Month: January 2023

Last year’s Pam & Tommy was yet another hit Hulu limited series, digging up some prime ‘90s tabloid fodder: the dissemination of a sex tape (of sorts) featuring Pamela Anderson and then-husband Tommy Lee. It even nabbed four Emmy nominations, including one for co-star Lily James, who played Anderson. The British actress tried to reach out to the person she was playing, but Anderson wanted nothing to do with it. Now it appears Anderson’s enmity for the series is even more intense than it seemed.

In a new New York Times profile (in a bit teased out by The Hollywood Reporter), Anderson reveals that James had sent her a handwritten letter in which she professed her respect for her and her wish to honor her. A scanned version of that letter, Anderson told NYT, sits somewhere in her inbox. It remains to this day unread.

Anderson wasn’t buying claims that the series was anything but more exploitation.

“It was already hurtful enough the first time,” Anderson said. “It’s like one of those things where you’re going, ‘Really?’ People are still capitalizing off that thing?”

The makers of Pam & Tommy have previously addressed Anderson’s refusal to get involved or even to give them her blessing. Producer Robert Siegel said that after she’d “chosen not to engage” with them, they “respected her desire not to be involved.”

In the meantime, Anderson has been opening up about the incident Pam & Tommy chronicles. She’s releasing her own memoir, Love, Pamela, and she’s done new interviews, in which she says she’s never watched the notorious tape. She’s also the subject of a Netflix documentary, Pamela, a love story. In the latter’s trailer, she addresses the series. “I blocked that stolen tape out of my life in order to survive and now that it’s all coming up again, I feel sick. I want to take control the narrative for the first time,” she can be heard saying. “Why can’t we be the heroes of our own life story?”

(Via NYT and THR)

Cardi B is back! News broke about the New York rapper’s highly anticipated return to music with a new album — her first in five years — after her longtime A&R guy, Brooklyn Johnny, posted a clip of Cardi in the studio.

TMZ reports that Cardi B plans to return in 2023, dropping her long-anticipated second album.

The rapper’s debut album, 2018’s Invasion of Privacy, was an instant hit and would go on to spawn two Diamond-selling singles, “Bodak Yellow” and “I Like It,” featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, and go 3x platinum.

Cardi has kept herself in the public eye by dropping “Hot Sh*t” with Ye and Lil Durk this past July and featuring alongside GloRilla for her hit song, “Tomorrow 2.”

In other news, Cardi and her husband, Offset, are expected to appear in their own Super Bowl ad with McDonald’s this year. Sources say that the tv spot will be all about love and have a “Valentine’s Day” theme.

This would be Cardi B’s second round when it comes to Super Bowl ads. She famously did one for Pepsi a few years ago.

Super Bowl LVII 2023 will premiere on February 12 this year, and Rihanna is expected to perform at the iconic halftime show.

John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have reportedly welcomed their third child.

Legend revealed the news this Friday (January 13) during a private concert, People reports. He reportedly told the audience that he and Teigen had welcomed “the little baby this morning.”

Legend continued, saying that he “didn’t get a lot of sleep” but he felt “energized” after having spent “a lot of time” at the hospital overnight. The couple has not yet shared a name for the baby or any images of the baby on social media, however, Legend was said to be in bright spirits. He was said to have been over the moon, exclaiming, “What a blessed day.”

Legend and Teigen are already parents to son Miles, 4, and daughter Luna, 6. In an interview on Good Morning Britain that took place last September, Legend revealed that Miles and Luna are excited to bring a new sibling into the family. He also noted that he and Teigen were approaching the pregnancy with caution after she had suffered pregnancy complications back in October of 2020.

“Whenever you lose a pregnancy there is always cautious optimism when you’re pregnant again,” he said. “because you never know what could happen and you’ve experienced that tragedy of losing one. But everything has been great so far, the kids are excited, we’re all excited and can’t wait to welcome the new baby into the world.”

Meek Mill found himself in hot water after fans speculated that he was shading Lori Harvey over a recent social media post. “Y’all let that gal f#%k anybody,” he tweeted on Friday. It was recently revealed that Harvey, who was once the object of Philadelphia rapper’s affection, might be dating Snowfall actor Damon Idris.

