Piers Morgan’s feeling vindicated today after a long and winding road, so let’s recap a little bit. Back in March, he stormed off the set of Good Morning Britain (and he later quit the job) when confronted by a co-host about the seemingly personal nature of Piers’ beef with Meghan Markle, who he briefly hung out with and seemed miffed about when she stopped calling. He proceeded to trash Meghan and Prince Harry after they spoke with Oprah Winfrey to tell-all on the allegedly racist remarks that Meghan received from a member of the Royal Family.
Piers vigorously defended his Queen and branded Meghan as a liar (even over her claims of suicidal thoughts), and after his on-set tantrum, British regulator Ofcom received a record number of viewer complaints about Piers’ remarks, and after several months, it seems that Ofcom has cleared Piers of wrongdoing. According to the BBC, those complaints (including some from the Duchess of Sussex herself) regarding suicide weren’t enough to tip the scales against Piers’ former employer, ITV:
Ofcom said its decision was “finely balanced”, but that ITV had “provided adequate protection to viewers from potentially harmful and highly offensive statements about mental health and suicide”.
The 57,793 complaints – the highest in Ofcom’s 18-year history – related to Good Morning Britain on 8 and 9 March, the mornings before and after the Oprah interview with Meghan and Harry was broadcast in the UK.
And Piers is now crowing over what he sees as a victory. “I’m delighted OFCOM has endorsed my right to disbelieve the Duke & Duchess of Sussex’s incendiary claims to Oprah Winfrey, many of which have proven to be untrue,” he tweeted. “This is a resounding victory for free speech and a resounding defeat for Princess Pinocchios.” Naturally, he added, “Do I get my job back?”
I’m delighted OFCOM has endorsed my right to disbelieve the Duke & Duchess of Sussex’s incendiary claims to Oprah Winfrey, many of which have proven to be untrue. This is a resounding victory for free speech and a resounding defeat for Princess Pinocchios. Do I get my job back? pic.twitter.com/czhzeejYpa
Uh, your move, ITV? The provocateur has been digging at ITV over falling ratings in the aftermath of his departure, although there’s been no official word on whether they want to go there again. if they do extend an offer, Piers will make sure that everyone knows what’s happening, as soon as he knows. In the meantime, he’s still got that Daily Mail column, so he’ll probably talk about this subject there, too.
The Atlanta Hawks aren’t letting their starting center go anywhere any time soon. According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Atlanta and Clint Capela came to terms on a contract extension that will keep the team’s defensive anchor and one of Trae Young’s favorite lobs threats with the franchise through the 2024-25 campaign.
Wojnarowski reports that the extension adds two years onto Capela’s current contract and will pay him $46 million over those last two seasons. Capela is about to enter year four of a five-year, $90 million extension he originally signed with the Houston Rockets.
Atlanta Hawks center Clint Capela has agreed on a two-year, $46M extension, sources tell ESPN. He had two years left on his current deal and now is under contract through 2024-2025.
The Hawks acquired Capela in 2020 just before the trade deadline as the Rockets decided to go all-in on small ball. While an injury and the NBA’s shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant he did not play for Atlanta that season, Capela made his debut at the start of the 2020-21 campaign. He was a crucial part of the team’s surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals, cleaning up misses and serving as one of the league’s best lob catchers on offense and providing his usually stout defense. On the year, Capela averaged 15.2 points in 30.1 minutes per game while averaging career-best marks in rebounding (14.3 a night) and shot blocking with two a game.
The Fall TV season officially starts with Netflix’s streaming lineup for September.
A host of returning favorites, including the final seasons of Lucifer, Money Heist, and Dear White People, drop this month, along with more comedies like Sex Education’s third season and the latest animated Netflix original Q-Force bringing the laughs. For anyone looking for some horror recs — we know, we’re ready for Halloween too — Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass looks sufficiently creepy.
Here are the best new shows coming to Netflix this September.
(For a round up of the best new movies coming to Netflix this month, head here.)
Q-Force (streaming 9/2)
This new animated series from Netflix follows the story of Steve Maryweather (AKA Agent Mary) who’s a star of the American Intelligence Agency until he comes out of the closet. Forced to take a sh*t job in West Hollywood, Agent Mary assembles his own squad of Queer heroes, taking on cases that finally earn him some respect within the agency. As a reward for his good work, he’s saddled with every Gay’s worst nightmare — a straight white guy. Everyone from David Harbour to Wanda Sykes lends their voice to this wildly funny romp.
