Month: July 2021

Long ago, in the ancient times known as 1999, Rosie O’Donnell had one of the most popular talk shows in America, which gave her access to all kinds of things like an advanced screening of Fight Club. As the legend goes, and O’Donnell will fully admit to this, she was so disgusted by the violence and the themes in Fight Club that she went on her talk show and proceeded to spoil the twist ending in hopes that her national audience wouldn’t go see the film. She blurted the whole thing out.

While the moment has been referenced by Brad Pitt in the Fight Club DVD commentary (and actors like Holt McCallany, who brought up the Rosie incident during an interview for the film’s 20th anniversary), O’Donnell had never fully addressed the topic until now. During an interview with The Jess Cagle Show on Monday, O’Donnell revealed that for years she never realized what a huge deal it was at the time. She just figured it was another one of her rants. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“No one said jack shit to me for a good three, maybe even four years,” O’Donnell said on the SiriusXM show. “And Courtney Love on my show says, ‘Oh, my God, Ed Norton and Brad Pitt are so mad at you for what you did.’ I was like ‘What did I do?’ It was three years later! People sometimes ask me on the internet whether or not I did it. And I did. I didn’t have, like. ‘Oh, my God. I want to hurt these people.’ I just had my normal blathering on about feelings about the movie.”

While O’Donnell has always owned up to spoiling the film’s ending on her talk show, she now realizes that it wasn’t the best move on her part.

“I guess I ruined it for the people who worked so hard on it, and I should be more careful with what I say in a negative way about a movie,” O’Donnell admitted. “If you don’t like it, just don’t mention it. That would have worked better.”

(Via The Jess Cagle Show)

USA Basketball as a whole has not had the smoothest run-up to the Tokyo Olympics. The men’s and women’s national teams both lost their first two exhibition games, while the men have needed to add two replacement players and most recently had to leave Zach LaVine in Las Vegas as he entered health and safety protocols (but hope he’ll join them later).

On the 3×3 side, the men’s team failed to qualify for Tokyo in a stunner, and on Monday, the women’s team got some awful news as Katie Lou Samuelson announced she had tested positive for COVID-19 and would not be able to play in the Olympics.

It is devastating for Samuelson, who notes going to the Olympics has long been a dream of hers, and she tested positive despite having been vaccinated, which doesn’t fully prevent a person from contracting the virus but limits the severity of cases and further spread. As for the team, it’s a big blow to lose the forward currently playing for the Storm, and they will replace Samuelson with Jackie Young from the Aces.

Replacing Samuelson with Young takes away some size from the USA 3×3 team, but gives them another on-ball scoring threat. Young joins her Aces teammate, Kelsey Plum, as well as Allisha Gray and Stefanie Dolson on the four-woman roster, meaning they will have to quickly work Young in without the luxury of a deep roster like on the 5-on-5 squads.

Prior to the release of the upcoming Disney movie Jungle Cruise, the folks at Disneyland have made some much-needed cultural updates to the ride that inspired the film. These changes were finally revealed this week when the ride re-opened for guests and showed off new tweaks to some of the iconic — and now condemned — scenes.

One of the changes involved the “trapped safari” scene, in which a white traveler was depicted at the top of a totem pole trying to avoid a rhinoceros while native guides were stranded towards the bottom. In addition, several “negative depictions of native people,” Disney says, were swapped out of more slapstick scenes that depicted various monkeys and chimps getting the best of some ill-prepared travelers on a jungle expedition.

According to a report by the LA Times, “these changes are part of a broader attempt by Disney and Imagineering to ensure Disneyland remains a vital part of the cultural conversation rather than a cultural artifact.” Carmen Smith, the executive of inclusion strategies for Imagineering, says Disney is “very mindful of the events that are happening around the world that impact people,” and wants to “make sure that everyone who comes to our parks is seen, and that they’re heard.”

