Month: January 2022

Over the past few months, Britney Spears has been open when it comes to discussing her conservatorship and how her life has been since that arrangement came to an end. She’s posted about it a lot on Instagram (and more recently, on Twitter) and has (jokingly, perhaps) declared she’s writing a book. It may be a while before we see Spears give a proper interview about her experience, though, as she has now indicated.

In an emotionally charged letter she wrote to Jamie Lynn Spears and posted on Twitter over the weekend, Spears noted that she’s “scared” of doing interviews, writing, “I wish I would be able to do what you’re doing and do interviews !!! I’m scared of all of it … I admire you for being strong.”

Elsewhere in the letter, Spears is critical of how Jamie Lynn and her father Jamie have treated her over the years, so read the whole thing below.

“Jamie Lynn … I don’t think your book is about me at all . I said some harsh things because you obviously hurt me by the things you are making up about me !!! When I said only a scum person would make up things like that about someone, I could have sworn I said ‘but you’re not’ … but it doesn’t make sense at all to me what you are saying !!!

I know you worked hard for the life you have and you have done amazing !!!! But I think we would both have to agree to the fact that the family has never been remotely as hard on you as they have been on me !!! What Dad did to me, they don’t even do that to criminals … so for you to sit back and act completely aloof to what has happened to me is honesty insane to me !!!

Do you know anybody who worked as hard as I did and the hours I put in during those 13 years only to be sent away for 4 months for no reason at all ??? And I won’t even mention what was done to me in that place !!! It took them years to give me a cup of coffee … people who have killed people and are in jail or on death row can have as much coffee as they want so why the hell was my own family hiding coffee from me ??? You guys treated me like nothing and that’s not even half of it !!! I’m honestly shocked Dad isn’t in jail !!! Come on !!! We are supposed to have each other’s back … but what you’re saying just truly confuses me !!!

All I know is I love you unconditionally !!! So go ahead and say whatever you want … it’s so tacky for a family to fight publicly like this !!! You say you love me … yet your loyalty is still with the people that hurt me the most !!!

I think the thing that saddens me the most is that when this all happened to me and when I called you from that place .. you would take days to respond !!! I never got to talk to you !!! You would just text me days later and I was so scared … I needed you…. my family, my blood and your support more than anything !!! You guys did absolutely nothing UNTIL a year ago !!! I said something on Instagram and you and Bryan showed up at my house because of an Instagram post !!! THAT makes me the saddest …. why ???? Because I needed you WAYYYYYY before that and the fact that you and Bryan showed up laughing at my gate instead of KNOWING you should have been here way before that makes me very sad !!!

I don’t care anymore !!! Say whatever you want to say just know I do know your real heart more than anyone !!! It’s your life and you deserve a beautiful life !!!! I wish I would be able to do what you’re doing and do interviews !!! I’m scared of all of it … I admire you for being strong … just know I love you and I think you know that already more than anything !!!”

Things between Britney Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears have been intense lately, as the two have been discussing each other publicly, both in interviews and on social media. Now, Britney has offered another dispatch in the form of a lengthy letter to Jamie Lynn.

In it, she addresses how her father treated her during her conservatorship, writing, “What Dad did to me, they don’t even do that to criminals … so for you to sit back and act completely aloof to what has happened to me is honesty insane to me !!!” She later added, “You guys treated me like nothing and that’s not even half of it !!! I’m honestly shocked Dad isn’t in jail !!! Come on !!! We are supposed to have each other’s back … but what you’re saying just truly confuses me !!!”

She also wrote more specifically about Jamie Lynn and how she wasn’t there for her when she needed her most: “You say you love me … yet your loyalty is still with the people that hurt me the most !!! […] I never got to talk to you !!! You would just text me days later and I was so scared … I needed you…. my family, my blood and your support more than anything !!! You guys did absolutely nothing UNTIL a year ago !!! I said something on Instagram and you and [older brother Bryan Spears] showed up at my house because of an Instagram post !!! THAT makes me the saddest …. why ???? Because I needed you WAYYYYYY before that and the fact that you and Bryan showed up laughing at my gate instead of KNOWING you should have been here way before that makes me very sad !!!”

