Month: December 2021

The much maligned Ted Cruz sure has a strange way of coping with serious issues. One of the most telling indications of this went down long ago, when Ted clerked for the Supreme Court and kept expressing his relish for the death penalty. He spent his downtime during this period (courtesy of a 2016 New York Times profile) making a menace of himself on the basketball court. Surprisingly, his co-workers didn’t enjoy him shouting “my bad!” as he “elbowed wildly” during games. (He sure has a way with elbows, as Heidi Cruz can attest.)

Well, Ted can’t ever forget a score, which was also his vibe after Jimmy Kimmel trashed Ted as a “scumbag” (for painting Dr. Fauci into a villain, so as to better “scare old people”). As such, Ted responded strangely to Kimmel accusing him and “dogsh*t Tucker Carlson making up lies” to secure more far-right votes. Ted decided to completely ignore the substance of Kimmel’s rant, and instead, he bragged about that time they played basketball together.

“The (sadly now always unfunny) @JimmyKimmelLive taking shots at me again last night,” Ted tweeted. “You know what was funny? Me kicking his ass at hoops.” As if that wasn’t strange enough, Ted added, “BasketballBasketballBasketball” to drive his point (whatever the mystery point might be?) home.

As one Twitter user noted in response, “Jimmy Kimmel makes an impassioned defense of science and you respond with basketball clips.” That sums things up quite well.

Also, here’s another Ted basketball clip that shall never die.

Following the NBA’s investigation into potential tampering, both the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls will forfeit their next available second-round pick, the league announced in a release on Wednesday morning. The NBA determined each franchise “violated league rules governing the timing of this season’s free agency discussions.”

Shortly after free agency began in August, Miami and Chicago swiftly negotiated sign-and-trades that brought Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball to their respective organizations.

Ball reportedly signed an offer sheet with Chicago immediately once free agency opened at 6 p.m. EST, while Lowry and the Heat were linked even before free agency commenced. On Aug. 1, roughly 20 hours ahead of free agency, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted, “Once discussions are permitted to begin with the opening of NBA free agency on Monday, the Miami Heat are positioning themselves to become frontrunners to land Toronto’s Kyle Lowry in a sign-and-trade agreement.”

Of course, neither of these “punishments” are severe by any means and are unlikely to dissuade future teams from tampering with imminent free agents. If the NBA wishes to actually address this perceived problem, it would issue sterner penalties, though tampering, in the grand scheme, feels like a non-issue and something that doesn’t warrant heightened focus on repercussions.

The arrival of Ball and Lowry in their new Eastern Conference digs has helped each squad snag a top-three seed through the season’s quarter poll. Chicago is 14-8 and the No. 2 seed, half a game up on the 13-8, third-seeded Heat.

The New York Knicks made the quick trip (traffic permitting) into Brooklyn on Tuesday evening to take on the Nets. While they put forth a valiant effort, the Knicks were unable to pick up the win, as the Nets defended their home court at the Barclays Center, 112-110.

New York standout Julius Randle stuffed the stat sheet in the loss, going for 24 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, and two steals in 40 minutes of work. Of those 24 points, Randle only scored two of them at the free throw line, the latest in a bit of a trend this season. The 2021 NBA All-Star is shooting 3.8 free throws per 36 minutes, his lowest mark in five years, and has a free throw rate of .297, the lowest of his career.

Randle explained why this is happening after the game, and it has nothing to do with the NBA’s recent rule changes related to fouls. Randle claimed that he’s been told by officials that his ability to overpower defenders means he does not get calls.

“Gotta ask them, I don’t know what they’re watching or what they’re seeing, but you gotta ask them,” Randle said when asked why he doesn’t get more foul calls. “But, like you said, as aggressive as I play, attacking the paint, I can’t be penalized for just being stronger than people. And that’s the answer that I got today.

“They said because certain contact doesn’t affect me like it affects other players, because I’m stronger, they miss the calls,” Randle said when asked to clarify, before expressing his disappointment that he is officiated this way.

