Year: 2022

Dr. Mehmet Oz’s congressional campaign has been one of the most accident-prone and Sideshow Bob-like in memory, and the former TV quack is still somehow finding new rakes to step on. Lately people have been digging up old, incriminating (or just embarrassing) interviews he’s done over his many years in the spotlight. Last week, someone unearthed one in which he declared all abortions to be “murder.” But did you also know he at least used to be very gung-ho about incest?

This comes from Jezebel, who exhumed a 2014 interview with The Breakfast Club, where Oz — his future, possibly doomed Senate run barely even a glint in his eye — was answering listeners’ questions. One was from someone who admitted they “can’t stop smashing my cousin.” They started hooking up at a young age and, no matter how many times the person tried to put the kibosh on the incestuous canoodling, they couldn’t resist it. They wanted to know if it was safe.

But the good TV doctor said it was. “If you’re more than a first cousin away, it’s not a big problem,” he replied. Oz explained how genetics work, that humans naturally crave people with different genes, especially if it’s an unfavorable one, like hemophilia. That’s all well and good, but Oz then went into a little too much detail.

“You know, that’s why children, girls don’t like their fathers’ smell. Their pheromones will actually repel their daughters because they’re not supposed to be together,” Oz said. “My daughters hate my smell.”

Did John Fetterman, his Democratic opponent for the vacating Pennsylvania seat Oz wants so bad he decamped from New Jersey, let this one slip? He did not.

“Yet another issue where Oz and I disagree,” Fetterman tweeted. For the record, some other issues with which the two disagree are the legalization of marijuana, how many houses one should own while still calling one’s self a man of the people, and that you shouldn’t make light of someone’s health if they’ve had a stroke. But at least Oz can’t be further embarrassed by his old poop tweets, because those were already dug up weeks ago.

(Via Jezebel)

Ed Orgeron is as unique a figure as you’ll find in college football — which is saying something in a sport that has a ton of characters. The Louisiana native has always been an elite recruiter, thanks in large part to his gregarious nature and earnest enthusiasm for football that few can replicate.

Coach O was never known for being a great tactician and it’s part of what led to his ouster from LSU — among other issues during his tenure off the field — but Orgeron’s time in Baton Rouge isn’t something he looks back on with any resentment. In an appearance at the Little Rock Touchdown Club this week, Coach O talked about how he still has a lot of love and respect for the LSU athletic department and how they handled everything, noting that it didn’t take a genius to figure out things were going poorly.

Then, he detailed exactly how his firing went down and how he was thrilled to take his buyout and leave.

“They said, ‘Coach, you’ve got $17.1 million on your contract. We’re gonna give it to you,’” Orgeron explained. “I said, ‘What time do you want me to leave and what door do you want me out of, brother?’”

It’s peak Coach O, gleefully recounting getting fired and how happy he was to take his massive buyout and leave however LSU wanted to handle it. Coaches don’t usually stay out of football for long because to do the job you have to be almost unhealthily obsessed with the game, but for now it sure seems like Orgeron is at peace with his situation and making lots of money to not have to work right now, which is the ultimate dream.

The internet is ablaze following the Don’t Worry Darling premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Directed by Olivia Wilde, the film features her boyfriend Harry Styles in a supporting role and stars actors Chris Pine and Florence Pugh. And while the bulk of the social media chatter is about whether or not Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine when he was taking a seat [Editor’s note: He did not.], the celebrity sleuths are also wondering whether the fact that Styles and Wilde didn’t sit next to each other is an indication of their current relationship status?

Did Harry Styles And Olivia Wilde Split Up?

Wilde and Styles allegedly started dating in early 2021, shortly after Wilde announced a split from her then-fiancée Jason Sudeikis. Their relationship slowly blossomed, but if there’s been a defining characteristic of Styles and Wilde as an item, it’s been how careful they seem to be when they appear together. The Don’t Worry Darling premiere presented a tricky public appearance for them, where Wilde and Styles could have used the opportunity to showcase their romance, but instead, the focus has been on Don’t Worry Darling.

While Styles didn’t mind kissing Nick Kroll at the premiere, he did not show the same public display of affection to Wilde. Instead, the pair were methodically apart; from their seating arrangements to the cast media photos.

Do these photos at the Venice Film festival seem to indicate that Wilde and Styles have split up? Chances are, they’re just being strategic about keeping Don’t Worry Darling front and center and not their relationship. Although the internet, as per usual, has other ideas about this and more, and the speculation continues.

For most of human history, pretty much everyone formed families with people who lived within walking distance of where they lived. But over the millennia, advances in transportation, communication and technology have shrunk our world into a global neighborhood. Today it’s not at all unusual for people from countries thousands of miles away from each other to marry, blending not only families but diverse cultures and traditions as well.

