Month: November 2022

Brenden Fraser never really went away — he’s done tremendous work in The Affair, Doom Patrol, and Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move – but The Whale is his first leading role in a movie since the early 2010s. It’s also director Darren Aronofsky’s first film in five years. Based on Samuel D. Hunter’s play, the internet-favorite The Mummy star plays a “reclusive English teacher who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter,” according to the official plot synopsis. Also, he weighs 600 pounds.

You can watch the trailer above.

“I developed muscles I did not know I had,” Fraser said about The Whale. “I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed; it was like stepping off the dock onto a boat in Venice. That [sense of] undulating. It gave me appreciation for those whose bodies are similar. You need to be an incredibly strong person, mentally and physically, to inhabit that physical being.”

The Whale has faced criticisms for having Fraser, who is neither obese nor gay, play an obese, gay man. “There was a chapter in the making of this film where we tried to research actors with obesity,” Aronofsky said. “Outside of not being able to find an actor who could pull off the emotions of the role, it just becomes a crazy chase. Like, if you can’t find a 600-pound actor, is a 300-pound actor or 400-pound actor enough?”

The Whale, which also stars Sadie Sink and Hong Chau, opens on December 9.

Shortly before his recent death, Takeoff was enjoying some chart success, with his and Quavo’s new album Only Built For Infinity Links achieving a peak at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. Since the former Migos member’s passing, fans have been listening to that album and his other work, which is reflected on the latest charts.

On the new Billboard 200 chart dated November 12, Only Built For Infinity Links remains high in the ranks at No. 12. Elsewhere, a few Takeoff-related projects have re-entered the chart: Migos’ Culture II is at No. 116 while Culture is at No. 193. Also, Takeoff’s only solo album, 2018’s The Last Rocket, re-enters at No. 189. Previously, Culture and Culture II peaked at No. 1 while The Last Rocket topped out at No. 4.

Drake recently took a moment to honor Takeoff, saying, “I’d just like to send our deepest condolences from the family to the entire QC, to our brother Quavo, to our brother Offset, to the friends and loved ones of the legendary, unprecedented Takeoff, a guy that I knew for a long, long time. I’m sure people know how we started, of course, with ‘Versace,’ and from there, you know, we formed a brotherhood. […] Tragic loss for all of us and… you know, a dark cloud over this business that we love so much.”

Taylor Swift has done some acting in her day, most notably in 2010’s Valentine’s Day, 2019’s Cats, and the recently released Amsterdam. Lately, though, fans have theorized that Swift is gearing up to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a role in Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3. The rumors became so prevalent that now Reynolds himself has addressed them.

In September, a teaser for Deadpool 3 was shared, and Swifties quickly noticed that it was shot in the same house where Swift filmed All Too Well: The Short Film. Combine that with the fact that Swift has long been friends with Reynolds and wife Blake Lively and we had ourselves a rumor on our hands.

However, ET asked Reynolds about all this on the red carpet for his new film Spirited yesterday (November 7) and he shut the rumor down. He joked, “If we shoot the next Deadpool film in our house, then that would be that location.”

Swift’s absence isn’t due to lack of interest from Reynolds, though, who responded when asked if he’d like Swift to be in the film, “Of course. Are you kidding me? I would do anything for that woman. She’s a genius.”

In case you missed the Deadpool 3 teaser, check it out below.

Turns out, rooting for the anti-hero can prove fruitful. For the second week in a row, Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” is the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100.

The past few weeks have shown to be historic for the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Last week, Taylor Swift occupied the entire top 10 with songs from her 10th studio album, Midnights, which is the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart for the second consecutive week. The week before, Sam Smith and Kim Petras made LGBTQ+ history, with Smith being the first openly non-binary person with a No. 1 hit, and Petras being the first openly transgender solo artist with a No. 1 hit, with their collaboration, “Unholy.” “Unholy” sits at No. 3 this week, and at No. 4 is “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy, another queer artist who reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart last month.

In other exciting news, Rihanna’s big musical comeback has proven to be worth the wait. After going six years without releasing solo music, her big comeback single, “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has debuted at No. 2.

