Month: September 2022

The world learned today that Hugh Jackman was definitively reprising his role as Wolverine for Deadpool 3, but director Shawn Levy has had to keep his mouth sewn shut about it for weeks now. Fortunately, his experience working on a highly spoilable show taught him the zen-ish patience needed for such silence. He tweeted “I want to take minute to thank #StrangerThings for training me to keep my big mouth shut. This news has been burning a hole in my lips for weeks now.”

To be fair, Stranger Things is a fantastic training ground for keeping your mouth shut. It’s a global phenomenon with tons of fun/horrifying reveals that millions of internet sleuths are salivating over. That’s the kind of pressure that can turn a motor mouth filmmaker into a patient secret keeper.

Even cooler, a fan unearthed Levy talking about the potential for Deadpool and Wolverine to get together earlier this year when he was doing press for The Adam Project. He raved about wanting to be the one to get Reynolds and Jackman on screen together (again), and it looks like the mystical fairies beyond The Secret heard and answered him. Sometimes you put something out into the universe, and it comes back to you with a foul-mouthed pansexual playing buddy copy with The Wolverine. It also helps that Levy directed Reynolds in Free Guy and directed Jackman in Real Steel, so he probably already had their phone numbers.

(via MovieWeb)

Eight days ago, Aaron Judge blasted his 60th home run of the season, becoming the first Major League Baseball player to reach that number since 2001 and moving one home run away from tying Roger Maris’ mark for the American League record (which is seventh overall on the MLB single season record book).

Since then, every at-bat from Judge has been a big deal, with networks like ESPN cutting in to other coverage to show his at-bats live waiting for his 61st home run. A week of waiting amid one of Judge’s longest home run droughts of the season finally provided that moment on Wednesday night when Judge broke a 3-3 tie in Toronto with a two-run blast to left center off of Tim Mayza in the seventh inning.

It was a no-doubter off the bat from Judge, who now can avoid the questions of when he’ll hit another home run — while also coming with the benefit of being a very important home run for the Yankees in a tie game late. He now moves into a tie with Maris, 61 years after the Yankee great hit his 61st home run in 1961 — for those who like numerology. Judge has a chance to climb a bit further up the list as well, with Sammy Sosa’s 63 and 64 home run seasons from 1999 and 2001 being in play as he could very realistically move into the top-5 all-time, although Barry Bonds’ 73 figure will almost assuredly remain untouched.

As for the ball itself, those hoping to catch their lottery ticket fell short when three grown men with gloves in the front row all missed the ball as it caromed just below the railing in front of them.

Coolio is dead at 59, according to TMZ. The outlet has reported that manager Jarez said that the rapper, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was found on the bathroom floor of a friend’s house on Wednesday, September 21, after excusing himself. His friend called for him and then eventually checked and called EMTs. Coolio was pronounced dead on the scene with EMTs suspecting that he suffered cardiac arrest.

There’s no further information at this time, but fans are mourning on Twitter and sharing their favorite Coolio songs, including the Kenan & Kel theme song. He was most known for being a rapper, especially for his ’90s albums It Takes a Thief, Gangsta’s Paradise, and My Soul. He was also a record producer and actor.

In our 2016 interview with him, we asked what he wanted to be remembered for when he was gone. He answered, “Hey, the only thing I truly wanna be remembered for: I want people to say that he was a real motherf*cker that was hella cool. I wanna be remembered for just being a cool ass person. And being intelligent. If people don’t remember my music, my cooking, or my film work, it doesn’t matter. I just want people to say, ‘That was a cool motherf*cker and he always tried to educate me. He was always talking about something that was gonna make me a better person.’ I said it once and I will say it again: Don’t do as I do, do as I say. I’ve made hella mistakes in my life, and I’ll probably make some more. Those that I try to teach, they’re not allowed to make the same mistakes that I’ve made — that’s why I’ve made them so you don’t have to.”

There’s a good chance that the ongoing drama between Akbar V and Cardi B will never end. The beef intensified on Wednesday when Akbar V teased a snippet of what sounds like a diss track on Twitter. It’s a new account — as her last one was suspended — and was verified through her Instagram account.

The replies are, of course, mixed and aggressive, whether at Akbar herself or with each other. Some are calling it a flop; others are excited for the tea to get even hotter. You know how it is.

