Month: May 2022

Jean Smart rules. I realize that this is not exactly a newsflash. She’s ruled for decades, all the way back to Designing Women, and she really started to hit TV streak with a mix of prestige and pulpy entries like Fargo and Legion and Dirty John. With HBO’s Watchmen, Jean reveled in her flair for sardonic wit, somehow maintaining the utmost seriousness while lovingly fondling a Doctor Manhattan body-part replica that she kept in a briefcase, and then we really received a 2021 treat with the (as our own Brian Grubb described it) the Summer Of Jean Smart. This meant a glorious double-header of Smart-fueled curmudgeonry with Mare of Easttown and Hacks. That latter show has returned, and it’s as sharp as ever with a quick second-season turnaround.

Ain’t no one got time to wait three years in between Hacks seasons. I can respect that game and its expediency. And the show still aims to stay lean and mean with most of the focus on the central pair. The show pairs Smart (as comedian-clinging-to-clout Deborah Vance) with Hannah Einbinder (as canceled-young-writer-who-needs-this-break Ava), and the pair must navigate increasingly treacherous comedy waters. As Jason Tabrys previously pointed out, this is essentially a show about a pair of occasional a-holes who make each other better, both professionally and personally. Together, they prove that a generation gap can be closed, which is a rarified feat, one that Cobra Kai does exceptionally well, too, but with Hacks, that feat is significant. Because comedy’s always been tough, but these days, it’s a minefield.

And I’m not even talking about the promise of Jean Smart with a chainsaw as revealed in a trailer. Are the Emmys calling yet?

Back to the business at hand: most of us are well aware that comedy has met some recent hurdles for which it was not prepared. A lot of jokes simply cannot fly these days, and plenty of comedians have groused over how they’re no longer relevant or can no longer freely offend without backlash. The times are truly changin,’ and I still think that Seth Rogen said it best while declaring that these ex-headliners should own up to their poorly aging jokes and realize that what they’re doing is not so useful to be above being rendered obsolete if they’re f*cking up or telling outdated jokes. And that’s often why Ava’s set of second eyes is so useful to Deborah, even though there’s still plenty of push-and-pull, and Ava does arguably go overboard at times with her own PC ways.

However, I appreciate that Hacks remains committed to that question — when must jokes be changed for the times, and when should the world just, you know, lighten up and laugh? — without making us think too hard about it. The show also resisted doing the “bigger and better” thing with Season 2. Plenty of shows fare well with that tactic, but Hacks knows that it’s best when it focuses on momentum. It picks up where it left off (it’s time to get the hell out of Vegas and onto tour time), and despite all of the glitz involved with Deborah’s lifestyle, the show remains stripped down like a comedy set, and it’s such an economical, breezy watch that — and this hardly ever happens — I wouldn’t even mind a slightly longer runtime. And that’s a secret to this show’s success. It goes just far enough in duration that one believes they’d want more, but restraint is key here. The show doesn’t fall into a self-indulgent trap, although Deborah and Ava sure do feel sorry for themselves at various turns.

So, side stories are minimal and (as with Carl Clemons-Hopkins’ Marcus) ultimately aim to bring characters into the main fold. The action is key with Deborah in close quarters with Ava sh*tting bricks over sending that email filled with potentially defamatory dirt against Deborah. Rest assured, the truth does come out, and boy, is the ensuing awkwardness as good as you’d expect. Tour bus life isn’t fun for anyone, let alone with someone that you f*cked over, so good luck with that, Ava. Tension runs high, but these moments are always treated with humor.

Beyond that central conflict, the show has a blast putting Deborah into wildly different touring scenarios than she grew accustomed to while carrying out her cushy Las Vegas residency. A cruise ship episode hits particularly well (not for Deborah but for the viewing audience at home), and both Ava and Deborah enter into a vacation mindset of sorts. That’s something that Deborah (who’s been hitting the workflow hard for her entire career) obviously isn’t accustomed to, especially since her workplace has long been a vacation spot for many. It’s fun to watch her let loose a little bit, but she always recaptures control, and even when she’s showing a little vulnerability, the lady knows how to make people laugh.

