Further down the flyer, the resurgent Jazmine Sullivan, jazz revivalist Kamasi Washington, and a pair of jam sessions — one led by J Period, with Black Thought, Benny The Butcher, and Rick Ross, the other featuring Keyshia Cole, SWV, and Musiq Soulchild — fill out the top-line acts. Other big draws include sax-rapper Masego, urban gospel OG Kirk Franklin, Chicago drill pioneer G Herbo, the quirky Tierra Whack, tough-guy rapper Freddie Gibbs, country star Mickey Guyton (who also sang the National Anthem at this year’s Super Bowl), Yebba, and Chief Keef.
There will also be a live podcast stage with Rory & Mal, Questlove Supreme, Jemele Hill, and more. Ticket presale began today at 10 am EST, while general sale starts Friday, February 18 at 10 am. You can get more information here.
After absolutely crushing the box office and winning over audiences and critics with Spider-Man: No Way Home just before the holidays, Tom Holland is back with Uncharted, a live-action adaptation of the award-winning video game series. However, this time around, the critical reception isn’t so warm. As the first reviews for Uncharted roll in, there’s an immediate sense that the film attempts to do exactly what it showed in the trailers: Put a modern spin on films like Indiana Jones and National Treasure.
Unfortunately, just like in the games, sometimes you don’t always stick the landing, and that appears to be the case as Holland and co-star Mark Wahlberg struggle to make Uncharted work despite the games being loaded with cinematic moments to pull from.
While not all of the Uncharted reviews are harsh, the majority aren’t exactly feeling the film. Here’s what the critics are saying:
“Uncharted” is a lively but thinly scripted and overlong mad-dash caper movie, propelled by actors you wish, after a while, had more interesting things to say and do.
Perhaps the film’s Walmart approach to its action would’ve been more forgivable if the “Uncharted” games weren’t so frequently suffused with Spielbergian flair, just as the film’s archetypal characters may have been less underwhelming had the games not managed to establish 10 times the pathos with none of the same flesh and blood.
Uncharted is a simple, safe, but ultimately pretty effective introduction to treasure hunter Nathan Drake. Fans of the beloved PlayStation games might be surprised to see how much has changed to fit an Uncharted story in a single movie’s runtime – it squeezes in a new origin story while reenacting action sequences from multiple games – but it all makes for a decently fun sampling of what Nate and Sully have to offer on the big screen.
It’s not perfect and there are moments where the movie lags but not even Mark Wahlberg could stop me from having fun while watching Tom Holland come into his own in this take on Nathan Drake’s origin story.
Far from the great heights of the classic “Indiana Jones” movies, “Uncharted” is closer to “National Treasure” without the weirdo energy of Nicolas Cage, mixed with “The Goonies” without the childlike irreverence of Amblin. It’s glossy, witty, and franchise-ready. Which would be fine if the jokes were good!
It would have been nice if screenwriters Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway had come up with something more interesting than this generic adventure in which Nate and Sully team up to first commit a robbery at a high-end auction house and then head to exotic locales in search of Ferdinand Magellan’s lost treasure of gold. Or more interesting villains than the ruthless Santiago Moncada, played by Antonio Banderas in a performance that can best be described as detached.
The film’s script, the product of six credited writers, feels like a “frankensteined” effort of unrealized sequels to series such as “Indiana Jones” or “National Treasure.” Like the figures portrayed on screen, there’s a grail just evading their grasp. But unlike the characters, the film itself never recaptures that elusive glory.
The only thing [Tom] Holland seemingly cannot do is generate chemistry with Wahlberg as Sully, a counterpart and proxy brother with whom Nathan should be irresistibly clashing; instead, he limps through their interactions like scripted awards-show presentation banter.
Secretly Canadian signee Hatchie, the hypnotic project of Australia’s Harriette Pilbeam, has been rolling out her sophomore album Giving The World Away, unleashing haunted synth-pop singles like “Quicksand” and “This Enchanted.” The title track has arrived today, and it’s an existential, atmospheric journey with vibrant vocals.
