Month: November 2022

Halloween was yesterday, which means today, we start looking forward to Christmas. That’s what Mariah Carey is doing in a new video, anyway.

The video starts with a black-and-white clip of Carey riding a stationary bike in a witch get-up, presumably a reference to the famous Wizard Of Oz scene. All the while, calendar dates progress towards the end of October as Carey starts laughing maniacally. Once they finally hit November, the scene transitions to Carey wearing a Santa-like suit and sitting on a reindeer, and she sings in a whistle register, “It’s time!” She captioned the video, “IT’S TIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!! [Christmas tree emoji] [party popper emoji] [heart emoji] #MariahSZN.”

Carey’s enthusiasm for the holiday season is completely understandable. After all, her 1994 hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has gone No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during each of the past three holiday seasons and in each of the past four years (2019 to 2022). Already, the song is building up momentum again: As of this morning, it’s back in the top 40 of the US iTunes chart.

The singer has already announced plans for this holiday season, too. They include Christmas concerts in New York and Toronto for mid-December, as well as a brand new children’s book, The Christmas Princess.

Saweetie get personal in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, opening up about her breakup with Migos rapper Quavo, meditation, and her upcoming projects — The Single Life and Pretty B*tch Music, which are expected to debut before the end of the year.

The California rapper revealed that both projects will trek though her journey with heartbreak, bouncing back, and reclaiming her single womanhood.

“I’m excited to share what I went through,” Saweetie told RS. “I think as I was making it, I was more proud to be single. Because I realized that I was growing, I realized that I was elevating. And I realized that I was becoming a better woman.”

Later, Saweetie shared how meditation has been the “antidote to her heartbreak,” helping her find inner peace amid the storm. “If you can’t be by yourself, I think it’s a reflection of how you feel internally,” she said.

Currently, there are no release dates for The Single Life or Pretty Bitch Music, but Saweetie wants fans to know they won’t have to wait much longer.

“She’s coming,” Saweetie said in regards to PBM. “She’s still in the womb, I haven’t popped her out. I want to thank my fans for patiently waiting. It’s been a year. It’s been a while. I’ve been recording officially for a year, non-stop.”

Rina Sawayama dropped by Late Night With Seth Meyers for a special Halloween performance of her single, “Frankenstein,” and she sure brought the spooky energy. With purple fog, green lighting, and an all-black outfit, Sawayama’s live take of the track was truly electrifying. She even committed to the theme, with hair reminiscent of the Bride Of Frankenstein. If you perform on a holiday, it just has to be great. And it was.

“Her US tour kicks off tomorrow night with two sold-out shows here in New York,” Meyers introduced Sawayama before the song started, referencing her two shows at the Great Hall at Avant Gardner in Brooklyn. Her North American tour continues through the winter, with a continued leg in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe in 2023. More information is available here.

“Frankenstein” appears on Sawayama’s sophomore album, Hold The Girl. “I wanted to write about how I’ve relied on my partner to help put me back together, but I realized it’s no one’s job but mine,” she said of the song in a statement. It also recently received a music video, which finds the boss b*tch version of herself dancing — while the original is locked in the bathroom.

Watch Sawayama perform “Frankenstein” on Late Night above.

Margot Robbie has played an Olympic figure skater, a baseball bat-wielding anti-hero, and the “hottest blonde ever.” But her most demanding performance is still to come.

“I’ve never worked that hard in my life,” Robbie told the Wall Street Journal about her role in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, where she plays “fully animalistic” 1920s actress Nellie LaRoy. “[I was] shattered by the end of that job.” She channeled two animals to prepare for the part: an octopus (“She could be both fluid and transformative”) and a honey badger (“She is ready for a fight — constantly. They’re just so thick skinned”).

Chazelle praised Robbie for being “utterly fearless,” adding, “There’s this sort of ravenous physical bravado to her. On the other hand, she’s also the most technically skilled thespian you could hope to work with as a director.”

Robbie, who will follow her role in Babylon by portraying Barbie in the most important movie of 2023, also discussed the “hottest blonde ever” designation, which is how her The Wolf of Wall Street character was described in the script. “I was going to have to show people that I could do something different,” she said. “I didn’t want to get pigeonholed.”

Babylon comes out on December 23.

(Via the Wall Street Journal)

‘Tis the season to role play! While Halloween has become synonymous with ghouls, gore, and all things spooky, it’s also a time for the flattered to do the flattering. As many of our favorite musical acts rushed to social media to share their over-the-top costumes, none quite stood out like that of Metallica legend James Hetfield.

