Month: August 2022

With only two episodes out in the wild, HBO has officially renewed House of the Dragon for a second season. The Game of Thrones prequel series debuted to juggernaut numbers, which proved the franchise is still a massive hit with fans. In fact, HBO’s decision to renew Season 2 was rewarded just a few days later when the series’ second episode brought in even more viewers than the record-breaking premiere.

“We are beyond proud of what the entire House of the Dragon team has accomplished with season one,” Francesca Orsi, Executive VP of HBO Programming said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV.”

Set 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen, House of the Dragon has already captured the same fantasy fever that made the original Game of Thrones a pop culture juggernaut that’s here to stay. Fans are absolutely loving the tales of the Targaryen family’s fiery reign and poring over intricate details that hint at Westeros’ future. The show’s second episode, The Rogue Prince, debuted to even higher numbers than the premiere and quickly blew up social media as fans went wild over watching Matt Smith’s Daemon forge an alliance with the mysterious Crabfeeder.

House of the Dragon has clearly captured the same magic of the original series, so it’s no wonder that HBO quickly pulled the trigger on preparing Season 2 to fly.

House of the Dragon airs new episode Sundays on HBO.

Like many septuagenarians, Rudy Giuliani is longing for the good ol’ days, and it’s hard to blame him. Life for the 78-year old was much easier back in the day — back when he was married to his cousin, when he was named TIME’s Person of the Year and referred to as “America’s Mayor,” and when he wasn’t the target of a criminal election fraud probe in Georgia. But the times, they are a-changin’ — and boy does Rudy know it!

On Monday, Rudy chatted with conservative talk show host Joe Pags (a clear indication that even Newsmax might be tiring of being the only network to welcome the former New York City mayor as a guest) and lamented how sensitive the world has become to what used to be perfectly acceptable behavior… like police brutality.

While discussing “how bad” it has become for police officers, Giuliani whined about how today’s police “can’t use [their] guns” and “can’t touch anybody.” Poor things. Rudy then went on to make what he likely thought was a truly astute observation and cute family story:

One of the reasons why cops are having a hard time — people go, ‘they’re not strong.’ … they’re not allowed to touch you… They can’t punch you! I had an uncle, who was the most decorated police officer… Great hero. My uncle had a knockout punch. All he had to do was blow it past you and you fell down. He was 6’4” — but you could be 6’4” and not have a knockout punch… My father was a boxer; my father taught him how to box and this guy could put you down with one punch. Nowadays… Think of the people he didn’t have to shoot because of that!

While neither punching nor shooting a suspect would also be an option, one has to imagine it might be hard to convince Rudy of that. Which is all pretty rich coming from a man who swore a light tap on the back nearly killed him.

Even Brian Cox knows that he’d never stand a chance in the face of his Succession character, Logan Roy. The show’s currently filming Season 4, and the Logan Roy notoriety follows Cox everywhere. He’s happy to chat about it, always, including his admission that filming that dick pic scene was too much fun, and of course, Roy remains the mogul and patriarch who lobs the most irresistible insults of all time, from an audience standpoint.

Cox opened up at the Edinburgh TV special, where he admitted that Logan Roy would probably insult him, too. Via Deadline, Cox made it clear that he “respects the character,” but Roy would probably have nothing to do with him, mainly because “he is the antithesis of who I am.” Cox feels as though he’s much more of an optimist, which is a sentiment that Logan Roy would probably loathe.

“I think things would get better and he doesn’t so Logan would hate me,” Cox told the festival’s full house, who undoubtedly enjoyed this followup: “He would say ‘I wish that Brian Cox would just shut the f*ck up.” So there you have it: Brian Cox knows that he’d be loathed by his most infamous character, and he further stressed that Logan Roy easily tops Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch because “he’s self made.” Cox further believes that Logan Roy’s great “curse” is that “he loves his children.” And that insight, right there, should make us even more excited after the Season 3 finale’s events. Logan Roy fully screwed his kids, and let’s hope that at least one of them throws a drink in someone’s face during the Season 4 premiere.

