Month: November 2021

Tucker Carlson is obsessed with Montel Williams. At least that’s what the former talk show host says, and understandably so. On Monday, as Mediaite reports, Carlson ran a bizarre (even for Tucker) segment about vice president Kamala Harris, which suggested that she rose to power by sleeping with powerful men—or, as Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona rightly described it, “Just a little slut-shaming on cable news’ most-watched program.”

Though the vice president has been married to Douglas Emhoff since 2014, Carlson felt the need to dredge up Harris’ dating past accompanied by chyrons like “Kamala Harris Always Wanted Power,” “Kamala’s History of Dating Powerful Men,” and “Kamala’s Background Not Helping Her as Veep.” Carlson was particularly fascinated with her relationship with Williams, noting: “Harris also dated the tabloid TV show host Montel Williams, who was always doing shows about people’s weird sex lives.” (We’ll take your word for that, Tucker.)

Carlson, feigning confusion, wanted to know what that relationship was all about. “What did Montel Williams think of it? We would love to talk with Montel Williams about his torrid relationship with Ka-MAL-a or KAM-a-la because that would be one of those blanks we’d like to fill in.”

What sort of “blanks” Carlson is looking for is the only blank worth filling in here, though it might be better to not know. News of Harris and Williams’ relationship is not breaking news. While it was all over Twitter shortly after the 2020 presidential election, Williams addressed their past dalliance back in 2019, when he wondered “if the same stories about her dating history would have been written if she were a male candidate?”

“@KamalaHarris and I briefly dated about 20 years ago when we were both single. So what? I have great respect for Sen. Harris. I have to wonder if the same stories about her dating history would have been written if she were a male candidate?”

When asked by Mediaite whether he’d be willing to speak with Carlson, Williams—who called the whole thing “weird” and noted that Carlson has “been oddly obsessed with me… for years”— said he didn’t know if he’d be able to as he was “not sure they allow people who look like me in either of the two very White enclaves he does the show from.”

Williams also isn’t so sure that he and Carlson would have much in common. “I got where I am without being an heir to a fish sticks fortune,” Williams said, making reference to Carlson’s stepmother, Patricia Swanson, heiress to the Swanson food company—makers of TV dinners and, yes, fish sticks. “I grew up in the wrong part of Baltimore and succeeded nonetheless,” Williams continued. “Would Tucker be where he is if his dad hadn’t married a fish sticks heiress?”

(Via Mediaite)

In case you’ve forgotten, the whole reason that Taylor Swift is re-recording her albums is so she has new master recordings of her classic hits that she actually owns the rights to. So far, fans have embraced the idea, as Fearless (Taylor’s Version) topped the charts and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the just-released Red (Taylor’s Version) do the same next week. Now, Swift has found a powerful ally in replacing her original recordings with her new ones: iHeartRadio has vowed to only play the “Taylor’s Version” of songs on its radio stations from now on. iHeartRadio has “more than 850 broadcast radio stations” in its network, making it the largest broadcaster in the United States.

iHeartRadio made the announcement with a post on its website yesterday, which notes, “iHeartRadio is replacing all of Taylor’s previous albums with the ‘Taylor’s Version’ of each of them as Taylor releases each project, and will play only ‘Taylor’s Version’ of her songs on the air.”

Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia, is quoted in the post as saying, “Whenever Taylor re-records a new track, we immediately replace the old versions. Our stations will always deliver songs that artists are eager to share and fans want to hear. Listeners have made it known that they cannot wait to hear ‘Taylor’s Version’ of each track. We are thrilled to provide a platform to share those with them, as well as the stories behind the songs from Taylor herself.”

Check out our recent rankings of all of Swift’s “From The Vault” songs from her Taylor’s Version albums so far here.

The Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer featured plenty of Spidey villains (including but not limited to Willem Dafoe as the scenery-chewing Green Goblin and the Alfred Molina as underrated badass Doctor Octopus), but did it actually include plenty of Spideys, too? From the straight-up looks of things, this appeared to not be the case. However, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are nothing if not master speculators, and just like that time that people thought they saw Daredevil actor Charlie Cox’s arms and torso in a teaser, they’re alight with speculation that their Spidey senses are not unfounded.