We have it on good authority that this will be the true final season of the devilishly fun detective series and, as such, expect things to get even weirder and way more emotional. Plenty of bittersweet goodbyes, perhaps another musical number — there’s a lot to look forward to but the biggest question remains. How will the devil fare now that he’s playing God, and will Deckerstar get their HEA?
A new school year at Moordale brings new characters, new relationships, and, hopefully, no new Chlamydia outbreaks. Jemima Kirke comes on board to play the school’s latest headmistress who has big plans for revamping the institution’s image. Meanwhile, Eric and Adam navigate their now-official romance, Otis starts having casual sex, Aimee discovers feminism (and vulva cupcakes) and Maeve’s lost voicemail is still out there somewhere.
The end of the greatest heist in history is almost here. The first half of the show’s two-part finale drops this month and this crew of thieves is in really bad shape. Failed escape plans, the loss of one of their own, and a powerful new enemy all threaten to derail their getaway strategy.
The final season of this dramedy promises to be an Afro-futuristic and ’90s-inspired musical event that follows the students’ senior year at Winchester before jumping ahead to a post-pandemic future.
The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan delivers a new spine-chilling thriller with this story about an isolated island community thrown into chaos by the return of one of its own and the arrival of a mysterious priest. Zach Gilford plays a disgraced town member who returns home just as a newcomer, Father Paul, begins to exert his influence over the island. Strange miracles and a religious fervor grips the community, causing everyone to question their own beliefs and realities.
Playboi Carti is returning to the road this autumn for the first time since his headlining tour in 2018 and this time, he’s touching down at stadiums. The Narcissist Tour will kick off in mid-October in Nashville and conclude just before Christmas in Carti’s hometown, Atlanta, Georgia. Carti is also teasing something coming September 13 with posts captioned “Narcissist,” which could mean a full album dropping just ahead of the tour. If so, it’ll be just about 10 months since the release of Whole Lotta Red, his quickest turnaround between albums so far (Whole Lotta Red dropped over two years after Die Lit).
Check out the full tour schedule below.
10/14 — Nashville, TN @ Municipal Auditorium
10/15 — Charlotte, NC @ Bojangles Coliseum
10/17 — Gainesville, FL @ Stephen C. O’Connell Center
10/19 — Miami, FL @ James L. Knight Center
10/20 — Orlando, FL @ Orlando Amphitheater
10/22 — New Orleans, LA @ Champions Square
10/23 — Houston, TX @ NRG Arena
10/24 — San Antonio, TX @ Freeman Coliseum
10/26 — Austin, TX @ H/E/B Center
10/27 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Zoo Amphitheatre
11/2 — Allen, TX @ Allen Event Center
11/4 — El Paso, TX @ UTEP Don Haskins Center
11/5 — Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Amphitheatre
11/6 — Inglewood, CA @ The Forum
11/9 — San Diego, CA @ Sycuan Stage
11/11 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
11/13 — Portland, OR @ Theatre of the Clouds
11/14 — Everett, WA @ Angel of The Winds Arena
11/15 — Vancouver, British Columbia @ PNE Forum
11/18 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Great Saltair
11/19 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheater
11/23 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
11/24 — Chicago, IL @ Credit Union 1 Arena
11/26 — Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
11/27 — St. Charles, MO @ The Family Arena
11/28 — Independence, MO @ Cable Dahmer Arena
11/30 — Indianapolis, IN @ Indiana Farmers Coliseum
12/1 — Cincinnati, OH @ BB&T Arena
12/2 — Canton, OH @ Canton Civic Center
12/4 — Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple
12/5 — Pittsburgh, PA @ UPMC Event Center
12/7 — Lowell, MA @ Tsongas Center
12/8 — Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory
12/9 — Toronto, Ontario @ Coca/Cola Coliseum
12/10 — Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena
12/14 — Hartford, CT @ XL Center
12/16 — Kingston, RI @ Ryan Center
12/17 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
12/18 — Washington, D.C. @ DC Armory
12/19 — Philadelphia, PA @ Liacouras Center
12/21 — Norfolk, VA @ Chartway Arena
12/22 — Greensboro, NC @ Special Events Center
12/23 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
Given his independent film cred and busy schedule busting out critically acclaimed projects like First Reformed and The Good Lord Bird, Ethan Hawke joining the cast of Marvel’s Moon Knight was definitely a surprising get for the upcoming Disney+ series. While he’s since revealed that he joined the project after personally being asked by Oscar Isaac at a coffee shop, Hawke dipping his toes in the MCU seems like an off-brand step for the actor. However, he would disagree with that.