Read Britney’s full message below.

“Jamie Lynn … I don’t think your book is about me at all . I said some harsh things because you obviously hurt me by the things you are making up about me !!! When I said only a scum person would make up things like that about someone, I could have sworn I said ‘but you’re not’ … but it doesn’t make sense at all to me what you are saying !!!

I know you worked hard for the life you have and you have done amazing !!!! But I think we would both have to agree to the fact that the family has never been remotely as hard on you as they have been on me !!! What Dad did to me, they don’t even do that to criminals … so for you to sit back and act completely aloof to what has happened to me is honesty insane to me !!!

Do you know anybody who worked as hard as I did and the hours I put in during those 13 years only to be sent away for 4 months for no reason at all ??? And I won’t even mention what was done to me in that place !!! It took them years to give me a cup of coffee … people who have killed people and are in jail or on death row can have as much coffee as they want so why the hell was my own family hiding coffee from me ??? You guys treated me like nothing and that’s not even half of it !!! I’m honestly shocked Dad isn’t in jail !!! Come on !!! We are supposed to have each other’s back … but what you’re saying just truly confuses me !!!

All I know is I love you unconditionally !!! So go ahead and say whatever you want … it’s so tacky for a family to fight publicly like this !!! You say you love me … yet your loyalty is still with the people that hurt me the most !!!

I think the thing that saddens me the most is that when this all happened to me and when I called you from that place .. you would take days to respond !!! I never got to talk to you !!! You would just text me days later and I was so scared … I needed you…. my family, my blood and your support more than anything !!! You guys did absolutely nothing UNTIL a year ago !!! I said something on Instagram and you and Bryan showed up at my house because of an Instagram post !!! THAT makes me the saddest …. why ???? Because I needed you WAYYYYYY before that and the fact that you and Bryan showed up laughing at my gate instead of KNOWING you should have been here way before that makes me very sad !!!

I don’t care anymore !!! Say whatever you want to say just know I do know your real heart more than anyone !!! It’s your life and you deserve a beautiful life !!!! I wish I would be able to do what you’re doing and do interviews !!! I’m scared of all of it … I admire you for being strong … just know I love you and I think you know that already more than anything !!!”

Vinyl records are currently the physical music format of choice: In 2020, they outsold CDs for the first time since the ’80s. However, when you narrow the scope down to just recent physical music acquisitions by Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic Church, CDs are in first place: The Telegraph reports that last week, Francis made “a rare private foray” to visit Stereosound, a record store in Rome, and while there, he was gifted a mystery CD.

Tiziana Esposito, one of Stereosound’s owners, told The Telegraph, “He was here for maybe 20 minutes, just time for us to have a chat. It was an honor, very emotional. He is a great person, a simple man but marvelous. He used to come here before he became pope, when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires and visiting Rome. This time we gave him a present, a CD, but I’m not telling anyone what it was.”

Letizia Giostra, another of the store’s owners, also told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera (as Catholic News Service notes), “The Holy Father is passionate about music and was already our client, years ago, when he was still a cardinal and would pass through Rome. Then, of course, we never saw him again. And now he came to visit us, to say hello.”

Aside from the CD, Francis was also seen holding a vinyl record as he left the store, of which Giostra said, “It’s a gift we gave him, a record of classical music.”

In a 2016 interview, Francis noted he missed being able to do everyday things like go out and get some pizza, saying, “I could order it, but it is not the same. It’s nice to go there.” In a 2013 interview with America Magazine, Francis noted of his favorite composers, “Among musicians, I love Mozart, of course. The ‘Et incarnatus est’ from his Mass in C minor is matchless; it lifts you to God! I love Mozart performed by Clara Haskil. Mozart fulfills me. But I cannot think about his music; I have to listen to it. I like listening to Beethoven, but in a Promethean way, and the most Promethean interpreter for me is Furtwängler. And then Bach’s Passions. The piece by Bach that I love so much is the ‘Erbarme Dich,’ the tears of Peter in the ‘St. Matthew Passion.’ Sublime. Then, at a different level, not intimate in the same way, I love Wagner. I like to listen to him, but not all the time. The performance of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ by Furtwängler at La Scala in Milan in 1950 is for me the best. But also the ‘Parsifal’ by Knappertsbusch in 1962.”