That is to say, some people are utterly convinced that more than one Spider-Man appears in this trailer. Naturally, they’re referring to the fact that Doctor Strange and the multiverse are afoot, so they want to see some Andrew Garfield and/or Tobey Maguire magic. For sure, this is possible, even though both actors have done nothing to encourage speculation and Garfield has done his best to shut the rumors down, whether or not the spirit of the effort is genuine. So, what on earth could be in this “not fun” new trailer that would be causing Marvel fans to kind-of lose it?

Silly rabbit. A speculatiion-stirring shot takes place at around the 2:30 mark, when Zendaya’s MJ takes a fall that appears to be a direct callback to Gwen Stacy’s death. However, an apparently unidentified hand reaches out to rescue Peter Parker’s lady.

Readers, that hand has caused a ruckus. As one Twitter user exclaimed, “THIS FUCKIN HAND IS BLUE!”

And why might this detail matter? Because Andrew Garfield wore a Spidey suit with blue hands.

Hmm. There’s a decent chance that Sony/Marvel Studios are actually f*cking with us by inserting this shot (remember the missing character in an Avengers: Endgame spot that turned out to be Lebowski Thor?), and who could blame them, but you know what? It worked. Very quickly, the theories began to fire back and forth between fans on Twitter.

Was the color of the Spidey hand somehow “off” due to the light of the shot (due to lightning), or did something somehow (perhaps purposefully) get “inverted”? One user made a great point about the villains looking identifiable but still somehow “different” that what we know from previous Spider-Man films. And some users looked at other moments in the trailer and concluded that the hand is reflective of Tom Holland’s newest suit. Honestly, it looks like Holland’s being set up for this shot as the owner of the hand, but you can never know anything 100% when it comes to an MCU trailer.

Some people remain convinced that this shot means that extra Spideys are truly afoot in this movie. And a few people do make some compelling arguments. Who knows what will happen, however, when No Way Home finally arrives in theaters? People are gonna speculate until the day that it happens.

Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in theaters on December 17, 2021.

Since 1999, the stadium that has been home to a trio of basketball teams and a hockey team in Los Angeles has been known as the Staples Center. It’s among the most well-known stadiums in all of basketball, but later this year, the naming rights will be owned by someone else for the first time in the building’s history.

According to multiple reports, starting on Dec. 25, 2021, Staples Center will be renamed Crypto.com Arena. It is not the company’s first foray into basketball — they double as the jersey sponsor for the Philadelphia 76ers — but for the foreseeable future, the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Sparks, and Los Angeles Kings will report to work in a place that has a brand new name.

Shortly after, the company announced that the rumors were true, and that the partnership with the arena will be for the next 20 years.

In the aftermath, basketball fans took it upon themselves to make fun of the move, with two big things sticking out: the name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and the place will forever be known as “Staples Center,” regardless of who has the naming rights.

The last time the Lakers pulled off a huge deal — the one that brought Russell Westbrook to Los Angeles and has looked better for the Washington Wizards at this early juncture — was the punchline of some jokes, too.

And because the Lakers have LeBron James, there were a few LeBron-inspired jokes that popped up.

The new name will go into effect in time for the Lakers’ Christmas Day showdown with the Brooklyn Nets.

On Tuesday, just over three months after the date on which he claimed Trump would be reinstated in office (he wasn’t), Mike Lindell aired his pre-recorded interview with his favorite former president, whom he’s spent the last year claiming was a victim of byzantine — and almost certainly nonexistent — voter fraud. It was originally supposed to air as part of some marathon Thanksgiving broadcast of conspiracy theory nonsense, but he evidently decided to bump it up a week. And though there weren’t too many breakout (read: bonkers) moments, there was that part where Trump agreed with Lindell’s strange suggestion that voting machines should be melted.

The sit-down found Trump without his trademark too-long red tie, instead clad in an ill-fitted and, given the silliness they spoke, inexplicable tuxedo. Lindell peppered the ex-president with fulsome praise, then the two discussed the voter fraud allegations that have resulted in the interviewer hit with a $1.3 billion lawsuit.

Lindell berated “anyone who moves on” from the 2020 election, which to him is tantamount to “saying that you’re OK” with the established fact that current president Joe Biden won by over seven million votes. He then added a possible suggestion to future elections.

“I have said we’re going to melt down machines and use them into prison bars,” Lindell told Trump.

Trump was hardly against the idea, calling it “very interesting” and concluding that it was “a very good idea.”