God, this show is a pleasure to watch. I still cackled with glee to continue watching these two characters antagonize each other while begrudgingly also showing respect. They’re both cranky and captivating and slightly insane while both being outcasts in their own realms. They need each other, and they hate it, but there’s still a little bit of love there. And it’s really a testament to the capabilities of Einbinder (not exactly a newcomer to comedy but not yet a household name) that she can roll alongside as magnificent a presence as Smart. (By the way, if you haven’t had the pleasure of catching Einbinder’s episode of the Conan Needs A Friend podcast, put it on your list already.)

In other words, the Broad City team (Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul Downs) did it again, and they accomplished a second round of comedy venom and glory, timed to land one day shy of a year since the first season arrived. Not too shabby.

HBO Max’s ‘Hacks’ returns on May 12.

Madison Cawthorn is trying to get ahead of yet another scandal as the North Carolina congressman continues to see his dirty laundry routinely aired in public. This time around, Cawthorn says Politico is planning to roll out a “hit piece” about him, and he wants everyone to know he’s totally not bothered by it, bro. Should be fun!

Here’s what Cawthorn wrote on Twitter because he’s definitely not at all worried about this:

A Politico reporter is writing a hit piece on me. (boring) Here’s some of the tweets he’s liked about me over the last few days:

1. I’m “Living (my) life with hate and intolerance”
2. I’m “a terrible member of Congress”

Can’t wait for this totally unbiased article to drop!

Given the highly embarrassing nature of the last two leaks, which featured videos of Cawthorn having his crotch grabbed by his male cousin and humping another man, people aren’t exactly buying Cawthorn’s claim that he’s not worried about the pending Politico piece. They are, however, getting the popcorn ready because, unlike Cawthorn, the new revelations are sure to be entertaining for them.

You can see some of the reactions below:

Just to put a point on how damaging the Cawthorn leaks have been, Donald Trump has reportedly backed away from the North Carolina congressman even though he’s one of his biggest MAGA acolytes. The former president is reportedly “weirded out” by the latest video, and apparently, has been asking people if Cawthorn is “f*cking his cousin.” Always a good sign.

(Via Madison Cawthorn on Twitter)

The Better Call Saul Lie Detector Test is a weekly recap of the major events of the final season, separated out by their apparent truthfulness at the time. This is not one of those recaps that gets into granular detail about things. It will miss the occasional callback or foreshadowing. But it will be fun. Sometimes, that’s what’s important.

Season 6, Episode 5: “Black and Blue”

Gus is doing great

Gus Fring is a meticulous man, in all facets of his life. He’s meticulous in his day job as the head of Los Pollos, which we saw last week when he told Mike to find new security guys who could work a griddle up to his standards. He’s meticulous as a criminal mastermind, as we’ve seen any number of times when his smile turns to ice and all emotion drains from his face. And he’s meticulous in his personal life, with a closet full of neatly pressed shirts to drive it home.

I think this is one of the reasons the Lalo thing is getting to him. Lalo is… I don’t know if “not meticulous” is the right phrase, because it’s not like he’s sloppy. He just gets by more on charm and a smile and some sly little tricks. If Gus is doing math, Lalo is playing music, just whomping away on a piano to see what, if anything, works. He might be in Mexico one week and then, to pick an example completely at random, show up at a martini bar in Germany the next. Gus has trouble with that because he’s a man of order and logic and Lalo plays by feel. It’s still two cobras circling each other, it’s just that one of the cobras wears glasses and the other has a terrific mustache. I kind of want to see this now.

And so, the paranoia. The seeing threats around every corner. The stares off into the distance at his chicken restaurant when he mentions the “spice curls” he pitched to the higher-ups and how that ties into the superlab. The thing at the end where he plants a gun in the wheel well of a piece of heavy machinery down in the same superlab, a piece of foreshadowing that Chekhov himself could appreciate. We know Gus wins because, well, this is a prequel and he seems to be in the cartel’s good graces once Breaking Bad starts, but the journey of it all is still a blast.