The Rihanna Navy can also expect to hear another new song from her during the end credits of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which arrives in theaters this Friday (November 11).

Check out this week’s top 10 above.

Austin Theory is the latest WWE star to unsuccessfully cash in his Money in the Bank contract.

After months of teasing which belt he’d challenge for, including getting tossed around the ring by Brock Lesnar and showing up on NXT, Theory took advantage of Seth Rollins getting rag-dolled around the ring by Bobby Lashley to cash in for the United States title in the main event of Monday Night Raw.

Rollins was supposed to hold an open challenge for the belt, but Lashley attacked him before the match could get underway. After putting the champ through the announce table, Theory cashed in his briefcase and took the fight to Rollins, landing a pedigree only for the two count.

Unable to put him away, Theory then dropped Rollins with the A-Town Down for a two-count before Lashley arrived back at ringside and pulled the referee out of the ring.

With the referee out of the match, Lashley then pulled Theory out himself and destroyed him around ringside. After slamming him into the ring post a handful of times, Lashley locked in the Hurt Lock until Theory passed out. With the referee back up and standing, Theory made it into the ring before the 10 count only for Rollins to drop him with the Curb Stomp and retain his belt.

Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are buddies now. They’ve even done a movie or two together. But in the ‘80s and ‘90s they were competitors — hulking he-men duking it out for the title of king of action. Their rivalry was so heated that Schwarzenegger even tricked Stallone into making one of his most notorious movies.

Stallone sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about Tulsa King, his first leading role on a scripted TV show. Their wide-ranging chat stopped — in a bit teased out by The Daily Beast — on 1992’s Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, one of the more embarrassing parts of his filmography. The buddy comedy, which paired him with Estelle Getty, was, he said, “supposed to be like Throw Momma From the Train with the mom as this really nasty piece of work.”

Alas, Getty was “the nicest woman in Hollywood,” which might have made for a fun shoot but didn’t result in laughs. Stallone said he had heard Schwarzenegger had been interested in the movie, which prompted him to “beat him to it.” The movie was a critical and commercial punching bag, leading Stallone to opine, “I think he set me up.”

Spoiler: He did. THR reached out to Schwarzenegger, to ask if he had indeed set him up. “It’s 100 percent true,” Schwarzenegger replied. “In those days we did all kinds of crazy things to get ahead in our rivalry. Luckily for us and everyone else, today, we root for each other. Thank God, because we sure don’t ever need another Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.”

The film wound up being Stallone’s second comedy bomb in a row, after the period farce Oscar, from the previous year. Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, didn’t make a movie in 1992, but that’s okay: He was still riding high from 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Alas, he had the underperforming Last Action Hero on the horizon, while Stallone had a comeback hit with Cliffhanger.

Elsewhere in the interview, Stallone — who sat out the forthcoming Creed III — discusses why he’s not a comic book movie leading man (though he can do a comic book movie as a talking shark) and reveals that he turned down a hefty pay day for Rambo IV, before returning to the role nearly two decades later.

(Via THR and The Daily Beast)

Post Malone‘s “Twelve Carat” tour may have been met with several mishaps — including falling through a hole on stage, having difficulty breathing, and being heckled by passersby as he was meeting with fans — but he has also had many joyful moments while touring. Throughout the tour, he has helped a couple reveal the gender of their baby, and he even beat Celtics player Marcus Smart in a game of beer pong backstage.

In his latest tour stunt, Post officiated a queer wedding on stage at the tour’s Seattle stop.

In a TikTok shared by a friend of the couple, Post asks them if they take each other as each other’s lawfully wedded spouses. The couple then shares a kiss in front of a cheering crowd.

The TikTokker who posted the video said the couple plans to have an official celebration sometime next year, and now, she is currently trying to get Post to come to the actual ceremony.

While tour has been demanding for Post, he says he still finds time to relax in between stops. This mostly comes by way of watching reruns of an iconic sitcom, as he revealed in a recent interview for GQ.

