Vanessa Bayer getting a new series on Showtime. Her own series. A semi-autobiographical one that she writes and stars in. From Deadline:

Co-created and executive produced by Bayer and Jeremy Beiler (Saturday Night Live), I Love This for You is a grounded comedy in which Bayer plays a character, inspired by her own past, who overcame childhood leukemia to achieve her lifelong dream of landing a job as a successful home-shopping channel host. Bayer’s fellow SNL alum Molly Shannon also leads the cast as Jackie, the charismatic host at the network.

As I was reading that, I stopped and I thought for a second and I realized that Vanessa Bayer has been making me — you too, hopefully — laugh for over 10 years now, usually as a small piece of a larger project. She’s the greatest. And yet, as far as I can tell, this will be her first crack at a legitimate starring role in something. That’s… crazy. That’s crazy! Vanessa Bayer is so good. And so many other SNL-types get shots at showcase projects. Hell, so many have gotten shots at them since she’s been there. And it’s not like she wasn’t carrying sketches or chunks of sketches on her own in that period. Even just her Weekend Update characters like Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy or Laura Parsons or her note-perfect take on Jennifer Aniston. That’s not easy, sliding in there on live television and being expected to hit straight dingers for a few minutes. She did it every time.

Need more evidence? Need to see some acting, not just talking into the camera? Cool. No problem. Because here’s the Totino’s sketch.

Look how good she is in that. Really look. The switch from stereotypical sitcom mom worried about her hungry guys eating snacks during the game to a woman in the throes of forbidden passion. This sketch is such a classic that we probably don’t think about it enough in any sort of critical way anymore, but we should. Same goes for this next one.

This was the first sketch I ever saw from I Think You Should Leave. I caught it floating around on YouTube right around the premiere of the first season. It’s what hooked me. I still watch it a few times a year. It’s the hopefulness in her face, I think, where she thinks she’s finally getting it right before going into another dark place about hogs and pigs. I honestly do not think this sketch works nearly as well with anyone else.

It’s not just sketch shows, either. There’s also the weirdo surprise appearances, too. Like this one, which I’ve posted in this column maybe a dozen times and will probably post a dozen more, in which Bill Hader’s appearance as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers takes a hard left turn into a one-woman showcase. I won’t spoil the twist for you if I have somehow not forced you to watch it already, but please know that I think about the phrase “we all put our pants on one pants a time” about three times a week while getting dressed.

What I’m saying here — what I have proven with video evidence — is that all Vanessa Bayer has done over the last decade or so is make cool stuff better by adding little touches. Hell, she just did it again in Barb and Stat Go to Vista Del Mar, a delightfully bonkers movie that she is delightfully bonkers in for about 10 minutes. And that’s great. It’s awesome that she’s just out here popping up in all the things we like and improving them around the edges. But it’s also way beyond time for her to get that crack at the bright lights. She has earned it in a few different ways by now. Watch all those videos again and tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.

Let Vanessa Bayer shine, dammit.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — Jonathan Majors: Good at acting

I am something we in the blogging community call “A Big Stupid Marvel Idiot,” thanks to the powerful combination of not reading the comics in my youth and not being able to remember what happened in what order in the movies. Real double threat, this guy. Remarkable stuff. That said, I still watch most of the Marvel offerings and find I enjoy them quite a bit. This should not surprise me as much as it does. Part of it is because there’s good story there, and story usually triumphs over everything else for me when I’m watching something. Another part is that, well, one does not become a multibillion-dollar juggernaut by not catering to idiots a little. Idiots like me.

Which brings me to Loki, the Disney+ series based on Tom Hiddleston’s character that wrapped up its first season this week. I watched every episode and was relentlessly confused by a lot of it and enjoyed it all quite a bit. A great example of this feeling was the stuff in the finale with Jonathan Majors. I had a blast watching it all and did not have any clue until hours later that it was teasing important events for both the future of the show and possibly the entire Cinematic Universe. Most of the credit for this goes to Majors and his extremely big performance.

