Month: October 2021

Coldplay leader Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow divorced in 2016, and after that relationship came to an end, Martin ended up getting close with another familiar face: In late 2017, it was reported that Martin and Dakota Johnson started seeing each other. A few years later, the pair seems to be going strong, as Martin dedicated a song to her at a recent performance.

On October 12 at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, the band was getting ready to perform their BTS collaboration “My Universe.” Before launching into the song, Martin pointed up at Johnson in the venue’s balcony and said, “This is about my universe… and she’s here.” E! notes that after the shout-out, Johnson “could be seen briefly holding her palms together in appreciation, and then she threw her arms into the air as she danced along to the bouncy tune.”

The pair are famously tight-lipped about their relationship: In a 2018 interview with Tatler (as E! notes), Johnson refused to discuss her relationship with Martin, saying, “I’m not going to talk about it, but I am very happy.”

Meanwhile, speaking of Coldplay concerts, the band just today announced that they’re going out on tour in 2022.

Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There’s Tucker balancing an ice cream cone and the keys to his Ferrari in one hand, his phone in the other, camera flipped to film him and his son walking back to the car on a warm September evening in Miami, Tucker laughing, eyes crinkled with pride, rivulets of melting ice cream beginning to run down both their cones.

There’s Tucker, solid in the lane with his eyes narrowed on the offensive player with the bad luck of trying to be the one to get him to balk, to shift, to break just then. There’s Tucker in the back of a low, wood speedboat, head tilted cooly to the side and hands resting in his lap as the spray lifted from the Grand Canal kicks up away and behind him and his white Dolce & Gabbana suit.

There’s Tucker pressing his face against Kevin Durant’s, against Lance Stephenson’s, hissing into Dennis Schroder’s ear, coiling around Donovan Mitchell, all in the intimate distance reserved for lovers. There’s Tucker in the tunnel in a green silk Cuban shirt flared with bubblegum pink blooms, in a long snow white wool coat with perfect blue jeans and white Air Forces worn open, in black leather pants and a western denim shirt with pearl buttons and red and black Jordans, in a silk smoking jacket and matching pants with a button-down smeared with water-colour roses tucked snug in the front.

There’s Tucker in the tunnel

There’s Tucker in

There’s Tucker

His moods distilled to looks, to moments and finally, down to the man. A complete picture, nothing out of place. Anthony Leon Tucker Jr., down to Pops Junior, after his dad, down to P.J. — see the trend here? Edits, that’s the easiest way to put it. In fashion, a term that refers to clothes and accessories selected for a particular purpose or time.

On the floor, Tucker makes his edits as a line of best fit, precise flashes of devotion divvied up as slices of scorn or possessiveness. Namely, who is in his way, his guy’s way.

Tucker has honed his sensibilities through the seasons — fashion and basketball floor — since he arrived to the league and was bounced abruptly overseas. Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, Puerto Rico, Germany, five years away from relevancy in pro-ball terms, squinting at the storylines an ocean away, like gleaning Fall/Winter trends from fives seasons ago by rifling through racks at an outlet mall. But he made it all work. Borrowing from the physicality of the Euro game, cinching it with that double-dare you sneer that’s become his signature.

Some people are born with a good eye, others with a knack for sifting like a magpie for whatever in the moment flashes. Tucker has both.

He’s told stories that he’d skip team dinners and go solo through the narrow, winter grey streets of Kiev in search of whatever couture flagship he could find, to come in from the cold among leather bags and boots soft as a promise. To say that Tucker wears clothes doesn’t quite fit. Tucker puts things on with the precision of someone who has thought through the swell of the moment the clothes are meant to carry him through. Even if that moment is going to mean the 30 quick seconds it takes to get from the elevator of the arena’s parking garage, down a dark tunnel, to the locker room awash in, no matter how dressed up, underground lighting.

The flourish and joy in dressing, for Tucker, is the place where he first started to pull away from the lunchpail necessity of his role. Where he warmed to silk, satin and leather as tools in his belt.

Never brooding, not like the other players who are known for the same surfeit of muscle and grit, Tucker punches into games methodically, with a buttoned down icy calm even when snarling. All his flareups and going, literally, chest-to-chest, come with the style and remove better associated with an Armani suit. There is never anything on the verge of losing control, there. Tucker played his first NBA Summer League at 27, forfeiting a contract in Russia on the off chance that the Suns — 2012 roster already replete with brawn in both Morris brothers, a late career Jermaine O’Neal and a prime scowling Marcin Gortat — would see something of that stout control in Tucker. He had staying power in Phoenix, had to, and it was when he helped to hone the rookie jumble of Devin Booker that Tucker would come into his tailored fit, the role he wears best.

