Month: January 2023

Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene were once close colleagues, often spotted together during press conferences on key issues and on the House floor. At least, that appeared to be the case, given their mutual heckling of Biden while he spoke of his dead son, Beau, during the State of the Union address. They also both enjoy referencing 1776, especially in light of the insurrection. Cracks in their relationship began to show, however, last spring, and the resulting fissure has only grown larger after the House Speaker dustup that ended with Kevin McCarthy being declared the “winner” after 15 rounds of voting.

In December, the conflict went increasingly public. Boebert took a televised swing at Greene’s infamous “Jewish space lasers” conspiracy theorizing, and Greene dragged her ex-friend for barely winning reelection in a red-leaning district. The Daily Beast now reports how the House Speaker mess led to angry, loud words being exchanged in a Congressional ladies room. This altercation was apparently witnessed by two people, including Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), who would not elaborate to The Daily Beast, along with a mystery member of Congress, who spilled while staying anonymous:

Greene asked Boebert, “You were OK taking millions of dollars from McCarthy but you refuse to vote for him for Speaker, Lauren?”

The first source said Greene was in a stall and, upon coming out, confronted Boebert about taking money from McCarthy for her re-election and then turning against McCarthy when it came time to vote. The Colorado Republican was allegedly unaware that Greene was also in the bathroom at the time.

“That’s when Lauren said, ‘Don’t be ugly,’” the first source said, before she — in the words of this source — “ran out like a little schoolgirl.”

In response to The Daily Beast digging into this story, Boebert reportedly cut off communication, very fast, when asked about the incident. Whereas Greene ignored a request for comment, and Rep. Dingell responded, “What happens in the ladies room stays in the ladies room.” Sounds bad, not to mention very dramatic, and it’s further evidence of a fractured GOP going into 2023.

(Via The Daily Beast)

HBO has big expectations for The Last of Us, and while the series premiere didn’t get House of the Dragon-sized ratings, it got dang close.

“When You’re Lost in the Darkness” brought in 4.7 million viewers across all platforms, including HBO and HBO Max. “That figure trails only House of the Dragon’s nearly 10 million among HBO series premieres in the past decade-plus,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Other than the Thrones prequel, the last HBO show with a larger opening-night audience for its debut was Boardwalk Empire (4.81 million) in 2010.” Boardwalk Empire lost viewers after the Martin Scorsese-directed premiere, while House of the Dragon held strong — what will The Last of Us do?

“We are thrilled to see fans of the series and game alike experience this iconic story in a new way, and we extend our gratitude to them for helping to make it a success,” said Casey Bloys, HBO and HBO Max CEO. “Congratulations to Craig [Mazin], Neil [Druckmann], and the brilliant cast and crew who worked tirelessly to bring this show to life. We look forward to fans around the world enjoying the rest of the season.”

It’s early, but between the strong ratings and critical admiration, The Last of Us could join Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Succession, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, The Wire, and Deadwood among HBO’s finest Sunday night offerings.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Over the past couple months or so, nepotism (specifically “nepo babies,” or people who have allegedly derived benefit from famous/successful relatives who came before them) has been a hot topic of discussion. Now, Noel Gallagher, whose daughter Anaïs is a photographer and model, has chimed in.

NME notes that in an interview with Absolute Radio this morning (January 17), Noel said of Anaïs, who has professionally photographed her father and other artists like Yungblud and Inhaler:

“My daughter, she follows me around with a camera and she films me and all that. She did a film about the making of the [upcoming High Flying Birds] album [Council Skies]. I guess you want to keep things close to home, but they have to be good at what they do. She’s good at what she does. She’s not just wandering around, pointing a camera going, ‘Muh there’s my dad’: she is great.

It’s not the worst thing in the world if you get your kids working for you. They’re cheap, do you know what I mean? My lads are too busy scratching their balls and scouring TikTok for nonsense to worry about, ‘Dad, can I be your bass player,’ or anything like that.”

