Month: June 2022

It seems like a natural progression for shows to collaborate on alcoholic beverages as merch. Fans have seen it with the Breaking Bad duo coming up with their own mezcal, The Walking Dead’s whiskey line, and even the short-lived Handmaid’s Tale line of wines which were pulled from shelves after just a few days. Yikes! But, when your show is literally about alcohol, it makes sense to come out with a line of whiskey, which is exactly what the gang from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is doing.

Named Four Walls, the whiskey is backed by Sunny stars and creators Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, and Charlie Day. But unlike other celebrity alcohol lines, the proceeds will be given to hospitality workers in need. In a statement, Howerton explained the inspiration behind the name and the idea. “We wanted to create a brand celebrating the four walls that have held our favorite memories in and kept our troubles out.”

Co-star McElhenney added, “We were shooting Season 15 when bars were shutting down all across America. So, we decided to source some really great whiskeys and create something as a tribute to the bar and kick it off by giving back.”

The tribute will consist of two whiskeys: one rare Irish whiskey with a special edition signed packaging will retail for $999 (!) while the more casual blended Irish and State Pennsylvania Rye will go for a more reasonable $89. Pickled eggs not included.

Day continued, “We learned just how rare and how collectible old Irish Whiskey is, and we couldn’t believe we got our hands on some and wanted to release it and do something for the people and places that do so much for all of us — the bars and the bartenders.”

As for It’s Always Sunny, the series has been on for 15 seasons, and it was renewed for at least two more seasons, which means there is potential for more product tie-ins. It’s never too late to make Kitten Mittens.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Mo Brooks is taking his ball and going home—but he’s not against making a stop to sit in front of the January 6th committee to testify before he does. The longtime Alabama congressman and one-time MAGA loyalist, who holds the honor of being the first political candidate who had his Donald Trump endorsement rescinded, lost his recent bid for senator and is not taking it well. As Axios reports, Brooks announced his plan to retire from politics on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after being pretty sizably defeated in the Republican primary, telling Politico that “the bad guys won.”

Brooks also told Politico’s Olivia Beavers that he’s looking forward to spending time with his grandchildren and “being a normal person” because “normal people have some fun.” Come on, Mo—you could never be “normal.”

However, Brooks definitely has some axes to grind, particularly with the former president, who explained that he was revoking his endorsement of Brooks because the congressman had become too “woke.” Following their falling out, many people wondered if Brooks could become the “star witness” for the January 6th committee. Now, as CNN reports, Brooks says he’d be willing to testify under two conditions: first, that it be in public “so the public can see it—so they don’t get bits and pieces dribbled out.” Second, he’ll only speak about January 6, 2021. And third: he wants a full accounting of all the documents that he might be asked to speak to ahead of time.

In some ways, Brooks’ new willingness to testify may not matter, as the House select committee already announced that they would be subpoenaing the congressman, who spoke at the so-called “Stop the Steal” rally on the morning of January 6th—and that he did so wearing body armor (a sartorial choice that raises a few flags). Several of the insurrectionists who were at or inside the Capitol that day have also claimed that Brooks was one of the masterminds of the events of that day. So dictating the conditions of his testimony may be moot.

(Via Axios)

If you’re ever in need of someone to help pull off a major scam on the American public—like, say, to overturn a completely legitimate presidential election—Rudy Giuliani is not your guy. Donald Trump learned that lesson the hard way when he hilariously entrusted Rudy to do just that in 2020, as Seth Meyers noted on Wednesday night’s “A Closer Look.”

While we’ve long heard stories of the lengths Trump and Giuliani went to in order to convince election officials around the country to assist them in proving that there was massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election, the first-person narratives of the January 6th hearings are giving substance and context to those stories. Meyers’ biggest takeaway? Rudy and the rest of Trump’s legal team are a bunch of “dipsh*ts.”

Earlier this week, Arizona Republican House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers testified about his many meetings with Giuliani and fellow Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who continued to promise Bowers evidence of the fraud they were claiming took place, until the former New York City mayor finally admitted “we’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.” Bowers—who actually testified to laughing at Giuliani’s legal strategy—said he wasn’t sure if it was “a gaffe, or maybe he didn’t think through what he said,” which endlessly amused Meyers, who’s not convinced Giuliani “has ever thought through anything he’s ever said in his entire life… Rudy didn’t even think through why the Four Seasons he booked for a press conference looked more like a landscaping company than a hotel. He just let the press conference rip!”

