Month: July 2021

Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk’s Tuesday night hospitalization (following his on-set collapse in New Mexico) transformed into a day full of apprehension for those looking for updates on the comedic icon (and freshly-minted action star). After a full day of waiting, however, TMZ reported that he’s “out of the woods,” and Odenkirk’s finally been (thank goodness) revealed to be in stable condition and in recovery mode.

“We can confirm Bob is in stable condition after experiencing a heart-related incident,” a statement from his reps read. “He and his family would like to express gratitude for the incredible doctors and nurses looking after him, as well as his cast, crew and producers who have stayed by his side. The Odenkirks would also like to thank everyone for the outpouring of well wishes and ask for their privacy at this time as Bob works on his recovery.”

In short order, Odenkirk’s son, Nate, reacted with relief: “He’s going to be okay.”

Nate was joined by Bob’s Saul leading lady, Rhea Seehorn (Kim Wexler and her finger guns), who had no words but a lot of love.

Nate and Rita were joined by, well, the Internet. Whew.

Earlier in the day, Bob received well wishes from co-stars, past and present, from the Breaking Bad universe and beyond.

This week, gymnast Simone Biles chose to withdraw from the Olympics due to mental health reasons. It caused quite a stir, with everyone weighing in to either criticize Biles, or quickly defend and support her. Luckily, Justin Bieber is in the latter camp in this case, and posted a very classy and pretty emotional message of support for the young athlete on his Instagram. He remembered similar scrutiny when he chose to cancel his Purpose tour back in 2017, and emphasized that when the thing that brings you joy begins to steal it, taking a step back is the only way.

“Nobody will ever understand the pressures you face!” he began. “I know we don’t know each other but I’m so proud of the decision to withdraw. It’s as simple as — what does it mean to gain the whole world but forfeit your soul. Sometimes our no’s are more powerful than our yes’s. When what you normally love starts to steal your joy it’s important we take a step back to evaluate why. People thought I was crazy for not finishing the purpose tour but it was the best thing I could have done for my mental health!! So proud of you @simonebiles”

Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers are in something of a basketball cold war at the moment, with Lillard not pleased with the current construction of the roster and wanting changes to come this offseason to build a real contender around him. To this point, though, there has been no trade request made and it seems if Lillard were to eventually push his way out, it would be after this season if things don’t improve rather than this summer — at least that is the indication reported by the NBA’s most trusted newsbreakers like ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

However, that hasn’t stopped reports from emerging that something more dramatic was going to happen this month, as Henry Abbott of TrueHoop reported Lillard was considering a trade request during Team USA camp. While that didn’t come to fruition, Abbott doubled down on his reporting this week that Lillard was still looking at his options to get out of Portland, including that he would be willing to give up money to get to a title team.

This came as news to Lillard, who tweeted about the report after Team USA’s dominant win over Iran on Wednesday in Tokyo, laughing about the idea that he would give up money to leave Portland with teammate CJ McCollum.

It’s not often that stars not named Kevin Durant address a report this directly on Twitter, but this latest report was apparently so wild to Dame that he had to respond. Lillard wasn’t done there, again tweeting about it on Wednesday evening (Thursday morning in Tokyo).

Now, people have publicly denied reports before that turned out to be true, but this sure seems like a pretty firm “no” out of Lillard that we aren’t going to see him take less money to play somewhere else — the mechanics of how that would even work for someone with four years left on a deal, if nothing else, seem to make it very unlikely. For the most part, the indication is Lillard will continue to be a Blazer for the next year and how this season goes and how successful the organization is in upgrading the roster to his liking will decide the next steps. For now, we can at least cross off “take less money to go somewhere” from the possibilities.

One of the biggest moments in hip-hop this year arrived back in February with Bobby Shmurda’s release from prison. The rapper previously spent nearly seven years locked up on conspiracy to commit murder and weapons charges. Bobby was welcomed back to the world with open arms from people in and outside of hip-hop, and fans of his music couldn’t wait to hear what the rapper would drop after nearly a decade away from the scene. While he’s yet to give them a new single, the rapper’s first offering to the music world since his release comes in the form of a bilingual verse on a new remix.

