Year: 2022

The Trump family’s penchant for skirting the law and behaving as if no rules at all apply to them might be finally catching up with them. Maybe… On Thursday, New York State Judge Arthur F. Engoron ordered Donald Trump and two of his spawn, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, to appear in front of investigators and answer questions.

A two-hour hearing turned into what onlookers might have called the Trump Circus when the former president’s lawyer dragged every tool out of his legal toolbox in order to prevent his client and his kids from having to recount their various possible shady dealings. As The Daily Beast wrote:

Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka must now “appear for a deposition within 21 days” and “comply in full” by turning over documents, Engoron wrote in his order. He found the Trumps’ legal arguments “unavailing,” and affirmed the New York AG’s ability to continue investigating “copious evidence of possible financial fraud.”

But just because the judge issued his order (which you can read here) doesn’t mean that the Trumps won’t continue fighting it. According to The Daily Beast, Ronald P. Fischetti—Trump’s lawyer—has already signaled that he will appealing Engoron’s decision. In the meantime, this is just one of many cases against Trump and his family.

“The former president and his family are fighting an increasingly fierce legal maelstrom,” The Daily Beast writes. “Local prosecutors in Atlanta, the District of Columbia, and Manhattan are investigating abuse of power and shady business deals. All of the cases are heating up.”

The courtroom histrionics are apparently all at the behest of Trump. “Trump has said he wants bombast [from his attorneys] as they’re defending him against this New York ‘witch hunt,’” a source who has spoken with Trump about the New York City probes shared with The Daily Beast. “This is something he usually expects from his higher-profile lawyers and the ones who don’t deliver on that usually don’t stick around that long.”

Which might explain why The Daily Beast reported that Fischetti was “later seen squeezing a stress ball at his desk.” Does that count as a write-off?

(Via The Daily Beast)

Once again, Chris Brown finds himself in potential trouble with the law. According to Miami’s NBC 6, the singer is being investigated for allegations of battery by two women for separate incidents that occurred more than a year ago in Miami. The investigation comes after the first woman sued Brown for $20 million for allegedly drugging and raping her on a yacht. He also has a copyright infringement case on his lap for “No Guidance,” his 2019 collaboration with Drake.

The first woman, who is a choreographer, dancer, model, and recording artist, claims the drugging and rape took place on December 30, 2020, and that it occurred during a party on a yacht that was docked near Diddy’s home. The second woman says she was uncomfortable on the yacht and decided to leave the party. However, two days later, the second woman and her friend were invited to meet Brown at his Miami Beach hotel suite.

According to the police report, during her time there, the second woman says that he approached her and shoved two of his fingers into her mouth. She alleges that his fingers had a white powdery substance on them and that she blacked out for several hours and woke up in the suite without her friends or her cell phone. She later filed a report with Miami Beach Police after learning about the lawsuit that the first woman filed against Brown.

Miami Beach Police confirmed to NBC 6 that both incidents are under investigation and that once it is complete, it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether or not to file charges.

On Wednesday night, the Lakers saw star big man Anthony Davis exit in the first half with a nasty-looking ankle injury that caused him to be carried to the locker room as he could not put any weight on his left leg.

The initial diagnosis was an ankle sprain, with an MRI set for Thursday after X-rays returned negative, and the Lakers and their fans were holding their breath hoping that the injury wasn’t as severe as it seemed. On Thursday night, the team announced that Davis would unfortunately miss at least four weeks with a “mid-foot sprain,” meaning Davis won’t be back until mid-March at the earliest.

That the timetable given is only for when his next re-evaluation will be suggests he could miss more time beyond that four-week window, which is obviously concerning for the Lakers who are currently ninth in the West at 27-31, six games behind the Nuggets for the final guaranteed playoff spot as the 6-seed. What was already going to be a significant task to turn this season around now becomes all the more difficult, as Davis goes back on the injured list just 10 games after returning from his sprained MCL that cost him more than a month earlier this season.

The Trump Organization’s house of cards is beginning to fall, but its namesake is either pretending not to notice or truly doesn’t sense that financial ruin could be on the horizon. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s business associates (both current and former) have a different view of the situation.

Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that Mazars USA, the former president’s longtime personal and business accounting firm, has severed all ties with Trump and The Trump Organization after determining that 10 years of his financial statements—from 2011 to 2020—could not be trusted. In the wake of that announcement, The Daily Beast spoke with several sources close to Trump who claim that they have urged Trump and those close to him to take the situation much more seriously—and that it has been a surprise to some people.