How those cultures and traditions come together can be interesting, though. Cultural clashes occasionally do happen and figuring out how to honor everyone’s background when bringing together two families from vastly different places can be a challenge.

One couple came up with an utterly delightful way to do just that at their Scottish-Indian wedding, and it has everyone bopping along.

In some ways, Scotland and India are worlds apart. One is known for its cool, moist weather while the other contains 10 of the 15 hottest places on Earth. One is joked about for having bland food while the other’s cuisine has been studied to figure out what makes it so flavorful. One is part of an island with a smaller population than New York City, while the other takes up a vast stretch of a continent and holds around one-seventh of the world’s people. From clothing to food to religious traditions to melanin levels, Scotland and India are two very different countries.

That doesn’t mean they don’t make a fabulous combo, though. Wait till you hear the musical mashup that brought this Indian groom and Scottish-Indian bride into their reception:

@jedisingh217

If anything can bring people together instantaneously, it’s music. Who knew that a bagpipe (traditional Scottish wind instrument) song and dhol (traditional Indian drum) would blend so well together?

The video was shared by Arun Bhopal, brother of the bride, on TikTok. People in the comments have shared how much they love how the musical traditions complemented each other.

“Absolutely LOVE this, two cultures coming together and appreciating each other,” wrote one person.

“This combo, wow…didn’t realize how much it works together,” wrote another.

Several people said they wished they could get the song on Spotify, and Bhopal shared that it sounded even better in person. We can only imagine.

What a joyful celebration of two cultures coming together in love. More of these kinds of traditional musical mashups, please.

In the midst of Kanye West’s ongoing battles with Gap and Adidas, it looks like there are still some brands willing to roll the dice with the mercurial producer. To be fair, his popularity has seemingly continued despite his becoming better known for controversy, so of course, brands hope to enjoy the halo effect of that.

While launching a deluge of Instagram posts criticizing Adidas on Monday, Kanye also enigmatically posted the “SAS” logo of San Antonio Shoemakers with a happy face emoticon — yes, that’s emoticon, not emoji. Apparently, Kanye is posting from 2009. SAS is a Texas-based comfort shoe brand that primarily competes with Clarks, ECCO, and New Balance for a market demographic that mostly consists of senior citizens, who are decidedly not Kanye’s core audience.

So, what are Kanye West’s plans with SAS?

On Monday, Kanye also posted, “What shoe company will give me control? I need to be the head of the board and the chief decision maker.” It’s likely that Kanye believes that the company would be amenable to these terms — terms he says his current footwear partner Adidas, which handles the manufacture of his Yeezy brand, are not. Kanye has argued that when he partnered with Adidas — likely more of a licensing situation — he was promised Yeezy brick-and-mortar stores and a spot on the board. Obviously, with Kanye acting so erratically lately, that’s a gamble few companies are willing to take.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, in response, the company said, “We sincerely appreciate the interest Ye (Kanye West) has expressed towards our company and look forward to continuing the conversation around a potential collaboration.” For what it’s worth, SAS has been shifting its focus, hoping to expand to a younger demographic. We’ll see if they believe working with Kanye is worth the headaches. to get it.

Zazie Beetz has been quietly dominating screens over the past few years, and she’s just beginning to take over Hollywood. Not only has she scored an Emmy nomination for starring in Atlanta, but she also has a reputation for starring alongside A-list celebs and outdoing them.

Beetz famously starred alongside Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2, before she stole the screen in Joker alongside Joaquin Phoenix. Most recently, Beetz was opposite Brad Pitt in the transportation-based action movie Bullet Train. Now, she’s teaming up with some more legends for a new HBO series from Stephen Soderbergh.

As per the official plot description, Full Circle will follow an investigation into a botched kidnapping that uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present-day New York City. It will not be a reboot of the 2013 series Full Circle starring David Boreanaz, Keke Palmer, and Tom Felton (!?) though that was a solid show. It’s unclear what role Beetz will play in the HBO Max show.

The six-episode mini-series will be directed by Soderbergh himself and written by Ed Solomon, also known as the guy who wrote Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and all of the subsequent sequels. Solomon and Soderbergh will be reuniting after working together on last year’s crime thriller No Sudden Move, starring Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Brendan Fraser, and Kieran Culkin. HBO sure has been good to Soderbergh! And not so good to literally everyone else.

(Via Variety)

Alex Jones had the kind of on-air meltdown even a two-year-old would be impressed by this week when he visited the Youtube web show, Channel 5.

