Month: September 2021

Dave Grohl has lived a very full life. Before being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Grohl found success in Nirvana and Foo Fighters, toured the country, and was even a documentary filmmaker. In his new book, The Storyteller, Grohl shares unknown anecdotes about his life — like how he nearly joined GWAR as a teenager. But he ended up backing out for a very valid reason: He didn’t want his family members seeing him in the band’s outrageous costumes.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Grohl discussed several of the stories he details in his upcoming book. The musician talked a bit about his pre-Nirvana days, saying there was a point in time when he almost joined the heavy metal band GWAR, which were fairly big at the time:

“GWAR were looking for a drummer. And I talked to their guitar player Dewey about it. And he’s like, it’s great, and you get to design your own costume. As drummer, you don’t want something that covers your face fully. You want your arms to be free. So I was like cool. So I started kind of drawing this thing. At the time Gwar was a band that would draw like 700 people, right? Which is huge. And then the more I thought about it, am I really gonna invite my uncle to see me play when there’s like fake blood and cum shooting all over the place?”

Read Rolling Stone‘s full interview with Grohl here.

Hot Girl Summer was quickly replaced by Stinky Celebs Summer. Jake Gyllenhaal said he found bathing “to be less necessary” (he has since clarified that “of course I bathe”). Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are big fans of “waiting for the stink” instead of a daily bath or shower (“Once you catch a whiff, that’s biology’s way of letting you know you need to clean it up”), while Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher confessed that when they had kids, they “didn’t wash them every day. I wasn’t that parent that bathed my newborns — ever.”

“I don’t wash my body with soap every day,” [Kunis] shared. “But I wash pits and tits and holes and soles.” As for her husband, “I wash my armpits and my crotch daily, and nothing else ever,” Kutcher admitted. “I got a bar of Lever 2000 that just delivers every time. Nothing else.” … Kutcher [later] weighed in: “If you can see the dirt on ’em, clean ’em. Otherwise, there’s no point.”

Weird! The bathing debate was brought up again on Tuesday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where Kunis was the special guest. “We bathe our dogs. Does that make people happy?” the seemingly annoyed That ’70s Show actress asked host Ellen DeGeneres. She also called the discourse around her comments “so dumb.”

The star continued, “I know, this was blown… oy, yoi, yoi.” She shared about the podcast chat, “Then we all started talking that we don’t bathe our children very often, and/or ourselves. Well, I shower every day, but I don’t wash my hair every day. Like, I don’t find that to be a necessity.” Mila told Ellen that her “intent” is to bathe the kids daily, but then things don’t work out as planned. “I wake up every day and like, ‘Today, ‘I’m going to shower my kids.’ And then bedtime happens, and I forgot to feed them.”

Kunis later mocked The Rock’s tweet about showering three times a day. “But apparently, The Rock showers, so congratulations, The Rock. You shower,” she said.

You can watch her Ellen interview here.

(Via E! Online)

One of the core pieces of the Indiana Pacers’ roster is reportedly dealing with an injury that might not be as bad as it sounds. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Caris LeVert, whom the team acquired last year as part of the gigantic trade that sent James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets, has a stress fracture in his back.

The good news, per Woj, is that the team does not think it is serious enough to cost him an extended period of time, with the belief among the Pacers being that he could suit up sometime around the start of the regular season.

Wojnarowski went on to say that the team still needs to do some more testing before figuring out exactly how long they’ll be without LeVert’s services.

LeVert played in 35 games last season after being acquired by the Pacers, as the team discovered a mass on his left kidney during his physical that was subsequently removed. While the team had its struggles last year, LeVert was able to provide a much-needed scoring punch and found other ways to stuff the stat sheet, averaging 20.7 points per game while doling out 4.9 assists, hauling in 4.6 rebounds, and forcing 1.5 steals in 32.9 minutes per game in Indiana.

The early 2000s were a golden age for Hollywood rom-coms. Think of classics like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” “Love Actually” and, of course, “13 Going on 30,” starring Jennifer Garner and pre-Marvel Mark Ruffalo. Who wouldn’t fawn over their clumsy yet endearing chemistry in the film’s iconic “Thriller” dance sequence.

And to think, the world was nearly deprived of such a performance.

During an interview in March with theSkimm, Garner shared that Ruffalo nearly quit the production after only one dance rehearsal.

