Following in the footsteps of Alex Trebek as host of Jeopardy! is one of the toughest jobs in show business. Trebek was a master of all things on the game show’s set, managing everything from the cadence of the game itself to writing his own clue categories. Following that up after decades of excellence is no small feat.
Fans of the show are obsessively attentive to details, traditions and the rules. And basically everyone had an opinion on who should replace Trebek as full-time host. We’ve seen one pick already flame out spectacularly: Mike Richards lasted just days as the official pick until controversy saw him exit in shame.
By now, though, fans have settled in with a pair of hosts: Mayim Bialik and Greatest Of All Time winner Jen Kennings. And as Season 39 approaches, the two do finally seem at ease with the decision to have them split hosting duties. They’ve also been honest about the challenges stepping into the spotlight have presented.
“I watched Alex do it up close and I couldn’t understand the kind of ease and grace because you’re doing so many things at once,” he said. “You’re trying to run the show for the contestants, you’re part of the game just like the writers of the board, but you’re also trying to interpret it for the folks at home. So it’s like you’re a sportscaster, almost. And it goes so fast.”
The speed of the game’s pace and the tight taping schedule also came up with Bialik, who has seen far more criticism from fans in her guest hosting appearances.
“I think people don’t realize how many things you’re calculating because you want to move things along,” Bialik said on the podcast. “You also want to give things their fair weight. Also there’s someone in your ear and there’s many opportunities for, ‘Oh, my gosh, that was the wrong thing to say.’”
Bialik noted that there’s “a lot of editing” available to correct mistakes and fix pacing. But she admitted that the margin for error feels much smaller for her at times.
“I feel like if I make a mistake, even if we can go back and edit it, it feels very embarrassing, because I think people are like, ‘Oh, she’s a celebrity’ or ‘Oh, she’s got a PhD. She shouldn’t make simple math errors,’” Bialik said. “But sometimes I do it and it’s very stressful.”
The full discussion is fascinating for anyone who has watched the succession battle play out in the public eye. Now that things are largely settled, both Jennings and Bialik seem much more at ease in discussing their individual struggles and reflect on the role. And while we won’t often see them on stage at the same time next season, it’s clear both hosts have a lot of common ground when it comes to approaching one of the biggest jobs in syndication.
Britney Spears and Elton John‘s new collaboration, “Hold Me Closer,” is already proving to be one of the buzziest tracks of the year. Though it was her first new music work in six years, Spears evidently went into this collaboration without any inhibitions.
Andrew Watt, who produced the rework of John’s 50-year-old hit, “Tiny Dancer,” revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that Spears managed to get the song exactly the way she wanted it.
“She came up with her own ideas,” Watt said. “She wanted to speed up the record a little bit, and we did that. She’s such a pro with dance music and understanding that kind of stuff and what works for her.”
He continued, “She knew exactly what she wanted to do. she had spent tons of time with the record; she knew all the lyrics; it was, like, her thing. And it was really awesome to witness and see her be so powerful and crush it. She sounds incredible on the record, and she was involved all the way up until the final mix.”
On the heels of the collaboration, Spears shared a 22-minute voice recording on YouTube this past weekend, which has since been deleted.
While fans were waiting for Spears to put out new music as she’s been under a conservatorship, Spears revealed that the #FreeBritney movement was confusing to her, at first.
“The whole thing that made it really confusing for me is these people were on the street were fighting for me,” Spears said, “but my sister and my mother aren’t doing anything. To me, it was like they secretly, honestly liked me being the bad one, like I was messed up, and they kind of just liked it that way. Otherwise, why weren’t they outside my doorstep saying, ‘Baby girl, get in the car, let’s go.’ I think that’s the main thing that hurt me. I couldn’t process how my family went along with it for so long.”
The New York Knicks made a major investment in R.J. Barrett on Monday night. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, New York and Barrett came to terms on a 4-year contract extension worth up to $120 million that will keep him around as an important part of their core for the next few years.
The news came in the midst of the Knicks’ very public pursuit of Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell, while Wojnarowski noted that the team had a deadline of Monday night for the Jazz to come to an agreement on a trade or else Barrett would get extended. It was an interesting note, as there had been rumblings that Utah — which is reportedly prioritizing draft picks — might not want to acquire Barrett because of how soon he’d need to be extended.
But according to Ian Begley of SNY, that is not the case, as Utah apparently “coveted” the former No. 3 overall pick in talks with the Knicks.
Jazz had coveted RJ Barrett in Donovan Mitchell trade talks w/Knicks. Barrett’s extension takes him off the table in those talks for obvious reasons, including ‘poison pill’ provision that makes it very difficult to trade player on rookie extension before extension takes effect.