I mean, Lord in heaven, did Jonathan Majors do a lot of acting in his scene. So much acting. He spent the whole time chewing on an apple and the scenery and it was all just a blast. Every line delivery was the most. Every shrug and chuckle was somehow more than that. This can be a bad thing when the performance calls for subtle notes of grace or quiet gravitas, but here, man, in a show about a time-traveling god who makes out with the female version of himself from another timeline, it was exactly what the situation called for. He gave it the Full Giamatti. I respect it so much.

But this is what I mean. I found the scene and performance captivating on a number of levels while being completely ignorant to its ongoing significance. (If you want to know more about its ongoing significance, don’t worry, Uproxx dot com has you covered.) That’s a credit to the writers and director and everyone else who had a part in putting it together, but mostly it was a credit to Majors. It looked like he was having so much fun the whole time. I’ve gone back and watched the scene two more times since Wednesday morning. You should go watch it, too. Even if you didn’t watch the rest of the show. Or the Marvel movies. Again, this is coming from me, a staggering Marvel idiot. You can trust me on this. I would not lie to you.
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ITEM NUMBER THREE — I suspect this Nicolas Cage story will be rattling around my brain for many, many years

Nicolas Cage has a new movie coming out. It’s called Pig. It is, as far as I can tell, about a man going on a bloody rampage after someone steals and/or harms his prized pig. It is something that, on paper, is both a hilarious sibling of John Wick and the perfect plot of a Nicolas Cage movie. It is also allegedly very good. This is all quite thrilling for me. As is the thing where Nicolas Cage is doing interviews to promote the movie. Because Nicolas Cage interviews are always a ride.

Case in point: This interview with GQ. There’s lots to unpack in there and you are welcome to attempt to unpack it all if you like, but I am now and might always be stuck on this part, which came as a response to a line of questioning about culinary inspiration and how it plays out on film. Read this two or three times in a row. Really let it marinate. I’ll meet you after the blockquote.

Even weirder still, this is one of my earliest memories: my father had taken all of us to Italy and I was about four. For whatever the reason, he had left me with all these nuns. The rest of the family had gone out. They’d given me this very spicy kind of stew and this very fermented drink that tasted like licorice. I remember having that and then the nuns rocking me on a bed to get me to sleep. Later my father said to me, “that was fox stew and they were giving you anisette drink to help you sleep.” So those were my earliest memories and you can see how profound the culinary element brings me right back.

So, a few questions here…

What?

What?

His dad left him with some Italian nuns while the family bounced around on vacation?

Is… is this a thing?

Do nuns just babysit strange American children?

It feels like there is more going on here, somehow, despite so much already going on here, right?

Did… did he say the nuns gave him spicy fox stew and liquor and had him sleep both off?

When he was four?

What the hell?

What kind of nuns are these?

Did Nicolas Cage grow up inside an episode of The Young Pope?

Did you ever, in a million years, think you would hear a stranger Nicolas Cage story than “Nicolas Cage had to return a stolen dinosaur skull to the Mongolian government”?

What are the odds these weren’t nuns and were just some weirdo hippies in black hats that his dad told him were nuns?

Should I stop asking questions now, before I spin myself into a manic state where it is all I can talk about for the next 48 hours?

Yeah, probably. I have to finish this column. But still. I feel like this story does a better job of explaining why Nicolas Cage is the way he is better than any full-length documentary ever could. Although I would definitely watch that documentary. And a season of The Young Pope where this is a major plot point. Which could absolutely happen. That show introduced and killed off a kangaroo in its first season and neither of those things were the wildest thing that happened. Then it brought in John Malkovich for season two and changed its title to The New Pope. And it had John Malkovich play the harp. A show that does all that could easily incorporate Nicolas Cage’s childhood tale of stew and booze. I really need to move on here. Please just know that if you see me in public at any point over the next month, I will probably be thinking about this. Even if I’m driving. So maybe give me some space on the highway.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Give this to me at once

I’m not sure if you have seen the two Cocaine Cowboys documentaries made by Billy Corben and his team. I hope you have. They’re great. Just informative and fascinating and terrifying. All you could ask for out of a documentary. And now there’s a third one coming to Netflix. This one is called Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami and will be a six-episode docuseries and has a wonderful little description, which I will paste into this empty box riiiiiiiiight now.