Whether you know Jason Sudeikis best from his days on Saturday Night Live or as the star and co-creator of the critically acclaimed Ted Lasso, you’re undoubtedly aware of his mad dancing skills. And it turns out that that fancy footwork is what got him hired as a performer on SNL in the first place.

In “SNL Stories From the Show,” Sudeikis shared that while he originally auditioned as a performer on the series—at the urging of Jeff Richmond, Tina Fey’s husband—he was offered a role as a writer, which led him to believe he had blown it. “I was confused, because I had just figured out how to write for myself,” Sudeikis recalled. “I had imposter syndrome.”

Sudeikis lucked out in his early days as a writer, getting two sketches on the air in his first two weeks as a writer—one of them being then first-time host Justin Timberlake’s Punk’d parody. In his third week, Sudeikis got to write a piece (with Robert Smigel) for his uncle, Cheers star George Wendt. “And then I went like 10 weeks with jacksh*t. But I loved the rewrite table.”

While Sudeikis felt honored to be a part of the SNL experience, it prevented him from performing and also forced him to live apart from his wife at the time, which he relayed to Lorne Michaels. The conversation took place on a Friday night in April 2005, just ahead of a season 30 episode that was hosted by Tom Brady with Beck as the musical guest.

Sudeikis recalled that Beck “for some reason had a hype man next to him, just dancing buck wild—going crazy,” which gave him an idea. Sudeikis and several of his fellow writers had written a Behind the Music parody of “The Super Bowl Shuffle” with Brady playing Jim McMahon. “The premise was that they did ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle,’ it was a huge success, and they tried to do another one, and then [McMahon] went solo. And when he went solo, I would just dance behind him.”

You can probably see where this is going.

Sudeikis decided that he would do his version of going buck wild behind Brady’s McMahon, “which was doing all these ‘90s hip-hop dances I knew how to do from being one of the few white kids on a predominantly Black basketball team in my high school basketball days.”

Because Brady’s hype man was such a prominent role, there was a discussion about having a cast member take it on. Smartly, everyone realized that no one else would get the laughs that Sudeikis did with his dancing. Which is what ultimately led Michaels to offer him a role as a performer, and became one of Sudeikis’ signature moves.

“So that’s how I ended up in the cast. That same frigging dancing that people love from ‘What Up With That’ is the same frigging dancing I did as a 16-year-old kid trying to make my teammates laugh.”

You can watch the full video above.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter premiered in September at the Venice International Film Festival in September, where it received a four-minute long standing ovation and stellar reviews. Us non-Venetians will finally get to see what all the hubbub is about on December 31 when the film comes out on Netflix (it’s also getting a limited theatrical release beginning December 17). It’s a good thing The Lost Daughter is getting strong buzz, too; otherwise, star Olivia Colman would have a permanent reminder of a bad movie on her body (Cara Delevingne knows what’s up).

In an interview with Town and Country, Dakota Johnson, who plays Nina in Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel, revealed that she gave Colman her first tattoo.

Dance parties would become a tradition for The Lost Daughter team, who threw down again after a New York Film Festival screening in October. Johnson and [Peter] Sarsgaard shared their playlist with the DJ at Altro Paradiso in Soho. “It was a lot of Talking Heads, the Cranberries,” says Johnson, who — sometime later, back at the hotel — used a stick-and-poke kit to give Colman her first tattoo.

“Maybe it was me being completely seduced by this gorgeous person and wanting her to think I was cool,” Colman said. “Or maybe it was my midlife crisis.” It’s probably the former. Dakota also told Town and Country that since the vaccine has become available, she’s noticed that people, herself included, “are not behaving normally. If you go to a party, you fucking rage.” Maybe leave the tattoo kit at home, though.

