Month: March 2022

A 2015 poll of the most commonly misheard songs lyrics of all-time includes the first line from “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Eurythmics. The actual lyric: “Sweet dreams are made of this.” The commonly misheard lyric: “Sweet dreams are made of cheese.”

I hate to disagree with the alleged 2,000 UK adults who were polled for the survey, but: no one has ever sang “sweet dreams are made of this” as “sweet dreams are made of cheese” (or “we built this city on rock ‘n’ roll” as “we built this city on sausage rolls,” which also appears on the list). But if the poll had Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-nominated misheard lyric as “sweet dreams are made of these,” I would believe it, because that’s how I sing it every time I hear the song on the radio. I should know better — the parenthetical in the title gives it away — but a) I’m an idiot, and b) I’m not the only one.

On Tuesday’s episode of Wheel of Fortune, contestant Chris Bryant tried to solve the puzzle in the “Song Lyrics” category. The board read, “S_EET _REAMS ARE MA_E O_ THIS.” His guess: “SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THESE.” He got everything right, except for a word that was already complete. What a not-sweet nightmare.

You can watch the clip here.

It’s OK, Chris, other people would have gotten it wrong…

… although some Wheel fans were quick to make fun of him, too.

(Via Yahoo Entertainment)

In mid 2021, Netflix revealed that Mike Myers would play an astounding number of characters (seven) in a new comedic series called The Pentaverate. Well, the Austin Powers frontman decided to drop in a bonus character, and that’s where this teaser comes in. Eight is a lot. This teaser is a lot! The show revolves around the centuries-long aftermath of a catastrophe (the Black Plague of 1347), after which a secret society came together to make sure that humanity’s sh*t doesn’t go off the rails again.

Seems more than a little bit timely. The society’s called (like the show, obv) the Pentaverate, and in addition to Myers’ wild cast of characters, Ken Jeong will play a casino mogul/chaos theory specialist and Keegan-Michael Key will portray a nuclear physicist with Debi Mazar, Richard McCabe, and Jennifer Saunders all picking up similarly extravagant roles. Via Netflix, here’s who Myers will portray:

Ken Scarborough: An old-school Canadian news journalist who sets out to expose the Pentaverate and win his job back
Anthony Lansdowne: A New England conspiracy theorist, determined to expose the Pentaverate
Rex Smith: A far-right radio host and highly prominent conspiracy theorist
Lord Lordington: The Pentaverate’s oldest and highest-ranking member.
Bruce Baldwin: Former media mogul
Mishu Ivanov: Ex-Russian oligarch
Shep Gordon: Former Rock-N-Roll manager
Jason Eccleston: A tech genius who invented the Pentaverate’s super computer, MENTOR

Again, it’s a lot. And since there (probably) won’t be an Austin Powers 4, and the world doesn’t need more of The Love Guru, we can relax and wrap our heads around the Myers madness to come in this series.

Netflix’s The Pentaverate debuts on May 5.

Kristen Stewart is in full press mode as she heads into the 94th Academy Awards with her first Best Actress nomination for Spencer. While the barrage of interviews have focused mainly on her portrayal of Princess Diana and the feeling of entering the Oscar race, Stewart has been candid about her career, including past roles and ones that she left on the table.

In her latest interview, Stewart confirmed that she had been contacted for a cameo in the new Scream, but she turned it down once she learned the role would entail recreating an iconic scene that she had no intention of trying to top. Via Slant:

Fully transparent Kristen is the best. So they’re already making Scream 6. Who did they contact you about playing in the last sequel?

So it’s the Drew [Barrymore] character that gets killed in the beginning. And they created a whole sequence where a lot of people got killed to emulate the Drew thing. But it was just going to be one person, and I was like, “I can’t do a Drew. I can’t touch that.” Do you know what I mean? But, yeah, so then they ended up doing, if I’m remembering correctly, a larger sequence and not just one victim.

Of course, Stewart has experience walking in Barrymore’s footsteps. The Twilight actress stepped into the Charlie’s Angels world with the reboot/sequel directed by Elizabeth Banks. That film did not connect with audiences like the original starring the powerhouse combination of Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu, so that experience could’ve very easily factored into Stewart’s decision to take a pass on Scream.

(Via Slant)

Contrary to what he says in his 2012 breakout hit “The A-Team,” Ed Sheeran won’t “go mad for a couple grams.” Of weed, that is. During an appearance on Australia’s Fitzy And Wippa radio show, the “Shivers” singer recalled studio sessions with rapper The Game, which went down shortly after “The A-Team” took off.