Alleged to be the chief U.S. distributors for two of Colombia’s biggest cartels, Cuban exiles Augusto “Willy” Falcon and Salvador “Sal” Magluta were accused of smuggling over 75 tons of cocaine into the U.S. in the 1980s. The high school friends built a reputed $2 billion empire that made Willy and Sal, aka “Los Muchachos,” two of Miami’s biggest celebrities. While law enforcement plotted their takedown, the world champion powerboat racers managed to skillfully outrun and outmaneuver prosecution for decades before the chase finally came to an end. Featuring colorful interviews with those closest to them, their defense team, and the Feds tasked with taking them down, the series paints a vivid portrait of the last of Miami’s “cocaine cowboys.”

Perfect, all of it. It sounds almost exactly like a docuseries I would like to watch. But I’m sure some of you are still stuck on the image I used at the top of the section. The one where a very content John Travolta is gliding across the open seas. That’s understandable, I suppose, if you are not familiar with the film Speed Kills.

I wrote about Speed Kills a few years ago, when it rocketed past theaters and straight to VOD. It’s a magnificent piece of cinema. By which I mean it is awful. A real Money Plane situation. Travolta plays a world champion speedboat racer who starts running drugs for the mob. Do you see now? Do you see why I used that picture up there? I don’t know if I’ll ever have a better excuse to use it. Or to post a picture of the poster for the movie. The poster might be even better. Look at all of it.

So thank you to Billy Corben and John Travolta and cocaine-smuggling champion speedboat racers everywhere. I had a lot of fun writing this section and posting those images. I couldn’t have done it without any of you.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — LASSO TIME

I have fantastic news: Ted Lasso is back. I mean, not yet. It’s back next Friday. But that’s soon. And it’s not like it was a secret that I’m giving you the scoop on. It’s all over the internet. But that’s kind of the point. Ted Lasso is coming back so soon that Ted Lasso stuff is everywhere, which is good, because I love Ted Lasso stuff. Like, for example, this article from our own Mike Ryan in which he shares an email Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis sent him during a difficult time. I read that yesterday and started crying at, like, noon. It felt great. And there’s so much more out there. Let’s take a quick tour.

There’s this profile of Sudeikis by GQ’s Zach Baron. It is a wonderful profile for a lot of reasons, with my favorite being this section about Sudeikis and his wife Olivia Wilde breaking up in a way that didn’t exactly not mirror the way Ted Lasso and his wife split in the show, despite the show being written and shot before his real life caught up to it.

The end of their relationship was chronicled in a painful, public way in the tabloids after photos of Wilde holding hands with Harry Styles surfaced in January, setting off a flurry of conflicting timelines and explanations. Sudeikis said that even he didn’t have total clarity about the end of the relationship just yet. “I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year,” he said, “and an even better one in two, and an even greater one in five, and it’ll go from being, you know, a book of my life to becoming a chapter to a paragraph to a line to a word to a doodle.” Right now he was just trying to figure out what he was supposed to take away, about himself, from what had happened. “That’s an experience that you either learn from or make excuses about,” he said. “You take some responsibility for it, hold yourself accountable for what you do, but then also endeavor to learn something beyond the obvious from it.”

God, that’s deep. And kind of beautiful. And speaking of beautiful things, there’s also this: Caroline Framke at Variety wrote a feature about the on- and off-screen friendship of the show’s female leads, Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple. A sample.