Barrett, who turned 22 years old back in June, had his most productive season in the NBA last year, as the former Duke star averaged 20 points in 34.5 minutes per game while connecting on 40.8 percent of his field goals. Barrett added 5.8 assists and three assists a night, too.
Rappers get compared to superheroes all the time. But one rapper, in particular, might just be getting the opportunity to become a superhero for real — or at least, to play one on TV. Recently, it was confirmed that Megan Thee Stallion had been cast in Marvel’s new superhero comedy show She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. When stunt performer Marche Day updated her listing on stuntpoc.com to include being a stunt double for Megan Thee Stallion in She-Hulk, she joined a long list of Marvel cast members who inadvertently leaked casting news which includes Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland. So…
Who Will Megan Thee Stallion Play In She-Hulk?
As of now, Megan’s role remains a closely-guarded secret, much like the surprise cameos from John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic and Anson Mount reprising Black Bolt ahead of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. She might not even be playing a superhero — or villain — as even innocent bystanders or stars playing themselves in movies and television shows can require stunt doubles when rubble is flying around or things are being set on fire. For what it’s worth, at 5’10”, Megan would have made a great Titania, but that role has already been filled by the equally statuesque Jameela Jamil, who recently proved why stars often need stunt doubles with an NSFW injury. Of course, in the comics, Titania is a member of a supervillain group called The Grapplers, which includes a number of imposing beauties whose roles Meg could fill such as Cowgirl, Gladiatrix, and Poundcakes.
On the bright side, we likely won’t have to wait very long to find out; new She-Hulk: Attorney At Law premiere every Thursday on Disney Plus, and the show will have nine episodes.
Just because we’re on the cusp of September, doesn’t mean summer is totally over. While many of us only think of summer as June, July, and August, it technically doesn’t end until September 22. And with current weather trends (*yikes*), there are at least a few more scorching hot days ahead.
On these days, you’re going to need thirst-quenching beers to stave off the heat. And not just any beer will do. Caroline O’Halloran, sales director at Sprecher Brewing in Glendale, Wisconsin has a difficult time picking just one.
“Do I have to pick one?” she says. “If a gose is an option, I am going gose. The slight hint of salt and light tartness is perfect in the heat. Otherwise, kolsch. I could crush those crispies all day.”
Jeremy Marshall, brewmaster at Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California believes lagers are a must on hot days.
“The Bohemian Pilsner is definitely a good choice for something to handle the heat,” he says. “It’s a lager that stands out from the crowd without trying too hard or needing to shove marketing in your face, which I appreciate.”
To dive deeper, we decided to turn to the professionals. We asked a handful of well-known craft beer experts and brewers to tell us the best beers to crush on the last hot days of the season.
On a hot day, the only beer I’m reaching for is a Lager, and if you know East Brother at all, you know that we’re very particular about the lagers we drink. New Belgium’s Mountain Time is light-bodied and refreshing, with a hint of sweetness at the end. Light notes of honey and pear hit the nose as you sip, giving you that wonderful “Ahh” moment.
Creature Comforts Tritonia
Creature Comforts
James Bruner, director of production at The Bruery in Placentia, California
When it is epically hot outside, I need something light and revitalizing, the beer that comes to mind is Tritonia, a cucumber and lime gose from Creature Comforts in Athens, Georgia. This slightly sour salted wheat beer is perfect after, or during, sweating out a bunch of your electrolytes on a scorcher. The 4.5% ABV and added salt almost make this beer more hydrating than not, add in the cucumber and lime, and you are refreshed from the time of the first sip to the last gulp, which for me is quicker than I’d like to admit.
So many to choose from. When the sun is beating down on me I will tend to grab the lightest and coldest beer possible. I look for something refreshing that doesn’t weigh you down. Sometimes I will buy a six-pack of Rainier Beer and put it in the freezer for about a half hour to get it super cold. Maybe it is the Northwest in me, but I’ve always loved a good ice-cold Rainier and always will.
It’s okay to take your craft hat off every once in a while. Don’t worry, you can put it back on.
Allagash White
Allagash
Terence Sullivan, product manager and former brewer at Sierra Nevada in Chico, California
Allagash White is my pick. This beer is a no-brainer on a hot summer day. Refreshing and highly drinkable, Allagash White delivers great flavors and aroma from the use of coriander and orange peel to make a traditional Belgian-style wheat beer. The 5.2% ABV makes it approachable to have a few during the dog days of summer.