While sitting down for a new interview following the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Czechia, Hawke opened up about what attracted him to Moon Knight besides just getting a chance to work with Isaac. Via The Wrap:
If you were an actor in the ’50s, you know, they made Westerns. If you’re an actor in the 2020s, you’ve got Marvel. And I’m really fortunate because we’re dealing with a story that doesn’t have a lot of ancillary baggage. If you play Spider-Man or Batman, they’ve got so much baggage and the audience have such expectations. It’s like playing Hamlet — you can’t play it in a vacuum. You’re playing it in relationship to the other Hamlets. Whereas with “Moon Knight,” people don’t know much about it. It doesn’t have a lot of baggage. Oscar (Isaac) is giving an absolutely phenomenal performance, and it feels exciting to be a part of it with him.
Hawke makes a very good point. Moon Knight is one of Marvel’s more obscure characters, and unlike the other more prominent superheroes, he doesn’t really have a well-defined canon. In the past decade alone, Marvel Comics has toyed with several different approaches to the supernatural character while never seeming to land on one specific version. That gives the Disney+ series an even wider berth to nail down its own iteration for Moon Knight for the MCU, and it sure sounds like Hawke is loving the process.
“They’re extremely active, friendly,” Hawke said about working with Marvel. “They do good world-building and create space for actors. If you want to play, they want you to play.”
Netflix just rolled out its massive movie lineup for the rest of the year and, with so many new titles to keep track of, we decided to break down which new movies are worth checking out each month.
September kicks us off with a bit from every genre — drama, fantasy rom-com, an action-heavy assassin flick with Woody Harrelson on board — and it all looks good. Keep an eye out for big names like Michael Keaton and Melissa McCarthy, whose emotional drama The Starling drops at the end of the month.
Here are the best new movies coming to Netflix this September.
(For the best new shows coming to Netflix this month, head here.)
Afterlife of the Party (streaming 9/2)
Victoria Justice stars in this rom-com fantasy about a young woman whose birthday ends in the worst way possible: with her death. As unlucky as that sounds, she’s also given a second chance to right her wrongs on Earth, make peace with her family and friends, and try to earn a better afterlife than the one originally planned for her.
Stanley Tucci and Michael Keaton star in this drama based on the true story about a fairly dark time in our nation’s history. Keaton plays an attorney appointed by Congress to mediate financial negotiations for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. It’s his job to figure out how much each life lost during the terrorist attacks is worth, and get the families of the victims to agree on that price tag. The only problem? His “formula” can never really measure the true cost of human life, something Tucci’s character — a community organizer mourning the death of his own wife — tries to teach him. It’s a searing drama with a terrific cast.
Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (streaming 9/9)
Kenya Barris produces this documentary examining the legendary friendship between two icons of the Civil Rights Movement. Comprised of never-before-seen archival footage and featuring interviews from relatives such as Ali’s younger brother Rahman Ali and Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz, the doc investigates the bond and influence these two men shared.
Fresh off her kick-ass role in Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays another assassin with a score to settle in this stylized action flick landing on the streaming platform at the beginning of the month. Winstead plays the titular Kate, a preternaturally gifted hitwoman who is poisoned after a job gone bad and has just 24 hours to exact revenge on her killers before she dies. Woody Harrelson plays her mentor of sorts and Miku Martineau plays a young girl she befriends on her mission of vengeance.
Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, and Kevin Kline star in this heartbreaking drama about moving on from loss after tragedy strikes. McCarthy and O’Dowd play a married couple who lose a child and cope with their grief in very different ways. As O’Dowd checks into a facility to fight his depression, McCarthy’s character strikes up an unusual friendship with a therapist-turned-veterinarian (Kline) and an even stranger feud-ship with a starling battling for dominion over her garden. Obviously, with McCarthy on board, there’s bound to be humor here, but judging from the trailer, you should probably bring some tissues just in case.
Not long after his spectacular Super Bowl halftime show earlier this year, it was revealed that The Weeknd’s performance would be the subject of a Showtime documentary called The Show. Now, we’ve gotten our first look at the film via a new trailer.
The minute-long video includes footage of and soundbites from people, who are mostly not The Weeknd, working behind the scenes of the production. The Show is set to premiere on September 24.
Todd Kaplan, VP of marketing at Pepsi, previously said of The Show, “The Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show is undoubtedly the world’s biggest stage, producing the most viewed and talked about moment in music every single year. The pressure to deliver an iconic, memorable and entertaining performance is felt well beyond the artist, as there are a number of people — behind the scenes — who are vital to its success. With our new documentary coming to Showtime, we are taking fans on the emotional and thrilling journey of what it takes to make the biggest show of the year — with the added complexity of doing so amidst a global pandemic. With Jesse Collins and a number of super-talented creatives at the helm, The Show chronicles all the drama and hard work that goes into successfully pulling off a show of this magnitude.”