(Via Town and Country)

It’s that time of the year again — Spotify Wrapped is here. While many are spending the first day of December decorating for the holidays, music lovers around the globe are checking their Spotify account to see a round up of their most-streamed artists, albums, and songs of the year. The data shows that Olivia Rodrigo had a massive year, as she had the most-streamed song and album worldwide. But there was another artist whose music was streamed the most times around the world on the platform: Bad Bunny.

Thanks to Bad Bunny’s prolific songwriting, the Puerto Rican rapper received the most streams on Spotify out of any other artist around the world. According to Spotify’s data, rapper was streamed 9.1 billion times globally this year, an impressive feat for an artist who didn’t even release an album in 2021. Following behind Bad Bunny in worldwide streaming numbers is Taylor Swift at No. 2, BTS at No. 3, Drake at No. 4, and Justin Bieber at No. 5.

When Bad Bunny found out the news, he still remained humble. The musician said he makes music for the love of it and his goal was never to be the most-streamed artists around the world.

While Bad Bunny may have been the top-streamed artist around the globe, the stats look a little different in the US. Bad Bunny was the fifth-most-streamed artist on Spotify in the US, while Drake took the No. 1 slot. Taylor Swift was behind Drake while Juice WRLD came in at No. 3 and Kanye West at No. 4.

See a video of Bad Bunny finding out he’s 2021’s most-streamed artist above.

Check out more Spotify Wrapped data here, and to get your own Wrapped info for 2021, check out the Spotify mobile app.

The Houston Chronicle reports Live Nation and Travis Scott, under fire for the recent disaster at the Astroworld Festival last month, have made a prominent hire as they prepare to defend themselves from a deluge of cases from injured attendees and the families of the 10 people who died as a result of the crowd crush at Astroworld.

Scott has tapped global corporate law firm O’Melveny & Myers’ head of litigation Daniel Petrocelli, who is best known for representing Fred Goldman in the 1997 trial against OJ Simpson for the wrongful deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. OJ was found liable in that case, despite being previously acquitted for the murders in a criminal trial.

It was Petrocelli who reached out to the families of victims who died at the festival with the offer to cover funeral costs; however, half the families, including that of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, rejected the offer, writing in response, “[Scott] must face and hopefully see that he bears some of the responsibility for this tragedy. There may be, and I hope there is, redemption and growth for him on the other side of what this painful process will be – and perhaps one day, once time allows some healing for the victims and acceptance of responsibility by Mr. Scott and others, Treston and Mr. Scott might meet – as there is also healing in that.”

Meanwhile, Live Nation’s head defender will be the Susman Godfrey law firm, prompting the lawyer representing about 75 victims to say, “For Live Nation to hire the Susman firm shows that the company knows it is in deep trouble and is preparing for a bet-the-company litigation fight.”

According to the Chronicle, more than 120 lawsuits have been filed by about 600 plaintiffs seeking damages totaling over $3 billion. The cases may be consolidated in order to manage the caseload.

Earlier this year, Trevor Noah took the reigns as host of the Grammy Awards, and the Recording Academy was so pleased with the job he did that they’re bringing him back to host the 2022 ceremony, too.

Making the announcement, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. says (as Deadline notes), “Trevor was amazing as our host for the 63rd Grammy Awards with praise from the music community, music fans and critics. We’re so excited to welcome Trevor back to the Grammys stage and feel fortunate to once again have him hosting what we believe will be an unforgettable evening.”

George Cheeks — President and CEO of CBS and Chief Content Officer, News & Sports of Paramount+ — also noted, “Trevor brought his trademark talent and versatility to last March’s Grammys, and we can’t wait for him to host the event on CBS and Paramount+ again this year.”

Noah shared the news with a video of a baby in a pool rhythmically and adorably moving its shoulders, followed by Noah doing the same. The video’s TikTok robot voice narration says, “When you get to tell the world you’re hosting the Grammys again this year.”

The 2022 Grammys are set to go down on January 31, so look forward to more Noah then and find the full list of nominees here.