Bobby joins J Balvin and Daddy Yankee to remix Eladio Carrion’s “Tata.” The rapper fits effortlessly with the trio as the song’s Latin trap beat suits him perfectly as they all contribute verses in both English and Spanish. The remix also comes with a gritty and flashy visual that captures the four artists flexing muscles in the streets and on the MTA buses before things come to a close with Daddy Yankee concluding the song as he peacefully lounges on a hammock.

The new remix arrives after Bobby returned to the stage at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival for one of his first performances since his release from prison. There he performed hits like “Hot N****” and “Computers” as well as unreleased tracks that left festival attendees extremely excited for what Bobby has in store for them.

You can watch the video for the “Tata” remix above.

While fans are still regularly clamoring for the follow-up to Rihanna‘s stone cold classic, Anti — which came out all the way back in 2016 might I remind you — the beauty and fashion mogul is unbothered. And she’s still much more interested in doubling down on her array of Fenty offerings. On Instagram today, RiRi announced that a new “Fenty Parfum” was coming soon, taking a moment to debut/showcase some side bangs in the shots she posted along with the news. Visuals tend to give some sort of hint as to what their accompanying scent will be like, and these black and white shots with a subtle modern twist via the shorter side burn/side bang are promising.

Between her makeup, lingerie, and now perfume offerings, and that new relationship with ASAP Rocky, it’s obvious that Rihanna has her hands full at the moment. Still, she hasn’t totally abandoned music, and rest assured that R9 will be here eventually. Until then, keep an eye out for a new scent hitting Fenty stores very soon. And if you really need more from her in the meantime, well there’s always the new terry lingerie, or Chloe Bailey covering “Love On The Brain.” That’s as good as it’s gonna get for a while.

If you expected every member of the House of Representatives to be calm and collected, even in opposition, regarding the freshly reinstated mask mandates (in the face of rising Delta cases), you’d be sadly wrong. Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert reportedly threw a mask before she popped onto Twitter to call Nancy Pelosi’s mandate “totalitarian.” And that’s not the end of the animosity. As reported by CNN congressional reporter Daniella Micaela, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Rep. Byron Daniels (R-NY) got into “a yelling fight outside the House floor” on Wednesday.

This report quickly reached “confirmed” status when the two colleagues began tweet-firing at each other. On one hand, it’s great that no more legwork was required to confirm. On the other, well, two elected officials began sh*t-posting at each other, which says a lot about the ongoing state of politics.

“I just had to take a different elevator,” Huffman tweeted. “[B]ecause an unvaccinated, defiantly unmasked GOP colleague doesn’t give a sh*t about anyone but himself.”

And Donalds had a comeback. “Adding @JaredHuffman to the growing list of privileged liberals patronizing me for being a free-thinking American,” he tweeted while adding an infamous GIF (that of Kobe Bryant unflinchingly taking on Matt Barnes’ basketball-toward-the-face move) for humorous effect. “Mind your business; I said what I said.”

Huffman was in no mood to mind his own business because of, well, all the reasons why not wearing a mask can detrimentally affect other people.

Donalds stood firm. “The real epidemic in America is liberals continuing to tell free people how to think,” he insisted. “Jared, mind your business and I’ll mind mine.”

It’s 2021, not 1918 (although it kind-of is), and people still act like wearing a mask to protect others is the most onerous ask in the entire universe.

John Micheal Stewart plays a character known as “The Boss” on the social media hit “Breadstick Ricky and the Boss” but he has some solid advice on why employees shouldn’t overwork themselves.

“Breadstick Ricky and the Boss” has over 2.3 million subscribers on TikTok and follows the on-the-job shenanigans of The Boss and his coworker, Ricky, a high-voice tradesman who has a knack for getting into trouble.

Comments on the videos show they have a big following with hard-working good ol’ boys like the Boss and Ricky characters.

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Stewart gets real in one of his latest videos where he discusses the perils of working too hard and why people need to have a good work-life balance.

“Use every single minute of PTO they give you. You agreed to do a job in exchange for pay and benefits,” Stewart says. “You didn’t sign up to sell your soul and every previous minute of your spare time.”

“Coz if you don’t have a work and life balance, I got bad news, you’re gonna lose one of ’em,” Stewart says.

