Month: September 2022

The Wikipedia page for Don’t Worry Darling has an “On-Set Conflicts” section (always a good sign) that’s nearly 300 words long. And it doesn’t even include The Spit incident. Things have gotten so messy for director Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to Booksmart that even NBC — NBC! — is taking shots at the various fiascos surrounding the film.

“don’t worry darling 2022 press tour,” @NBC tweeted, along with a clip of a classic scene from Parks and Recreation. The video is taken from the season four episode, “The Comeback Kid,” where Leslie Knope thinks she’s giving a speech as part of her city council campaign on a basketball court — but it’s actually a hockey rink.

What follows is some ol’ fashioned slapstick (and a payday for Gloria Estefan) as the parks department and a three-legged dog slowly inch and stumble their way across the ice. Do you miss when Chris Pratt was a bumbling, lovable goof? Because I do.

If NBC is dunking on you, something has gone wrong.

It’s especially funny to use a clip from Parks and Recreation. The show’s star, Amy Poehler, dated Nick Kroll, who appears in — you guessed it — Don’t Worry Darling. (He was also The Douche on Parks and Rec, which gives me an excuse to watch a 10-minute video of The Douche’s best moments, not that I needed one.) The tweet is also reminding people of the “single greatest scene in television history.”

You can watch it for yourself below.

While the internet is still reeling from the realization that Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival, Amazon Prime has quietly decided to drop the trailer for Styles’ upcoming drama, My Policeman.

In the film, Styles plays Tom, a 1950s policeman who embarks on a love triangle that spans nearly half a century. Styles stars alongside The Crown’s Emma Corrin, and David Dawson, with their older selves being portrayed by Linus Roache, Gina McKee, and Rupert Everett. The trio is shown in an intense love affair that clearly takes a toll on them all. Here is the official description:

A beautifully crafted story of forbidden love and changing social conventions, My Policeman follows three young people – policeman Tom (Harry Styles), teacher Marion (Emma Corrin) and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) as they embark on an emotional journey in 1950s Britain. Flashing forward to the 1990s, Tom (Linus Roache), Marion (Gina McKee) and Patrick (Rupert Everett) are still reeling with longing and regret, but now they have one last chance to repair the damage of the past. Based on the book by Bethan Roberts, director Michael Grandage carves a visually transporting, heart-stopping portrait of three people caught up in the shifting tides of history, liberty, and forgiveness.

This is the second movie Styles will lead this fall, the first being the highly-publicized Don’t Worry Darling which will be released in September. The singer recently opened up to Rolling Stone about the role and his portrayal of a gay man in the 1950s. “It’s obviously pretty unfathomable now to think, ‘Oh, you couldn’t be gay. That was illegal,’” Styles explained. “I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it. It’s not like ‘This is a gay story about these guys being gay.’ It’s about love and about wasted time to me.”

The film opens in theaters on October 21st, then on Amazon Prime on November 4th. Check out the trailer above.

When the history books are finally written on the 21st century, Donald Trump will undoubtedly go down as one of the most problematic presidents to ever occupy the White House. But at least he will have taught us a few things — like why attempting to overthrow democracy as we know it is a bad thing, and that our government allows for a role known as a “special master.” Which Trevor Noah thinks sounds pretty cool.

On Tuesday, Noah returned from vacation with a whole lot to say about Trump and the recent FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. But mostly he wanted to talk about the special master who will be assigned to review the materials seized from the former president’s home and determine which documents cannot be included in the investigation into Trump. And, really, just how cool that title sounds.

“It was like, ‘Donald Trump is getting a special master,’ [and] I was like, ‘He’s about to learn kung fu?,’” Noah explained. But what The Daily Show host is particularly interested in witnessing is how the special master is actually chosen. As he explained:

What’s going to be really interesting is who they pick for this job. Because the judge gave each side until Friday to submit a list of suggestions together. So basically the judge is going: ‘Trump, you send us a list of who you think should review the documents and then, like, the Justice Department, you do the same thing.’ And then, I guess the judge is hoping they’ll overlap?

