Month: February 2022

Despite apologizing three times for her remarks about the Holocaust, including live on the air during Tuesday’s episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg is reportedly still in trouble with ABC brass. The embattled co-host kicked up a whirlwind of controversy when she argued that the Holocaust “isn’t about race,” but instead, about “man’s inhumanity to man.” She has since walked back her comments several times and apologized to the Jewish people, but a new report claims that the situation isn’t simply going to blow over. Via Page Six:

“ABC staffers and Disney Network execs are saying Whoopi went way too far. And board members are not happy with her apology and want a fuller retraction. The word is that Whoopi is in ‘deep s–t,’” one ABC insider told us.

“Why does Whoopi seemingly get a pass when others don’t? Perhaps this time she won’t. Many at the network — including her fellow hosts — believe Whoopi is too controversial now for the show.”

The anonymous insider also claims that co-host Joy Behar was particularly taken aback by Goldberg’s “dead wrong” remarks. “Joy found this particularly troubling and couldn’t believe Whoopi wouldn’t stand corrected until she was forced,” the source said.

Of course, gossip about backstage drama at The View is nothing new. During Meghan McCain‘s time on the panel, there were numerous rumors about her allegedly diva-like antics putting her at risk of being fired, and yet she remained on the show for years. Speaking of McCain, somebody couldn’t help but highlight the scandal at her old workplace.

(Via Page Six)

On Monday, Rihanna confirmed what many fans had been suspecting for weeks: She’s going to have a baby with ASAP Rocky! The two cozied up together in their adorable pregnancy announcement photos, which made it clear they’ll be some very cool parents. Rihanna and ASAP fans everywhere were completely overjoyed with the news, and Rihanna’s father is in the same boat.

Ronald Fenty, Rihanna’s dad, chatted with TMZ about the news, sharing his excitement and hopes for the future. “When I got the news, I was so excited and ecstatic,” he said. “And I’m just hoping it will have ten fingers and ten toes.” Fenty will be excited about his new grandchild either way, but really hopes it’s a girl. “I’m looking for a girl. I already have two grandsons, so I’m looking for a daughter now,” he noted.

As for Rihanna’s future with ASAP, he has no doubt the two will make great parents. “I’ve met ASAP a few times already. He’s a very cool person, I like him,” he said. “I think he’s going to be a great dad and I know she’s going to be a great mom. She loves kids and I can see that as well. She’s over the moon about it, she’s so happy. She was always talking about having a child.” Fenty added that he isn’t sure if the two will officially tie the knot, but he sure hopes they do. “I don’t know if she’s going to have a wedding, but I would like her to have a wedding, make it official.”

While Fenty is happy for his daughter, their relationship hasn’t been exactly smooth sailing. In 2019, the pop star hit her father with a lawsuit, claiming he had used her name to benefit his own company and tried to book a tour for her over seas. She dropped the lawsuit last September after seemingly settling the case out of court.

If you aren’t caught up on all the Barbie drama lately, don’t worry, here’s a quick recap.

In 2021’s classic Netflix feature film, Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams, Malibu teen Barbie Roberts heads to New York for a summer arts program and discovers another girl named…Barbie Roberts. Sure! In order to differentiate the two, they nickname each other after their homes: Brooklyn and Malibu, and become BFFs. There, you’re caught up.

The duo are returning to Netflix in their own TV show, Barbie: It Takes Two, since, obviously, there are two Barbies. Mattel announced the series will premiere later this year. The show picks up right where Big City, Big Dreams takes place, with the duo following their musical dreams, while dealing with everyday teen problems, like family and friend drama.

This marks Barbie’s return to TV since Dreamhouse Adventures which aired from 2018 to 2020. Fred Soulie, senior vp and general manager at Mattel Television, said the following in a statement,

Mattel’s commitment to creating compelling content as we continue to expand the Barbie universe to represent our audiences across the globe. We look forward to our audiences enjoying Barbie’s return to the series format as we share a new perspective that heightens the sense of adventure, fun and friendship we all associate with Barbie Roberts.”

There is no release date for It Takes Two yet, but feel free to catch up on the animated masterpiece Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams now on Netflix. Companion dolls for the TV show were released last year.

Rachel Maddow surprised, well, pretty much everyone on Monday night when she announced that she will be taking a brief hiatus from her nightly MSNBC news show. But what was even more surprising was the reason she gave for her break in filming: She’s making a movie with Ben Stiller and Lorne Michaels.