“Our first rehearsal, I think it was Mark and Judy [Greer] and me, and Judy and I were both dancers growing up and poor Mark didn’t know that,” Garner explained. “And he came in and he hated the rehearsal process so much he almost dropped out.”

Jennifer Garner texts with theSkimm

www.youtube.com

Jennifer Garner texts with theSkimm

Ruffalo recently decided to elaborate on this behind-the-scenes story, reposted by Comments by Celebs. It seems Garner wasn’t exaggerating.

“It didn’t help that it took me three hours to learn what Jen mastered in about 20 minutes! 😆😂😆,” he said. “Matty [Ruffalo’s character in the movie] had to be dragged out on that dance floor as well, poor guy. But all this time later he is grateful he did!”

And we’re grateful as well, Mark. The rom-com world is better because of it.

In case you missed this legendary dance number, here it is, full of awkward monster arm movements and teen angst for your viewing pleasure:

The Thriller Dance | 13 Going On 30 | Love Love

www.youtube.com

Has all this talk about Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo left you feeling nostalgic and wanting more? The two are actually set to work together again in yet another semi-sci-fi rom-com hybrid coming to Netflix called The Adam Project. (You even get the added bonus of Ryan Reynolds, so we know it’s something to look forward to.) And if this post is any indication, it looks like Ruffalo and Garner are having just as much fun the second time around.

It’s hard to know what to make of the Minnesota Timberwolves. There’s a franchise-level talent in Karl-Anthony Towns to build around. Anthony Edwards is heading into year two after a promising rookie year. Chris Finch now gets a full year. Maybe they end up making a swing for Ben Simmons.

So, there are reasons to be excited. But it’s unclear how many wins that gets the Timberwolves right now. And that might also complicate the team’s future.

Roster:

Malik Beasley
Anthony Edwards
Karl-Anthony Towns
Patrick Beverley
Jake Layman
Jaden McDaniels
Jordan McLaughlin
Jaylen Nowell
Josh Okogie
Taurean Prince
D’Angelo Russell
Naz Reid
Jarred Vanderbilt
Nathan Knight (Two-way)
McKinley Wright IV (Two-way)

Projected Vegas Win Total: 34.5

Biggest Addition: Taurean Prince, Patrick Beverley

Prince and Beverley were both acquired by trade and neither really moves the needle in a significant way on the court. They can both play rotation minutes, but don’t really change the trajectory of the team or figure to matter a few years from now.

Together, however, they combine to make $27.3 million in 2021-22 and are in the last year of their contracts. If new interim (and possibly long-term) president of basketball operations Sachin Gupta wants to get aggressive before the trade deadline and make a splash to acquire someone the team really wants making that amount of money, those two contracts are key to getting it done without flipping a core piece.

Biggest Loss: Ricky Rubio

Here’s the thing about Ricky Rubio: Trading him got the Wolves a serviceable forward in Prince, cash and a future second-round pick to play around with. From a purely business perspective, that trade makes sense.

But Rubio is a known leader and dependable point guard that the team will miss. Without him, there’s no real creator on the roster who excels at organizing the offense and keeping the trains running on time. (Russell is more score-first, while Beverly is a defense-first player first and foremost.)

There are ways to solve this — Chris Finch’s offense should put Towns in a moer play-making role, for one — but it’s going to be an adjustment.

Biggest Question: How much of an impact will Chris Finch make?

Finch came in February of last season, taking over for Ryan Saunders. A mid-season hire already made his transition difficult and it was made even harder by the fact that last year was a compacted season due to COVID-19. There was certainly some install done on the fly, but it wasn’t the full Chris Finch playbook. In 41 games under Finch, the Wolves were 16-25 with the league’s 17th best offense, per NBA.com/stats.

Now, with a full offseason and proper training camp, Finch gets a chance to install his full offense. He comes to the role with a reputation as a progressive, modern offensive game planner. If he’s as advertised and can maximize the pieces the team has, that could bump the team up to a top-12ish offense and put Towns in a spot to have the best season of his career. If Finch doesn’t have a massive impact, it’s hard to know what the strength of this team will be.
What Makes This Season A Success: A spot in the play-in tournament

The Wolves are not a contender, nor are they a lock to be in the playoff hunt in a still very good Western Conference. Last year, they were 10 games back of the 10th-seeded Spurs and 19 games back of the seventh-seeded Lakers. In terms of net rating, they were significantly worse than the teams ahead of them in the standings.

