Month: September 2021

Last week, Elon Musk revealed that he and Grimes are “semi-separated,” noting, “We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms. It’s mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas and her work is primarily in LA. She’s staying with me now and Baby X is in the adjacent room.”

Grimes didn’t immediately offer a comment on the news, but now, a few days later, she has. In an email to Page Six, she had a joke about SpaceX and one of Jupiter’s moons, writing, “I’ll be colonizing Europa separately from Elon for the lesbian space commune.”

Grimes’ statement appears to reference SpaceX’s recent NASA contract for a mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moon and see if it could be suitable for life.

Meanwhile, Grimes recently spoke about her next album, saying of it, “I’m just finishing an album and I think it is by far my greatest work that I’ve ever done. I actually just made the last song for it like two nights ago. I think I went into this being like, ‘I’m gonna sign to a major label and I’m gonna be a really big artist’ and all this stuff, and then in that process, I started being like, ‘No, I literally don’t care if anyone listens to this sh*t.’ I just want it to be great. I want it to be unequivocally just great art.”

Bob Hoskins (R.I.P. to a shirtless legend) once called the Super Mario Bros. movie the “worst thing” he ever did. “It was a f*cking nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! F*cking nightmare. F*cking idiots,” the Mario actor said. Dennis Hopper, who played King Koopa, was also not a fan of the video game movie. “It was a nightmare, very honestly, that movie. It was a husband-and-wife directing team who were both control freaks and wouldn’t talk before they made decisions. Anyway, I was supposed to go down there for five weeks, and I was there for 17. It was so over budget,” he said.

John Leguizamo (Luigi) has always been the one cast member to, well, not defend Super Mario Bros., but he’s been the least vocal about his dislike of the movie. He even recorded a 20th anniversary message where he admitted that “we made a lot of mistakes, but I’m proud of the movie in retrospect.” On Monday, the To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar actor shared his thoughts on the new Mario movie.

“So glad #superMariobros is getting a reboot! Obviously it’s iconic enuff. But too bad they went all white! No Latinx in the leads! Groundbreaking color-blind casting in original! Plus I’m the only one who knows how to make this movie work script wise!” he tweeted. The still-untitled Mario movie stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. There’s more chiseled chin representation in the movie than actual representation, as the highest-billed person of color in the cast is Keegan-Michael Key as Toad.

The new Mario movie comes out on December 21, 2022.

The Supes are going back to school. On Monday, Amazon Studios gave a greenlight to a college-set spinoff of The Boys, the streaming giant’s hit superhero series, which promises to be just as wild as the original. The official synopsis of the yet-untitled series is as follows:

Set at America’s only college exclusively for young-adult superheroes (run by Vought International), the Untitled The Boys Spinoff is an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities. It’s part college show, part Hunger Games—with all the heart, satire, and raunch of The Boys.

If something about this all sounds familiar, it’s not just a case of déjà vu. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the spinoff series was first mentioned more than a year ago with Craig Rosenberg, an executive producer on The Boys, set as showrunner. But Rosenberg parted ways with the project when those pesky “creative differences” arose between him and the studio. So the series is being handed off to Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, who will oversee the series as co-showrunners.

Fazekas and Butters are no strangers to the superhero game, having previously run the show on ABC’s Agent Marvel. The Boys creator Eric Kripke, for one, couldn’t be more excited.

“Much like Mork & Mindy spun-off from Happy Days—which is an insane and true fact—our spinoff will exist in the Vought Cinematic Universe, yet have a tone and style all its own,” Kripke said in a statement. “It’s our take on a college show, with an ensemble of fascinating, complicated, and sometimes deadly Young Supes. Michele and Tara are stone-cold geniuses, we’re thrilled to have them steer this ship, and grateful to Sony and Amazon for the opportunity. We love this show and can’t wait for you to see it. Also, Baywatch Nights spun-off from Baywatch, and it had vampires. Vampires!”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

For years now, R. Kelly’s future has hung in the balance as the controversial singer has faced charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Yesterday, he was found guilty of those charges and could end up spending the rest of his life in prison, or at least a significant chunk of time. After the verdict was rendered, Kelly offered a statement.