She contemplates in a captivating deadpan: “What is it that makes us feel so invincible, like life is by design? / Could you regenerate all you’d hoped for yourself?” It comes with a disorienting, acid trip-like lyric video with a disembodied mouth lip syncing the words.
“‘Giving The World Away’ is about being gentle with yourself in the throes of depression,” Hatchie said about the track. “We made a simple lyric video with analogue effects to let the lyrics of the song speak for themselves.”
Similar to “Quicksand,” which she said was about finding happiness in the present and learning to stop fixating on the past and future, this song is focused on overcoming internal obstacles and searching for peace within herself. The sound, meanwhile, reverberates with an undeniable sense of hope and forward movement that resembles progress.
Watch the video for “Giving The World Away” above.
Giving The World Away is out 4/22 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.
Nobody in Hollywood has had a career like the one Eric Roberts has had.
It doesn’t even seem like he’s had a career. It’s more like several. In the 1980s, he was a hybrid of handsome leading man and quirky character actor, known for roles like the real-life killer Paul Snider in Bob Fosse’s Star 80, low-level criminal Paulie in The Pope Of Greenwich Village, and escaped convict Buck McGeehy in Runaway Train, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. By the end of the decade, he transitioned to muscular action star in films such as The Best Of The Best and The Specialist. After that, he became one of the most prolific actors to ever work in cinema, appearing in everything from The Dark Knight and Inherent Vice to Lifetime’s Stalked By My Doctor franchise, among his more than 600 acting credits. Oh, and there’s also his appearance in the iconic video for The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” which has been streamed on YouTube more than 464 million times.
Roberts’ latest role is that of Junior, a shady low-life who re-emerges from the past to haunt Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) in season two of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. In the most recent episode, a battalion of Dixie Mafia cycle ninjas — presumably sent on Junior’s behalf — failed once again to assassinate the Gemstones’ patriarch.
Junior is a role perfectly suited for Roberts’ skillset — the character is an enormous creep who also happens to have a weird, unsettling charisma. He radiates danger even he’s at his most affable. Nobody plays that as well as the 65-year-old Roberts, who considers HBO’sThe Righteous Gemstones one of his favorite projects ever.
“Dude, I have never had a job I liked more,” he told me last week in a Zoom interview. “And I’m not just saying that as a nice thing to say. I’ve never had a job I liked more. The acting, the crew, the cast, my scripts, my dialogue, my costumes — everything about it is heaven, dude.”
Over the course of two interviews, Roberts talked about playing Junior as well as the other notable roles from his career.
So you’ve really emerged as the villain of this season.
God man, that’s so narrow-minded of you. [Laughs.]
The tone of the show fits well with your overall oeuvre. It’s funny, but it can turn really dark rather quickly.
It’s got some dark spots, dude.
How did you get involved with The Righteous Gemstones?
Breakdowns are a thing that tells you everything that’s casting, and it said there was an audition for a character in this great show, Righteous Gemstones. Junior grew up with John Goodman and was a badass. And suddenly he reappears after John Goodman has turned over a new leaf, and he shows up and says, “Let’s get together.” And John’s like, “No, I’m staying away from you.” So it’s kind of an instant conflict. John can’t complain too much, or I will expose him for all that we did. The audience doesn’t really know what we did, but it wasn’t savory.
So you auditioned for the role?
Yes, I did. My wife, who’s also my coach, Eliza Roberts — I’m very proud of my wife — she got me ready for this audition. She shot it. We sent it in and I got the part. Who knew?
Did Danny McBride or any of the other people in charge of the show mention any of the roles you played in the past as a reason for casting you?
All I heard about any of it was from Danny, and he said, “I love that little character you sent me.” That’s what he said.
Did you know John Goodman before doing this show?