Instead of opting for a gruesome getup, the Grammy winner traveled back in time to cosplay as himself, or at least the Stranger Things version of himself. Sporting a denim jacket with leather sleeves, faded black jeans, high-top Air Force Ones, and a Hellfire Club graphic tee, Hetfield stepped into the role of Eddie Munson effortlessly.

Since the character’s debut on the show, Munson, a magnetic metalhead, electric guitar player, and leader of the Hellfire Club has drawn comparisons to Hetfield, most notably for performing “Master Of Puppets” on the program.

While some fans were upset by the portrayal calling for supporters of the group to boycott the show, the vocalist seemed quite flattered.
Supportive fans joined in on the joke writing, “James was doing this look in the early 80s of course he’ll nail it,” and, “Eddie modeling himself after James Hetfield [then] James Hetfield dressing up as Eddie for Halloween it all comes full circle.”

If Hetfield likes it, we love it.

If Keke Palmer is angling for a role in Marvel’s reboot of the X-Men, the Nope star just came out swinging hard. For this year’s Halloween costume, Palmer dressed up as Rogue, and she showed off the end product in a set of stunning photos that would look right at home in a Marvel movie. Palmer went for Rogue’s classic look from the comics, which has been all the rage in the MCU lately. She even threw in an homage to the X-Men’s original costumes from the ’60s for a particularly eye-popping and nerdy touch.

Palmer also dropped a hilarious video where she couldn’t help but make a joke about “going Rogue” on some ass. More importantly, she nailed Rogue’s southern accent and her “Sorry, sugar” line delivery sounds right out of the ’90s animated series.

Palmer also shared her Rogue costume on Twitter where Marvel fans went freaking bananas. It didn’t take long before people starting demanding that Kevin Feige cast Palmer as the iconic mutant because she clearly has the looks for the part and the acting chops. Palmer recently crushed it in Nope, so she’s ready for some more blockbuster action.

Anna Paquin played Rogue in the original X-Men movies, but due to rights issues, that interpretation of the character had to stray away from the source of Rogue’s powers. In the comics, she gained her strength and flying ability by absorbing Captain Marvel‘s powers, so it’ll be interesting to see if the MCU goes that route now that it has all the Marvel characters under one roof and a fantastic Keke Palmer waiting in the wings.

(Via Keke Palmer on Instagram)

Lauren Boebert has been hitting the campaign trail hard with only one week left to go before Election Day. Her reelection bid might actually be in jeopardy, given that her rival, Adam Frisch, has reportedly achieved a statistical tie. So, there’s lots of rootin’ and tootin’ to be done before November 7, and part of that time led to a what appears to be a freedom-themed Trunk or Treat-style event in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

Things got political, which is no surprise, but the Rifle Republican decided to turn the candy-collecting custom into a lesson on taxation while posting photos. “Happy Halloween! Enjoy this time with your friends and family,” Boebert tweeted. “Parents don’t forget to teach your kids about taxes by taking a portion of their loot! Let me know how much they think is fair. Hint: It’s much less than what Democrats take.”

Never mind that kids and parents share everything anyway, and these kids are gonna pass out after having a sugar high and major crash, so it’s all very silly. Still, Boebert wants to be contentious about Halloween, and this is leading to the same effect as when she tried to lecture Twitter followers about church vs. state or called for ending the Education Department. People rarely forget to remind her about how she acquired a GED mere months before winning her congressional election. Again, there’s nothing wrong with a GED, but Boebert tends to readily hand out ammunition for roasting.

People were swift to hop onto Boebert with reminders that her paycheck essentially comes from taxpayers’ wallets. She has also spoken about growing up on welfare as an origin story of sorts, and an inspiration for attempting to change the future. Still, she’s apparently messy with her money trail, which led to reports that she paid restaurant bills with campaign dollars. So, there are accusations of hypocrisy here, along with mentions of Rick Scott backpeddling on a plan to increase taxes for low-income Americans.

People also offered up their actual insight in how they teach their own kids about taxes.

A few “trickle down” jokes surfaced as well.

Boebert didn’t dress in costume for the above trunk-or-treat event, but she did do Halloween as Cruella de Vil in 2021.

