Month: July 2021

If you watched all 17 hours of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, you know that Jared Leto’s Joker returns in a “Knightmare” epilogue where Batman tells his foe that Harley Quinn is dead. “It’s funny that you would talk about people who died in my arms. Because when I held Harley Quinn, and she was bleeding and dying, she begged me with her last breath that when I killed you — and make no mistake, I will f*cking kill you — that I’d do it slow,” he tells Joker. “I’m gonna honor that promise.” If Warner Bros. promised to tell Harley Quinn actress Margot Robbie about the fate of her character, they broke it.

Entertainment Weekly caught up with the Oscar-nominated actress on the set of The Suicide Squad, where she was asked for her thoughts on the so-called Snyder Cut. “Whaaat?” Robbie replied when told about what happens to Harley. “I didn’t know that. Thank you for telling me!” It’s pobably not the ideal way to find out the character you’ve played in two (Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey), soon-to-be three (The Suicide Squad) movies died in Batman’s arms, although she understands the decision:

“Each movie is its own sort of thing, and I think that works in the comic book world, and I think that works in the DC film world as well. It’s not like Marvel where everything is more obviously linked in a more linear way. It feels like there’s so many adjacent stories, worlds, and films happening at the same time… So, yeah, I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t necessarily change what other people are able to do with this universe, I don’t think. What one director decides I don’t think dictates what another director might be able to pick up and do with the world and the characters, which is fun.”

As for whether Robbie intends to play Harley again, she’s not saying no, but after shooting Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad, she needs a break. “She’s exhausting,” she said. James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad comes out on August 6.

(Via EW)

Foo Fighters are now just a few days away from releasing their Bee Gees covers collection, Hail Satin. Ahead of then, the band (re-dubbed the Dee Gees for Bee Gees-covering purposes) shared a new video for their rendition of “You Should Be Dancing,” which comes across much like a traditional Foo Fighters performance, save for the colorful disco-inspired lights and the addition of some backing singers.

After covering the song back in February, Dave Grohl said of the experience:

“We’ve been going down to our studio every day and filming things and recording things, and this one day, we had our list of things we were supposed to do and it said, ​’Record a cover song for Jo.’ And while we were having this conversation, somebody said, ‘Hey, have you seen that Bee Gees documentary?’ And I was like the last person on Earth… the only person that hadn’t seen it. So I was like, ‘Why don’t we just do a Bee Gees song?’ And someone was like, ‘OK, how do you wanna do it?’ And I said, ‘Well, let’s do it like the Bee Gees.’ […] We started recording the instrumental track and then I thought, ​’OK, well I’m gonna go out and sing it,’ and let me tell you: I have never, ever in my life sung like that, but it was the easiest song I have ever sung in my entire life. I didn’t realize that my voice could, like… [sings with a high voice]. I sang the song, and it was like six minutes and I was done. I should have been singing like this for the last 25 years!”

Watch the “You Should Be Dancing” video above.

Tucker Carlson is one of the biggest conspiracy theory pushers out there, but boy, is he talented at pushing back when called out. He gets an A+ in the Art of Defensiveness. That was recently the case during one specific nugget of Ben Smith’s The New York Times report about Tucker being secretly “a great source” for unflattering stories about Donald Trump (when Smith had asked Tucker to comment on whether he’d been vaccinated, the Fox News host deflected with a question about Smith’s sex life). Now, Tucker’s rivaled his own push-back abilities with his response to a CNN report that claims he is so angry about his Fox News colleagues and bosses declining to support his claims of being spied on by the NSA, so that (?) he’ll be taken off the air.

In the CNN piece, multiple sources (albeit unnamed) told the outlet that Tucker is secretly venting to fellow Fox News employees about how he’s absolutely “furious” at network executives “for not backing him up.” And the sources insist that Tucker firmly believes that there’s some conspiracy to ruin his show, and he is “extra pissed” over the subject, even though he’s apparently often feeling “tension” with his colleagues, as well as Fox News bosses and their PR team. According to another source quoted by CNN, “Tensions are sky high.”

