Back in September, Ellen Pompeo revealed that she once clashed with Denzel Washington when he was brought on to direct an episode of her hit series Grey’s Anatomy. As Pompeo described it on her podcast, Washington went “HAM” on her after she improvised a line while filming a scene with co-star Patrick Dempsey. Pompeo had yelled “Look at me when you apologize,” which Washington mistook as the Grey’s star telling Dempsey what to do.
“He was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do,’” Pompeo recalled before revealing that she fired back at Washington with some choice profanity. As for his side of the story, well, let’s just say The Tragedy of Macbeth actor wasn’t entirely thrilled to be asked about the fracas during a recent interview. However, he did make sure to say there’s no bad blood. Via Variety:
As Ellen Pompeo recalled in a podcast in September, she clashed with Washington because he wouldn’t let her improvise in a scene. “Denzel went HAM on my ass,” Pompeo said, which led her to shoot back: “Listen, motherf*cker, this is my show!”
When asked about the incident, Washington sidesteps the question. “No, no,” he says, claiming that he doesn’t recall that day. Then, with a slight grin, he adds, “But it’s all good.”
On an interesting note, that was the first and last time Denzel Washington directed an episode of television, so either he was not a fan of the experience or Shonda Rhimes wields an insane amount of power. It’s a toss-up.
Now, before you say it, in a day and age where it seems every peripheral character in every major piece of intellectual property gets their own movie and/or series, it’s easy to say, well, of course Boba Fett, this very popular character, has his own series. (In fact, it’s so easy to say, I just said it.) The difference here is, for longtime Star Wars fans (let’s say, “members of Generation X”), we’ve been down this road before with Mr. Fett many, many times before with nothing much to show for it. It seemed there was always something cooking with Boba Fett, some rumor that always wound up falling through. Even right before the Prequels, there were rumors Jet Li would be playing Boba Fett. To the point I remember seeing Lethal Weapon 4 in theaters and studying every move Jet Li made in that movie thinking, oh wow, he’s going to be Boba Fett! Spoiler: Let Li never played Boba Fett. (My favorite rumor was, around the time The Phantom Menace came out, the Anakin’s buddy Kitster would grow up to become Boba Fett. Spoiler: Kitster is not Boba Fett.)
There seem to be three camps when it comes to Boba Fett. There’s the “Boba Fett is stupid, he never did anything in the movies and it’s dumb people like him,” people. Well, sure, he didn’t do a lot in the two movies from the Original Trilogy he was in except look cool (I am not counting his retconned appearance in the original Star Wars), but he did seem to sass Darth Vader a bit in The Empire Strikes Back and that’s a pretty brave thing to do. I’ve written about this aspect before, but a lot of the love for Boba Fett came from his appearance in an animated segment from 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special (personally I never saw this until many, many years later) and from a mail-away action figure that was released a year before The Empire Strikes Back even came out. (Today, Lucasfilm is so secretive about new characters the action figures usually don’t come out until a year after the character’s debut.)
The description of Fett on the mail-away offer offered just enough information to let a kid’s imagination run wild:
Kenner
Especially the whole, “A threat to the Rebel Alliance, especially Han Solo!,” is a pretty genius line – making a vague reference to an entire organization, then one very specific threat to an extremely popular character. “Oh no, what does that mean? What will Boba Fett do to Han?!” And what’s pretty great is that wound up not being an idle threat. We were promised Boba Fett is bad news for Han Solo and that wound up being accurate. (By the way, the only reason this description exists was as a sticker to cover up a picture of the Boba Fett action figure firing a missile from his jetpack. Something, for safety reasons, the Boba Fett figure did not do.)
Another camp are the people who kind of take that first part too far in the other direction. The whole, “Look, Boba Fett was better off clouded in mystery.” Yeah, okay, sure, that was fun. But we’ve had almost 42 years of “mystery.” I think that’s enough. If we want to get technical and take it back to the Holiday Special, that’s over 43 years of “mystery.” Personally, I think at this point it’s fine to learn a little more about what makes one of the most recognizable and popular characters in Star Wars tick.
