Month: December 2021

After 26 books and two movies, Jack Reacher is headed to television with his own Amazon Prime series, Reacher. However, if you’re expecting to see Tom Cruise reprising the iconic action hero, you’ve got quite the 6’3″, 250 pounds-of-muscle surprise ahead of you.

In the first trailer for Reacher, none other than hulking Smallville and Titans star Alan Ritchson has taken on the role of ex-military-man turned renegade Jack Reacher — a far cry from the more slender Cruise, who starred in the 2012 and 2016 films. According to series’ author Lee Child (via Entertainment Weekly), Amazon’s reimaging of Jack Reacher — and Ritchson’s casting in particular — is significantly more in line with how he envisioned the character looking in his stories, perfectly conveying the levels of “stillness,” “menace,” and “goodwill” the Reacher we know from the books should have.

“When I picture Reacher, let’s say you’re in a bar or restaurant, the door opens, he steps in, and the temperature in the room drops by a degree, because people think, ‘What the hell is this? Even if there’s not an immediate threat, there’s an impact. That’s what I wanted,” Child said. “This guy stepped on the screen and had this stillness and blend of menace and goodwill that is always confusing about Reacher. If he’s going to be your friend, you’re very lucky. If he’s not going to be your friend, you’re very unlucky. All of that had to be transmitted just through stance, mood, look — and Ritchson had it right away.”

Despite this first look at the series’ only clocking in at about two minutes, everything Child is saying is made abundantly clear by Ritchson’s intimidating performance in it as the character slams inmates into tiled walls and breaks more than a few bones.

In addition to Ritchson, Malcolm Goodwin (American Gangster), Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), Willa Fitzgerald (Dare Me), Chris Webster (The Most Dangerous Game), Marc Bendavid (Dark Matter), Willie C Carpenter (Brawl in Cell Block 99), Currie Graham (NYPD Blue), and Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows) are all set to star in the upcoming series, which hits Amazon Prime on February 4.

After ten years and millions of records sold, UK pop band Little Mix are stepping away from music for the time being. The band announced Thursday that they plan on taking an indefinite hiatus next year after completing their 2022 Confetti arena tour. While they clarified that it’s not an officially breakup announcement, Little Mix say they hope to “recharge and work on some other projects” instead.

Sharing the statement on social media, Little Mix wrote:

“We wanted to let you all know that after the Confetti tour in April/May next year we are going to be taking a break from Little Mix.

It’s been 10 amazing years, a wonderful non-stop adventure, and we feel the time is right to take a break so we can recharge and work on some other projects.

We can’t thank you enough for your love and never-ending support since the beginning. We love you all SO much.
We are not splitting up – Little Mix are here to stay. We have plans for more music, tours and performances in the future. We’ve made so many incredible memories with you all, and we can’t wait to make so many more. We’re sisters and we’ll always have each other and you, the fans, in our lives. Little Mix is forever.”

The news comes after many changes for Little Mix. Band member Jesy Nelson left the group last year in order to start a solo career and just dropped off a debut single featuring Nicki Minaj. On top of that, members Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock just became new moms.

Find Little Mix’s announcement below.

The Milwaukee Bucks have not had the services of starting center Brook Lopez this season as he’s tried to work his way back from a back injury that has limited him to 28 minutes of action this season. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, it appears that Lopez won’t be able to play any time soon, as the team announced that the big man is out indefinitely after undergoing surgery on his back.

“The surgery was performed by Dr. Robert Watkins with oversight by Bucks team physician Dr. William Raasch of the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network,” the team said in a statement. “Lopez will continue to be listed as out and updates on his rehabilitation progress will be provided as appropriate.”

Milwaukee attempted to add some frontcourt reinforcements when it signed DeMarcus Cousins earlier this week — so far, he has appeared in one game. The team has been able to turn to Bobby Portis and Giannis Antetokounmpo for minutes at the 5 this season, and despite dealing with a rash of injuries, the Bucks sit 14-8, good for third place in the Eastern Conference and 1.5 games behind the 1-seeded Nets.

Still, Lopez has been a steady hand on both ends of the floor during the franchise’s recent run of success, providing floor spacing on offense and establishing himself as one of the best defensive bigs in the league.

Comedian Kathy Griffin stopped by The View on Thursday morning and had a whole lot to say about her former employer, CNN. In 2017, Griffin was fired by the cable news network after she posed with a fake, bloody, and decapitated head of Donald Trump. Just 24 hours after the photo was debuted, Griffin was removed from the New Year’s Eve special that she annually hosted with Anderson Cooper, and she continued to experience fallout from the incident for months, if not years. (Although, she did get revenge at a Writer’s Guild Event.)

