Month: September 2021

Peyton and Eli Manning’s weekly Monday Night Football alternate broadcast (which, sadly, isn’t every week but only 10 weeks this season) continued on Week 3 with the Cowboys and Eagles. As always, they had guests come on each quarter and this week’s second quarter guest was none other than LeBron James, who they naturally did a bit of a dive into his own football career.

They talked about James getting offers to play for Dallas and Seattle during the 2011 NBA lockout and found some old high school tape of LeBron’s gigantic self dominating some poor high schoolers in Ohio. However, while watching the film Eli and Peyton couldn’t help but notice that LeBron didn’t exactly have a gunslinger back there throwing him the ball and roasted the poor guy on national television.

Imagine being that guy, enjoying Monday Night Football with your family, 20 years removed from your high school quarterbacking days only to find yourself getting absolutely shredded by two great quarterbacks and your old, now very famous, teammate.

At halftime, Peyton and Eli got an earful from their dad, Archie, who joined Eli on the couch for some critiques of their performance, as he thought the roast of that poor young man was too much.

It was a pretty great moment in an interview that was, at times, a little choppy, but did feature LeBron successfully Romo’ing the playcall for a Cowboys touchdown towards the end of his appearance.

Chlöe has been having a wonderful 2021. Following the success of her collaborative album with her sister, Ungodly Hour, last year, she’s also found her own voice this year and recently released her debut single, “Have Mercy.” The song was hotly anticipated, and her VMA performance of the new track even sparked reactions from rappers like Gunna showing their appreciation for her finesse.

Well, rappers aren’t the only ones who can see themselves in the song’s bombastic braggadocio, and with its unpredictable rhythms it was probably only a matter of time until a swaggering marching band set the tune to orchestral mode and turned up the brass. Enter the Marching Storm from Prairie View A&M University, the marching band for this historical black college. Captured by a Chlöe stan account, who posted a clip of the band’s rendition to Twitter, the song is accompanied by a performance from the school’s dance team that is clearly inspired by Chlöe’s own moves.

Check it out below:

For her part, Chlöe saw the cover and was ecstatic about their version. “GO OFFFFFF” she wrote in all caps while sharing the original tweet to her own followers:

If someone could make a studio version of the orchestra take, though, I’d seriously listen to it quite a bit.

The Kid Laroi is one of the fastest-rising pop stars on the planet. Lately, he’s busy holding down to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts on his collaboration with Justin Bieber for “Stay,” and that wasn’t the only thing the two stars had in common. Laroi was also signed with Bieber’s powerhouse manager, Scooter Braun, whose SB Projects also manages Ariana Grande, since June, but according to a new report from Billboard, the rising star just split ways with the company.

Previously, LaRoi was signed with Grade A Projects, but now he’s decided to throw in with Adam Leber at Rebel Management. Currently, Leber’s biggest client at Rebel is the unstoppable force, Lil Nas X, and up until August he also repped Miley Cyrus. Rebel is a fairly new venture for Leber, who co-founded the project in April in conjunction with Live Nation. One of Leber’s other clients is Labrinth, a British singer-songwriter/rapper and producer.

Before launching Rebel this year, Leber was a founding partner at Maverick management, a joint effort with other industry veterans like Clarence Spalding, Larry Rudolph, Guy Oseary, Gee Roberson, Scott Rodger, Cortez Bryant, Ron Laffitte and Caron Veazey. Neither Leber nor Braun responded to Billboard‘s requests for comment about issues like publishing, but stay tuned for a more formal announcement if this deal really did go through.

Remember that federal investigation into Matt Gaetz? It was announced at the top of the year, and it involved the Florida seantor’s ties to a sex trafficking ring that may have included underage girls. It’s been a while since we heard any updates about it. The last big thing involved his indicted associate Joel Greenberg agreeing to snitch on him. But it hasn’t gone away. And a new report by The Daily Beast suggests that when it finally gets under way, it may be even more epic than previously imagined.

The Beast talked to legal experts, who pointed out that that the perceived lull since the investigation began is nothing out of the ordinary. There are even a host of possible explanations. For one, investigators may have a long list of matters they’re looking into. The Beast even claims the delays “could just as easily suggest that the charges that could be coming down the pike are extremely grave and complex.”

Gaetz and his allies have used the lull to pretend that the investigation is kaput, but it appears he’s taking it very seriously indeed. Indeed, he’s amassed quite a legal team for a matter that’s not even going to trial yet.

