Month: February 2022

A few days ago, Lucy Dacus debuted a new single, “Kissing Lessons.” Fans could listen to the song on their phone, not via their preferred streaming service, but via an actual telephone call. Dacus shared an image of one of the fliers she put up out in the world and tweeted, “I went out to get a single tomato from the bodega during a blizzard and happened to see this taped to my local Subway station?!? I was like no way this is a LD promo that would be too coincidental.. BUT IT IS CALL (804) 409-4451 TO HEAR KISSING LESSONS RIGHT NOW!!”

That was a fun way to promote a new song, but now, the tune has gotten a proper premiere on streaming platforms, as Dacus officially released the track today. It’s a brief one, clocking in at under two minutes, and Dacus uses that time to tell a story about learning the ins and outs of smooching from a childhood friend. The tale begins, “Rachel was a year older / When I was in the second grade / I thought she might know everything / I took her word like a golden ring / I asked her how to win my man / And she said, ‘I know just the thing’ / Gave me lipgloss and a hair toss / And, after school, a lesson in kissing.”

Watch the “Kissing Lessons” video above.

Next month will mark two years since Dua Lipa released her sophomore album, Future Nostalgia, which became her most successful release, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. It also gave the singer her first Grammy Award after she won in the Best Pop Vocal Album category in 2021. All that was left to do for Future Nostalgia was to hold a tour. After the COVID pandemic pushed that back, Dua Lipa will finally kick off the Future Nostalgia Tour in March.

Who is opening the Dua Lipa tour?

Back in September, Dua Lipa announced that Megan Thee Stallion, Caroline Polachek, and Lolo Zouaï will serve as the opening acts on the Future Nostalgia Tour. Megan will have two albums’ worth of music to perform across North America, thanks to her platinum-selling debut album Good News and her most recent release, Something For Thee Hotties. Polachek has been fairly quiet over the past couple years as she’s sporadically released singles since her last album, Pang, arrived in 2019. As for Zouaï, she released a pair of singles in 2021, but her most recent release, Highs Highs And Lows Lows, also arrived in 2019.

You can view the full tour dates for the Future Nostalgia Tour below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

WARNING: Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett below.

Right from the start, The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 6, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger,” is already jam-packed with Star Wars cameos as the episode opens with Timothy Olyphant‘s Cobb Vanth before surprisingly continuing The Mandalorian story that started in Chapter 5. (Which brought even more cameos.) But just when you think The Book of Boba Fett can’t pull another trick out of its sleeve, a last minute character arrives in the final moments of Chapter 6, and his arrival will undoubtedly go over huge with Star Wars: The Clone Wars fans. But who the heck is this nameless blue alien in a cowboy hat?

It’s none other than the notorious bounty hunter Cad Bane.

First introduced in The Clone Wars animated series, which is set between the events of the prequel films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Cad Bane became the deadliest bounty hunter following the death of Boba Fett’s father, Jango Fett. Unlike Jango, Bane went toe-to-toe with the Jedi Knights and lived to tell the tale. He also has a sordid history with Book of Boba Fett‘s Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). The two crossed paths in The Clone Wars spinoff, The Bad Batch, where Bane was shown to still be a force to reckon with after effortlessly gunning down one of the enhanced troops from Clone Force 99.

Cad Bane’s quick draw skills were once again on full display in The Book of Boba Fett, where he showed up to issue a warning to Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth on behalf of the Pyke Syndicate, who are making a move on Boba Fett’s territory. Despite being a seasoned gunslinger, things do not go well for Vanth, which puts Bane on a collision course with Boba and Mando going into the season finale.

(Via Wookieepedia)

For better or worse, Drake is a walking, talking meme — and he knows it, which means he often leans in, enjoying the chaos that results from his every facial expression or finicky habit. And because he’s such a huge hoops head, many of his finest moments are generated during NBA games while he’s supporting his precious Toronto Raptors or giving their rivals a friendly haranguing during games.

