Year: 2022

How soon they (don’t) forget. Marvel fans did what they did best following the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer. They speculated after taking a fine-toothed comb to the newly released poster and found a blur (inside one of the many mirror shards) and decided that it looked like Deadpool. While this was funny, you know, it didn’t not look like Deadpool, plus there’s the fact that Marvel once snuck a mysterious cat butt into a Captain Marvel poster, which ultimately told us something very important about Nick Fury’s background and the universe at large.

Also, there’s the inevitability that the MCU will eventually introduce Deadpool (post-merger) into the MCU, and Deadpool 3 will happen, and all of that jazz. So naturally, Ryan Reynolds had to field the question and insisted to Variety, “I’m promising, I’m not in the movie.” In the process, Mark Malkin pointed out that Reynolds “could be lying,” given Marvel Studios/Disney’s commitment to secrecy, and Reynolds was like, oh sure, “I could be an unreliable narrator,” while maintaining that he’s not in Doctor Strange 2.

Hmm. On one hand, you gotta feel for Reynolds a little bit. He’s only trying to promote Netflix’s The Adam Project, and MCU fans are all excited about a poster, and of course there was some skepticism.

There’s an added layer on top of this for sure. Not too long ago, Andrew Garfield confronted rumors that he’d appear in Spider-Man: Far From Home with a simple “I did not get a call.” He clung tight to that claim and later admitted (after appearing in the movie) that he kinda enjoyed lying about it. And you know, he had to lie (the machine is all-powerful), but still. Marvel fans aren’t ready to get burned again, and a bunch of them are completely not buying Reynolds’ denial at this point.

And who knows, Reynolds could be telling the truth, and the MCU could still stick someone in a Deadpool suit into the background, or he could pop up in a post-credits scene. So yep, I’m thinking too much about this subject, too. Comic books!

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on May 6, 2022.

The new Foo Fighters movie Studio 666 premieres next week, so the whole band — Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Rami Jaffee, Nate Mendel, and Chris Shiflett — popped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night to talk about it. While there, they unveiled a Lionel Richie cameo in the movie and spoke about how he really punched up the scene with some improvisation.

In the clip, Grohl, suffering from writer’s block, plays Richie’s “Hello” on piano when a hand suddenly grabs his shoulder. That hand belongs to Richie, who says, “Hello, Dave. We all have writer’s block, you know? But that’s my f*ckin’ song. That’s my f*ckin’ song! You understand what I’m saying?!”

Grohl (who guest-hosted Kimmel back in 2017, by the way) then explained the cameo, saying:

“First of all, the screenwriters wrote him into the script without knowing I actually know him. So I read the script and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, they put Lionel…’ And I texted him and I’m like, ‘Dude, we’re making a horror film. You want to be in it?’ He’s like, ‘Absolutely, my brother.’ That was it. No agents. […] His line in the film… in the script, he’s supposed to say, ‘We all get writer’s block, but that’s my song.’ We did one take and he goes, ‘You want me to ramp it up a little bit?’ We go, ‘Yeah.’ And he goes, ‘We all get writer’s block, but that’s my f*cking song!’”

Elsewhere during the conversation, Kimmel asked who the worst actor in the band is. While he didn’t explicitly make a pick, Grohl did share that Hawkins refused to learn his lines. Kimmel then asked who the band’s best actor is, and multiple members were quick to point to Jaffee.

The band was then asked about the possibility of a Studio 666 sequel and Grohl said the band has discussed which other bands they’d like to see make their own movies. Ideas included Weezer doing a romantic comedy, Wu-Tang Clan making a sci-fi movie, and Pearl Jam filming a World War 2 movie.

Check out the interview above.

Hope you enjoyed that Avocados From Mexico Super Bowl commercial with Andy Richter, because it’s the last avocado you might see for awhile. The New York Times reports that the “United States decided late last week to temporarily block all imports of avocados from Mexico after a verbal threat was made to U.S. safety inspectors working in the country.” 80 percent of avocados consumed in the U.S. come from Mexico, so expect reduced availability and increased prices — unless you’re at Taco Bell.

Taco Bell said it would be able to avoid impacts from the suspension due to how it gets its guacamole.

The real reason the fast food restaurant won’t be affected is because “we import guacamole and not whole avocados, which is not impacted by the current ban,” but Stephen Colbert has another theory.

“Yes, Taco Bell does not get it from Mexico, they get it from the planet Ahch-To,” The Late Show host cracked, while the audience was treated to footage of Luke Skywalker draining a Thala-siren for green milk in The Last Jedi. After the joke was met with disgusted groans, Colbert added, “I knew that would be the reaction and I didn’t care.”

Wait until the audience learns where the crunch in the Cheesy Gordita Crunch comes from (grounded-up Ewok bones).

You can watch Colbert’s monologue above (the Star Wars joke is around 7:30).