As Deadline reports, Maddow—who was hosting her show from home after having been exposed to someone who had tested positive for COVID and was symptomatic (though Maddow herself had tested negative)—will begin her break following Thursday’s broadcast. She’ll be working on a movie adaptation of her podcast, Bag Man, which she’ll be executive producing with Stiller set to direct and Michaels producing it.

“This has been in the works for a while now,” Maddow explained, “but now it looks like it’s going to happen.” Maddow said that she’d be back on MSNBC in April, but did preface that by noting that there “may eventually be another hiatus again sometime in my future, but for now we’re just taking it one step at a time.”

Bag Man, which focuses on the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s VP, in 1973, had also been adapted into a book. “As you can tell I’m nervous about all this,” Maddow said. “It’s a change in my life, but it’s all for the good.”

(Via Deadline)

Nobody captured the desolation and depression of life before and after the pandemic quite like Arlo Parks. Her Mercury Prize-winning debut, Collapsed In Sunbeams, was filled with embracing poetry over humbly arresting production and she’s been a gracious envoy as an important voice for a new generation. Now with “Softly,” the Grammy nominee has released her first new music of 2022 and it’s a welcome new addition to the Parks canon.

“‘Softly’ is a song about yearning,” Parks says in a statement. “About how fragile you feel in the dying days of a relationship when you’re still desperately in love. The song is about how it feels to brace yourself before the blow of a break up and reminisce about the days where it all felt luminous.”

For a song about protecting your emotions, it’s approached in upbeat fashion but enacted masterfully. In the clip directed by Zhang and Knight, she moves through a de-construction of New York City skyscrapers that dance around her like the desire for something unattainable. The directors explained that for them, it “explored the idea of wanting something that was once perfect to end in a gentle way, and we wanted to express this using the world surrounding Arlo.” They added they “loved the idea of something universally romantic being slowly stripped away throughout the film.”

Listen to and watch the video for “Softly” above.

If you’re in need of a fix for a smart food show between episodes of Padma Lakshmi’s excellent Taste The Nation you’ll be pleased to know that Roy Choi’s equally excellent series Broken Bread is back! The Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series’ second season kicked off last week on Tastemade and KCET and continues Choi’s fun but deep exploration of the people making big and important changes in the current food landscape.

Throughout the show, Choi follows the template laid out by the previous season and tackles issues specific to his hometown of Los Angeles, California. He explores the rich Latinx food scene, faces the realities of Chinatown gentrification, and traces the fight to preserve a neighborhood in Leimert Park. In the process, he also widens the scope a bit from last season — giving viewers an on-the-ground look at the street food and vibrant nightlife of Tijuana, Mexico.

Our favorite moment of the new season comes when Choi puts himself under the microscope. We’ve written often about his lofty place in the LA food scene and watching him explore the ramifications of opening a successful restaurant in a welcoming but vulnerable community is deeply intriguing. It’s an interesting self-analysis and a real testament to the show’s ability to go deep without getting so in the weeds it takes all the fun out of watching a food show.

This week, we linked up with Choi to talk about the latest season of Broken Bread as well as the importance of storytelling in the food space, and what he ultimately hopes his legacy to food culture will be. Check out the interview below and be sure to catch new episodes of Broken Bread on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. PT on KCET and Tastemade.

How does the new season of Broken Bread differ from the last season? It seems a bit like the net has been cast wider here, the first season primarily focused on LA and while that’s still the focus it seems like you’ve zoomed out and are talking about bigger subjects now.

Yeah, absolutely. The first season was a very regional show. It was based only in LA and Orange County and really focused on the communities and the people and the organizations that were directly in my own city. In season two, we start with LA but we go up the state all throughout California and we go down to Tijuana, Mexico.

Just physically, it’s a bigger show cinematically and music-wise, and with all of the new producers and writers we brought on board. We really invested in trying to make the show bigger and better but the through-line of the show and the mission statement of the show is still the same. Finding good people doing great things against all odds and always remembering to bring things back to food because we don’t want this to be a political show. Or a show that divides people, we actually want to be a show that brings people together and hopefully can inspire people and we show that there are solutions to the problems.

We’re always going to have problems, but, I don’t know, in our world we’re like a moth to a flame. We’re so attracted to the negativity of life and proving who is right and who is wrong. Broken Bread has no sides, we’re just presenting the facts of what is happening and showing people on the ground doing something about it.

