Month: February 2023

Warren Beatty is perhaps the least prolific Hollywood legend. He’s only acted in 23 films. He’s an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, too, but he’s only directed five films. One of them is 1990’s Dick Tracy, in which he turned Chester Gould’s comics crime fighter into a colorful, over-the-top, and delightful hit. In 2010, the famously reclusive actor came out of hiding to improbably play him again, in an absolutely surreal video where film critic Leonard Maltin interviewed him in character, as a much older man. Now he’s done it again.

On Friday night, Turner Classic Movies scheduled two Dick Tracy films from the 1940s starring Morgan Conway, plus a serial in which Ralph Byrd squares off against Boris Karloff. But there was another, more curious item slipped into the lineup: something called “Dick Tracy Special: Tracy Zooms In.”

The half-hour special found Maltin and TCM presenter Ben Mankiewicz sitting down for a Zoom chat with Beatty as the yellow trenchcoated detective. It starts with a nervous/confused Mankiewicz reviewing the last time Beatty did this, which was already strange. (To make it odder still, Beatty also directed it, meaning it was his follow-up to 1998’s Bulworth.) Then Maltin joined him for a Zoom chat with Beatty’s Tracy.

What did they talk about? Technology, for one thing. “We’re all technocrats now,” Beatty’s Tracy said, lamenting that his once-cutting edge wristwatch radio is now very obsolete.

The majority of the interview, though, found Beatty’s Tracy trashing Beatty, which whom he said he had a falling out. He also tears into the film he made some 33 years back. Using copious clips, he derides the film for being unrealistic, from the part where our hero coldcocks seven baddies at once to the gorgeous but deliberately artificial matte paintings to cinematographer Vittorio Storaro’s Oscar-nominated cinematography, which bathes the crime-ridden city in candy colors. (“A pink street?” Beatty’s now-much-older Tracy rails about one of the lighting gambits.) At one point he gets composer Stephen Sondheim’s name wrong.

Keep in mind that the Beatty Dick Tracy speaking to Maltin and Mankiewicz is once again the “real” Dick Tracy, even though he’s played by and looks exactly like Warren Beatty. Maltin and Mankiewicz look perplexed and a little lost as Beatty stammers and rambles, eventually turning the whole affair into a personal exorcism about his career and his placement in an industry he hasn’t commanded in a very long time.

Eventually they’re joined by…the real Beatty, who Beatty’s Tracy verbally accosts. He eventually begs Beatty to do a reboot, either with a younger actor in the lead or with Beatty as an old Tracy. (Beatty is now 85.) He wonders, though, if movies were the way to go. “Maybe it’s better as a series,” Beatty’s Tracy ponders. “That’s how we started in 1931 in the funny papers.)

Why would Beatty — who again hasn’t made a film since 2016’s underrated Rules Don’t Apply and whose most famous public appearance was when he helped briefly derail the Oscars the following year — make this? It could have to do with the fact that he still owns the rights to Dick Tracy, which he seems to want to retain. As long as he does something every decade-plus, they’ll continue to be his. Or maybe he’s teasing his sixth film, which both Beatty’s say could be called Dick Tracy Returns.

In the meantime, the 1990 Dick Tracy is available to rent online, as is the one that nabbed him his Oscar, 1981’s masterpiece Reds. And you can watch his latest work in the video above.

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us, which means if you’re planning on attending a Super Bowl party, throwing one, or just simply feel like watching it solo at home, you’re going to need some good food. Although Super Bowl Sunday isn’t a holiday (yet, give it time this country is crazy) we still treat it like one, which is why there is a certain selection of foods that we consider must-grabs for the weekend.

Hot dogs, homemade chicken wings, and some kick-ass chili verde — they’re all essential for a good Super Bowl spread. But if we had to pick a quintessential Super Bowl food, we’re going with pizza.

Preferably, a lot of pizza! This is why we’re shouting out all the best deals from the big pizza chains that’ll get you a lot of food for cheap. A lot of these deals are holdovers from National Pizza Day (which was yesterday) which means you can order them as early as right now, but some have game-day in mind.

Hungry? Let’s get to ordering!

7-Eleven — The 7-Eleven Game Day deal will you get one large one-topping pizza and a 2L of soda for just $8.99

Blaze Pizza — Fans of the custom pizza chan can pick up a large one-topping pizza for just $10 when you make an online order for carry-out. It’s not enough to feed a party but it’s good for some solo game-watching.

California Pizza Kitchen — CPK started its Valentine’s Day special early. From this weekend until February 14, you can pick up an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert for $40. That might not be enough for an entire Super Bowl party, but if you’ve got a potluck situation going on, that’s more than enough and you can eat the dessert yourself before you arrive!