Keeley and Rebecca were always going to become friends on “Ted Lasso,” but at first glance, that might not have held true for the actors playing them. As with their characters, there are 15 years between Waddingham (46) and Temple (31), not to mention they’re both Leos (“Usually Leos don’t get on!” Waddingham notes with considerable delight). And yet, whether hanging out in a hotel room for Waddingham’s Critics Choice Award win for “Ted Lasso” or a cozy pub for their Variety shoot, the two are so comfortable that they tend to get tangled in each other’s arms, cackling with laughter.

“In the same way we often say that if the chemistry is there in a romantic comedy, it’s going to work, the same is true for friendship chemistry,” says co-creator Lawrence, who’s seen that truism bear out while working on “Friends” and “Scrubs.” For “Ted Lasso,” he continues, “it was palpable and recognizable on camera between Juno and Hannah from the start. Part of that friendship was created by the performers themselves.”

And then there’s the thing where the show got nominated for an — industry term coming here — absolute crapton of Emmys this week, including one for Brett Goldstein, who plays my beloved Roy Kent and responded to his nomination thusly via email.

Holy f***ing s***. What an incredible honor. Proper dream come true s***.

Every part of this show has felt like magic to me. To have the privilege to work on it, to get to make something with this incredible team and now for us to be nominated as a team is just too lovely. Extra special tahnks to Jason and Bill for inviting me to be part of this. What a thing…

As a cynical English guy I’m struggling to deal with all this wonderfulness. I’m not crying, you’re crying. F*** off! You’re crying. You ****.

All of that and I got to post the video of Ted giving a lovingly tweaked rendition of the legendary Allen Iverson practice rant. Very little to complain about anywhere here. So… let’s not!

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Sam, who technically sent this as a direct message on Twitter, which you are welcome to do as well if you do not feel like bringing email into all of this:

Thank you so much for informing me that Sheryl Crow is a Milwaukee Bucks fan. I had no clue how much I needed this information until today.

This is true, for the record. Sheryl Crow, pop music legend, noted haver of fun and soaker-up of sun, is apparently a huge fan of the Milwaukee Bucks, who as of this writing are tied with the Phoenix Suns at 2-2 in the NBA Finals. I don’t remember how I learned this or exactly when, but it is currently my favorite thing on the internet. She’s been live-tweeting the games, too, or at least posting two or three tweets per game. Look at these.

And this one.

And this one, which is my favorite by a whole mile, maybe two.

I feel like I should clarify here that I am not doing this ironically to make fun of Sheryl Crow. My adoration of it all is genuine. It’s one of the things that’s good about social media, seeing people’s personalities and learning what they’re like. Lord knows about 30-40 percent of my tweets are panicky reactions to things the Philadelphia 76ers did or did not do. Sheryl Crow loves the Bucks so much she’s cussing out the referees in a public forum. That’s cool to me.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Utah!

This section usually features blockquotes from a text-version local news story interspersed with some snarky little jabs from me, but we are breaking the form this week. I am just posting this tweet. Watch that video if you have not. It’s nuts. They’re just dropping thousands of fish out of an airplane. For nature! I can’t stop looking at it. Imagine you’re fishing or hiking out there and you see this happen without the benefit of a voiceover that explains it. You hear a plane and look up and BLAMMO thousands of fish are falling out of the sky. You’d be telling people about it for the rest of your life. Most of them would not believe you. Until now. Until you show them this tweet.

That’s my favorite part of it all. My second favorite part is the thing where they say a high percentage of the fish survive because, like, what do you even consider to be a high survival rate for fish that have been heaved out of an airplane? You could tell me 10 percent was a high number and I would believe you. I would go as low as five. It’s much higher than that, though. I have so much respect for whoever brought this idea up for the first time in a meeting. I bet he — and I don’t think I’m out of line in assuming “let’s just drop them out of a plane and see what happens” was an idea from some dude, probably named Derek — had been thinking about it for weeks before he finally had the courage to suggest it. I hope he runs the whole agency now.

And then, after I retweeted this, I got this reply from the one and only Action Cookbook, which makes the I Think You Should Leave reference I was immediately furious I didn’t make myself.

A flawless news story. Congratulations to everyone involved. Especially Derek.