Hopefully, we can find a world and a place where we can move beyond these things. It’s a very idealistic show.

I love that aspect of it because food is such a communal celebratory practice, you don’t want to take that out of it.

Not at all, and that’s a part of the character of the show, to first set the table. First, use food as a through-line, it’s almost like checking ourselves, if we get too far off the road, food brings us back. To remember who we are, to remember that we aren’t trying to make a point, we’re not trying to be right, we’re just trying to share information and find solutions together. Food helps us do that. If things get too difficult or if the topic we’re covering is a little bit heavy, we have the food and the people who make the food or are involved in the food, and myself who works in kitchens, can bring that sense of humor into play, we can bring some light to the situation a little bit.

Speaking of checking ourselves, in addition to zooming out, this season also zoomed in and you looked inward. I’m thinking specifically about the opening of your Chinatown spot, Chego. Shout out to the Far East Plaza. This season you really grappled with the reality of what opening that food spot did to the community. Was it hard to self-analyze, was it uncomfortable or was it something you were ready for?

I think it was something I was ready for. I’ve been through a lot… even my pre-Kogi life and my post-Kogi life, I’ve been through a lot man, I’ve got my battle scars. I’ve worked — not only physically in the outside world but internally and psychologically — I’ve worked through a lot of things in my life to the point where I’m not afraid to confront things. I don’t have anything I’m trying to protect, I’m not trying to put my ego into everything and shelter it from criticism. I’m an open book, for me, I’m all about being a team player in anything and everything I’m involved with. When it comes to the show it’s always about what will make a better episode. How can we make this episode more personal, more human, more sensitive, how can we be better storytellers, how can we make the points feel more tangible to the viewers? As we were going through the process in the pre-production I just offered up my own personal story.

The way that episode started, the episode was originally concerned with the question: can you still be a gentrifier if you’re from that neighborhood? That was the first iteration of that episode. We wanted to look at this idea of gentrification and then within the communities that are being gentrified — if you’re from there can you still be a gentrifier? That was like a philosophical question. It wasn’t enough to fill an episode so we just went further and further and then I realized from that premise I have the perfect example, Chego in Chinatown.

I come from the Chinatown and Koreatown communities, I grew up there, I was raised in it. I was welcomed into the community later as an adult to open the restaurant, I went in with only good intentions. It’s a small place so it wasn’t like this grand diabolical scheme like Gru in Minions to take over the world, but it did affect the neighborhood. At first I thought I was doing something good for the neighborhood, and the result of it was the media for a couple of years had a lot of fodder and ammunition to write about these things that people love to read about. The hottest new neighborhood in town, foodie destination spot, etc and it opened the door for a lot of twenty and thirty-year-olds to start their own business. But even as someone that is connected so deeply to the streets and the struggle every single day in my life, I didn’t think that opening Chego displaced anyone, I don’t know why, those are the things I’m trying to confront in the show.

You still have barriers within your own mind, it’s really a self meditative exploration as well as a community endeavor. It’s also me just trying to show that the struggle never ends to constantly evolve and get out of your own self, even when you get to a point where you think you’ve reached a level of serenity and righteousness. You can still make mistakes, so that episode was partly selfish in the self-discovery aspect, but it was also to show how can we use that to try and find solutions for the future because the growth is not going to stop.

I unleashed a beast and now developers are coming in and building condos. It’s not going to stop because now landlords can get triple the rent but I think that it doesn’t have to continue exactly the way it has continued. Mistakes happen but can you go back and fix those and fess up to them and confront them and I think throughout the episode we found some solutions especially speaking to Sissy Trinh, and really understanding who was displaced how were they displaced and what’s continued to go on right now that’s not being covered and just to find some empathy behind it. All of that is balanced with the new vendors that are being blamed for this and hearing their stories. They’re just trying to make rent too, just trying to make everyone understand each other’s fight and then at the same time find a solution like a surcharge or an oversight committee, or a certain special tax that goes into marginalized neighborhoods that are being bulldozed or taken over. Not everything is the same in life and to me ultimately that’s what that episode is trying to say.

Not everything is the same, you can’t just go into somewhere that has history and has culture and has people and just treat it like a warehouse district that has no one. There are consequences.