The failed blogger and sometime Mar-a-Lago wedding toaster then railed against his former vice president, whose potential murderers he recently defended. “It was very sad when Mike Pence gave those votes over. When you have more votes than there are voters, when you have other things that are so wrong, and that was then,” Trump said. “Since then, many other things have happened!”

They sure have. Except that, over a year after the election was called for Biden, a great deal of Americans have moved on. Meanwhile Trump, his cohorts, and his die-hard supporters continue to spin the same wheels, over and over, perhaps for the rest of time.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Arguably the wildest music story of the weekend came out of Daytona Beach, Florida, site of the city’s Rockville Festival. Cover band Brass Against took the stage for a set, but at one point their lead vocalist, Sopha Urista, decided to create her own unique festival moment, namely urinating on a man on stage. Yes, you read that correctly. Mid-performance, Urista was plagued with the extreme urge to use the bathroom and decided that the face of a man in the crowd would be her best bet.

“Get my man with the can on his head ready, ’cause we’re going to bring him onstage and I’ma piss in this motherf*cker’s mouth,” she said. “I gotta pee and I can’t make it to the bathroom. So we might as well make a show out of it.” She stuck to her word and relieved herself on the man. But now she’s apologizing for the bizarre moment.

“Hey everyone. I want to speak to my performance at Rockville metal festival in Daytona,” Urista wrote in a message on Twitter. “I have always pushed the limits in music and on stage. That night, I pushed the limits too far.” She added, “I love my family, the band, and the fans more than anything and I know that some were hurt or offended by what I did. I apologize to them and want them to know that I didn’t mean to hurt them.”

She concluded, “I am not a shock artist. I always want to put the music first. I’m grateful for all of your continued love and support.”

Urista’s apology comes after the band put out a statement about the incident shortly after their performance. “We had a great time last night at Welcome To Rockville. Sophia got carried away,” they wrote. “That’s not something the rest of us expected, and it’s not something you’ll see again at our shows. Thanks for bringing it last night, Daytona.”

Brintey Spears has been in high spirits for nearly a week now. After 13 long years, a judge finally ruled that her highly-publicized conservatorship should be terminated. She celebrated the decision on her social media, writing, “Good God I love my fans so much it’s crazy. I think I’m gonna cry the rest of the day !!!! Best day ever.” Days later, Britney remains all smiles as she took to Instagram to share a longer message and hint at what could come next.

In the video, Britney began by reflecting on the struggles of her conservatorship and what she appreciates the most about her newfound freedom. She then took a moment to thank the #FreeBritney movement for their support. “You guys rock,” she said. “Honestly, my voice was muted and threatened for so long, I wasn’t able to speak up or say anything. Because of you guys and the awareness of kinda knowing what was going on, and delivering that news to the public for so long, you give it awareness to all of them. Because of you, I honestly think that you guys saved my life in a way 100%.”

She continued, “I know there’s a lot of jokes about the #FreeBritney movement — we’re not free, we’re expensive. Okay birdies, I’m expensive too. Anyways, with that said, let’s move forward. God bless you all, we’re gonna have a good year, good Christmas, and rock on!”

In the post’s caption, Britney also hinted at a special tell-all interview in the future. “I might as well do a hint of my thoughts on the gram before I go and set things square on @Oprah,” she wrote. “I mean who knows … I do know how embarrassing is to share the fact I’ve never seen cash or wasn’t able to drive my car …. but honestly it still blows my mind every day I wake up how my family and the conservatorship were able to do what they did to me … it was demoralizing and degrading !!!!”

Earlier this month, New Yorkers for the least odd candidate between two weirdos: Democrat Eric Adams handily trounced Republican (and founder of the not-quite-vigilante group the Guardian Angels) Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa was definitely the more unhinged candidate, and not because he has a dozen-and-a-half cats. But Adams is at the very least eccentric. Shortly before the election, he was even busted illegally parking and driving on the sidewalk outside the Bed-Stuy apartment he may not actually live in.

But now that he’s mayor-elect, swearing in first of the new year, he seems to be trying to bring the city back to normal. The Big Apple is certainly not dead, as Jerry Seinfeld can attest. It fact it’s been slowly reviving over the last handful of months, with vaccine rates skyrocketing and restaurants, bars, and other public venues inching closer to before-time patronage. And on Tuesday’s The Late Show with the decidedly pro-vaxx Stephen Colbert, Adams talked about how on the night he won the election, he painted the town, whose streets were all but empty at the height of the pandemic, red.

