Month: March 2023

Rosalía may have dominated the charts with her massive album Motomami last year, but she’s not taking a break. Since then, she’s unveiled a deluxe edition, a “Bizcochito” remix, a “Despechá” remix, and a song called “LLYLM.” Today, she’s back with something totally new to keep fans hooked.

On social media, the singer announced RR, a three-track project with fellow singer and her rumored boyfriend Rauw Alejandro. She shared the red and black artwork for it, as well as the release date, which is as soon as March 24.

Earlier this month, she gave a speech about her job as a producer while accepting the Producer Of The Year Award at the Billboard Women In Music Awards. “A producer’s job is a job in the shadow,” she said. “Just producers know what other producers have done. Let’s be real. And it’s not very fun. It’s not. Whoever tells you otherwise, they lying. It’s like 15 hours a day nonstop maybe working on a sound. It comes from love, it comes from obsession, maybe a little bit. That’s why you stay in that small-ass room, no windows, while everybody else around you is at home just chilling, eating something nice, laughing, having sex, living life, just regular human, cool sh*t, you know?”

Sunday’s Academy Awards were a joyous affair, particularly for anyone involved with or rooting for Everything Everywhere All at Once. It was good for Brendan Fraser, too. After scoring the Best Actor trophy for The Whale, the Fraserssance hit a whole new peak. It was great news for him and slightly less good news for his fellow nominees, among them Austin Butler, who at least had some support when his name wasn’t called.

As caught by IndieWire, the Elvis star was seated next to another nominee that night, Angela Bassett, who lost Best Supporting Actress to EEAAO’s Jamie Lee Curtis. When his category popped up, a camera zeroed in on Butler, only to find his seatmate was holding his hand, helping him get through a tense moment.

Though she didn’t win, Bassett was a key figure that night. After her loss, her Black Panther 1 co-star Michael B. Jordan, while presenting the award for cinematography, gave her a winking reference, saying, “Hey, Auntie” — a line he uttered in that film, in which he played the sympathetic-ish villain Killmonger.

And of course, Bassett has been an awards season staple, not only for her many Black Panther 2 nominations, but also thanks to Ariana DeBose.

(Via IndieWire)

It looks like Nicki MInaj has a new favorite hip-hop it-girl in Ice Spice. The two rappers showed each other love recently, with Ice Spice gushing about loving Nicki growing up in a cover story for Dazed and Nicki following suit with a follow on Twitter. Nicki also commented on one of Ice Spice’s recent Instagram posts, co-signing her “Princess” status. “No more passes Princess,” she wrote. “Let’s go.”

However, some fans are skeptical about all of Nicki’s love-bombing, considering how quickly she turned on a number of other female rappers shortly after working with them. The Queens rapper recently sent shade at Latto, sparking a back and forth stemming from the two rappers’ Grammy categories that blew up into a full-fledged Twitter beef that saw Nicki calling Latto a “Karen” and Latto calling out Nicki for being a “bully.”

And who could forget how Nicki’s relationship with new-girl-on-the-block Cardi B deteriorated in 2018 after they previously shared verses on Migos’ “Motorsport.” That disagreement eventually led to a physical altercation that year, followed by a cold war — complete with proxy combatants — that has persisted ever since, prodded along faithfully by the more toxic members of their respective fanbases.

Naturally, this has led to some skepticism of Nicki’s show of support for Ice Spice, with some fans predicting “she’ll drop a song in 3 months saying sum f*ck ass sh*t like ‘i don’t f*ck with no ICEd Tea, hate a cocky bitch who wanna be SPICEy, knowing damn well I’m Icy,’” as one put it. Others wrote things like, “This is like watching your girlfriend enter into a toxic relationship, and you don’t know how to stop or slow the trajectory,” and wondering, “How long we wanna give it until the discard?” The overwhelming sentiment appears to be that Nicki has become a bit of a “mean girl” like that film’s titular Queen Bee Regina George and that her affection is equally fickle. Hopefully, that won’t turn out to be the case but those pesky Barbz will probably end up giving her a hard time either way.

The late Robin Williams could make picking out socks funny, so pairing him with the fuzzy red monster Elmo was bound to be pure wholesome gold. Honestly, how the puppeteer, Kevin Clash, didn’t completely break character and bust out laughing is a miracle. In this short outtake clip, you get to see Williams crack a few jokes in his signature style while Elmo tries desperately to keep it together.

