Month: March 2022

2022 is proving to be The Year of Good TV Shows That Have Been Away for Too Long Finally Coming Back. Atlanta returns after a four-year break this week; Barry season three premieres in April; and May sees the return of Stranger Things, the most recent season of which debuted in July 2019. “I think they’ll be happy when they see it. It’s very, very long, which is why it’s taking us a very long time,” co-creator Ross Duffer explained about the gap between seasons on the Present Company With Krista Smith podcast.

Duffer also teased a darker tone for season four:

“When we pitched it to Netflix all those years ago, we pitched it as the kids are… The Goonies in E.T.. That’s their storyline. And the adults are in Jaws and Close Encounters and then the teens are in Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween. But, this year, we don’t have the kids. We can’t do The Goonies anymore. And so, suddenly, we’re leaning much harder into that horror movie territory that we love. It was fun to make that change.”

One thing that hasn’t changed over the years, based on the new photos Netflix released for season four: Will and his unfortunate haircuts. Check out the images below.

The first half of Stranger Things season four premieres on May 27, followed by the second half on July 1.

Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa’s new single “Sweetest Pie” is a hit, and now Meg has offered a fresh live performance of it at last night’s 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards. She kept things exciting by taking a moment to pie one of her dancers in the face during the rendition, which followed Meg performing “Megan’s Piano.”

As for the awards themselves, Megan was nominated for a handful — Hip-Hop Artist Of The Year, Best Fan Army, and TikTok Bop Of The Year — but didn’t come away with any of them. She did, however, accept the Trailblazer Award and said during her acceptance speech, “I want to say with my platform, I will keep on continuing to be a voice for the voiceless, I will keep on fighting for all the injustices that me, my Black women, my Black men are facing, and I will keep showing up and showing out even in the face of adversity.”

Others in hip-hop were represented elsewhere, as winners included Lil Nas X (Male Artist Of The Year), Pop Smoke’s “What You Know Bout Love” (Hip-Hop Song Of The Year), and Drake (Hip-Hop Artist Of The Year).

Rock also showed up via Machine Gun Kelly (Alternative Artist Of The Year) and Foo Fighters (Rock Artist Of The Year). Pop had a lot of victors, too, like Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” (Song Of The Year), Olivia Rodrigo (Female Artist Of The Year, Best New Pop Artist, and TikTok Bop Of The Year for “Good 4 U”), Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)” (Best Lyrics), Adele’s 30 (Best Comeback Album), and Finneas (Producer Of The Year).

Watch a clip from Megan’s performance above and find a full list of last night’s iHeartRadio Music Awards winners here.

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

Shortly after The Lost Daughter star Jessie Buckley was nominated for her first (and hopefully not last) Oscar, A24 released the teaser trailer for Men. That’s also all that was released: there was no plot description for the Alex Garland-directed film, only 90 creepy seconds of Buckley wandering through the rainy woods and staring into a creepy tunnel. Never stare into a creepy tunnel. That’s the first rule of horror movies. But now, A24 has released a full-length trailer, along with some background on the plot.

Following the death of her husband (played by I May Destroy You standout Paapa Essiedu) by suicide, Harper (Buckley) takes a solo trip to the “beautiful English countryside, hoping to have found a place to heal,” it reads. “But someone or something from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her. What begins as simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears.”

In the trailer, Harper frequently reaches out for help and guidance, but she’s blamed for her husband’s death by a (male) religious authority figure (“You must wonder why you drove him to it”) and a (male) police officer doesn’t believe that she’s being followed in the dark. There’s also stabbings, an unwanted game of hide and seek, and body horror.

Can you blame her for wanting to take a bath (and scream)?

Men, which also stars Rory Kinnear, opens on May 20.

Olivia Rodrigo may be a globally recognized music star, but she’s still a pretty young person: The “Drivers License” singer just turned 19 years old in February. So, she’s still getting used to being a grown-up and she says the transition to that new phase of her life hasn’t been without its challenges.

Rodrigo was on The Late Late Show last night and on the show, James Corden noted Rodrigo recently moved into her first apartment on her own and asked how adulthood is going so far. She responded:

“Oh my gosh, I haven’t acclimated that well. Gotta be honest: Last night, I had just peanut M&M’s for dinner because I can’t cook. I Postmates every meal. My best friend is living with me now, so that’s been amazing. But yeah, it’s definitely a little bit of an adjustment.”

Corden later asked about Rodrigo’s experiences in London and if she’s been to a pub there, given the country’s legal drinking age is 18. Rodrigo answered, “I went for the BRITs like a month ago and I actually did get to go to a pub and it was so crazy. And they asked for my ID as I was going in and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can show them my real ID, this is amazing.’ My friend who was with me was rifling through all of her fake IDs to try to find her real one to show the bouncer, but she was truly legal there. But it was very much fun, I love London.”