The changes made to Jungle Cruise aren’t the first to come to Disney parks and are merely just one part of the company’s overarching goal to make their theme parks “the happiest place on Earth” for everyone. In 2017, Disneyland removed a bridal auction scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and altered one of the ride’s “wenches” to be a fellow pirate instead. Following the murder of George Floyd, Disney announced it would remove “Song of the South” from Splash Mountain, and instead feature music from “The Princess and the Frog,” the Disney film featuring the first Black princess, Tiana. Earlier this year, Disney announced that all Disney staff members would have more freedom in their workplace attire, including the ability to choose gender-inclusive costumes and hairstyles, as well as show off their body art. With all these changes in mind, it seems Disney is doing a pretty phenomenal job at growing with the culture rather while preserving what matters: creating a safe and fun place for all.

These changes come just a few weeks out from Jungle Cruise, Disney’s latest film based on a theme park ride. The film boasts an all-star cast featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Emily Blunt, Paul Giamatti, Jesse Plemons, and more as they undertake an “epic quest.” According to the film’s synopsis, Jungle Cruise follows Lily (Emily Blunt) as she seeks out an ancient tree with healing abilities, which will allow her to “change the future of medicine.”

“Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s — hangs in the balance.”

Jungle Cruise hits theaters and theaters and Disney+ on July 30, 2021.

A Medford, Oregon sushi restaurant tried to pull a fast one on its employees but it didn’t get past the U.S. Department of Labor. The agency has recovered $280,124 in back pay from Misoya Bistro that will be split among 36 employees.

Federal investigators say that for the past two years, the restaurant paid its employees an hourly “tip wage” that was “significantly lower” than what they earned in tips.

“I think employers sometimes may think that because they pay the state minimum wage which is higher than the federal minimum wage, means that they can be involved in tips,” Carrie Aguilar, district director for the Wage and Hour Division – Portland office, told NBC5. “That’s just not the case. Tips should always go to the employees.”

Investigators also found the restaurant didn’t pay overtime to several employees when they worked over 40 hours a week.

The bistro has agreed to pay the back wages and tips and the investigation will be closed once this is confirmed. No charges have been filed against the owner.

“Restaurant workers are among the nation’s lowest-paid and are often unfamiliar with their legal rights regarding tips, minimum wages and overtime. The pandemic made clear these workers are essential to our economy and they must be paid all of their hard-earned wages,” Aguilar said. “Employers who violate the law hurt workers and their families. They also gain an unfair advantage over law-abiding competitors who operate legally.”

Three years ago, Jeremy King, 37, of Germantown, Maryland, underwent surgery for a brain tumor. He was able to walk after the procedure but still has some challenges maintaining his balance.

In June 2020, he and his wife, Chelsie, 32, learned they had a child on the way and were concerned whether Jeremy would be able to go on a walk with a newborn.

“Over the last few years we’ve kind of navigated his new adaptability and last summer when we found that we were expecting that introduced a whole new set of challenges,” Chelsie told Today. “Parenting is hard enough, but when you have a physical disability, especially one that is still fairly new … We immediately started researching things to find ways to make parenting accessible for Jeremy, and honestly we didn’t come up with a lot.”

Chelsie is a school teacher so she asked fellow educator, Matt Zigler, at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, if he could help.

Zigler teaches a high school class called “Making for Social Good,” where students work to create products that have a positive social impact.

High School Students Create Wheelchair Stroller for Teacher’s Husband

www.youtube.com

“The idea of the course is to start out by trying to understand the problem, so we did interviews with the family,” Zigler told “Good Morning America.” “We talked to somebody at the local fire department who actually does infant car seat installation training to try to better understand how those things work.”

Zigler asked his students to come up with ideas for a wheelchair attachment that could accommodate a car seat and then create 3D models of what they would look like. The students also got to speak with the Kings to learn about their specific challenges.

The students were even more excited about the project because they felt a special connection with the Kings. “It was a good experience to have because we could ask them questions,” Ibenka Espinoza, 17, told “Good Morning America.” “I think that was the most fun.”

The students soon realized that a car seat attachment was only a temporary solution and that they’d need to design something that works for strollers as well. “Children grow and they grow out of a car seat so we wanted Mr. King to be able to walk with his son no matter what age he was,” Jacob Zlotnitsky, 18, said.