(Via Deadline)

At a Megan Thee Stallion concert, a fan had an idea. They decided to start recording a video on their phone and throw it onto the stage, presumably hoping Meg would notice and do something fun for the camera, leaving the fan with a unique keepsake of their favorite artist. Well, Megan saw the phone and she obliged in a big way.

Meg herself shared the video on Instagram yesterday (August 29), writing, “Somebody threw their phne on stage already recording [crying laughing emojis] I said welp [shrugging emoji].” In the clip, Megan approaches the phone and put her hands on her hips and playfully looks into the camera when she realizes what’s going on. Then, as “Savage” plays in the background, Meg stands over the phone and offers a bottom-up view of her twerking butt before smiling and grabbing the phone, then presumably returning it to its owner.

Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Megan will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a role in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, saying of her TV and movie ambitions, “When I look at them [Queen Latifah and Ice Cube], it inspires me to take it further than just music. I don’t feel like I’m only going to be an actress — I feel like I’m also going to be a director and I’m also going to be a producer.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Last Jedi is either your favorite of the Star Wars sequel films, or your least favorite. It’s hard to imagine it being anyone’s second favorite. I personally think it’s the third best Star Wars movie overall, after The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope, and a lot of critics agree: it has a 91 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes… but only a 42 percent “Audience Score.” That’s even lower than The Rise of Skywalker, the clumsy conclusion to the Skywalker saga. The Last Jedi inspired a backlash from very online Star Wars fans who did not enjoy Luke being a crank, among other supposed misdeeds, but writer and director Rian Johnson is still proud of his vision, as he should be.

“I’m even more proud of it five years on. When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball,” the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery filmmaker told Empire. “I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us.” He continued:

“The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives.”

The Last Jedi has a auteur-like vision, which is not something you often get from blockbusters these days, let alone a Disney movie. Also: porgs. It’s hard to believe that anyone could hate The Last Jedi when it gave us porgs. And “let the past die…” and the throne room scene. But mostly the porgs.

(Via Empire)

Before the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards kicked off on Sunday (August 28), Variety‘s Marc Malkin was on the red carpet for interviews. As he chatted with some of the most beloved stars at this year’s VMAs, he made it a point to ask about Britney Spears and her new comeback song with Elton John, “Hold Me Closer,” getting a mixed bag of answers.

When Malkin mentioned Spears to recent Uproxx cover star Chlöe, she lit up and said, “I’m so proud of her. I love Britney and I’m so happy to see that she can be herself on her own terms.” He then asked what song he’d like to duet on with Spears and she went with “Toxic.” Malkin tried to coax Chlöe into singing a bit of the song but she playfully declined.

He also asked Latto the duet question and she answered, “We gotta do something from scratch, we gotta do something from scratch.” She added, “Brit: call me, girl. It’s nothing. I do think, some new Britney… the world needs some new Britney.”

Answering the same question, J Balvin chose “Slave 4 U” and even sang a brief snippet of it.

Måneskin and TikTok star Chris Olsen also chatted about Spears, so check out those clips below.

Consumers of American pop culture are used to see Jimmy Fallon in a particular way: Behind the Tonight Show desk, wearing a suit, and overall well put together. He sports some facial hair here and there, but for the most part, he’s consistently clean-shaven. On Sunday (August 28), though, Fallon was at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards looking decidedly different than he usually does and onlookers felt some sort of way about it.

The Tonight Show host was on hand at the VMAs to present Harry Styles the Album Of The Year award for Harry’s House, looking not as buttoned-up as always. Rather, he sported a loose white shirt and a scruffy beard. That aroused some feelings and Fallon took notice. On Instagram yesterday (August 29), Fallon shared a photo of himself from the show and screenshot of a Cosmopolitan article titled “Jimmy Fallon’s Presence At The 2022 VMAs Is Causing Thirst And Confusion On Twitter,” with the subhed, “Maybe it’s the beard?.” Fallon captioned the post, “Out here causing ‘thirst’ and ‘confusion’. That was fun, @mtv!! #vmas #maybeitsthebeard.”