“I have said for years that this whole thing is one big fishing expedition,” one source said of the ongoing investigations into Trump and his companies. “I’ve expected it to just fizzle at some point, or to turn up ticky tacky shit that can score prosecutors big headlines. The Mazars news was the first time I started thinking, ‘Hey, this might be serious.’ Could Donald Trump [and his business] be screwed? I don’t know, but I’m not as confident as I once was in saying, ‘No.’”

Three people who spoke directly to Trump said that his outlook was positively sunny and that he claimed his businesses were doing “great.”

“But notably,” according to The Daily Beast, “all three predicted that this latest Mazars development would likely strengthen Trump’s resolve to run again for the presidency in 2024.” At the same time, it will scare off both accounting firms from taking Mazars’s place and banks from taking any further risks in loaning the former-turned-wannabe president money.

“This explodes the national security risk by a factor of 10, because now he’s going to be desperate for new loans,” Joseph Cirincione, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft think tank, told The Daily Beast. “Legitimate banks are not going to touch him. So it expands the universe of shady characters who could offer him loans in return for favors that might include disclosing U.S. national security secrets.”

All of which is, well, terrifying.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Francis Ford Coppola has always been a risk-taker. Even after making three of the finest films of the 1970s (and beyond) with The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, and The Conversation, the studios weren’t willing to take a gamble on Apocalypse Now, the five-time Oscar winner’s surreal fever dream of a Vietnam film, loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. So he invested every cent he had to get the budget where it needed to be, and made one of the most celebrated war films of all time. “I invested all my money and own the film,” Coppola told The Washington Post in 1979. “I think I’ll get it back.”

But for as long as Coppola has been making movies, he has really wanted to make one movie: Megalopolis. And now, at the age of 82, the filmmaker told GQ that he’s ready to risk it all again and drop some seriously mad cash—likely more than $100 million—on finally seeing his pet project through to completion.

As GQ’s Zach Baron writes:

It is a film called Megalopolis, and Coppola has been trying to make it, intermittently, for more than 40 years. If I could summarize the plot for you in a concise way, I would, but I can’t, because Coppola can’t either. Ask him. “It’s very simple,” he’ll say. “The premise of Megalopolis? Well, it’s basically… I would ask you a question, first of all: Do you know much about utopia?”

The best I can do, after literally hours talking about it with him, is this: It’s a love story that is also a philosophical investigation of the nature of man; it’s set in New York, but a New York steeped in echoes of ancient Rome; its scale and ambition are vast enough that Coppola has estimated that it will cost $120 million to make. What he dreams about, he said, is creating something like It’s a Wonderful Life—a movie everyone goes to see, once a year, forever. “On New Year’s, instead of talking about the fact that you’re going to give up carbohydrates, I’d like this one question to be discussed, which is: Is the society we live in the only one available to us? And discuss it.”

It’s certainly a tall order, but given that this year marks the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, maybe it’s not so far-fetched to believe that if anyone can make the next great classic film, it would be Coppola. Even so, no studio in Hollywood seems ready to make that gamble.

After more than four decades of talking about Megalopolis—which he says is as ambitious as Apocalypse Now—Coppola understands that, “the more personal I make it, and the more like a dream in me that I do it, the harder it will be to finance. And the longer it will earn money because people will be spending the next 50 years trying to think: What’s really in Megalopolis? What is he saying? My God, what does that mean when that happens?”

Still, the situation feels like déjà vu to the director. “Do you know why I own Apocalypse Now? Because no one else wanted it,” he says. As for casting? Oscar Isaac and Zendaya are just two of the stars Coppola is eyeing.

You can read Coppola’s full GQ interview here.

For the fourth straight year, J Balvin graced his fan base with a project to enjoy in 2021. The Latin singer released his sixth album Jose last summer and it arrived with features from Skrillex, Tokischa, Ozuna, Myke Towers, Yandel, Dua Lipa, Khalid, Bad Bunny, and more across 24 songs. It continued a streak of releases that includes 2020’s Colores, 2019’s Oasis with Bad Bunny, and 2018’s Vibras. As for what J Balvin has in store for 2022, that remains to be seen, but he gets things rolling with his new single “Nino Sonador.”

His new track arrives with a new video that shows off the intimate side of his artistry. J Balvin also includes footage of his family and friends in the new visual. The video for “Nino Sonador” arrives after J Balvin released a deluxe reissue of Jose. The updated added eight new tracks to the album, four of which were remixes of “In Da Ghetto” which the remaining four being a remix of “F40” and three new songs.

J Balvin’s new single also comes after he shared a video for “Una Nota” with Sech. He was also recently announced as a headliner for Chicago’s Sueños Festival which features an all-Latinx lineup.

