Last month, it was revealed that Taylor Swift is Record Store Day’s Global Ambassador this year. That didn’t make it clear exactly what Swift will do in that role, but now we know at least one RSD endeavor she’s involved in: Record Store Day and Vans are teaming up for a compilation album, Portraits Of Her, featuring Swift, Julien Baker, and others.
Aside from Swift and Baker, the album will also feature Asiahn, Banks, Leyla Blue, Boyish, Bully, Alice Longyu Gao, Laura Jane Grace, Girl In Red, Girl Ultra, K. Flay, Mariah The Scientist, Julia Michaels, Joy Oladokun, and Princess Nokia. The project will benefit We Are Moving The Needle, a nonprofit organization supporting female recording industry professionals.
“Record Stores are a nice escape from the rhythm of our everyday lives. They allow us to really think about what music we’re engaging with and listening to,” Oladokun says in a press release.
Emily Lazar, the Grammy-winning engineer who founded We Are Moving The Needle, also said, “Women are an incredible asset to the music industry, yet they are underrepresented across the board, but particularly in recording studios. To close the vast gender gap in this industry, we must all work together to empower women on and off stage, behind the music, in the studio, and everywhere else in this business. We are grateful for the support from Vans, Record Store Day, and these amazing female artists.”
Tierney Stout, Director of Global Music Marketing at Vans, noted, “This album celebrates generations of women who have overcome barriers to representation, recognition, and opportunity in the music industry. Brands, record labels, musicians, and other organizations, including Record Store Day and We Are Moving The Needle, are working together to give today and tomorrow’s female talent more visibility, support, and opportunities.”
The average trajectory of a professional football player can be both short and cruelly linear. The point is to play within predetermined lines of expectation, on and off the field, without much of a window to explore new roles or alternate routes. To stretch a toe outside those lines, still, can lead to questions about your commitment to the game, and few can relate to that fixed circumstance of tradition better than Ricky Williams.
Williams played 11 seasons in the NFL. Despite his pre-NFL accolades — he won the Heisman Trophy at Texas, went fifth overall in the 1999 NFL Draft, and showed promise as a baseball player prior to his collegiate days — and the evident talent that he possessed whenever he stepped onto the gridiron, Williams’ career was marked by perceived missteps.
First there was an experimental contract with Master P’s short-lived sports agency, No Limits Sports, that was based heavily in incentives that Williams would have a difficult time achieving without the required roster support to back him up — the New Orleans Saints famously gave up every pick they had in that draft to move up to No. 5 and acquire him. The No Limits agent who drafted Williams’ contract, Leland Hardy, failed his league-certification test around the same time. To add injury to insult, Williams suffered a high-ankle sprain in his first season, sidelining him and voiding any hope of him achieving the contract’s complicated incentives. That season would be the first that Williams turned inward, isolating to cope against waylaid expectations.
The second diversion that Williams would take, and what would eventually turn into a powerful vehicle for him, was cannabis. While his association with weed would make him one of the most vilified and misunderstood football players in his time, that deviation from the NFL’s rigid framework was a lifeline. A good thing, too, since cannabis, once a furtive hobby, has now become Williams’ business and a catalyst for change.
“Back in 2004 when I first came out as an advocate for cannabis, although quite inadvertently, there was no one publicly that had my back, no one.” Williams says on a Zoom with Uproxx from his home in San Diego. “What I’ve realized is if we want things to change, especially in a positive direction, we can’t do it on our own. We need to come together.”
Williams launched his cannabis company, Highsman, in October 2021. The concept was simple: Williams wanted to break from any previous stigmas or stereotypes associated with cannabis. The product was streamlined, just three flower strains (Pregame, Halftime, and Postgame) Williams carefully selected to compliment different requirements throughout a person’s day.