While Bowers testified that both Trump and Giuliani continued to promise they had evidence that thousands of dead people had cast votes in the Arizona election, they were never able to provide the Arizona lawmaker with one piece of the evidence they claimed to have. And at one point, Giuliani and Ellis even flew out to Arizona but somehow forgot to bring the reams of evidence with them. Meyers had some thoughts on that:

I mean, this is just me. But if I was preparing for a high-stakes meeting with a prominent Republican official to convince them to overturn their state’s election results, reversing the will of 80 million people and potentially provoking a constitutional crisis, I think I—and again, this is just me—I think I’d remember to bring the evidence. That’s just me! That’s just me!…

They actually thought they could get away with saying they had the proof, just never having it with them. These people are such bad scam artists. It’s actually remarkable how close they came to overthrowing American democracy. In fact, even calling them ‘scam artists’ is overstating the case. That’s like calling [a Subway employee] a ‘sandwich artist.’ At best, you’re a ‘sandwich attempter.’

Ultimately, Meyers decided that “dipsh*ts” is a much better descriptor.

You can watch the full segment above.

Rapper Bobby Shmurda has sparked a conversation around the cost of instrumental tracks. Earlier this week, the “Hot N****” rapper took to Instagram to express his frustration with music producers, who he feels are overcharging for beats.

“These producers is giving me the hardest time right now,” said Shmurda in a video. “I’ve never seen no sh*t like this before. I done made over half a million for the year, it can’t be that bad outside.”

Shmurda, who is in the middle of working on a new project, also admitted he feels annoyed by the process of clearing samples. In response to his rant, producer Boi-1da, who is largely known for his work with Drake, took to the comments of a post by 2Cool2Blog to explain why beats are so expensive.

“Designer beats cost designer bread,” said Boi-1da.

Additionally, producer Cardo, who is known for his work with Drake, Travis Scott, and Baby Keem, took to Twitter to defend they high cost of beats.

“I’m just speaking up for the producer community… that’s all,” Cardo said. “No complaining of any sort … but y’all will not continue to try and step on [producers] over here. Cuz Im fasho with the bullsh*t. Just ask around.”

Philadelphia 76ers part owner Michael Rubin is looking to sell his share of the team and Rick Ross wants in. On Wednesday, June 22, Rubin announced his impending departure from the ownership group, citing the growing responsibilities of his ownership of the Fanatics brand. With Fanatics launching a sports-betting division in the near future (a conflict of interest for anyone working in sports, let alone owning a team), Rubin is choosing his burgeoning business over his fandom. He explained the decision in a statement that he also posted on Instagram.

It didn’t take long for the business-minded Rick Ross to chime in in the comments, writing “I’ll buy his 10% lol.” While the “lol” implies that he’s joking, a lot of truth is said in jest. It would certainly make sense for Ross to cop a portion of a sports team. He’s a fixture courtside at his hometown Miami Heat games, he often makes savvy business decisions, and he’s certainly been cutting costs across the board, so he might just have the capital to buy in — provided he can put together an investment group to cover the difference. With a reported net worth of $45 million, he’s got a ways to go to reach the reported value of Rubin’s share, which has certainly grown from when the owner purchased it for $290 million in 2011. Maybe Jay-Z or Meek Mill can help out.

In response to the 2016 shooting at Orlando nightclub Pulse, Kevin Morby shared a single called “Beautiful Strangers,” a song about gun violence. Sales of the song benefited Everytown For Gun Safety, which pushes for stronger gun laws. Now, Morby has revisited the song, presumably as a response to the recent Uvalde school shooting, by performing it on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night.

On the song, Morby sings, “If you ever hear that gunshot, you may think ’bout what you do but you don’t got / Say a prayer, think of mother, I am a rock / If you ever hear that sound now / If the door gets kicked in here, they come now / Think of others, be their cover / I am what they’re not.”