CiCi’s Pizza — CiCi’s fans can get two large one-topping pizzas and your choice of 20 cinnamon rolls or 16 pieces o cinnamon bread for just $28. For $34 you can pick up two large one-topping pizzas and boneless or traditional wings.

Dominos — Right now Dominos has a few relatively cheap deals that will help you bring some extra food to snack on for your Super Bowl spread. Using the Mix and Match deal you can bring home medium two-topping pizzas, two bread side orders (including cheese bread and cinnasticks) loaded tater tots, boneless chicken wings, pasta, sandwiches, salads or desserts for just $6.99 each.

That’s two 12-inch medium pizzas for less than $15. That’s a steal!

Hungry Howie’s — Hungry Howie’s big deal is almost identical to Dominos. It even has the same name! The mix-and-match features your choice of any two menu items for $7 each. Your options include medium one-topping pizzas, two small two-topping pizzas, no-dough bowls, or eight-piece wing orders.

Marco’s Pizza — Marco’s has a number of delicious deals including unlimited medium-sized one-topping pizzas for $6.99 each (using the code MED699), xLarge two-topping pizzas for $13.99 each (using the code HD1614), or two medium one-topping pizzas, cheesy bread, and a 2-liter of your choice (using the code HD189).

Papa John’s — Papa John’s has taken a page out of Hungry Howie’s and Domino’s playbook with the Papa Pairings. Choose between wings, brownies, Papa-dillas (a pizza quesadilla hybrid, yes it’s as stupid as it sounds) bread sticks, medium one-topping pizzas, or other snacks for just $6.99 each.

Also for a limited time, Papa John’s is also selling the new Crispy Parm Pizza for just $12.99. It’s a thing crust pizza with parmesan and Romano cheese baked right into the bottom of the crust. I’ve had it, it’s delicious. It has this wonderful crispy mouthfeel and is the perfect pie for a true cheese head.

Pizza Hut — In terms of numbers, Pizza Hut has more new products than any other brand out there right now. New products don’t necessarily result in big savings, but if you’re looking for something a little different this Super Bowl, the Hut is your place.

Right now Pizza Hut is selling the Big New Yorker Pizza, a 16-inch pie with six extra-large slices topped with two different types of pepperoni, a sweeter marinara sauce recipe, and parmesan oregano seasoning for $13.99. That’s less than a dollar per inch!

Pizza Hut also has what they’re calling “Pizza Hut Melts” for $6.99 which are essentially small calzones with an open seam that is perfect for dipping. If pizza isn’t what you’re after (why are you reading this article) then you can also get Cheesy Alfredo, Over-baked Italian Meats, Oven-Baked Chicken Alfredo, or Oven-Baked Veggie pasta bowls for just $8.99.

Round Table — Round Table’s new large Stuffed Crust pizza is just $22.99. The pizza comes topped with crispy mini pepperonis and a side of Mike’s Hot Honey. Not going to lie, this isn’t the best deal out there if you’re trying to save money.

At long last, Kelela‘s sophomore album, Raven is upon us. Yesterday, she finally released Raven nearly six years after her critically-acclaimed debut, Take Me Apart. To celebrate this milestone, Kelela paid a visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she performed a Raven album cut, “Enough For Love.”

On the song itself, Kelela addresses the hypermasculine tendency for men to reject affection and softness. However, she reiterates that the toughest thing anyone can do is to welcome and invite in love.

“‘You forgot about us / But you’re not alone, not alone / Are you tough enough for love? / Give it up /But you forgot about us / No, you’re not alone, not alone / Are you tough enough for love? / You’re tough enough, not enough for love,” she sings on the song’s chorus.

During the performance, she wore shimmering make-up, with her hair styled up in a platinum-blonde bob. Though she was not joined by a backing band, her soft, silky vocals carried the performance, as she sang against a backdrop depicting a beautiful sunrise.

In a recent interview with New York Times, Kelela revealed the healing process behind crafting the melodies and lyrics for Raven.

While she didn’t set out to create a specific theme for the record, she wanted to write lyrics to “help Black femmes heal,” she said. “It’s gotta be a lyric that Black and brown women and nonbinary people, marginalized people, can scream in their cars on the way to work a job that they actually don’t want to do.”

You can watch the full performance above.

Raven is out now via Warp. You can stream it here.

The Los Angeles Clippers shook up their backcourt at the trade deadline. The team parted ways with both Reggie Jackson and John Wall and brought in Eric Gordon and Bones Hyland, and while it’s easy to argue Los Angeles got better because of these moves, the Clippers’ point guard situation is now, essentially, Terance Mann and whatever playmaking Paul George and Kawhi Leonard can do.