And then there’s the third camp, the one I’m in, the one who is enjoying every second of The Book of Boba Fett and still can’t quite believe a Boba Fett-led, live-action entity exists at all.
The closest we got before was the Boba Fett movie that Josh Trank was going to direct. At this point I kind of wish he’d blow up his NDA and pull a Colin Trevorrow and just release his outline for what the movie was going to be. (For what it’s worth, Trevorrow’s vision for Episode IX still sounds pretty rad.) But everything I heard through the grapevine about Trank’s Boba Fett movie was the script was tricky because Attack of the Clones exists and that established that Boba Fett had to look exactly like Temuera Morrison’s Jango Fett from Attack of the Clones. And spending a fortune to make a Star Wars movie starring an actor people didn’t know that well at the time (this is now changing), or just having a character who never took his helmet off for the whole movie, didn’t seem very realistic. But then if you cast someone people know better, how do you explain why Boba Fett doesn’t look like Jango Fett?
Look, I have no idea what’s in that Boba Fett movie script (release the script, Josh!), but I do wonder how much was co-opted a bit for both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. There were rumors about someone else finding the armor and taking on the mantle of Boba Fett, which would then let them cast anyone they wanted. And we saw this with Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth. (And way back in the 1990s with the whole Jaster Mereel saga, which is long and complicated.) And with The Mandalorian in general, I always have wondered if that’s what they came up with when they couldn’t crack a Boba Fett movie. “Well, okay, what if we just do a series with a guy who looks just like Boba Fett, but he’s not Boba Fett.” Then, a year later, “Hey maybe we should just do Boba Fett now?”
It feels like Boba Fett can only exist now with Disney+. It’s a place someone like Temuera Morrison can actually star in the series and no one has to hear studio feedback like, “How do we sell a movie to the masses when the star of the movie isn’t a famous person in the United States?” And that is probably why, more than any reason, we are finally, after all these years, getting a Boba Fett-led story. The medium for this to succeed didn’t exist until recently.
And you know what, I am enjoying every second of this show because, after all these years, I can’t believe it exists. I love that he’s being humanized. I love that he’s not just some murdering mercenary. I’ve always thought of Fett as a businessman. “Look, nothing personal, but I have a contract to fulfill.” Now, I was not expecting The Book of Boba Fett to have elements of Dances with Wolves to be a major storyline, but, see, that’s interesting. I have zero idea where this is going. But, for the next few weeks, I basically get a mini Boba Fett movie every Wednesday morning and, honestly, I truly can’t believe this is finally a thing.
Burna Boy and Wizkid bring out the titular trophies in their triumphant video for “B. D’OR” — which they promptly slice in half, turning the coveted football awards into expensive-looking chalices. While I’m almost certain the trophies used in the video — which was shot in Lagos and features a cameo from UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman — are replicas rather than the real thing, it’s still a flex for the two Nigerian superstars, who spend the remainder of the video riding jetskis and hosting a yacht party in the Lagos bay.
The collaboration, which is the second in a year for the two famed Afrobeats stars, is named for the prestigious Ballon d’Or award given to the “best male football player in the world.” While the two stars’ own soccer skills are mostly unknown, the two certainly can claim to be in a similar echelon of worldwide popularity as the award’s various winners, as they are the most well-known artists in their genre (incidentally, the last and only African player to receive the award was Liberian striker George Weah in 1995).
Things have definitely taken a turn for the weird in America over the past few years. So much so that I’ve had many a morning where I wake up with the John Lennon song, “Nobody Told Me” stuck in my head.
“Strange days, indeed. Most peculiar, mamma,” Lennon sang on his posthumous hit.
There’s been political unrest, ecological disasters, that weird monolith that popped up in the Utah desert and super credible-looking UFO videos.