However, while talking to the ladies at The View, Griffin couldn’t help but notice that Jeffrey Toobin was allowed to return to the network despite being caught masturbating during a Zoom call with his colleagues at The New Yorker. According to Griffin, Toobin being allowed to say represented an ongoing problem with misogyny. Via The Daily Beast:

Griffin went on to say that when she got “canned” from co-hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve special, it hurt her “personally” because she loved that gig. “But then for me to watch Jeffrey Toobin talking about women’s choice after he masturbated on a Zoom call, which I know sounds funny, but maybe wasn’t so funny for the other ladies … that had to see that.”

Co-host Joy Behar attempted to push back a little by saying that Toobin admitted what he did was accidental, but Griffin wasn’t buying it. “Well, OK, good for him,” Griffin said. “I just think it’s easy when a guy does something, we joke about it, and I do believe there’s a double standard.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

To put it lightly, 2021 was an up-and-down year for Morgan Wallen. The story starts towards the end of 2020, though, when he was filmed maskless at a party and was consequently relieved of his duties as Saturday Night Live musical guest. That December, though, he did end up on SNL and even acted in a sketch about that party. Things got worse from there, when he was caught using a racial slur in early 2021. He later received criticism for reportedly not making good on promises to donate to Black-led groups.

Despite the controversies, country music fans stuck with Wallen, so much so that Dangerous: The Double Album was one of the year’s biggest musical releases, thanks largely to the success it enjoyed post-controversy. Actually, Dangerous wasn’t one of 2021’s biggest albums: It was the biggest album.

Billboard shared some year-end charts today, and Dangerous is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums list, ahead of Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Pop Smoke’s Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon, Taylor Swift’s Evermore, and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy. Furthermore, Wallen was the year’s top country artist and the No. 5 artist overall, after Drake, Rodrigo, The Weeknd, and Swift.

Overall, Dangerous spent ten weeks at No. 1, the most weeks at No. 1 since Drake’s Views had 13 in 2016. Even on the current Billboard 200 dated December 4, Dangerous sits at No. 5.

Billboard notes of the methodology used to create the year-end charts, “Billboard‘s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label, and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 21, 2020, through Nov. 13, 2021. The rankings for MRC Data-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales, or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings.”

Check out all of the year-end charts here.

In the wake of the death of Pivot Gang producer/DJ Squeak, the Chicago-based collective is preparing to release the deluxe edition of his and MFnMelo‘s June joint album, En Route. To mark the new release, Melo shared a new single, “Mood Swing,” which features fellow Pivot Gang members Saba, Joseph Chiliams, and Frsh Waters. It also features production by Squeak, Big Goose, and Daedae of Pivot Gang.

En Route‘s deluxe edition will mark the first release from Squeak since he was shot and killed in June this year. It’s set for release on December 9.

Melo remarked on the “weirdness” of promoting a new project while still mourning his late friend — especially a project produced by that friend. “Lately I’ve been having even less things to say,” he wrote on Instagram. “Not too many people get it but shorty did. Which makes this way harder. So understanding. So influential. So missed. This sh*t weird to promote anything right now honestly but I’d be damn if I didn’t follow thru with our plan! Finishing this was some of the hardest sh*t I had to do. But because of your love and belief, I stayed #ForeverEnRoute! You know what time it is bro and they soon will too!”

Listen to MFnMelo and Squeak’s “Mood Swing” featuring Saba above.

The New Orleans Pelicans are patiently awaiting Zion Williamson. The team has struggled out of the gate this season, going 6-18 after their standout forward needed foot surgery over the offseason that has prevented him from playing during this campaign, despite the fact that the team originally expected him to be able to appear in their season opener. There have been occasional updates regarding his progress as he tries to work his way back onto the court, and last week, the team announced that Williamson had been fully cleared to participate in full team activities.

Now, a new report indicates that Williamson is taking perhaps his biggest step yet to returning to action. Shams Charania of The Athletic appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday and revealed that Williamson is going through his first full practice with the team that same day.

“Zion Williamson is fully cleared for all basketball activities,” Charania said. “He’ll have his first practice today with the Pelicans — his first full practice with the team, Zion Williamson, the expectation has been that it will be today.”

The Pelicans have the second-worst record in the Western Conference at this point in the season and sit 5.5 games back of the Denver Nuggets for the 10th seed, which would get them a berth in the play-in tournament. There is still no word about when basketball fans can expect to see Williamson play in a game.

Seth Rogen digs weed. Let me take that back. Seth Rogen absolutely loves weed. He recently lit up with Conan O’Brien on the last episode of the host’s TBS late-night show. Rogen’s got his own weed company and is rolling in success, along with rolling in joints. For those reasons, it’s not at all hard to believe that Seth was high while recently appearing in the front row of Adele’s CBS TV concert special, “Adele One Night Only.”