Well, in keeping with his push-back reputation, CNN notes that Tucker did respond to a request for comment, and he calls this report “absurd.” He added that he’s “not mad” with any people at Fox News, and here’s the icing on the cake: “I’m mad at you for lying relentlessly. What a loathsome person you are. Please print that.”

As CNN’s piece points out, one would think that Fox News would deem it very significant that one of its hosts is allegedly being spied upon by anyone, let alone the U.S. government. And yet, no leadership has spoken up on the subject. That would include Fox Corporation heads Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch, along with Fox News chief exec Suzanne Scott and Fox News President Jay Wallace, all of which have kept their lips zipped and chosen to neither voice support for Tucker or condemn any alleged wrongdoing by the NSA. The same goes for Tucker’s on-air colleagues, including Sean Hannity and the Fox and Friends gang.

To date, Tucker has offered up no evidence on his accusations, only to say that a “whistleblower” informed him of the alleged surveillance. The NSA has steadfastly denied that they’re looking in on Tucker’s communications and so on, but he didn’t buy that denial. Tucker also conveniently forgot to mention that he was in the process of trying to secure an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the midst of making his NSA accusations. To that, Fox News did tell Axios, “We support any of our hosts pursuing interviews and stories free of government interference.”

CNN reports that Tucker feels like this vague statement was “wholly insufficient” to address the matter, and he’s steamed that no leadership will take his side. Still, he’s apparently got one of the more out-there colleagues on his side; that would be Fox Business’ chief conspiracy theorist, Maria Bartiromo, who appeared to sympathize with Tucker during an interview on her show. Oh, and alleged sex-trafficking congressman Matt Gaetz has stumped for Tucker, too, which is interesting, considering that Tucker pedaled away from Gaetz, fast, when the Florida political tried to rope him into a certain ongoing scandal. So… Tucker has some support? Although it’s not from anyone at Fox News who’d possibly make an impact.

(Via CNN & Axios)

The inaugural edition of WitcherCon went down late last week as a joint event from CD Projekt Red (the developer of The Witcher video games, which are canon-divergent) and Netflix (the maker of The Witcher TV show, which is canon and pulled the bathtub into that status). As a result, the fandom received several updates on the TV/film front. That included a look at Jaskier belting out his upcoming banger and a few release dates of interest: the anime movie Nightmare of the Wolf will stream on August 23, and The Witcher‘s second season will arrive on December 17.

To that end, Henry Cavill appeared on a few WitcherCon panels, and he revealed that Geralt of Rivia will have a slightly different edge to him in the new batch of episodes. Never fear, those grumpy faces and stoic grunts won’t be going anywhere, but Geralt might be chattier than viewers expect. Cavill explained that he felt Geralt’s relative silence made a ton of sense during the first season due to Geralt saying less because he’s thinking more. Yet Geralt’s got more reason to speak up during Season 2.

Here’s how Cavill more fully explained the different approach:

“I played the Season One way deliberately, which was him out in the wilds and without the opportunity for vast swathes of dialogue. I thought it best to be the man who says less because that seems like he’s thinking more. And that was the intention with that. But once you get into a scenario with Cirilla, and the Witchers and his home space and with those people who he already knows, I was of the opinion that you had to let him be verbose and be philosophical and speak more and be intellectual, because that’s what he is. He’s not just a big old white-haired brute.”

This totally makes sense, given that Geralt will grow paternal with Princess Ciri while embracing their destinies. He’ll also be around more Witchers, so he’s gonna let those lips fly a little looser. This should be an awful lot of fun when Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir, shows up because he’ll be played by none other than Kim Bodnia (the wickedly amusing and duplicitous Constantine of Killing Eve). I hope they grunt at each other in addition to talking. You know you wanna see that, too.

(Via WitcherCon)

The Bucks got themselves on the board in the 2021 NBA Finals on Sunday night with an impressive 120-100 win over the Suns in Milwaukee, bouncing back from a pair of losses in Phoenix where they simply looked outclassed. There were a number of differences in Game 3, most notably the Suns going cold (aside from Jae Crowder’s 6-of-7 night) from three-point range and Devin Booker scoring just 10 points, while Milwaukee saw Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton finally get it going offensively to support another monster 41-point effort from Giannis Antetokounmpo.