(Plenty of Yellowjackets spoilers will be found below.)

Yellowjackets plans to roll out for a full five seasons, so naturally, we shouldn’t have expected a cut-and-dried season finale. Nope, and as any good season finale should do, this one left plenty of loose ends about the show that everyone has been talking about since (and let’s get real here) the void left by the Succession finale.

(These are both quality shows that you should watch, if you haven’t already.)

Well, people will be talking about this finale for awhile since it presented several new questions (for the future), including but not limited to the following: (1) Is Jackie really dead? (2) Are any of the “dead” Yellowjackets (including Laura Lee, who recently took off in an airplane that promptly exploded) really dead? (3) Who’s the dude that welcomed Jackie into the room of “dead” Yellowjackets? (4) What’s going on with this cult that pounded down the door of adult Natalie while she attempted to kill herself?

Lots of stuff like that. At least we (probably) learned the identity of the Antler Queen:

This wasn’t explicitly stated, of course (because fans are the ones running with the “Antler Queen” label), but it sure as heck seems like Lottie’s the One with some strong visual foreshadowing happening throughout the season, including in the “Doomcoming” episode, along with premonitions and so on. What this final scene means, and whether this snowbound devotional act — with Vanessa and Misty kneeling in the background — has anything to do with the cult that snatched Natalie, and the blackmailing, and Taissa’s shrine, well, we surely don’t know yet. The supernatural vibes kept ratcheting up all season (the writers and producers wisely made things progressively weirder rather than hit us all at once with the spooks), and the audience is now left with a better grasp on how things gradually turned more savage in the woods.

For now, though, everyone’s bowing to the (probable, kind-of predictable) Antler Queen and the “who the fuck is Lottie Matthews?” question.

Yellowjackets will return at some point! Thank goodness.

One of the biggest questions heading into the Yellowjackets season one finale was: what happened to Jackie? We know she survived the 1996 plane crash (and did her best to bring the team together… until she went full Regina George), and that present-day Shauna, Jeff, and her parents act as if she’s dead. But how to explain her journal that cites several movies that hadn’t been released by the time of the crash, like Titanic (1997), American Beauty (1999), and Bring It On (2000)? Did she die in the time between the girls getting rescued and 2021, or is she in hiding? Or maybe she’s alive, and this was all one big, happy misunderstanding. First round of mimosas on me!

Never mind about the mimosas.

In last week’s episode, everyone on the team except Jackie got high on Misty’s mushrooms, including Shauna, who’s pregnant with Jackie’s boyfriend’s baby and, oh yeah, she nearly cut Travis’ throat. Also, Jackie had spiteful sex with Travis. You can see how things might be complicated. The tension between the one-time besties comes to a peak in the finale after Jackie reveals to everyone — including Coach Ben, can’t forget Coach Ben — that Shauna was “f*cking Jeff behind my back.” Jackie expects the team to be on her side, but that’s not the case. The Yellowjackets are Team Shauna, so Jackie storms out of the house… into an unexpected winter storm overnight.

No one thought to let Jackie back inside the house (the hot chocolate was a dream), and Jackie was too stubborn to come indoors, so she froze to death. One of the final things we see this season is Jackie’s icy corpse in the snow… followed quickly by adult Nat having her suicide attempt interrupted by a cult, possibly led by Lottie.

Yellowjackets can’t come back soon enough.

Welcome to the Yellowjackets finale, where revelations fold in on themselves to spark even more questions and a stronger desire, at once, to want to know where everything is going and also keep playing this game forever and ever.