Disgraced journalist-turned-Fox News sh*t disturber Lara Logan may think it’s appropriate to compare Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, but Jimmy Kimmel has had enough of “scumbags” and “monsters” like her. On Tuesday night, the Jimmy Kimmel Live host spent several minutes laying into all the Fauci-bashers out there, while noting that “If you’ve been watching Fox News, you know that the real enemy isn’t the [COVID] virus or the do-my-own-research geniuses who refuse to get the vaccine. The real enemy is Dr. Fauci.”

Kimmel shared a handful of clips from Fox News stories, featuring everyone from Tucker Carlson to Ted Cruz to, yes, Lara Logan, who have somehow come to view Dr. Fauci making recommendations on how best to protect ourselves from contracting COVID as him somehow playing God or having delusions of grandeur. And Kimmel is tired of it:

“Let me tell you screwballs something about Dr. Fauci, cause I’ve had enough of this and he’s too nice to say this himself: This man has been working on behalf of the public—that’s us—for more than 50 years. He has served under six presidents, starting with Reagan, President Bush, President Clinton, another President Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden. Republicans and Democrats. To suggest that his politics have anything to do with his work or what he recommends—it’s ridiculous, and it’s a lie. And he doesn’t deserve it. He didn’t ask for this.

He’s not a politician, he’s a doctor. His interest is in protecting us from disease. Remember AIDS and Ebola and the Zika virus? He worked on all those things. And thank god there’s someone who’s educated enough, and devoted enough, to figure this stuff out for us, because we are not going to figure it out ourselves. And what are the thanks he gets? He gets scumbags like Ted Cruz, like Rand Paul, like that vile, inflatable Macy’s parade balloon of dogsh*t Tucker Carlson making up lies… And the reason they do it is so that they can keep terrifying old people, which is basically what they do for a living. They scare senior citizens in order to get ratings and money and votes.

But to do that, they need villains; to scare grandma, they need fresh villains. And so they zero in on this tiny, adorable, tired man who has done nothing but good for the world.”

Kimmel also reminded viewers that even Donald Trump said he liked Fauci—and Trump “doesn’t say that about his own children.”

You can watch his full diatribe above, beginning around the 3:30 mark.

If Fox News awards a weekly prize to whichever host says the most outrageous and/or inflammatory thing, Lara Logan may have just put an end to Tucker Carlson’s winning streak. On Monday, while appearing on Fox News Primetime, the disgraced former 60 Minutes correspondent compared Dr. Anthony Fauci—who at times has been the lone voice of logic and sanity during the COVID-19 pandemic—to Dr. Josef Mengele. Yes, the very same Dr. Josef Mengele who was nicknamed the “Angel of Death” because of his penchant for performing deadly experiments on Jewish prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Now, several prominent Jewish groups—including the Auschwitz Museum—are denouncing Logan for her contemptible comments, in which she claimed that people all over the world tell her that Dr. Fauci “doesn’t represent science to them. He represents Josef Mengele… 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 the cold light of day.”

The Washington Post reports that, on Tuesday morning, the Auschwitz Museum released a statement in response to Logan’s incendiary comparison, in which they said that “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. It is disrespectful to victims & a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline.”

The American Jewish Committee, meanwhile, described her comments as “utterly shameful” and declared that “an apology is needed.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, issued a statement to The Hill, which read:

“As we have said time and time again since the onset of this pandemic, there’s absolutely no comparison between mask mandates, vaccine requirements, and other COVID-19 mitigation efforts to what happened to Jews during the Holocaust. This includes making outlandish and offensive analogies suggesting that somehow Dr. Anthony Fauci is akin to Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, known for his gruesome medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners.”

Though Logan, a formerly respected foreign news correspondent with CBS who infamously falsified a Benghazi report for 60 Minutes, has yet to make a direct statement on her comments, her Twitter feed—which is filled with links to stories about medical testing—sort of says it all:

(Via The Washington Post)