Morby previously said of the song upon its release, “This release is dedicated to and written for all the people I have never met but have only read about. The innocent people who were out living their lives and one day, without warning, had them taken away from them. People who liked to laugh, dance, and love in the way that we all do, but can’t anymore. All those names and faces, all those beautiful strangers…”

The YouTube upload of the “Beautiful Strangers” performance has also been set as a fundraiser, featuring a button to donate to the Everytown For Gun Safety Support Fund.

“Beautiful Strangers” was Morby’s second Kimmel performance of the night, following the This Is A Photograph title track.

Watch Morby’s performance of “Beautiful Strangers” above and “This Is A Photograph” below.

Despite initially backing away from Dave Chappelle after his controversial comedy special, The Closer, sparked online backlash and an employee walkout, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos doubled down on his defense of the comedian and Ricky Gervais. Both comics have been criticized for repeatedly joking about the transgender community, and Sarandos made it clear that Netflix has no interest in censoring them or any comics with similar material.

While attending the “Future of Entertainment” panel at Cannes Lion, Sarandos defending Netflix’s decision to carry Chappelle and Gervais’ stand-up material. “We’ve always been a supporter of the art,” the CEO said before launching into a longer statement about how the streaming platform will vigorously fight any form of censorship. Via Deadline:

“Part of the art form is to cross the line, and part of the art form means you only find where the line is by crossing it sometimes. Supporting expression is really important.”

He added it was “almost impossible” to censor Chapelle despite the backlash against him, saying Netflix would “fight” for his content “all the way to the Supreme Court.” Sarandos noted the streamer had “never taken [Chappelle’s special] down anywhere in the world.”

“Diversity of thought, expression, is super important to defend. It’s good for culture, it’s good for society — not just for the U.S. but everywhere.”

Sarandos’ full-throated defense of Chappelle and Gervais is not the only interesting development for Netflix over the past 24 hours. Shortly before Sarandos’ Cannes Lion appearance, the streamer launched Snowflake Mountain, a reality series where eight young contestants who are “overly emotional, easily offended, and dramatic” are sent off into the wilderness to learn survival skills from combat veterans.

You can see the trailer below:

The launch of Snowflake Mountain coupled with Sarandos’ doubling down on Chappelle and Gervais seemingly suggests that Netflix is ramping up content for the “anti-woke” crowd, for lack of a better term. The streaming platform has already seen its stock price plummet due to losing subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, and it’s projected to lose even more in the second quarter. Granted, it just had a smash hit with Stranger Things 4, but that series won’t return for its final season for at least a year if not more. Until then, Netflix will have to find a way to secure subscribers, and appealing to the “owning the libs” crowd could be part of the plan.

(Via Deadline, The Daily Beast)

Fans of South Park know all about Denver-area restaurant Casa Bonita and its outdoor fountain. The show’s creators made sure of that by making it one of Cartman’s favorite places. But when the restaurant finally gets reopened it may be missing at least one iconic structure from the infamous episode that sparked interest in its real-life fate last year.

In the summer of 2021, news stories about Casa Bonita drew the attention of South Park showrunners Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The duo had actually featured the Mexican-themed restaurant in an episode, but in real life the COVID-19 pandemic had shuttered the establishment, which was then put up for sale.

Parker and Stone announced their intentions to buy it and followed through later in the year, and what’s followed has been a flurry of renovations and construction with plans to reopen. But that process has apparently cost the Colorado icon its beloved fountain in the process. According to the Denver Post, the fountain outside of the restaurant purchased by the South Park creators had to be demolished due to structural issues. Though the waterfall, according to the report, will be back soon enough:

Following safety concerns from a crumbling foundation, the water feature has been razed but will be rebuilt, according to the Lakewood Planning Department.

A representative for the Lakewood office said the city expects to receive plans soon for a new fountain structure to be built.

The Denver Post story about the razing includes photos of the construction underway at the beloved institution, and it looks like Parker and Stone are making good on their promise to modernize the place and get it back up and running. We’ll have to wait and see what the new fountain looks like as the reimagined Casa Bonita takes shape, but it’s good to see the South Park guys are serious about making a local landmark as good as new once more.

[via Denver Post]

The Umbrella Academy is a show that’s constantly reinventing itself. It’s a necessity, that practice of metamorphosis. When every season ends with an apocalyptic event that scatters your main characters to the four corners of the timeline, you’ve got to get creative.