“The whole idea of Highsman really came up during COVID. I started doing a lot of autograph signings. People were asking me to sign cannabis inscriptions. So I’d sign my name, number 34, then I’d write “Smoke weed every day,” or “Puff, puff, run,” and my revenue from autographs went up by three times,” Williams recalls with a chuckle. “And I started doing the math, and I said there’s no way there’s this many Ricky Williams fans out there.”
Ahead of the Super Bowl and in a partnership with Jeeter, Highsman is releasing a limited edition cannabis and apparel collaboration featuring a new strain, with 100 percent of proceeds from sales going to Athletes for CARE, a nonprofit that advocates for athletes of all ages. For Williams, the timing is important. In some ways it will be like a conscious return to football, but on his own terms and behind a larger purpose.
“I don’t think it hit me until the other day, when we were shooting some content for the collab. At the end, I saw the merch that’s going along with the content and I got really emotional, because it’s real,” Williams smiles. “I realized it is full-circle, because so much time has gone by that I have a chance to tell a story that can hopefully inspire the young people about what is cannabis, and how to use it and how to think about it.”
While Williams hopes to use Highsman to bridge the gap between the negative connotations of cannabis in pro sports, the company is for everybody. Moreover, what Williams has found, inadvertently or not, is that Highsman’s ingenuity, and spark of connection, comes from his own proverbial ashes.
“It’s not only that I have a brand and we’re doing this, but it’s cool now. When this all started I was a pariah,” Williams says, noting that in his early promo for Highsman, doing meet and greets and signing autographs, a lot of people didn’t recognize him. “When I was running for yards, they were babies. Some of them weren’t even born. But when I tell them the story, they all light up.
“It’s just cool that having these conversations with young people, the only relevance to football is that I walked away from it. It’s something I see that they can actually relate to,” Williams continues. “But if I’m just talking to them as this retired, old football player, there’s not really a relation.”
Though it can be tempting to look back on the treatment Williams got throughout his football career and consider what could have been different if he’d been playing in another era, he mostly resists that inclination. Williams wouldn’t have found out the more meaningful way forward for himself without it. But there are other arenas where he knows he was ahead of his time.
“Beyond just cannabis, the fact that I wanted to view myself as being more than just an athlete, and I think with social media now, athletes are more encouraged to be more than athletes, and actually have a voice,” Williams says. “To me, that’s what’s exciting.”
While Williams says the way he used his voice during his career was primarily advocating for cannabis, football players now “have a lot of things. And athletes, especially African-American professional athletes, have been silenced for a long time. And the fact that our voices are being heard and taken seriously, I think is amazing.”
What often gets left out of stories about athletes like Williams, and what we are still largely bereft of language around pro sports to handle, is how difficult a decision to walk away actually is. And that just because a career appears to careen off-track from the outside doesn’t mean that the athlete living it isn’t going through feelings of doubt and disillusionment while still trying to perform. These things aren’t mutually exclusive, as much as they become easier to explain when framed that way.
Williams describes that push and pull as a big part of his “crisis as a football player.” Ultimately, this made it clear to him that he had to change something.
Jeeter X Highsman
“When I was a kid and I thought about being famous, it wasn’t for money. It was because I thought I could make a difference. But fast forward, I was there and I wasn’t really making a difference. I felt like I was just distracting people for three hours on Sundays. And I’m sure some people were inspired, but I didn’t feel like that’s what I was here to do,” Williams explains. “And so when I left football, part of it was needing to find something that felt better in how I’m spending my time and my energy. Again, I wasn’t expecting it to be cannabis. I thought that would be the last thing, but here we are.”
Many of Williams’s personal interests, beyond cannabis and Highsman, have grown into small businesses. He has an astrology app called Lila; a holistic healthcare company, Real Wellness, he started with his wife; and is involved in the Freedom Football League.
“I’ve spent so much time and energy searching for truth, and cannabis and astrology have been a big part of my journey, and I feel like I’ve found something,” Williams says, noting the responsibility he feels to share those things back with people is the main impetus to him in starting any business. “I think we all have to make money to take care of ourselves, but if we’re not putting something out in the world that’s making the world a better place — at least that’s the way I feel — then what am I doing?”
