Month: January 2023

The House of Representatives is currently being held hostage by a rogue group of unhinged Republicans largely led by Matt Gaetz while a man who has lied about everything in his life — including being sworn into congress yesterday — is about to be sworn into congress. But Seth Meyers kicked off Tuesday night’s “A Closer Look” with the story that (at least in this author’s opinion) mattered most: Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre, completely unintelligible, and unintentionally hilarious New Year video greeting from Donald Trump’s New Year’s Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago.

As Meyers explained:

Rudy was at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate New Year’s [Eve] with a bunch of other normal, well-adjusted people. And to ring in the new year he recorded, then posted online, a very bizarre video where you can’t hear a word he’s saying. We’re going to show you the video he himself posted online — but again, none of this will be intelligible to you. Since he’s completely drowned out by the noise of the party, but apparently doesn’t realize it.

Yes, it’s a video you must watch for yourself to believe. And what makes it so mesmerizing is that the noise blocking Rudy out is the sound of a band banging out a super high-energy rendition of Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose.” Meyers considers the choice of song fairly ironic, though, considering that the crowd they’re playing it for “is almost certainly medically incapable of doing the Footloose dance.”

“‘Footloose’ sounds like the excuse Rudy would give for being late to a meeting,” Meyers added.

You can watch the full clip above.

Dr. Mehmet Oz has stayed relatively silent since being defeated by John Fetterman following a highly combative Senate race. And it’s no wonder, since even Tucker Carlson laughed his butt off at Oz’s viral “crudités” video, which saw the former daytime TV show host grocery shopping (for a veggie tray) as though he was guest-editing an old-school GOOP newsletter. This somehow turned out to be more embarrassing than revelations about Oz’s New Jersey mansion.

When the “crudités” fallout went down, Fetterman’s campaign pounced on the chance to use the veggie scandal to fundraise half a million dollars. So, you’d better believe that Team Fetterman kept the brand strong. Here’s word from comms director Joe Calvello, who provided proof that a fancy-ass veggie platter made an appearance while a suited-up Fetterman was sworn into the Senate.

Fetterman tweeted a clip of the swearing-in ceremony (which he called “the honor and privilege of a lifetime”) with his wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, by his side.

He also ribbed his own propensity for wearing shorts during formal moments, but do not fret because one of his sons represented.

People were delighted to see this happen, even if they initially missed the ceremony due to the GOP infighting of the ongoing, messy House GOP Speaker election.

Suited Fetterman is the best villain, right? On social media, his supporters agreed while pointing towards Oz (probably) sitting at home in New Jersey.

There’s still hope that Fetterman will bust out a hoodie at the U.S. Capitol. Stay tuned.

Following the passing of Barbara Walters, who died shortly before the New Year at the age of 93, The View dedicated an entire episode to the veteran newscaster as co-hosts both new and old reminisced about their favorite moments with Walters. However, one person was noticeably missing: Rosie O’Donnell.

Originally, the comedian’s spokesperson said that it was simply a matter of scheduling, and she was unable to reschedule a flight, which tracks given the recent turmoil at airports. However, in a new Instagram post, O’Donnell admitted that she was afraid she’d get too emotional amongst the massive The View gathering.

Via PEOPLE:

“I looked on you on BW tribute today,” the fan wrote on O’Donnell’s TikTok, the comment popping up in a bubble on the screen.

“Yeah, they invited me, but I wasn’t able to make it,” O’Donnell, 60, responded in a subdued tone, sharing it on her Instagram.

“You know, I didn’t want to be in a big group of people — I was worried that I would get upset and um, didn’t want to do that, so, there you go,” she said.

While O’Donnell’s fans were completely understanding, her longtime friend Debi Mazar rushed to Rosie’s defense in the comments and threw a little shade at The View in the the process.

“Mourning is personal & PRIVATE,” Mazar wrote. “A display for PR purposes is kind of vulgar, in my opinion. Barbara ADORED you. Remember when she came backstage after your wonderful performance in The Vagina Monologues? She came just for you.”

(Via PEOPLE)

For most Las Vegas tourists, the old mantra of what happens there stays is supposed to stay there. But music superstar Adele wants her message to be shared with the masses. During her New Year’s Eve residency show at Caesars Palace, the “Easy On Me” revealed that she’s been battling sciatica.