Corden then followed up by asking how it felt to try alcohol for the first time. Rodrigo, tongue firmly in cheek, responded, “Yeah, first time, it was amazing, yeah.”

Check out clips from the interview above and below.

The Supreme Court hearing for Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s first-ever nominee to the bench, has been a wild one. Ted Cruz asked her if babies are racist. Lindsey Graham threw a fit and stormed out. But perhaps the weirdest thing to happen was Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn asking her to give her the definition of “woman” for reasons that didn’t make much sense even after her scheme became clear.

Blackburn — who once went to war with Taylor Swift, and lost — pelted Jackson with a number of big issues, including a lengthy, sketchy detour about abortion in which she grilled her about a paper she was involved with in undergrad. Eventually Blackburn moved the discussion towards another GOP bugaboo: the trans community.

It began with Blackburn questioning her about an obscure quote from the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg about “physical differences” between men and women, with which Blackburn was not familiar. So Blackburn tried another tack.

“Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?” Blackburn asked Jackson. Jackson looked suitably baffled, responding only, “I can’t,” adding, “Not in this context. I’m not a biologist.”

Soon it became clear what Blackburn was up to: She, like many in today’s Republican party, are aggressively opposed to transgender rights. Soon Blackburn was asking Jackson about trans women playing sports, to which Jackson could only point out that none of her questions pertain to the legal issues they’re supposed to be discussing.

If you were playing a drinking game in which you downed a shot every time Blackburn used the word “respectfully” in response to a Republican senator’s bizarre questions, congratulations! You’re having your stomach pumped in the ER. If you weren’t, then you had to marvel at how Jackson managed to keep her composure over two days of Republican prodding thus far.

Or as one person on Twitter put it, “After spending an entire day getting harangued by Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Tom Cotton, the fact that she didn’t respond to this with ‘Oh FFS, are you kidding me?’ demonstrates all the judicial temperament you could ever hope for.”

(Via Politico)

J Prince is at it again. Months after he somehow orchestrated a reconciliation between Kanye West and Drake, who held their Larry Hoover benefit concert shortly after they patched things up, the Rap-A-Lot Records CEO is back with another idea. J Prince wants a number of hip-hop artists to come together to hold a hip-hop show the same night as the Grammys which would be on April 3. He shared a lengthy audio message on Instagram that explained the inspiration behind his idea.

“I’ve been watching the Grammys control and dictate our culture to their benefit up close and personal for the past 30 years that I’ve been in the music business,” he wrote. “And all the artists, managers, and executives would do is complain but never have the nuts to come together to do anything about it.” He later added, “This is a slave master, punish a n**** mentality and act to remind us that no matter how much money we have, we’re still n****s in their eyes. So they cancel Kanye and discriminated against Drake, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, and many others over the years. This will only be broken by us uniting our powers to bring about change moving forward.”

He then revealed his proposal to have Drake, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and more come together to lead the hip-hop show. J Prince went as far as to say the show should take place in Las Vegas where the Grammys are set to take place.

“I recommend that the artists I mentioned above—and more—come together in Las Vegas and perform at the same time as the Grammys on a special network and streaming platform to prove that ratings will change where the Grammys are concerned when the No. 1 selling genre in music — hip-hop — come together,” he said. “Because there’s power in numbers.” He concluded by saying, “The powers that be will be mad at me about this one. But f*ck ’em! I love the culture. The seed has been planted; let’s water it.”

You can listen to J Prince’s full audio message about the proposed hip-hop show and what inspired it above.

Miley Cyrus is just a few days removed from her set at Lollapalooza’s festival in Chile. She seemed to have a great performance and a strong connection with fans as they both left the performances in high spirits about each other. After her performance, Miley took a moment to meet some of her supporters. In a video that was shared on Twitter, Miley can be seen shouting “I’m gagged!” to them as they waited for her in a room. She eventually runs up to hug them and adds, “You’re everything.”

“Miley literally has a heart of gold and treats her fans like her best friends,” the fan on Twitter captioned the video of Miley hugging her supporters. The singer herself caught wind of the post and shared it with a touching message. “I’ve known you all longer than almost any friend I have,” she wrote. “You are my best friends….We’ve grown up together and I love you….[red heart emoji].”

The message comes after Miley surprised a young fan and their uncle with tickets to this past weekend’s Lollapalooza festival in Argentina. It comes after she found out that the youngster was selling their toys to help their uncle who was saving money to buy tickets for the show. Miley performed at Lollapalooza’s Argentina festival just a day before she performed at the platform’s showcase in Chile

You can view Miley’s message and the video of her hugging fans above.