Warner Music Group (of which Uproxx is an independent subsidiary) drafted and published an open letter in The New York Times today titled “Art on Trial: Protect Black Art” demanding the end of the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials. The letter was also published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which serves the region where Young Thug and Gunna of YSL Records — also Warner artists — are awaiting trial in a high-profile racketeering case which famously uses the rappers’ lyrics as evidence of their membership in a criminal conspiracy.

And while WMG drafted the document, it was cosigned by all three major labels including Sony Music Group and Universal Music Group, as well as affiliates, competitors, and partners such as AEG Presents, BMG Live Nation, SiriusXM, Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube Music. Artists who added their signatures to the letter include representatives of all three labels and multiple genres, such as 2 Chainz, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Camila Cabello, Christina Aguilera, Coldplay, DJ Khaled, Drake, Future, J. Cole, Jack Harlow, John Legend, Killer Mike, Lil Baby, Mary J. Blige, Megan Thee Stallion, Morgan Wallen, Omar Apollo, Post Malone, Questlove, Roddy Ricch, T.I., Travis Scott and Ty Dolla Sign.

“More than any other art form, rap lyrics are essentially being used as confessions in an attempt to criminalize Black creativity and artistry,” the letter reads.

So-called “Rap On Trial” laws have been proposed at both the state and federal levels seeking to limit the use of rap lyrics as evidence, as high-profile cases like the ones for YSL, several New York drill rappers, and Baton Rouge rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again critically placed rappers’ rhymes at the forefront. California signed one such bill into law just a few months ago. Taking raps at face value when they could just as easily be fictional, exaggerated, editorialized, or metaphorical runs the risk of not just limiting artistic expression but putting innocent creators at risk of conviction solely because of the content they choose to rap about (do all these District Attorneys really think Lupe Fiasco has a giant robot???).

Hopefully, with so much of the recording industry pushing to end this practice, those prosecutors will at least think twice before issuing indictments based solely on star power and a few references from a song or two. You can read the full letter here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Weird Al Yankovic’s new biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, is out on Roku starting on November 4. With Daniel Radcliffe playing the famous accordion parody star, Yankovic is releasing an original song for the soundtrack called “Now You Know.” According to Decider, it also features the lyric, “This song is technically eligible for Oscar consideration!” — which he was hoping to be nominated for.

However, he tells the publication that Roku is not submitting his new song for Oscar consideration, much to his dismay. “I’ve been begging Roku for months to make that happen,” Yankovic said. “All that needs to happen is the movie needs to play in a small theater in Los Angeles for one week. That’s all that needs to happen. And Roku does not want to do that.”

He notes that they do plan to submit it for Emmy consideration — which would’ve deemed it ineligible had they submitted Yankovic’s song for the Oscars.

“It breaks my heart. I figured this is my one chance at an Oscar nomination,” he continued. “I don’t agree with this logic, but they say that they’re in the TV business, not the movie business. So they would rather have a Creative Arts Emmy than an Oscar, is what I was told. So again, it feels like weird logic to me, but I have to accept that. I don’t hold any grudges. I mean, I’m just thankful the movie got made.” Reps from Roku confirmed the lack of submission to Decider.

Even the stars of Radcliffe and Evan Rachel Wood (who plays Madonna) are backing Yankovic on Team Oscar. “I’d like to just once again plug that Al should win an Oscar for the song,” Radcliffe told Entertainment Weekly last month.

Following last year’s Friends reunion special, there was a significant amount of concern for Matthew Perry after he appeared to be slurring his words and not entirely on his game. In his new memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry reveals what really happened behind the scenes and the ghastly health issue that almost made him miss the reunion entirely. The anecdote backs up previous claims that Perry had emergency dental surgery, but this time with all the unpleasant details.

Via Variety:

“I took a bite into a piece of toast with peanut butter smeared on it, and all my top teeth fell out. Yes, all of them. A quick pop to the dentist was in short order — I am, after all, an actor, and should have all my teeth in my mouth, not in a Baggie in the pocket of my jeans,” he wrote. “But disaster struck and major work was needed. The dentist had to remove every single one of my teeth — including the implants that were nailed into my jaw — and then replace them all with new ones.”

As Variety reports, Perry told ABC Dateline last week that the surgery is why he appeared to be slurring on the Friends reunion special. The actor, who played Chandler Bing on the hit series, had the procedure done just “days” for reuniting with his old co-stars and he did his best despite getting all of his teeth replaced.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is available for purchase today.

(Via Variety)