A leap into the seven-seed range would be massive. Even a leap into the 10th seed range would be a massive step forward. But for a franchise that has someone as good as Towns and at least some interesting supplemental pieces, there’s some pressure to play some meaningful games. Making the play-in tournament would be a step in the right direction.

What Makes This Season A Failure: Finishing near the bottom of the Western Conference

Simply put, the Timberwolves need to improve this year. Another year finishing way outside of the playoff hunt could complicate keeping Towns happy and whatever it is the team wants to accomplish.

>The good news is that, if the season does go bad, the Wolves no longer owe first-round picks in the D’Angelo Russell trade. That gives them some hope even if the year doesn’t play out as expected.

Among people in the know (and plenty of Uproxx commenters), Culver’s is often cited as having the best milkshake in the fast food game. That’s a bold claim when spots like Shake Shack throw down with salted caramel shakes, In-N-Out rolls with the Neapolitan shake, and even Whattaburger hits home runs with their Dr. Pepper shake. Drinkable ice cream is a very competitive world, friends.

Where Culver’s really stands out is with their use of Fresh Frozen Custard ice cream that each store churns every day. That freshly churned custard is the base of the Culver’s milkshake and a mile ahead of the homogenized goo that places like McDonald’s and Burger King pump into oft-broken machines. So does the final Culver’s product really taste better? That’s what we’re here to find out.

Below, we’re reviewing a small vanilla milkshake from Culver’s to see just how well it stands up. We chose vanilla because it’s the baseline by which all other shakes are built and judged. We’re scoring the shake on three elements: consistency, flavor, and drinkability. How thick and ice-cream-like the shake is will be the trump card but the depth of the vanilla flavor in the shake and the ability to drink it through a straw is almost as important.

Let’s dive in and see if this shake deserves the hype!

Culver’s Milkshake (Vanilla)

The Shake:

As we mentioned above, the shake is made with Culver’s signature Fresh Frozen Custard which is made in the store daily. Wisconsin cream is used along with fresh Wisconsin milk. The vanilla is “world’s finest vanilla” according to Culver’s. Overall, the shake does come out of a fast-food shake machine you see in most joints. It’s not like this is getting mixed up in front of you.

Consistency:

The creamy custard really does come through. You know you’re drinking ice cream in shake form. It feels way closer to a Wendy’s Frosty, edging towards DQ Blizzard in thickness. Point being, there was no question that this was made from real-deal ice cream/custard.

Flavor:

The vanilla was rich but not overpowering. That being said, this felt more like you were drinking a vanilla flavoring agent than real vanilla. It was slightly muted with a clear fast-food vibe that leans sweeter than vanilla-forward (akin to Starbuck’s vanilla sugar).

That being said, it wasn’t overly sweet. The flavor was all just kind of average and fine.

Drinkability:

This was a thick shake. The first 1/3 of the milkshake was almost easier to eat with the straw than suck it through said straw. The last 2/3 was pretty easy to work with the straw and really smoothed out nicely once you could drink it that way. Though, I imagine if you’re going through a drive-thru and taking this back home, it’ll be enough time to let the shake melt a little, making it more drinkable through the straw.

Overall, I found it a little annoying since this isn’t a Frosty or Blizzard and served with a simple blue straw. You could easily use a spoon to start “drinking” this shake.

Bottom Line:

This is a good shake. The ice cream is tough to beat. It’s not perfect, though. I prefer my shakes a little more drinkable and flavor-forward. This felt more like it was highlighting the ice cream/custard and not the flavor. Once the shake melted a little bit, it got way better. Turns out, being able to drink a shake through the straw with a burger in my hand is pretty damn important to me.

In the end, if I were to give this shake a grade from A to F, I’d go solid B+. It’s good! It’s a fast-food milkshake that’s got a nice, creamy base. But it was slightly forgettable, too. Is it the best? I don’t think so. If you do, that’s fine — but probably says more about the generally weak competition than it does about Culver’s itself.

Over the weekend, Dolly Parton appeared to launch an official TikTok account, which, turns out, was a fake all along. In the video, the country legend appears to say: “Why hello, I guess I’m on TikTok! I just dropped in to say everything’s gonna be OK, you keep the faith.” The account quickly amassed more than 700,000 followers, and the video itself got more than five million likes. Come Monday, though, the account was taken down.