If you are reading this and you somehow haven’t watched the Yellowjackets season finale, then I’m so jealous of you that I can hardly breathe. Not only are you not clocking sick Bette Midler references, but you have yet to watch this tremendous cap to a show that fastly and rightly became a widespread pop culture obsession. You should go do something about that, though, because we’re about to utterly spoil the whole thing in the name of calling out the big questions that remain. All in an effort to get people theorizing and chewing on something (eek) for the long, desolate winter without Nat, Shauna, Taissa, and yes, even Misty. Bring on season two!

So with warnings offered and consciences cleared, let’s dig in!

Will There Be Consequences For Adam’s Murder?

Never forget the clingy art boy and what he had to sacrifice for the sin of awakening Shauna’s dormant desires… and his own interest in a little light research. But will there be consequences for his murder and the bonding exercise that was his dismemberment?

Callie knows something is up. Are things with Shauna and Jeff really as hunky-dory as they appear? What about the assumption that, so long as you don’t have a head or fingertips, there’s no way to ID a body? Is that real? I’m not going to Google and get on a list, but that seems suspect, no?

Oh yeah, and y’all saw that camera next to Adam’s bed, right? Reddit sure did! At a minimum, someone is going to for real have ammo to blackmail the group. At minimum.

There’s also the lingering fan theory that Adam was Javi. So are we done with this guy, or are there more levels to be revealed?

Taissa’s Whole Situation

Taissa’s situation got a whole lot more complicated in the closing minutes of the finale. Not only did she surprisingly win the election, but the missing Biscuit thread has been resolved! Goddamn this is a messed-up show! Cannibalism is one thing, but can we not with the dogs? Anyway, Simone is going to be emotionally scarred, Sammy’s whole situation is gonna get more complex… it’s just a mess that threatens the already stressed life that Taissa has built for herself post-crash. But why is it all bubbling to the surface now? There are practical reasons, but is something else going on?

Have We Seen The Last Of Jackie?

What a heartbreaking end on a human and storytelling level. But also, what a total gut punch to anyone who thought we were going to see adult Jackie or, at the very least, see more of that intensifying situation between Jackie and teen Shauna before she was chased down, felled by a trap, and then bled out and eaten from that scene in the pilot. Clearly, that wasn’t her. (Okay, but who is it then?)

Still, while Jackie is definitively dead, the possibility certainly exists that we see more of Ella Purnell as Jackie, either through flashbacks that play with the timeline or as projections that feast on Shauna’s still lingering guilt over essentially casting her friend out of the warm confines of the cabin. Or, how about this: accepting Jackie’s dream as being the last gasps of consciousness before she froze to death, might we see more of Jackie from that realm? Be honest, as wild as this show has been (so wild), aren’t you somewhat curious to see if takes a major step into territory like the afterlife? Or is that a shark jump best reserved for later seasons when the writers start to run out of ideas?

Who Abducted Nat?

The panicked voicemail from Suzie paired with the abduction (slash impromptu rescue) of a suicidal Nat by a group of seeming cultists would indicate that Lottie definitely survived the island and gained a little bit of a following. What does she want and who else is with her are, for sure, going to be key parts of season two. But while we don’t know if something finally managed to take Van out (a plane crash, a wolf attack, and being set on fire twice couldn’t do it), it is noteworthy that Misty was right by Lottie’s side when she made the bear heart tribute. Same as she happily participated in the aforementioned bloodletting and implied person feast in the pilot. The only reason you wouldn’t think Misty is in cahoots with Lottie would be because, as the show’s most devious and dangerous character, it might seem a little on the nose to have her be working against the group (to a larger degree than was evident). But Christina Ricci is playing the hell out of this character, and having her go full big bad would be a feast in and of itself.

[Gestures Wildly] All Of It!?

There are a lot of other questions to ponder – is Randy going to be a problem? What happened to Shauna’s mountain baby? Why did a teddy bear spontaneously combust? Will there be a book club in season two? – but the biggest question may be a bit all-encompassing in that we know so little about what actually happened in the Canadian Rockies besides a few terrifying glimpses.