I never worked with John before. My only image of John was from Roseanne. And of course, all the stories that we all heard through TV Guide and what have you about all the insanity. So that’s all I knew of John.
John is an old-school pro. It’s such a pleasure. He shows up ready to work, has a sense of humor, and is just a cool cat. I made so many movies in the past 15 years with kids. There’s a brand new generation. And they’re not old school. So it’s a lot of fun for me. And it’s a lot of comfort for me. I just love working with him. He is also one of the sweetest cats I’ve ever known. He’s a great dude.
Seeing you on The Righteous Gemstones inspired me to revisit your past work. I’ve long been a fan of your performances in ’80s films like Star 80and The Pope Of Greenwich Village. In my mind, you’re most associated with either dramas like the films I just mentioned, or action flicks like Best Of The Best and The Expendables. I don’t really associate you with comedy. But when I rewatched some of your films, I noticed that even your dramatic parts have some sort of comic element. Even Paul Snider, your character from Star 80 — one of the bleakest films I’ve ever seen — is kind of goofy at times. How conscious are you of finding humor even in the darkest characters?
It’s a conscious choice every time, buddy. Especially when you’re playing heavy stuff. You have to find a way to relieve the audience. They have to be relieved from the constant bang, bang, bang. This is serious. This has meaning. Yeah, sure. And that’s great. But you also have to give them relief. LikeRunaway Train, for instance. When I got the script, my character was a tough, stupid thug. He was in prison for statutory rape. There is nothing that’s savory to the appetite about any of that. So what do you do? You have to make him a child. You have to make him lost. You have to make it a mistake, you have to make it, “Well, I didn’t know she was 16.” You have to do that kind of thing.
So it’s wrong, but it’s not unforgivable. You have to make him forgivable. So, that’s what I did with of him. I took him and I made his voice talk up here, with a southern accent. [affects accent] “Well, I didn’t know. Okay?” So suddenly it’s not as big a crime. He’s not as bad a guy.
You did something similar with The Pope Of Greenwich Village, right?
Well, he was also written as a thug. But the problem with that is, it’s been done to death. So I just found another way in.
Another interesting aspect of your career is that you’re in a lot of things for only a scene or two, like The Dark Knight or Inherent Vice. Or you might appear for 30 seconds in a music video for The Killers, Mariah Carey, or Rihanna. But you always find a way to stand out. Is your approach different when you know you only have a scene or two to kill it? Is that a different energy you have to bring?
You are so nice to me! All these compliments in these questions, dude. I wish I thought as much of myself as you do. And I’m my biggest fan.
I’ll have some more compliments later.
Okay. So, I am an actor and we are very shallow people, basically, I’m sorry to say. I speak for myself. I shouldn’t speak for actors. But everything I’m in, I’m starring in even if I’m only on for 30 seconds. I’m the star of that 30 seconds and I move in like I feel it. Because people are like that. People star in their moments, whatever their moment is.
Sophie Mueller called me for my first music video. Will you come be in The Killers’ video? And I said no. And then I told my family and they said, “What is wrong with you? Eric, you idiot. Man, that’s The Killers!” They gave me such a bad time. So I called Sophie back.
I had no idea who I was playing, what I was playing, why I was playing, or what the song meant. I finally said, “What am I in this?”And somebody said, “You’re a pimp.” Who said that? I never knew. I guess I’m a pimp. But the music videos gave me a whole new audience I didn’t have. They all don’t have hair under their arms yet. I didn’t have that audience.
How did you end up in Inherent Vice?
Well, my wife can answer that better than I can. I don’t know how the offer came in. How’d the offer come in, honey?
Eliza Roberts: They never mentioned any of the main roles. They had these Breakdowns for one line, under five, almost like glorified extra. I talked to Eric’s reps: “Submit him, it’s Paul Thomas Anderson.” And they were like, “No, no, no, we can’t do that.” And I was like, “Just do it. I have a feeling,” and they did. What ended up happening was all the names that came across Paul’s desk, he just kind of figured out where to fit them. And he explained when he offered the role to Eric, it’s going to be a lot about you, more about you than you actually in it. But you don’t say no to him.