The songwriter took a moment to address the crowd confessing, “I have to waddle these days as I have really bad sciatica,” as she navigated the massive stage. The chronic condition causes neuropathic pain through the sciatic nerve, which can affect an individual’s ability to walk, amongst other things.

When her Weekends with Adele residency was first announced, the Grammy-Award winner shared she was ‘incredibly nervous’ with the undertaking as she was ‘not a big touring artist.’ Hence, the show needed to be perfect. However, nearing opening night, the singer postponed it, stating she was not feeling like herself, was a ‘shell of a person,’ and didn’t want to cheat fans out of a stellar performance. Now, as Adele opened up about her condition, fans have expressed a great deal of empathy for her, as the condition may have been the cause of the delays in the beginning.

As fans shared their support on social media, disability lifestyle expert Ola Ojewumi commended Adele for her bravery, encouraging other celebrities quietly fighting a medical condition to do the same.

Recently, iconic singer Celine Dion shared that she had been diagnosed with a rare and incurable neurological disorder that impacts her ability to sing. In addition, celebrities Selena Gomez and Nick Cannon have shared their journey with lupus in great detail. Whereas the late actor Chadwick Boseman decided to keep his colon cancer prognosis quiet.

Despite her condition, Adele has pushed through each sold-out show leaving fans in awe.

Hours after tweeting her round of thank you notes to members of the WWE, Mecedes Varnado debuted her post-Sasha Banks persona as part of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 — Mercedes Moné — from the Tokyo Dome.

Moné’s music hit shortly after Kairi successfully defended the IWGP Women’s Championship against Tam Nakano with the insane elbow off the top rope. Moné then made her way to the ring and extending a hand for Kairi before pulling her in and dropping the champ. Moné grabbed the mic and introduced herself before challenging Kairi to a title match on February 18 at Battle of the Valley in San Jose.

Moné became a free agent when the calendar turned to 2023, after reportedly attempting to negotiate money in the range of what Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch make. WWE allegedly balked at that price, per the Wrestling Observer, setting up Tuesday night’s events and Moné’s slew of “thank you” notes to the like of WWE, William Regal, Triple H, the WWE Universe, Vince McMahon, and a special one to Sasha Banks.

Moné last appeared in WWE in May 2022, walking out on the company with her then-partner Naomi. While Moné is off enjoying a fresh start elsewhere, Naomi is reportedly “almost certainly be returning to WWE” herself, according to the Wrestling Observer.

The Last of Us is HBO’s most anticipated adaptation of an existing property since Game of Thrones premiered in 2011. (Sorry, Westworld.) The two series share other similarities — including cast members Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey — but the biggest, and potentially most problematic, is: what happens when the show catches up to the books, in the case of Game of Thrones, and the video games, in the case of The Last of Us?

We know what happened with Game of Thrones, but The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann isn’t concerned about having a stinker of a final season. “We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “We won’t run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.” Craig Mazin, who wrote the show with Druckmann, added, “I don’t have any interest in a spinning-plates-go-on-forever show. When it becomes a perpetual motion machine, it just can’t help but get kind of… stupid. Endings mean everything to me.”

Season one of The Last of Us will tell the story of the first game (with some changes), while season two is likely to cover The Last of Us Part II. If the reception to the show is anything like the feedback to the sequel game, you’ll either think it belongs in the TV Hall of Fame, or spend hours complaining about it on Reddit. So, look forward to that.

The Last of Us premieres on HBO on January 15.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

After years of waiting, the world will finally get to meet Ellie and Joel, the unlikely duo who must navigate the post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland, in HBO’s adaptation of The Last Of Us.

A series based on the hit Playstation game has been in the works for a while, and will finally come to life when the show premieres on January 15th. Bella Ramsey will portray Ellie, a teen who is immune to the zombifying infection, meaning that she might be the key to a vaccine, as long as she is alive. Pedro Pascal plays Joel, Ellie’s grumpy but loving watcher who is tasked with protecting her. The cast also includes Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman, Melanie Lynskey, and Anna Torv.

The series is rumored to be one of the most expensive television projects in Canada, where it was filmed from July 2021 until June 2022. So the pressure is on for this show to be good. Luckily for fans, the original game developer Neil Druckmann penned a handful of episodes alongside screenwriter Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) so it should still maintain the show’s original integrity.

After being ordered in 2020, the show was initially set to consist of ten episodes, which was then reduced to nine. According to the WGA writing credits for the series, Druckmann and Mazin co-wrote the first two episodes, Druckmann wrote the eighth, and Mazin penned the final episode. The good news? Episode one is a whopping hour and 25 minutes long! Hey, it’s not Stranger Things length, but that’s a good thing.