The students used a 3D printer to make custom parts for the attachment and took several trips to Home Depot for additional materials. They also borrowed a wheelchair from the nurse’s office to use as a model.

WheeStroll – Wheelchair Stroller Attachment

www.youtube.com

The students finished both attachments in March, just before Chelsie’s due date. A few weeks after the birth of their son, Phoenix, they were able to successfully use the car seat attachment to take him on walks.

“Using it was overwhelming because I never thought I would be able to do something like this with our son,” Jeremy said. “Most people can go out on a walk with their family but that is really difficult for me — most people take that for granted.”

Wheelchair-stroller built by students for new parent with impaired mobility
https://t.co/s4m2uJ8Hib https://t.co/4u1Lftang6

— Air1 News (@air1news)
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The great thing is that the students’ inventions are gifts that will keep on giving. Zigler has made the instructions for building the attachments available to everyone online. “With fairly cheap materials and tools, somebody that’s a little bit handy could make these for someone,” Zigler said.

“I love the idea that these students got this project and it’ll be something long-lasting,” Chelsie said. “I know that they’ll remember that for years to come, which is all you can hope for as an educator.”

Seth Rogen published an autobiographical book of essays, Yearbook, in May, and in doing so, he published a wealth of stories about his encounters (great and not so great) with fellow famous people. You’d think that, under normal circumstances, Rogen would maybe be running low on stories, right? Most of us would need to refuel, but nope. That is not happening here. Rogen subsequently revealed an amazing story (about Paul Rudd giving him a prank-massage) that Rudd did not hesitate to confirm. Somehow, Rogen still has more stories to tell, and he told a pretty good one to guest-host Nick Kroll on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Very clearly, this was a wild one. Rogen had been saving this story up for a special occasion, and he related how a friend once went off on Seth with accusations that he’d, uh, touched a dog, Baxter, in a certain place. The Pineapple Express star insists that he actually heard this coming his way: “Seth, he does not like it when you touch his penis!” And of course, Seth was very confused because he did not touch the penis of the dog, and the matter was further complicated by wondering how this friend knew that Baxter would be upset in such a scenario.

The story actually sounds a lot better when Seth relates it than when I attempt to make sense of it in written form (so watch it above). Also,, Seth would like everyone to know (via Twitter) that he’s been waiting “for almost a decade” to tell the story. He also expressed happiness that Kroll “agreed to host the show just so I could do that.”

Friendship, man. Speaking of which, Rogen added that, after Paul Rudd had given him nearly an entire Vegas massage, the ruse was over when “I heard him start laughing.” Rudd had started “massaging my face quite a bit,” and then, “I opened my eyes to see Paul Rudd standing over me like laughing hysterically with like my cheeks in his hands.”

This sounds like the opposite of a relaxing massage, but you never know!

Seth Meyers is going day-drinking again, and it appears he’s bringing Lorde with him.

In a sign that Hollywood is starting to bring a sense of normalcy back to its late-night offerings, Meyers will host a musical guest in-studio for the first time since lockdowns began as well as bring back the popular segment where he and a fellow celebrity get wasted in an empty bar.

According to Deadline, Meyers and the 24-year-old musician will reprise a popular segment from his Late Night program, Day Drinking with Seth Meyers, with the “Royals” singer pulling double duty on the program as guest and barmate.

The host of NBC’s Late Night is bringing back his popular segment with pop star Lorde for the first time since the pandemic hit. The late-night show is also returning to a full production musical performance for the first time since March 2020 with the Pure Heroine star.

The Grammy Award-winning artist will appear on the show on Wednesday July 21. Lorde will go Day Drinking as well as join Meyers in the studio for an interview and the performance.

Meyers has had a number of celebrities on the segment in the past (you can see a supercut of his greatest hits above) but the feature was on hold during the worst parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lorde is scheduled to appear on July 21, presumably kicking off a string of in-studio musical performances from this point forward.

Lorde has been making the late-night rounds recently, also appearing on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater to perform “Solar Power” on Late Night With Stephen Colbert last week. But there was no day-drinking involved. As far as we know. Either way, this should be a lot of fun.