Asked how he keeps the joy in what he’s doing when scaling his hobbies into professional pursuits and Williams stresses integration, over the more difficult to discern idea of balance, or having it all. The best way he knows how to do that is through people.
“That was the thing in football, when I was on the field I loved what I did but as soon as I stepped off the field I didn’t necessarily love the people I was around and the things that we were talking about,” Williams recalls. “And so I realized, I need to find somewhere where I love what I do, but I also really enjoy the people around me.”
Jeeter co-founder Sebastian Solano stresses that the company rarely partners with cannabis companies, but they clicked instantly with Williams and the initiative behind Highsman.
“It’s about breaking the stigma of sports, cannabis, and how cannabis can be something very beneficial, specifically for mental health,” Solano says.
The mental health component of the partnership is crucial to Williams, and central to his own journey. Williams, who has been candid about his difficult childhood and adolescence, struggled with anxiety his entire pro football career long before mental health and sports — let alone the impacts of head injuries caused by the sport — were topics the NFL was willing to broach, however imperfectly.
“I can speak to my history, and players history, but we also have to speak of the history of corporations, big companies in the U.S.,” Williams says when asked what he thinks of the gradual inroads the NFL has made with mental health and advocacy, and whether it’s enough. “There are certain ways that the NFL functions, and the fact that they’re willing to start investing money into doing some research into cannabis is at least a step in the right direction. There’s always the big bureaucracies, the big corporations, where things just move more slowly. And the common people, especially the ones ahead of their times, there’s always a time gap. But that’s just the way it works.”
True to the way in which he’s taken perceived problems, or points of adversity, and turned them into channels for change, Williams has an insightful saying: anxiety is information.
“My understanding of the purpose of pain is information, to let us know that we’re not making a stronger adaptation. Or that we’re in the wrong place,” Williams says when asked why he thinks it’s important not to turn away from the things with the potential to overwhelm or intimidate. “We’ve been taught to be skeptical of pleasure, of feeling good. And what I’ve realized is feeling good is one of the most important things in the world, because when you feel like crap, you can’t think straight, you just feel stuck.”
On that front, Williams has an abundant back catalogue of information that he once chose to compartmentalize, maybe more than most. But listening to him talk about the plans for Highsman and the good he’d like it to do, it’s clear that he has all the data he needs to push toward a place of more meaningful conversations around cannabis, within pro sports and beyond.
“I feel like even six months ago, the conversations about cannabis and mental health, people kind of look at you sideways,” Williams adds toward the end of the call, noting that COVID forced people to take their mental health more seriously. “And I was one of those people. I wasn’t comfortable mentioning cannabis and mental health because I was nervous about what people would say. But I’ve redefined what mental means to me. I think starting to have these conversations about how cannabis can be used to improve mental health,” he breaks off for a second, sighing happily, “I’m so excited about this.”
There was a time when he was growing up, and Williams recalls it with a knowing smile, “coach would always say, if you smoke pot you’re going to be a loser.” But from that first toe outside the line and all the crude dismissals that followed, Williams has shown that life in and after a pro sports career doesn’t have to go straight, or stay narrow. That the world can widen, in ways never expected.
The cult following that Caroline Polachek has been assembling since her 2019 official solo debut, Pang, is quickly growing. Most fans know that Polachek was the vocalist behind beloved early 2000s indie pop outfit Chairlift, and also released music as Ramona Lisa and CEP before finally adopting her own name as a moniker. The success of Pang — which spawned the now-TikTok-viral single “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” — and last year’s breakout single “Bunny Is A Rider” have fans more excited than ever for where Polachek is headed next.