Clearly, we’re on the precipice of full-on chaos at the end of season one, but getting concrete answers about what happened to those who objected (very concerned about Coach Ben right now), the full significance of the man with no eyes and shadow guy from the credits (and was that the same guy at the end in Jackie’s seeming death hallucination?) and how, exactly, did it take 19 months for the group to be rescued… these would be helpful things to know. (Were there other attempts? Was something cloaking their existence or keeping them there? The questions are endless!) The producers know this, of course, and so we’re sure season two is going to give us just enough to keep us riveted to our screens. As it should be!

In the meantime, got some questions of your own or theories about the above? Let’s chop it up in the comments and on social. With no new episodes immediately on the horizon, we’ve got nothing but time and a clear understanding of what happens when you’re bored and starved for sustenance.

The Dallas Cowboys had a brutal Sunday at home, and you can pick one of just about a dozen reasons they lost to the 49ers, despite San Francisco not playing its best game and making some bizarre decisions of their own.

There were drops due to the sun coming through the giant windows at AT&T Stadium, painfully conservative decision-making on punts and field goals, failing to properly execute their set-up play for a game-winning touchdown and letting the clock run out after a QB draw with 14 seconds left, and some other brutal penalties at awful times throughout the game.

On that latter note, the Cowboys and their fans were not happy with a number of the calls, but for the most part the general consensus among impartial observers was that it was an incredible lack of discipline from the Cowboys that led to 14 flags on them throughout the game. After the game, fans were throwing bottles as the team came off the field, and some thought it was aimed at the players, but that was also when the referees were leaving the field and it seemed more likely that was who was the target.

In his postgame presser, Dak Prescott was asked about that, and after initially admonishing fans for throwing things at the players, he did a 180 and said it was a “credit to them” when informed it was likely aimed at the referees, before ripping into the officials further.

That will obviously lead to a fine for Prescott, but it’s also pretty terrible to advocate for fans to throw things at anyone, no matter your frustrations with the officiating. It was a lot of flags, for sure, but Dallas also led the league in penalties this season with 127, so it wasn’t exactly uncharacteristic for them. Given the officiating debacle in Cincinnati on Saturday and the widespread agreement on that being just flat out bad (on both sides), the lack of such outcry generally about the Dallas game seems to speak volumes about where the issues really were for the Cowboys.

Prescott and the Cowboys seemed most upset about their inability to get the snap off before trying to clock the ball at the end of the game, but that was, as Tony Romo explained in the booth, also an issue of Dallas not executing that situation properly, because it’s not a new rule that the ball has to be set by the umpire and they tried to give the ball to the center to put it down instead of finding the umpire and letting him set it, creating the chaotic final sequence.

The Los Angeles Lakers reached a new low point on Saturday night in Denver, as they lost by 37 to the Nuggets to fall to 21-22, currently 7th in the West and in a play-in position.

It’s far from where L.A. planned on being at this point, and while Anthony Davis’ eventual return from a sprained knee will provide a boost, there’s not an awful lot of optimism among Lakers fans right now. For many, the focal point of L.A.’s struggles has been the Russell Westbrook trade, which was always a gamble on talent versus depth, and to this point it appears that has not paid off, with Westbrook struggling to impact winning in the way he has on teams in the past — particularly the Wizards late season run to the playoffs a year ago.

Westbrook’s struggles, coupled with struggles from much of the rest of the roster that was brought in to replace those that were traded out, have set the scene for some trade deadline anxiety, and with a few weeks before, famously optimistic franchise legend Magic Johnson ripped the team’s effort to apply further pressure. While Westbrook shrugged it off when asked about Johnson’s tweet, LeBron James seemed to see a need to issue a message direct to the fans on Sunday.

There are plenty of people reading into this as James hinting at changes coming to the roster before the deadline, as it is widely accepted that James has a not-so-insignificant amount of sway in personnel decisions. We’ll find out if that’s the case in the next month, but if nothing else, it’s been awhile since LeBron went to the motivational tweet move — the most famous, of course, being “fit in or fit out” directed at Kevin Love in his first season in Cleveland.