Protector, muscle, intangibles with teeth, Tucker bore mercurial superstars like James Harden and teams like Toronto with internalized demands that carried the same stoic support. He dug in, length of stay irrelevant, offering the kind of confidence that comes from borrowed clothes. Costumed to start, until parts of that longed for persona start to settle permanently onto the borrowers shoulders.

There’s a reason that Tucker’s tenure in Milwaukee feels longer than a season, and it’s more than a ring. To the Bucks pragmatic, blue collar basketball Tucker was flashy by comparison, a florid jolt of just enough pretension to push the team out of its well-worn comfort zone.

And after chugging champagne in southern Wisconsin and signing to Miami, Tucker took what seemed the entire summer off from the one thing he loved on behalf of the other — the two wolves inside of him, one clad in basketball shorts and the other in a fuchsia brocade silk military jacket — and spent slow, gold days in Paris and Venice watching runway shows and putting all those antiquities dotting the streets to shame with the clothes he did it in. His love for fashion and clothing is open, with appetite, encompassing in the same way people who love food will look at a menu and opt for half of it, revel in the rhythm of plates being laid on the table in a chaotic jumble to make everything fit, insist on sharing. Desirous, with a cheerfully persistent mania that reject pretension, guided by gut and feeling over attention to what’s popular or what goes with what.

To say that for Tucker, who has spent a career compiling moments, editing each season spent chasing, then maintaining, then methodically transcending, this season with the Heat represents a reinvention would be like lacing a pair of Jordans, pulling on Levis, tying up a trench with a perfectly careless knot, without considering what it is that makes each piece more than a sum of its parts. But there’s a rapturous, lascivious casting-off that’s going on with Tucker now, a perfect combination of role, fit, and a climate ideal for him to drive around topless in his convertibles in.

The hard edges of Tucker aren’t softening, but he has found the best fabrics to cut and drape perfectly over them.

McDonald’s isn’t the only fast-food chain collaborating with rappers lately. Popeyes — which previously collaborated with Uber Eats and Migos — is joining the fun bringing Megan Thee Stallion for a theme-appropriate Megan Thee Hottie Sauce, as well as merchandise. In a press release, Popeye’s describes the sauce, saying it flaunts a sweet, yet bold flavor with a hint of spice, inspired by Megan’s sassy personality,” and revealing some of the ingredients, including Aleppo pepper, cider vinegar, honey. The sauce will be available starting October 19 as an option for the chicken sandwich and the newly added chicken nuggets.

Additionally, the food chain announced that Meg has purchased a Popeyes franchise — however, there was no information on the location or when it’d open. According to AdWeek, the merchandise collection will include bikinis, hats, shirts, and even plush dog toys shaped like chicken tenders (Meg’s French bulldog, 4oe, is almost as famous as she is on Instagram). Finally, the partnership will also be making a “six-figure donation” to Houston Random Acts of Kindness. AdWeek notes that the partnership is a departure from prior food-food-rapper bids, like Taco Bell naming Lil Nas X its “Chief Impact Officer,” due to the inclusion of Megan’s franchise ownership.

Watch the ad announcing the new Hottie sauce above and keep your eyes peeled for merch and more on 10/19.

Rifle Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is determined to tell her “haters” who is boss, and that did not work out as planned for the far-right politician who’s often seen as a Sarah Palin imitator. The latest round of Boebert messiness — following a hysterical tweet about the U.S.-Mexico border situation, a disastrous toilet joke, and a completely ineffective Office Space reference — follows up on a real doozy of a hashtag on Twitter.

That would be the #LaurenBoebertIsSoDumb entry that’s gone viral for about 24 hours. Yes, people have done this (in part) because Boebert didn’t graduate high school (she did recently pass the GED exam), but it’s more about Boebert’s constant confusion (and know-it-all air) while tweeting about the three branches of U.S. government. She also adores straw-man arguments and generally makes zero sense with her tweets, which are likely meant to be incendiary. Well, Boebert isn’t about to sit down for being called “dumb,” and so she made a two-minute video (for her “haters”), in which she declares that she won’t “bother entertaining the haters,” but that’s exactly what she’s doing here.

“Every time the Radical Left tries to make some nasty hashtag like #LaurenBoebertIsSoDumb trend,” Rootin’ Tootin’ Lauren tweeted. “I flip it on it’s head & claim a victory for FREEDOM!” She then included a fundraising link, as one does.

Naturally, the responses began to pour in on several notes. First, people pointed out that she’s doing everything to entertain her haters while outwardly refusing to do so. And people are going to see this as proof that the hashtag is accurate.