I don’t know. I feel like the Department of Justice is going to submit the names of, like, former attorney generals and FBI directors, and then the list from Trump’s side is going to be like: Jared, the Hamburglar, a paper shredder on top of a toilet.

But Noah does need to give Trump credit for one thing:

Once again, [he] has exposed a part of America that I’m willing to bet nobody knew existed. Nobody. Did you know about a special master? Any of you? Huh? I didn’t even know it was an option. I’ve watched 10 million hours of Law & Order. I know about subpoenas; I know about breaking the chain of custody, objection, sustained, overruled, sidebar, and my chambers. But not once have I heard the term ‘special master.’

But once again, thanks to Trump—because of his hard work and dedication to doing crimes—we’ve all learned something new today.

You can watch the full segment above (the Trump segment begins around the 1:15 mark).

Freddie Gibbs has had up to here with all the music documentaries that have come out lately — including one in particular that seemingly prompted him to tweet his thoughts on the matter earlier this week. Certainly, there has been a proliferation of self-produced documentaries by entertainers aiming to do some mythmaking, from big names like Kanye West and his Netflix-based Jeen-Yuhs to Hulu’s Look At Me: XXXTentacion, which was produced by the controversial rapper’s family, to Lil Baby telling his own life story with Untrapped on Amazon Prime.

As Gibbs put it, “Everything don’t need to be a documentary.”

However, given recent history, it would seem his comments were directed more at one specific rapper than any of those named above. Especially since, the night before he tweeted, Buffalo rapper Benny The Butcher shared a trailer for Long Live DJ Shay, a documentary he made about a local Buffalo DJ and his personal mentor who passed in August of 2020. Shay was instrumental in building out Buffalo’s burgeoning underground music scene, giving local rappers both beats to rap on and venues to perform in, and was particularly invested in the rise of Griselda Records, Benny’s crew, and arguably the biggest names to rise from the upstate New York scene to date.

Of course, little of that would matter to Gibbs, with whom the Butcher has been fighting a bitter feud involving restaurant fisticuffs, stolen chains, and black eyes on stage. (Side note: “Freddie” and “Benny” don’t sound like the names of two dudes who should be rap beefing. These are Sandlot character names.) Their conflict has since cooled to a passive-aggressive war of extremely petty words, and Fred’s most recent tweet would certainly fall in line with that. Benny hasn’t responded — yet — but maybe he’s finally going to take the hostilities to the studio and rap about it on his new compilation tape dropping this week.

Justin Herbert learned a pretty tough lesson about life in the NFL last season. Despite following up his Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign with one of the most productive seasons that any quarterback had during the 2021 campaign — Herbert completed 65.9 percent of his passes for 5,014 yards and 38 touchdowns — the Los Angeles Chargers fell just short of making the postseason for the first time in his young career. Los Angeles went 9-8 and lost perhaps the best game of the season in their final matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders, which cost them a spot in the playoffs.

With Herbert under center, it’s pretty easy to see how the Charges can change that in 2022. Uproxx Sports caught up with Herbert last week to talk about the lessons learned from last year’s heartbreak, how he’s grown as a quarterback, his role on Lowe’s Home Team, and whether he gets more nervous during Chargers games or when he’s watching his alma mater, Oregon, which features his younger brother Patrick lining up at tight end.

What do you got going on with Lowe’s?

With Lowe’s, it’s a great partnership that I’m really looking forward to. I’m now a part of the Lowe’s Home Team, it’s a group of players across the country tackling community projects. I was fortunate enough to be a part of one in L.A. for Kid City, helping first generation students go to college. The project that Lowe’s has taken on with them, I’m really looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

Why did you pick the charity that you picked?

I was always so impressed with what after school programs were able to do. I was a part of a couple growing up in Eugene, Oregon, they’ve helped me so much, whether it’s academics, athletics, it helped me be a better person. And the one down in L.A., I think, has done a fantastic job. I’ve been a part of it, able to go see it actually a couple of times, and just the work that they put in, and especially the work that Lowe’s is putting into this project, it’ll be fantastic to watch.

Let’s talk a little bit of football. It’s a very broad question, but what’s your general approach been this offseason?