Cosmopolitan had it right with their framing, as a look at Twitter reveals VMAs viewers who were surprised at the effect Fallon’s look was having on them. Check out some reactions, including comparisons to Styles, below.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan will be found below.)

To be quite honest, things are not going according to plan in this season’s third episode of Power Book III: Raising Kanan. We began the season with the hope that Detective Howard had memory loss from the night Kanan shot him, but in episode two, we learn that he remembers things very clearly. Famous’ rap career is far from successful while Marvin is a football field or three away from being dad of the year. With everyone being a bit off their game, Raq’s frustration grows as she plans to expand the drug business into New Jersey.

In episode three of the second season of Power Book III: Raising Kanan the family ties are withering more than we’ve seen so far in the series. Kanan’s mistrust of Raq grows as she fails to inform him of Scrappy’s death, which has been framed as a suicide despite it being otherwise. Detective Howard informs Kanan that he is his father which only increases Kanan’s suspicions about Raq’s hidden agendas. Marvin is still at odds with Jukebox and Raq is growing more and more frustrated with Lou-Lou as he puts more and more time into his new record label. With all of that in mind, we can only wonder where things go from here.

Here are some of the biggest questions we had after the third episode of season two:

For Raq, The Sky Is The Limit. But Is It Really?

Raq took over the family business after Marvin, the previous leader, landed in jail. Raq successfully grew the business to a top level in Queens. Raq knocked off her enemies and competitors and established a monopoly in her territory. Raq is now expanding things to New Jersey due to her past success. There’s no denying everything that Raq has done, but with her eyes set on expansion and doing it big, attacks against her throne are going to come more often and at a bigger scale. She may be able to overcome many of them, but there will be a time when she doesn’t. We saw the latter with Unique, and it forced him to bow out peacefully. Raq thinks the sky is the limit, but we also know that every throne is for the taking. With her head above the clouds, she may miss what’s coming for her beneath them.

What Will Be The Best Thing That Marvin Gets Out Of Anger Management Class?

Marvin wanted no parts of his anger management class five minutes into the first session. Unfortunately for him, his full attention and participation in the class are required from him thanks to his strict instructor Renée. While he was resistant to participate in the last episode, Marvin gives in this week and joins in on the class discussion which leads to him learning about his openly aggressive approach to the world and how to correct it. Two key moments result from this class. First, Marvin and Renée seem to have a more-than-friendly moment at the end of class and we’ll have to wait until the next episodes to see what comes out of that. Second, Marvin uses the tips he learned in class to solve an issue without aggression, which makes him appreciative of the lesson and how it helped him save time and energy. It took a couple of weeks, but Marvin sees the beauty of the anger management class. We’ll just have to see which beauty he focuses on more.

Can Lou-Lou Find A Balance Or Will Have To Pick A Side?

To put it simply and point blankly, Raq hates Lou-Lou’s record label business. Not because she dislikes music or thinks it’s not profitable, but because it distracts from his time and work with the drug business. Lou-Lou isn’t as active as he used to be, and if there’s anyone who’s noticed it, it’s Raq. While she’s mostly able to work around his increased absence thanks to help from Marvin, her patience is growing thin with Lou-Lou. It gets worse when Unique robs Raq’s stash house and Lou-Lou is nowhere to be found despite her repeated attempts to get in contact with him. Raq confronts Lou-Lou at his studio about the situation, forcing him to switch focus and help Raq recover the money. It certainly won’t be the last time that Lou-Lou has to switch focus from his record label. This leaves him with a new task of finding a balance between his two lives or simply picking a side, and with Raq and Crown looking to push him back to the streets, the choice may not be his.