I think that’s so important because it’s such a special area. Being someone who also grew up in LA, going over there to a place like Chego or Howlin Rays introduces you to this community where you can get so much. Fresh produce, fresh meats, fresh tea, that doesn’t really exist throughout the city as much as you’d think, certainly not in the more gentrified areas like Echo Park.

And those were the intentions back in 2013 when we opened Chego. We thought all boats can rise through this because by people flocking to Chego, maybe on their way out they can grab boba tea, or a bag of gai lan or choy sum and get some almond cookies and everyone benefits a little bit. But there were consequences. So I think that what we tried to show was that you can still have this trickle effect but you can’t just do it without considering certain pieces in-between that help the community.

We tried to create a template that can use used not just in Chinatown but Boyle heights, any community of color that is on the threat, Leimert Park, you can go to the east coast and find any equivalent neighborhood you want, any neighborhood that is in the crosshairs of development or gentrification. We’re just trying to show that it’s not just this or that, it’s not just binary, how can we find holistic solutions where growth can still happen but at the same time keep people and culture protected?

Do you have any advice for people opening restaurants? As you alluded to, a lot of time these neighborhoods are chosen because rent is cheaper and the space is easier to afford.

The thing that we tried to get to in the episode and that I still believe in is that I think the burden falls on the customer. I think the idea of having the surcharge is a first step solution, this way if you and I go to any neighborhood that is historically and culturally a community of color or a marginalized community that is on the threat of being gentrified, with people who have been there for generations in the crosshairs of being pushed out, we as customers can’t just go there because it’s the cheapest and hottest place. We have to go as customers and face is a surcharge that is added that goes to an oversight committee of fund that acts as a mediary between growth and preservation.

It’ll be community funded, everyone is involved and has skin in the game, customer, merchant, developer, organization, we’re all working together to make sure that at the stake of growth people aren’t being displaced unlawfully. If we buy a cappuccino we pay an extra dollar, or we go and get hot chicken and we pay an extra two dollars, something reasonable that could add up and be substantial. That was my first idea.

You asked what I’d say to young vendors — people will follow whatever becomes popular and whatever is right. If you have the courage or strength to do that as the hottest vendor in that neighborhood, you in your own way are going to affect change because if you stay true to it and hold the line on it people will eventually follow into that and it’ll mushroom and a create a domino effect.

That brings up a lot in my mind and it reminds me of the parallels between Chinese food and Mexican food in this country. Both require a lot of craft and preparation. Sometimes tacos can use braised cuts of meat, fresh tortilla, the good beans are slow-cooked, similarly Chinese food is prepared fresh and more complex than typical fast food. This food is labor and yet both are sold and expected to be cheap. A selling point for a lot of taco joints is, “how many tacos can you get for $5?” At Chinese spots it’s how much food can I get in this tray? Can you explain for people who don’t get it, why thinking these foods should be cheap is ridiculous?

Well, there is a double reason for that, one is because there is a way that Western societies view minorities. It’s been supported and written by the people that are telling stories through the English language and through a very Western or European lens. These are Columbus-sized discoveries for a lot of writers and they get written about in the context of “hey this is so exotic and amazing that I can get it for $5” never taking into considering the people who are making it, or their lives or the struggle that they had to get there.

The other part is that the people that are making this food, a lot of us come from families or neighborhoods where this is the only way we can survive. A lot of it is survival-based pricing and tactics. Again that is dictated by what the larger society is willing to pay or willing to deem our humanity at because you’ve got to consider is that these are real things that happened throughout the 70s, 80s,90s, and 2000s.

Of course, these chow mein shops or taco shops would love to charge $5 for a taco or $15-$20 for a plate of chow mein but the moment you do people stop showing up. You may have your philosophical ideas of what you think is right, but at the same time being an immigrant or from a minority family there is no safety net for you so you have to succumb to the pressures of who is coming in and you have to resort to. For a lot of people that is the $1 taco or the $4.99 chow mein. A lot of parents and our elders didn’t have the luxury of having English as a first language in many cases, and so what happens is they can’t stick up for themselves or make a case for why this should cost this much they just have to absorb all the pressure and all of the pain of it and try to make it out alive by just scraping through, just enough so they don’t lose.