That team features a trio of powerful litigators from New York City, well outside the bounds of the Middle District of Florida, where the Justice Department investigation is being handled.

Gaetz is personally represented by Marc Mukasey, who has defended the Trump Organization in several high-profile disputes, as well as Isabelle Kirshner, a partner at Clayman & Rosenberg LLP. Kirshner is a top Manhattan criminal defense attorney who also represented former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman after multiple women accused him of physical assault.

There’s also a campaign, entitled Friends of Matt Gaetz. Whose services have they retained? No less than Marc Fernich, a New York-based trial lawyer whose client list includes Jeffrey Epstein, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and cult leader and convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere.

What does this all mean? To former assistant New York attorney general Tristan Snell, it sounds like he’s preparing for a big fight.

“It looks like a scorched-earth approach,” Snell told The Daily Beast. “These are all big out-of-town lawyers. If your goal is to resolve something, you typically hire the top criminal defense attorney in the district, someone who’s a repeat customer there and has a good working relationship with that U.S. Attorney’s office. But these attorneys can go down there, burn down the building, and not have to worry about going back in the next day.”

Another expert, former federal prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks, says, “The fact he’s hiring trial lawyers would suggest that they are preparing for a trial, not a negotiation.”

While Gaetz may be sweating behind closed doors, in public he’s doing what he’s long done: pretending like he isn’t being federally investigated for ties to a sex trafficking ring. Over the weekend, he tried to pretend like all was normal. For Gaetz, that meant promoting a white supremacist conspiracy theory.

(Via The Daily Beast)

BTS have been having an epic year, and they’ve decided to build off all their momentum by sharing some select tour dates with their Los Angeles fans. After recently performing at the United Nations itself, embracing their status as South Korean ambassadors, and watching “Butter” become a bonafide, record-breaking contender for song of the summer, these K-Pop stars knew there was only one thing left to do: Take LA by storm.

Tonight the band announced they will be performing four nights in Los Angeles at the brand new SoFi Stadium for the “Permission To Dance On Stage — LA” mini tour. Their dates will be the last weekend in November beginning November 27 and November 28 and followed up with two more dates mid-week on December 1 and December 2. Pre-sale for the tickets will begin starting Tuesday, October 5 at 3 PM PST. Those who purchased VIP tickets for the group’s canceled Map Of The Soul tour will get first access, with all other ticket purchasers for that tour following as the next tier. Then, members of their fan club will have access, followed by verified fan pre-sale and finally general public. Here’s the breakdown:

10/5 3pm PT Day 1 – VIP Purchasers: MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR PRESALE
10/6 3pm PT Day 2 – Ticket Purchasers: MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR PRESALE
10/7 3pm PT Day 3 – BTS GLOBAL OFFICIAL FANCLUB ARMY MEMBERSHIP PRESALE
10/8 3pm PT Day 4 – General Verified Fan Presale
10/9 3pm PT Day 5 – General Public Onsale

Check out all the info on registration and when tickets will be available right here.

Daniel Craig’s last day as Bond was almost two years ago, when No Time to Die, his long-delayed fifth and final outing as the dashing spy, wrapped principal photography. But Eon Productions, which has overseen the main branch of the 007 film franchise, has not been quick to find his replacement. They recently announced that they won’t even start looking for a new Bond in earnest until next year. But there’s one person who won’t be joining the series, at least according to a Craig joke: Hugh Jackman.

On Monday, Jackman shared a clip of an interview Craig did with Scottish TV presenter Lorraine Kelly. At one point Kelly brought up Jackman — not as a possible replacement, just in an anecdote about the two kidding around.

“He’s not going to be it,” Craig interjected, with a smirk. He then added, “Over my dead body.”

“Well … that kills that rumor!” Jackman joked back, adding, “Daniel, mate, you’ll always be @007 to me.”

Jackman has a long history of publicly joke-feuding with colleagues. He and Ryan Reynolds have a long-simmering fake beef. He is, however, currently without a major franchise, having retired Wolverine/Logan over four years ago. Meanwhile, the person a lot of people have long wanted to take over for Craig, Idris Elbra, is, as of a couple years ago, just not that into it.