In season three, streaming now on Netflix, showrunner Steve Blackman does that by introducing an entirely new squad of supernaturally powered weirdos, The Sparrow Academy. While the Umbrella crew has been thwarting presidential assassinations, tangling with The Commission, and trying to make it out of the ’60s without destroying the world (again), these guys have basically become The Avengers of their time. They pose the first real threat the Hargreeves clan has faced that didn’t come from within and Blackman uses them this season to test, push, and eventually evolve the family dynamics that are at the core of his story.

Of course, he does that while also pulling inspiration from the comics written by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba, injecting callbacks and cleverly hidden Easter eggs he’s hoping fans will eventually find. But this season, perhaps more than any other, feels like a genre vehicle he’s firmly behind the wheel of, one that rides the line between respectful adaptation and non-canon originality in a way other shows will likely be envious of.

UPROXX chatted with Blackman about being inspired by — but not beholden to — the show’s comic book origins, working with Elliot Page to transition his character on screen, and how The Umbrella Academy has influenced the trajectory of superhero shows.

There’s so much story to tell with these comics and with these characters. When you sat down to write this season, where did you start?

I’m very close with Gerard [Way] and Gabriel [Ba]. They’re very nice guys and very generous and have understood that there are two different mediums here. The TV show does not have to be the graphic novel. And in fact, they’re becoming a bit symbiotic, where some of the things we do now are influencing where Gerard and Gabriel are going. But as a starting point, I want to be respectful of the source material. I look it over, and Gerard always tells me where he thinks he’s going. He’s writing the next volume. It’s not done. He’s thought about the one after that. Sometimes it’s just too hard to translate into TV. There are elements of the last graphic novel that I loved but we couldn’t have afforded to do them.

So I try to, whenever I can, pay homage or find inspiration in the source material. And I know, of course, there’s the purist graphic novel people who say it should be exact. But I think what we’ve done over the years has brought a big audience in and converted a lot of the graphic novel fans who’ve accepted this as its own sort of version of Umbrella Academy. Plus, people who have never even heard of the graphic novel have now come together. But I’m very respectful of the guys. I always want them to feel that they have a say and a voice in some of the ideas that I do that are just very different than what they’ve done to the graphic novel.

You’re basically recreating the starting premise of season one by introducing this new family, The Sparrows.

Yeah. This is how I thought about it: The Umbrella Academy was a family that never knew how to be superheroes, and the Sparrows are superheroes that never knew how to be a family. So we get to see a little bit of the ‘What if?’ The Umbrellas broke up at around 16 years old. They blew apart, had lives for many years and they only came back for the dad’s funeral. The Sparrows have stayed together a very long time and they’re not in a very good place, even though they’ve perfected the art of being superheroes. They have a lot of similarities. They’re all broken and really, they’re quite relatable in some ways. I don’t think they see that initially [but] they come to know that better later on.

Are the Sparrows just an antagonistic plot device to push the Umbrellas forward or will the two groups maybe work together by the end of this?

I think the latter. Obviously from a storytelling point of view, it forces our family to either decide to work together or not. There are seven Sparrows. If the odds become really stacked against them and they don’t work together, then it can become one or two of them. So working together is in their survival favor. But I also think they’re not all bad — the Sparrows. I think they’ve also suffered similar traumas. There was a lot of story to service this year and I have to concentrate more on our Umbrellas than the Sparrows. If I had more time and more episodes, I think we could have delved a little deeper into more layers of the Sparrows.

Speaking of character growth, the show did something really beautiful this season by letting Vanya’s character grow, eventually becoming Viktor after Elliot Page transitioned. What went into crafting that storyline?

The scripts were finished when Elliot called me and talked about his transition. And to be honest with you, I didn’t know a lot. So I called GLAAD and talked to a guy named Nick Adams there. And I also connected with a trans writer named Thomas McNee who was sort of instrumental in guiding me. And of course, Elliot was part of that process. It was important to not try to pretend as a cis man that I understood it the way [Elliot and Thomas did]. And I didn’t understand it. I’m still learning about it by the way, through Elliot. It was so important for me that the story feel authentic and real. At the same time, we didn’t want it to take over the show. We didn’t want to make it the story.