After a rough first two weeks of camp that included two players having to withdraw and two rather stunning losses to Nigeria and Australia, things started looking up for the USA men’s basketball team to end their time in Las Vegas when they had their best performance yet against a very good Spain squad on Sunday.

However, the good times were short-lived as on Monday, the team was back to being down a man for their flight to Tokyo after Zach LaVine was placed into health and safety protocols, as announced by USA Basketball.

The good news is that this seems to be a situation in which they believe LaVine can clear protocols in time to rejoin the squad, but he becomes the third player to have to enter protocols so far for Team USA. Bradley Beal had to withdraw from the Olympics because of his situation, while Jerami Grant was able to clear protocols and return for Sunday’s game with Spain. This means the American men will land in Tokyo with just eight players, as Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, and Khris Middleton are all still in the NBA Finals and LaVine now enters a quarantine period in Las Vegas prior to hopefully rejoining the team.

After profiling Pooh Shiesty and Blxst in the last two episodes of How I Blew Up, this week, Uproxx dives into the background of their fellow 2021 XXL Freshman from Pontiac, Michigan, DDG, who experienced his career peak this year with “Moonwalking In Calabasas” from his collaborative mixtape with Atlanta producer OG Parker.

In this episode, DDG explains how “there’s nothing to do in Pontiac but bullsh*t” and what led him to pursue creating YouTube videos as a career. He then explains why he made the transition from YouTube to recording his first handful of mixtapes and faced skepticism from fans who thought that he wasn’t taking music seriously — an obstacle he confronted by releasing a song literally titled “Take Me Serious.” Naturally, he also addresses the moment he knew “Moonwalking In Calabasas” was his biggest hit yet, and he ends the episode reflecting on his plans for the future, which include retirement by the age of 33.

In addition to appearing on How I Blew Up and the latest episode of UPROXX Sessions (performing his Die 4 Respect single “Hood Melody“), DDG is also the focus of Uproxx’s latest digital cover story, which you can check out here.

Watch the latest episode of How I Blew Up above.

Ever since Peyton Manning retired he has been the white whale of the NFL broadcasting world. Every network, save maybe CBS with Tony Romo, would throw aside their current top analyst to bring Manning on board, but to this point, he has refused to commit to a full-time spot in any booth.

There’s plenty of reason for Manning to say no. He isn’t in need of the money, and the time commitment of being on the road broadcasting games each week is clearly something he’s not interested in right now. Still, that hasn’t stopped the overtures and on Monday, ESPN — where Manning has hosted Peyton’s Places on ESPN+ since 2019 — announced they had finally gotten at least a little bit of their dream scenario.

The Monday Night Football booth is going to stay the same next year, with Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick back for a second season, but Peyton and Eli Manning will now have a presence on an alternate broadcast for 10 games per season for the next three years. The Monday Night Football MegaCast will air on ESPN2, with the Manning brothers and a yet-to-be-named host doing a broadcast remotely with special guests joining to talk about the game and tell stories, 10 Mondays a season.

It seems to be a compromise point between ESPN and Manning, who they’ve been effectively begging to join the MNF booth for years. Peyton shows his appreciation for the partnership with ESPN while getting to do a non-traditional broadcast that doesn’t require the travel and time commitment — while also embracing the more fun side of things that he so clearly prefers.

“This partnership with ESPN and The Walt Disney Company reflects an ongoing, shared commitment to offering fans fun, innovative content,” said Peyton Manning in a release. “ESPN+ has been a terrific partner for Omaha Productions as we built out The Places franchise and we’re excited to co-create a new MegaCast format that will have something for everyone.”

It’s going to be very interesting to see how the MegaCast performs, but the Mannings are as beloved as any figures in football and ESPN has had great success in the past with their MegaCast options for big college and NFL games. Now this becomes a staple, albeit one that still has a schedule to be figured out, and ESPN gets their hook a little further in on landing Manning for Monday Night Football.

The MegaCast will be launching the first three weeks of the season, meaning for Baltimore at Las Vegas, Detroit at Green Bay, and Philadelphia at Dallas, with the other seven games still to be determined.