Last November, Anaïs spoke about nepotism with Daily Mail, saying

“I would be tone deaf and irresponsible if I didn’t admit to how privileged my life has been and how much of a leg up my upbringing has given me. I’m really, really, extremely grateful for the situation my parents have been able to give me, and I’ll be grateful until the day I die. Whether it’s being able to attend university or have job opportunities, I’m incredibly grateful for everything they’ve given me. […]

There is justification around the hiring of nepotism babies. I think it’s not justified as an attack on somebody personally, and whether they themselves are a hard worker, because you don’t truly ever know anyone. I actually don’t think it’s kind to pass judgement on anyone you don’t know and to be mean about them. But I do think there needs to be a push to hire people who are incredibly deserving, and they may not come from a background when they have all the contacts. I think that is up to employers, I don’t think the pressure should be on the nepotism babies not to go up for the jobs, but it should be on the employers to do the right thing and the right research, and consider who is the right candidate for the job. […]

I don’t feel pressure from outside because nobody can truly know how hard you work or anything like that. I don’t feel that much pressure. My parents don’t put that much pressure on me to be super, super successful, they just put pressure on me to be a hard worker and have good morals and be grounded and kind. I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself not to take anything for granted and be respectful and work hard, but I’m not bothered about whether people think I’m deserving or undeserving. There’s always going to be people out there who have a negative opinion of you.”

Drake is wealthy, and if that wasn’t obvious based just on his long-running musical success, he takes every opportunity to show it off, whether he’s sharing big bets or buying an amusement park. Now, his new video for Her Loss highlight “Jumbotron Sh*t Poppin” is more of the same.

The video is presented as a slice-of-life look into three days of Drake’s life. Well, it looks like he packed a lot into those 72 hours. Perhaps most notably, he took time to show off a ton of jewelry. HipHopDX notes that some of the wares come from an online auction Pharrell hosted last October, in which he sold off his personal jewelry and other items. Spotted in the Drake video were “a 14K three-tone N.E.R.D pendant chain ($2,184,000), a white gold brain pendant chain ($725,000) and a skateboard pendant chain ($103,750),” and the publication estimates Drake flexed about $3.3 million worth of Pharrell’s old jewelry overall.

Elsewhere in the video, we get appearances from Mike Tyson, Lil Baby, and French Montana. Drake also nods to the gamers watching by prominently showing off a golden Sony PSP (that handheld video game console from the 2000s, in case you forgot) at multiple points.

Check out the “Jumbotron Sh*t Poppin” video above.

LL Cool J is up to big things. A few days ago, he tweeted: “Should I do a biopic?” and stirred up conversation about who would play him. Now, he’s taken to Twitter again to talk about what else he’s been up to, which includes highly anticipated music finally arriving soon.

“I’m competing with myself on this new album,” he wrote on the app. “Wait til you hear this MF. This year B. It’s coming.” He also posted about his 55th birthday, sharing photos from a celebration as well as a video of DJ Z-Trip giving him a present — a custom art piece. LL’s last album was 2013’s Authentic, so this is great long-awaited news.

Speaking of big things, last month, he announced the ‘Rock The Bells’ cruise, running from November 13-17 this year and including performances from Trina and Trick Daddy. “It took 50 years, but it’s finally here! This Cruise is for Hip-Hop because you deserve it,” he wrote on Instagram. “The Rock The Bells Cruise: A Hip-Hop Experience is setting sail in 2023. We’re dropping the lineup at the top of the new year, but put $100 down to reserve your cabin today or sign up to be the first in line.”

The Dallas Cowboys were absolutely dominant against the Buccaneers on Monday night in Tampa, as Dak Prescott and the offense were unstoppable after a couple of ugly early drives, scoring four touchdowns on four straight possessions to end the first half and start the second half. On the other side of the ball, the defense was pitching a shutout through the early third quarter, picking Tom Brady off in the red zone on their lone trip inside the 20 — the first such pick by Brady since 2016 in the playoffs.

However, because this is the Cowboys, there must always be one thing that leads fans to have a minor crisis of faith, and kicker Brett Maher stepped into that role in an historic way on Monday night. Maher missed the extra point after all four touchdowns from Dallas, causing a Peyton Manning meltdown on the Manningcast after the third, setting an NFL Playoff record in the process as the first player to ever miss three in a game, and is the first kicker since at least 1932 to miss four in a game.

The first two were nearly identical kicks that missed wide right, while the third was an overadjustment he hooked to the left.

That setup some serious drama when he stepped up for the fourth after the Cowboys went on another TD march to start the third quarter. This time, Maher went back to the right and found additional insult by hitting the upright and bounding away to the right for his fourth miss.

It was truly unbelievable to watch, as it was the kicking equivalent of someone getting the yips. It was painful to watch but something you just couldn’t look away from, as every time he trotted out on the field you couldn’t help but be glued to the screen to see if it’d happen again. The good news for Maher, if there can be any on the worst night of his career, was the Cowboys were bludgeoning the Bucs and, at least through three quarters, it didn’t feel like the missed kicks would be costly to the team, just an unbelievable footnote in what should become a win.

UPDATE: He would finally get redemption on the fifth attempt, knocking it through to put Dallas up 31-6 in the fourth quarter.