“We were in the studio,” Sheeran said, “and we probably made like 13, 14 songs. And towards the end of the session, his boys come in and… it starts being a bit of a party… I took a tiny, tiny, tiny puff on something and I was out, I had to go home. I don’t really do that at all.”

Since the debauched studio sessions, Sheeran and The Game have collaborated on the tracks “City Of Sin” and “Roadside,” both of which appear on The Game’s 2019 album Born 2 Rap.

Sheeran’s radio appearance coincides with the announcement of his 2023 Australian stadium tour. He’s set to kick off the first leg of his +-=÷x Tour, also known as The Mathematics Tour, next month in Cork, Ireland, with dates throughout Europe and the UK. Sheeran is expected to announce American tour dates soon.

Ahead of his tour, Sheeran will perform a series of “warm-up shows” kicking off in London next week.

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

Kid Cudi dropped by Late Night yesterday and had a lot to talk about, like his upcoming movie X, getting his daughter into horror movies, and the time his music teacher mother gave him a B- in her class.

As a seventh grader, Cudi told Seth Meyers that to avoid being in his mother’s class, he took band class and tried playing the trumpet, like his older brother did. However, we was failing the class, so his teacher suggested he switch to his mother’s choir class. He did, and Cudi continued:

“All year long, I’m just like in the back of the class, trying not to get called on. And my mom was always trying to give me solos and sh*t. Sorry, I cursed. So stressed out about that still to this day [laughs]. Report cards came, the end of the year came. I’m thinking, ‘OK, my mom’s gonna give me an A+,’ you know? It’s my mom, right? I get my report card and I got a B-. My mom keeps it so real. She was like, ‘You missed some homework.’ I was like, ‘You keep it so funky.’ I got to respect it.”

Earlier in the interview, it was noted Cudi had become friends with Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson, who was the next guest on Late Night after Cudi. Cudi said he wants to be on Abbott Elementary, saying, “That was something that I was kind of just throwing out, talking to [Abbott Elementary’s Tyler James Williams] about.”

Later in the show, Brunson came out and Cudi stayed for the interview. Meyers noted Cudi’s interest in the show and Cudi and Brunson said they’d talk about it while getting dinner together after the show. At the end of the interview, Meyers wrapped up by saying he hopes Cudi finds his way onto Abbott Elementary, to which Brunson responded, “Yeah, I mean, he’s Kid Cudi. It’s pretty easy. I don’t know why he’s like [laughs]… Tyler was like, ‘This guy wants to be on the show.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, he can.’”

Given that Brunson not just stars in Abbott Elementary but is its creator, it would seem Cudi is essentially a lock to be on the show if they can find a good way to work him in.

Watch Cudi’s interview above and Brunson’s below.

Atlanta (finally!) comes back after a nearly four-year break next week, which means you still have time to re-watch Donald Glover’s other brilliant show, Community, for the 13th time. But if you don’t have the time or energy to make it through the gas leak season, how about watching the best Troy Barnes episodes instead? A few suggestions: there’s “Mixology Certification,” where the Greendale study group celebrates “the month and day of which coincide numerically with your expulsion from a uterus,” and “Remedial Chaos Theory,” arguably the best episode of Community period, and of course, “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking,” in which Troy meets his hero, LeVar Burton.

In a recent Reddit Ask Me Anything, the Star Trek and Reading Rainbow legend was asked whether he had any fun stories from his time on the Community set.

“I need to say here just how impressed I was with the level of commitment Donald Glover brought to those moments between Troy and LeVar. For instance, I wasn’t present for the bathroom scene where he sings RR and delivers the line, ‘Set phasers to stun!’, but when I saw the finished episode I was floored. Arguably one of the best lines in TV history.”

Not to correct Burton, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do: the line is “set phasers to love me.” He was probably thinking of the Taking Back Sunday song, as one does.

You can watch the clip below.

The musical abilities of The Roots are a core component of The Tonight Show and that was on display yesterday, when the show tasked Black Thought (aka Tariq Trotter) to come up with some new rap verses for non-rap songs. Trotter understood the assignment, as the kids say, and came through with some clever lines.

The “Rap Remix” segment started with a gaffe, as Trotter rapped about St. Patrick’s Day, the upcoming holiday most commonly associated with Ireland, over bagpipes, the instrument most commonly associated with Scotland. While uilleann pipes (listen to an example of them being played here) are a type of bagpipe associated with traditional Irish music, the ones heard on Fallon did not sound to be of that variety. Furthermore, the song being played was “Scotland The Brave.”