Two titans faced off in the ring

Howard sniffed out Jimmy’s involvement in the various drug and/or prostitution flimflams that have been plaguing his life recently, which, I mean… yeah. This one did not exactly require high-end detective work. If you know Jimmy McGill and he doesn’t like you and you start noticing strange drug/prostitute things in your life, there’s a pretty straight line you can draw there. Jimmy has a style. He barely even made an attempt to hide anything, beyond maybe the thing where Kim is actually the mastermind and not just an accomplice. But still.

The point here is the boxing match. Two middle-aged dudes flailing fists into each other’s livers, both gassed moments into the fight, all of it culminating in Howard clocking Jimmy on the chin and laying him out on the mat. It was a sad display all around, both as an athletic endeavor and for what it all meant for Howard, which I’ll come back to later. Mostly I just wanted to post a GIF of some sad punches. What a delightful show this is, just giving us a weird sad boxing match in the middle of a tense prequel that is zooming toward a conclusion with multiple characters’ fates in the air.

I knew exactly what was happening in that opening scene

Better Call Saul does this, the short little art film cold opens that seem to mean nothing at first and then means a lot by the end of the episode. This time it was the creation of a little slide rule thing encased in glass that Werner had in his house, because of course Werner, another meticulous man and builder of things that are sometimes drug superlabs, would have a glass-encased slide rule in his home.

The thing here is that, because we’ve seen a few meth-cooking montages like this over the years and because it was announced that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will pop up at some point, the part of my brain that is entirely the DiCaprio Pointing Meme was like “IS THAT WALT COOKING METHA-… oh.” It’s fine. I’m doing great.

Howard is going to be fine

Here’s the thing about Howard: He’s one of a few main characters on the show whose fate we don’t know. It’s basically down to him, Lalo, and Kim at this point, now that Nacho is buried in a desert somewhere. We also know:

• He is kind of at war with Jimmy and Kim
• They referenced something coming “next,” which sounded like a big ominous deal
• Jimmy and Kim are not the murdering types

All of which makes this interesting. Right now I have my money on Kim surviving and fleeing back to the Midwest, and Lalo dying in the superlab via the gun Gus just hid, but… I don’t have a handle on Howard. Again, I don’t think he dies, unless his new plan of following Jimmy gets him mixed up in bad cartel business somehow. But something has to happen where he’s no longer a significant part of Jimmy’s life, only because there are no more weird boxing matches once Breaking Bad starts. I guess for now I’ll go with “framed for something and disbarred and maybe went to jail.”

Or maybe he buckles down and becomes light heavyweight champion. Probably not, though.

Kim is a mastermind at home security

Kim Wexler is:

• Barricading hotel doors closed with loose desk chairs
• Smoking a lot of cigarettes
• Making sad/pained faces when coworkers tell her that she makes them feel good about the law

Kim Wexler is not doing great. I would not exactly list this as breaking news, but it does seem like it’s all becoming a little too real for her after that meeting with Mike last week and the revelation that Lalo is still alive. This is all going to get very stressful going forward. I don’t want to talk about it anymore right now.

The food at Los Pollos Hermanos is delicious

My gut says yes. I do not think Gus would stand for substandard food quality even at a restaurant he uses mostly as a cover for an international methamphetamine operation. The bigger question I have here is… how good?

Is Los Pollos like a Popeyes of the Southwest? Is that what we’re getting at? Does Gus actually hate Popeyes and see them as his primary competitor? Do they have folksy little commercials that air regionally with a silly little spokesman? Do people get angry about it when the argument comes up? Do websites do rankings of fast-food fried chicken places in the BB/BCS universe and, if so, where does Los Pollos rank? Can you imagine how wild it would be if the CEO and founder of, like, Bojangles, was secretly running an international meth ring?