You can watch the video for “Nino Sonador” above.

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

Pusha T has been signed to GOOD Music since 2010, shortly before the release of Kanye West’s fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy where he appeared on two tracks: “So Appalled” and “Runaway.” During his time with GOOD Music, Pusha T has released three albums: My Name Is My Name, King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, and Daytona. Pusha will also release his upcoming fourth album, rumored to be titled It’s Not Dry Yet, on the label, but before that happens, he revealed a special thing that Kanye did for him.

During an interview with Complex’s Speedy Morman, Pusha T revealed the purpose of the contract between him and Kanye that he shared on Instagram last month. “Actually, the contract was just [Kanye] signing over my profits from my back-catalog and the profits for this album as well,” Pusha said. “Just straight to me. It wasn’t anything bad… He was just like, ‘Nah, you take the money.’ If that don’t show you that that’s your bro, I don’t know what else gon’ show you… It was very honorable.”

The interview came as Pusha prepares to release his fourth solo album It’s Not Dry Yet. So far, we’ve only received the project’s lead single, “Diet Coke.” The song was released with a music video that featured Kanye West who produced the track with 88-Keys.

You can view the contract and watch Pusha T speak about it in the posts above.

Charli XCX didn’t keep us waiting for very long. Just yesterday, she told Rolling Stone that she was bumming out over her cancelled performance in late 2021 amid the Omicron variant surge. “This would have been my best TV performance ever,” she said. “When it couldn’t go ahead, it was crushing. I was going to have a main pop-girl moment. Hopefully something can happen in the future. Fingers crossed.”

Today, she has been announced as the musical guest for the March 5th episode hosted by Oscar Isaac. That was fast! And the timing couldn’t be more perfect, as her hotly-anticipated album, “Crash,” is set to drop two weeks later. With killer early singles like the banging “Good Ones” and the incredible collaboration with Rina Sawayama, “Beg For You,” the prospects are bright for her performance.

Also announced today, Spanish flamenco-pop queen Rosalía will be the musical guest for the March 12th episode hosted by Zöe Kravitz. Rosalia’s upcoming album Motomami arrives on the same March 18th date that Charli XCX’s does and it’s a really strong back-to-back episode slate of musical guests for SNL especially when you consider that LCD Soundsystem are the musical guests for the February 26th episode hosted by John Mulaney.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s fairly incredible how open Nick Cannon is about his sex life. The father of seven children with four different women has an eighth on the way with a fifth. He’s been speaking publicly with family therapist Dr. Laura Berman, both on The Nick Cannon show and recently on her podcast called The Language of Love With Dr. Laura Berman. In a “Valentine’s Day episode” that aired yesterday, Cannon opened up about his previous stance of celibacy, which led into him speaking about monogamy and how he doesn’t think it’s “healthy” for him.

The Masked Singer and Wild N’ Out star began talking about definitions of being single versus being married. “To define me is to confine me,” he says. They talk about forming covenants, whether bound by the government or not, at which point Cannon says “And I just don’t feel like that’s healthy. Monogamy is not healthy. I feel like that gets into the space of selfishness and ownership.” Berman validates him, before Cannon admits that he feels like his trajectory in life is to “be the best father I can be,” and as he gets older, “whoever is willing to put up with me” is who he’ll end up with and maybe be monogamous with.

Berman posits that perhaps his fear of being left or discarded is contributing to his fear of monogamy. And it’s really fascinating for someone who is so virile and is such a well-known public figure like Cannon, to make themselves this much of an open book when it comes to their sex therapy.

You can listen to the whole episode of the podcast here.

This poster for Dog is one of those posters so perfect that I almost don’t want the movie to exist. There’s no way an actual film could be as good as the one this poster already conjured in my head.

Yet Dog does exist, marking the directorial debut of star Channing Tatum (long known affectionately as “C-Tates” around these parts), who co-directs and co-writes alongside his long-time producing partner Reid Carolin. They’re adapting from a story by Carolin and Tatum’s former assistant, Brett Rodriguez, who is also an ex-soldier. The three had previously collaborated on a documentary for HBO called War Dog: A Soldier’s Best Friend, focusing specifically on Army Rangers and their dogs. Thus what we have in Dog is, essentially, Turner And Hooch, only Turner is a troop. And so is Hooch.

Tatum plays Jackson Briggs, an Army Ranger discharged with a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) whose dream job in diplomatic security requires a recommendation from his commanding officer. But the CO (Luke Forbes) only agrees to do give it on one condition: that Briggs transport a “disturbed” Ranger dog named Lulu back to Nogales, AZ for the funeral of her former handler, a Ranger named Riley Rodriguez. Translation? ROAD TRIP MOVIE!