Jones had an extremely humiliating time of it during his very public trial weeks earlier where he was ordered to pay $49.3 million in damages to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. During his Youtube show appearance, Jones was quizzed on how he felt about the verdict. A normal person might show remorse for spending years making money off of conspiracy theories that claimed the massacre that left dozens of young children dead was a hoax, but Jones decided to, errrr, take a different approach.

“Yes. I killed the children,” an exasperated Jones replied when asked if he felt responsible for the trolling the Sandy Hook families experienced after the tragedy. “No, I mean, I went in that school. I pulled a gun out. I shot every one of them myself. I mean, I’m guilty.”

When the show’s host, Andrew Callaghan — (previously known as the All Gas, No Brakes guy) — tried to rephrase the question, Jones grew even more irate.

“Do I feel responsible that someone played shit about video games on a bunch of drugs, went and killed a bunch of kids and then the internet questioned it? And I covered that. No, I don’t feel responsible and I don’t apologize anymore. I’m done. I don’t apologize. I killed the kids!” he said.

Callaghan again tried to intervene, saying “You didn’t kill them.” But Jones, clearly in his feels about being found guilty in his defamation suit, just doubled down.

No, I did,” Jones ranted. “Everybody said no — no. I killed them. I killed them. I already admitted it. I did it. I killed them. I’m the bad guy. I’m the devil — get rid of the First Amendment. First Amendment killed them. Second. Get rid of the Second Amendment. Get rid of the First Amendment. They’re bad. They killed the kids too. George Washington killed them. Jesus killed them. The whole — we should rename the whole planet Sandy Hook!”

“It should be holidays. We should bow five times a day to New Haven, Connecticut for the kids that died,” Jones continued. “Every American is to blame — every gun owner’s to blame. I’m to blame. We are all guilty to Bloomberg and Soros. Turn our guns in, turn our guns in. I know I get it. I killed them. I killed them. I killed them. I know — I killed them. So I’m done talking about it. Okay. I killed them.”

Eventually, the InfoWars host stormed off set but his mic was still on, catching an interaction between himself and an employee from his own show.

“I don’t think you should keep doing that,” the employee told Jones. Jones responded by again affirming that he killed the children at Sandy Hook saying, “What? Dude, I murdered those children.”

The employee begged Jones to stop replying, “Still not a funny thing to say. I get the point, but it’s just like, fuck man,” to which Jones then answered, “Fuck it. I don’t give a fuck, dude. I’m far beyond giving a fuck right now” before his mic was turned off.

(Via Mediaite)

Justin Bieber’s Justice World Tour was set to be an incredible undertaking, to begin with. Considering what a spectacle his performances are and how much production heavy-lifting has to be done for each show, to be able to put on close to 100 concerts in less than a year is a huge task. Now Bieber, who has been public about his struggles with Ramsay-Hunt Syndrome — and had already postponed a set of tour dates as he tried to get better — is postponing the remaining 70 dates on the Justice World Tour to focus on his physical health and overall well-being.

Bieber just played at the Rock In Rio festival in Brazil and in a statement posted to his Instagram Story, he wrote, “After getting off stage, the exhaustion overtook me and I realized that I needed to make my health a priority right now. So I’m going to take a break from touring for the time being.”

Variety confirmed the statement that Bieber is postponing the tour indefinitely with his reps. The dates would have stretched into March of 2023. Read Bieber’s full statement below.

“Earlier this year, I went public about my battle with Ramsay-Hunt Syndrome, where my face was partly paralyzed.

As the result of this illness, I was not able to complete the North America leg of the Justice Tour.After resting end consulting with doctors, family and team, I went to Europe in an effort to continue with the tour.

I performed six live shows, but it took a real toll on me. This past weekend I performed at Rock in Rio and I gave everything I have to the people in Brazil. After getting off stage, the exhaustion overtook me and I realized that I needed to make my health a priority right now. So I’m going to take a break from touring for the time being.

I’m going to be OK, but I need time to rest and get better period I’ve been so proud to bring this show and our message of justice to the world.Thank you for your prayers and support throughout all of this exclamation point i love you all passionately!”

While Rudy Giuliani would go on to play a more disastrous role in the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency, the former New York City mayor and once-respected attorney reportedly had his eyes on a more prestigious title: Secretary of State. According to writer Andrew Kirtzman’s new book, Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor, Trump passed on giving Giuilani the coveted cabinet position because of the attorney’s drinking problem.

