Month: August 2022

Brittney Griner has been in Russian custody since February after being charged with having hashish oil cartridges in her luggage after flying into Moscow. After a lengthy detention prior to finally receiving her day in court, the WNBA star pleaded guilty to the charges in order to expedite the process, leading to a nine-year prison sentence.

That all had to happen in order for negotiations to begin in earnest for a potential prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia, which is made increasingly more difficult by the current war in Ukraine that has led to heavy sanctions on Russia from the U.S. and other countries, causing additional strain to an already tense diplomatic relationship. While government officials are optimistic about the potential to get Griner and fellow American Paul Whelan back in a swap that would send a Russian arms dealer back to Moscow, the Kremlin has reportedly insisted that negotiations be done in private after that news got out.

The latest update on this story comes from a rather unlikely source — and one that probably isn’t particularly helpful to the entire “keep negotiations private” effort — as Dennis Rodman claims he has received permission to go to Russia to try and push for Griner’s release, per NBC News.

“I got permission to go to Russia to help that girl,” Rodman told NBC News at a restaurant in D.C. “I’m trying to go this week.”

That is the entirety of the quote, which leaves an awful lot of questions still to be answered. Is the permission coming from the United States to act as an informal diplomat? Or is the permission simply that of Russia to enter the country? Who is Rodman even planning on speaking to? Would he be welcomed in those conversations by either side?

Rodman certainly isn’t new to inserting himself in world affairs, as he’s rather famously been friendly with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and claims to have aided in the return of an American prisoner from North Korea. The biggest hope is that Rodman’s involvement is, at worst, a net neutral should he make his planned trip, and that this doesn’t cause any hindrance to the more official diplomatic channels being operated.

While the idea of having beef with someone who technically doesn’t exist may sound strange, hip-hop fans are sparking several conversations about the state of the genre following the signing of FN Meka to Capitol Records. FN Meka has one billion views and 10 million followers on TikTok. He is also a product of artificial intelligence.

Upon the announcement of his record deal, many have taken to social media to vocalize their chagrin, some saying that this is a result of labels not wanting to set aside big budgets for artists.

“Stupid f*cking precedent has been set,” said Twitter user @Louslocker. “Attack on artists. Labels wanna be cheap and not have to pay real artists so they’re making bots [so] they can keep 100% profit. This sh*t is gross.”

Others have argued that this is unfair to real-life artists, many of whom have spent years working behind the scenes without the support of a major label, only to passed over for what’s technically a robotic entity.

“So you’re telling me Capitol records just gave an AI robot named FN Meka a rap deal before any of my clients????,” said producer D. Shim in a tweet. “He’s not even a human being and got 10 million followers on tik tok. What is the world coming to? Will AI robots replace human creation? I need answers. Like right now.”

Some people would even posit to say that this is a rip-off of other bands and artists who have done something similar.

“Gorilliaz did it first,” said Twitter user @Romoface

If you must, you can check out FN Meka’s new single, “Florida Water,” with Gunna and Clix here.

The Miami Heat have had a quiet offseason after earning the 1-seed in the East a season ago. They saw PJ Tucker leave for the Philadelphia 76ers, while retaining Victor Oladipo, Dewayne Dedmon, and Caleb Martin, and to this point have made no significant upgrades to the roster to offset the departure of Tucker.

There will be plenty wondering if they’ve done enough to stay near the top of a crowded East, particularly after the Celtics and Sixers each made some quality additions. Miami, as they often do, are banking on their guys and their culture as being enough, and there is no one they view as more important to the latter part of that equations than Udonis Haslem. The longtime Miami veteran hasn’t played much in recent years — he hasn’t appeared in more than 16 games since the 2015 season — but every year he re-signs to maintain his presence with the organization.

This summer there was some wonder as to whether Haslem would return, but that got answered on Sunday when he announced at a youth camp he was indeed signing on for a 20th NBA season in Miami.

Haslem’s presence on the roster is not unanimously favored by Heat fans, some of whom would prefer if he moved to a formal coaching role rather than being a de facto coach who takes up a roster spot. Still, the Heat insist he should remain on the active roster and keep offering him veteran minimum deals, and he’ll be back for Year 20, which may be his last (or could be just the latest).

Megan Thee Stallion is not shy about her love of anime and Japanese television and film. This weekend, at Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, Megan took the stage dressed as Sailor Moon, performing many of her hits, including several tracks from her latest album, Traumazine.