His latest is no exception. During last night’s game against the Miami Heat, Drake was caught by the TV broadcast’s cameras scrolling through his phone with a sourpuss expression on his face — which, of course, offered the perfect opportunity for speculation on what he was staring at that made him so grumpy. The timing — just a day after Rihanna announced her pregnancy with ASAP Rocky — was especially delicious for Twitter’s jokesters.

Drake notoriously had a huge crush on Rihanna and even dated her for a bit, but unfortunately for him, it seemed the burgeoning mogul preferred a “Rude Boy” after all. After dating Saudi billionaire Hassan Jameel for three years, Rihanna appears to have settled into a life of domestic bliss with “Fashion Killa” collaborator ASAP Rocky. The couple announced their baby blessing earlier this week with photos revealing Rihanna’s expanding bump, prompting many fans to tweet, “Someone check on Drake.”

In doing so, fans have found that the results are just about as funny as could be imagined — although plenty of the Drake jokes revolved around other potentially disappointing scenarios, as well. You can check out more Drake memes below.

Model and former-Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller received nationwide attention over her response to a question about marriage equality during the 2009 Miss USA pageant. When asked (by Perez Hilton, because 2009) whether same-sex marriage should be legalized, she infamously replied, “I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.”

That’s when Prejean Boller became a “right-wing hero,” as Los Angeles Magazine called her. She now shares her conservative views to her 11,000-plus followers on Instagram, where she has recently pivoted to offering money to people at Target if they remove their masks. (Her bio includes an American flag emoji followed by the number “45.”)

Rolling Stone reports that Prejean Boller, who married former-Baltimore Ravens quarterback Kyle Boller in 2010, encourages “people to defy indoor mask policies and go mask-free in big-box stores in exchange for money. In this series, Prejean Boller and fellow anti-mask activist Patrice Reynolds, who identify themselves as the ‘muzzle-free patrol,’ stand in front of a Target sign mandating face coverings indoors before going up to people who are not wearing masks inside Target and giving them $1 bills.”

Have we learned nothing from “stranger danger”? Do not accept money from randos.

According to her Stories, Prejean Boller has been speaking at conservative rallies, hobnobbing with far-right influencers like Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorn at Mar-a-Lago, and, with Reynolds, has been actively campaigning for people to violate mask policies at big-box stores. In a video from three weeks ago, they went into a Home Goods in Encinitas, California, giving the “muzzle-free” (adult) shoppers $5 bills with smiley faces on them and offering money to people to take off their masks. “I love seeing all the normal people who do not comply with tyranny!” she said in a caption.

Prejean Boller, who had her Miss California title revoked for failing to fulfill her contractual commitments (there were many “you’re fired” headlines at the time), went viral for her comments at a school board meeting in California. “I’m a mama bear and I know there’s a lot of mama bears here tonight, and no one’s gonna mess with our cubs,” she said. “I’m simply here to tell you to unmask our children. We’re done begging. In fact, we’re done asking for permission. We are gonna be unmasking our children today.” She also claimed that the pandemic was “over.” This was in August 2021.

(Via Rolling Stone)

The View moderator Whoopi Goldberg generally keeps the show’s conversation from getting too out of line. Yet she went off the deep end in her own way on Monday with unfortunate remarks about the Holocaust, which she declared “isn’t about race,” despite the Nazi regime’s systematic and targeted extermination of Jews. Whoopi ended up apologizing three times for her remarks, but that wasn’t enough. Reports that Whoopi was in huge trouble turned out to be accurate, and on Tuesday night, ABC News suspended her for two weeks with ABC News president Kim Godwin declaring that Whoopi will “take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” which Godwin described as “wrong and hurtful.”