Thanks to letting Giuliani roam the secret tunnels beneath Mar-a-Lago after his failed presidential run in 2008, Trump was well aware of Rudy’s drinking. While the two had a friendly relationship where they reportedly fought for one and other’s respect, Giuliani made an ill-advised move by going to the press to convince Trump to make him Secretary of State, which he felt he deserved. Instead, the campaign ended up angering Trump. Via The Daily Beast:

“He started just hearing all of these negative stories about him, about his drinking; Giuliani waged this campaign in the press to get the job which turned Trump off. They launched an investigation internally in the campaign into Giuliani’s clients, and he had so many clients with potential conflicts that had filled a report, dozens of pages, and eventually, Trump moved on,” says Kirtzman, who shares a lot of other Giuliani anecdotes on this episode, including his ex-wife’s speculation that he had a drinking problem.

Before anyone gives Trump too much credit, Kirtzman said that the former president offered Giuliani a chance to be Attorney General or head of Homeland Security, which are both frightening prospects. Fortunately, Giuliani’s ego led him to turn down those offers in pursuit of being Secretary of State even though he had practically zero foreign policy experience. Later, he’d take over Trump’s legal battle to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which so far, has resulted in multi-billion dollar lawsuits and an ongoing investigation in Georgia that’s not looking great for Trump and Rudy.

(Via The Daily Beast)

All I could think throughout one of the best playoff basketball games any of us have seen is that Chelsea Gray is breaking the game. A’ja Wilson, Gray’s teammate on the Las Vegas Aces, has dominated the last two games of the team’s semifinal matchup with the Seattle Storm. Chicago Sky forward Candace Parker has been on her own postseason heater.

But despite that, Gray stands above the rest in a fashion that cannot be overstated. This is Gray’s shot chart in the playoffs, per InStat Scouting.

It’s one thing to be on a heater and catch fire from all areas of the court in the flow of the offense. Instead, Gray is doing this on a diet of shots almost entirely self-created. Considering her 78.5 percent true-shooting percentage (league average was 54.1 percent this season), that’s staggering.

Slightly under a third of her attempts from deep are categorized as catch-and-shoot looks. She’s shooting 55 percent out of isolation. A 63 percent clip on shots taken as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, including 62 percent on her pull-up threes from behind the arc, is actually insane. When factoring in her otherworldly playmaking ability, it’s indeed fair to say Gray is breaking the game.

And it’s not like Gray is getting a steady diet of easy shots. Watch what she’s able to do here against one of the best defensive players in the league.

Gabby Williams, who rightfully made All-Defense, gave her everything at the point of attack. Time and time again during Game 3 specifically, Gray found ways to beat that.

Here’s another example. What can you even do here? Williams has length, she has lateral quickness, she has good functional strength and reaction speed, and again, Gray figures out what she has to do to get the better of this matchup.

Gray is remarkably strong. She can bully smaller players. Anyone with a higher center of gravity is at the mercy of her shoulders. Her off-arm play to create separation is second to none in the league. There’s no hesitation in her play, every move has intention and causes shifts in both her defender and the defense as a whole. The violence she has in some of her crosses and steps is awe-inspiring, just ask Jewell Loyd.

What’s made her run even more spectacular has been the brunt of the playmaking load she’s handled in comparison to her contemporaries. It’s not just about the assists per game — still, 7.2 a night is beyond impressive — but the actual impact of how she sees the court and manipulates it is otherworldly. Watching these games, and particularly Game 3, has made it clear that there is no winning formula for the defense.

It doesn’t matter what has or hasn’t been drawn up, Gray is one or multiple steps ahead of her defenders, dictating the terms of engagement like a general. That entire first half was Gray calling for different screening variations and sets to pull apart the Seattle defense. With how she’s shooting on top of that, what do you even do defensively? How do you counter this?

How do you counter a player who hits this despite a perfectly executed switch by the defense?

That is good defense! Gray just makes it so that Tina Charles mirroring her about as well as one can for half the shot clock doesn’t matter.

Trap Gray and she hits the roller exquisitely and in a timely fashion. Switch onto Gray and she’ll take advantage of a mismatch with her shot-making or by forcing a rotation with a drive-and-kick. Go under a pick-and-roll and she’s pulling the strap. Her all-time heater has put the Storm in a very clear bind.

That’s not at all to say that Seattle is doing a bad job — their defense against Gray has actually been quite good. Instead, there’s just no answer for her while she’s playing like this. She’s causing hesitation and indecision among a team that occupied the top defensive metrics in basketball for much of the year. When you hit shots at this absurd unreal level, there isn’t a “right way” to defend her, because every look is a good look for Gray right now.

As the series enters its final stretch — it could, potentially, end on Tuesday night, as Las Vegas holds a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 — be sure to bask in the play of Gray, who is throwing down one of the single greatest shot-making stretches and displays of offense we’ve ever seen.