Month: May 2022

Vladimir Putin’s imperialistic war on Ukraine isn’t going as planned, all after he thought that Russian troops could immediately descend and swiftly rise victorious. Instead, molotov cocktail-wielding grandmas have illustrated the will of the Ukrainian people, as has President Volodymyr Zelensky’s refusal to be airlifted out. Months later (and with massive loss of life on both ends), Putin has fired over 100 FSB Secret Agents over his embarrassment, and reports indicate that Putin’s inner circle is maneuvering to install a successor in light of the ongoing disastrous, dismal conflict.

As for the Russian troops, many of them weren’t even aware of formal directions or why they were sent to impose Putin’s will upon the Ukraine people. It’s a move that has left the Russian people in economic tatters due to near-global sanctions, and Business Insider now points toward a phone call, reportedly between a Russian soldier and his wife. The audio was published on YouTube by Ukraine’s Secret Services and translated by Business Insider. Here’s how the soldier narrated the near-debacle on the battle field when the battery declined to follow an order from Gen. Valeriy Solodchuk:

“Almost all of our battery refused. He [Solodchuk] started waving his gun and shooting … He says ‘I’ll whack you if you don’t f*cking go there! …’,” the man says in the recording.

“Then, a kid says to him: ‘Go ahead, whack!’ F*ck, he pulled out a grenade, pulled a pin and says: ‘Come on, shoot me! We’ll blow up together.’ That’s it. The special forces guys also started pointing their guns at us. So, we pointed our guns at them.”

“In short, we almost shot each other, for f*ck’s sake. He got on his bobik [a type of Russian Jeep] and left,” the voice said.

The frustrated soldier then added, “Our brigade can’t capture anything because there’s f*cking nothing left of it.”

It’s certainly a sobering reminder of how Putin’s ego pushed him to launch a war that his army wasn’t prepared for, nor do some of them appear to be onboard at this point. And the resulting clash has not only left Putin without his Botox supply, but also with a failed silly parade to celebrate a victory that hasn’t happened in Ukraine.

You can listen to the non-translated audio footage above.

(Via Business Insider)

ASAP Rocky and Rihanna welcomed a baby boy last month. Ahead of the birth, Rocky spoke with Dazed about Rihanna (whom he calls the “love of my life”), new music, and how he envisions his and Rih’s family.

When speaking on his children, Rocky revealed hopes that his future children are just as creative and imaginative as their parents.

“I will always remind my children to never lose their imagination, even as adults, no matter what,” Rocky said. “I actually love to watch cartoons — I’ve watched, like, Teletubbies, Blue’s Clues, Yo Gabba Gabba, Peppa Pig, and Baby Shark. I hope to raise open-minded children. Not people who discriminate. And I’m not trying to describe a saint, but realistically, I just want a cool child with cool parents.”

Though the two only confirmed their romance last year, Rocky and Rihanna have collaborated on projects for over a decade. Rocky recruited Rih to appear in his 2013 music video for “Fashion Killa,” and both of them have been praised for their innovative sense of fashion.

When asked about their iconic looks and sense of individualism in fashion, Rocky said, “I think it’s just natural. We happen to look good together naturally. You know, it would take a lot of work to have us forcefully match before we leave the house. Sometimes we match to a T, or we just wear the same clothes. If I buy a shirt that she likes, I expect to get it stolen… but then I gotta steal it back.”

Kanye West is always trying something new and one of his latest ventures is Donda Sports, a marketing agency to represent athletes. Donda Sports recently bagged a major signee, as eight-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Aaron Donald is now on board. The NFL star recently made the reveal and noted that he actually turned down the chance to be in one of his new boss’ music videos.

In a recent episode of the I Am Athlete podcast (as USA Today notes), Donald said of Ye, “He’s cool, man. He’s real cool, a cool dude. Got to talk a little bit. Vibe. Was at one of his video shoots. He actually wanted me to get in one of the videos, but I was like, ‘Nah.’ I was out of my element. But he was cool. He seemed cool. Real cool guy.”

He also noted of the Donda Sports signing, “It was an opportunity that came to us, me and [my wife], and it made sense. And hearing the whole spectrum of everything that’s going on and what they were going to be bringing, the family atmosphere that they got in Donda Sports. Not just me, but my wife being a part of that. For me, it was a no-brainer.”

One of the great moments in Twitter history was the time Russell Crowe was not having any of Clickhole‘s rubbish. After The Onion spin-off website published a fake quote from the Master and Commander star as part of their “They Said What?!” series, Crowe tweeted, “@Clickhole what is this rubbish? Where does that quote from?” Beautiful.

Elon Musk v. Hard Drive is no Russell Crowe v. Clickhole.