Then you have other food that has the luxury of storytelling. I believe that the most powerful thing is storytelling and that’s what we’re trying to do now. My dream is that 30 years from now these items won’t be called ‘cheap eats’ anymore because a second generation is able to add the storytelling so that people can understand how much work goes into it. In order for it to be cheap, there has to be a compromise and something is always compromised, either the pay to the employee is comprised or the ingredients have to be compromised.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the point where Italian pasta is at, where you can charge $42 for something that costs $1 to make, and that’s all based on storytelling. ‘Handmade Nonna’s fingertips kissed from the sun on the hills of Umbria.’ Even the semantics of things like ‘first pressed olive oil,’ you can just add $10 once you say that. We don’t have that, ‘first pressed soy sauce’ storytelling. We’re trying to do that now with masa, that’s the movement in the last few years, people really understanding commodity tortillas versus heirloom corn tortillas. It still hasn’t broken through though, getting people to understand the value of that stone-ground heirloom masa vs let’s say the dried pasta that comes from Umbria that you go to Italy for and it costs like $17 bucks for a box and you turn it around on the back and it has a story that reads like a fantasy novel.

There is value in that, and I applaud the Italians for that, this is not hate at all, I’m not throwing any shade. I applaud the Italians for loving their food and loving their culture so much and having the ability to express that so that the value can come in, so they aren’t just scraping by and can actually thrive. We haven’t gotten there yet as Latinos and Asians and Ethiopians and Jamaicans, we’re still in the categories of cheap eats.

One of your greatest legacies is that you retaught foodies that low brow and high brow food can really merge to beautiful results. What would you say is your biggest contribution to food culture, what do you it to be?

That’s part of it, I think it’s all intertwined — everything that I’m trying to do. I’m not perfect but I try to make conscious decisions on what to do. I still gotta pay the bills and survive but sometimes I’ll use certain endeavors to make sure they fund things I really care about. Kogi local, Broken Bread, it’s all about access. I just want to be known as a chef that fed as many people as he could while he was here on the planet. I just want to make sure everyone can have access to delicious and nutritious affordable food and there are no barriers for them to get it.

Within that comes the merging of cultures and providing storytelling to make sure people understand, that we can’t treat our culture this way, you can’t just put us in this box, you don’t have to separate one from the other. We are all human, you can have a taco truck at your wedding, at the Emmys, but you can also do fine dining in Watts. It’s all intertwined, I just try to break down the walls we have between each other.

The Linda Lindas had a big viral moment in 2021 thanks to “Racist Sexist Boy,” but since then, the young band has proven that they’re more than a flash in the pan. They parlayed that success into a label deal with Epitaph, an opening slot on Jawbreaker’s reunion tour, and now, a new album: The group announced today that Growing Up, their debut album, is set for release on April 8.

They also shared the title track today, a rocker that’s further evidence of just how wise beyond their years this teenage group is. The song arrives alongside a video directed by Humberto Leon, which was shot on an iPhone and shows the band performing the song in and around a colorful home.

The band told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of recording the song:

“So I was just sitting in our living room, and it was during the pandemic, it was just at a point when I was just particularly missing everyone. I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re at this point in our lives where we’re supposed to be figuring out who we are and what we want to do with our life and stuff.’ But it sucked that I wasn’t able to do that with some of the people that are most important to me. I don’t know. It was like you can’t make growing up happen, but you can’t stop it from happening either. So I was just like, I wanted to sing about it, I wanted to write a song about it because that’s how I found that I wanted to express myself most during the pandemic.”

Humberto Leon also said of directing the video:

“Directing my first video for The Linda Lindas was a dream come true because I love the message and voice the girls have, and I am a true fan. I was really inspired by the girl’s love of cats and wanted to take that to the next level and so the video is a conversation about turning points in their lives all being viewed through the gaze of their cats. It creates a narrative of whether the cats want to trade places with the girls or vice-a-versa. This video was extra special because I worked with the girls on designing the outfits with Batsheva, styling the looks with Rodarte and Warby Parker. The entire video was a collaboration between me and the girls. By shooting the video on iPhone 13 Pro Max, it created an intimacy with the video that felt like we were listening in on a day in the life of The Linda Lindas.”

Watch the “Growing Up” video above and find the band’s upcoming tour dates below.

02/11 — Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s *
04/01 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern #
04/02 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern #
04/03 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern #
04/27 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza #
04/28 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza #
04/29 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza #
04/03 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza #
10/22-23 — Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young Festival

* with The Beths
# with Jawbreaker

Growing Up is out 4/8 via Epitaph. Pre-order it here.

(Spoilers for HBO’s Euphoria will be found below.)