This is a problem I have. I’m supposed to be watching this show critically, as a professional, for work, and then I realize I’ve just spent 15 minutes on chicken fantasies.

Lalo Salamanca is the most fascinating character on television

There are a couple things happening here, which I will attempt to explain…

The first is that Lalo is a complete sociopath. He flew to Germany and tried to seduce the wife of a man whose death he was mostly responsible for, using a fake name — I was so disappointed he went with “Ben” and not something fun like “Victor Biloxi” — and a martini to woo her a bit. He didn’t get invited in, which was probably good for Werner’s wife, because she might not have made it out of there alive then. But he did find out where she lives and was able to use his startling athleticism again to leap over fences and out windows and do everything short of dance through lasers like a jewel thief in a heist movie.

(Gus kind of figured this out, too, by the way. He knows Lalo is doing Germany things and coming for the superlab, which is why he hid the gun there. There are various Reddit deep dives you can examine to track this all back. The point is that the people who make these shows are very good at their jobs.)

The second thing here is that I know he’s an evil sociopath who will kill anyone who stands in his way or even just off to the side of his way a bit and yet… I love him very much. I got so excited when I heard his voice after he spent a few episodes on the bench. I would watch a whole episode of him just sipping martinis and chatting up people at a bar. I know this is probably not the correct takeaway here but… I don’t know. It’s where we are.

I was extremely nervous that Lalo was going to kill that dog

LITTLE BEAR

MY SWEET BOY

LOOK AT HIM

LEAVE HIM ALONE

Our timelines are careening toward each other

Hello again, Francesca, Jimmy’s secretary who is now Saul’s secretary, and who really seemed to roll with all the new information that was thrown at her, once the money was right: Jimmy being Saul now, Saul representing criminal instead of sweet old people, a toilet in the middle of the new office, etc. We see a lot of her once we go full Breaking Bad in the timeline, but it was good to see her here hustling Jimmy into extra salary and a signing bonus.

I was happy to see her. Give her a spin-off next. I am barely kidding.

It must be thrilling to say the words “cancel my week”

I was so envious when I heard Howard say this. I still am. I want to say it to my editor as soon as I submit this. Actually… no. That won’t work. This is something you say to a secretary or assistant. Which means I need a secretary or assistant. This is getting complicated. Now I have to spend the rest of the week trying to hire someone, which defeats the purpose of trying to cancel it. This is a disaster.

I think the best option I have at this point is to throw open my front door and scream it into the heavens. It probably won’t work but I bet it’ll feel good. Baby steps.

Despite their superficial physical resemblance, ASAP Rocky and Travis Scott haven’t had the warmest relationship. In fact, you almost never see the two of them together (kinda like Clark Kent and Superman) — which, come to think of it, probably contributed to them being mistaken for each other all those times. However, despite some rumors and speculation, Rocky has insisted that there’s no beef between the two men. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t agree with certain comparisons between them — namely, the one that Travis jacked ASAP Rocky’s style.

That question came up again in a teaser for an upcoming episode of rap’s in-house mess factory, Drink Champs with NORE. In the teaser, NORE suggests, once again, that Travis Scott stole Rocky’s “whole style.” Although the clip is edited to exclude any elaboration from Rocky, he does appear to agree with this assessment before the teaser moves on to other topics. This may mark the first time Rocky openly copped to the belief that Travis bit his look; meanwhile, another portion of the teaser may provide some insight into why it’s such a big deal for him in the first place.

“Kanye West came out on this same show and said, ‘ASAP Rocky dresses better than me,’” NORE recalls excitedly. “I never thought I would hear that in my whole life.” Considering Kanye’s reputation as hip-hop’s premier fashionista, this constitutes high praise for the “Fashion Killa,” who appears to be promoting his own comeback project with singles like “DMB.” He’s also been preparing for the birth of his baby with his “Fashion Killa” co-star Rihanna, so he’s still probably too busy for beef. But it is interesting that he’s finally given a straight answer to this question after dodging it since 2016.