If you’re new here, here’s a recap of how it started: Akbar V is, like Cardi B, a rapper with an origin rooted in the Love & Hip-Hop universe. Hailing from Atlanta, this 33-year-old rapper has had a rough childhood but has been using the exposure from the show to slowly build an audience for her music, partly in order to turn her life around. Over the weekend, Cardi received a ton of attention for featuring on buzzing Memphis rapper GloRilla’s new song “Tomorrow 2.” Akbar V tweeted, “If @chartdata ain’t say it we ain’t believing the CAP,” referring to the song’s hype and the popular account that aggregates album song performance listings from DSPs and Billboard‘s charts.

It only got worse from there: “Count all the times chart data posted u,” Cardi wrote. “I don’t really like the internet games… My dms is open and also the streets!” After lots of Twitter fights, it reached a new level when Cardi shared a video from Akbar’s leaked sex tape. And now here we are.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Brett Favre is currently embroiled in a massive scandal involving the misallocation of welfare funds by the state of Mississippi, in which Favre received $1.1 million in welfare money for speaking engagements he never went to, and took years to pay that money back — with the state still alleging he owes more than $200,000 in interest.

However, recently it has been discovered in an federal investigation into the matter that Favre’s involvement in the scandal runs deeper than the money he received for speaking engagements, as he played a major role in funneling $5 million in welfare funds in the poorest state in the country to Southern Miss athletics to build a new volleyball facility at the time his daughter was getting set to go to USM to play volleyball. Text messages from Favre indicate that he was well aware of where the funds were coming from — despite his public insistence he didn’t — and every new finding paints the ex-NFL legend in an even worse light.

The latest twist in the story shows that Favre’s insistence on funneling money into USM athletics wasn’t just in pushing welfare money to the school’s athletic department, but also taking money from his own charity, Favre 4 Hope, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to USM athletics while doling out much smaller amounts to organizations that actually work in the areas the charity claims to provide aid — which is organizations that help disadvantaged children, as well as nonprofits that offer assistance to breast cancer patients — per The Athletic.

In the same years Favre was soliciting money to build the volleyball facility, his charitable foundation, which received public donations, significantly increased its contributions to USM’s athletic fundraising arm. Tax records show that Favre 4 Hope gave the USM Athletic Foundation $60,000 in 2018, when no other charity received more than $10,000. The next year, it gave $46,817; the next highest gift, to the Special Olympics of Mississippi, was $11,000. In 2020, Favre 4 Hope sent USM’s Athletic Foundation $26,175; no other organization received more than $10,000.

For those keeping track at home, that is now state-allocated money for poor Mississippians as well as money raised for disadvantaged children and breast cancer patients that Favre has worked diligently to put into Southern Miss’ athletic program instead.

Disney’s next big live-action (plus CGI) remake of one of their animated classics is The Little Mermaid, and it’s making one big change: Ariel, its aquatic hero, is played by a Black performer. That’s good news for Black kids, who will see themselves represented onscreen in a beloved story. It’s bad news for another group, though: racists. Just as bigots have gotten in a big stink over the diverse cast of The Rings of Power and a single Black performer in Obi-Wan Kenobi, they’re up in arms over a story about a fictional character who’s half-human, half-fish. And one of its producer is joining in the pushback to this particular pushback.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, no stranger to revolutionary diverse casting, spoke to Variety about the latest racist hoopla, and he wasn’t having it. He talked up how great Halle Bailey, who was cast as Ariel all the way back in 2019, was going to be as the creature in love with a human.

“She is going to blow them away,” Miranda promised. “If that’s the thing that makes you mad, then stay mad. But examine your choices.”

After years of non-white actors having to absorb abuse from racist trolls, there’s been a marked shift in how studios and fellow performers react. In the past, the plan was to say nothing except some quiet words of support. Now the likes of Disney and Amazon have returned fire. But not all the to-dos concerning The Little Mermaid have been bleak-o-rama: People are still making jokes about how Halle Bailey’s name sounds an awful lot like that of a certain Oscar-winning actress.

The Little Mermaid hits theaters on May 26, 2023.

(Via Variety)

When Micheal Jackson released “Smooth Criminal” in 1988, I was a 13-year-old named Annie. As you can imagine, the “Annie, are you okay?” jokes came fast and furious, and they haven’t let up much in the three and a half decades since.