If they turn to the buyout market to bolster their point guard rotation, the most prominent name — and one the team has been linked to — is going to be Russell Westbrook, assuming he gets bought out after his trade to the Utah Jazz. We’ll see if that ends up happening, but one thing was made clear on Friday night: Paul George would love a reunion with his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate.

“I mean if there’s, you know, somebody out there: Russell,” George said when asked about potentially filling a roster spot with a point guard, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “If it makes sense and obviously it goes with our team, we’re all for it. You know, we need a point guard. But you know, [at] the same [time], I think we’re good as well. If nothing happened, we got enough in this locker room to be able to make it work.

“But it would definitely improve our team if we had that traditional point guard to kind of get us in things and make the game easy. So hopefully Russell sees this and we figure something out.”

George isn’t concerned about Westbrook struggling to fit in, as he believes the team’s spacing would give him more than enough room to operate. Marcus Morris took a similar approach to adding Westbrook, saying that he doesn’t believe he got a fair shake during his time with the Lakers and that “we need the personality.”

“He hasn’t had an opportunity to play on a team where, like, he could be himself and be able to play freely,” Morris said. “Playing with the Lakers, it’s like media, media, media. And from the outside looking in, like every time something bad went wrong — Russell Westbrook. Nobody else was really getting no blame. And it just kept spiraling down.”

Earlier in the day on Friday, Jazz general manager Justin Zanik expressed that a Westbrook buyout is not a foregone conclusion.

What hasn’t George Santos lied about? The freshman GOP representative has been caught red-handed making up nonsense about his job history, his education, his heritage, even his mother’s death. Looks like he’s still at it.

As per Newsweek, Santos went on Newsmax, where host Greg Kelly gently pressed him on his super sketchy campaign finances, asking how he acquired the cash to make big loans, which Santos had claimed were “obtained through legitimate reasons and channels.” His response was bizarre, even for him.

“Devolder Organization was founded in 2001 when I stepped away from my previous employment,” he replied, “and I decided to go on my own to do exactly what I did for other companies for years which is capital introduction relationship management of high-net-worth individuals.”

One problem: Santos was (allegedly!) born on July 22, 1988. If he founded a company (which shares a name with his one of his aliases) in 2001, he would have been 12 or 13 years old. The claim inspired Newsweek to publish the surreal sentence, “Newsweek has contacted Rep. Santos asking for proof he founded the Devolder Organization while in middle school.”

As for the Devolder Organization, it wasn’t incorporated until 2021. Maybe he was just two decades off. It happens.

It’s yet another creative whopper from a guy whose fibs go big and go small. But this one probably isn’t going to help that investigation into where his campaign finances came from.

(Via Newsweek)

Natasha Lyonne is bigger now than she’s ever been, and she’s been around a long time. In her youth, she was your sort-of-typical young actress, going up for the kind of roles every aspiring young actress goes up for. She was a semi-average teen in American Pie, even though she recently admitted she couldn’t relate to that scene. She even could have wound up on some of the ‘90s more wholesome teen shows, had she actually gotten the roles.

While appearing on a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen asked her to name one role she lost to a fellow actress that she thought should have been hers.

“Gosh, there’s a lot,” she replied. “I mean, how far back do you want to go?” She then started listing roles. “Well, I didn’t get Six or Blossom [on Blossom]. I didn’t get Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” These prompted gasps from both Cohen as well as fellow guest Alison Brie. So she added another: Curly Sue, the 1991 John Hughes movie in which she would have played a street smart, homeless con artist. (That role went to future singer Alisan Porter.)

So Lyonne didn’t get Blossom or Sabrina. But she did get 1993’s Dennis the Menace and later one of her finer roles, Slums of Beverly Hills. And now she’s making her own popular shows and busting murderers on Poker Face.

You can watch Lyonne’s Watch What Happens Live appearance in the video below.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

The Memphis Grizzlies took a measured approach at the trade deadline. The team eschewed a gigantic move in an effort to go all-in in the Western Conference and instead got in on a multi-team deal that landed them Luke Kennard from the Los Angeles Clippers.

As it turns out, the team attempted to take a huge swing but could not pull it off. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Grizzlies reached out to the Brooklyn Nets in an effort to acquire Mikal Bridges and offered four first-round picks, although Scotto notes that “it’s unclear if the picks included protections or not.”