Also, there’s the very obvious elephant in the room: Boebert was recently busted while (illegally) using her fundraising dollars for very personal expenses.

And then there’s this: some thank-you messages for helping #LaurenBoebertIsSoDumb to trend even harder. Talk about counterproductive.

Even at this point in her young career, Billie Eilish’s accomplishments are almost too many to count. Still, there are some feats she has yet to pull off, including a bunch she wrote in her bucket list when she was 12 years old. Well, Jimmy Kimmel went over that list on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night and helped Eilish cross some items off it.

Some items, like “grow my hair past my butt,” couldn’t be accomplished on the show, but as for some the ones that could, Kimmel made them happen. One of them was “cut someone’s hair,” so Kimmel plucked a random woman from the audience, sat her down in a barber’s chair, and gave Eilish a pair of scissors. Eilish then grabbed a chunk of the person’s hair and gave her some rough bangs, not to mention a memorable story she’ll be able to tell for the rest of her life.

Kimmel then got Eilish a mouse (to cross “get a mouse” off her list), and then, he put his own body on the line for Eilish’s next item: “punch someone.” While Eilish admitted her intent was to punch somebody in the face, she was plenty happy to take a good swing at Kimmel’s stomach.

Check out the full interview above. She also performed “Happier Than Ever” on the show, so check that out below.

Two former-Batman actors come together in The Tender Bar.

Directed by George Clooney and based on Pulitzer Prize winning author J.R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same name, the coming-of-age drama stars Ben Affleck as a Long Island bartender who becomes a father figure to his nephew (Tye Sheridan). It’s a smaller, more personal story than we’re used to seeing from Clooney, who tends to make historical dramas, political thrillers, or in the case of last year’s The Midnight Sky, science-fiction films. Outside of Affleck and Sheridan, the cast also includes Lily Rabe and Christopher Lloyd, who never played Batman but he really should have.

Here’s the official plot summary:

The Tender Bar tells the story of J.R., a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father — J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams — with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

The Tender Bar hits theaters on December 17 and Amazon Prime Video on January 17.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not authorized Ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19. It says so right on their website — and in the viral tweet, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” But that hasn’t stopped who-knows how many people from taking Ivermectin, including Joe Rogan.

After testing positive for COVID-19, Rogan said he “immediately threw the kitchen sink at it,” including Ivermectin. He was roundly mocked by medical professionals and news networks (and most of Twitter) for putting horse dewormer into his “5 foot 3” body. “Bro, do I have to sue CNN?” he said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “They’re making sh*t up… They keep saying I’m taking horse dewormer. I literally got it from a doctor. It’s an American company. They won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for use in human beings and CNN is saying I’m taking horse dewormer. They must know that’s a lie.”

Rogan had Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, on Wednesday’s episode of his podcast, and things got tense when the host brought up the networks’s claim that he took “horse dewormer” as a COVID treatment. “By the way, I’m glad you’re better,” Gupta said, to which Rogan replied, “Thank you. You’re probably the only one at CNN who’s glad… The rest of them are all lying about me taking horse medication.”

“That bothered you,” Gupta said, grinning.

“It should bother you too,” Rogan shot back. “They’re lying at your network about people taking human drugs versus drugs for veterinary.”

“Calling it a ‘horse dewormer’ is not the most flattering thing, I get that,” Gupta conceded.

“It’s a lie,” Rogan pushed back. “It’s a lie on a news network… and it’s a lie that they’re conscious of. It’s not a mistake. They’re unfavorably framing it as veterinary medicine.”

Rogan continued, “Why would they lie and say that’s horse dewormer? I can afford people medicine, motherf*cker. It’s ridiculous! It’s just a lie! Don’t you think that a lie like that is dangerous on a news network when you know that they know they’re lying?… Do you think that that’s a problem that your news network lies?” Dr. Gupta admitted that “they shouldn’t have said that” (even though it’s not a lie — Ivermectin is used to treat parasitic worms in horses), but I’m having a hard time getting over:

“I can afford people medicine, motherf*cker.”

Must be nice. Dr. Gupta also wrote about his experience on The Joe Rogan Experience (“Friends tried to get me to turn down his invite”), which you can read below.

(Via Mediaite)

Kyrie Irving isn’t playing for the Nets this season until something changes regarding his vaccination status or the New York City vaccine mandate. While unvaccinated, he’s unable to play in home games in Brooklyn and the Nets announced earlier this week that they would not accommodate him as a part-time player and would move forward without him as part of the team — but he would only be missing out on game checks for the home games he’s ineligible for.