News broke about the alleged couple’s relationship after Idris posted a few photos with Harvey on his Instagram.

In 2018, on his track “Goin Bad,” featuring Drake, Meek rapped about putting the enigmatic socialite on his Christmas “wish list,”but the tune quickly changed after the model and entrepreneur became romantically linked to a string of some of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors, including Future, Diddy, Lewis Hamilton, Michael B. Jordan, and more.

During his Summer Jam 2021 set, the rapper changed the lyrics, saying, “I took Lori Harvey off my wishlist/That’s the only thing I wanted for Christmas.”

In light of the history between the two and this recent tweet, fans assumed Meek’s tweet was another shot at her. Just a case of bad timing, perhaps?

Meek responded to the drama in a flurry of tweets, insisting that his post had nothing to do with Harvey or her new rumored beau. The rapper noted that not only are he and Idris “friends,” the line is, in fact, from PARTYNEXTDOOR’s newly released song, “Her Old Friends.”

Meek believes that gossip sites like the ShadeRoom have “ruined many friendships and families,” and said he tries to “stay away from people that live in those comments they be secretly miserable!”

The NFL added a little pizzazz to the first round of its postseason a few years back when it decided to rename the Wild Card round the — wait for it — SUPER Wild Card round. That’s right, baby: After the NFL opted to add a seventh team to the AFC and the NFC playoffs in 2021, the league started calling it the Super Wild Card, which is kinda like a regular wild card, only … different.

The fine folks over at NFL Network decided to really lean into this on Saturday morning ahead of this weekend’s slate of games, which begins with the San Francisco 49ers playing host to the Seattle Seahawks and runs until Monday night, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Dallas Cowboys. They did this by leaning into that word, “Super,” and having a bunch of analysts dress up like superheroes and pick the player who most needs to have a super performance. My second favorite one of these is Steve Mariucci dressing up like Spider-Man and really struggling with it, but the best, by a mile, is Michael Irvin laying on a table and pretending to fly in a full Superman outfit.

Even Pat McAfee, who quite literally moonlights as a professional wrestler, was wondering what the hell was going on.

ESPN if you are reading this, you can have Michael Irvin do this stuff on First Take with Stephen A. Smith and I promise you it would go over great.

The Weeknd keeps breaking record after record. Earlier this month, it was revealed that his hit single “Blinding Lights” was Spotify’s most streamed single of all time. Now, The Weeknd has broken Spotify’s record for most monthly listeners in the world.

As of now, The Weeknd currently has over 94.73 million listeners, a stat that was shared by PopCrave and retweeted by The Weeknd himself.

It’s no surprise that The Weeknd has raked in so many streams. Over the past decade, he has supplied us with several hits.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Weeknd explained how a lot of his songs came together.

One of his breakthrough hits was “Earned It” from the motion picture soundtrack to 2015’s Fifty Shades Of Grey.

“The song in the film for Fifty Shades of Grey is just so sexy and sexual,” he said. “Working on this song was fun as well, but that felt a little bit more fun and loose, while [‘Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)’] felt a little bit more scientific.”

“Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” is the theme for the 2022 film Avatar: The Way Of Water and was recently revealed to be on the shortlist for potential 2023 Academy Awards nominations.

“I feel honored to be part of that list,” he said. “Any kind of recognition for it feels like a blessing.”

Almost two decades into her career, Nicki Minaj has solidified her position as an icon in the rap game. The New York rhymer, who recently turned 40, continues to break records despite some controversies that have followed her over the years. Recently, Minaj hit a major milestone for female rappers on Spotify, surpassing over 28 Billion streams.

“@NICKIMINAJ has now surpassed 28 billion streams on Spotify across all credits. She’s the first female rapper to hit this milestone,” Chart Data reported.

The “Do We Got Have A Problem” rapper has been breaking many records lately. Last week, Minaj eclipsed Missy Elliot as the the longest-charting female rapper on Billboard’s Hot 100 because of her No.1 hit “Super Freaky Girl,” which charted again on the week of January 5, earning the hit a 20-week total.