It’s all good. Those jokes gave me a respite from the “Annie get your gun” and “little orphan Annie” ones, and besides, it’s a great song. It wasn’t Jackson’s biggest hit, but it was always my favorite, and not just because it bore my name. The music video—a nine-minute, dance-heavy mini-movie set in the 1930s gangster era—made it even better.

But apparently, mentioning “Smooth Criminal” or “Annie, are you okay?” to the younger folks doesn’t conjure up the zoot suits and dimly lit speakeasy images it does for me. For them, it brings up images of an alternative rock punk band playing in a … boxing ring?

In 2001, a band called Alien Ant Farm did an alternative/punk cover of “Smooth Criminal” that has repeatedly gone viral since then. In fact, it went viral in June 2022 and then again this week, when Lindz McLeod on Twitter asked if anyone would recognize the lyrics, “Annie are you okay, are you okay, Annie?” without looking them up. (Ahem.) Some people, seriously or jokingly, pointed to the Alien Ant Farm cover as the source.

The Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal” video is actually an homage to Michael Jackson, though the folks that didn’t grow up in the MJ era may miss many of the small details that point to him. Watch and see how many Michael Jackson references you can find:

The kid dancing while wearing a mask has a whole different feel now than it did when the video came out, for sure. Seems downright prescient, in hindsight.

The masked kid was the one part of the Alien Ant Farm video that Michael Jackson himself took issue with at first. (Michael Jackson would often wear a face mask in public, long before it became a pandemic habit.) The band shared that story in an interview with Los Angeles Times:

“When you asked if we had any reservations of how it would be received, the only person we were mindful of was Michael Jackson himself. We were kind of worried. We sent the video to MJ to get his nod of approval. And he commented back that he didn’t really dig the kid with the mask. I think MJ wore that mask because of all of his failed surgeries. We were like, ‘Oh s—, maybe we should remove it.’ We were already on tour. But a few weeks later, the director of the video [Marc Klasfeld] went to the same street, got a bunch of the extras together and reshot the dancing kid without the mask. We went through quite a bit of money and bulls— to make sure that we were appeasing Michael Jackson. We sent it back to him a few weeks later with the kid with no mask and he said, ‘You know what? I like it better with the mask!'”

The Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal” video has racked up a whopping 257 million views on YouTube alone since it was shared in 2009. People say it’s a perfect representation of the early 2000s, both the sound and the visuals.

Some people have also said they prefer the Alien Ant Farm version to the original, which feels a bit blasphemous, but whatever. It’s a great cover—the band did an admirable job of keeping the overall elements of the original while adding their own sound to it—but there’s just nothing like Michael Jackson’s original. Enjoy:

The Dirty Martini is a true classic. The elixir of dry gin, dry vermouth (the two key ingredients of a “dry” martini), and olive brine work wonders together in a glass. The collision of dry botanicals, mild sweetness, a little Angostura for patina, and earthy/umami-forward olive brine create a multi-layered and deeply flavorful take on a very clean drink like a martini. It’s the perfect balance of sweet, savory, and botanical … when done right.

All of that said, the drink does feel like something a suspender-wearing hip bartender invented in the early twenty-aughts. I assure you, it’s not. The actual cocktail goes back to around 1901 at least. Famed four-time President Franklin Delano Roosevelt loved dirty martinis so much that they were the official White House pour during his administration. The point is, this is a very old and beloved cocktail that stands the test of time and generations of palates have fallen in love with it.

For this recipe, I’m taking it from “dirty” to “Filthy” by using a brand of great cocktail mixers and condiments I kind of randomly bumped into at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. I come from a very old-school cocktail culture and am, admittedly, stuck in my ways and brands sometimes. But this stuff really popped when I tried it at Tales this year. So I thought it was high time that I actually folded some into my at-home cocktail making.

Let’s get stirring!

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“Filthy” Martini

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. American dry gin (plus a splash)
• 0.5 oz. dry vermouth
• 0.5 oz. Filthy Olive Brine
• 1 dash of Angostura Bitters
• Ice
• 2 Filthy Blue Cheese Olives

I’m using Still Austin’s American Dry Gin. It’s very craft but has a beautifully distinct botanical profile that leans more toward spice bark than juniper. It’s kind of like a walk through the high desert on a fall day when all the trees are tightening up for winter. As for the vermouth, I’m going very old-school with some Noilly Prat Extra Dry. The French vermouth is subtle, floral, and just kissed with vanilla flowers.

