Month: December 2021

Remember TRUTH Social? It’s former president Donald Trump’s long-threatened contribution to the social media game after he got booted from most of the industry’s respectable services. It was supposed to be beta launch in November. That didn’t happen. In the meantime, Truth has already gotten its owner in legal hot water over how it was financed. Speaking of which, Trump’s media company is already asking for a ton of extra money after already blowing through one of its key deadlines.

Accoridng to Reuters, the Trump Media Company is reportedly hoping to raise a whopping $1 billion for its social media ventures. How will they do this? By, as per Reuters, “selling shares to hedge funds and family offices at several times the valuation it commanded in a deal with a blank-check acquisition firm in October.”

Sounds not shady! The new company is already looking to nab $293 million through a merger with the blank-check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp. As per Reuters:

The deal valued Trump Media at $875 million, including debt. Trump Media is now seeking to raise up to an additional $1 billion at a valuation of close to $3 billion, to reflect Digital World’s share rally after Trump supporters and day traders snapped up the stock, the sources said.

Meanwhile, Trump — who, it was revealed Wednesday, had tested positive for COVID a few days before one of his presidential debates with Joe Biden, thus endangering his life and the lives of everyone there — has also personally be calling potential investors, looking for commitments in the area of $100 million.

So far, though, there is nothing for Trump’s company to show. The beta version of TRUTH Social, which touts itself as a “rival to the liberal media consortium” — is not up and running. However, investors were shown a demo version, which reportedly “looked like a Twitter feed.” With one major exception: Donald Trump is not permanently banned from using it.

(Via Reuters)

Last summer, DaBaby sabotaged his career. The rapper stirred launched into a bizarre rant on stage at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival, targeting the LGBTQ community and those with HIV/AIDS. As a result, he was dropped from a number of festivals. He eventually sat down with nine organizations, including GLAAD and the Black AIDS Institute, to apologize for his actions. However, talking appears to be all that DaBaby did.

The Daily Beast says multiple HIV/AIDS organizations have told them that DaBaby has not donated to them nor reached out in the interim. “Since then, we have not received any outreach, partnership, or funding from DaBaby,” Pavni Guharoy, a communications consultant for the Black AIDS Institute, told the publication. “The onus is now on him, if he chooses to, to convert his misinformation into allyship by supporting the work of the Black AIDS Institute and other people of color-led HIV organizations.”

Venita Ray, co-executive director of Positive Women’s Network, also says she has not heard from nor received a donation from DaBaby. Still, she adds that the door remains open for future discussions. Ian L. Haddock, founder and executive director of The Normal Anomaly Initiative, also confirmed that he’d also received nothing since.

“Though we felt the conversation was extremely powerful a couple months ago, we haven’t heard anything back as an organization since our conversation, Haddock said.

Since then, DaBaby has returned to performing at festivals, including New York’s own version of Rolling Loud in October.

Cobie Smulders has it good. The actress gets to do whatever she wants: indies, like the excellent Results, and TV, like How I Met Your Mother and the sadly aborted Stumptown, plus her recent turn as Ann Coulter on Impeachment. And every now and then Marvel calls her to reprise Maria Hill, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who’s been with the franchise ever since the original Avengers. But it’s been a while since she had much to do. But now that she’s signed on for one of their big new Disney+ shows, perhaps that will change.

As per Variety, Smulders has been summoned back for Secret Invasion, which will focus on the Skrulls, the extra-terrestrial baddies introduced in Captain Marvel. The aliens can shape-shift, and the show will focus on a faction of them who have been covertly living on Earth for years. Ben Mendelsohn will reprise his role as Skrull general Talos, while Samuel L. Jackson will be back as Nick Fury. In fact, the whole cast is pretty impressive. No less than Oscar-winner — and beloved awards ceremony staple — Olivia Coleman will appear, as will Emilia Clarke and top shelf character actor Christopher McDonald.

But what of Smulders’ Maria Hill? Will she get the plum role in the action that she’s long deserved? Smulders is a witty and versatile performer, able to do comedy and rom-coms and action and drama. Whatever the case, it will be her first turn as Maria Hill since Spider-Man: Far from Home, which wasn’t that long ago but, then, she only popped up for the end credits.

(Via Variety)

There are a lot of unhinged hosts on Fox News, but for ages few talked about Lara Logan. No more. A once-respected journalist who’s fallen so far she now works for Fox Nation, Logan turned heads the other day when she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top immunologist and face of the battle against COVID, to Dr. Joseph Mengele, the Nazi doctor known as the “Angel of Death” due to his love of grotesque experiments on Jewish inmates. The GOP loves making offensive comparisons between mask mandates and the Holocaust, but this may have been too much for even Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Since then, Logan has been roasted, including being denounced by the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Now, as per Mediaite, she’s striking back in the most GOP 2021 way possible: She’s blocked the latter on Twitter.

Logan’s argument, like many that compare attempts to end the pandemic to the systematic eradication of six million Jewish people by the Nazi regime, was hardly air-tight, to put it mildly. The Fox host said that “people” (it’s always some vaguely defined group) had told her Fauci “doesn’t represent science to them.” Instead he represented Dr. Mengele. [deep breath] In what way, pray tell?