How was working with PTA?
It’s like he has brought you into this little club that belongs to him. This is his club and now you’re a member. He talks to you as if you’re very special, as if you’re the only person who can do what he’s asking of you. And here’s what it is and go. He’s just very, very kind, thorough, complete. And he doesn’t laugh a lot, but he smiles. He knows. He’s, like, spooky, because he is so calm and comfortable.
I’ve read that you auditioned for Quentin Tarantino several times. What was your impression of him?
I’ve auditioned for every movie he’s ever made except Pulp Fiction. What’s the one around Pulp time?
Reservoir Dogs.
All the others I’ve auditioned for and I haven’t gotten them.
I just auditioned for him. I don’t know where you get that from, that he’s obviously a fan of mine, but I love hearing it.
It seems like people like Paul Thomas Anderson and The Killers were leaning on your screen persona as this dangerous and — as you put it — unsavory character. And that’s also true of The Righteous Gemstones. When I saw you appear in the first episode of this season, my immediate thought was, “This means trouble for John Goodman.” This is true of all veteran character actors, surely, but to what degree are you aware of the baggage from the past that you bring to every role?
It never occurs to me. In fact, I take that as a compliment, because I remember whenever I would see certain actors as a kid, in movies, I would have the same thought: “Ooh, this is going to been dangerous.” I love being one of those guys. Being the skinny kid from Atlanta, I would never have thought that I would grow up to be one of the premier bad guys in the industry. But that was Bob Fosse’s fault in Star 80. That’s what started all that.
I’m glad you brought that up, because I wanted to talk about Star 80. You’ve said that’s your best film.
Let me be real clear: That’s not my film, that is Bob Fosse’s film that I am in, and it’s the best film I was ever in. But I’m not responsible for that movie or my performance, really. He is. He was an incredibly overwhelming driving force, and he was an overused and abused word — he was a genius. Once you work for one of those guys you realize two things: That you’re not one of them, and that they are unusual. They’re just a whole other species. Once you’re with them you don’t ever get over it.
I sat, artistically, in his lap and said, “I am your puppet. Let’s go.” And he handled me beautifully, as you saw. I was responsible for almost none of it. I would just turn, “What do I do?” He would tell me and I’d go do it. It was really like that.
I totally understand what you’re saying, but I think you’re selling yourself short. It strikes me as an incredibly courageous performance, to be that extreme and unlikable on screen. Based on what I’ve read, in books like Sam Wasson’s 2013 biography Fosse, it seems like the experience of making the film was pretty miserable for you, since you were so locked into playing this miserable character, on and off screen.
I had really cool, intelligent, gifted people around me. The main person around me at that time was Sandy Dennis, and I had that as my reality, so I never got lost. I never got lost in who I was portraying. I did get overwhelmed with the fact that Paul Snider is a common person. He’s two out of five men. He’s not unusual. And when I came to those terms, that was what I found upsetting. . His life, his involvement with her, and the death is unusual. But he’s a common loser, dude. It was heartbreaking to understand that finally, that I meet eight or 10 of them every day.
I’m curious if you saw that New Yorker article about Jeremy Strong from Succession, in which the implication is that his method style of acting has impacted his mental health. When you look back at your younger self, do you feel like you ever did that to yourself as an actor?
Before you do it, you don’t know the pathway to getting it done. And every role is a different pathway to getting it done. You can have a technique, but you’re still going to find a different pathway from the last time. It’s going to always be a different pathway because it’s a different role, it’s a different story, it’s a different emotional content for you to portray. I have taken myself a little too seriously at times as an actor, but I haven’t ever lied about the seriousness, and also the casualness, the casualness of acting. They’re both side by side, and they’re both as important as the other, and to have one and to balance it with the other, you almost have to understand what you’re doing, which means you’re not lost.