A good work/life balance is important

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Simone Biles withdrawing from the team final in the Tokyo Olympics and subsequently withdrawing from the individual all-around finals after getting a case of the “twisties” has the world talking. She’s received overwhelming support as well as overwhelming criticism for the move, with some praising her for recognizing her limits and others blasting her for not persevering through whatever she’s dealing with.

Some people pointed to Kerri Strug, who landed on one foot after vaulting with a broken ankle in the 1996 Olympics to help the U.S. win gold, as an example of the kind of sacrifice an athlete should be willing to make for their country.

Byron Heath shared some thoughts about that fateful day in a viral Facebook post that has been shared more than 370,000 times in less than a day.

Heath wrote:

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“This realization I had about Simone Biles is gonna make some people mad, but oh well.

Yesterday I was excited to show my daughters Kerri Strug’s famous one-leg vault. It was a defining Olympic moment that I watched live as a kid, and my girls watched raptly as Strug fell, and then limped back to leap again.

But for some reason I wasn’t as inspired watching it this time. In fact, I felt a little sick. Maybe being a father and teacher has made me soft, but all I could see was how Kerri Strug looked at her coach, Bela Karolyi, with pleading, terrified eyes, while he shouted back ‘You can do it!’ over and over again.

My daughters didn’t cheer when Strug landed her second vault. Instead they frowned in concern as she collapsed in agony and frantic tears.

‘Why did she jump again if she was hurt?’ one of my girls asked. I made some inane reply about the heart of a champion or Olympic spirit, but in the back of my mind a thought was festering: *She shouldn’t have jumped again*

The more the thought echoed, the stronger my realization became. Coach Karolyi should have gotten his visibly injured athlete medical help immediately! Now that I have two young daughters in gymnastics, I expect their safety to be the coach’s number one priority. Instead, Bela Karolyi told Strug to vault again. And he got what he wanted; a gold medal that was more important to him than his athlete’s health. I’m sure people will say ‘Kerri Strug was a competitor–she WANTED to push through the injury.’ That’s probably true. But since the last Olympics we’ve also learned these athletes were put into positions where they could be systematically abused both emotionally and physically, all while being inundated with ‘win at all costs’ messaging. A teenager under those conditions should have been protected, and told ‘No medal is worth the risk of permanent injury.’ In fact, we now know that Strug’s vault wasn’t even necessary to clinch the gold; the U.S. already had an insurmountable lead. Nevertheless, Bela Karolyi told her to vault again according to his own recounting of their conversation:

‘I can’t feel my leg,’ Strug told Karolyi.

‘We got to go one more time,’ Karolyi said. ‘Shake it out.’

‘Do I have to do this again?’ Strug asked. ‘Can you, can you?’ Karolyi wanted to know.

‘I don’t know yet,’ said Strug. ‘I will do it. I will, I will.’

The injury forced Strug’s retirement at 18 years old. Dominique Moceanu, a generational talent, also retired from injuries shortly after. They were top gymnasts literally pushed to the breaking point, and then put out to pasture. Coach Karolyi and Larry Nassar (the serial sexual abuser) continued their long careers, while the athletes were treated as a disposable resource.

Today Simone Biles–the greatest gymnast of all time–chose to step back from the competition, citing concerns for mental and physical health. I’ve already seen comments and posts about how Biles ‘failed her country’, ‘quit on us’, or ‘can’t be the greatest if she can’t handle the pressure.’ Those statements are no different than Coach Karolyi telling an injured teen with wide, frightened eyes: ‘We got to go one more time. Shake it out.’

The subtext here is: ‘Our gold medal is more important than your well-being.’

Our athletes shouldn’t have to destroy themselves to meet our standards. If giving empathetic, authentic support to our Olympians means we’ll earn less gold medals, I’m happy to make that trade.

Here’s the message I hope we can send to Simone Biles: You are an outstanding athlete, a true role model, and a powerful woman. Nothing will change that. Please don’t sacrifice your emotional or physical well-being for our entertainment or national pride. We are proud of you for being brave enough to compete, and proud of you for having the wisdom to know when to step back. Your choice makes you an even better example to our daughters than you were before. WE’RE STILL ROOTING FOR YOU!”

Many people shared Heath’s sentiment, with comments pouring in thanking him for putting words to what they were feeling.

