Month: August 2022

Megan Thee Stallion wants answers after her second studio album, Traumazine, was leaked early, and she’s demanded information from her label’s distributor to get them. According to Billboard, Meg’s lawyers filed documents in court today asking a judge to order Warner Music Group, the parent company of 300 Entertainment, which distributes Megan’s label 1501 Certified Entertainment, to hand over a list of anyone who was given early access to the album to determine who leaked it.

It’s likely that Megan wants the information to prove that the leak came from 1501 Certified itself due to her ongoing lawsuit against the label to be released from her contract. In the lawsuit, she previously accused 1501 of sabotaging the release while demanding $1 million in allegedly unpaid royalties. Her legal actions have led to a bitter war of words between herself and 1501’s founder Carl Crawford, with occasional dispatches from Houston rap royal J Prince. However, although today’s filing does not accuse WMG of the leak, it does leave open the possibility that the leak did not originate from 1501, in which case, due to the limited nature of the preview links that were shared, there could only be a few suspects — including Warner employees.

“Pete does not, at this time, accuse WMG of intentionally releasing her album, but does believe that receiving documents and communications from WMG related to Traumazine and its release should help discover who improperly leaked her artistic work,” Meg’s lawyers wrote. “In addition to documents and communications, Pete wishes to ascertain who all received access to Traumazine through WMG.”

In addition, she’s asked the court to also compel Cablevision and Datacamp, a pair of internet service providers, to give up the leakers’ IP information.

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

Last night, Britney Spears surprised fans by sharing a 22-minute audio recording in which she discusses her conservatorship (although the YouTube upload has since been set to private).

As Billboard reports, Britney spends some of the runtime criticizing mother Lynne Spears, saying at one point, “I’m honestly more angry at my mom because I heard when reporters would call her at the time, and ask questions of what was going on, she would go innocently hide in the house and she wouldn’t speak up. There was always like, ‘I don’t know what to say. I just don’t want to say the wrong thing. We’re praying for her.’ I feel like she could’ve gotten me a lawyer in literally two seconds. […] Every time I made contact with a firm, my phone was tapped and they would take my phone away from me.”

After the video was shared, Lynne offered an apparent response, sharing an old photo of her with her daughter and writing, “Britney, your whole life I have tried my best to support your dreams and wishes! And also, I have tried my best to help you out of hardships! I have never and will never turn my back on you! Your rejections to the countless times I have flown out and calls make me feel hopeless! I have tried everything. I love you so much, but this talk is for you and me only , eye to eye, in private. [heart emoji] [folder hands emoji].”

Read more about Britney’s recording here.

Amazon Prime Video’s The Rings of Power is inviting Tolkien fans — and fantasy fans in general — back to Middle-earth for a new adventure in a new age, but while the setting is familiar, this story comes with a crop of characters you’ve never heard of before. We’re talking lady dwarves and elf kings. Honestly, it’s a lot to keep up with, so we’ve rounded up the main players of Middle-earth this time around.

Feel free to bookmark this and come back to it anytime you forget the difference between a Harfoot and a Hobbit.

The Elves

Galadriel (Morfydd Clark)

Galadriel is one of the few characters fans of Peter Jackson’s original trilogy will recognize in this new tale of Middle-earth. In those films, she was played by Cate Blanchett as a wise and all-powerful high elf in possession of one of the rings of power but here, she’s a warrior on a quest for vengeance after the death of her brother. Galadriel can sense Sauron’s rise to power before most of her kind, but she struggles to convince the rest of Middle-earth that evil still exists. She’s prideful and single-minded in her pursuit of the Dark Lord, traits that make her a bit of an outcast when fans first meet her, but she’s got an important role to play in the war to come.

Elrond (Robert Aramayo)

Another familiar name on Team Elf is Elrond, first played by Hugo Weaving in Jackson’s films. He’s quite younger and less experienced in this series, though he’s still a bookworm who is obsessed with elf lore and learning how to play the game of politics in Lindon – the elven realm where we first see him. Elrond’s father is a bit of a mythical hero who had a big role to play in defeating the evil of the First Age which means he’s got big shoes to fill and he’s fairly uncertain about how to do that until he’s tasked with stewarding the creation of the rings of power. And, well, we all know how that turns out.

Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova)

While the rest of the elves on this show hail from royal blood, Arondir is a simple silvan elf, a foot soldier compared to the kings and ladies that live in Lindon. He’s stationed in the Southlands where he watches over human villages who aligned with Sauron during the First Age. There’s a simmering hostility between men and elves in those parts which makes Arondir’s secret relationship with a human healer named Bronwyn even more dangerous but a mysterious new threat emerges that takes precedent over their doomed romances.

Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker)

Gil-galad had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Jackson’s first film, and his name crops up again in stories and poems recited by a certain hobbit so it doesn’t feel like too big a spoiler to say that Gil-galad is going to have a rough time of things on this show. As the Elf King of Lindon who’s blessed (cursed?) with the gift of foresight, he knows that Sauron is quietly gaining power which is why he tries to unite the peoples of Middle-earth with the creation of those damned rings. Of course, things inevitably go bad, but before they do, Gil-galad does his best to protect Middle-earth, even if he makes some questionable decisions along the way.

Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards)

Celebrimbor is the famed forger of the rings of power but when we first meet him, he’s just a plucky old elf with a talent for crafting all sorts of weapons and armory for his people. He works with Elrond to mold each of the 13 rings but he’s inevitably tricked by Sauron into crafting one ring that rules them all. Poor guy.

The Dwarves

Durin IV (Owain Arthur)

Tolkien fans have only ever seen the great halls of Khazad-dûm, a.k.a. Moria, decimated, deserted, and left to ruin. It’s where the hobbits journeyed in Jackson’s first film and where Gandalf the Grey battled a particularly nasty Balrog. But in Rings of Power, Khazad-dûm is a thriving dwarfdom and Durin IV is its king. Durin, like all of the other dwarves we’ve met in the past, is proud, passionate, and a bit reckless.

Disa (Sophia Nomvete)

Before the show cast the character of Disa, we weren’t sure female dwarves actually existed. Yes, Tolkien writes about them, but we’d never seen a dwarf woman on screen before and they’ve taken on a bit of a mythic quality that Jackson’s many films liked to poke fun at. But The Rings of Power has promised us lady dwarves, in the flesh, and Disa is one of them – the queen of Khazad-dûm who has a playful relationship with her husband and, yes, sideburns to match.

The Harfoots

Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh)

Sadly, Hobbits did not exist in Tolkien’s Second Age but their nomadic ancestors, the Harfoots, did. The main difference between the two seems to be their traveling lifestyle. While Hobbits were happy to keep to the Shire, Harfoots like to stretch their legs a bit more, moving from place to place while avoiding the “Big Folk.” But even amongst these wanderers, Nori Brandyfoot is different. More adventurous, fearless, and willing to leave the safety of her home to explore the great unknown.

Sadoc Burrows (Lenny Henry)

The leader of Nori’s traveling band of Harfoots, Sadoc Burrows is charged with keeping his people safe, mostly from threats originating from the “Big Folk.” He’s got a tome he consistently checks to predict dangers and, when this story begins, it’s got a lot to say about a mysterious man who happens to fall from the sky.

The Men

Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson)

Another mythical city Tolkien fans have yet to see on screen is the island kingdom of Númenor and, when Rings of Power premieres, this fabled realm is ruled over by Míriel, a Queen Regent who’s struggling to keep her people peaceful. Like her citizens, Míriel is of human and elven descent and the tensions between the two races seem to be the root of the problem she’s facing.

Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi)

A healer and single mother, Bronwyn was born and raised in the Southlands and, though her ancestors sided with Sauron, she’s decidedly against another war. While she does strike up a relationship with Arondir, she also battles back against the idea that her people deserve to be oppressed and controlled because of the sins committed in the First Age.

Isildur (Maxim Baldry)

You’ve likely heard the name Isildur before. It’s one that pops up often in Tolkien’s writings and Jackson’s films, but here, Isildur isn’t the founding father of Gondor (the kingdom of men) and he hasn’t yet sliced off the hand of Sauron, robbing him of his powerful ring. Instead, he’s just a young sailor living in Númenor, trying to provide for his father and sister while feeling destined for more than a life at sea.

Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle)

A cousin of Queen Míriel, Pharazôn is remembered as the last king of Númenor but for now, he’s just another politician, albeit a powerful one. Pharazôn is Míriel’s right hand and instrumental in trying to forge peace between the warring factions of his city.

Halbrand (Charlie Vickers)

We likely won’t know who Halbrand is until this show wants us to. For now, we can confidently say he’s a man who meets Galadriel while the two are stranded at sea and he has a role to play in her journey to Númenor.