(Via EW)

New York State offered health care workers a choice: Get vaccinated or lose their job. That day came on Monday, September 27, with tens of thousands of unvaxxed employees set to be fired, opening a potentially catastrophic hole in the state’s hospital system. But newish Governor Kathy Hochul had a plan that of course didn’t sit well with the right-wing: replace them with, among others, members of the National Guard.

As per The Daily Beast, Hochul’s plan will expand the qualifications for health care employees, including “workers from other countries, recent graduates, and retirees to practice in New York.” National Guard troops are also on there, long as they’re “medically trained.”

“We are still in a battle against COVID to protect our loved ones, and we need to fight with every tool at our disposal,” Hochul declared in a statement. “I commend all of the health care workers who have stepped up to get themselves vaccinated, and I urge all remaining health care workers who are unvaccinated to do so now so they can continue providing care.”

According to state data, a whopping 84% of New York State health care workers are vaccinated. But that still means as many as 94,000 are unvaccinated. Of those who have refused to get dosed, many have argued that it violates their personal freedoms.

The news was net well met with the GOP and some libertarians.

But it also received praise.

New York State’s health care employee mandate was going to coincide with one for educators, who were to have been vaccinated on the same date. However, federal judge temporarily blocked the move. It now goes to a three-judge Appeals Court.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Saturday Night Live finally revealed its Season 47 cast after months of uncertainty. Considering the show is quite literally together putting its first episode, scheduled for October 2, as you read this, the announcement of who’s in and who’s out was extremely last-minute. The departure of Beck Bennett is likely the biggest surprise, as he leaves, as does Lauren Holt. Meanwhile many of those widely expected to leave actually ended up staying. Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, Pete Davidson and Kate McKinnon are all back this fall, along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman getting bumped up from featured players to full cast.

Replacing them as featured players are a trio of newcomers: Aristotle Athari, James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman. While news of their addition didn’t draw nearly as much controversy as some past additions on the show, there was considerable buzz about the newcomers, largely because of their past work. In fact, if you are even a little bit online you probably know at least one of those names thanks to living life in the Trump era. If you’re just catching up, though, here’s a quick rundown of what the sketch comedians are best known for.

James Austin Johnson

While Sarah Cooper may have gotten the biggest buzz for her impressions of Donald Trump, earning a Netflix and CBS deal in the process, it was Auston Johnson who was widely acclaimed for having the most accurate take. Videos of the comedian rambling in Trump’s raspy, unfocused voice about anything from Scooby Doo to Super Mario Bros have routinely gone viral, even in the months after Trump left office amid a coup attempt.

Austin Johnson’s best work is largely considered to be this one, which he published on Independence Day.

Johnson has also appeared in the Coen Brothers classic Hail, Caesar! and recently did voice acting for Tuca + Bertie. along with a variety of other stand up and podcast appearances over the years. It’s extremely likely that he will take over for Alec Baldwin, doing Trump impressions on the show, which is good news for everyone. Baldwin included.

Predictably, he made a joke about the big announcement on Monday as well.

Sarah Sherman

Described as a “weird comic from Chicago” by the Sun-Times, the boundary-pushing comedian is known as Sarah Squirm on Twitter for good reason. Her body humor shows have been described as a “circus of vulgarity” by critics because they usually involve, uh, fluids.

Sherman has worked as a writer on the Netflix series Magic For Humans. Her short Sarah Vaccine also made waves online recently. Lately, Sherman’s work has been featured on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and has worked on The Eric Andre Show as well.

Amazingly, she publicly shared an “audition tape” for Saturday Night Live back in 2020, which appears to have somehow worked.

She joked that the show made a “big mistake” on Monday shortly after the announcement was made.

Aristotle Athari

Perhaps best known as Gabe in the later seasons of HBO’s Silicon Valley, the actor and director has a number of other shows and projects in the comedy scene. He also worked on The Coop. But the barefooted Gabe certainly stood out as a foil to Kumail Nanjiani.

Athari is actually a member of Nanjiani’s Goatface collective, which created a comedy special for the network in 2018. He also served as a writer and director for Comedy Central’s web series How To Be Broke.

In the Pacific Northwest, orca sightings are a fairly common occurrence. Still, tourists and locals alike marvel when a pod of “sea pandas” swim by, whipping out their phones to capture some of nature’s most beautiful and intelligent creatures in their natural habitat.

While orcas aren’t a threat to humans, there’s a reason they’re called “killer whales.” To their prey, which includes just about everything that swims except humans, they are terrifying apex predators who hunt in packs and will even coordinate to attack whales several times their own size.