Since “Bunny” seems to be the lead single off a new solo project, all signs point to that album dropping sometime this year, and her profile is only continuing to rise as 2022 unfolds. Not only will she be opening up for none other than Dua Lipa on her tour this year, but she’s kicking off the year with brand new music. Caroline began teasing a new song called “Billions,” last week, and now the track is finally here and everything listeners her listeners were hoping for. Slated as the second single for a new album, “Billions” is a flickering, glitchy distillation of Polachek’s most experimental instincts.
In the video for King Von’s new single “Don’t Play That,” the late Chicago rapper and guest 21 Savage engage in street-certified shenanigans, but as cutesy, animated avatars courtesy of director Cartune. The cartoony visuals contrast with the grimy content, creating a lighthearted sense of fun amid the dark subject matter.
In their verses, the two rappers filter their gun talk through their relationships with women, with Von boasting, “She fell in love with a shooter / I caught that girl playin’ with my Glock.” Meanwhile, 21 Savage echoes that sentiment, sneering, “I fell in love with the gun smoke / She caught me playin’ with my K.” Meanwhile, their bars play out in vivid computer animation, with their characters brandishing firearms and carousing with women. The song is the first single from Von’s upcoming posthumous album, What It Means To Be King, due March 4 via Only The Family/EMPIRE.
Meanwhile, Von isn’t the only one dropping new music soon. Savage recently hinted that a new album could be on the way, tweeting in January, “No album in a year and a half tho…it’s time.” He hasn’t been idle in that time, though, most recently contributing verses to fellow Atlantans JID and Gunna, while dropping two new singles of his own.
Watch King Von’s “Don’t Play That” video featuring 21 Savage above.
One of the most important parts of every vacation is deciding where to stay. From the comfort level of the bed to the amenities included in your reservation to the view from the balcony, a great hotel room can turn the dial up on any travel experience. In fact, an incredible hotel can be worth booking an entire trip around.
If there’s anyone who knows where the sexiest, most luxurious, and most unique hotel rooms are in the world, it’s the wanderlust travel couples of Instagram. While they don’t need much to make any destination look worthy of a visit, they certainly have enough travel experience under their belts to rank certain hotel rooms and villas above others.
That’s why we turned to worldly travel and relationship influencers to share the absolute nicest hotel rooms they’ve ever stayed in. Read on to find out where you should book your next room, according to 13 travel couples.
Also Read: The UPROXX “Hotels We Love” Travel Series
The one place that stole our hearts, at first sight, was the amazing La Perla Villas & Suites in Oia, Santorini, Greece.
Santorini is a dream destination for every traveler and Oia is the most famous town on the island. While visiting this place you want to stay at one of the cute white houses with picturesque sunset views.
We visited Santorini in October (which, if you ask us, is the best time to visit the Greek islands). We were lucky enough to stay at one of their best rooms — The Senior Suite with Outdoor Plunge Pool & Caldera Views. Without a doubt, we can say that this place brought our experience of visiting Santorini to another level. The suite has two bedrooms and is painted in an elegant white and blue — the signature colors of Greece.
The interior is elegant, cozy, and sophisticated. However, it’s the terrace with its small pool and astonishing views over the Caldera that makes this place so special. In the evenings, we relaxed in the pool, drinking wine (complimentary — a wonderful touch) and talking about our dreams, life, and desires as we watched the famous Santorini sunsets. One morning, we woke up before sunrise and pulled our bed sheets onto the rooftop of our room. We felt the fresh breeze carrying the smell of the sea across our faces. The sun was slightly warming our shoulders as we watched it slowly illuminate the breathtaking views around us. It was the perfect moment.
Life is not perfect. But it has perfect moments. And the time we spent in that beautiful suite in Santorini was one of those perfect moments.
JETT & FRANTZKY (@awaywithbae) — THE INSIDE HOUSE, THAILAND
@awaywithbae
You might mistake this gorgeous, airy retreat for a resort somewhere on a Greek island. However, this romantic boutique hotel, The Inside House, is actually nestled in the mountains of northern Thailand near Chang Mai. On top of the jaw-dropping aesthetics, service, and food, the experiences offered here are ultimate baecation vibes! Private poolside afternoon tea in your room? Yes, please! Outdoor bath with fresh rose petals and a bottle of crisp champagne? Yes, yes, yes!