I have gotten lost in moments, of course, but as far as the whole project or whole character, no. Because you don’t shoot in order, you shoot out of order. So you have to be conscious of where you should be at emotionally and intellectually at that moment, compared to the moment before or after, blah, blah, blah. A lot of it’s so mechanical in movies, but you can get lost in moments. I don’t give much credence to being lost for three months in 18 locations, and 30 costume changes, and 40 different drivers.
A film of yours I’ve watched a few times just in the past month — it’s currently streaming on HBO Max, by the way — is The Pope Of Greenwich Village. You have great chemistry with Mickey Rourke in that film. At the time, you were both these young hotshot actors. What was your relationship like? Was it ever competitive?
When we first met there was a real competitive vibe from him that just crushed me. We had known each other for about three days, and we were hanging out together at the Mayflower Hotel, where our base camp was. And he says to me, “Let’s run lines.” Great. Now, I got that role in January. It was now August. I had all that time to drop the weight, learn my lines, and curl my hair. So I was ready to go.
Okay, let’s run lines. Blah, blah, blah. Your line. He goes, “Can’t say it.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Because you’re not making me feel it. And if I don’t get that from you, I can’t respond.” Oh my God. From that moment on I hid behind the character of Paulie whenever I was hanging out with Mickey. I was always Paulie, because he could bully Paulie and Paulie had to deal with it. But if you bullied Eric it would break his heart and it would get in the way. So I only let him bully Paulie. And he did.
We have a great relationship. He’s the hardest actor I ever had to ever work with, who I also loved. And I do love him. He’s miraculous. He also gave one of my favorite performances ever given by anybody in a film called Barfly. See that movie.
Oh yeah, I love Barfly.
Take your breath away, dude. He’s incredible. But he shows up an hour and a half late every morning. And he says, “What are we shooting?” Scene 87. “I know the number, what happens?” But that’s working with Mickey, and that’s what you get. And you also get a performance that’s perfect.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s my understanding that you had the choice of the two male leads.
When they sent me the script in January they said, “Pick a part, Paulie or Charlie.” And I picked Paulie, and they said, “We wanted you to pick Charlie.” I said, “Why?” They said, “Because he’s all dapper and cool. He’s you.” I said, “No, no. The other part’s better.”
Picking the “less cool” character seems to always be your preference.
But all that great dialogue I had, dude! It was fantastic.
I have to ask you about the “Charlie, they took my thumb!” scene, which is one of the most bonkers scenes in any movie ever. Basically, you have lost your thumb to some mobsters, and Mickey Rourke’s girlfriend (played by Daryl Hannah) has just left him. So you and Mickey are at this incredibly high emotional pitch for what feels like 10 minutes. What was shooting that scene like?
Well, that scene coming closer every day in the schedule was like watching an oncoming train. Literally. And it finally arrived. Okay, it’s going to take me out. And we got it in two takes.
Wow.
Bam, bam, bam, bam. We were done. It went perfectly. The only thing that went awry was I had lots of tears, and I kept wiping my eyes, and I scratched my cornea. So I had an eye infection for three days afterwards, blah, blah, blah. That’s the only thing that was bumpy about it was my scratched cornea, because the whole latter half the day was, “Ah, shit.” But besides that, it was an artistically mechanically perfect day.
My favorite part of that scene is when you’re going crazy about your lost thumb, and then suddenly you stop on a dime and notice that Mickey Rourke has trashed his apartment. It cracks me up every time.
But that’s life. And also, you only have an hour and a half. You don’t have a person’s whole life. You have an hour and a half for their life. So stuff has to be abbreviated. Sometimes you make stuff funnier than it would be in life, but you have to let the audience breathe. One of my favorite improvisations of my life is, “White bread? No wonder these WASPs got no color.”