We’re in a new era where our lens of what’s admirable, what’s strong, and what’s right has shifted. We understand more about the lifelong impact of too many concussions. We have trainers and medics checking on football players after big hits. We are finding a better balance between competitiveness and well-being. We are acknowledging the importance of mental health and physical health.

We are also more aware of how both physical and mental trauma impacts young bodies. Though Kerri Strug pushing through the pain has long been seen as an iconic moment in sports, the adults in the room should have been protecting her, not pushing her through an obvious injury.

And the way this fall of Dominique Moceanu at age 14 was handled is downright shocking by today’s standards. She said she never received an exam for it, even after the competition was over. So wrong.

In our sport, we essentially dive into a pool w/ no water. When you lose your ability to find the ground—which app… https://t.co/4ItAGMPIZj

— Dominique Moceanu (@Dmoceanu)
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@Carolinafan0279 @Simone_Biles Nope 👎🏻

— Dominique Moceanu (@Dmoceanu)
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Athletes are not cogs in a wheel, and the desire to win a competition should not trump someone’s well-being. Elite gymnasts already put themselves through grueling physical and mental feats; they wouldn’t be at the top of their sport if they didn’t. But there are limits, and too often in our yearning for a gold medal—or even for a triumphant Olympic story—we push athletes too far.

Now we see some of them pushing back, and knowing what we know now, that’s 100% a good thing.

Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk was hospitalized on Tuesday night after collapsing on the set of the AMC series. It was a scary day of no updates on the status of the comedy legend, but TMZ reports that he’s “out of the woods.”

His reps also sent out a statement. “We can confirm Bob is in stable condition after experiencing a heart-related incident,” it reads. “He and his family would like to express gratitude for the incredible doctors and nurses looking after him, as well as his cast, crew and producers who have stayed by his side. The Odenkirks would also like to thank everyone for the outpouring of well wishes and ask for their privacy at this time as Bob works on his recovery.” His son, Nate, confirmed the good news on Twitter:

All throughout the day and night, several of his collobaters wished him well on social media. “I will share what I know when I can but Bob is one of the strongest people I know both physically and spiritually. He WILL get through this,” Mr. Show co-creator David Cross tweeted. On Instagram, Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul wrote, “I love you my friend,” while Bryan Cranston added, “Today I woke up to news that has made me anxious all morning. My friend, Bob Odenkirk collapsed last night on the set of Better Call Saul. He is in the hospital in Albuquerque and receiving the medical attention he needs but his condition is not known to the public as yet. Please take a moment in your day today to think about him and send positive thoughts and prayers his way, thank you.”

Fingers crossed for more information as it’s made available. Get better, Bob.

The controversy surrounding DaBaby’s homophobic and misinformed comments from his Miami Rolling Loud set just wouldn’t be complete without the release of some new music, would it? The Charlotte rapper doesn’t disappoint, releasing the new video for his song, “Giving What It’s Supposed To Give.” Apparently filmed the day before the controversial set, the video is already drawing attention and criticism for making references to AIDS and oral sex, the two topics for which he’s been under fire for the last three days.

The video is a wild, abstract jumble of vignettes playing off of his raunchy lyrics and is obviously meant to be played for humorous effect, but honestly, I’m not entirely sure that it wouldn’t have gotten a chilly reception from some of the imagery even without the Rolling Loud controversy. With it, the scene in question, which features DaBaby holding up a sign that says “AIDS” before shooting two arguing men as he raps “we like AIDS, I’m on your ass,” seems grotesque and in poor taste.

He couldn’t be happier, gleefully sharing the link to the video on Instagram with the caption: “It never seizes to amaze me the way God puts me in situations I’m already equipped to handle. Enjoy.” Skating over the part where the correct phrase should be “it never ceases to amaze me,” it does seem as if the seriousness of his offense is lost on him. It looks like he really thinks he’s just teasing, it’s all in good fun, and people are being wet blankets for pointing out the real-life harm that has come to people over comments like his — often by people espousing the same rhetoric. (Someone should also probably point out how “giving what it’s supposed to give” as slang was hijacked wholesale from drag culture, but it won’t be me).

That hasn’t stopped fans from pointing out the discrepancy between his words and actions on Twitter, criticizing him for deciding to double down instead of re-shooting/recording the video/song.

Watch DaBaby’s “Giving What’s Supposed To Give” video above.