Chaotic birthday parties, drunken benders, and a drug-fueled pop-culture montage? The latest episode of Euphoria really had it all.

In season two, episode four’s “You Who Cannot See, Think Of Those Who Can,” the stylized drama leans into its love of mind-bending fantasy sequences to heighten the tension between its main players. Rue is so strung out on all of the premium drugs in that suitcase that she’s forced to fake an orgasm with Jules, a cringe-worthy moment that sends Jules running to Elliot for advice — and an emotional support hookup. While their relationship flounders, Maddy’s birthday party — hosted by the Howard ladies — is the perfect backdrop for a depressed and guilt-ridden Cassie to drunkenly spiral and for Nate to once again wreak havoc on the lives of the women who love him — a trait he seems to have inherited from his father.

The episode ends with a confession or two, a vomit-filled hot tub, and a (possible) character death. Here are all of the questions we were left obsessing over.

Did Rue Overdose (Again)?

No matter how many times Rue seems to hit rock bottom, Euphoria proves she can still descend to tragically lower depths. The show’s latest episode used the character’s addiction to push her most-valued relationships to the breaking point. She can’t achieve true intimacy with the person she loves most because the narcotics leave her too numb, and she can’t see what her drug consumption is doing to Jules — who seeks comfort in Elliot, sometimes right in front of her. When the trio goes for a joyride, stopping at a convenience store to steal some White Claw, Jules questions why a high AF Rue is drinking, causing Rue to lash out and head home to the safety of her room and her stash. She gobbles down a handful of pills and begins to hallucinate — first envisioning a church where Labrinth (Euphoria’s resident music director) cradles her in his arms while singing to packed pews. That mirage begins to see-saw to show Rue once again in her room, this time dancing with and being held by her late father as she apologizes for not being a good person. The number of drugs in her system combined with the alcohol and these eerie visions have us worried that Rue has in fact overdosed again — and the lack of Zendaya in next week’s preview doesn’t help. It would certainly be a choice to kill off your main character midway through the season, and while Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has committed to painting addiction as a destructive, merciless force, it feels a bit premature for Rue to die now. She may have overdosed, but we’re hoping another brush with death wakes her up to the reality of her chemical codependence — or, at the very least, clues her mom, her sister, and her friends into the fact that no, it’s not just weed that’s making her so damn high all the time.

Did Nate Kill His Brother?

At the end of the episode, Cal goes on a long-winded rant about his repressed sexuality, blaming his wife, Marsha, and sons for his miserable existence. He’s clearly still grieving the loss of his high school friend (and possible lover) as evidenced by his behavior at the gay bar they used to frequent as teens. When an inebriated Cal returns home he, quite literally, pisses away his old life, waking up his wife and children to reveal he’s f*cked men, women, and transexuals, and he won’t be ashamed of his lifestyle anymore. But, even more shocking than Cal’s confession is how he addresses his sons. Nate’s older brother Aaron is the child Marsha got pregnant with as a teenager — a development that most likely signaled the end for his romance with Derek. You’d think he would be the son Cal hated most, but that black mark seems reserved for Nate, the son Cal can’t seem to understand. Before he bids his family farewell, Cal grabs a photo off the wall, a picture of himself with Marsha, Aaron, Nate, and a younger boy. It’s not the first time we’ve seen images of this missing son — he popped up in season one — and while there are plenty of fan theories suggesting he may be Fez’s adopted younger brother, Ashtray, couldn’t also be possible that the child died and, for some reason, Cal blames Nate for his death? Nate’s bad judgment and disregard for others have hurt people before, and if he bears any responsibility for his brother’s death, it would make Cal’s resentment towards him a bit more understandable.

Is Cassie Going To Come Clean?

If Euphoria’s second season had a tagline it would probably be “Poor Cassie.” Sydney Sweeney might be snacking on the scenery this episode, but her character is drowning in guilt. A blow-up with Nate earlier in the episode over his reconnection with Maddy leads to her drunken spiral at her best friend’s birthday party. Though all of the other girls (with the exception of her sister, Lexi) seem oblivious to Cassie’s heartache, Nate clearly relishes in what he’s putting her through, showing up at the bash with a gift from Tiffanys (for Maddy, of course) and lingering just long enough to witness Cassie’s magnificent meltdown. It begins with a montage of Cassie emptying wine bottles and nearly being asphyxiated by party balloons and ends with her mother, dragging her vomit-soaked body upstairs as she cries out apologies for ruining her best friend’s birthday. She’s sorry for the vomit, sure, but she clearly feeling guilt for her relationship with Nate and beginning to recognize the writing on the wall. Will she carry through with her threat to keep them apart by coming clean to Maddy? It’s clear that, though she craves love and affection from Nate, her friendship with Maddy is the most important relationship in her life, and keeping this secret is literally eating away at her. Maybe this party is the final straw, and she’ll reveal her betrayal to Maddy, if only to protect her friend from Nate’s influence.