This morning, a spokesperson for Dolly confirmed via the Today show that the account had been faked, explaining that an unverified user had taken an old video from Parton’s Imagination Library and “doctored it,” asking fans to “take a closer look” at the clip. A TikTok spokesperson also confirmed that the video had been removed for violating community guidelines around impersonation.

This is definitely not the first time fans have been scammed by TikTok celeb content. Remember the Tom Cruise deepfake videos? Likewise, back in July, Billie Eilish appeared to go live on TikTok, resulting in a flood of fan comments and gifts via the platform’s in-app tipping system. The account, however, was not verified, and the questions she was answering did not come from the Live’s comments section. Stay safe out there, fellow TikTokers!

While fans may be waiting on Rihanna’s ninth studio album, the singer has been hard at work growing her wealth. As a musician, beauty guru, and business mogul, Rihanna’s net worth last year jumped to a whopping $1.7 billion. That’s a number that’s hard to conceptualize, and even Rihanna agrees. The singer recently said when reflecting on her “humble beginnings,” her billionaire status can be “hard to even accept.”

Speaking in a recent interview with the New York Times, Rihanna said it can be difficult to wrap her head around her massive fortune:

“It’s tricky because it’s hard to even accept that’s where you’re at because I know where I’ve come from. At the same time, it feels good to be able to inspire young women and boys, who like me, come from humble beginnings, who come from parents who are immigrants or who are immigrants themselves, to be able to do this.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Rihanna noted that she aims to give back. She wants a lot of her massive fortune to benefit her Clara Lionel Foundation, which is named after her grandparents Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. The foundation not only funds emergency responses to natural disasters caused by climate change, but it also supports education initiatives for marginalized communities. “Every dollar I make, I want to give it back,” she said. “When it comes to people who need help, it hurts when I can’t do as much as I want, so now we’re just putting our foot down and C.L.F. is about to grow in a way that I’m really proud of.”

Read Rihanna’s full interview with the New York Times here.

Rappers often seem like they are in competition, probably because of the nature of their art form. They have to be brash, cocky, outspoken, and a lot of times, very self-focused, to the point it feels like they are all clamoring for a single spot at “the top” of the rap game. In reality, though, there is no real top or “number-one spot”; they can all collect the same trophies over time and many of them enjoy and respect each others’ crafts. Just watch Drake express his appreciation for J. Cole while refuting the North Carolinian’s self-deprecating third-place claim from “Heaven’s EP.”

In a similar way, Tyler The Creator — who has a legitimate claim on the rap album of the year thanks to Call Me If You Get Lost — praises Kendrick Lamar in his XXL cover story. He especially points to Kendrick’s verse on Baby Keem’s “Family Ties,” saying, “You know why it ruined me? Because it’s someone at that level still gunning. He’s trying new voices. He’s trying new shit. He’s still learning. You can tell he was off his phone for a few months.”

Watch Tyler The Creator’s photoshoot interview with XXL above and read the full cover story here.

A new excerpt from Stephanie Grisham‘s upcoming tell-all book, I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House, throws Jared Kushner under the bus and essentially blames the former president’s son-in-law for costing Donald Trump the 2020 presidential election. As a former press secretary and chief-of-staff for First Lady Melania Trump, Grisham had inside access to the inner-workings of the nepotistic administration where Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump had a disastrous level of free reign, which earned them both scathing nicknames. Via Washington Post:

She wrote that the first lady and White House staff called Ivanka “the Princess” who regularly invoked “my father” in work meetings, and Grisham dubbed Kushner “the Slim Reaper” for his habit of inserting himself into other people’s projects, making a mess and leaving them to take the blame.

Tellingly, Grisham writes that Ivanka and Jared tried to push their way into meeting Queen Elizabeth II alongside the president and first lady, a wild breach of protocol on a state visit, but were thwarted when they couldn’t fit into the helicopter. “I finally figured out what was going on,” Grisham writes. “Jared and Ivanka thought they were the royal family of the United States.”

According to Grisham, she also told the First Lady that if Trump loses the 2020 presidential election, it would be Kushner’s fault. Melania did not disagree.

As for Trump himself, Grisham accuses the president of what amounts to sexual harassment by allegedly making her enter his Air Force One cabin so that he could “look at her [behind].” The former president also allegedly phoned Grisham to specifically deny Stormy Daniels‘ accusations that his penis is small and shaped like Toad from Super Mario Bros.

(Via Washington Post)