Over the weekend, The Onion of video games called out the Tesla founder for posting a picture from one of the site’s articles without attribution. “hey i’ll give u a horse if u stop cropping our name off our articles,” @HardDriveMag tweeted, a reference to Musk reportedly offering a SpaceX flight attendant a horse in exchange for an erotic massage. Musk (who thinks of himself as a memelord even though he’s more of a meme lifter) replied, “Well, if you make something that looks like a meme & someone (not me) crops off your name, so it goes. Also, this is only a 6/10 meme, so maybe step down from that high horse! The selfless art of anonymous meme creators is something to be admired.”

Hard Drive fired back by asking for Musk’s thoughts on an article with the headline “Elon Musk Admits He Wants to Travel to Mars Because No One Hates Him There Yet,” to which the real-life Kendall Roy tweeted, “Less funny than SNL on a bad day. This could make a drunk person sober. Try harder!” Musk really set himself up here.

Musk deleted the original meme and got buried. To paraphrase Russell Crowe, we are entertained.

(Via Hard Drive)

The Boys‘ third season is nearly upon us, and fans are eager to see showrunner Eric Kripke reteam with Supernatural star Jensen Ackles, who’s pulling a Soldier Boy here. Ackles had previously showed his stuff in costume after (gruffly) admitting that he’s exhausted to be ripped, but it’s all nearly about to happen. Granted, Chase Crawford’s worried that he might never work again after what The Deep soon does onscreen, but it’s nonetheless happening.

To further anticipation, here’s Eric Kripke’s tweet about how the show’s got a living time capsule (and a Captain America parody) on its hands in Soldier Boy. To showcase that vibe, the show’s released a Nancy-Reagan-style, 1980s PSA with Soldier Boy telling children that their biggest superpower is the ability to say “no.”

Of course, this ad puts Vought International’s hypocrisy on blast, given that its very own superheroes indulge in drugs on both a recreational (as we’ll likely again see in the upcoming “Herogasm” episode) and professional basis. Yup, I’m thinking about A-Train (and others), who essentially uses Compound V as a performance enhancing drug. And this ad sure gives us a feel for how Soldier Boy previously filled some shoes that Homelander does today. Here’s his glory days highlighted in a Payback-themed poster.

Soldier Boy previously led the group of Compound V-powered Supes called Payback. In the comics, Stormfront was part of that group, although god only knows if we’ll see her return in flashbacks or whatnot. Although Payback members are also failed candidates for The Seven, Kripke previously (to Entertainment Weekly) stressed the importance of how Payback “was the Seven before the Seven.”

The Boys are back (that’s obligatory phrasing) on June 3.

Bleachers leader and producer extraordinaire Jack Antonoff and The Leftovers and Maid actress Margaret Qualley were first rumored to be dating last summer; They were seen kissing in New York City in August. They made their public debut as a couple this past March, when they showed up at the Critics’ Choice Awards together.

Things have apparently progressed significantly since then: People reports that per a source, Antonoff (who is 38 years old) and Qualley (27) are now engaged. Neither Antonoff nor Qualley have confirmed the news and it’s not yet known how or when a proposal went down.

This comes a few days after Qualley was seen wearing what appeared to be an engagement ring on the 2022 Cannes Film Festival red carpet. The Diamond Pro CEO Mark Fried told Page Six of the ring, “Margaret’s beautiful diamond ring looks to be 4 carats and I’d estimate the value is near $100,000 depending on the quality of the stone. The ring is made of either white gold or platinum and carries a timeless look [and] likely has some unique detailing near the diamond, giving it personal meaning and flair.”

Both Antonoff and Qualley have been busy lately: Antonoff helmed the stacked Minions: The Rise Of Gru soundtrack while Qualley stars alongside Joe Alwyn (who of course dates Antonoff collaborator Taylor Swift) in Stars At Noon, the film that’s the reason Qualley was at Cannes.

Nick Castellanos is a terrific baseball player who just so happens to have an uncanny knack for hitting home runs at somber moments on a baseball broadcast.

Castellanos famously hit a home run in the middle of Thom Brennaman’s on-air apology after saying a homophobic slur on a hot mic during a Reds broadcast, and a year ago hit another deep drive into left field during a Royals broadcast while they were honoring a World War II hero. On Monday, the Phillies broadcast was coming out of a commercial break and discussing the unveiling of the Gold Star Mothers gold chair at the Phillies ballpark, and before the announcer could even shift focus back to the action, Castellanos was first pitch swinging and, of course, hit a drive deep to left field for a home run.