Pushing back against boundaries has, like it or not, defined how the media treats Halsey. In the past two or three years, descriptors like “Rebel” and “Firebrand” feature prominently in their profile headlines. If they feel in any way misunderstood, Halsey only uses these disconnects to fuel their creative ideations, which are boundless and hugely satisfying on their masterful fourth album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.
Clearly, the most ambitious project Halsey’s done to date, IICHLIWP is not only a singular look at the manifold feelings around pregnancy and new motherhood, it is a fascinating departure from what their pop peers are doing. Like, say, Billie Eilish and Lorde, who’ve also released new albums this summer, Halsey is happier than ever. They’re a new mom; they’re in a healthy partnership, they’re financially independent and fully established in their career. (“I’m getting arguably, the first break I’ve had in seven years. I’m finally taking care of myself, eating my vegetables and getting sleep and I’m pregnant and everything’s amazing and then out comes this,” they recently said.)
And yet, these personal achievements have not inspired Halsey to adopt an attitude of self-love, a sunnier sound, or vibe around a maypole with the other unplugged proselytizers. Contrarily, Halsey tackles a combination of major life events — pregnancy, partnership, career success — with a clear-eyed refusal to be boxed in by whatever idea of happy endings these things preclude. In other words, Halsey is no pregnant Katy Perry attempting to embody Mother Earth in a field of flowers. What they explore is much more nuanced, and, ultimately, truthful.
Halsey has never been your typical pop-music celebrity. Not that industry types haven’t tried to slot them into the mainstream: since launching seven years ago, Halsey has been paired with tons of zeitgeisty producers, collabs, and movie placements. On their 2014 debut Badlands, Halsey (named for the Brooklyn L stop, which just also happens to be an anagram of their first name, Ashley) worked with buzzy names like Lido, The Futuristics, and Aron Forbes. Their darkened, electropop melodies earned needle-drops on big-franchise features like Fifty Shades Darker and The Huntsman: Winter’s War. Later, their household name status amplified through even higher-profile collabs with The Chainsmokers, Sia, Greg Kurstin, and Benny Blanco.
Despite the lack of Grammy recognition, this is the sort of golden-child career trajectory that, on the surface, would make any music hopeful green with envy. And yet: Halsey is not — and never has been — the sort of unoffensive performer to just show up, do their job, and keep their opinions to themselves. (As many other female pop stars can attest, opinions tend to hurt rather than help a performer’s career; just look at how long it took to Taylor Swift to admit her political leanings.)
One of the things I’ve always admired about Halsey, who answers to she/they pronouns, is that they have an uncompromising interest in feeling heard. (As I noted above, in the entertainment industry, having opinions often translates to “being difficult.”) Last fall, knowing full well the bridge-burning consequences, Halsey called out the alleged insider-trading dynamics within the Grammy nomination process, writing on social media that nominees are selected based on “behind-the-scenes private performances” and other “bribes.”
They’ve openly talked about subjects like their experience with endometriosis, miscarriage, sexuality, wanting to be a mother, and the public judgment they faced around trying to get pregnant in their mid-20s. “I got treated like a teen mom a lot of the time, you know what I mean?” they recently told Zane Lowe about being pregnant at 26. “Where people were like, ‘Oh my god, you’re so young, and you have so much to do in your career, and you’re not married.’” (This dynamic, of course, has had its downsides — Halsey has gotten into trouble in the past for lobbing poorly worded insults at publications who’ve negatively reviewed their work.)
Featuring assistance from Nine Inch Nails production titans Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who imbue IICHLIWP with a focused, industrial punch, Halsey creates an expansive but never cluttered 13-song universe, experimenting with sound and genre while editing with thoughtful precision. Pop, R&B, rock, punk, electronic — all genres are represented across IICHLIWP. Opener “The Tradition” is a cinematic, piano-led ballad about a woman who “got the life that she wanted, but now all she does is cry.” “Girl Is A Gun” is reminiscent of 2012-era Grimes with its high-definition, ultra-slick electronica beat. The rushing, Avril Lavigne-sounding “You Asked For This” is a stunning portrait of the 20-something pop star as a new mother, turning a common victim-blaming phrase on its ear and using it as a framework to discuss coming-of-age confusion.