Saweetie’s still promoting her upcoming debut album, Pretty B*tch Music, despite delaying it after meeting Cher and attending a performance boot camp to bolster her live shows. The Bay Area rapper most recently sat down for a video interview with Billboard in which she reveals more details about the upcoming album, including the fact that some of its content upset her mom.

Apparently, Saweetie has a song that is partially in Tagalog — one of the official languages of the Philippines (Saweetie is part Filipino) — and her mom, who is Filipino and Chinese, doesn’t quite approve. “I do talk some sh*t in Tagalog,” she admits. “My mom was really against it. My Asian side, they’re very traditional — they were immigrants. So it’s like, their culture’s a little bit more reserved. So, she was just like, ‘Girl, I can’t believe you just said that!’”

The “Tap In” rapper also explains that one of the reasons for the album’s delay is how personal it is to her. She hopes it will “humanize” her in the eyes of fans who only see her as a star (albeit one with a cast-iron stomach) and tweet hurtful comments without considering their effects.

You can watch Saweetie’s latest interview here.

Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Billie Eilish has shared a special in-studio video of her latest single, “NDA,” featuring her brother Finneas and drummer Andrew Marshall. Performing in a room draped in crimson-red curtains (very Twin Peaks-esque), Billie is the focal point as the camera circles her and her brother, who is on synths. All that’s missing is the chevron floors and Man From Another Place, among other dream creatures (OK, I’ll stop here).

“NDA” is Eilish’s latest single, following “My Future,” “Lost Cause,” “Your Power,” and “Therefore I Am.”

Back in April, Eilish revealed the name and release date for her highly anticipated sophomore album, following 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Happier Than Ever is slated for a release on July 30 and it’s a project that the singer described as her “favorite thing i’ve ever created,” adding, “i am so excited and nervous and EAGER for you to hear it. i can’t even tell you. i’ve never felt so much love for a project than i do for this one. hope you feel what i feel.”

Press play on the video above to watch Eilish and Finneas perform an in-studio version of “NDA.”

Happier Than Ever is out 7/30 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

Just in case Harrison Ford wasn’t providing enough charisma and charm in the upcoming Indiana Jones film, Antonio Banderas has now joined the cast. According to a Deadline report, Banderas has closed a deal to star alongside Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, and Shaunette Renée Wilson in the fifth entry in the Indiana Jones series. As of right now, no information has been revealed on who Banderas will be playing.

Banderas role isn’t the only thing being kept under wraps. Lucasfilm has revealed shockingly little about Indiana Jones 5, including it’s proper title. What we do know is that James Mangold (Logan) is taking over both directing from the legendary Steven Spielberg, who served as director on the first four films. However, Spielberg is still very much involved in making the film, and will be both producing and overseeing various elements of it. In addition to Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel join Spielberg will be producing with John Williams — the man behind all the 40-year-old franchise’s iconic theme — returning as its composer. Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Mangold co-wrote the script.

According to the latest reports, production is back on track following a brief pause in filming after Ford injured himself on set back in June. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, a Disney spokesperson confirmed Ford had “sustained and injury involving his right shoulder [..] in the course of rehearsing for a fight scene.” Assuming the team is back on schedule — and no other actors injure themselves in what’s sure to be an absolutely action-packed film — Indiana Jones 5 is slated to hit theaters July 29, 2022.

When 18-year-old Bekah King, 19-year-old Abi Roberts, and 21-year-old Morgan Tabor discovered that they were all dating—and, as a result, being cheated on—by the same guy, they did what any trio of young women in a feminist Gen Z road movie would do: Spent more than two months renovating a school bus that’s a good decade older than any of them and embarked on a cross-country road trip together, which they’re documenting on social media.

Dubbing their ride the BAM Bus—for Bekah, Abi, and Morgan—The Washington Post reports that the women began their epic journey about a month ago, departing from Boise, Idaho and journeying to Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. From there, they headed to Jackson, Wyoming and visited Grand Teton National Park. At the moment, they’re in Bozeman, Montana, and hope to end up on a beach in California by the time autumn arrives.