“I watch literally every episode of Modern Family every single day,” Post said. “Every day, I start on season one, episode one, and then by the time I go to bed… Because I just leave it on as background noise, as well, whenever I’m not even deliberately watching. But by the time I fall asleep, I’m done with season eight already.”

Check out the clip above.

The Portland Trail Blazers have gotten off to a fast start to the season, entering Monday night’s game in Miami at 6-3 on the young season and got a boost in the form of the return of Damian Lillard after a four-game absence with a calf strain.

Miami took an 8-point lead into the fourth quarter and it seemed like Portland just might not have the juice against the Heat’s swarming defense, but the Blazers came alive in the fourth, scoring 37 points in the final quarter to storm back and take a late lead. After going up three on a pair of Lillard free throws, the Heat had 10 seconds to find an answer and got it in the form of an outrageous Max Strus three over a heavy contest in the corner.

Instead of calling a timeout, Chauncey Billups left the game in the hands of Lillard, who drove up the floor and found a wide open Josh Hart in the corner for the buzzer-beater to give Portland a 110-107 comeback win.

It’s a great play by Lillard to attack downhill and not settle for a contested three (which he’s certainly capable of making) and he draws all of Miami’s attention, blowing by Jimmy Butler and Duncan Robinson, with Kyle Lowry stepping out towards him and never even considering staying with Hart in the corner. Lowry’s contest comes too late as Hart has already let go of the dagger.

It’s a big win for Portland, which continues to prove to be a nightmare to deal with on a nightly basis, as they just keep coming at you and, when the shots start to fall, the offense can be lethal. On the other side, it’s another tough loss for Miami, dropping them to 4-7 on the season as they just cannot quite get it all going at once and will continue their search for consistency with a back-to-back against a struggling Charlotte team next.

Three months and ten billion scandals ago, Donald Trump’s resort home was searched by the feds. They emerged with boxes of government documents, some of them highly classified. In the wake of the search, Trump’s story kept changing. He claimed he’d declassified them with his mind. He accused the agents of planting them. He even railed over agents not taking off their shoes in his home. To make matters worse, Trump keeps accidentally blurting out confessions.

At a rally in Miami on Sunday, Trump did what he always does: rant to his devoted followers about his personal problems. He’s got a lot of them, including the ongoing Justice Department investigation, which could end with him indicted on a very serious crime. Trump tried to get ahead of this issue by turning the tables on the FBI, who he said “violated” his “Fourth Amendment rights.” He then kept talking.

“Presidents leave, they take things, they take documents, they take things, they read them,” he told the crowd. “Nobody else has ever gone through this.”

Couple things. One, no American president in history has ever taken government documents with them after leaving office. Second, if the Justice Department was looking for a confession, him all but saying he took top secret documents with him is close to the real deal, as some noted.

This isn’t the first time Trump has inadvertently incriminating himself while discussing the Mar-a-Lago search. A few after it happened, he took to his rinky dink Twitter clone, where he managed to basically reveal that his lawyer had lied to the feds about the placement of said boxes.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Coming through with more surprises during her Midnights era, Taylor Swift has dropped an updated version of her buzzy new single, “Anti-Hero.” The new version features Bleachers and contains a new verse by the band’s frontman Jack Antonoff, who also co-produced Midnights. The instrumental has also been updated, and now sounds more electronic and synth-driven.

The first verse and the chorus remain the same, however, Antonoff’s verse replaces Swift’s second.

“Sometimes, I feel like everybody is an art bro, lately / And I just change them on the hill / Too hurt to hang out, talking shit about your famous baby / Pierced through the heart of 90’s guilt,” he sings.

Antonoff and Swift have collaborated several times throughout their respective careers, and he has contributed to the production on every single one of her albums since her 2014 record, 1989.

In an interview with Billboard last year, Antonoff detailed their musical chemistry and praised Swift’s craft.

“Nobody does it like her,” said Antonoff. “And at the core of all of this, all of these things are only interesting because of the brilliance of the songs. I think it just it restores my faith in that, more than anything.”

You can purchase the “Anti-Hero” remix exclusively on Taylor Swift’s website.