A contributing factor to the Suns’ woes was Deandre Ayton getting into foul trouble after dominating the early portion of the game. Ayton had 12 points in the first quarter to lift Phoenix to a three-point lead going to the second, but picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and sat the rest of the way. From that point forward, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks absolutely dominated offensively, and Ayton quickly added a fifth foul after returning to start the fourth and wouldn’t play another minute.

There were a couple 50/50 calls on Ayton, but the fourth, in particular, was simply a mental mistake of grabbing Giannis on a second-chance opportunity when he just needed to let him go for a layup given the circumstances of the moment. Ayton not being out there led to lots of Frank Kaminsky minutes, which went disastrously, and small-ball lineups that scored better but likewise stood no chance of containing the Bucks and, especially, Giannis. There were certainly some calls that the Suns could’ve had gripes with, but not to the point of it being decisive in the game.

However, that didn’t stop Monty Williams from pointing out that Giannis attempted more free throws (17) than the Suns did as a team (16) — funnily, seconds after insisting he wouldn’t publicly complain about officiating.

There were a couple 50/50 calls that went Giannis’ way in Game 3 — most notably an instance when it seemed he crashed into Jae Crowder going to post up and Crowder got hit with the foul — but that was also just a product of Giannis, by himself, being as aggressive as the entire Phoenix team.

The Suns’ love of the midrange jumper is an advantage in that it’s the shot most defenses are willing to give up, but it’s also just not a shot you get fouls called on very often. Not getting to the rim was the biggest issue in the Suns not getting calls, whereas Giannis was moving downhill all night. On top of that, when Giannis goes downhill, the book on him is to try and foul him to make him take free throws instead of getting layups and dunks, which the Suns did plenty of to willfully accept a foul in exchange for stopping a layup — Giannis just happened to hit 13-of-17 from the stripe.

That doesn’t really matter to Williams, who knows a lot of these things but is still hoping to get a couple of those 50/50 calls to go in the direction of the Suns in Game 4. Still, there are far bigger things for the Suns to correct going into Game 4 than worrying about calls, most notably that if they’re doing what they need to and being more assertive and attacking, the whistles are likely to come.

Game 3 of the Bucks-Suns series started as so many have, with each team trading blows early and the Suns starting to open up a healthy first quarter lead while Milwaukee struggled shooting from long-range. The Suns led 28-25 after one quarter of play in Milwaukee thanks in large part to the play of Deandre Ayton, who dominated with 12 points in the opening frame as he took advantage of the Bucks’ switching defense early.

Chris Paul also had a nice start with 10 points and four assists, but aside from those two, the Suns struggled to get consistent production. After shooting 50 percent from three-point range in Game 2 at home, Phoenix was ice cold from deep on the road, going 2-for-14 from distance in the first half. Milwaukee wasn’t significantly better, 5-of-18, but they were able to more consistently get themselves to the rim — in part due to their ability to get out and run off of misses from Phoenix — and that proved to be the catalyst for a big second quarter push.

Leading the charge in the second was Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had 18 points in the first half to go along with eight boards and four assists, as he did a bit of everything for the Bucks who were far more assertive than they had been in the first two games of the series.

The Bucks defense was the catalyst for their second quarter run, as they smothered the Suns’ playmakers, particularly Devin Booker, who was just 2-for-11 in the first half for seven points, as Khris Middleton, PJ Tucker, and Jrue Holiday were aggressive in pressing Booker and making the Phoenix star uncomfortable.

Middleton also got himself going after some struggles on the road to open the series, scoring 15 points with five assists and four rebounds in the first half as Milwaukee started to break down Phoenix’s defense to take a 60-45 advantage into the break.

The third quarter started with the two teams trading buckets, as the Suns simply had no answers for Giannis inside, but were finally able to see a pair of threes go down courtesy of Jae Crowder.

The best moment of the game for the Suns came in the mid third quarter when Cam Johnson did something no one in the building was expecting when he took off and hammered home an and-1 dunk on top of PJ Tucker — the Bucks challenged the block call and were unsuccessful, allowing everyone instead to just watch dozens of replays of Tucker’s massacre.