The Denver Nuggets found themselves in a position few teams have overcome this season, trailing by 10 to the Warriors in the fourth quarter at the Chase Center. Few teams have been better at putting opponents away once they take a late lead than Golden State, but on Wednesday night in San Francisco, the Nuggets were able to pull off a rather incredible comeback.

As often happens for Denver, their comeback was propelled by Nikola Jokic, who had nine points and five assists in the final seven minutes of the game to help the Nuggets find their way to a 117-116 win, stealing one on the road.

After a Monte Morris fastbreak layup gave Denver a 114-113 lead, Stephen Curry seemed to rip the Nuggets hearts out with an and-one bucket with just under six seconds to go, giving the Warriors a two-point lead as Denver advanced the ball up the floor on a timeout.

Naturally, the Nuggets turned to Jokic to make the right play and he took every possible second working his way across the lane and once the Warriors collapsed onto him he found Morris for the game-winning three just before the buzzer.

Jokic finished the game with 35 points, 17 rebounds, and eight assists as he continues to pile up outrageous stat lines on a near nightly basis. He got help from Bryn Forbes, who had 22 points off the bench, as well as the big late buckets from Morris, who had five of his 13 on the final two shots for Denver to lift them to the win.

Quinton Brock ended his 2020 year by rocking out with his single, “To The Moon,” and he ended 2021 by showing off his softer side with “Touch.” While it remains to be seen how the Brooklyn-via-Buffalo singer will end 2022, he’s kicking off the year by continuing his pursuit to “change rock music forever.” His latest step in doing so comes with his brand new single, “There For You.” The new track sees Brock glide with ease to new love over the song’s surfy and R&B-laced production.

Brock’s journey as a singer began with his come-up in the surf/blues rock duo The Get Money Squad. His step into rock and roll was inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the lost godmother of rock and roll, who helped inspire and remind Brock that rock and roll was a genre pioneered by Black artists overcoming adversity. Prior to “Touch” and “To The Moon,” Brock released “All Falls On Me” in 2020 and shared his debut project Scooter. in 2019. That presented eight tracks and a lone guest appearance from Pink Siifu.

During an interview with Uproxx in 2020, Brock shared how determined he was to succeed by revealing he “got a literal chip tattooed on my shoulder” as motivation. He also said that he wants his next tattoo to be “a heart on my sleeve.”

You can listen to “There For You” in the video above.

The last week has been quite tumultuous for Kanye West and Kid Cudi. They’ve been close collaborators for 15 years now and, despite their differences, Kanye has always lent a hand to Cudi in times of need. Recently Cudi, who’s been very vocal about his struggles with mental health, sent out a concerning message on Instagram. “God…please watch over me and keep my mind sane,” Cudi wrote. “I could use it right now. To anyone who feels alone, I’m with you and I love you.” Kanye caught wind of the message and re-shared it to his Instagram page with the caption, “Love you family.”

Cudi did not directly respond to Kanye’s message, but he did share a message of appreciation to fans who showed him support. “I really wanna say thank u for all the love yall been givin me the past few days,” Cudi wrote. “U have no idea how much u all mean to me. I am forever grateful to have so much love and support from all over the world and I wont let yall down. I love you all. [prayer hands and heart emoji].”

The rapper’s exchange comes after some bad blood emerged between them. Kanye recently said he won’t put Cudi on his upcoming album, Donda 2, due to Cudi’s friendship with Pete Davidson who is currently dating his ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Cudi responded to Kanye’s message about Donda 2 and wrote in part, “Too bad I dont wanna be on ur album u f*ckin dinosaur hahaha.”

The Sex and the City follow-up And Just Like That… wrapped up its 10-episode run earlier this month, after two months of sometimes startling developments. There was the Peloton business. There was the lack of Samantha Jones. There was the uproar over Che Diaz. What there wasn’t was Candace Bushnell, the former New York Observer journalist whose ‘90s column “Sex and the City” birthed the show of the same name. She wasn’t involved in the revival (nor was really involved in the most of the show or the movies). But in a predictably juicy interview with The New Yorker, she strongly intimated that she wasn’t feeling it.

Bushnell, whose life partially loosely Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw, was asked by the reporter whether she felt similar to the characters in the new show, who feel like they “have suddenly awoken into a sense of being out of step with culture.”

Her response was simply, “No.” She added that she was “really startled by a lot of the decisions made in the reboot,” distancing herself from it by saying, “it’s a television product, done with Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker, who have both worked with HBO a lot in the past. HBO decided to put this franchise back into their hands for a variety of reasons, and this is what they came up with.”

When asked if she “sees” herself in the characters anymore, she replied, “Not at all.” But her fictional analog and her parted ways a while ago. “Carrie Bradshaw ended up being a quirky woman who married a really rich guy. And that’s not my story, or any of my friends’ stories.”