Since she first stepped onto the scene, Megan has been vocal about her love of anime, and has grown more in love with the art as adult. In a 2020 Instagram Live session with Tim Lyu of anime studio Crunchyroll, she said, “Being an adult and watching anime, I really like the storylines. You see a character who might not be the strongest. You grow with that the character…you meet new people along the way as they try to be the hero / become the person they need to be.”

Elsewhere in the chat, she revealed that while she had watched Sailor Moon, she initially couldn’t quite get into it.

“Every time there’s a fight, her boyfriend comes to save the day,” Megan said.

Regardless, she certainly slayed her outfit, and even more so, her performance, which she said received a large positive reaction from her Japanese fans.

“This whole stadium in JAPAN was going UP for me,” said Megan in a tweet. “You can’t fake thee love…im grateful.”

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

After Game 1, it seemed like the Connecticut Sun would cruise to the second round after a 25-point win over the Wings in which Dallas, who entered the series without their top-scorer in Arike Ogunbowale, looked overmatched and overwhelmed by the Sun’s defense.

However, the script was flipped in Game 2, as Dallas was the team that came out playing stifling defense, taking a 22-7 lead after the first quarter and never relinquishing that advantage. The Wings would go on to a 89-79 win that looks tighter than the game was for most of the afternoon, dominating the Sun on both ends to force a decisive Game 3 in Dallas, where the 6-seeded Wings will have a chance to advance to the semifinals on their home floor.

Marina Mabrey and Allisha Gray got things started for the Wings, as they took on the challenge of having to create more in Ogunbowale’s absence and brought the pressure to the Connecticut defense rather than the other way around.

While the Sun would settle in a bit in the second quarter, the Wings continued to maintain their lead thanks to their improved pace, pushing the ball in transition to avoid having to go at the Sun halfcourt defense every time down, like this Veronica Burton to Kayla Thornton push off a Connecticut miss.

That theme continued in the third, as Thornton continued to run hard off changes of possession, with the Sun not having any answers for the Wings going to a small ball lineup that applied more pressure on both ends of the floor.

At one point in the fourth quarter, Dallas held an 80-50 lead before a 22-2 run by the Sun made things briefly interesting and forced the Wings to put some starters back in the game for the final two minutes to close things out. Dallas was led by Thornton’s 20-point outburst, but she wasn’t alone as Gray had 15 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals, Mabrey had 14 points and six rebounds, and Teaira McCowan added 17 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. It was an impressive performance and one would expect the smaller lineup will be back for Game 3 after the success they had playing with tempo in this one, with Dallas finally breaking its playoff win drought with its first in 13 years (back when the team was the Detroit Shock).

For the Sun, they’ll need to find ways to punish the Wings better for going small, namely crashing the offensive boards more effectively to limit those runout opportunities. Handling the ball pressure of Dallas will be vital as well, as eight of their ten turnovers were live-ball varieties on Wings steals, leading to more runout chances to avoid Connecticut’s set defense.

August has always been a ghost town for movies. The biggest blockbusters have already opened; people are presumed to be movied out. It’s when studios dump more modestly budgeted pictures, like this weekend’s Beast. It can also be a chance for underdog to slip in there and make more money than one would expect. Such is the case with Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

As per Deadline, the latest anime film from the ever-expanding media empire was a surprise box office champ, opening to $20.1 million. That’s almost double what the weekend’s other big release, the Idris Elba killer lion thriller Beast, managed to haul, namely $11.5 million. It also greatly eclipsed heavy hitters like Bullet Train and even the summer’s big winner, Top Gun: Maverick.

The box office win is another biggie for its distributor, Crunchyroll (né Funimation), the anime and dorama streamer owned by Sony. Last spring, when theaters were still coping with hesitant audiences, they almost topped New Line’s Mortal Kombat with Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, which managed to come in second for the weekend with $21.2 million. They’ve managed to score these hits without traditional television advertising, making it all the more impressive and surprising those who expected the weekend to belong to a movie where a long-hoped-for James Bond fights giant animals.

(Via Deadline)

Earlier this weekend, rapper Quando Rondo was reported to have been shot. A member of Rondo’s team later released a statement saying that Rondo was involved in a shooting, however, was not shot himself, noting, “Quando was involved in a shooting yesterday evening [Friday] which resulted in the untimely death of another’s young man’s life; he himself didn’t sustain any injuries during the shooting and is safe.”

According to Fox 11 News, investigators have since concluded that the three prime suspects of the shooting intended to shoot Rondo.