It’s been to get better, unfortunately, we fell short last year at 9-8, missed the playoffs. So, we need to be better than that. And we have to do everything we can to make the playoffs this year. We certainly feel like we’ve got the talent on our team, but now it’s all up to executing and making sure that we’re in those positions to win games. And so for me, worked a lot on footwork, continuing the timing with the routes of the receivers, and having time with all those guys that we added — Gerald Everett, the rest receivers, Sony Michel, as well. It’s a lot to look forward to.

And kind of going off of that, for how great the NFL is, it could be a really cruel place, and you guys learned that lesson the hard way last season. Is that the sort of thing that has been a source of motivation this offseason, and how does that experience help you guys as you’re heading into this upcoming season?

It definitely has been, that’s a great point that you bring up. We wish that we could have kept playing in the playoffs, and this game that we’re about to play has come six or seven months too late. We’ve had all that time to really think, to get better. But now it’s another opportunity to go out there and play football and do everything we can to hopefully set ourselves up for the playoffs. And that’s the ultimate goal in the NFL, it’s to get there and to keep winning. We’ve done our best this offseason and now it’s time to go out and show it.

And this is a unique offseason for you because it’s your first one with the same head coach and same offensive coordinator. How big of a help is it in that you don’t have to learn a brand new offense, you don’t need to build up those relationships, all the sorts of things that come with those sorts of major overhauls?

I think it’s been huge that we’ve had a year of film to be able to go back and look at, especially having all those installs that we do and all the different verbiage and terminology, we’re comfortable with it, we’re familiar with it, and we’re steps ahead of where we were at this point last year. Camp was was much easier in terms of learning the offense and spending time with the receivers, because everyone was already familiar with it and we kept a lot of the guys. So, I thought that part was huge for us.

You’re entering your third season, where do you feel like you have improved the most from that talented kid at Oregon to where you are now in the NFL?

I think a ton, over the past couple of years. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great quarterback coaches, some great offensive coordinators, and especially the receivers, tight ends, and offensive line that we have, they’ve made my job so much easier. But just doing my best to continue to get the ball out quick, avoid taking sacks, protect the football, you can always cut down on turnovers and being smart with the ball. So, that’s definitely been an emphasis this offseason, as well.

And so much of the excitement when I hear people talk about you stems from how you process the game, how you understand the game before the snap, during a play. Do you feel like that ability is something that can be learned, can be developed? Do you think that’s natural? Do you think it’s something that only comes with playing on the field?

I think it comes with repetition. I think it’s definitely something I’ve had to get better at over the years, and I think, thankfully, spending so much time with Shane Day, our quarterback coach, [he] has done a fantastic job of just teaching me the progressions of reads, of going through it quickly, getting the ball out quickly if nothing else is there, and playing smart football. That’s what’s important to the quarterback, not shooting yourself in the foot and not turning the ball over, not forcing things downfield but playing smart. And if everything’s covered downfield, find the checkdown and give the ball to Austin Ekeler for five or six yards, and that’s really tough for defenses to stop. If everyone’s playing like that, you’re able to move the ball, continually getting first downs, that’s how a quarterback should be playing.

It’s like you read my mind, because my next question was going to be about Austin. Everyone I know who’s played fantasy football has loved him for years, but last year, it feels like the general public started to catch on to just how good this dude is. What is it about him and this super diverse skill set that he has that makes your life easier as a quarterback?

He’s great — if you hand the ball off to him, he’s gonna go get five or six yards every time, which is fantastic. But at the same time, he’s tough for linebackers to cover. If he gets out of the backfield, and he’s got space, he’s gonna break down and you’re gonna find them and he’s gonna go for 15 to 20 yards, and that’s tough, too. But then finally, if he’s able to get out in routes, and he’s the last option where everyone else is covered downfield, and you just give him the ball hoping that maybe you get a couple yards, he’s gonna break a tackle, he’s gonna make the first guy miss. We saw it a couple times last year where he’s the last read, you get him the ball and he goes for 30 or 40 yards. And so for that, for a defense, is so tough to guard. They think they want because everyone’s covered downfield, they did a great job covering everyone, until you get Austin Ekeler the ball.