“We’re living our dream life, having a blast,” Tabor told The Washington Post. “It’s incredible to think that it happened because of him.”

Though it happened because of the unnamed cheater, the trip has nothing to do with that jerk. He just happened to have a type, and it’s those similarities that led the trio to forge an immediate bond when they first learned that one of the many things they had in common was the same boyfriend.

It was Tabor, who had dated the guy on and off for a few years, who first noticed that the man she believed to be her exclusive boyfriend was texting and communicating on social media with a lot of young women in a rather flirtatious way. Some further excavating on Instagram led her to Roberts, who also believed she was in a committed relationship with the same dude. “This guy had literally slept at my house the night before, kissed me goodbye and said he was driving back to Boise [from Utah] to visit his family,” Roberts recalled of the day she was contacted by Tabor.

In fact, Tabor was FaceTiming with Roberts when said boyfriend showed up with flowers—then saw who she was talking to. “Watching his face drop when he saw who I was talking to on FaceTime was the most cinematic moment ever,” she said.

Together, Tabor and Roberts found at least a half dozen more women who were also dating this guy, including King. While the man in question could undoubtedly be in contention for Worst Boyfriend Ever, the romantic deceit turned out to be fortuitous as far as friendships go.

“What this guy did to us doesn’t define our lives,” Roberts said. “We all feel really blessed that we found each other. We’re friends for life.”

We smell a movie deal!

(Via The Washington Post)

Tkay Maidza is a bit of a psychic. The Zimbabwe-born, Adelaide-raised singer/rapper released Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 1 in 2018 and followed up with a sequel during the peak of last year’s pandemic. Now, she’s completed the trilogy with Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3. Released on July 9, the EP highlights the artist’s sonic brilliance, fusing electronica, synth-pop, trap, and R&B.

“It feels like a premonition in a way, but it’s interesting how every year has gone by and everyone’s like, ‘Well, she really predicted it.’ When it’s a new year and everyone’s like, ‘Goodbye 2018, this year is going to be my best year yet,’” Maidza tells Uproxx over Zoom. “But then as it’s gone by, you’re just like, “Well, last year was insane and weird.” It’s the perfect way to describe it because you just can’t really pinpoint what that feeling is. It’s just so familiar with what everyone’s been going through.”

This self-awareness derives from the 25-year-old’s growth that began with the 2016 release of her debut album Tkay. After deciding to become independent, she left Australia’s shores to expand her creative mindset in Los Angeles.

“I’m learning to trust myself. Before when I was trying to find the sounds and where I thought I fit in best, I wasn’t that well versed to know what the limit was,” she explains. “Now with these [new] songs, I feel like I had a sense of freedom and I can push myself harder. Whereas before I was like, ‘Am I supposed to do this?’ So I think it’s just stepping into that power, accepting it, and not being afraid of it. If my intentions are clear and I keep some sort of consistency with the world I’ve created, then my path should be great. I’m excited for whatever comes next.”

Below, Uproxx catches up with Maidza about her big transitional move to Los Angeles and betting on herself.

You released your debut album in 2016, and then you went from a major label to now indie. Did the title Last Year Was Weird stem from that transition?

The term “weird” is the way I described the plunge of going into the deep end and knowing that where I was. What I wanted was like a big leap forward, but I would have to start from nothing again. I was at that lowest point every day: “What the hell is going on?” But in a way, I always had a feeling that it would work out because this was the only way it could be.

“Breathe” is my favorite on Vol. 3 because it’s about betting on yourself and like you said, taking that plunge. But also being at war with your own thoughts.