Julia Jacklin 2019’s emotional opus Crushing distinguished her from her peers like Phoebe Bridgers and Angel Olsen and proved her as a singular, marvelous voice in indie music. The Australian singer seems to effortlessly evoke heartbreak with every incisive line she lulls with passion and vulnerability; the album opener “Body” showcased her knack for storytelling, while the hit “Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You” displayed the power of her straightforward honesty in her public reckoning.

So, it’s a big deal to have her back with the just-announced album Pre Pleasure arriving this summer; The lead single “Lydia Wears A Cross” is out today, and watches her trade in her signature acoustic guitar for some pulsating synths.

“The song is about a lot of things but mainly being a 7yr old Jesus Christ Superstar fanatic attending catholic school trying to figure out which way is up,” Jacklin said about the new single. “The music video was filmed by my constant collaborator and friend Nick Mckk at Splitpoint lighthouse. I played a show close by recently and asked on stage if anyone could let me film inside. Someone in the crowd knew a guy and that was it. The rest was filmed in the streets of Northcote, Melbourne.”

Listen to “Lydia Wears A Cross” above. Check out the Pre Pleasure artwork and tracklist below.

1. “Lydia Wears A Cross”
2. “Love, Try Not To Let Go”
3. “Ignore Tenderness”
4. “I Was Neon”
5. “Too In Love To Die”
6. “Less Of A Stranger”
7. “Moviegoer”
8. “Magic”
9. “Be Careful With Yourself”
10. “End Of A Friendship”

Pre Pleasure is out 8/26 via Polyvinyl Record Co. Pre-order it here.

Know someone who’s over 60 and feeling lonely? Help is just a phone call away. Purina Cat Chow has partnered with two non-profits in order to bring senior citizens some much-needed virtual therapy cat visits.

Wait…that’s a thing?

When we think of the term “therapy animal,” most of us are probably inclined to picture a dog. After all, canines dominate the therapy animal field at 94%. Felines, on the other hand, make up part of the other 6% (that’s combined with other animals). Anyone who has experienced that special, soul-soothing bliss that comes from stroking a purring kitty in their lap will tell you: those numbers might be off. Although therapy cats make up a smaller percentage of this segment, cats offer a wide array of positive benefits that make them wonderful therapy animals.

Just ask Roger and Sal – a couple of registered therapy cats – along with their handler Tracy Howell.

Since 2016, Tracy and Roger have been working with Pet Partners®, a non-profit that matches volunteer therapy animals of all kinds with people in need of a furry friend visit, including nursing facilities, assisted living, hospice centers, and children’s hospitals.

Tracy and Roger in 2016; Photo courtesy of Tracy Howell

Sal is a mew addition to the team. But he’s already working very, very hard…putting his head on people’s thighs and letting them massage his paws. What a gig.

According to Pet Partners, who have had more than 1,500 felines registered in their Therapy Animal Program, certain populations prefer cat companions to dogs. For one thing: they’re more compact, and generally more quiet, making lap cuddles a much more Zen experience.

Plus, cats tend to be more particular about who they interact with, which can signal a nice little ego boost. “Cats have a reputation for being selectively affectionate. If a cat likes you, you’re special,” says Moira Smith, Pet Partners staff member, team evaluator, and cat handler.

Basically, it feels really good to be invited into the Cat Club. Some of Roger and Sal’s most loyal fans are, in fact, seniors – in particular, those with dementia.

---

“People think it must be hard to visit seniors with dementia, but it isn’t,” she told Upworthy. “They tend to repeat questions a lot so if you mess up your answer, chances are you won’t mess up the next time they ask. I’ve laughed so many times during our visits with seniors–just because you are older doesn’t mean you stop being funny.”

Photo courtesy of Purina® Cat Chow®

Where humor is not lost, connection is. With many of their family members passed on, living far away, or not allowed to visit due to COVID-19 restrictions, loneliness is a major issue seniors often face. This leads to depression, anxiety, and irritability.