That proved to be the catalyst for an extended run, led by Johnson who had 10 points in the first seven minutes of the third, that got Phoenix within four of Milwaukee.

However, Jrue Holiday, who has been dreadful shooting the ball all series, was able to come back with two huge three-pointers to keep the Suns at a distance. From there, the two teams traded buckets as with Ayton out with four fouls, the pace picked up on both sides with small-ball and shots started to fall from long-range on both ends.

However, the Bucks were just relentless on offense. Holiday continued his hot shooting, knocking down a fourth three late in the third and then, from there, Milwaukee had Giannis and Phoenix — which somewhat bizarrely never put Ayton back in the game in the third — had no answers.

Giannis finished with 16 third quarter points, feasting inside with Ayton out and also connecting on most of his free throws, and he finished off the quarter with a great read and find of Pat Connaughton for a three to put Milwaukee up 22 going to the fourth.

The fourth quarter was more of the same involving Antetokounmpo, as he was absolutely relentless attacking the basket on his way to back-to-back 40-point games in the Finals.

Ayton picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth and again went straight to the bench, as he was held ineffective in the second half by foul trouble and Monty Williams not allowing him to play through it. Ayton finished with 18 points and nine rebounds after such a dominant start, and the Suns couldn’t figure out how to patrol the paint without him. Frank Kaminsky’s minutes were disastrous, and while the small-ball lineups scored well, they couldn’t do anything to slow the Bucks down. Figuring that out going forward is going to be critical for Phoenix without Dario Saric for the series, as there will be another game where Ayton finds himself in foul trouble and Williams is either going to have to trust him to play through it or figure out some kind of miraculous coverage to slow down Giannis when Ayton sits.

Elsewhere for Phoenix, Chris Paul was very solid with 19 points and nine assists, while Jae Crowder was 6-of-7 from deep for 18 points, but they just couldn’t get consistent production from anyone else. Devin Booker sat for much of the second half, as Williams seemed to punt on this game to get his guys some rest going forward with Ayton and Booker playing 24 and 29 minutes, respectively. Booker had just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting and getting him some rest might prove prudent longterm as this series seems likely to tighten up.

For Milwaukee, it was a game they needed to have with a rather stress-free 120-100 win where all of their key guys had excellent performances. Giannis was, obviously, the focal point with 41 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists as he continues to level up this postseason with monster showings night in and night out. More importantly, though, Holiday and Middleton got going at various points in Game 3 and that has to be a sight for sore eyes in Milwaukee. Those two combined for 39 points, 15 assists, and 12 rebounds, providing Antetokounmpo with the support he needs and showing how tremendous this team can be when all three of their stars are rolling.

We now find ourselves with what looks to be a far more competitive series going forward and Game 4 will feel like a pivotal moment in these Finals. Milwaukee will look to hold serve at homecourt and send things back to Phoenix tied at 2-2, while the Suns will look to shake off a rough shooting night from Devin Booker and figure out something else defensively to swipe one on the road and make Game 5 a closeout opportunity at home.

Seinfeld emerged in an era still beholden to TV theme songs with lyrics, often explaining the premise at hand. But fitting for a show that was famously about “nothing,” its own main theme had no lyrics — just some jazzy synths, some mouth snaps, and one helluva slap bass line. But it was almost too pure for this world. In a new Yahoo! Entertainment interview with composer Jonathan Wolff (as caught by The AV Club), coinciding with the recent, belated release of its soundtrack, we learn NBC almost shot it down.

Wolff says a typical theme song wouldn’t work with the show’s opening, which always found Jerry Seinfeld’s Jerry Seinfeld doing a new stand-up bit. He wanted something that wouldn’t be too distracting. So he came up with what he calls a “basic and sophomoric” bass line, and threw in “the human nature of my finger-snaps and lips and tongues doing stuff.” And thus an iconic theme song was born.

Except that it was almost snuffed out at birth. NBC execs, Wolff recalls, thought it “sounded odd and weird.” Others found it “distracting,” and “annoying.” He argues that one reason was that the slap bass “had not yet enjoyed ‘celebrity status’ as a solo instrument” — this coming before Primus used it for another famous TV theme song, for South Park.