Will society let a new mother be sexual AND a parent? Will they understand that parents also used to be children themselves, and probably the vast majority of new parents feel childlike terror at becoming somebody else’s parent? “You know I’m still somebody’s daughter, see / I spilled the milk you left for me,” Halsey cries, after namedropping grown-up things like “picket fences/file taxes.”
Indeed, just because a pregnant woman wrote and recorded IICHLIWP doesn’t mean they don’t experience love and lust in equal measure. The Dave Grohl-drummed “Honey,” another pop-punk banger, eroticizes another woman (“she stings like she means it / She’s mean and she’s mine”). “Darling,” featuring delicate guitar-work from Lindsey Buckingham, is a heartfelt thank you to their partner, with whom they’ve made a home after “a couple years of living on the road.” Album single and epic standout “I Am Not A Woman, I’m A God” is almost like a spiritual cousin to Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch,” pointing out at-odds truths that live within them (“I am not a woman, I’m a God / I am not a martyr, I’m a problem / I am not a legend, I’m a fraud”).
Halsey has been very careful not to stamp IICHLIWP as an “empowerment” album. By stamping a limiting, white-feminist-branded term like “empowerment” on here, that automatically makes Halsey’s career-making effort too much like a wellness retreat where they sell vaginal jade eggs. No, IICHLIWP is way more complex than that, artfully parsing out the nuance around pregnancy (feeling scared AND excited AND sexy), fame (“I am not a legend, I’m a fraud”), and loving someone so much, you get sad thinking about how there will never enough time left to spend with them (“Darling, you will bury me before I bury you”). Ideally, Halsey’s everything-can-be-true-at-once narrative isn’t lost on an industry that (still) likes pop stars to show up as simple — and heteronormative — as will fit in a tidy little tweet or a headline. That’s never really what we’ve gotten from Halsey, and we shouldn’t want it any other way.
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is out now via Capitol Records. Get it here.
Mike Lindell is still a multi-millionaire despite sinking an unfathomable amount of money into his pointless crusade to overturn the 2020 election, but he’s not a multi-billionaire. If he was, he wouldn’t have needed to sell his MyPillow plane to reportedly pay for legal fees in the $1.3 billion lawsuit that was filed against him by Dominion Voting Systems.
“Selling a pillow plane to pay for a billion dollar lawsuit,” we’ve all been there.
Salonreports that “Lindell (through his company MyPillow) has recently sold off at least one of his private planes. FAA records indicate that an aircraft registered to MyPillow — a 1993 Dassault-Breguet Falcon 50 with tail number N497SP — was transferred to Clyde Air LLC on July 26, for an undisclosed purchase amount.” A similar plane on the market goes for a cool $2.5 million, so it’s probably around that figure:
Josh Merritt, a former member of Lindell’s “red team” at his August South Dakota event, told Salon the plane was sold to bankroll Lindell’s legal defense in the Dominion suit. The pillow king unloaded the aircraft “because he’s needing money,” Merritt said. “He just started raising money for the lawsuit by Dominion.”
This guy can’t catch a break with planes:
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says tonight that his multi-million dollar private jet is “broken,” which he calls “divine intervention.”
Lindell added in a later segment that his plane “breaking” occurred after a trip last week to Missouri where all the state legislators had agreed that the pillow maven has evidence of 2020 voter fraud — and the plane breaking after the meeting was a “divine” message from god.
With all the albums scheduled to release this year from the top names in hip-hop like Drake, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar, it’d be easy to overlook a newcomer like Baby Keem — if only his debut album The Melodic Blue wasn’t nearly as heavily anticipated as any of those from the names above. Partly due to a string of enthusiastically received singles including “Orange Soda,” “No Sense,” Durag Activity” with Travis Scott, and the Kendrick Lamar-featuring “Family Ties” and partly due to his inclusion on 2020’s XXL Freshman list, Keem’s The Melodic Blue shot to the upper parts of many fans’ “must-listen” lists for 2021.
Apparently, they won’t have long to wait for the completed project, either. Just yesterday, the social-media-shy Nevada rapper logged in to Twitter to let his followers know, “I just turned the melodic blue in.” Also, in keeping with his fan-pleasing demeanor, he confirmed that his two most attention-grabbing recent singles would be included. “Durag Activity & Family Ties are on the album,” he noted. That knowledge is sure to drive listens to the enigmatic rapper’s debut, as is the goodwill he’s generated with his recent performance at Lyrical Lemonad’s Summer Smash Festival — which you can read more about here via Uproxx’s recap.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