It was so interesting because I wrote this song when I was in Australia with Dan [Farber], the producer, on Zoom. This was probably just off the second EP, which is so interesting because I feel like everything’s amazing right now. But I’m starting to see a lot of parallels between now and who I was five years ago. I think the whole crux of this is feeling underestimated, but also wanting to stay here because I just feel like some part of me will never fully accept what’s happening. It’s almost like telling myself to slow it down, but still keep going. It just shows I’m always going to go through these ebbs and flows. I remember when I was signed to a major label and everything was amazing, I still had those feelings. Being able to recognize it now, I’m able to move forward as opposed to being like, “There’s so many problems.” I think everyone goes through those ups and downs, even when things are really good.

Did you sample yourself on “Eden”? Because it sounds like the intro of “Breathe”.

So we sampled some of the radio samples from the second EP. We also sampled “Breathe” because obviously when you would hear it at the end and you’re like, “Oh my God, what?” It’s interesting because “Breathe” actually samples “White Rose” from the first EP.

That’s such a cool idea.

When you listen to albums from Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, Kendrick [Lamar], or Kanye West, they’re doing their own interludes and making random voices. You really feel like they’re creating this big story, but you can tell it’s them. That’s what makes it so special because there’s so many inside jokes and things that will never leave you. I was just trying to recreate that energy because that’s what makes it so unique and so yourself, ‘cause it’s not a sample from [sample library] Splice or anywhere else. You made it and then are re-purposing it in a fresh way. I was on Twitter and someone tweeted, “L.Y.W.W. — best radio on the planet”. It’s just the coolest thing.

Do you feel more liberated now that you’re in LA? The hip-hop scene could be limiting in Australia, especially when it comes to Black artists.

Yeah, definitely. I feel like I can step out of my door and not feel like I’m standing out as much. I think there’s more people around that just understand what I’m meant to be doing. I’m still different, but I don’t have to fully sell what I’m trying to do. That’s what every day felt like for me in Australia. Having that feeling over you all the time becomes tiring. No one really understands and they didn’t want to understand. Here in LA, it’s about creating your own universe ‘cause everyone wants to be different. My favorite artists here aren’t afraid to disappear for a bit and create some things and run with them. That’s what’s so inspiring about being in LA.

Who are some of your favorites at the moment?

I’m really loving Vince Staples. Jpegmafia, I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with him and just seeing how he thinks. We’re literally very similar people. I really like Fousheé, Rei Ami, Lolo Zouaï. They have so many different sounds, and they don’t want to stick to the same thing. They have cool and innovative production, and that’s what’s so inspiring.

I spoke to Jesswar earlier this year and she brought up you and Sampa The Great when discussing POC female artists in Australia.

Because she’s also a standout as well, she would certainly understand where it comes from. It’s just a numbers thing when you’re in Australia. It’s hard to convince people that it works because there’s so little of us, you know what I mean? If you’re going to take something to the radio, they’d be like, “Oh my God, this is amazing. But there’s nothing else in our playlist that sounds like this. So if we add it, we’ll let you know.” It doesn’t make sense.

On “Cashmere” you sing: “You ain’t safe until you lived your life with no fear.” As Black women, sometimes we have to put up this cold front and we’re not allowed to be soft or vulnerable.

That’s probably been the big challenge on this EP because I have hard songs like “Kim” and “Syrup” where I definitely want to be this badass female. But at the same time, when we reached “Cashmere,” I could finally breathe and just show this other side of me. It felt so empowering because not a lot of people, like you said, feel like they’re allowed to do that. The song has an energy that I resonated with. You find your unique self when you just embrace that.

There’s a lot of artists like yourself right now who are creating a space for Black girls to be expressive and be weird.

I think it just makes sense. There’s so many women in the world that it just comes a point, especially with the internet, where there’s everyone for someone. It’s cool to see the alt girls, the goth girls, and the hard girls pop up. For a while, the industry was like “This is the stereotypical definition of a female rapper or a female pop star. If you are a singer who’s Black, you’re probably doing R&B.” So it’s really exciting because there’s less pressure to be something you’re not.

We both come from a family of immigrants and sometimes us first-generation kids aren’t allowed to express love for the arts. I thought it was great that your parents fully supported you.