There’s a lot of excitement around you personally that has popped up this offseason where you’re number 40 in the NFL Top 100, all those sorts of things. Are you someone who notices that stuff? Is it motivational? Is it affirming? Do you get told that this stuff happens that you kind of shrug and then just go back to eating dinner? How do you respond to those sorts of things?

I think it’s really cool, really great honor. But I think it’s more telling of the team. I think the offensive line has done a fantastic job of protecting me and giving me enough time to get the ball off. To have a guy like Keenan Allen, who I think is one of the top players in the NFL, Mike Williams, Gerald Everett, these guys are what really make the team special. I think it is cool, but I try not to let it take away from my focus. I need to be at my best to play quarterback for those guys, and so if I get too worried about what people are saying, I’m going to get lost, so I do my best trying to avoid at all.

I have always wanted to ask an NFL player this: NFL is not back yet, but college football is back. What is the team group chat like when two guys’ alma maters are playing? Like, what was it like last year when Oregon played Ohio State between you and Joey Bosa?

It’s pretty funny, it’s always great competition in the locker room, especially when you get two teams that are going at it where you share a team with a guy in the locker room and there’s a lot of talk. Joey’s been a great guy about that — I haven’t talked too much crap about that game last year to him just because I want to stay on Joey’s good side. But talking definitely to Jamaree Salyer, Tre’ McKitty, he’s another guy on our team that went to Georgia, and so we’ve been talking the past couple of weeks about it. Just looking forward to watching it, I always think really highly of the Oregon Ducks and especially with Dan Lanning, the new head coach there. A lot to look forward to with those guys.

Do you get more nervous during Chargers games are doing during Oregon games?

Probably Oregon games. Now knowing that my younger brother is playing there and that I’m not playing, I think you’ll probably get more nervous for those.

Shortly after The Queen’s Gambit became a breakout success during the pandemic, the Anya Taylor-Joy series was slapped with a defamation lawsuit by Georgian chess player Nona Gaprindashvili, the first woman to be named a grandmaster. The lawsuit came down to one line in the series that attacked Gaprindashvili’s character. One of the announcers during a fictional match mentioned her by name, but said that she had never faced male competitors. This was not true. Gaprindashvili had faced 59 men by 1968 when The Queen’s Gambit took place.

In her defamation lawsuit, Gaprindashvili argued that the reference was “grossly sexist and belittling,” and a judge moved the litigation forward in January despite Netflix claiming it was protected by the First Amendment. The judge argued that fictional works can be sued if they defame actual people.

However, the two parties have reportedly reached an agreement, according to Variety. Details of the settlement were not disclosed, but representatives for both sides said they are “pleased the matter has been resolved.”

The mention of Gaprindashvili in the series was supposed to recognize her accomplishments, not disparage her, but clearly that backfired as the show was mainly concerned with elevating a chess player who didn’t even exist.

“They were trying to do this fictional character who was blazing the trail for other women, when in reality I had already blazed the trail and inspired generations,” Gaprindashvili said in an interview reported by The New York Times. “That’s the irony.”

(Via Variety)

Cobra Kai‘s fifth season shall arrive on September 9, and the show’s still got the “Eye of the Tiger” going on. As well, fans will be absolutely thrilled with the finale episode, which is bloody and brutal but does pull off the show’s most action-and-fight-packed (and cinematic) episode thus far. People will be clamoring for more, and although we still don’t know the precise future plan for the franchise, there’s no way that we’ll be saying goodbye to these dojos anytime soon.

There will be no spoilers here for the various fights happening this season, but how would a Cobra Kai tournament go down in real life? Comic Book asked about who would truly rise victorious, and although the show’s younger stars favored Robby Keene (portrayed by Tanner Buchanan), the franchise’s O.G. rivals felt differently. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka stood up to declare Stingray (portrayed by eternal character actor Paul Walter Houser) as their hypothetical champion:

“Stingray,” Zabka said, referring to Paul Walter Houser’s character.

“Stingray all the way,” Macchio added. “He evolves and gets better every season.