It remains to be seen what more James himself can do, as he’s been putting up monster numbers (28.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists on 51.9/36.2/76.7 shooting) this season and all the Lakers have been able to do is tread water near .500. The onus will be on the rest of the roster to raise its level, or else the pressure for changes is only going to grow.

The Dallas Cowboys had a regular season so full of promise, but as we’ve seen so many times with them over the years, the team failed to win a playoff game. Despite playing host to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon, the high-flying Cowboys offense could not get off the ground and their defense couldn’t keep the Niners out of the end zone enough. As a result, San Francisco won, 23-17, while Dallas gets to start its offseason quite a bit earlier than they anticipated.

The end of the game was the cherry on top of a horrific afternoon for the Cowboys, as the team opted for a QB draw with 12 seconds left and no timeouts. Because Dak Prescott went down inbounds, the clock kept ticking, only Dallas needed to wait for the referee to set the ball. He got there, moved the ball back from where they set it by one yard, and before Prescott could spike it, the clock hit zero.

For folks who hate the Cowboys, it was dang near the funniest possible way for their season to end. Perhaps no one fits that description better than Stephen A. Smith, and in the immediate aftermath of the game, the ESPN personality — who has been sidelined with COVID recently but says he will be back on First Take on Monday — recorded himself reacting to the whole thing. As you can guess, he was in a good mood.

“Didn’t I tell ya?” Smith asked after laughing very hard. “Didn’t I tell ya? All year long, when everybody was raving about those boys in Big D, what did ya boy Stephen A. say? They ain’t gonna even win a playoff game. And sure enough, right on schedule, right when it really really counts, they crashed like a cheap tent in inclement weather. All I gotta say is two things: How ’bout them Cowboys? And see you on First Take tomorrow. Ya boy is back, right on time. Hehehehehehehe hehehehehahaha hahahahahahaha.”

Congratulations to the biggest winner in the Niners’ upset of the Cowboys: Stephen A. Smith.

The Cowboys and 49ers played in one of the dumbest NFL playoff games in recent memory on Sunday, as neither team seemed to want to win a game filled with penalties and bizarre coaching decisions.

After trailing by as many as 23-7 in the third quarter, the Cowboys rallied back to be down just six late, but a defensive holding penalty on a run play by Randy Gregory extended the Niners drive to, seemingly, set them up to run out a win. However, a Deebo Samuel reverse came up a literal inch short of the first down and from there, chaos ensued.

First, the Niners succeeded on a quarterback sneak to end the game, only for it to come back on a false start after they ran left tackle Trent Williams in motion and snapped the ball before he was set.

From there, the Niners’ punt bounded into the end zone and gave Dallas 38 seconds to go 80 yards for the win. After a pretty hook and lateral and a couple passes to the sidelines, the Cowboys got the ball beyond midfield with 14 seconds to play. Rather than trying to throw to the sidelines again or taking a shot to the end zone, they decided they had enough time to run a quarterback draw with Dak Prescott and spike the ball to set up one throw to the end zone. What happened after Prescott slid down was, fittingly, an absolute mess, with the Cowboys failing to get the ball to the umpire, who by rule has to touch the ball to set it, and instead crashed into Prescott and the line, moved it back, and the clock ran out before the Cowboys could snap it.

After the play, Tony Romo explained why it was a mistake from the Cowboys trying to just give the ball to the center rather than finding the umpire and having him spot it, as precious seconds ticked off the clock in the mad scramble to get set.

It really was a perfect ending to a game that included the Cowboys running a successful fake punt, then leaving the punt unit on the field to try and force a timeout from San Francisco, only to run the offense back on the field late and get a delay of game because they didn’t leave enough time for the Niners to match their mass substitution. In a game that was a comedy of errors, one last one proved to be the dagger, and Dallas will enter the offseason kicking themselves for not taking a game the Niners tried to serve them up on a platter on a few occasions.

Over on the Nickelodeon broadcast, Mike McCarthy got slimed after one of the most disastrous coaching performances in recent memory.