Right.

So the challenge for me as showrunner was, how do I write that in and not let it overtake everything? Ultimately talking to Elliot and Thomas, we concluded that families can accept people. And this family, they accept differences. So we wrote a story about acceptance and we wanted to put a pro-trans message out in the world. There’s a lot of negativity towards trans kids in the south right now. So it’s very important to tell a message about acceptance.

What was it like shooting that day?

There were tears on set. It was a really beautiful moment because we all love Elliot. We’ve been with Elliot for five years now and we’ve seen some struggles. I think, and this is just my opinion, I’m not quoting Elliot here, but after Elliot got the haircut and Vanya became Victor, I just felt there was a weight off the shoulders of even the character of Victor, the way he walked around, the way he interacted. And it sort of was just a really beautiful moment for the cast and crew. It’s one of the most touching. I get a little verklempt thinking about it.

The show manages to make every season look and feel unique, no matter the time period. Did you pull any inspiration from other works of film or TV when building the sets this year?

Absolutely, we do. I have a lot of ideas that I go to my production designer Carrie Myron say, ‘This is sort of what I want the hotel to look like,’ and he’ll start sketching. But if you are a big fan and you like Easter eggs, there are a lot of homages to Wes Anderson. There’s definitely some Kubrick in there. I won’t give away which Kubrick film, but you probably can get a sense of it. There’s Barton Fink in it this year, and we’ll tell you how that fits in. That’s the Coen brothers. We love sort of getting inspired by our favorite filmmakers and trying to put those elements in the set and hide them in places. And by the way, the fans find everything. I’m like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to catch that.’

And then they’ve figured it out after a weekend of binge-watching.

A couple are really hidden this year. So let’s see if they get them all by Monday.

Everyone’s going to be enjoying season three, but are you already thinking ahead to what comes next?

Gerard is at the end of the comics now. I think he’s writing the next volume. So we’re at a place that’s a little more precarious, but I’ve already planned season four. I pitched it to Netflix. It’s not picked up yet, but I know what season four is. I know where it begins and ends. And if we get a pickup, I will then sit down with Gerard and say, ‘How does that fit with where you’re going?’ And that’s where the process begins for us. But I have a great idea with season four.

Comic book stories on TV and film seem to be getting weirder, a bit more creative. Do you think you guys had any kind of influence on that?

I would like to think we did. Believe it or not, it is almost five years ago now when we started. There was great Marvel stuff and great DC stuff. The Boys was coming on the air. But I still think we’re something different. To me, we’re a dysfunctional family show first. I don’t see this as a superhero show. This is the Wes Anderson Royal Tenenbaum family [of superheroes]. That’s our difference.

But I do now see that people are also being inspired by what we’ve done. You’re seeing a lot more subversive superheroes with comedy and some of them are very good. Maybe we weren’t the first, but we definitely had an influence on this type of [storytelling], the way we subverted this genre, and where it’s going to go in the future. And there are a lot of places to go.

Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy is streaming now on Netflix.

Katy Perry — as a famous pop star who frequently reaches No. 1 on the charts — is used to getting recognized in public. But in Australia, the “Part Of Me” singer was wearing sunglasses and a hat at a café over the weekend, and worker Indianna Paull told her that there were no seats available.

“She handled it like any normal person would, I suppose,” Paull said in an interview with Australian morning show Sunrise. “She was really nice the whole time and she handled it like a champ. I think partly because I didn’t recognize her was the reason she was so just so relaxed and chill about it. I made a fool out of myself and said, ‘For future reference, we don’t usually seat people in this table.’”

After Paull’s manager informed her on who she was serving, she was stunned.

“I just went red and went limp at the knees,” she said. “I probably didn’t need to, but I felt like a fool, so I went over to her table and apologized. I don’t know why, I just felt shocked that I had acted like she was a casual Joe Blow!” She added, “In hindsight, I think the reason she wanted to get in so bad is because people were running around taking photos of her — I was so oblivious, running around like a headless chook, I had no idea.”

Paull says that Perry left a big tip and even “asked for my name and had a conversation with me and as she left she walked through the café and gave me a hug and was just really nice to everyone.”