Brooklyn acquired Bridges earlier in the week in the deal that sent Kevin Durant and TJ Warren to the Phoenix Suns. Bridges was part of a package that included Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, and five first-round picks. Four of those are unprotected in 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029, while the fifth is a 2028 pick swap. Brooklyn was willing to move one member of that trio of players in an effort to continue to rebuild their war chest of draft picks — Crowder was moved to the Milwaukee Bucks in a three-team deal that landed the Nets two second-round selections.

It’s not hard to see why Memphis would covet a player like Bridges, who is in the midst of his best season as a professional. Bridges appeared in 56 games with the Suns this year and averaged 17.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.2 steals in 36.4 minutes per game while connecting on 38.7 percent of his attempts from three.

Britney Spears isn’t here for rumors or false narratives. Earlier this week, she took to Instagram to express her sadness about rumors that she almost died due to substance abuse and mental health issues.

Yesterday (February 10), Spears addressed these rumors once again in a new video shared to Instagram. Although this time, she appeared to be in good spirits. In the video, she seen looking fabulous in a pink blouse and white mini skirt, with a matching boa.

“I didn’t die, people,” she said in the clip. “I didn’t die. I’m here. I’m alive. I’m very much alive and well. I’ve got my fur here. You see I’m feeling myself? Feeling myself!”

In the post’s caption, she revealed she doesn’t currently have a management team, nor does she plan to ever have one again. She also revealed she’s having fun showing off her fashions.

You can see the full post below.

This week in the news it said that I almost died and that I have a manager and “doctors” !!! I don’t have a management team nor will I ever again in my life !!! I don’t have “medical doctors” !!! I take Prozac for depression and that’s about it !!! I’m an extremely boring person !!! It frustrates me to know that any news outlet would say any of this !!! It’s worse than a cruel joke because people actually believe this stuff and all of my efforts in getting better with my little routine of prayer and therapy seems to not count for anything when people can say things that are incredibly wrong !!! Anyways change of the subject … enough drama … I’m into diamond gowns and funky fashion at the moment !!! Good Morning !!!!!

New Karol G music is on the way. Just a week after releasing her steamy single “X Si Volvemos” with Romeo Santos, the Colombian superstar has revealed the cover art and release date for her hotly-anticipated fourth album, Mañana Sera Bonito.

The singer shared the news via Instagram, where she shared the album artwork, a colorful featuring vibrant animations of the sun, the moon, smiling animals, and flowers.

“La verdad, no puedo creer que me aguante tanto para revelar esta fecha y que hoy por fin les puedo contar,” she said in the Instagram post’s caption, which means, “The truth is, I can’t believe it took so long to reveal this date, and that today, I can finally tell you.”

While it’s been a long wait, as she released the album’s lead single “Provenza” last April, it looks like we won’t have to wait much longer, as Mañana Sera Bonito is set to arrive before the end of the month.

You can check out the cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Mientras Me Curo Del Cora”
2. “X Si Volvemos” feat. Romeo Santos
3. “Pero Tú” feat. Quevedo
4. “Besties”
5. “Gucci Los Paños”
6. “TQG”
7. “Tus Gafitas”
8. “Ojos Ferrari” feat. Justin Quiles & Angel Dior
9. “Mercurio”
10. “Gatúbela” feat. Maldy
11. “Karmika” feat. Bad Gyal & Sean Paul
12. “Provenza”
13. “Carolina”
14. “Dañamos La Amistad” feat. Sech
15. “Amargura”
16. “Cairo” feat. Ovy On The Drums
17. “Mañana Sera Bonito” feat. Carla Morrison

Mañana Sera Bonito is out 2/24 via Universal Music Latino. You can pre-save it here.

Before she was called in to play the latest victim love interest of Joe Goldberg on Netflix’s buzzed-about drama, You, Tati Gabrielle just wanted to take a vacation. A long one.

She’d spent the past couple of years living through Armageddons and temporal anomalies on the CW’s sci-fi series The 100, and honing her magic as one of the dark, Satan-worshipping Weird Sisters on Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. She was due for a break. But then, when the opportunity to play one of the few women who survive Penn Badgley’s murder-happy, love-struck-stalking sociopath comes knocking, you can’t just say no.

As Marienne, a Black single mother and recovering addict living in an affluent California suburb that’s so “coastal elite” you’re dying to reach out and burst its bubble, Gabrielle joined the show when it was in what fans suspected might be its final act. After all, how many times can we watch a good-looking white man kill women and still justify swooning over him? Marienne was different from Joe’s past obsessions – broken yet confident, driven by a purpose (to reunite with her daughter), and dreaming of an escape from Madre Linda. They had nothing and everything in common but when Marienne escaped to Paris with her daughter in tow while Joe literally set fire to his old life, fans thought maybe, just maybe, this is the one who got away.