Oh yeah, there’s also that pandemic thing that’s still going on.
The sheer absurdity of it all prompted comedian Caleb Hearon to tweet “i think cults are about to have a huge comeback” on Wednesday and a lot of people agreed with him.
It’s been said that people often join cults to soothe their fears and anxieties. If that’s the case, then Hearon may be right. A recent study found that there was a 26% increase in anxiety worldwide in 2021 due to the pandemic.
To make things even more interesting, there are many who feel anxiety about the pandemic ending because they don’t want to go back to normal.
Hearon’s tweet kicked off a great discussion on Twitter on whether or not we’re already in the midst of a cult renaissance.
Yeah, but if the fashion is this good, sign me up. I am not doing that prairie dress garbage even if it is in style. I want that nutso, futuristic Zardoz dancing around a glowing orb and chanting stuff.
For real I went through the new hire orientation at Tesla years back when I was desperate for work and the it was the most cultish shit I’ve ever seen in my life. I quit before I ever started working in the factory
After reading the responses it looks like Hearon wasn’t far from the truth. A lot of people raised their hands and said “I’m in” after thinking about the potential benefits that come with being in a cult.
While others claimed there are plenty of cults happening right now, it’s just that people don’t know they’re in them.
Steven Hassan, author of “Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults” and a former member of the Moonies, no less, says that there are essentially four types of cults: behavior control, information control, thought control and emotional control.
He also says that just about anyone is susceptible to being the victim of a cult.
“If you think it could never happen to you, then you’re the most vulnerable. Because nobody’s impervious,” he says.
If Hearon is right, there may be some super culty stuff happening all around us in the coming months. If you’re not down for the cult lifestyle, then it’s best to keep your eyes wide open for suspicious groups gathering in unlikely places.
Elmo has been a fixture on “Sesame Street” since 1984 and is one of the most recognized and beloved characters around the world. His signature cute voice and third-person references to himself endear him to children and adults alike, but one of his ongoing bits has the people of Twitter in stitches.
Elmo’s decades-long beef with his friend Zoe’s pet rock, Rocco, occasionally goes viral, and for good reason. It’s hilarious. Rocco first appeared on “Sesame Street” in 1999, and Elmo has been exasperated by it ever since. Who can blame him, though, when Zoe constantly puts Rocco first, insists that he’s real and forces Elmo into her make-believe world?
Perhaps it feels extra relatable right now, as so many people watch friends and family descend into alternate realities, unable to convince them that what they believe isn’t real. How many of us have been in Elmo’s shoes, at the end of our wits, fruitlessly stating facts in the face of fantasy?
Watching Elmo lose it is almost as cathartic as it is funny. Over-the-edge Elmo is the best Elmo.
there are tears in my eyes yu2019all my stomach hurtingpic.twitter.com/bbkF9yDZLf
“HOW? How is Rocco gonna eat that cookie, Zoe? TELL ELMO.”
This is how I’m going to respond to everyone who refuses to get vaccinated and refuses to wear a mask and complains about every other pandemic mitigation tool. “HOW? How are we going to get through this pandemic doing nothing, Chad? TELL ELMO.”
Rocco has Elmo in an existential vice grip, torn between mind-numbing annoyance and the desire to be supportive of his friend. Pretty tough spot for a perpetual preschooler.
Elmo reassures us that he and Zoe are fine, their friendship is solid and all is well.
He just doesn’t want to talk about Rocco.
Don’t worry everybody! Elmo and Zoe practiced sharing and are still best buds forever! Elmo loves you Zoe! Ha ha ha!nnElmo doesn’t want to talk about Rocco.
Even The Rock himself got into the action, responding to Elmo’s tweet about whether a rock can actually eat a cookie. Well played, Dwayne.