My sister-in-law went to college in Durango, Colorado and she would always talk about this one beer she would drink from a local brewery. Eventually, she brought me a six-pack of Ska Brewing’s Mexican Logger. I remember putting down a few of these beers really easily on a fishing trip later that summer and knew I would have to keep my eye out for this beer going forward. The crisp, clean lager profile from this beer quenches your thirst and cools you down on even the hottest of days.
Stiegl Grapefruit Radler. This beer is the perfect refreshment for the hottest days of summer. At 2.5% ABV, you can drink it fast enough for it to stay cold and have more than one. The mixture of lager beer and grapefruit juice is super refreshing and a very traditional way to freshen up beer when it is hot outside.
The balance of sweet, tart, and carbonation make it one of the most drinkable beers on the planet.
A hot day means an ice-cold Coors Banquet to me. 100% Rocky Mountain water, high country barley, malted and brewed only in Golden Colorado to ensure consistency from grain to glass. A Banquet (or two) is my go-to for refreshment when it’s hot. I’d be willing to bet there are many other craft brewers out there that would say the same thing.
A hot day screams canned lager to me. Bunker Brewing Company’s Machine Czech Pilsner hits the spot every time. It’s the kind of beer that you can either pour into a glass to appreciate the floral, spicy nuances of Saaz hops or just enjoy it straight from the can without overthinking it. The beer’s bitterness is one of my favorite qualities. It’s what keeps me coming back to take another sip.
The beer is a great example of the Czech Pils style.
Trumer Pils is my choice on a hot day. It is a beautiful beer, especially on draft. It is clean, crisp, and infinitely sessionable. It is light, refreshing, and flavorful (not an easy thing to pull off). It’s a sessionable German-style pilsner with a 4.8% ABV making it the craft beer to drink when you are drinking more than one.
Margarita Gose by Appalachian Mountain Brewery. This beer is perfect for a hot summer day. It Is a German-style gose brewed with lemons, limes, sea salt, and coriander. It is so thirst-quenching and it 3.8% ABV, it is perfect for hot summer days.
On an epically hot day, I’m reaching for a Mexican-style lager, and one of my favorites is Pacifico Clara. It’s light but still flavorful, easy drinking, and delicious when super cold.
Go ahead and toss a lime in there. No one will care.
Old Irving Della Kolsch
Old Irving
Garth E. Beyer, certified Cicerone® and owner and founder of Garth’s Brew Bar in Madison, Wisconsin
My favorite keep-it-simple-stupid beer to drink on a hot day is Old Irving Della Kolsch. 100% German malts and hopped with classic Hallertau Mittelfruh and Hallertau Blanc hops. It’s semi-fruity and oaky aroma, and zippy effervescence blends perfectly with a touch of lemongrass and water cracker flavors. And the best part is that it has a dry finish that has you unquestionably craving another sip (which you’d want to anyway give the heat of the day).
John Fetterman is still running circles around Dr. Oz in the Pennsylvania senate race. On Monday, Fetterman’s campaign released a new ad that not only ridicules Oz’s disastrous crudités video, but also repurposes the TV doctor’s low-blow attack on Fetterman’s health. After getting ruthlessly roasted for the grocery shopping video, Oz’s campaign tried to turn the tables by firing off a ghoulish statement that said, “If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke.”
After denouncing the statement, Fetterman’s team did what they do best and turned the whole thing into more fodder to troll Oz with. The new campaign video is captioned, “Eat your veggies,” and features staffers in broccoli costumes telling people to vote for Fetterman, or else Dr. Oz will dip them in salsa.
In an on-brand move for the PA senate race, the video arrived on the heels of yet another embarrassing moment for Oz. While attending a campaign rally in the western part of the state, Oz was greeted by a less than enthusiastic crowd. Via Mediaite:
The footage shows tepid applause from a few of the attendees, while some held signs, and others lined up their phones to take a photo. But others looks completely disinterested, not even making eye contact with the candidate. And overall, there were very few smiles.
That didn’t stop Oz from soaking up the moment.
“Oh my goodness!” Oz said. “Wow!”
What makes the low-energy video even more wild is that Oz shared it on his official campaign Twitter account. The apparent crowd response doesn’t bode well for his election prospects, but we’ll see what happens in November.
There was not a ton of hype for HBO’s The White Lotus before it debuted in July 2021. Little did we know that it would turn into one of the best shows of the year and get nominated for 20 (!) Emmys, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Now, expectations are so high for the second season of Mike White’s series that HBO is making teaser videos set within the universe of the show. In the video above, Tanya McQuoid (played by the iconic Jennifer Coolidge) implores the virtues of the White Lotus Blossom Circle. “So few brands have meaning anymore,” she says. “But whenever I stay at any of the White Lotus properties, it’s always a memorable experience.”