I played tennis for 10 years. I graduated from school with marks that were not high enough for me to do architecture. I had a lot of opportunities to do cool things, but I just wasn’t passionate about any of it. That was when my parents realized that when I love something, I will go all the way with it. That’s probably why they were supportive about it. The other thing was, they didn’t have to pay for it either. So they said, “As long as you can support yourself and you’re having fun and you feel fulfilled with your life, then that’s the most important thing.” A lot of us are told to be doctors and this and that. Then you reach 30 or 40 years old and you’re like, “Wow, I really didn’t live my life because I wanted to do something else when I was 20.” I was just like, “No, I don’t really want to do anything else. This is the one thing that I’m really obsessed with.” My parents [said], “Cool, go ahead.”

You seem like a competitive person. Does that come from your background in tennis?

I’ve always been competitive in sports and school. I did art all throughout high school. I just remember any time I wanted to hand something in, it had to be the best. It always had to grab someone’s attention because why else would you be doing it then? Obviously, it’s for yourself. But I just always want to do something at a high level that means something and creates an impact. But when I realized that maybe I’m not dedicated enough or I’m not spending enough time on it, then I just completely stop. It’s all or nothing for me with anything.

Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3 is out now via 4AD. Get it here.

Mark Hoppus is in the midst of treatment for his cancer, which he shared with the world back in June. While the Blink-182 leader has spoken about how he’s doing on occasion since then, he hadn’t come out and directly said what type of cancer he has. In a recent Q&A session with Chilean fans, though (as Rolling Stone notes), he got more specific, declaring that he has been diagnosed with “diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.”

He continued, “My classification is stage IV-A, which means, as I understand it, it’s entered four parts of my body. I don’t know how exactly they determine the four part of it, but it’s entered enough parts of my body that I’m stage IV, which I think is the highest that it goes. So, I’m stage IV-A. […] The cancer isn’t bone-related, it’s blood-related. My blood’s trying to kill me.”

The Lymphoma Research Foundation says of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, “DLBCL is an aggressive (fast-growing) lymphoma that can arise in lymph nodes or outside of the lymphatic system, in the gastrointestinal tract, testes, thyroid, skin, breast, bone, or brain. Often, the first sign of DLBCL is a painless, rapid swelling in the neck, underarms, or groin that is caused by enlarged lymph nodes. For some patients, the swelling may be painful. Other symptoms may include night sweats, fever, and unexplained weight loss. Patients may notice fatigue, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, or pain.”

During the Q&A, Hoppus revealed he had a big medical appointment on the horizon at the time, saying, “Tomorrow’s test is to find out if my chemotherapy is working at all. If it is, I go back for at least three more rounds. Ideally, I go in tomorrow and they say, ‘Congratulations, your chemotherapy has worked and you’re all done and you’ll never have to think about this cancer again for the rest of your life.’”

Watch the Q&A above.

Blink-182 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kevin Love will not suit up for Team USA during the upcoming Summer Olympics. In a piece of news originally reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Love, who has been with the team during its pre-Olympic training camp in Las Vegas, made the decision to step away before the Americans made their way to Tokyo.

Love’s agent gave a statement to Wojnarowski from the player, who said that his ongoing recovery from a right calf injury is keeping him from being in a place where he can give it his all during the Olympics.

Love is the second player in as many days to leave the team, as Bradley Beal is out due to Team USA’s health and safety protocols. A further issue, at least in the short-term, is the team’s struggles with having a full roster. As Brian Windhorst of ESPN noted, between those two withdrawals, Jerami Grant being in health and safety protocols, and a trio of players participating in the NBA Finals, the squad has a starting five and a one-person bench.

The current list of available players: Bam Adebayo, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Zach LaVine, Damian Lillard, and Jayson Tatum. Whether the Americans try to find replacements from the Select Team — Saddiq Bey, Darius Garland, and Keldon Johnson have been with the team in recent days — or from elsewhere in its player pool remain to be seen, but with time ticking down until they head over to Tokyo and the NBA Finals going for at least another two games, these decisions will need to be made as soon as possible.