But Carrie and her were simpatico for a while, particularly how much both were making in media during a happier time. When she worked for Vogue, in the ‘90s, she says she was paid $5,000 a month — nearly $10,000 a month now, adjusted for inflation.

“I mean, this was a time that writers were getting a Vanity Fair contract for six pieces and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,” she said. “People valued writing; it wasn’t considered something everyone can do. Now, because of the computer, everyone has to do it, so we think everyone can do it.”

(Via New Yorker)

The Los Angeles Lakers have had a dreadful season, with a combination of poor play overall that, when coupled with injury woes, has pushed them down into a fight for a play-in spot in the West heading into the All-Star break.

The Lakers just recently got Anthony Davis back from a sprained left MCL, and his play since returning has been one of the bright spots in another rough patch of play, as he seemed to be getting closer to the elite level he’d long established for himself. He continued that in the first half against Utah on Wednesday, scoring 17 points in 17 minutes before disaster struck as he jumped to catch a lob and came down on Rudy Gobert’s foot, rolling his right ankle terribly and writhing on the ground in pain.

Davis stayed down for some time as trainers attended to him and eventually was helped off the court without putting any weight on that leg and into the locker room.

The ESPN broadcast showed a reverse angle of the injury that showed Davis’ ankle turning over almost completely 90 degrees, as it looked as bad of an ankle turn as you can have.

The Lakers will release an official update later, but it would seem that Davis’ night is done and he could miss another stretch of time with what appeared to be a nasty sprain. Hopefully it’s nothing more than a sprain, but that will be determined after further tests as the Lakers once again may find themselves without their star big man for some time.

UPDATE: Initial X-rays came back negative, so the good news is there isn’t a fracture, but Davis is done for the night and an MRI to come will provide further insight into the severity of the sprain.

The New York Knicks played host to the Brooklyn Nets, who were without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Ben Simmons, on ESPN on Wednesday night, and put on a show in the first half, leading by as many as 28 and took a 21-point advantage into the break.

However, the second half was an all-too-familiar disaster for the Knicks, as they watched the Nets steadily reel them in over the course of the final 24 minutes, punctuated by rookie Cam Thomas’ 16-point fourth quarter, including a dagger in the closing seconds that left the Knicks faithful in The Garden in shock. The loss dropped the Knicks to 25-34, pushing them to 3.5 games out of the final play-in spot in the East, and vibes in Manhattan couldn’t be much worse.

There are reports swirling that Tom Thibodeau could be on his way out soon, but the issues seem to run much deeper than just the coach in New York. After the game and before the late game between the Jazz and Lakers, ESPN went back to its NBA Countdown crew so that Stephen A. Smith could get some things off of his chest in what is an instant classic Stephen A. rant, as he goes after just about everyone, from Thibs to Julius Randle to Leon Rose, calling the team “trash” and saying fans should boycott the team for the rest of the season.

It’s all gold from Stephen A., who is rarely operating at a higher level than he is when the Knicks are absolutely awful, but the best part to me is when he talks about how he’s embarrassed that he let last year’s success convince him the Knicks had turned the corner and now he owes all kinds of people dinners and suits for bets he’s made about New York being back.

MTV’s supernatural teen drama tv show Teen Wolf based on the 1985 supernatural teen drama movie of the same name, was a hit for anyone who frequented Tumblr in 2011.

The show starred Scott McCall as a hot-shot lacrosse player who just so happen to be a werewolf (hey, high school is rough). Over the six seasons from 2011-2017, the show incorporated many different supernatural elements beyond just werewolves, including banshees and giant reptile humans.

Rumors of a possible revival movie have been circulating for months after cryptic social media posts from MTV and other actors involved in the show. Finally, Paramount+ has confirmed the series would be getting its own movie spin-off.

The streaming service has confirmed who would be back for the movie, which includes: Tyler Posey as Scott McCall, Holland Roden as Lydia Martin, Shelley Hennig as Malia Tate, Crystal Reed as Allison Argent, Orny Adams as Coach Bobby Finstock, Linden Ashby as Sheriff Noah Stilinski, JR Bourne as Chris Argent, Seth Gilliam as Dr. Alan Deaton, Colton Haynes as Jackson Whittemore, Dyan Kelley as Deputy Jordan Parrish, Melissa Ponzio as Melissa McCall and, finally, Dylan Sprayberry as Liam Dunbar.

The list is strange for several reasons: one being the inclusion of Crystal Reed’s character, who infamously died in season four. But mainly, the absence of three main cast members, Dylan O’Brien, Arden Cho, and Tyler Hoechlin, who played Stiles, Kira, and Derek, respectively. No reason was given for Hoechlin, but O’Brien has been busy with some high-profile roles, which might have made him pass on the teenage drama.

As for Cho, the only woman of color in the show, rumor has is that the network wasn’t offering her enough money compared to the other actresses.

Production is expected to take place later this year.