The series will air weekly from January 15th to March 12th on HBO.

(Via Variety)

The stars of 1968’s movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet are suing Paramount Pictures over the movie’s nude scene. Actress Olivia Hussey, who was 15 when she filmed the movie and 71 now, and actor Leonard Whiting (16 and 72), filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica Superior Court alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment. and fraud; they’re seeking compensation “believed to be in excess of $500,000,000,” according to Variety.

The suit alleges that [director Franco] Zeffirelli — who died in 2019 — assured both actors that there would be no nudity in the film, and that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene. But in the final days of filming, the director allegedly implored them to perform in the nude with body makeup, “or the Picture would fail.” The suit alleges that he was being dishonest and that Whiting and Hussey were in fact filmed nude without their knowledge.

“What they were told and what went on were two different things,” said Tony Marinozzi, a business manager for both performers. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo.”

Their attorney, Solomon Gresen, added, “Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited. These were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them… They were famous at a level they never expected, and in addition they were violated in a way they didn’t know how to deal with.”

Romeo and Juliet was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. It’s also become a staple of high school English classes, although those days are probably (hopefully) over.

(Via Variety)

Billie Eilish is the subject of a new Vogue cover story, and in it, she discussed how health issues have shaped her relationship with her body.

She explained, “Going through my teenage years of hating myself and all that stupid sh*t, a lot of it came from my anger toward my body, and how mad I was at how much pain it’s caused me, and how much I’ve lost because of things that happened to it.”

As far as the loss Eilish refers to, the most significant of it is a growth plate injury in her hip that made her 13-year-old ambitions to be a dancer less possible. She continued, “I got injured right after we made ‘Ocean Eyes,’ so, music kind of replaced dancing.”

Eilish eventually discovered she has a condition called hypermobility. Cleveland Clinic says of the condition, “Joint hypermobility syndrome is a connective tissue disorder. Thick bands of tissue (ligaments) hold your joints together and keep them from moving too much or too far out of range. In people with joint hypermobility syndrome, those ligaments are loose or weak. […] In most people, hypermobility doesn’t cause any pain or medical issues. However, for some people, hypermobility causes joint pain, joint and ligament injuries, tiredness (fatigue), bowel issues, and other symptoms.”

Eilish’s mother Maggie Baird also noted, “Stuff that you and I could do that would help us, like, certain kinds of massage or chiropractors, could actually hurt her.”

This had a negative impact on Eilish’s relationship with her body, as she explained, “I felt like my body was gaslighting me for years. I had to go through a process of being like, My body is actually me. And it’s not out to get me.”

Read the full feature here.

Phoebe Bridgers has lost an important person in her life: On Instagram last night (January 3), Bridgers confirmed the death of her father.

Bridgers wrote on Instagram, “rest in peace dad.” No information about her father’s death has been revealed and his name does not appear to be publicly known. In the photo from the post, a younger Bridgers and her father each have an earbud in as they smile and listen to something together. The photo appears to be from around 2011, since Bridgers’ pink/red hair in it is similar to a 2011 photo Bridgers’ mother previously shared.

Bridgers’ post got supportive comments from people like Boygenius bandmate Lucy Dacus, Clairo, Jason Isbell, Sleater-Kinney, Wayne Coyne, Violet Grohl, Cat Power, Bartees Strange, Benee, Gracie Abrams, Muna, Samia, Andy Richter, and others.

Bridgers has addressed her complicated relationship with her father on multiple occasions. In a 2020 interview with The New Yorker, she said of their relationship, “I feel so much f*cking empathy and so much f*cking anger toward him. […] It’ll always be day to day: Are we talking, are we not talking? What’s the vibe?”

She also sings about him in “Kyoto”: “You called me from a payphone / They still got payphones / It cost a dollar a minute / To tell me you’re getting sober / And you wrote me a letter / But I don’t have to read it / I’m gonna kill you / If you don’t beat me to it.” In a recent Chicken Shop Date interview, Bridgers said she no longer wants to kill him.

In a 2020 interview with NPR, she also said of “Kyoto” and her relationship with her dad, “It’s a very weird combination of, like, emotionally unavailable, but very present in a weird way. And I think, as an adult, I’m just kind of, like, looking back with more sympathy for my parents, which feels great.”