Yes, my friend. nThis Rock devours cookies. nAll kinds of cookies nIu2019ll introduce you to #CheatMeals and itu2019ll change your life. nTell Cookie Monster to move it over, cuz Iu2019m coming to Sesame Street to kick ass and eat cookies. nAnd Iu2019m almost all outta cookies.n~ Rock https://twitter.com/elmo/status/1478840478409756677u00a0u2026
In an unearthed 2017 interview, Jamie Foxx tells Howard Stern about his experience meeting Sidney Poitier, right before Foxx won his Oscar for portraying Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray.
Foxx recalls Oprah Winfrey reaching out to him, “I get a call, and on the other end of the phone I hear, ‘Hi Jamie Foxx. This is Oprah. You’re blowing it, Jamie Foxx.’” Foxx describes an intervention that took place at Quincy Jones’ house, led by Winfrey, who was worried about his drinking and partying after the massive success of the biopic.
“There’s all these old black actors from the ‘60s and ‘70s. They just want to say good luck. They wanna say ‘don’t blow it.’ You know me, I was going hard.”
Winfrey then introduces Foxx to Hollywood titan Sidney Poitier.
“I say, ‘Hello Mr. Portior.’ I’m welling up. He says, ‘I want to give you one thing. I want to give you responsibility. When I saw your performance, it made me grow two inches.’ I breakdown. It was actually Sidney’s birthday. They made me understand the significance of it. It was groundbreaking.”
Sidney Portier, a legendary actor, became the first Black male actor to win an Oscar in 1964. He stared in monumental films such as Porgy and Bess and A Raisin In The Sun which made him one of the most successful actors of his time. He passed away this week at the age of 94.
You can watch Foxx’s interview with Howard Stern above.
There’s good news, bad news, and good/bad news about Turning Red, Pixar’s upcoming movie about a teenager who turns into a red panda when she gets emotional.
The good news: the film was scheduled to come out on March 11, and it’s still coming out on March 11. The bad news: it won’t be released in theaters. The good/bad news: much like Luca and Soul, it’s going straight to Disney+. Why is that both good and bad? A Disney+ subscription is cheaper, not to mention safer, than taking three kids to the movie theater… but it also means they can watch Turning Red whenever they want. Get ready to hear “It’s Gonna Be Me.” A lot.
Here’s more:
Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red introduces Mei Lee, a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming, is never far from her daughter, an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda.
Turning Red features the voices of Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho and James Hong. It’s also the first Pixar movie to be solely directed by a woman, Domee Shi.
Looking for a Disney movie to watch this weekend? Try Encanto.
Mario Kart is in many ways the perfect balance of skill, luck, and fun, to where anyone playing it can feel like they have a chance. This is how someone who doesn’t play video games at all can say “I’ll work you in Mario Kart” and be completely genuine.
With the franchise being so popular among, it’s no surprise that they keep making these games, but it’s been quite some time since we got a new entry. The most recent, Mario Kart 8, released back in 2014 for the Wii U. The game was then re-released to the Nintendo Switch as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and featured most of the content already unlocked. Since it’s been so long, there’s been plenty of questions about when a new game could be on the way.
According to a report from GameIndustry.Biz, a teaser for an upcoming Mario Kart could be coming sooner than expected. Apparently, a new Mario Kart game is already in development and we could see a teaser as soon as this year. The last fun detail in the report is that this game may feature a “new twist” on the Mario Kart formula.
I am aware Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still selling very well on the Nintendo Switch, but Mario Kart 9 is in active development (and comes with a new twist) and Nintendo could tease it this year.
While we’ve all been expecting news on Mario Kart to eventually happen, it was a little bit of a surprise to know a teaser could be on the way so soon. Of course, a teaser doesn’t necessarily mean the game is anywhere close to finished — Nintendo historically has been very patient when it comes to releasing their biggest IPs, so until there’s a confirmed release timeframe the most we can do is wait.