The nicest hotel we’ve ever stayed in is probably Hotel Drover in Fort Worth Texas. It’s located in the historic Stockyard District that has a bunch of trendy shops, restaurants, and bars. The hotel and our room had trendy, ranch-chic decor with a luxury feel, but not too luxe where we felt like we didn’t fit in. The property was also gorgeous and had an outdoor pool and a few bars that served top-notch cocktails. We honestly couldn’t believe we were still in the United States!
SCOTT & COLLETTE (@roamaroo) — FOUR SEASONS BORA BORA
@roamaroo
There are few hotel rooms in the world that could rival the romance of the overwater bungalow suite with a plunge pool at the Four Seasons Bora Bora. Designed with honeymooners in mind, these overwater bungalows are over 1,100 square feet and are complete with private, fresh-water plunge pools and direct access to the lagoon below.
The bungalows are complete with large decks, outdoor showers, an outdoor lounge area, a king-sized bed, dual vanities, and mountain views. While the overwater bungalows offer gorgeous views and unique accommodations, the five-star service, delicious cuisine, and plenty of outdoor activities place the overall vacation experience in a league of its own.
The absolute nicest hotel room we have stayed in was an overwater bungalow at the Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay for our honeymoon. Immediately when we walked into the room, we were captivated by the magical Fijian sugar scrub scents. We enjoyed the glass floor near the entry that allowed us to see into the sea.
We took the most relaxing baths in the freestanding tub that featured a gorgeous tray that made reading or snacking in the tub easy. The best part was our spacious deck with delightful views and a private stairwell that led to the lagoon if we wanted to go for a swim.
Ever since we started traveling together, we dreamed of visiting Cavo Tagoo Mykonos. Last summer, our dream came true and we were able to stay in the iconic Cave Pool Suite. The room is filled with natural light and chic white-on-white tones for the perfect Mediterranean aesthetic.
We watched every sunset from our cave pool while soaking in the unobstructed views of the Aegean Sea. And what’s really fun is that Cavoo Tagoo has so many unique villas and rooms so you can go back summer after summer and always have a different experience.
The beachfront pool villa in Six Senses, Fiji, is without a doubt the best hotel room we’ve ever stayed at. We splurged on this luxury stay for our honeymoon. The moment we stepped into this gorgeous property, we were given a warm Fijian welcome and showered with hospitality. The room itself was spacious yet cozy, had a beautiful four-poster bed, and was adorned with tropical accents. Despite the warm wooden feel, it was fully automated with mood lighting, music, and an open bar unit with a cocktail-making kit.
The bathroom had both indoor and outdoor showers with an outdoor soaking tub amidst tropical plants. The room opened out onto a deck with sunbeds facing the beach and the best part was the private plunge pool where we lounged all day, sipping on champagne. A direct walkway leads to a pristine beach with white sands and blue waters where we watched some of the most breathtaking sunsets. We ended our stay with massages at their spa and bid adieu to our best vacation yet!
It was certainly not easy to get here. The trip included bumpy roads, a ferry ride, and even a golf cart. However, once we arrived at Hotel Villa Flamingos, it was worth every effort and more. This hotel is on the tiny island of Holbox, located on the north coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
This gorgeous hotel is only a five-minute bicycle ride from the island’s main town but far away enough to feel removed from the hustle and bustle. Although the hotel has its own private beach access with crystal clear waters, our room featured its very own hot tub with a view of the sea, making it nearly impossible to leave our room. We had the most perfect getaway and can’t wait to return one day.
When we stayed at Finca la Barca Tenerife in El Médano, Spain, we felt like we were transported into our own oasis. The best thing about our room was having our own personal hammock. It was relaxing and made us feel like we were transported to a tropical paradise.