What’s Going On With Lexi’s Play?

Of course, another possible “out” for Cassie when it comes to this f*cked up love triangle might come courtesy of Lexi’s semi-autobiographical theatrical production, “Oklahoma.” We get a couple of glimpses of her holding auditions, having blonde-haired women recite the same hate-filled outburst her sister lobs at her when they’re at home. It’s clear this play is going to be used as some kind of season-ending plot-stirrer, and no one would blame Lexi for using it to get back at Cassie in some way. Lexi is incredibly observant and is starting to pick up on her sister’s weird fixation with Nate. Maybe she’ll use her play to tell their friends the truth, either as a dig to her sister or, more likely, her last resort in helping Cassie break free of Nate’s toxic influence.

Is Cal Going To Die This Season?

Eric Dane gave an Emmy-contending performance this episode, achieving the impossible by getting fans to sympathize with the villainous, abusive, all-around-sh*t-dad that is Cal Jacobs. His repressed sexuality, his unresolved grief, and his resentment towards those closest to him all burst through in a minutes-long diatribe sparked by public urination and wrapped up with a final goodbye to his old life. Maybe it’s just the alcohol and still-bleeding head wound talking but it sounds like Cal is completely done with his family and with pretending to be someone he’s not. Maybe he’s planning to ride off into the sunset to find Derek again (if the guy’s not dead as some fans speculate), or maybe he just wants to live the life of a single Queer man on his terms. Either way, you don’t get an epiphany-spawning monologue like that on a show like Euphoria without biting the bullet. Right?

LA is well-known for its near-constant traffic and the accompanying collisions, but one of the city’s most prominent artists recently had his own run-ins with the city’s infamous driving hazards. Mustard posted the aftermath of his recent accident on Instagram, describing how a drunk driver slammed his truck into the wall on the freeway, totaling the vehicle and destroying his Trek Bike, which was attached to the roof.

“Last night a drunk driver hit me and another car on the freeway slammed my car into the wall,” he recalled. “All the airbags came out totaled by my truck shit felt like a movie.” Fortunately, he says, he walked away with only “minor injuries no major injuries thank you god.” He even managed to point out he was more upset by the loss of his bike, writing, “On top of that my trek bike was in the back. My sh*t was broke. I was more mad about that than my car, man.”

Thankfully, he walked away relatively unscathed and he’ll no doubt be able to replace both the bike and the truck with the fruits of his past year of labors, which included production for Coi Leray, The Kid Leroi, and Roddy Ricch, while he’s also set to star in the upcoming movie Sneaks.

After stirring up controversy on Monday’s episode of The View by attempting to make a broader, yet incorrect statement about the Holocaust, Whoopi Goldberg apologized first thing Tuesday morning. Goldberg, who’s no stranger to calling out others for making harmful statements, pointed that trademark criticism at herself and readily admitted that she got this one wrong.

The controversy stemmed during a discussion about a Tennessee school district banning the graphic novel Maus and its harrowing depiction of the Holocaust. During the panel, Goldberg argued that the Holocaust “isn’t about race” and was about “man’s inhumanity to man.” However, to the shock of her co-hosts, Goldberg took things further and said the Holocaust was about “two White groups of people.”

Before hosting the Anti-Defamation League chief on Tuesday morning, Goldberg issued a statement at the beginning of the episode to express regret for the comments she made on Monday.

Via Variety:

“I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined, because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. And I understand why now and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things. And while discussing how a Tennessee school board unanimously voted to remove a graphic novel about the Holocaust, I said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man. But it is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race. Now, words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments as I said and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people, as they know, and as you all know because I’ve always done that.”

Goldberg’s statement was actually her third apology following the Holocaust controversy. On Monday evening, Goldberg tweeted an apology message (below) and she also appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she said she regrets her comments and “stands corrected.”

(Via Variety)