Godwin added, “The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.” Well, former co-host Meghan McCain made her thoughts known by condemning Whoopi’s major slip-up. And she’s not the only one who’s graced that soundstage and is now weighing in, but in a different way. The Daily Beast reports that “co-hosts Sunny Hostin, Joy Behar, and Ana Navarro are furious with the network’s decision.” Not only that, but Navarro spoke directly to The Daily Beast:

“I love Whoopi Goldberg. I love The View,” she said on Tuesday evening. “This was an incredibly unfortunate incident. Whoopi is a lifelong ally to the Jewish community. She is not an antisemite. Period. I am sad. And I have nothing else to say.”

And the show will go on. Wednesday’s program will feature guests including fashion designer Christian Siriano and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who will discuss how he’s slashing drug prices and using his billionaire powers for good.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have been good friends for years and now it looks like the pair is getting ready to drop a new collaboration, as fans think a new Instagram post from Sheeran indicates.

Sheeran shared what looks like an autographed CD case, the art of which is modeled after a playing card and features a “queen” that looks suspiciously like Swift, an observation also made by virtually every user who commented on the post. Sheeran wrote, “Signing some cds for something coming in a bit, keep an eye out.”

There’s context here. The Daily Mail notes that in late 2021, Sheeran said of the song in an interview, “That is my next single, I’m super excited about it. I’ve done a collaboration for it that will come out in the new year with someone I just love.” Furthermore, the publication also notes (as does a Reddit thread from October) that Sheeran’s “Overpass Graffiti” video contains apparent hints at the collaboration, like references to Swift in a newspaper and a patch on his jacket. There has also been speculation that Swift included a visual reference to Sheeran’s = album in her “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version)” video.

It hasn’t been that long since the pair’s previous collaboration, as they recently popped up together on Red (Taylor’s Version).

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

As the controversy over Whoopi Goldberg‘s Holocaust comments on The View continued to dominate headlines, former co-host Meghan McCain, who left the show on not the greatest terms, couldn’t resist wading into the situation. Shortly after Goldberg made her remarks that the Holocaust “isn’t about race,” McCain dipped her toes in the water by not directly naming The View, but it was clear who she was talking about.

“Antisemitism is a cancer and a poison that is increasingly excused in our culture and television – and permeates spaces that should shock us all,” McCain tweeted on Monday afternoon.

Following her tweet, Goldberg would go on to apologize three times for her remarks. First, in a tweet regretting her choice of words, again on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and a third time at the start of Tuesday morning’s episode of The View before turning things over to Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

However, despite all of that, McCain dropped a second tweet on Tuesday afternoon, and this time, she directly named her old stomping grounds.

“I hate commenting on my old employer because I have moved in every way a person can move on,” McCain tweeted. “That being said I am an activist against antisemitism and it is a big part of my life. The growing threat is real and virulent and everywhere. I am heartbroken about what was said.”

Turns out McCain’s tweets had a purpose. They were building towards her dropping a new column in the Daily Mail where she rails against ABC for having a “double, triple, and even quadrupled standard” when it comes to liberal hosts on The View.

In the new column, McCain complains about how liberal hosts are “protected” and, in a moment that brings back memories of her time on the show, McCain calls Goldberg’s apology “half-assed.” Via Daily Mail:

Whoopi has said a slew of insanely-controversial and hurtful things over the course of her tenure at The View. Some of the more notorious ones include defending Roman Polanski for raping a 13-year-old (calling it ‘not rape, rape’) and defending Bill Cosby after over 50 accusers had come out publicly with their stories.

With age and status comes protection at The View. This goes for the other liberal hosts as well.

Instead of half-assed apologies and bringing in experts in the antisemitism space, maybe dedicate an entire ‘Hot Topics’ segment to discussing why what was said was so deeply offensive and dangerous. In the world of media, there are people who will never face the same ramifications and repercussions that others will.

To the surprise of no one, McCain ended up being proven wrong. Just a few hours after publishing her column, Goldberg was suspended from The View, confirming reports that her Holocaust remarks landed her in huge trouble with ABC brass. Maybe next time, Meghan.