The Ion Adventure Hotel in Iceland feels like a remote luxury oasis. We loved the on-site restaurant and bar with floor-to-ceiling windows, the large geothermally heated pool while watching the northern lights from our window. We had such a relaxing night at this hotel after driving the entire Ring Road and hiking miles every day. It was the perfect end to our trip.
Imagine an asylum in nature and a room called ‘Forest Pavilion’ with no walls but still cozy as a cocoon. Imagine being woken up by the first rays of sunshine to the background music of more than 30 kinds of birds. Imagine walks that start in the garden with pepper plantations and lead you into a jungle and a waterfall. Imagine clouds floating overhead as you swim laps in the stunning infinity pool, charming social distancing with the company of monkeys, squirrels, rabbits, hundreds of butterflies, fascinating insects, and stories of erstwhile tea plantations and passing wild elephants. I definitely dreamt about elephants after that.
We booked for two nights and extended it by another night because of the hospitality of the staff. The chef chatted us up in Hindi and pointed us to our next stay. That helped make it the most memorable vacation after quarantine. If you’re in Sri Lanka and feel like you’ve seen it all, please visit Living Heritage Koslanda for a private rendezvous with nature and be surprised.
Bonus: The famous multi-tiered Diyaluma Falls is just a ten-minute drive from the property and is another great reason to visit.
TINA & CEDERIQUE (@ournextlocation) — GRAN MELIA HOTEL, ARGENTINA
@ournextlocation
Our top hotel definitely is Gran Meliá Hotel at Iguazu Falls in Argentina. The room has the most beautiful view of the biggest waterfalls in South America. We had a beautiful bathtub and bed, staring at an amazing sunrise with the pink waterfall framing it. It was unforgettable.
Mountain panorama, bathtub, and a swing on the balcony!? The Alpin Lodge at the Chalet Al Foss Alp Resort was particularly memorable. The room alone was an experience, not to mention the glass-bottomed infinity pool or the alpacas you could watch from the balcony during the day. We can’t wait to visit the Chalet Al Foss again!
Things are starting to move quickly in the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters. Following Dakota Johnson‘s casting as the lead in Madame Web, Russell Crowe is joining Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the classic Spider-Man villain. While Crowe’s role, as well as the film’s plot, is being kept under wraps, the main characters are “said to be Kraven’s family members,” according to The Hollywood Reporter:
Kraven, who is one of Spider-Man’s best-known enemies, made his comic debut all the way back in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man No. 15, with the character created by Spider-Man co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The Russian big-game hunter decided to target the most dangerous foe he could imagine: Spider-Man. During his long tenure in the comics, Kraven is known for appearing in the classic 1980s storyline “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” in which the villain succeeded in defeating Spider-Man, burying him alive, and assuming his identity.
Crowe’s casting marks a continued demarcation between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters. The two were believed to be finally merging in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but that film’s end credits scene made it surprisingly clear that the film worlds would remain separate (for now). However, that decision allows Crowe to play Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder, and now, one of Kraven’s hunting obsessed relatives in yet another film about a Spider-Man villain that won’t have Spider-Man in it. Tom Holland can only be so many places at once, people.
Will Smith is executive producing Peacock’s Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot, which is called Bel-Air and has made no secret of its grittier tone, including the reasons why Will (now portrayed by Jabari Banks) left West Philly to join Uncle Phil in California. Yet there’s nothing at all dark about the Super Bowl LVI spot, which is a good thing because, hey, no one wants grittiness at the big game.
Cue the dancing from Will Smith, who’s joined by people around the world in recreating the theme song. A mariachi band even gets in on the fun, and the show will even premiere on Super Bowl Sunday on Peacock. Three episodes will drop that day (so no fear, drama will surface as the show explores complex issues through a contemporary lens), followed by weekly rollouts for the rest of a first season. From the synopsis:
Set in modern-day America, Bel-Air is a serialized one-hour dramatic analogue of the 90s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” that leans into the original premise: Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air. With a reimagined vision, Bel-Air will dive deeper into the inherent conflicts, emotions and biases that were impossible to fully explore in a 30-minute sitcom format, while still delivering swagger and nods to the original show.