“Because the response from COVID. What it has done to countries everywhere. What it has done to civil liberties. The suicide rates. The poverty. It has obliterated economies. The level of suffering that has been created because of this disease is now being seen in cold light of day, i.e. the truth, and people see there is no justification for what is being done.”

The Auschwitz Museum’s Twitter account later condemned Logan’s words. “Exploiting the tragedy of people who became victims of criminal pseudo-medical experiments in Auschwitz in a debate about vaccines, pandemic and people who fight for saving human lives is shameful,” they wrote. “It is disrespectful to victims & a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline.”

Then people noticed Logan had blocked the museum’s Twitter account.

Classy! Definitely some smart choices Logan has made on her life path to get to this hallowed place. Of course, it’s not the first time Logan’s journalistic bona fides were called into question. In 2013, Logan aired a story on Benghazi on 60 Minutes, which was then roundly debunked. She was forced to take a leave of absence, and by 2018 she was gone.

But if real news organizations think you’re bad at journalism, it’s clear there’s always work at the Fox Corporation. Just ask Lara Logan.

(Via Mediaite)

The bodies are piling up over at the Arconia, only this time, in a much less sinister way. Hulu has officially announced that actress, musician, and model Cara Delevingne (Suicide Squad, Carnival Row) is joining the cast of Only Murders in the Building for its upcoming second season. Delevingne joins season one cast members Martin Short, Selena Gomez, and Steve Martin in the intriguing dark comedy that delighted audiences when it hit the streaming service earlier this year.

According to Variety, Delevingne will be playing a young woman named Alice in the series’ second season. Her character is described as “a sophisticated art world insider who becomes enmeshed in the mystery,” making it seem like she’ll be quite an important part of the show.

Debuting on August 31, 2021, Only Murders in the Building follows a trio of true crime podcast-loving neighbors who find themselves forced to set aside their differences and team up to help solve a gruesome murder that takes place in their ritzy Upper West Side apartment building, The Arconia. However, the three strangers-turned-cohorts soon discover not everything (or everyone) is as it seems, and are ultimately taken along for a pretty tense and twist-filled ride as they try to discover who is at the center of The Arconia’s own “whodunnit” to shocking results. While not much is known about what events will transpire in the series’ follow-up season (which, I mean, is part of what makes it so fun), it’s safe to say the big reveal we saw play out in the first season are definitely going to alter the show’s dynamics.

Following the news of Delevingne’s casting, Only Murders in the Building co-creator and star Steve Martin shared a photo of Gomez, Short, and himself, teasing that filming for the show’s second season would soon be underway. While Hulu has yet to announce when the show will return, it feels safe to assume we’ll be reunited with the gang — and newcomer Delevingne — sometime next year.

If you needed yet another reason to adore Law and Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay (and her on-screen, justice-seeking counterpart, Olivia Benson), we’ve got a pretty good one. On November 30, a video began making the rounds on Twitter showing the Emmy award-winning actress and executive producer kindly confronting a New York City man in an attempt to get an ongoing Law and Order: SVU shoot back on track. In the video, Hargitay approaches the man and respectfully asks him to stop singing and derailing their film schedule, telling the eager performer: “Your singing was beautiful, but we’re just trying to get the shot. Is it okay if you don’t sing when we say ‘action’?”

According to the Twitter user who shared the video (via Variety), the NYC man appeared to be singing loudly with the intention of interrupting the shoot, and had repeatedly refused to stop when the show’s various crew members asked him to, making Hargitay’s cool demeanor even more admirable. Law & Order: SVU showrunner Warren Leight noted this when he later shared the video, writing: “what other #1 on the call sheet could do this? We all [love] Mariska.”

While it’s unclear if the man was singing in an attempt to get attention from Hargitay, once the actress made an appearance he quickly grew more reasonable and offered to strike a deal with the star — though what the man wanted was inaudible in the video. However, Hargitay was quick to agree to his terms, telling him: “We’ll make a deal. I’m happy to do that for you, it’s just that we’re shooting, so it doesn’t work for the scene. Is that okay? I’ll get to you, though.”

Since 1999, Hargitay has been a mainstay on the NBC American crime drama Law and Order: SVU and is often considered one of the most popular characters in television. For her role on the show, the actress has earned eight Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations, winning one of each. And hey, if that’s not prestige enough, none other than Taylor Swift has a cat named after her SVU character, and we all know that’s about the highest honor you can receive.

At last week’s Australian Recording Industry Awards (ARIA), Canberra singer Genesis Owusu was the big winner of the night. The Ghanaian-Australian won four awards, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year, for Smiling With No Teeth. For comparison, the ARIA’s are essentially Australia’s version of the Grammy Awards, and Owusu’s feat is damn near Eilish-ian in nature.