What’s going to be way more fun to speculate on is the apparent twist for this upcoming Mario Kart. Every Mario Kart game typically tries to bring its own new features, such as the partner mechanic in Double Dash and the anti gravity sections of Mario Kart 8. Of course, with the game so deep into its lifespan now we’re not sure which new features they could bring to Mario Kart 9, but it’s going to be exciting to see what they have in store.
The first video from The Weeknd‘s uptempo new album Dawn FM has arrived, bringing with it another musical mystery for fans to unravel. This time around, The Weeknd appears to be playing a new character, who is abducted by a mysterious, dancing cult and used for an eerie ritual in the woozy video for “Sacrifice.”
After being strapped to a huge circular apparatus, The Weeknd is approached by a woman cloaked in red who maybe steals his soul — it sure looks a lot like the scene with the soul-stealing dementors in Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban. We’re only shown glimpses of the effect this has on The Weeknd between strobe-lit performance sequences, but it certainly appears to have been detrimental — I can only assume this is how he got all old and wilted on the album’s off-putting cover art.
January is a slower month for beer releases. The rush of the holidays (and winter beers) are behind us. It’s really not until March/spring that we get the next big rollout of craft brews just in time for Spring Break. That being said, there are still plenty of beers dropping this month (or that dropped late last month) to try this season.
Since we’re still in the middle of winter, many of the beers dropping are highly spiced winter warmers, dark ales, or big IPAs full of big hop flavors to cut through the grey days and shitty weather. In short, it’s a great time if you’re a lover of big and bold beer flavors across several styles.
Hopefully, the eight beers we’re giving love to this month will pique your interest and inspire you to explore exciting brews made near you or sold at your closest bottle shop or brewery. The picks below are regional craft beer releases from breweries that we vouch for along with seasonal bottles we’ve been looking forward to tasting again.
This might be our most overlooked brew of late 2021. This anniversary beer takes Alaskan’s famed and multi-award-winning smoked ale and amps it up with birch syrup. To make one gallon of that syrup, Alaskan simmers down 100 gallons of birch sap. That syrup is then cut with wildflower honey before being layered into the beer.
Tasting Notes:
While this sounds like it’d be overly sweet, it’s not even close to that. The beer has more of a tart raspberry vibe with a honeyed smoked dark chocolate counterpoint. Those notes are accented by a slight woody nature that’s closer to wet bark than anything else while mild notes of smoked plums rest in light touches of burnt espresso beans with a hint more of that smoked dark chocolate.
Bottom Line:
This is a shockingly well-balanced and delicious imperial stout. What’s exciting about this is what’ll happen if you cellar it. Three, five, hell, ten years from now this might be a mind-blowing beer experience. So, grab some now and get ready for a great ride.
This beer is the colliding of tres leches cake, imperial stout, and spiced hot chocolate in a can. The beer is brewed with rice and oats in the mix alongside Centennial hops. Then chocolate, coffee, Pasilla peppers, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg are added to really drive home the wintry vibes of this one.
Tasting Notes:
This bursts forth with heavy notes of cinnamon-spiked lattes with a double shot of espresso, full-fat milk, a pump on vanilla syrup, and a swirl of caramel. The espresso smoothes considerably on the palate with this softness that’s like that little bit of “crema” that forms on the top of a well-pulled espresso made on a real machine. The chocolate softens as well and feels more like milk chocolate with a touch of caramel in the center. The spice stays on the sweeter side of things while still providing a touch of warmth on the backend.
Bottom Line:
If you like big, sweet, wintry coffees from Starbucks this time of year, then this is going to be your jam.
This limited release from Boulder’s Upslope feels like a late holiday gift when it drops every January. The base of deeply roasted malts and oats is bolstered by a small dose of East Kent Golding hops. That gives the taste a little bump of light hops to cut through the thicker aspects of the stout.