That’s where Roger and Sal come in. A typical therapy cat visit consists of lap cuddles with warm blankets, nap time, and a bit of TV watching. Sometimes the seniors will tell Tracy about their own cats they once had, and how much they loved them.

During the pandemic, Roger and Sal have even excelled at their virtual visits. While nothing replaces the emotional engagement of one-on-one interactions, research has indicated that virtual animal content still brightens the mood.

Photo courtesy of Tracy Howell

Tracy agreed that even though they were not able to be in person, the trio has still been able to make a connection and keep people smiling and happy. Roger even performed a few tricks. Perhaps the affinity cats have for interrupting Zoom calls can come in handy after all.

The online visits have been so impactful that for Mental Health Awareness Month in May, Cat Chow, Pet Partners and the Institute on Aging are working together to get more seniors, over the age of 60, connected to virtual therapy cat visits. By calling 800-616-5152, seniors can schedule one of 50 free virtual therapy cat visits with a Pet Partners therapy cat team. That means kitties like Roger and Sal are going to have VIP status, Very Important Pets, that is.

The whole project has been made possible by Purina Cat Chow, a company that knows all too well the healing powers of cats. During the entire month of May, for every Cat Chow Complete purchase, Purina will donate two cents per purchase, up to $25,000 to Pet Partners in support of their Therapy Animal Program. This donation will help more cats like Roger and Sal ensure more people have access to the therapeutic benefits of cats.

If you’re a cat-lover who would like to show support, you can find out more at catchow.com/therapy.

Photo courtesy of Purina® Cat Chow®

Ever since hip-hop’s humble beginnings at underground parties in the Bronx, New York, hip-hop fans have debated which rapper is the best. Over time, that debate has evolved into different formats such as the “top five” rappers or the rap Mount Rushmore. Then there’s the GOAT (greatest of all time) debate, which is widely accepted as distinct from the “best rapper alive” question. All these debates basically amount to the same thing, but they all mean different things to different people.

That said, whenever a rapper throws their hat in the ring to compete for one of these coveted titles, it doesn’t take long for those debates to heat up. The latest to do so is Florida rapper Denzel Curry, fresh off the release of his eclectic new album, Melt My Eyez, See Your Future. In a new interview with XXL, Denzel unequivocally declared himself the top dog of the rap business. “Just look out for me,” he said. “Look out for any of the next projects that’s ’bout to come out. I’m ’bout to shake the whole game up. I don’t care what anybody got to say, bro. I’m the best rapper alive. Point blank, period.” This is a far cry from when he declared “I hate rapping” in 2020.

Unfortunately for him, on Sunday — after he did the interview but before it was published — the consensus favorite for the best rapper title, Kendrick Lamar, returned with a new video for “The Heart Part 5” ahead of the release of his long-awaited fifth and final TDE album. Even Denzel had to acknowledge that if he wants that crown, his work is cut out for him. “I just finished this new Kendrick video,” he mused on Twitter. “I gotta step my game up n****s is built different.”

With Dwight Howard steadily fading out of his NBA career, it’s become time for Shaq to find a new big man to prod from his perch on the TNT set. While he’s become a fan of Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, offering up chiefly praise for the three torch bearing big men of today’s NBA, there is one center Shaq finds himself wanting more from in Jazz big man Rudy Gobert.

The three-time Defensive Player of the Year has had to grow fairly accustomed to criticism from all over the league, whether it be Shaq or Draymond Green or just fans in general, who have grown tired of the insistence that he’s the most dominant defender in the NBA despite not being able to back that up with playoff success. Whether that’s more an indictment of Gobert or the Jazz’s perimeter defenders depends on who you ask, but despite his clearly elite defensive skills, the playoffs almost always end with Gobert at the butt of jokes.

Recently, Gobert came up on Shaq’s podcast when someone noted he’d score just 12 points on the big man, to which Shaq fired back “Yeah, in three minutes.” That made the rounds on social media, and Rudy decided to hop in Instagram comments to reassert that he would “lock his ass up.” Naturally, that ended up being some fodder for the Inside the NBA crew, with Charles Barkley loving the opportunity to rile Shaq up by siding with Gobert, telling Shaq that Rudy would be eating “black BBQ chicken” and “hurt kids in the stands blocking your shots.”