Late last year, Brockhampton officially broke up, but not before dropping two albums in the time span of two days. First came the highly anticipated seventh LP The Family, then was the surprise record TM. They’re already hard enough to keep up with, especially when it comes to the beloved member Kevin Abstract, who’s apparently never slowing down.

The artist told GQ in a new interview that he has a lot of ambitions and goals for this year, including putting out a solo LP. “I want to put an album out this summer,” he said. And that’s not it — he also mentioned a tour and venturing into new artistic mediums, such as film and TV, which his friends do.

Abstract was actually the only member of Brockhampton on The Family. About the new Brockhampton records and the breakup of the band, Abstract wrote in a letter, “The members of the band began to move our separate ways and focus on our individual careers and passions. With this project, a few of us were inspired to make something new that would bring closure to the past and set the table for all of us to finally be able to explore our individual futures.”

Rapper Lil Tjay may have beat the odds stacked against him, but he’s falling into one of the biggest traps set for rappers, random encounters with local law enforcement. After surviving multiple gunshot wounds during a botched robbery attempt last June, the rapper has made a triumphant return to music, but it may come to a screeching halt.

According to TMZ, Lil Tjay was arrested while on the way to film a music video for the song “Gangsta Boo,” a collaboration with fellow Bronx native Ice Spice. In their reporting, the rapper has been charged with gun possession. Video quickly surfaced online of a person who looks like the musician being detained and then quickly escorted by New York City Police officers while handcuffed into a squad car.

Instead of canceling the video shoot after learning of Lil Tjay’s arrest, Spice shifted gears to film a video instead for her song “In Ha Mood.”

With rappers like Young Thug’s lyrics being used against him during his current RICO case in the state of Georgia, things don’t look good for Lil Tjay. Not only does Lil Tjay have prior arrests for gun possession, amongst other things, on his record, but in his music, he has often rapped about keeping weapons on his person.

Little is known at this time. But we will keep you updated as more information is released.

The Dallas Cowboys had a nearly perfect first half against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After a slow start for both teams, Dak Prescott and company got cooking, scoring three touchdowns on consecutive drives — including a pair of 90-plus yard drives — while the defense picked Tom Brady off in the end zone on the Bucs only red zone visit.

Those two phases of the game were about as good as it gets in a half of football, but kicker Brett Maher’s performance left a lot to be desired as he missed all three of his extra point attempts. The first two were nearly identical, as he just blew both kicks wide right.

On the third miss, an overcorrection to hooking it wide left, the reaction of Peyton and Eli on the Manningcast was hysterical.

Peyton, who cannot accept failures of execution even when not emotionally invested, looks visibly ill and says “you’ve got to be kidding me” and yelling “why are we kicking it” while walking off camera, as Eli just can’t believe what he’s watching. Those two responses were pretty much the reaction of everyone else, and it felt very probable that Dallas would not look to kick again in the game if they could help it — and very well could be making a kicker change ahead of the Divisional round if they finish off this win.

Maher’s three missed extra points made some NFL history, as he became the first player to miss three in a playoff game, and will likely hold the record for most consecutive misses in the playoffs for a very, very long time.

For now, it looks like Maher’s missteps will be covered up by excellent play from the offense and defense, but you can be assured that any Bucs comeback to get within a possession in the second half will shift the spotlight squarely onto Dallas’ kicker.

The highlight of the Buccaneers vs. Cowboys game wasn’t watching what could be Tom Brady’s final game in Tampa Bay. It was The Mandalorian season three trailer that premiered during halftime. Baby Yoda playing with his ball >>> Brady throwing a football.

The last time we saw Din Djarin and Baby Yoda, it was on The Book of Boba Fett where they reunited after Grogu accepted his daddy’s chain mail (in a way, Pedro Pascal is everyone’s daddy) over continuing his Jedi training under the tutelage of a digitally de-aged Luke Skywalker. In the season three trailer, Mando and our favorite lil’ green guy (who seems to have a learned a thing or two about the Force) head to Mandalore; there’s also quick cameos from a litter (?) of Kowakian monkey-lizards and whatever Babu Frik is, besides the best part of The Rise of Skywalker. You can watch it above.

“If he is stepping into a leadership position, he’s reluctant to do so,” Pascal told Total Film about Mando’s mindset heading into season three.” I don’t think that there’s anything more interesting than a character being forced into discovering what they’re capable of, and who they are. That part has been really, really fun. Also, from my point of view, there’s so many searchable ways to find the tonality of that. I just tried to achieve the subtleties of that kind of character development.”

The Mandalorian returns for season three on Disney+ on March 1.