So if you’re a human alone on a little platform boat, and a sea lion that a group of orcas was eyeing for lunch jumps onto your boat, you might feel a little wary. Especially when those orcas don’t just swim on by, but surround you head-on.

Watch exactly that scenario play out (language warning, if you’ve got wee ones you don’t want f-bombed):

I would’ve shit my pants https://t.co/eJa6GDyNkk

— Eye- (@castrowas95)
1632579048.0

Ummm, yeah. An orca sighting is one thing, but this is a whole other story. Orcas have been known to knock large prey off of icebergs, so the whole “orcas don’t hurt humans” thing doesn’t feel super reassuring in this scenario.

The footage came from TikTok user @nutabull, whose now-deleted account stated she was from Vancouver Island.

The second video is even more intimidating.

The viral video sparked a debate about whether the sea lion should be kicked off the boat or not. The woman kept telling the sea lion it “had to go” with a frank “Sorry, buddy, that’s life,” message, though she never actively tried to push it off. Many commenters joked about yeeting the sea lion off the boat to avoid a potentially disastrous encounter with the orcas. Others were on #teamsealion, saying they wouldn’t have the heart to boot the poor thing.

This part of the video: The Sea Lion jumps back into the water, tries to jump back up when chased by the Orcas, and… https://t.co/V87R9E7HrI

— Jermaine (@JermaineWatkins)
1632651277.0

The reality is orcas eat sea lions—the circle of life and whatnot. Most of us just don’t find ourselves in the middle of that circle, having to figure out whether the apex predators surrounding our boat are going to patiently wait for their lunch to come back or take it upon themselves to bump it back into the water.

Thankfully for the woman, the sea lion seemed to decide on its own that its options were limited and dove back in to take its chances with the orcas. But phew, that encounter would be harrowing for just about anyone.

Best of luck, sea lion. Hope you’re an exceptional swimmer.

We have hit an awkward point in the pandemic where concert and sports stadiums are open across the country while the delta variant is raging in areas where vaccination numbers are low. To create a safer environment, some venues are requiring masks, vaccinations or a negative COVID-19 test to enter.

In the NFL, the Buffalo Bills and Las Vegas Raiders have put vaccination mandates in place. In the world of music, Jason Isbell, Maroon 5, Foo Fighters and Dead & Company have made similar requirements for their fans to attend gigs.

Unvaccinated people are three times more likely to spread COVID-19 than those who got the jab. People who are vaccinated have about a one in 5,000 chance of catching the virus and a one in 10,000 chance in places where risks are lower.

One performer who took a huge hit in the wallet and disappointed a lot of fans by canceling his concerts due to COVID-19 concerns is Garth Brooks.

Brooks launched a stadium tour in 2019 and put it on hold when the pandemic hit in 2020. He started up again this July, but after four shows he shut it down due to the rise of the delta variant.

“The thing that scares me that you have to look it is: I never saw the second wave coming,” he said. “I didn’t know there was going to be such a thing. Well, is there a third wave? So you just watch this.”

“I’m vaccinated, 100% vaccinated. Everybody on the freakin’ tour, vaccinated. I cannot make you get vaccinated. Until it becomes a law, it is a choice. And people, when things are a choice, you have to understand and respect that we’re all going to make our own choices,” he said.

Brooks’ team refunded 350,000 tickets when he could have kept playing and putting lives at risk.

Brooks and his band want to keep playing so they’re doing a tour that will make a lot of people happy while keeping them safe. He’s announced a dive bar tour where attendees will have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. He believes that smaller venues have a better shot at enforcing mandates than large stadiums.

“The dive bars are vaccinated, that’s how you get to do it,” Brooks said in a recent Facebook Live. “So, the great thing about this is, [the fans are] vaccinated or they have to show a three-day negative in-advance test.”

For Brooks, it’s all about safety.

“The joy I have seen in everyone’s faces as live music returns has been more than worth our constant diligence to maintain safety protocols not only for the fans, but for our band, the crew and the hard-working staff in these stadiums,” Brooks said. “Their dedication to safety for the people who fill those seats has been a miracle to watch and a blessing to receive. I am truly grateful.”

One day, we’ll be able to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, and artists such as Brooks will be able to look back at how they handled the situation and take pride in the fact that they put the safety of people first.