In your early films, you played a lot of scrawny and sort of weasel-y guys. But by the end of the ’80s, you were super ripped in the martial arts movie Best Of The Best. Did you get in shape for that role, or were you already doing that in your personal life?
Well, I became an international movie star in 1978, and I was a kid. I was 21 years old. I didn’t know anything. And I was also kind of like a country bumpkin, so I was stupid. I was kind of ignorant in a lot of categories about life, about place, about my career, everything. So I just let it rip. It just happened. I didn’t calculate, I didn’t plan, I had no agenda. I’m an actor who loves acting, and they let me do it.
My favorite body on the planet was Bruce Lee. So I decided I was going to have that body. What I didn’t realize is the guy had an eating disorder. He never ate so he was just muscle and skin. But I was going for it. I went after that body, and you have to carb deplete to have that body. And to carb deplete, it makes you very unhappy and cranky. I don’t recommend it.
You’ve made so many films in your career. What is it about acting that you love so much?
I’ve seen the whole planet. I’ve seen the whole thing. All of the Arctics. I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen everybody. We have the best jobs on the planet, dude. To be an actor, to work with a crew that understands what it all is, and to be on location, and to have actual police protecting you. Everything’s all cordoned off. And we’re acting! It’s just the best job there is. Especially if you have a great script, a great story, and a great leader, a great director. You’re in heaven, dude. It’s like what school was supposed to be like. Always a learning process, always a growing process. That’s what my job is. I’m always learning, I’m always growing, I’m always getting. I have a blast, dude.
When Hugh Hefner died in 2017 at the age of 91, he had spent the better part of his life fashioning himself as the ultimate Playboy (with a capital P)—a smoking robe-clad gent who was always surrounded by a bevy of scantily clad women who were just a fraction of his age. And, if Secrets of Playboy, a rather salacious 10-part docuseries currently airing on A&E, is to be believed, the Playboy founder also engaged in sexual acts with a dog on at least one occasion.
As The Wrap reports, the docuseries’ creator and showrunner Alexandra Dean doesn’t even attempt to hide that Secrets of Playboy isn’t coming from a place of fond remembrance for the eccentric publisher. “Right from the opening credits, you can tell where this is headed,” Benjamin Svetkey writes, “with snippets of Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski partying at the mansion and sound bites of disgruntled ex-Playmates claiming that ‘Hef pulled one over on the whole world.’”
“[T]he single most revealing moment so far in the series is a few seconds of old footage in which the late Playboy editor and publisher is caught on camera experiencing a flash of self-awareness so blinding in its clarity it practically sets off a lens flare. ‘My life itself is just an invention,’ he says, chuckling at his own candor. ‘It’s all just a very clever marketing ploy. And it just happened to work out very well for me.’”
But Dean might argue otherwise. While it’s hard to separate the man from the myth, among the many accusations casually lobbed at Hefner in the series—usually just via a single (and oftentimes disgruntled) interview subject—is that Hef engaged in sex with a dog on at least one occasion and may have coerced women, including legendary porn actress Linda Lovelace, into doing likewise. Elsewhere in the series, it’s suggested that Bobbie Arnstein—Hefner’s one-time assistant who reportedly died by suicide in 1975—was actually killed at the behest of the publisher/raconteur to keep her quiet amidst rumors of a federal drug probe into what was going on at the Playboy Mansion.
Whether anything presented in the documentary is true or not is hard to say, as most of the claims made are via hearsay comments with no real evidence to back them up or even any real way to fact-check what is being said. According to The Wrap, “Even Dean sometimes seems unconvinced by her assertions, issuing a disclaimer in the closing credits stating that ‘the vast majority of allegations have not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges and they do not constitute proof of guilt.’”
Super Bowl commercials can surprise and frustrate and amuse and entertain the masses. Sometimes, a commercial can do all three things at once, but these commercials also bring us more entertainment in the form of interviews. And with Seth Rogen appearing with Paul Rudd in a Lay’s Potato Chips spot, we’ve not only seen Rogen dragging trailers for commercials (someone had to do it) but also letting the Powers that Be know that people shouldn’t be expected to care about the Oscars.