(Via Daily Mail)

Few artists had a 2021 like Olivia Rodrigo did. The young singer rose to fame at the top of last year with her breakout single, “Drivers License.” Months later she released her debut album, Sour, which wound up being one of the most successful pop albums of the year. She also landed seven nominations for the 2022 Grammys. Starting in April, Rodrigo will tour in North America and Europe and she’s bringing a trio of singers with her for the string of shows.

Who Is Opening The Olivia Rodrigo Tour?

Gracie Abrams and Holly Humberstone will support Rodrigo during her performances in North America while Baby Queen will serve as her opener for shows in Europe and the UK. Gracie Abrams’ latest release arrived at the end of 2021 with This Is What It Feels Like, which boasted 12 songs without any guest features. As for Holly Humberstone, she released the EP The Walls Are Way Too Thin. She’s also already released a new single this year with the song “London Is Lonely.” Lastly, Baby Queen’s most recent release was “Wannabe,” which arrived in November, following her debut album, The Yearbook.

You can see the full list of dates for Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour Tour below.

Stop the presses! Sound the alarm! Wake your children! Gasp audibly! Collect on all the things you were promised “when hell freezes over,” because it appears it has. According to newly surfaced reports, Donald Trump’s desperate attempts to overturn the results of the totally legit 2020 presidential election became so unhinged that even Rudy Giuliani was apparently taken aback.

According to The New York Times, the former New York City mayor—who will now forever be known as the guy who held a press conference next to a dildo boutique—actually voiced his reluctance when Trump and his cronies were talking about all sorts of wacky plays to declare the 45th president the winner of the 2020 election. Which he most definitely was not. One of the most popular ideas was for Trump to send in the military to collect the voting machines in states where the incumbent nominee lost bigly to preserve as evidence of “fraud,” despite the fact that no such evidence existed.

The New York Times reports that it was retired Army colonel Phil Waldron, a former colleague of Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who initially floated this idea. As the NYT writes:

“According to people familiar with the accounts, Mr. Waldron, shortly after the election, began telling associates that he had found irregularities in vote results that he felt were suggestive of fraud. He then came up with the idea of having a federal agency like the military or the Department of Homeland Security confiscate the machines to preserve evidence.”

Trump liked what Waldron was selling, and had reportedly already been thinking about trying to persuade the Justice Department to confiscate the machines from states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, where the mere fact that Trump lost led him to conclude that something fishy was happening. Yet, all along, it was Giuliani—Mr. Hair Leak, the guy who farted during a public hearing—who was buzzing in their ears as the voice of reason. As the Times writes:

Mr. Giuliani was vehemently opposed to the idea of the military taking part in the seizure of machines, according to two people familiar with the matter. The conflict between him and his legal team, and Mr. Flynn, Ms. [Sidney] Powell and Mr. Byrne came to a dramatic head on Dec. 18, 2020, during a meeting with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office.

At the meeting, Mr. Flynn and Ms. Powell presented Mr. Trump with a copy of the draft executive order authorizing the military to oversee the seizure of machines. After reading it, Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Giuliani to the Oval Office, according to one person familiar with the matter. When Mr. Giuliani read the draft order, he told Mr. Trump that the military could be used only if there was clear-cut evidence of foreign interference in the election.

When Waldron altered his plan to appease the naysayers, he suggested that Trump ask the Department of Homeland Security to do the dirty work—a task Trump reportedly delegated to Rudy, who obliged but reported back that that was a no-go, too. According to an inside source, while Flynn and Powell continued to push a military interference as the president’s best hope at not having to fill out a change of address form for the post office, Giuliani—despite being one of the biggest pushers of The Big Lie—was stating behind the scenes that these unnecessary shenanigans were likely to get his pal Trump impeached.

Six words I never thought I’d type: If only Trump has listened to Rudy.

(Via The New York Times)