Adams listed the clubs he hit on Election Night, namechecking Zero Bond in the East Village, one of Cipriani’s three Manhattan locations, and Sugar Hill in Bed-Stuy, where he allegedly lives.

“I am the mayor, this is the city of nightlife. I must test the product. I have to be out,” Adams told Colbert. He then pitched his idea for a new New York City: “I want New Yorkers to come back. We used to be the coolest place on the globe. We’re so damned boring now, man. We have to be among the people, enjoying life. I want the cross-pollination of our energy and the diversity of this city. We have some beautiful places in the city. So I’m going to be out.”

That said, Adams does rise earlier than most, though by no means all, New Yorkers. “If you’re going to be hanging out with the boys at night, you gotta get up with the men in the morning,” he said. “I’m up at 5am every morning.”

And so Adams, who promises to be workaholic, may still find some time to hit the city’s reawakening nightlife. But when he’s done, he may do what he’s threatened to do, which is crash not at Gracie Mansion all the way up in Yorkville, but all the down there in Lower Manhattan, sleeping in his office in City Hall.

Jennifer Coolidge is arguably more popular than she’s ever been, which is saying something. The actress has attracted serious Emmy talk after The White Lotus, the HBO series in which she played a grieving vacationer — a role she almost turned down. She was such a hit with viewers that she’ll be one of the only members of the cast to be back for Season 2, set at a different resort with a different group of characters. (She won’t be back for the Party Down revival, however, though she did only appear on two episodes of the original.) But she’s also teaming with one of TV’s most prolific chroniclers for something that sounds even more sinister than a show bookmarked by one character’s untimely demise.

As per Deadline, Coolidge will join the cast of The Watcher, in which Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale play a couple whose dream home comes with an unwanted guest. After moving in, they find themselves receiving unnerving letters from a mysterious stalker who goes by the titular sobriquet.

It’s not clear who Coolidge will play but the series will be based on a chilling true story, about a couple who, in 2014, purchased a 1905 Dutch colonial revival in Jersey for nearly $1.4 million — only to have to jet after they kept receiving unnerving letters from someone called, you guessed it, “The Watcher” (which is also, oddly, the name of the house). The stalker in question claimed they looked over the house for decades.

In the meantime, Coolidge will be back on screens soon enough, appearing in Single All the Way, billed as Netflix’s first gay holiday movie and due on the streamer Dec. 2.

(Via Deadline)

Two of the top five teams in the NBA this season faced off in a nationally televised spot on Tuesday evening, with the Brooklyn Nets welcoming the Golden State Warriors to Barclays Center. By tip-off, the Nets were actually narrow betting favorites but, by the fourth quarter, Golden State held a commanding lead and sent quite a message in what became a 117-99 victory. While there were many headlines to take away from a notable road win, Steph Curry, as usual, was the center of everything for the Warriors.

The Nets held a three-point lead at the end of the first quarter, based on a 34-point showing and well over 50 percent shooting. Curry kept the Warriors close with 12 points and that was just the start. With help from Andrew Wiggins and an improving defense, Golden State took a halftime lead, with Curry posting 19 points before halftime and putting constant pressure on Brooklyn’s defense.

In addition to the genuine brilliance of Curry’s performance, the first half was also noteworthy in that he received MVP chants. That happens often in San Francisco but, this time, it occurred on the road in a game that featured another top-flight candidate in Kevin Durant.

Golden State then broke things open with a dominant third quarter, out-pacing the Nets by a 35-18 margin. The Warriors were dominant on both sides of the floor, holding the Nets to just 23 percent shooting in the third period, and Curry kept it going on the offensive side.

With a 22-point lead, the Warriors had things in hand, but if there was any doubt, Curry erased it with an on-brand shooting barrage early in the fourth quarter. Before exiting early as a result of the lopsided margin, Curry buried three more three-pointers, sticking the dagger in this blowout win.

He even hit one that didn’t count right before he checked out, much to the delight of the fans.

All told, Curry finished with 37 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block. He connected on nine of his 14 attempts from three-point range, as well as 3-for-5 from two-point range and 4-for-4 at the free throw line, and Curry certainly cemented a very early lead in the MVP race along the way. There should be credit given to Draymond Green and Golden State’s defense but, in a marquee matchup, all eyes were on Curry and he delivered.