Up until Wednesday, Irving hadn’t spoken about his status, choosing to cite his “privacy” at media day when his vaccine status was brought up, despite the obvious nature of the situation given he was the lone Nets player not at the facility and doing media day over Zoom. However, the obvious has been officially stated now, and on Wednesday night Irving went on Instagram Live to talk about his situation. Irving talked for a considerable amount of time, but never offered any real explanations for his stance beyond saying it was what is best for him and asking people to respect that.

The most notable thing he said he was that he wasn’t retiring and wanted to be playing this season, but also said his decision was bigger than basketball and he was doing this for people who had lost their job due to vaccine mandates.

The full transcript of his closing to the IG Live is certainly a lot of words that don’t do an awful lot to provide a reasoning for why he’s not getting vaccinated.

The most confusing part of all of this is that Irving claims he wants to be a voice for the voiceless, but refuses to actually explain his position and reasoning behind it. All he says is that he’s standing with those who chose not to get the vaccine and lost their job, as if that’s a cause that requires someone to bring great awareness to — while also insisting he isn’t anti-vax and respects those who get the vaccine.

He is at once trying to be provocative and trying to be all-encompassing on an issue that for the vast majority of people isn’t even debatable, given that it is a public health crisis. Irving insists that he hasn’t “hurt anybody,” but when it comes to this situation, personal choices regarding the vaccine can, in fact, have a significant impact on others — particularly those who have legitimate health reasons and pre-existing conditions that prevent them from being able to get the vaccine.

In an episode of Law & Order, when someone gets a subpoena, they show up to court or wherever they’ve been instructed to go, drop some piece of game-changing intel, the dun-dun music plays, and the credits roll. But in Trumpland, as with most things involving Donald Trump, compliance should never be a foregone conclusion. Case in point: the number of Trump allies who are flouting the law—reportedly at the former president’s behest—by ignoring the subpoenas they’re receiving from the House committee investigating the events surrounding the January 6 insurrection.

On Wednesday, as Raw Story reports, House committee member Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) appeared on Morning Joe, where she made it clear that the committee has “engaged with a wide variety of law enforcement offices, including the U.S. Marshals, in order to issue the subpoenas” and “will use all of the agencies and all of the tools at our disposal to issue the subpoenas and enforce them.”

While the idea of someone who probably (most definitely) does not look like Raylan Givens coming after them with a pair of handcuffs might be enough of a threat to convince some former Trump cohorts to comply, Steve Bannon won’t likely be among them. As Insider reported, Trump’s former chief strategist and senior counselor had his lawyers send a second letter to the committee reaffirming their position that Bannon won’t be complying with his own subpoena because of Trump’s “executive privilege.” Robert J. Costello, Bannon’s attorney, wrote:

“Mr. Bannon’s position is not in defiance of your Committee’s subpoena; rather, Mr. Bannon noted that President Trump’s counsel stated that they were invoking executive and other privileges and therefore directed us not to produce documents or give testimony that might reveal information President Trump’s counsel seeks to legally protect.”

While Biden has waived any executive privilege related to documents and information surrounding the January 6th riots, Bannon’s team is playing a game of he said, he said—stating that they have been directed by Trump’s lawyer “not to produce documents or testify until the issue of executive privilege has been resolved.”

Dun-dun.

(Via Raw Story)

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

Get more streaming recommendations with our weekly What To Watch newsletter.

10. (tie) The Haunted Museum (Discovery+)

Eli Roth has so much going on over at Discovery+ this month (following his recent real-life horror/Shark-Week film on the streamer) that one has to wonder… is he running the joint? It’s a valid question, but more to the point, he’s teaming up with Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans for this scripted anthology series, in which they illuminate nine of the world’s most cursed artifacts. These relics are actually in display in Bagans’ Vegas museum, but here, you’ll get the historic commentary in addition to having the pants scared off of you.

10. (tie) Foundation (Apple TV+)

Sorry to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos but Apple TV+ is actually winning the space race right now. They’ve already delivered the terrific For All Mankind and now they’re taking us further, to the very borders of the galaxy for this sci-fi adaptation. The story follows a mathematician who develops a formula for predicting the end of a future Galactic Empire before devising a way to save it via a rebellion (of sorts). Yes, there’s a lot going on here, but prestige TV king Jared Harris is a pro at making us care about really complicated science – see Chernobyl – and the casting department has another ace up its sleeve in case you’re on the binge-watching fence. Four words: Lee. Pace. In. Space. Watch it on Apple TV+.