From there, Trotter rapped over the ’60s Batman theme song before wrapping up the segment with a take on beloved Frozen cut “Do You Want To Build A Snowman?.” The song was remixed into a more hip-hop-appropriate instrumental and Trotter really closed out the verse strong, concluding, “Up in a cyclone, we’ll build him together / Spring is upon us, I’m sweating, so / if he melts, just say, ‘Oh well’ / ’cause look: You gotta let it go.”

Watch the “Rap Remix” segment above.

In 2021, singer Joyce Wrice had one of the best R&B albums with her debut Overgrown. It’s a project that arrived after she released a collection of singles, and as for the album itself, it came with features from Lucky Daye, Freddie Gibbs, Masego, Westside Gunn, Kaytranada, Devin Morrison, and UMI. Overgrown brought Wrice plenty of well-deserved attention as she earned a slot at this year’s Broccoli City Festival and was enlisted to sing the theme song for The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, a reboot of the mid-2000s Disney series.

Nearly a year after Wrice released Overgrown, she’s back with new music and it features one of her past collaborators. She and Kaytranada unite for the groovy “Ice Tea.” On the new track, Wrice is nothing short of carefree as she flaunts her style and good looks while comparing their sweetness to that of cocoa and iced tea.

Wrice’s new song comes as she prepares to head out on tour with Lucky Daye for his Candydrip Tour. The string of shows kicks off on March 18 in Portland, Oregon, and continues for five weeks before coming to an end in New York City on April 25. As for Kaytranada, he’s fresh off the release of his Intimidated EP which presented three songs and features from HER, Thundercat, and Mach Hommy.

You can listen to the duo’s new track in the video above.

During his one-term presidency, Donald Trump cozied up to a lot of authoritarians. Along with being North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s pen pal, he got along swimmingly with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two were so tight that when he invaded Ukraine nearly four weeks ago, the former U.S. president thought nothing of publicly calling the move “savvy” and “genius.” Since then, even those in his circle have begged him to stop heaping praise upon the deeply unpopular world leader. And now he has, sort of.

In a new interview with The Washington Examiner, Trump tried to back-pedal his comments a bit, expressing shock rather than respect.

“I’m surprised — I’m surprised. I thought he was negotiating when he sent his troops to the border. I thought he was negotiating,” Trump told the publication. “I thought it was a tough way to negotiate but a smart way to negotiate,” he added, not able to resist slipping in a compliment anyway.

Trump then tried to rewrite history, contradicting past comments in which he praised the invasion. “I figured he was going to make a good deal like everybody else does with the United States and the other people they tend to deal with — you know, like every trade deal. We’ve never made a good trade deal until I came along,” Trump asserted. “And then he went in — and I think he’s changed. I think he’s changed. It’s a very sad thing for the world. He’s very much changed.”

But what will Putin think? Perhaps he’ll see through someone who mere days before this Washington Examiner interview was given the chance to denounce him — by Sean Hannity, no less — and simply couldn’t.

(Via Washington Examiner)

Since Bob Chapek took over Disney in 2020, he hasn’t had a problem on his hands like he has now. The CEO is under fire for not doing enough to combat what’s been called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the GOP-backed legislation in Florida seen by critics as anti-LGBTQIA+. His attempts at mollifying revolting employees haven’t worked. But at least one wing of the company is coming out full force against the bill.

As per Variety, Marvel Studios, which was purchased by Walt Disney Studios in 2015, did what Chapek has not, issuing a blistering condemnation of the bill.

“We strongly denounce any and ALL legislation that infringes on the basic human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community,” the statement read. “Marvel Studios stands for hope, inclusivity and strength; and we proudly stand with the community. Today, we pledge to continue our strong commitment as allies who promote the values of equality, acceptance and respect.”

It stands in contrast to Chapek’s own actions against the bill. Inititally, he released an internal memo claiming the company’s “unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ+ community,” but drawing the line at taking a public stance. That seemed to make employees more mad. Chapek subsequently announced he was pausing donations to politicians who voted for the bill, which passed both Florida’s House and Senate and is expected to be signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis.

The same day as Marvel’s statement, employees at Disney announced a week of walkouts, following by an even bigger protest. Many schools across the state have seen protests as well.

The bill, which bears the generic-sounding “Parental Rights in Education” bill, seeks to remove any discussion of “sexual orientation or gender identity” from younger public school classes. Critics worry that it will lead to further marginalization of already marginalized group. DeSantis, who was recently caught on video bullying students, has responded to pushback by yelling at journalists and deriding Disney as “woke,” forgetting nearly a century of often un-“woke” product.

(Via Variety)