You can watch the promo above.
The White Lotus season two is set in Italy and stars F. Murray Abraham, Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Michael Imperioli, Haley Lu Richardson, and the only returning cast member, Coolidge. The season is partially inspired by “the teste di moro, ceramic heads that appear across the island [of Sicily], especially on balconies as pots for houseplants and on souvenir stands,” according to Vulture. Here’s more:
The legend goes that around the 12th century, while Sicily was occupied by Arabian rulers, a young Italian woman was seduced by a Moorish man. When she discovered he had a wife and children, she cut off his head in a fit of jealousy and stuffed it with basil, which grew in abundance.
Back when he was a junior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, LeBron James became the first high school underclassman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. A whole heck of a lot has happened since then, with James embarking on an NBA career that has led to him becoming arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.
Fast forward to today and James is back on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but this time, he has some company. James was joined by his two sons, Bronny and Bryce, while wearing a t-shirt that prominently featured his first cover.
James, unsurprisingly, discussed the possibility of playing alongside his eldest son, something he has said he’s wanted to do for quite some time. Bronny is a rising high school senior and top-50 collegiate recruit, and James has said on a few occasions that he wants to play alongside him in the league — if Bronny is a one-and-done, he’ll be eligible to enter the NBA in the 2024 Draft. But the interesting twist in the story written by Chris Ballard is that James left the door open to potentially play alongside Bryce, who is about to be a college sophomore.
I do the math—2027?—and nod at Bryce. “Is there a chance you’d stick around for this guy, too?”
LeBron smiles. “I feel like I could play for quite a while. So it’s all up to my body, but more importantly, my mind. If my mind can stay sharp and fresh and motivated, then the sky’s not even a limit for me. I can go beyond that. But we shall see.”
James will turn 38 years old at the end of this year.
(SPOILERS for this week’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan will be found below.)
In season one of Power Book III: Raising Kanan much of the storyline behind LaVerne “Jukebox” Ganner, one of Kanan’s closest friends, was connected to her love life. Jukebox found her first love in a girl named Nicole, and while their relationship continued to grow, it reached a major roadblock after Nicole’s parents learned about it and tried to put an end to it. A short time later, things would come to a crashing end after Nicole overdosed and died after smoking a bad batch of crack. Jukebox is still grieving over Nicole’s death, but thanks to exploring her singing career, she’s been able to cope and heal somewhat from her pain.
Who Is The Actress That Plays Jukebox On Power Book III: Raising Kanan?
Jukebox’s singing abilities are undeniable in season two of Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Her uncle Lou-Lou has taken her under his wing through his new record label and her father Marvin has even taken notice of her talents. The amazing voice behind Jukebox is none other than actress and singer Hailey Kilgore. She first began her career in theatre with a 2015 role in Portland Center Stage’s production of Our Town. Kilgore’s breakthrough came three years later when she played Ti Moune in the Broadway revival of the musical, Once On This Island. She later received a 2018 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for that role, and the following year, she was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Musical Theater Album category thanks to Once On This Island.
In an interview with Cassius Life earlier this month, Kilgore spoke about playing Jukebox and the changes viewers can expect between seasons one and two of Power Book III: Raising Kanan. “In season one, Jukebox chooses to be sad. She chooses to let life be hard,” she said. “And I think in season two, she’s ready to fight that a little bit more head-on. For sure.”
New episodes of STARZ’s ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ are available to watch on Sundays at 12:00am EST.
Harry Styles is in the midst of a residency at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden, and so far, it’s been eventful. Just before going on stage for his Sunday (August 28) show, Harry’s Housewon the 2022 MTV Video Music Award for Album Of The Year. During the show the night before, there was a slightly less glamorous moment, when a fan threw a chicken nugget at Harry Styles.
The pop star handled it well and even had some fun with it. A fan-shot video sees Styles admiring the poultry chucker’s creativity, saying, “Interesting, very interesting approach.” After asking who threw the nugget, some fans started chanting for him to eat it. Styles, a pescatarian, refused, saying, “I don’t eat chicken, sorry. I don’t eat meat.”
After returning the nugget to the fan, he grabbed another nugget that was also thrown on stage and continued, “First of all, this is cold, and I’m assuming very old.” He then laughed and asked if the fan would like him to return the nugget. After apparently getting an affirmative answer, he laughed some more and asked why before throwing it back and instructing the fan to not eat it. Styles continued, “Now it’s on the floor. Don’t go looking for it, we’ll get you another nugget, OK? Fear not, fear not.”
Check out the clip above.
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