Perhaps more than any other private parts from an ’80s rock band member, Tommy Lee’s penis has been getting a lot of press lately. It was a focal point in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy earlier this year, so much so that Jason Mantzoukas voiced it. Then, towards the start of August, Lee just went ahead and shared a naked selfie, in which his penis was on full display. While the image was understandably removed from Instagram, it sort of made a return in the form of an artistic depiction.

Now, Lee is putting the focus on his other wiener.

On Saturday (August 27), Mötley Crüe performed at Inglewood, California’s SoFi Stadium and Lee re-explained the context of the penis situation. He then continued, “So I figured they took them down from Instagram, and you guys wanna see my wiener? You guys wanna see the sh*t? Is that a yeah? All right, let’s go. Let me show you my f*ckin’ wiener. You ready? There it is.”

At this point, he pulled a real live dachshund (aka a wiener dog) out of his shorts.

Lee previously explained how the photo found its way online, saying, “A couple of weeks ago, we had like a two-week break off the tour, and I went on a motherf*cking bender, bro… a bender. I got f*cking sideways as f*ck and got naked and posted pictures of my dick.”

As Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery nears its release date, more details are starting to trickle out about the latest mystery from writer/director Rian Johnson. Returning as detective Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig is joined by a literal murderer’s row of a cast that includes Edward Norton, Ethan Hawke, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Jessica Henwick, Leslie Odom Jr., and Dave Bautista.

Thanks to a new feature in Empire, we now have a better look at the eclectic assortment of characters. Bautista, in particular, we’ll be stretching his acting muscles as YouTube star Duke Cody who, along with the rest of the cast, we’ll be having a tense and murder-tinged stay at a private island owned by Norton’s character. Meanwhile, Hahn will play a Connecticut governor, Hudson is a fashionista, Henwick plays Hudson’s assistant, Odom Jr. is a scientist, and Monáe is a tech entrepreneur. Details about the rest of the fully stacked cast are under wraps for now, but expect a magnifying class to be held to them in more ways than one.

“The movie itself is not entirely about the income divide, but that definitely has a huge place in it,” Johnson told Empire. “We’re in a moment in history where the divide feels increasingly obscene. Like a circus that we can’t keep our eyes off even as the negative effects of it become more and more real in all our lives.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

When a tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites some of his nearest and dearest for a getaway on his private Greek island, it soon becomes clear that all is not perfect in paradise. And when someone turns up dead, well, who better than Benoit Blanc to peel back the layers of intrigue?

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery premieres December 23 on Netflix.

(Via Empire)

“It would be WEIRD if you didn’t watch Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

Sorry, I’m just trying to get a pull quote on the poster for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a tongue-in-cheek biography about song parody icon “Weird Al” Yankovic. In the Roku Channel original movie, he’s played by Daniel Radcliffe, who shares his dream in the hilarious trailer above: “My whole life, all I wanted is to make up new words to a song that already exists.” That polka-filled origin story eventually leads to “My Bologna” and “The Saga Begins” and “White and Nerdy,” as well as originals like “Christmas at Ground Zero” and “Albuquerque” (where’s Weird Al’s statue, huh?).

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story also stars Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento (who calls “Weird Al” the “future of music”), Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, and Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna. “Is that song autobiographical?” “Weird Al” asks Madonna about “Like a Virgin.” Yes, she responds, “except for the fact that I’ve had a lot of sex.” Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is the Walk Hard of polka biopics, and I, for one, cannot wait.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Daniel Radcliffe is “Weird” Al Yankovic in the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time. From a conventional upbringing where playing the accordion was a sin, Al rebelled and made his dream of changing the words to world-renowned songs come true. An instant success and sex symbol, Al lives an excessive lifestyle and pursues an infamous romance that nearly destroys him. With Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, and an A-list cast of thousands their agents won’t let us reveal.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story comes to the Roku Channel on Friday, November 4.

Out of nowhere last night, Britney Spears shared a 22-minute recording of herself talking about her conservatorship and her journey through that process (although the YouTube upload of the recording has since been made private). She really dug deep and among the reveals she made is that she turned down interviews with Oprah Winfrey and others.