Make it so. While Stingray isn’t the character that most people would ever guess could win things (especially after he did Terry Silver’s bidding to help frame John Kreese after that horrific beat down), he is still standing. And he’s a lot of fun in Season 5, which is one of many rad developments to enjoy on September 9. Happy binging!

(Via Comic Book)

It appears that the cast of Don’t Worry Darling has finally begun to worry as the movie receives mixed critical reviews, while also being overshadowed by the massive amount of drama surrounding the film (and SpitGate!). Now, the leading lady might be skipping out on the film’s New York premiere.

According to Rolling Stone, Florence Pugh will not be attending the September 19th premiere of the movie due to scheduling conflicts with the upcoming Dune film. This was also the stated reason why Pugh was unable to attend the Venice Film Festival press conference, although her Dune co-star Timothee Chalamet did have time to make weird remarks about life in Venice while wearing an over-the-top ensemble.

Sources for Rolling Stone claim that while it is Wilde’s movie, Pugh made her own decisions when it came to how much she was willing to promote. The source claimed there is friction between the director and star, though the reasons are unclear. Many fans also speculated that there was some sort of falling out on set.

It would be one thing if the movie was a masterpiece, but the reviews aren’t looking as positive as Wilde might have hoped for. Still, Pugh’s acting has been praised, so if there is one person to come out of this press cycle unscathed, it will probably be her. Or Chris Pine, depending on how the next few weeks go.

Don’t Worry Darling hits theaters on September 22nd.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Charlie Puth is teasing new music (among other things) this week. Ahead of his upcoming album, Charlie, which arrives next month, it appears he will drop a new single this week. He teased new music by way of a nude photo shared to Instagram and Twitter.

In the photo, a clothing-free Puth is seen standing in a mountainous area on a swing, with his bare backside facing the camera. The caption for the Instagram post reads, “What rhymes with Four,” while his tweet says, “Friday!!!”

This is just one of several scandalous photos Puth has shared on social media. Earlier this week, he shared a selfie in the mirror wearing nothing but tighty-whities, with his hand covering his bulge.

Back in May, he shared a shirtless photo with his pants pulled down just slightly revealing the top portion of his butt cheeks.

As the bouts of nudity would suggest, Puth revealed to Insider that he is showing his authentic self on his upcoming record.

“The difference is I’m not trying to be so cool. I’m not trying to pretend,” Puth said. “I’m not pretending to be the cool kid with the overly minimalistic, bare-sounding records that work for other artists, but didn’t necessarily work for me.”

Charlie is out 10/7 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Charlie Puth is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

For a big chunk of 2022, Kanye West has apparently been on the warpath, putting up a new Instagram post seemingly every hour lashing out at everyone from Pete Davidson to Adidas’ upper management. Longtime observers know this is nothing new; the only thing that’s changed is the format. Two years ago, it was Twitter that got the bulk of Kanye’s fury, but in a recent post on Instagram, he’s now denying one of his most viral tweets ever.

In 2020, Kanye was running for president — sorta — and after actress Jennifer Anniston pled with followers not to vote for him as a joke, he apparently retaliated with the one-liner to end all one-liners. “It’s not funny to vote for Kanye,” Anniston wrote in an Instagram caption. “Friends wasn’t funny either,” Kanye shot back.

On Monday, though, in the midst of a tirade against Adidas Senior VP Daniel Cherry, Kanye took a break from needling his self-appointed rival for Adidas’ soon-to-be-vacated CEO spot to clear the air about a fake viral post of his which accused Kim Kardashian of “having diarrhea a lot.” “This was not from me,” he insisted. “Someone copied my style of text and wrote something not funny.” Which I’m sure came as a relief to the Kardashian crew, what with all the other inane, childish accusations he’s made over the past few years.

But since he was already on a roll, he further admitted that he didn’t actually write the “Friends wasn’t funny” tweet — but he wishes he had.

This time, the post caught the eye of another Friends member, Courteney Cox, who posted her own slick response on Instagram. In the caption, she wrote, “I bet the old Kayne thought Friends was funny,” while in the video, she looks devastated by the new Kanye’s opinion on the fan-favorite ’90s artifact. You can check it out below.