Who saved it? Larry David. Upon hearing that the suits found it bizarre, he sprung into action, fighting for its inclusion. As per Wolff, “Larry, he loves annoying! He lives for annoying! That’s his primary goal in life.”

And that’s why ‘90s Must-See TV got the funkiest theme song since Barney Miller.

(Via Yahoo! Entertainment and The AV Club)

The year’s second Conservative Political Action Conference was as off-the-rails as one would expect. Don Jr. tried to be funny. Lauren Boebert got made fun of by AOC. The audience cheered the dearth of people safe from a highly contagious disease. But the biggest draw was the big boy himself, former president and failed blogger Donald J. Trump. He’s still the party’s figurehead despite being banned over much of social media, and he used his speech on Sunday to do something almost unheard of from him: He told the truth.

In a Greatest Hits speech that cycled through the usual malarkey — much of it voter fraud lies — Trump, for whatever reason, saw fit to brag that he became the first president to be impeached twice. He was talking about William Barr, his once loyal Attorney General, who refused to make up nonsense about the election he lost last November. Trump claimed Barr “became different” after Democrats threatened him with impeachment. But Trump, he claimed, is made of stronger stuff.

“I didn’t become different. I got impeached twice,” Trump said, to thunderous applause. He then added, “I became worse.”

It’s a strange thing to brag about, but maybe it only seems that way because we so rarely hear from a man who now lives in resorts with strangers. Still, some people joked that at least he was finally telling the truth about something.

Some pointed out that this certainly disproves Maine Senator Susan Collins’ defense of why she didn’t vote for impeachment the first time, in 2019, claiming that Trump would learn his lesson. And straight from the horse’s mouth, we know he did not.

And others pointed out that Trump can easily make a comeback if people aren’t careful.

It’s been almost a year since the release of Pop Smoke’s first posthumous album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, and there’s more en route. The late rapper’s management recently revealed that a second such release is arriving on July 16, news that was broken in a new trailer that captured Pop Smoke sharing some motivational words with listeners. “Never let anybody get in between you and your creations,” he says in the video. “Why you just trying to be cool? You gotta make history.” With just a few days left until its arrival, Pop Smoke’s manager, Steven Victor, provided a new update.

On Twitter, Victor revealed that the late rapper’s second posthumous album is called Faith. This is not what some fans presumed it would be titled. Thanks to the pre-save page on Apple Music for the project, many believed the album would be titled Pop Smoke, as that was the name that appeared in the album title location.

The news comes after Smoke’s team shared the outro from the upcoming album. It clocks in at a brief 31 seconds and features some inspirational words from the late rapper himself. While Faith won’t be here for another five days, fans in New York and Los Angeles can preview the album’s songs thanks to QR codes on posters promoting the upcoming release.

Pop Smoke is out 7/16 via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic. Pre-order it here.

It’s been over two years since we first heard of the college admissions scandal known as Operation Varsity Blues, in which a number of rich and powerful parents were accused of committing various forms of fraud to get their kids into top universities. Perhaps the biggest name in the brouhaha was Full House alum Lori Loughlin, whose daughter Olivia Jade was fraudulently accepted at the University of Southern California. It turned Jade from a popular YouTube vlogger into a pop culture phenomenon, big enough that she got name-checked on the new edition of Gossip Girl.

Problem is, the show’s writers didn’t get their facts straight. And the person who corrected them was Jade herself. According to Entertainment Weekly, the social media celeb took to TikTok to take umbrage with a joke, in which one of the teen characters, talking about another’s social media popularity, cracks that “Olivia Jade gained followers when her mom went to jail.”

Not so, said Jade. Her fact-check was brief: In the video, she sits in front of a screen showing the offending clip. After the line, she simply says, “No, I didn’t.”

Indeed, Jade lost subscribers after the scandal hit, going from 1.9 million to 1.8 million. That’s not a lot, but while the shocking revelations made her more famous, it didn’t result in new followers. So there.

You can watch Jade’s TikTok here.

(Via EW)