As a dog man, an avid C-Tates booster, and someone who has raised and loved multiple German Shepherds in my life (close cousins to the Belgian Malinois featured in the film) my sense that I was probably the ideal audience for this film was confirmed when I cried during the opening credits. Dog‘s intro sequence is a montage taken from Lulu’s “I Love Me Book,” a scrapbook of military paperwork and mementos, which in Lulu’s case includes drawings and poems written by her dead owner, pictures and videos of Lulu in action — Lulu passing soldier tests, Lulu nuzzling her soldier brothers, Lulu getting treated for war wounds, etc… Christ, it’s hard to even write about, a series of HERO DOG SAVES ORPHANAGE headlines intercut with a sweet doggie limping around in a cast. We are all susceptible to certain forms of emotional manipulation, and sad doggies could sell me the Brooklyn Bridge.

Yet for a concept that feels so self-propelling, probably the biggest surprise of Dog is that it’s not nearly as Disney as you might expect. I anticipated something akin to A Dolphin’s Tale, another movie about a wounded animal inspiring wounded veterans, featuring Marine Biologist Harry Connick Jr. (I take every opportunity I can to type the words “Marine Biologist Harry Connick Jr.,” which is my personal “cellar door“). Tatum and Carolin, by contrast, seem far more concerned with doing right by their military consultants, retaining the particular camaraderie shared by military men than they do with making a family-friendly tear-jerker. So when Briggs and his military pals discuss their fallen comrade, they do so not in the weepy, reverent tones years of war propaganda have conditioned us to expect, but in the understated, gallows humor patois of soldier bros. “Riley was as solid as they come,” Briggs tells a buddy.

“Yeah, tell that to the tree he hit doing 120,” the buddy responds, a verbal sack tap for getting too mushy.

Likewise, Dog studiously resists making Briggs too “cuddly,” clearly determined to remain authentic to what it believes a Ranger veteran with a TBI might actually be like. True, Tom Hanks’s character in Turner and Hooch similarly began the movie as a squared away cop who didn’t particularly like dogs, thus leaving room for his transition into hopelessly doting dog dad (and room to fulfill the “dad who loudly resisted getting a dog” stereotype). But Tatum seems determined never to let us forget that Briggs is a War Man who has Seen Some Shit; a guy who casually reminisces with Lulu about “kickin’ in doors and gettin’ our murder on.” I don’t remember Marine Biologist Harry Connick Jr. ever describing himself as a murderer.

Hanks and C-Tates both have a natural lovableness that frequently transcends whatever was on the page. Yet there’s a natural disdain, among the characters Dog depicts, for civilian society — blissfully ignorant of the details of their dirty work that the soldiers have had to do. It’s a natural disconnect, but one that always risks becoming a political football. And so a constant tension exists in Dog, between wanting to appeal to the military guys who inspired and helped make it, and maybe even go full Black Rifle Coffee Company/operator culture propaganda op; and its natural shape as a heartwarming buddy-dog movie.

Which is to say that Dog frequently risks “getting political,” like when Briggs and Lulu pass through Portland, here populated by women who are all varying degrees of “liberal loonies,” (Dog doesn’t use the phrase but it’s heavily implied), or when Lulu freaks out at a San Francisco hotel and nearly attacks a Muslim man. “I’m sorry, she’s been trained to go after people like you,” Briggs attempts to explain.

That’s pretty dark! I admit I cringed, and that part of me just wanted to see a nice movie about a whole town coming together to nurse a disturbed doggy back to health. But maybe a society that spends 20 years doing war doesn’t deserve sanitized soldier dog movies. Dog won’t give it to us, which is admirable. Though neither is it some Peter Berg tac ops circle jerk, even though sometimes it almost is.

Dog attempts and mostly does a solid job walking a perilous line, being honest about and sympathetic to the concerns and inside jokes of veterans without licking boots or justifying endless war. Ethan Suplee shows up late in the film as a fellow veteran and dog whisperer, and it’s almost disturbing the degree to which a former pussy posse member can not only believably play an ex-soldier but function as the film’s moral center. Suplee’s character urges Briggs to find a higher power, AA talk here applied to PTSD. Part of me wishes it had been Lulu delivering the life lessons (this is a dog movie after all), but Suplee was oddly solid.

Could Dog have been more about the actual dog? Sure, but no movie was ever going to top the poster. And in the end, it’s hard not to appreciate a tight 90 about C-Tates and a dog learning to love again.

‘Dog’ is available only in theaters February 18th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.