Season four – which is split into two parts – is here to correct us on both accounts. Not only is this show not done with reinventing itself, but Joe is certainly not finished with Marienne. We chatted with Gabrielle about returning to You, her relationship red flags, and why Penn Badgley is so damn good at playing a psychopath.

Were you surprised to get the call back this season?

I actually knew when I signed on in season three that I’d be coming back for season four. But they didn’t give me anything about what season four was going to be. So I spent the year thereafter just trying to see if I could get inside of [showrunner] Sera Gamble’s mind. She told me two months before we started filming season four and I was like, “Of all the ideas that I tried to put together, I would’ve never [thought of] this.”

What’s Marienne been doing since season three ended?

So we start season four about a year later and I think that for that year, Marienne was just trying to get away from Madre Linda and get away from that life. I’m sure that she probably read that Joe and Love both died — that murder-suicide situation. [She’s] just trying to be in Paris and start a new life and just push all of that into the past and forget about it. Which is why I think seeing Joe brought up a lot of emotions. If she wasn’t already over it by the time she actually sees Joe, I think that it definitely took a profound amount of time for her to process and reconcile from any of that. She never got the closure of knowing if any of the things that Love said were true, never got to say goodbye. I do think that she did, of course, really think that he was dead. Because despite what Love told her, there was no evidence yet for her that Joe would’ve faked his death. The relationship they had was the first time I think that she felt seen, and probably the purest love that she had had up until that point. So it’s more heartbreak and mourning.

Did you and Penn have to change how you acted against one another now that Marienne knows the truth about Joe?

Penn and I definitely built a lot of chemistry and solidarity through season three. I think there was this unspoken trust between us in that way, and there wasn’t a lot of discussion over what we were going to do. Mostly it was just me and Penn trusting each other to bring what we felt our characters [would feel] and go from there. I think it particularly helped when we got later in the season that we didn’t have conversations about it because it made for some very real-time moments.

Penn’s very likable on-screen. Do you have to remind yourself when watching him work that the character he’s playing is actually a psychopath?

I never have to. Penn, he’s such an incredible actor and this amazing thing happens when he is Joe, where his eyes go … his eyes change completely. I’ve always been a very sensitive person to just spirits, energies, and things of that nature. So when I’m looking into the eyes of this person … the face never matters. It’s the eyes. There is something there that is chilling.

Like when a shark’s eyes glaze over?

Exactly.

This season especially, you have to catch yourself because it’s easy to root for him to get away with everything.

I know that audiences are definitely affected by that. I’m like, “Penn Badgley is hot, Joe Goldberg is not.” It is a hard thing to get by. I think that Penn does so well at creating such a layered character and he makes it so that Joe wears his wounds, which gives you empathy all the time — like, “Well, he’s just broken. We can help him. He can be fixed.”

What are your personal relationship red flags?

I mean if I’m seeing somebody, particularly like Joe, and they’re checking out a lot, I very much like to ask the question, “Oh, what are you thinking about?” And if that question can never be answered, that’s my red flag. I don’t mind that you’re spacey. Okay, because I get spacey sometimes. Fine. But if you are either hiding or can’t tell me where you’re going when that happens?

I always look for signs of maturity. All women realize at some point in their life that men mature slower than women do. If you’re almost 30 years old and still talking about small bean stuff, about the drama your bros are having with girls, or why you can’t make more money because you have been sitting on the couch playing video games. Things like that. I’m like, “What are you doing?”

Joe’s internal monologue this season would like fans to believe he’s an empathetic character but do you think he’s really capable of empathy?

The only real version of empathy that we see from Joe is his empathy with children. I believe that’s a staple in the knowledge around psychopaths — that psychopaths can care for anyone or anything that they deem weaker than them. And we’ve seen that with Joe every season, from Paco to Ellie to Henry, and even for Juliet. So I think that there’s a version of empathy in there, but most of it is fantasy, it’s learned. Because a psychopath can learn empathy, they can learn what that’s supposed to be or what that looks like. That’s why they’re able to reflect it back at whoever, whether for manipulation or just to move through the world. But no, I don’t think that he actually has a grasp on it.

You’re also in Netflix’s “choose-which-way-you-watch” heist thriller, Kaleidoscope so let’s set the record straight: What’s your preferred color order?

I almost hate telling people my favorite order because I don’t want them to then go and think that there is a ‘best’ order. I like the conversation around everybody getting their different story. But my favorite order is the rainbow order, which is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, pink, and white. I think the best starting point is red, no matter what way you go.

‘You’ Season 4 Part 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.