Rogen and Rudd, obviously, go back to the aughts in terms of working together, including the Knocked Up days and even earlier. They’ve stayed friends, to the point where Rudd decided to pull a massage switcheroo on Rogen, who is not immune to feeling pretty confused about his friend’s ageless streak. As Rogen told Jimmy Kimmel (on a Valentine’s Day episode), it kinda weirds him out:
“It was a little alarming in some ways, honestly, because when I started working with Paul Rudd, he was older than I was. And now, I somehow passed him. You would assume I was his uncle. You would assume I was watching him or something. He looks so good, it’s shocking, and yeah, I showed up on set, and I was like, ‘Damn, what happened? How did I pass you? Did they freeze you?’ It was a little upsetting in a lot of ways.”
And because this discussion took place on Valentine’s Day, Rogen decided to let the world know that everyone has some pretty awful experiences in the romantic realm. That includes how he had his worst date ever that left him in tears. You can watch the clip above.
This year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was a big one thanks to all the mostly-early-’00s hip-hop and R&B firepower involved (Kendrick Lamar was the only headlining performer whose first album came out in the 2010s). A non-hip-hop icon of that era, perhaps the biggest, was Britney Spears, and now she has shared her thoughts on the performance and how nostalgic Eminem’s appearance made her feel.
On Instagram yesterday, Spears wrote, “Wow [face screaming in fear emoji] !!! @Eminem last night at the Super Bowl … he should have had way more time … he was everything to me when I was younger and it was so weird in the first two seconds I saw him on stage last night I felt like I was 17 again !!! It’s honestly kinda scary how certain artists and music can do that … we are so lucky to live in a world [globe emoji] where music can give us hope … identity … acceptance …and love [hearts emoji]!!!”
Spears has famously popped up in Eminem lyrics on several occasions over the years, and not usually in a flattering or laudatory way. On “The Real Slim Shady,” Em raps, “You think I give a damn about a Grammy? / Half of you critics can’t even stomach me, let alone stand me / ‘But Slim, what if you win, wouldn’t it be weird?’ / Why, so you guys could just lie to get me here? / So you can sit me here next to Britney Spears?” He also said on “Ass Like That,” “I am Triumph, Britney Spears has shoulders like a man / And I can say that and you’ll laugh ’cause there’s a puppet on my hand.” On “Marshall Mathers,” he raps, “An anti-Backstreet and Ricky Martin / Whose instinct’s to kill *NSYNC, don’t get me started / These f*ckin’ brats can’t sing and Britney’s garbage.”
The Brooklyn Nets finally snapped their 10-game losing streak on Monday night, beating the Kings 109-85 at home behind 23 points from Seth Curry in his Nets debut.
Seemingly every Net that has talked about the trade has felt it was a positive outcome, with Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin each echoing the same point that they’re just happy to move forward with guys who want to be on the team. After Monday’s win, Bruce Brown elaborated on the post-Harden trade shift that’s gone on in the Nets locker room, saying “everybody loves everybody” after the deadline — I now hope the Nets put a big E.L.E. poster up in the locker room like Jackie Moon.
“The locker room is just a great vibe in there right now. I don’t know what it is. Everything just shifted after the trade deadline. Everybody likes everybody, it’s just great” – Bruce Brown pic.twitter.com/NbClBB9bEk
There are plenty who think the on-court product will be better for the Nets after the trade, as Simmons provides a lot of the things they are lacking as a team and Curry fills the void left by Joe Harris’ injury incredibly well. However, even before they get everyone on the court and healthy, a weight seems to have been lifted off of the Nets shoulders and as a unit, they seem thrilled to get to move on and just play ball without the cloud of what the future holds hanging over them.