Bel-Air (with another new Aunt Viv) will stream on February 13 on Peacock.
Knoxville, Tennessee’s WATE reports this is part of the GROW U initiative from Herschend Enterprises, which co-owns Dollywood and operates a total of 25 US theme parks and tourist attractions. The program, expected to launch on February 24, will “cover 100 percent of employees’ tuition, fees and books for employees who wish to further their education” for “11,000 seasonal, part-time, and full-time employees.” As part of the program, “employees will have access to diploma, degree and certificate programs across 30 learning partners. Programs will be offered in business administration and leadership, culinary, finance, technology, and marketing.” Employees will be eligible to enroll in the program on their very first day of employment.
Eugene Naughton, president of The Dollywood Company, said:
“We know when our hosts are happy and feel cared for that they are going to pass that along to our guests. The creation of the program allows another avenue for us to care for our hosts. One of The Dollywood Foundation’s key tenets is to ‘learn more.’ This program is created with that very tenet in mind. We want our hosts to develop themselves through advanced learning to fulfill the foundation’s other tenets: care more, dream more, and be more. When our hosts strive to grow themselves, it makes our business and our community a truly better place.”
Andrew Wexler, CEO of Herschend Enterprises, also said, “Whether it’s to pursue a new dream or advance their career with us, we care about our employees’ personal and professional growth, because we believe that their futures should be grown with love, not loans. Our team members’ success is our success — and that’s why we’re thrilled to make this benefit available to all, regardless of their role in the company and without the burden of debt.”
The GROW U program is powered by Guild Education, which “provides similar programs to employees of Taco Bell, Disney, Lowe’s, Walmart, and more.”
Leighton Meester is returning to the big screen (well, the Netflix big screen) next month in The Weekend Away, based on the 2020 Sarah Alderson novel of the same name.
Meester stars as Beth, a new mother who is convinced by her longtime pal Kate, played by Christina Wolfe, to go away for a weekend abroad. The two have a fun night out to relive their college days, and then things turn sour, as Beth wakes up to her friend dead, and no memory of what happened the night before.
Suddenly, she is the main suspect in a foreign country and she can’t leave. Beth has to try to piece together the events of the night before, while trying to clear her name for her best friends murder. The movie also stars Ziad Bakri and Luke Norris.
The former Gossip Girl star (not to be confused with the 2021 reboot) recently had a main role in Single Parents and several smaller movie stints over the years. This isn’t the first creepy psychological thriller that Meester has starred in, as she was in the 2011 cult classic The Roommate alongside Minka Kelly. She recently returned to TV as a regular on How I Met Your Father with Hilary Duff.
The Weekend Away debuts on Netflix on March 3rd. Check out the trailer above.
Last night’s BRIT Awards ceremony gave a whole new meaning to the term “playing with fire” as rap music won big and dominated the onstage performances with dynamic sets from Black artists like Dave and Little Simz (who, incidentally, are also alums of “the British version of The Wire,” Top Boy).
Dave, who won the Best Hip Hop/Rap/Grime Act award, also performed his song “In The Fire” from his 2021 second studio album We’re All Alone in This Together with fellow Grime standouts Giggs, Ghetts, Meekz, and Fredo. After completing his passionate verse, Dave revealed a surprising talent, donning an electric guitar to play a dazzling solo as flames shot out the end, a la Mad Max: Fury Road. Watch the performance above.
Another big winner was Little Simz, whose 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was widely considered one of the year’s best. Nominated for Artist of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act, Simz won Best New Artist, bringing her mum onstage for an inspirational acceptance speech encouraging fans to chase their dreams and holding herself up as an example of the fruits of perseverance. She also played album standouts “Introvert” and “Woman” alongside actress Emma Corrin from The Crown. You can check her performance out below.
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