On his Facebook page, he shared a message for his followers, in which he said he was disappointed by the verdict and proclaimed his innocence: “To all my fans and supporters I love you all and thank you for all the support. Today’s verdict was disappointing and I will continue to prove my innocence and fight for my freedom. #notguilty.”

Meanwhile, Kelly’s attorney, Deveraux Cannick, spoke outside the courthouse after the verdict, saying (via Revolt):

“Of course Mr. Kelly is disappointed. He was not anticipating this verdict because based on the evidence, why should he anticipate this verdict? […] You saw witness after witness giving three, four, five different versions as to what they said happened here. […] You didn’t get to see what we saw in terms of the discovery. You didn’t get to see all the inconsistencies. We said in our summation that the government cherry-picked their version that they thought would support the continuation of the narrative. Why would he expect this verdict given all the inconsistencies that we saw?”

There’s still some time before we know what will become of Kelly, as his sentencing date is set for May 4, 2022.

Lizzo is the kind of artist who is always ready to celebrate others. Maybe that’s just her nature, maybe it’s because she was grinding so long and hard before her own big break, either way, she’s the queen of recognizing when others are having a pivotal moment. And I think we can all agree that, right now, Lil Nas X is having one. After he broke out huge with the “Old Town Road” fiasco, Billy Ray Cyrus remix, record-breaking Billboard performance and more, plenty of people chalked all that extra noise up to one-hit-wonder ephemera. Little did they know he had plenty more internet-breaking to do.

Now, his debut album Montero is finally out, and doing things like landing at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart, generating three top-ten hitsgetting eleven tracks onto the chart. Lizzo was one of the first to let the young rapper know how proud she is of his success, sharing her all caps celebration on Twitter:

CONGRATULATIONS TO @LILNASX !!!! #MONTERO IS BEAUTIFUL, HEARTFELT & NECESSARY… 3 TOP 10s AND A #2 DEBUT IS A BIG DEAL YOU SHOWED US HOW TO INNOVATE AND BE TRUE TO OURSELVES—I HOPE UR HAVING CHAMPAGNE TODAY— CELEBRATE YOURSELF YOU DESERVE IT IM SO PROUD OF YOU

And Nas was blown away that she took the time to celebrate with him. “oh my god u did not have to congratulate me! thank you so much lizzo i’m tearing up fr ,” he responded.

Ok, now it’s time for a collab right? That’s how this works, isn’t it? We’re all more than ready.

Taylor Swift only recently joined TikTok, but even if she joined the platform later than some artists (like her acolyte, Olivia Rodrigo), she’s already got the formatting down pat. Take today’s post, for instance, where she refutes the notion that “country girls can’t go pop,” all while soundtracked by a snippet from Lukas Hodges’ song “Mama Said,” specifically the “mama said that it was okay” lyrics. From there, a few slides showing Shania’s transition into pop go by, before ending in the sweet moment the pair connected back in 2019. Caption: “Learned from the best.”

@taylorswift

Learned from the best ##mamasaid ##swifttok @shaniatwain : Getty Images by Jeff Kravitz and Denise Truscello

♬ Mama Said – Lukas Graham

But, not to be outdone by her millenial counterpart, Shania took Taylor’s video and built right on top of it. Showing both her own reaction to the clip and Shania’s post, Taylor starts laughing when Shania takes the same conceit, “country girls can’t go pop,” and jumps forward from there to show Dolly Parton doing it in the generation before she did, all soundtracked with the same song. And Taylor’s caption is: “I have ceased to be a person anymore I have exploded into a cloud of confetti hearts.”

Now, as far as I know Dolly Parton hasn’t hopped on TikTok yet, but I would dearly like to see what her response to this would be, too. Check out Taylor’s original above and Shania’s response post below.

@taylorswift

##duet with @shaniatwain I have ceased to be a person anymore I have exploded into a cloud of confetti hearts

♬ Mama Said – Lukas Graham

Part of the charm of the Monday Night Football Manningcast experience is the laid back, less polished nature of the show as the two brothers break down the game, joke with each other and guests, and regularly fail to get in and out of commercial breaks without getting cut off.

In Week 3, Eli decided to start pushing the limits of what he can do on live television, as he told a story of how he used to get flipped off by small children in Philadelphia when the Giants would go play the Eagles. At first, he just used his fists to mimic getting the double bird from a child, but then decided that didn’t really get the point across so he gave the real thing, all while asking “Can we do that?”