Would Raq Know When Her Time Is Up?

During the intense standoff between Unique and Raq, who was backed by Lou-Lou and Marvin, I wondered how things would go if Raq was on the other side. When Unique realized that all was lost for him, he made one last move that would earlier something priceless: freedom. The streets of Queens may not be his anymore, but at least he gets to live with the guarantee that his family can too. Raq made that promise to him in the final scenes of episode three. While Unique eventually surrendered his weapon, I can’t help but think that Raq would’ve gone down swinging or shooting if the roles are reversed. It goes back to the first question above, but Unique’s awareness to know when his time was up saved his life. If Raq ever encounters a situation like this where she’s on the short end of the stick, it will be interesting to see how it’ll ends.

When Does All Of This Protection Backfire?

Kanan is caught in the middle of two people trying their best to protect him from the world’s dangers. Raq does her best to protect him as her only son, and one of the ways she thinks she is protecting him is by keeping the fact that Detective Howard is his true father away from him. After begging Raq to tell Kanan the truth, Detective Howard decides to do it himself, and he does so in episode three. This is after Kanan attempts to kill him per Raq’s orders. He even goes on to promise that he won’t tell anyone that Kanan was the one who shot him. Kanan already doesn’t trust Howard, mostly due to the fact that he’s a cop, but his mistrust of Raq is growing too for multiple reasons. Both Raq and Howard are trying to protect Kanan, but with different goals in mind, it could all backfire. We’ll just have to wait for the next episodes to learn how it plays out.

New episodes of STARZ’s ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ are available to watch on Sundays at 12:00am EST.

Earlier this year, Grammy Award-winning producer Flying Lotus, whose real name is Steven Ellison, signed a multi-picture deal via his company Brainfeeder Films with French company Logical Pictures and XYZ Films to direct and produce a slew of upcoming movies. One of them is Ash, about which he said, “I’ve a strong desire to innovate in the sci-fi space and I really want to show the world something they’ve never seen before.”

More information about Ash has finally arrived today. The cast will include Tessa Thompson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with Thompson taking on the role of a woman who wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station murdered. She meets a man, played by Gordon-Levitt, and is unsure whether or not she should trust him and let him save her. While they investigate the murders, he wonders if she is innocent. Ellison is set to start shooting the film next year in New Zealand.

About the multi-picture deal, Logical Pictures Group President Frédéric Fiore expressed his enthusiasm and appreciation for Ellison and his future in the film industry, saying in March, “FlyLo is a highly talented and respected musician with such a unique creative universe.”

John Oliver has spent the summer doing what we’re all doing: worrying. When he’s not meticulously tackling issues both grandiose and seemingly mundane, all while slipping in asides about everything from Dr. Oz’s flailing congressional campaign to Dakota Johnson’s (untrue) love of limes. But now it’s the end of summer, and so he did what everyone expected: He married a cabbage.

It all started with a segment on DALL-E, the AI meme service that allows users to type in oddly specific image requests and get back some shockingly accurate and creative responses. It’s created some shockingly out-there pictures. But perhaps stranger than the roast beef superhero DALL-E is this: People have requested more than 500 ones involving the Last Week Tonight host.

Indeed, there have been a series that form what Oliver dubs “The Cabbage Saga,” a veritable series with a clean narrative arc about him coming to love a cabbage — to the point that he wants to marry it. Alas, while other DALL-E images are weirdly accurate, even when the users’ request is pure bananas, the one for Oliver actually tying the knot with the green veggie was, shall we say, lacking.

So Oliver decided to stage a wedding himself, on air, for his HBO show. He even got Steve Buscemi to officiate. Schools have already started opening back up. The summer heat is cooling. If you’ve been wearing shorts since June or May, you may need to start wearing pants again. So go out with a bang by watching the guy who had a Connecticut sewage plant named after him marry food, which you can do in the video above.