“A wild scene here as investigators say the apparent target of this deadly gunfire, a rapper of from the Atlanta area — they say a pretty well-known rapper, too — in this area along with a second person in this back Cadillac Escalade — may have been a relative, may have been a member of his entourage — we don’t know,” said reporter Ed Laskos. “But it’s that second person, not the rapper, it’s that second person who was hit by gunfire, dies by the gunfire.”

The victim of the shooting was treated by paramedics and taken to a local hospital. He was later pronounced dead.

At the time of reporting, the 22-year-old suspect Timothy Leeks — also known as Lul Tim — has been arrested.

Quando Rondo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s been a rollercoaster summer, but one of the most delightful running gags of the season has been the repeated humiliation of congressional candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz. The former TV star wants so badly to fill a vacating Senate seat in Pennsylvania he even moved from Jersey. Unfortunately, he’s running against John Fetterman, who’s spent the last few months mercilessly, creatively trolling his opponent. But sometimes all Fetterman has to do is wait for others to dig up some dirt then do the pouncing.

Over the weekend, people dug up some old tweets Oz made when he was a television health adviser of dubious credibility. These were about poop. They might even be helpful; one’s leavings are a good sign of how healthy one is (or isn’t). Trouble is, at least one tweet, from 2013, featured a generic link to his website…which is now all about his troubled senatorial campaign. Which means that it now reads weird.

Fetterman was quick to turn the gaffe into yet another of his Oz burns.

Turns out there are lots and lots and lots of Oz tweets on the subject of feces.

Poop-gate comes mere days after Oz was dragged about a bizarre video he recorded back in April, in which he tried to connect with salt-of-the-earth Pennsylvania voters by gathering ingredients for a deeply strange version of “crudité.” (That’s “vegetable tray” to everyone else.) The mockery was so bad even Tucker Carlson couldn’t help laughing about it. Meanwhile, Oz’s most high profile cheerleader, Donald Trump, sure isn’t laughing about how badly he may lose.

(Via The New York Post)

HBO has revealed another trailer for its upcoming series, The Idol. The series will tell the story of “a self-help guru and leader of a modern-day cult, who develops a complicated relationship with an up-and-coming pop idol,” according to a statement.

In the latest trailer, which says the series is spawned from “the gutters of Hollywood,” Lily Rose Depp seemingly appears as a pop star named Jocelyn, as she storms through a record label office, exercises in her mansion, parties in a club, and

The trailer teases appearances from several musicians, including The Weeknd, Moses Sumney, Jennie Ruby Jane of Blackpink, Troye Sivan, Ramsey, and producer Mike Dean. Actors Dan Levy, Hank Azaria, Suzanna Son, Jane Adams, and Rachel Sennott, also appear in the trailer.

The Idol is the newest project from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, who is developing the show alongside The Weeknd.

Britney Spears is also rumored to have a part in the upcoming series, as she posted a picture of herself, The Weeknd, and Levinson on set earlier this year.

As of now, there is no confirmed premiere date for The Idol, but according to the trailer, we can expect it soon.

Check out the latest trailer above.

Joe Manchin’s a big hero of the Democratic party right now, but only because for a long time he wasn’t. He may have helped get a light version of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” passed through Congress. But for ages, the West Virginia senator has been one of the thorns in his party’s side, being one of the only lawmakers holding up legislation that could help turn Biden’s agenda into a reality. The other is Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, and together the two have been seen as a kind of anti-dynamic duo. But now that one of them has flip-flopped and helped their own party, the pair seem to be at odds.

As per NBC News, Manchin threw some shade Sinema’s way during a roundtable in his home state. He was talking about the newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act, the most sweeping legislation passed during the Biden era. Among other benefits, it allows Medicare for the first time to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. Still, the bill could have been even better, and there was someone, he said, who put the kibosh on that.

“We had a senator from Arizona who basically didn’t let us go as far as we needed to go with our negotiations and made us wait two years,” Manchin said in a video of the event that was viewed by NBC News. “Those type of things — I don’t question anybody, everyone’s responding to their own constituent base. But we did get something. And it’s the first time we made a positive move in that.”

And which Arizona senator was this? It couldn’t be Mark Kelly, a Democrat who was always a bully for the bill. That leaves Sinema, who predictably kept her decision on how she would vote on the bill in the dark until the last minute. (She quietly voted yes.) Whereas Manchin is enjoying newfound love from Democrats — a big 180 from only a few weeks prior — Sinema’s popularity remains in the gutter.

(Via NBC News)