This week Disney employees began doing daily walkouts in protest of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Those participating take issue not only with the state leaders who proposed and support it, but also their company, which they think have not done enough to oppose it. And on the first day of protests, they got some big-time support.

As rounded up by Entertainment Weekly, some big names — including ones employed by Disney themselves — stepped up to give those publicly opposing the legislation some love. There was Oscar Isaac, who took time during a junket for Disney+/Marvel show Moon Knight to talk to Variety about the bill.

“I guess my comment would be, [singing] ‘Gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gayyyyyy!’” he said. “Yeah, it’s an absolutely ridiculous law. It’s insane. It’s insanity. And I hope that Disney as a company comes out as forcefully as possible against this idea. It’s astounding that it even exists in this country.”

One of Isaac’s fellow Marvel-ites, Mark Ruffalo re-tweeted a statement from actress Kerry Washington, saying he stood “proud and in solidarity with our LBGTQIA+ family!”

Raven-Symoné, currently working on Disney Channel’s Raven’s Home, revealed that she and her castmates were with them on the ground. “In support of our LGBTQ+ family and all of those who will be damaged by the ‘don’t say gay bill’ we the cast of Ravens Home are walking out,” she wrote on Instagram. “In todays world it is imperative that we take stands, show support, and move forward not backwards. Every family every person and every child deserves to be recognized no matter their race, gender, or sexual orientation. Education that reflects the truth and the world we live in is something we must fight for.”

Meanwhile, over at Peacock, Larry Wilmore showed a picture of him and his colleagues standing in solidarity with Disney employees.

Rebecca Perez, a Disney animator, shared a picture of some of the protesters.

The legislation, expected to be signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis, prohibits the teaching of gay and trans matters in early schooling. Critics have charged it as straight-up homophobic and transphobic, bound to further marginalize and endanger already marginalized and endangered groups. Disney CEO Bob Chapek has fumbled trying to respond to staff disapproval of the way he’s handled the matter, even revealing that highers-up have even forced them to neuter LGBTQIA+ characters. DeSantis, meanwhile, has mocked the company that comprises a key part of his state’s economy, even after they’ve yanked money away from lawmakers who supported the bill.

(Via EW)

By the sounds of it, we’re not going to see Zion Williamson play basketball this season. A report on Monday indicated that the expectation is Williamson will not be able to suit up for the New Orleans Pelicans during the stretch run of the 2021-22 campaign as he’s working his way back to 100 percent from offseason foot surgery.

We do know that Williamson is with the team in New Orleans after he left to rehabilitate in Portland, but between that and his sitting on the bench during games, we haven’t seen a whole lot of the former No. 1 overall pick this year. On Tuesday evening, though, that did change when Williamson posted a clip on his Instagram account in which we saw that he looks about as good as you can in a three-second clip.

Williamson was in the Pelicans’ gym and decided to throw himself an off-the-backboard pass, which he grabbed, went between the legs, and dunked with his left hand.

While we don’t know exactly when this was filmed, we can assume it was very recent based off of his choice in footwear.

If I may editorialize for a moment: I am excited to watch Zion Williamson play basketball sometime in the coming months.

This Sunday, the 94th Annual Academy Awards will kick off and from a musical standpoint, there are some pretty big names who could walk away with an award that night. Beyonce, Billies Eilish, Finneas, Van Morrison, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Diane Warren picked up nominations in the Best Original Song category. Elsewhere, Questlove’s Summer Of Soul, the Lady Gaga-led House Of Gucci, and the Alana Haim-starring Licorice Pizza were also nominated. While it will certainly be exciting to see who walks away with an award, we’ll also be able to see some of the aforementioned names perform during the show.

After prior reports said Beyonce would perform at the upcoming show, it was confirmed that she, along with Billie Eilish, Finneas, Reba McEntire, and Sebastian Yatra, will take the stage for performances this Sunday. Each artist will perform songs that were nominated in the Best Original Song category. Beyonce will sing “Be Alive” from King Richard, Billie Eilish and Finneas will sing “No Time To Die” from the James Bond film of the same title. Reba McEntire will perform “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days which was written by Diane Warren, and Sebastian Yatra will perform “Do Oruguitas” from Encanto which features music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

With that, four of the five songs that were nominated in the Best Original Song category will be performed at the 2022 Oscars. Van Morrison was invited to perform “Down To Joy,” his nominated track from Belfast. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend the Oscars “due to his tour schedule” according to a statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.