The answer of course is…kind of? I mean, they didn’t cut the broadcast to black or anything, but it’s certainly frowned upon on a Disney property like ESPN. Chris Long found it delightful while Peyton just shook his head, knowing what was coming. Naturally, coming out of the next commercial break Eli had to offer an apology, which was even funnier to Long.

If there is a fine from the FCC, Eli can pay it, but this did happen after 10 p.m. on cable, so he might be fine from an overall standpoint, just not from the Disney overlords. It’s very little brother of him to sit there pressing buttons to see how far he can go over the line before getting reprimanded while older brother sits there in disgust.

Naturally, Eli’s double birds became a meme for football twitter throughout the rest of the game.

Cassian Andor, the rogue-ish officer Diego Luna played in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, didn’t have a happy ending. All of the film’s heroes died the death of martyrs, giving their lives to successfully sneak Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance. But we didn’t learn much about his life prior to the film’s events. So, in the mad rush to fill Disney+’s coffers, he got a spin-off about his life prior to Rogue, due at some point next year. And while Luna can’t give details about the show, he can drop a little mouth-whetting tease.

In a new interview with Deadline, the actor, who first rose to prominence in Alfonso Cuarón’s sex-filled road trip drama Y Tu Mamá También, said as much as he possibly could without incurring the wrath of Disney.

“You’ll definitely see familiar faces,” he said. But he could never ruin his character’s ultimate fate. “I can tell you about this project like no other because I can’t spoil the ending if you’ve seen [Rogue One] already. No matter what I say, I can’t ruin the ending.”

What familiar faces are those? Possibly some of the Rogue One crew. Forest Whittaker has been rumored to be reprising his character, but there’s been no official confirmation. Maybe someone else from the Star Wars-verse? Who knows! But seeing how in love The Mandalorian was with Easter Eggs, it’s not far-fetched to expect plenty of swing-for-the-fences nods. In the meantime, at least everyone knows they’re getting some Stellan Skarsgard.

(Via Deadline)

Media Day was the focus of the NBA world on Monday, Sept. 27, with teams across the league making news and also delivering largely mundane statements, at least in some cases. The Orlando Magic were one of the franchises participating and, in advance of a rebuilding season, it wasn’t as if the Magic were in the national spotlight before the day began. However, veteran big man Robin Lopez signed in Orlando as a free agent, and he is regularly entertaining as a personality.

That was on full display in his first set of interviews, including a memorable joke sequence about his brother, Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez, and how Robin needed to “do his own research” to find out if Brook actually won the 2021 NBA title.

While not necessarily explicit, Lopez seems to be poking fun at vaccine hesitancy, particularly with the “do his own research” line referring to an oft-used answer from some individuals. After all, vaccines were at the center of the conversation surrounding many franchises, and there is sure to be more discussion on the topic with a few high-profile players that may be unable to play.

Lopez always seems to be light-hearted and, in this case, the bit works perfectly. The Bucks did, in fact, win the championship just a few months ago, however, so it doesn’t appear as if deep personal research is needed in this particular instance.

John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight often tackles some of the most important, pressing, and, at times, undercovered news stories, threading the needle of being incredibly informative while also still being, nominally, a comedy program. Sometimes that comedy comes in little non-sequiturs, as they will just find something that makes them laugh and give it 90 seconds between segments.

On Sunday night, one of those was a delightful look at ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and his love of the dramatic pause while doing radio, running a supercut of Smith sitting in silence to build suspense for his takes — sometimes with a hilarious payoff at the end. Smith appreciated the show’s dive into his showmanship, clearly enjoying the appreciation for his artistry.

The “Melo’s gone!” one is particularly good, and the end as they cut from outfit to outfit, including his favorite cowboy hat and cigar combo for a post Dallas loss show, is sensational. Smith really is a master of the art of giving takes and making it into a show. All of it is purposeful, as he uses the pauses and changing his cadence and volume to try and literally draw listeners to their speakers and command their attention by shifting gears and volumes. Whether the comedic element is purposeful or not is up for debate, but there’s no doubt that when run all together they are extremely funny.