10. (tie) I Know What You Did Last Summer (Amazon Prime)

Sure, you remember the 1997 film and perhaps you’re aware that that was based upon the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan, but this Amazon Studios collaboration with Sony Pictures Television wants you to relive the nightmare once more. Obviously, this version doesn’t have Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, or Freddie Prinze, but these teens seem more twisted by nature than the O.G. bunch, so perhaps that will add some shading to justify reviving their shared dark secret as they aim to survive. Watch it on Amazon Prime.

9. The Morning Show (Apple TV+)

Critics of season one of The Morning Show won’t have an easy time credibly claiming a lack of action or interest in a second season that picks up the thread from the last while also servicing even more characters and the lingering threat of COVID. This is a heavyweight fight all over again with Aniston and Witherspoon leading the way, but look for more of Billy Crudup lounging in the chaos to spark the show once more. Watch it on Apple TV+.

8. Dopesick (Hulu)

Michael Keaton (who is still the greatest Batman in history, so don’t mess with him in any role) finally comes to TV beyond cameo mode. Here, he takes on Big Pharma as a physician whose patients are dying off amid an opioid epidemic, and Rosario Dawson portrays one of the heroes who want to take the makers of Oxycontin down. The series promises an intense ride, and the cast includes Michael Stuhlbarg and Kaitlyn Dever, who’s all over TV now and making Justified‘s Loretta proud here. Watch it on Hulu.

7. Maid (Netflix)

Margaret Qualley (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) stars in this heartbreaking adaptation of Stephanie Land’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. This will, clearly, be a difficult watch, but Qualley’s raw portrayal (of a woman who flees an abusive relationship to go through exceedingly difficult times to break the cycle for her daughter) yields a burgeoning star. Watch it on Netflix. Watch it on Netflix.

6. Only Murders In The Building (Hulu)

Selena Gomez stars alongside the legendary Steve Martin and Martin Short, and the three portray NYC neighbors who aim to unravel an apparent murder inside their apartment building. Yes, they’re all podcasting because everyone does it (duh), and before long, the killer might be after them, too. Martin hasn’t written a feature film since the Pink Panther movies and Shopgirl, and we don’t wanna come out and call this trio a “much cooler Three Amigos” update, but Martin wrote that, too, so why not? Watch it on Hulu

5. What We Do In The Shadows (FX/Hulu)

Well, well, well. Guillermo turned out to be a vampire killer, which sure as heck came as a surprise to Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo, and Colin. The four Staten Island roommates must figure out how to handle this conundrum, along with tackling the other challenges of this season. Those include dealing with wellness cults and gym culture, along with gargoyles, werewolves who play kickball, casinos, and more. In other words, this is still one of the funniest shows on TV. Watch it on FX and Hulu.

4. Midnight Mass (Netflix)

Get ready, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor addicts, because creator Mike Flanagan’s back to cause us more horror fits. This happens to be his favorite project so far and revolves around an isolated community that lives on spooky Crockett Island, which gets even spookier due to a charismatic priest’s arrival. Naturally, a whole lot of supernatural shenanigans are afoot, but human nature can often be scarier than the ghosts that people can dream up. It’s dark, real dark. Watch it on Netflix.

3. You (Netflix)

If you find yourself commiserating with Penn Badgley’s obsessive serial killer Joe Goldberg when You’s third season drops this week, don’t take it personally. Relocating to a small town and having to interact with mommy bloggers and uber-masculine tech-daddies sounds like hell, sure, but it’s what he deserves. The show’s latest installment picks up where season two left off — with Joe and his new wife Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti at her best here) moving to the suburbs and trying to curb the worst of their shared homicidal tendencies. A new baby, new romantic distractions, anti-vaxxers, feminist wine retreats, and bro trips that end rather bloody all threaten their planned quiet life. And really, no amount of couple’s therapy can save a marriage when one spouse is constantly fantasizing about murdering the other. Happily ever after just isn’t in the cards for these two — but more dead bodies piling up in their basement certainly is. Watch it on Netflix.

2. Squid Game (Netflix)

Netflix’s most popular show in, well, ever continues to burn up the discourse, and internet bandwidth all over the world. It’s been a while since we had a full-on phenomenon like this one. Get in there if you haven’t yet, or maybe get in there again if you have, if part to enjoy (?) all the class-based cynicism and murderous children’s games, and in part so you have something to talk about with your family during the quickly-approaching holiday season. Watch it on Netflix.

1. Succession (HBO Max)

Everyone’s favorite collection of monsters is back, once again, this time for a slightly delayed third season. Things left off with the Roy family in turmoil, as always, although this time from friendly fire, thanks to noted screw-up and amateur rapper Kendall making a big move. The new season should get ugly in the best possible way, so hop on board week-to-week if you’re already a fan or load up a binge and get caught up to see what everyone’s yammering about all fall. Watch it on HBO Max.