The same can be said about the Sixers, and it genuinely feels like a trade that everyone needed and everyone was thrilled to see go down as it did rather than dragging on further with the postseason looming.
The Oscars are about a month-and-a-half away and things are still up in the air. We know that after three years without a host (partially thanks to the Kevin Hart mishegoss), they’re bringing them back. In fact, the plan is to split the job across three people. Right now the tentative, not-quite-locked-down plan is to make those three hosts Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, and Wanda Sykes. But they weren’t the only ones courted. Indeed, the show almost went with three fan favorites but couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts.
Those three are no less than Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. Together, they’re the snooping trio on Only Murders in the Building, the Hulu show where one SNL alum, one longtime SNL frequent host, and a pop singer and actress who has incredible chemistry with them make a nuisance of themselves in their Dakota-esque Upper West Side apartment building.
The show’s a hit — and therein lies the problem. In a New York Times piece delving into the race of this year’s Oscars host (in a bit teased out by Film Updates), the three are among those cited as being courted by the show’s producers. Alas, they’re busy filming the show’s second season and can’t be bothered. Still, maybe next year.
Other names were dropped. Jon Hamm was in talks to play host, but he pulled out of negotiations over the weekend. Previous hosts were contacted, such as Chris Rock and [drum roll] Martin himself, presumably solo, before they realized they should nab Short and Gomez while they were at it.
In the meantime, the world will probably get Schumer, Hall, and Sykes, who will likely be formally announced on Tuesday morning.
Have you ever gone into an Airbnb and thought, “Hey this place is for sure haunted” but in a non-alarming way? You’re probably not alone. There are a lot of haunted hotels and bed and breakfasts in the world, which is basically the main plot of CBS’s new show Ghosts.
Based on the BBC series of the same name (which you can also stream on HBO Max) the show stars Rose McIver (from the CW series iZombie) and Utkarsh Ambudkar as young couple Sam and Jay, who inherit an old mansion which they decide to turn into a quaint bed and breakfast. The only thing is…the mansion is a fixer-upper. And when Sam, played by McIver, has a near-death experience, she starts seeing all of the ghosts living in the house. And since it’s in upstate New York, there are a lot. Some of them have ‘powers’ and some of them are just annoying, so it can be hard to keep track. Here is a character breakdown.
Captain Isaac Higgintoot, played by Brandon Scott Jones, is a closeted gay Revolutionary War officer who died on the grounds after the siege of Fort Ticonderoga (geographically, this makes sense!) He is often taking the role as a leader, even though nobody wants him to.
Then there is Pete Martino played by Richie Moriarty, a girl scout troop leader who died on the grounds in the summer of 1985 after being shot in the neck with an arrow by an untrained girl scout. Heety Woodstone, played by Rebecca Wisocky, is the lady of the manor, and original owner of the mansion and the grounds. Her cause of death is unknown, but she is the great-great-great-great grandmother to Sam.
Asher Grodman plays Trevor Lefkowitz, a young Wall Street trader who died without pants on sometime in the late nineties. Trevor actually possesses the ability to touch certain items in the real world. Sheila Carrasco plays Flower, a young woman who was attacked on the grounds by a bear while trying to find her way out of a cult. Then there is Alberta Haynes, played by Daniella Pinnock, a prohibition-era singer whose voice can be heard by “the livings” aka, not dead people.
The two oldest ghosts are a Viking named Thor, played by Devan Chandler, who can sometimes control the lighting in the house, and Sasappis, played by Roman Zaragoza, a Lenape Native American. Of course, no character breakdown would be complete without mentioning the group of ghosts who died of cholera that live in the basement.
There seem to be other ghosts living on the grounds, but these are the main ensemble of the spirits, who often have their own plots and storylines that involve them recounting their times as humans. While many of their deaths remain a mystery, viewers will be happy to know the series was renewed for a second season, so there will be more ghost puns to come. You can stream all episodes of season one now on Paramount+.
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