However, despite the track’s success, Minaj was snubbed from the Grammy nominations this year. Minaj revealed that the song had been moved over to the pop category. Enraged by the Recording Academy’s decision, the rapper demanded that if she had to be put in the category, so should Latto for her big hit” Big Energy,” leading to a nasty online spat between the two.

In other music news, this past November, Minaj recently teamed up with Reggaeton artists Maluma and Myriam Fares for a new collaboration titled “Tukoh Taka.” The track served as the Official FIFA Fan Festival Anthem for 2022.

Some other artists mentioned are from Warner Music. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Arizona Cardinals opted to fire head coach Kliff Kingsbury earlier this week. Kingsbury, a former college head coach who was hired with no NFL coaching experience prior to the 2019 season, went 28-37-1 during his time at the helm of the Cardinals and helped get the team to the postseason one time — they made it last year and lost in the Wild Card round to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.

Kingsbury, who is known to be a good offensive mind, is apparently a bit of a hot commodity on the open market, as Peter Schrager of Fox Sports reports that a few teams have reached out to him with the hopes that he’ll fill their offensive coordinator vacancy. There is just one problem: Schrager brings word that Kingsbury is so uninterested in coaching right now that he recently purchased a one-way flight to Thailand.

Prior to heading to the NFL, Kingsbury spent six years as the head coach of his alma mater, Texas Tech. His contract with the Red Raiders was not renewed after the 2018 campaign, and while he originally agreed to become the offensive coordinator at USC, he left the program after a few weeks to take an NFL head coaching gig.

This time a month ago few had even heard of George Santos. The now-freshman representative from New York was elected despite anyone delving deeply into the many claims he made about himself while running for office. Now there’s two, sometimes three wackadoodle revelations a day. Some are big, like him allegedly being involved in criminal activity in Brazil. Some are small, like the latest dirt on him: that he may be petty thief.

In an interview with Patch (as caught by The Daily Beast), one of Santos’ former roommates said that the representative stole a Burbery scarf from him. What’s more, he wore it, appropriately, to a Stop the Steal riot held the day before the Jan. 6 riot.

Santos had two months prior lost his first congressional run, and he made Trumpian claims of voter fraud to the whipped-up crowd. “If you’re from New York, you know what they did to me,” Santos charged, while wearing allegedly pilfered neckware. “They did to me what they did to Donald Trump. They stole my election.”

Another former roommate of Santos corroborated the story, revealing text messages between them in which they discussed not only the scarf but also a shirt they accused of him stealing. The two have also claimed they found phones, checks, and other pricey dress shirts missing during their tenures with Santos.

The news came shortly after yet more allegations of sketchy Santos behavior, namely that he’d previously worked for an investment company accused by the SEC of being a Ponzi scheme. Santos has refused to resign amidst the ever-mounting allegations over his prolific and oft-surreal behavior.

(Via Patch and The Daily Beast)

Boldy James has undergone extensive surgery after suffering severe injuries from a car crash this past Monday (January 9). Following the two-car accident, the rapper was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. James’ publicist confirmed that accident took place in the Detroit Metropolitan area.

James, whose real name is James Clay Jones, underwent surgery on his neck after suffering from broken vertebrae and orthopedic injuries.

The rapper’s publicist said that Boldy has been removed from the ICU and is now in “stable condition.”

James and his family have issued a statement to the public, expressing their gratitude to “the incredible doctors and nurses that are taking care of him, and also to the communities’ emergency medical personnel and first responders.”

The timing of the accident couldn’t be worse. Last June, the rapper announced that he was working on an album with beats from the legendary producer J Dilla. It’s unclear what the project’s intended release date was, but presumably, it will most likely be pushed back after the car accident.

James, a Detroit native, had become a staple on the local underground rap scene over the last decade. He previously collaborated with the iconic producer on Rebirth Of Detroit in 2012 alongside Chuck Inglish of The Cool Kids on the song “Detroit Game.”