Then there’s the olive component. Any Dirty Martini deserves good olive brine and great olives. That’s why I’m going with Filthy here. They’ve devised olive brine on its own for mixing with cocktails with a little extra oomph that helps the brine pop on the palate. Also, I love a good blue cheese green olive for my martini and this is a good one that you don’t have to make yourself (I’ve spent a large portion of my life stuffing Stilton into green olives behind bars). You should be able to find these easily at local liquor stores and grocery stores.

What You’ll Need:

• Lowball glass, cocktail glass, Nick and Nora, or coupe
• Cocktail mixing jug/jar
• Cocktail strainer
• Barspoon
• Jigger
• Spear

Method:

• Prechill the glass in the freezer.
• Add the gin, vermouth, bitters, and olive brine to the mixing glass. Add a large handful of ice and stir until the glass is ice cold to touch (at least 30 seconds).
• Fetch the glass from the freezer and strain the cocktail into the glass.
• Spear two olives and drop in. Serve.

Bottom Line:

This is a big “hell, yeah!” from me. I used to drink one of these every night during my break around 1 am, between the second and third rush of the night. This took me right back. The layers of deep almost MSG-levels of umami with bright and botanical gin with a slight floral note next to wild sage and dry pine just work. There’s complexity, sure. But this is all about ease. The sip is luxurious and supple with a sense of earthiness next to spicy woods with a blanket of mushrooms creating a floor below.

I really like this drink. Give it a shot at home. I think you’ll like it too, especially if you’re looking for a well-layered journey through spice, sweetness, and umami.

According to The Wrap, Kevin Bacon is the latest star to join the stacked cast of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley. There’s no information on what character he’ll be playing, so it’s unclear whether he’ll need to regrow his outrageously wonderful Cop Car mustache.

The movie, produced by Netflix and Jerry Bruckheimer, has pulled in the original cast including Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, John Ashton and Bronson Pinchot.

Has no one called Ronny Cox and Lisa Eilbacher? Time’s a’wasting, Mr. Bruckheimer. Let’s get serious.

The fresh blood includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige, and while filming has already started, there will almost certainly not be a plot synopsis until we get a trailer. After all, with a property like this, there’s no reason to give any information because the name and the cast really sell it as is. No doubt it will involve a case so tough that Foley — now thoroughly too old for this shit — will be called in alongside the old gang to nab the bad guys (who is hopefully Kevin Bacon with his Cop Car mustache).

The fourth film of the franchise comes out amid the same nostalgia wave that produced Coming 2 America and Top Gun: Maverick (whose naming convention is 1000% being copied here). Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley will most likely hit Netflix in 2023, and, if it’s popular enough, we can hold out some hope for Beverly Hills Cop: Rosewood to follow shortly after.

(via The Wrap)

As with most children’s programming that bleeds into mainstream popularity, Barney was a character of pure joy and love that teens and adults were happy to mock. Portrayed by Bob West, the happy purple dinosaur was the brainchild of Sheryl Leach. Leach invented Barney out of raw necessity after noting that her son had very little entertainment aimed as his age range. When the series launched at PBS in 1992, it was an unmitigated smash hit and ultimately ran for 268 episodes over 14 seasons. Obviously, it also lodged itself into the cultural consciousness of every parent and late show host from coast to coast. Also, apparently some people turned violent over it.

That’s the story docuseries I Love You, You Hate Me seeks to tell, and the trailer is a wild, wild ride. It’s like Death to Smoochy if the audience were the bad guys, and the team behind the hit children’s show were actually pretty cool and normal. A Reverse Smoochy, if you will.

Granted, a lot of the violent imagery aimed at Barney came in the form of what amounts to pre-internet sh*t posting. It was goofy to overlay illicit and taboo ideas over an icon so wholesome. Yet as the Peacock docuseries trailer hints at, there was some real malice behind the drug rumors and threats of death and dismemberment.

I Love You, You Hate Me hits Peacock October 12th, giving us only a short time to consider this vital question: how scummy do you have to be to make Barney fear for his life?