Smiling With No Teeth is a jovial, soul-packed expression of hip-hop; more melodic than rugged, more danceable than pensive, more rock & roll than R&B, and cheekier than stoic. In short, it’s hella fun. Today, Owusu has shared a new video for the remix version of “Waitin On Ya” (which he performed at the ARIA gala.) It’s a time-and space-shifting visual that features Jagwar Ma’s Jono Ma assisting on the mix. There’s a lively snare drum beat with a hint of the amen break in the background, breathing new energy into the song. A spritely sax peppers its way in as Owusu plays a shady travel agent that teleports to tropical locales while smiling broadly through gold teeth.

Watch the video for “Waitin On Ya (Remix)” above and check out the tour dates for Owusu’s first US headlining tour below. Get tickets here.

01/13/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
01/15/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
01/17/2022 — Seattle, WA @ Neumos
01/19/2022 — Denver, CO @ The Bluebird
01/25/2022 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
01/28/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
01/29/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Basement East
01/30/2022 — Austin, TX @ Antone’s

Smiling With No Teeth is out now via House Anxiety / Ourness

It’s been six years since Undertale won the hearts of many. The indie RPG that can probably be best compared to Earthbound became an internet phenomenon that we’re still witnessing today. The community around that game has shown an adoration that few games receive and with that adoration has come memes, inside jokes, and a lot of covers for the killer soundtrack. Undertale has a phenomenal soundtrack that can be played endlessly. For some, that’s exactly what they did throughout 2021.

It’s the first day of December, and that means Spotify has given everyone their annual Spotify Wrapped summaries. Undertale creator Toby Fox has dominated plenty of lists, and it’s a reminder that even all these years later, gamers are still showing it some love. In fact, Fox started trending.

We also saw some love for Deltarune Chapter 2, which was released by Fox back in September. Of course, with songs as great as “BIG SHOT” on there, we can understand why.

If it isn’t clear by now, people really enjoy Fox’s music and they’re going to continue loving it for years to come. This isn’t a new phenomenon — some said that this is not the first time Fox has popped up on their Wrapped.

With Deltarune Chapter 2 still fresh in our heads and Undertale a classic, we fully expect to see Fox on these lists come 2022.

Move over Sufjan Stevens, Wild Pink’s John Ross might finally be the indie artist to give us music dedicated to each of the 50 states. Ok, that’s a stretch, but following the recently released track with Samia entitled “Ohio,” Ross and Wild Pink are back with “Florida.” Both are follow-ups to Wild Pink’s excellent A Billion Little Lights, which came out in February.

On “Florida,” the Ross-led Brooklyn trio play on the juxtaposition of Florida’s stigma as the home of shady suspects, but also with its beauty as the uniquely beautiful home of the Everglades. It’s a glistening track with pedal steel, acoustic strums, lovely keys, and a driving thump that flashes the new-age folk that the band has totally nailed. Ross shared some words in a statement on the track:

“Florida” is a love letter to the state I grew up in,” says Ross. “It has a bad reputation, which is well deserved, but I think it’s also a misunderstood state. It’s got it’s own thing going on if you look hard enough and the natural beauty there is unreal. Florida is a rewarding place if you spend the time finding its charm. I grew up listening to a lot of Florida bands like I Hate Myself and Shai Hulud, which was really formative for me early on.”

“This was the first song I wrote after a long musical hiatus during the lockdown. I had just gotten an upright piano for free on Facebook Marketplace and the piano loop was the first thing I wrote on it. “Florida” puts a period at the end of the A Billion Little Lights sentence, in my mind.”

Listen to “Florida” above.

Seven years ago, someone broke into Sandra Bullock’s house. A man who was stalking the actress, Joshua James Corbett, was sentenced to five years probation for entering the actress’ Los Angeles home. Bullock, alone, locked herself in a room and dialed 911. (Her terrifying call was later made public.) During a sitdown on Red Table Talk, the Facebook Watch show hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow, and her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, Bullock opened up about the incident, and said it still haunts her to this day.

The Bird Box star said it happened when her adopted son, Louis, happened to be staying overnight with the nanny. “It was the one night that our nanny goes, ‘Let me just take him to my apartment which is up the street because you’re going to be out late,’” Bullock recalled. “Had he been home, I would’ve run to the closet, which is now my official closet but that was his bedroom, and it would have changed our destiny forever…So why was he not home on that one night?”

When Corbett entered the premises, Bullock was sure things would turn south. “I’m in the closet going, ‘This doesn’t end well,’” she recalled thinking.

Bullock was unharmed and Corbett was arrested. He committed suicide in 2018 during a stand-off with a SWAT team.

Bullock, meanwhile, continues to suffer from PTSD. “I wasn’t the same after that. I was unraveling,” Bullock said, nothing that she hasn’t “been alone since the day it happened.”

To cope, she discovered EMDR, short for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, a form of therapy to address PTSD issues.

She also came to stark realizations about herself. “I realized I have surrounded myself often with unsafe people and situations and have put myself there,” Bullock said. “I have no one else to blame but myself because that was the most familiar feeling that I had.”

You can watch Bullock’s full Red Table Talk appearance here.

(Via BuzzFeed)