Spears said (as Billboard reports):

“I’ve had tons of opportunities — Oprah, interviews — to go on a platform and share the hardships and just really anything that’s going on in my mind. I really don’t think any of that is relevant, getting paid to tell your story. I feel like it’s kind of silly. I haven’t honestly shared this openly too, as well, because I’ve always been scared of the judgement and definitely the embarrassment of the whole thing, period, and the skepticism and the cynical people and their opinions of what people would actually think, [but I’m] in a place now where I’m a little bit more confident that I can be willing to share openly my thoughts and what I’ve been through.”

She later added, “I get nothing out of sharing all of this. I have offers to interview with Oprah and so many people, lots and lots of money, but it’s insane. I don’t want any of it. For me, it’s beyond a sit-down, proper interview.”

Find more about the Spears recording here.

Spoilers for House of the Dragon will be found below.

House of the Dragon has only aired two episodes thus far, but the Game of Thrones prequel has already taken a turn for the icky. We saw maggots and King Viserys I picking a new bride, which led him to (very) briefly indulge the possibility of marrying (incredibly) young Laena Velaryon before declaring that he had chosen Alicent Hightower (much to the disappointment of Princess Rhaenyra). Let’s just say that the king was distracted, and he was also dragging his feet on the issue of the Crabfeeder, so that freed up space for other powers that be to maneuver in the background.

That’s the name of this spinoff’s game, at least in these early stages, and we’ve already named this episode’s Contenders and Defenders, but let’s check in on what the people want, which is what they’re getting. Messy Prince Daemon Targaryen came together with Coryls Velaryon to forge a powerful alliance that was infused with their respective saltiness towards Viserys. Daemon, of course, feels jilted by not being named heir, and he’s not thrilled what went down this week at Dragonstone. Whereas Coryls is upset about his daughter being turned down as a prospective Viserys bride (along with the king’s aforementioned foot dragging).

The alliance arrived with a twist, though. Daemon didn’t shy away from letting Coryls know that only one of them is allowed to “talk sh*t” about Daemon’s brother.

Beyond that incredible detail, let’s just say that people are pretty thrilled to see Daemon and Coryls team up at all and can’t wait to see what happens to that Crabfeeder.

The celebrations continued with some (arguably) apt comparisons.

Episode 3 should be fun!

House of the Dragon airs at 9:00pm EST on Sundays.

Megan Thee Stallion has been expanding her acting resume lately. Earlier this month, she guest-starred in P-Valley and earlier this year, it was revealed she had been cast in the movie F*cking Identical Twins. In recent months, it was rumored Meg would be making the leap to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Earlier this year, stunt performer Marche Day added being Megan’s stunt double on She-Hulk: Attorney At Law to her resume.

Now, we have some more concrete confirmation of that role: A new Meg profile from The Cut notes she has indeed been cast in She-Hulk. Meg also noted of her acting 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.”

She also spoke about her upcoming album Traumazine, saying of it, “Everybody has gone through their own trauma in their own way, and to me, Traumazine is me facing the things that I’ve been running from about myself. […] It’s comforting to know that other people are going through the same thing that you might be feeling. When something happens to people, they feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is only me. This is not normal, or I’m probably the only person in the world that feels like this.’ But to hear somebody else talking about something that you’re probably feeling, it’s more comforting and more familiar. That’s why people resonate with hearing other people’s stories.”

Read the full feature here.

Even when Game of Thrones was at its lowest (i.e. most of the last season), there was one thing that viewers could still look forward to every week: the opening credits. I didn’t realize how much I missed the theme song, in particular, until it popped up briefly in the series premiere of spinoff series House of the Dragon, and more prominently during episode two, “The Rogue Prince.” The Game of Thrones score, including the main title theme, was composed by Ramin Djawadi, who returned for House of the Dragon.

“We very much wanted to keep the DNA alive for House of the Dragon from the original show,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “We will hear themes that we remember from the original show, but because it’s all new characters, this is 200 years before, there is a ton of new material I’ve written, a lot of new themes that we will hear.”

Also new: the title sequence. Instead of a three-dimensional map of Westeros and beyond, like on Game of Thrones, the House of the Dragon opening credits sees a river of blood flowing through Old Valyria. It’s pretty rad, but it’s also harder to parse than its predecessor series. Thankfully, A Song of Ice and Fire fan “Woofer22222” on the House of the Dragon subreddit broke down the meaning of each of the twirling dials, which signify different members of the Targaryen family (and those in their orbit).

You can watch it below.