Normally that’d be the type of thing to get Shaq going, but even the big fella couldn’t help but just laugh at Barkley’s prodding — while still insisting that he’d just go right through Rudy’s “skinny ass” and dunk on him when Kenny pointed out he wouldn’t be able to get a jump hook off. As is always the case here, there’s no real way this gets settled considering it was a question of Shaq in his prime against Rudy in his prime, and as such both guys should absolutely assert they would win because there’s no way to prove it wrong.

That said, Dwyane Wade is something of a mediator here as a minority owner of the Jazz and a longtime friend of Shaq’s, and his idea is to settle it at All-Star next year in Utah.

As the promotional machine for the next Marvel blockbuster, Thor: Love and Thunder, kicks into overdrive, director Taika Waititi is gushing about he, somehow, scored both Christian Bale and Russell Crowe for the God of Thunder’s fourth outing. In the new film, Bale plays Gorr the God Butcher, a formidable foe introduced to the comics by writer Jason Aaron. In the source material, Gorr goes on a killing spree slaughtering Asgardian gods across time while wielding All-Black the Necrosword, which has deep ties to Venom.

Naturally, Love and Thunder will take some liberties with Gorr, and in true Marvel style, Waititi isn’t divulging what those changes are. But he is making a bold claim that Bale could be the best MCU villain yet.

“I think personally, he’s probably one of the best villains that’s Marvel’s had in their films. He’s very layered,” Waititi told Entertainment Weekly before gushing about Crowe’s performance as Zeus. And, yes, that’s Zeus as in Zeus the Greek God of Olympus, which is another interesting curveball for Love and Thunder.

Waititi is even more secretive about Russell Crowe’s role as the god Zeus, but teases that Crowe plays the role in “a way you’ve never seen Russell before.”

“I consider Russell a friend, and I forget that there are some friends I have who are really incredible at what they do,” Waititi says with a laugh. “When I was on set with Russell, I was like, ‘Oh shit, that’s right! You’re Russell Crowe! You’re a really amazing actor!’”

Also in the mix is Natalie Portman as The Mighty Thor who, much to Thor’s surprise, is wielding his old hammer Mjolnir that was destroyed by Cate Blanchett’s Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. Could this be an after-effect of Loki rupturing the Multiverse or something else altogether? Marvel fans will find out soon when Love and Thunder strikes into theaters on July 8.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Apparently, the new version of hip-hop’s beloved “top five rappers” debate is the “rap Mount Rushmore” question. Basically, which four rappers would be on your personal Mount Rushmore? It’s a fun hypothetical because not only does it narrow the field, forcing commenters to be even more intentional with their picks, it also comes with a silly visual. Just image Future replacing Teddy Roosevelt or something. Hilarious!

During a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, Ja Rule was asked for his take on the rap Mount Rushmore conversation and offered some unconventional picks. He also had some insightful things to say about the debate itself, pointing out how difficult it can be to provide an answer, given how many different eras and styles of rap have come along since 1979.

He demonstrated that difficulty himself; after nailing his first three — Jay-Z, Tupac, and The Notorious B.I.G. — he struggled with the fourth spot, naming a few possibilities. “Either Big Daddy Kane, or Rakim, or [KRS One] because of what they did for the culture and what they meant to the culture,” he posited, before throwing out a curveball. “We never put the ladies in there… MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa.”

“They’re the reason other women picked up a microphone, period,” he explained. “How can you leave them off? You gotta [pick] one of them and put them on there.” He’s right; the current surge of female talent at the forefront of rap in pop culture today is built at least partially on the foundations laid by the original first ladies of rap. They may get overlooked — something that isn’t uncommon even for today’s stars — but their contributions are as critical to rap’s dominance as anyone’s.

You can watch the full interview above.