There were a few surprises during the course of that special, apparently. Adele helped one gentleman pull off a surprise proposal that night, and as it turns out, Rogen was very surprised to be front row at an Adele show while the thing was being taped for TV. Here’s how he boisterously explained (to Jimmy Fallon) how this happened. Let’s just say that weed wasn’t the reason, but it still came up in conversation:

“I was in the front row of the Adele concert. And that is as surprising to me as anyone because I had no idea I was attending the taping of an Adele television special at all. I got an invitation, ‘Do you want to go to a small Adele concert?’ is what I remember absorbing. And I go to my wife Lauren, ‘You want to go to this small Adele concert?’ ‘Great, sounds fun’ … So, if I’m being honest, I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, I smoke weed, Jimmy.”

Rogen continued while adding that he “smoked a ton of weed” that night, and then, when he and his wife (Lauren) arrived at she show, “we see camera cranes.” That was when he realized that this was probably going to be on a TV show, but he reasoned, “Maybe it’s not that big a television special.” That’s when he saw Oprah at the show, and then Rogen thought maybe he could “just sit in the back.” However, that’s not what the powers in be had in mind for him, despite not being “equipped mentally to deal with doing this right now, really.” The situation progressed to where “I sit down, there’s like a camera literally just pointed at my face.”

Sounds surreal. And as one might expect, Rogen rolled with it. He stars as Santa Claus in Santa Inc. (which is currently streaming on HBO Max), and you can watch him at the aforementioned Adele concert in the below video from Entertainment Tonight.

Donald Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is the latest MAGA stooge to write a book about Trump’s final days in office. Some of what he writes reads as if it was dictated by Trump himself, like (per the Daily Beast) how the protestors who jumped the White House fence in May 2020 were lucky that Trump, a.k.a. “Bunker Boy,” was forced to go into hiding, because “if President Trump had the choice, he would have headed out to the lawns and knocked their heads in one by one.” But Meadows isn’t always so kind to his former boss (he’s the source of the news that Trump tested positive for COVID days before his first debate with Joe Biden), nor the other politicians they spent time with—including New York’s disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo.

Daily Beast snagged an early copy of the book, The Chief’s Chief, in which Meadows writes about Cuomo’s duplicitous, and totally ghoulish, manner. According to Meadows, Cuomo “would bash the president in his daily press briefings and privately call to thank POTUS for everything he had done.” And while many people were shocked when Cuomo actually resigned his position earlier this year amidst an onslaught of sexual misconduct allegations, Meadows could have called that one.

Ahead of a scheduled meeting with Trump at the White House, Meadows claims that the then-governor specifically made the “strange request” that Hope Hicks, Trump’s campaign press secretary-turned-political advisor, join them. As for why Cuomo wanted Hicks there? Meadows alleges it wasn’t to pick her brain about political strategy.

“I don’t recall a single question he asked Hope that day,” Meadows writes about his memory of the interaction, “but I do recall him arranging his chair in such a way that allowed him to creepily stare at her for most of the meeting.” Given that Cuomo reportedly “inappropriately touched” a state trooper who was tasked with protecting him as part of his security detail, this would seem to check out.

The Chief’s Chief will be released on December 7th.

(Via Daily Beast)

While it’s been just over a month since the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Alec Baldwin’s upcoming western Rust, it seems we’re no closer to figuring out what really transpired on that tragic day. Despite initial reports stating that Baldwin was the one responsible for discharging the gun that claimed Hutchins’ life, the actor is now claiming his finger never touched the trigger, telling ABC News: “The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never.”

Now, one day after Baldwin’s statement, Lisa Torraco, the attorney for Rust assistant director David Halls, has also weighed in on the matter (via Deadline). Torraco broke her silence during an appearance on Good Morning America earlier today, telling the network: “Dave has told me since the very first day I met him that Alec did not pull that trigger. His finger was never in the trigger guard.” Needless to say, Torraco’s claim does back what Baldwin told ABC, but ultimately raises a pretty big question: if it wasn’t Baldwin who shot the gun, then who did?

However, while it might be the most pressing question to answer, it’s certainly not the only thing that needs clearing up. As of right now, we’re still unsure of how live bullets got on set and made their way into a prop gun. It’s also uncertain just how many folks working on the set of Rust are responsible for this egregious negligence. Since the incident occurred, numerous people have raised into question the working conditions on the set of Rust, with one veteran prop master turning the job down due to concerns about the set and actor George Clooney slamming into Baldwin for hiring an inexperienced armorer, calling it “insane” and “infuriating.”

Needless to say, Baldwin has a lot of explaining to do, even if he claims the set was an entirely safe working environment. Fortunately, we’ll get to hear a bit more about what he has to say when he sits down with ABC Thursday evening for a two-hour long 20/20. Here’s hoping we’re closer to figuring out what happened that fateful day and justice for Hutchins.