It is honestly unbelievable how this keeps happening, and at this point you almost wonder if TV production trucks are doing this purposefully and putting their serious monologues and tributes up when Castellanos is due up. If not, this man just has a knack for switching the tone of a broadcast up and socking dingers, although at least this was on the home broadcast so everyone could be appropriately excited for the home run.

Warning: This post contains some mild spoilers about the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, the show that catches up with Ewan McGregor’s now-middle-aged Jedi, premiered over the holiday weekend, and the first two episodes alone managed to cram in some familiar faces (and some new ones). We saw Jimmy Smits’ Bail Organa, Joel Edgerton’s Uncle Owen, to say nothing of a certain, unexpected, major character. Even C-3PO made an appearance. There’s still four more episodes left, and there will be more where that came from — with a catch.

In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes TV (as caught by ComicBook.com), Deborah Chow, the show’s director, teased that there will be more surprises. “I don’t think it would be Star Wars if we didn’t have some Easter eggs, and we didn’t have some cameos. So there definitely are some to come,” Chow said. Just don’t expect them to be of the lazy, mere fan service variety. “I think for us, what we do have in the show, it needed to come out of character for us. We didn’t want to just put things in for the sake of it.”

In other words, Chow and team have tried to make any cameos organic to the show, not just to score some viewer gasps. The distinction between organic and cheap cameos was well-explained by /Film:

For example, when Denis Lawson shows up for a few seconds as Wedge Antilles in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” it’s really just an Easter egg. On the other hand, when Max Rebo (RIP?) appears in “The Book of Boba Fett,” it both acts as an Easter egg and subtly fills us in on what became of Jabba the Hutt’s old crew after his death.

New episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi drop on Thursdays on Disney+.

(Via Rotten Tomatoes TV and ComicBook.com)

Earlier this year, Draymond Green became the first active NBA player to ink a full-time media deal with Turner Sports, joining the Inside the NBA crew as a regular contributor after previously jumping on set for some spot duty during the postseason the past two years.

Green is now no longer alone in the active player ranks with a full-time media deal, as Pelicans guard CJ McCollum will be joining ESPN on a similar deal as an NBA analyst for the network, starting with Game 1 of the NBA Finals on their ESPN2 simulcast, as well as launching a podcast with ESPN, joining the ever-growing list of players entering the podcast business.

“I am excited to bring what I feel is my unique perspective, based on my vast knowledge of the game that I’ve gained during my nine years as a player in the NBA,” McCollum said in a statement. “To have an opportunity to put my journalism background to use on the largest stage with the many talented professionals at ESPN is a dream come true.”

McCollum, famously, was a journalism major at Lehigh University and has long been on the path to a post-playing career in media, but now he gets a head start on that, getting some reps doing game analyst work during Summer League and on Finals megacasts, launching a podcast, and also joining ESPN’s various studio shows throughout the year. It’s part of the ever-changing landscape of sports media, where active players are not just starting their own media operations, podcasts, and TV shows, but joining league network partners in official, full-time capacities, which can lead to some very interesting situations.

We’ve already seen this postseason how that can get a little awkward or a little spicy, whether it be Patrick Beverley’s victory lap on ESPN after Chris Paul and the Suns were eliminated by the Mavericks or the Heat getting mad about Draymond Green proclaiming the Warriors would face Boston in the Finals after Game 5 on the TNT set (which, ultimately, was correct). As more players work out these deals and this becomes a more regular thing, but we’ll see how long it takes for McCollum to voice opinions on a topic that rubs someone the wrong way elsewhere in the Association.

For several seasons, a singular question has swirled around the Boston Celtics: Can Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown win a championship together? The two star wings have redundant skill types that don’t necessarily amplify one another on a roster that lacks high level playmaking.

The noise got even louder after the Celtics started 16-18 and fell to 11th in the Eastern Conference, with plenty of fans and media wondering aloud whether Boston should pick one to build around and move the other at the deadline. Well, Jayson Tatum heard the noise and he said it fueled he and Brown all season after the Celtics’ Game 7 win over the Miami Heat moved Boston into the NBA Finals.

“I think all of those things have helped. From saying that we need to split the group up or get rid of somebody or me and JB cant play together. That fueled us to figure it out and not run from it. That you know we’re obviously going to be here for awhile and that we trust in each other and that we have to be better. So yeah, I think instead of separating, we became closer and that’s shown throughout the season.”

It turns out that deploying two 6’8 shot-creating wings who defend at a high level works really well in the playoffs. Boston dismissed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, endured seven games of Giannis hell, and overpowered a resilient Heat team all behind the leadership of Tatum and Brown. The duo now has a sneaky long playoff resume and an Eastern Conference trophy to display. The noise around their ability to play with one another always felt a bit premature and the duo has all but silenced that with their run to the Finals.