Tasting Notes:
This really smells like a malting kiln full of chocolate roasted malts next to creamy coffee bricks. There’s a light touch of toffee sweetness that adds to the creamy vanilla and dark chocolate maltiness. The hops are there as a ghost, lurking beneath everything yet reminding you that they once existed. The overall experience is velvety and accented with a hint of earthiness on the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is a yearly favorite. Every January this drops and it’s hard not to buy it by the case. You get a real sense of the chocolate and vanilla without losing the fact that this is indeed beer.
Stepping away from the dark ales, this beer is a farmhouse wheat ale that’s fermented with winter mangos. The base of the beer is made with TexMalt Llano Pilsner malt, Denton County Wheat malt, and raw wheat. That’s then slightly touched with Oregon-grown Golding hops. During the secondary fermentation, fresh and frozen mango is added to the mix at about two pounds per gallon of beer, which is quite a bit of fruit.
Bell’s Hopslam just hit the shelves and we’re pretty excited. The beer is all about the hoping process. Six varietals are chosen from the Pacific Northwest to really highlight citrus and fruit in the beer. The real star of the show is Simcoe hops that are layered in during the dry-hopping process.
Tasting Notes:
The beer invites you in with a mix of grapefruit oils, peach peels, and wildflowers that’s perfectly counterpointed by a sweet, almost honey, malty base. That honey drives the palate as the grapefruit bitters move slightly towards the pith and the florals matched by a slightly dank nature with a hint of apricot and peach lurking beneath it all. The beer stays fairly dry through the finish as the honeyed malts, bright grapefruit, and stone fruits really drive home a balance.
Bottom Line:
This is an all-around delicious beer. It’s also another great counterpoint to the dark brews on the shelf right now. This is the promise of spring in a can.
This winter IPA is all about building balance between spicy malts and Simcoe and Trident hops. The brew is made with medium roasted malts, bringing in a touch of a red hue to the final product along with a little spice that feels almost like a rye whiskey. Those malts are counterpointed by dank hops that add to the wintry dimension of this beer.
Tasting Notes:
You’re reminded of a stewed plum with plenty of meaty plum and dark spices next to pine resin, orange oils, and a touch of … juniper. Those spices kick up on the palate and touch on eggnog nutmeg, clove, and Red Hot cinnamon while the plum darkens towards dates and prunes. The resin stays almost fresh as the sweet and dark fruits meld with wintry spices on a lush finish.
Bottom Line:
This is winter in a bottle. It’s delicious while also holding onto a good balance between all the elements at play.
This double IPA is all about amping up the super fruit hops. The primarily wheat brew is spiked with Bru-1, Strata, and Galaxy hops, giving the beer a classic hazy, fruit-bomb vibe.
“This beer’s murky depths are replete with notes of pineapple, peach, and passion fruit that combine in an absurdly satisfying fashion. It’s a glorious, all-inclusive cruise through tropical waters, and your taste buds have VIP tickets.”
Bottom Line:
We trust Modern Times to make a great hazy IPA and there’s no reason to think this will be any different. Plus, a nice, fruity hop-bomb of a beer sounds great right now.
This is the porter that all others are measured by. The brew is a throwback to an early 1800s recipe that died out in the early 1900s. The beer is made at the Griffin Brewery in the Chiswick neighborhood of London, where they’ve been brewing beer since 1654. Needless to say, this beer has some serious history behind it.
Tasting Notes:
You get a clear sense of well-roasted coffee beans on the nose that’s almost sour next to rich and brittle toffee candies, a rush of vanilla extract, and dark and bitter chocolate bespeckled with roasted almonds. That nutty chocolate drives the palate along with the coffee bitterness and sour that’s damn near burnt with that vanilla and toffee creating a nice counterbalance to the whole sip. The finish is soft but not creamy and really leans into the brightness of the coffee while letting the dulcet tones of the toffee, chocolate, nuts, and vanilla create a lovely end.
Bottom Line:
While this isn’t new by any stretch, it’s the perfect beer for now. It’s also what pretty much every other porter in the world (especially American craft) is chasing when it comes to flavor, texture, and vibe.
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