Williams has been a household name since what seems like the beginning of time, and before his death in 2014, he would make frequent appearances on “Sesame Street.” The late actor played so many roles that if you were ask 10 different people what their favorite was, you’d likely get 10 different answers. But for the kids who spent their childhoods watching PBS, they got to see him being silly with his favorite monsters and a giant yellow canary. At least I think Big Bird is a canary.

When he stopped by “Sesame Street” for the special “Big Bird’s Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake” in 1991, he was there to show Elmo all of the wonderful things you could do with a stick. Williams turns the stick into a hockey stick and a baton before losing his composure and walking off camera. The entire time, Elmo looks enthralled … if puppets can look enthralled. He’s definitely paying attention before slumping over at the realization that Williams goofed a line. But the actor comes back to continue the scene before Elmo slinks down inside his box after getting Williams’ name wrong, which causes his human co-star to take his stick and leave.

The little blooper reel is so cute and pure that it makes you feel good for a few minutes. For an additional boost of serotonin, check out this other (perfectly executed) clip about conflict that Williams did with the two-headed monster. He certainly had a way of engaging his audience, so it makes sense that even after all of these years, he’s still greatly missed.

This article originally appeared on 06.30.22

The Oscars’ In Memoriam segment always leaves off a couple big names, but this year the producers really dropped the ball. They left off a ton of people, including Charlbi Dean, one of the stars of one of the Best Picture nominees, Triangle of Sadness. Another was Paul Sorvino, the beloved actor who passed away last summer at the age of 83. His bizarre omission was called out by not only his widow but also by his Oscar-winning daughter.

“It is baffling beyond belief that my beloved father and many other amazing brilliant departed actors were left out,” tweeted Mira Sorvino, who scored an Academy Award for 1995’s Mighty Aphrodite. She later elaborated in a subsequent tweet:

“I love you Dad. I miss you so much. PS, when I posted this I had not learned of my Dad’s omission and that of several other incredible artists from the in Memoriam section. Incredibly hurt and shocked that my father’s lifelong, irreplaceable, enormous contribution to the world of cinema was overlooked by whomever made that list. We, his adoring family, and you, his adoring public, know just how unique and incredible he was. We hope the Academy does something to put this right.”

Sorvino’s screen career dates back to the early 1970s and includes great turns in classics like The Panic in Needle Park, The Gambler, Reds, Cruising, Nixon, Romeo + Juliet. Perhaps his most famous work was as capo Paulie Cicero in Goodfellas, in which he busted out one of cinema’s most blood-curdling stares.

Others left off the segment include Anne Heche, Tom Sizemore, Leslie Jordan, Barbara Walters, Cindy Williams, Melinda Dillon, Philip Baker Hall, Hugh Hudson, Peter Brook, Mike Hodges, George T. Miller, and Lisa Marie Presley. Robert Blake at least caught a shout-out, but not in a way he would have liked.

(Via IndieWire)

The San Francisco 49ers were expected to be in the market for a quarterback this offseason, as Jimmy Garoppolo was set to walk in free agency.

On Monday, Garoppolo agreed to a three-year deal with the Raiders, and while there had been some scuttle about San Francisco possibly holding out until after the Draft to possibly pursue Lamar Jackson in a trade, they found a replacement for Garoppolo quickly in the form of Sam Darnold, who spent the last two seasons in Carolina with the Panthers.

Darnold was solid in the second half of last year with the Panthers as he came back from an ankle injury in the preseason, taking the reins back from Baker Mayfield and PJ Walker. Darnold completed 58.6 percent of his passes for 1,143 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions, boasting a career-best 92.6 passer rating in his six starts. He will join a Niners team that believes they are ready to compete for a Super Bowl, and will create a fascinating QB competition in the Bay.

Darnold joins a quarterback room featuring third-year QB Trey Lance, who is recovering from a broken ankle suffered in Week 2 of last season, and Brock Purdy, who took over for an injured Garoppolo and guided the Niners to 7 consecutive wins prior to losing in the NFC title game to the Eagles when he was hurt on the opening drive. Last year in San Francisco proved the value in having multiple quality quarterbacks on the roster as injuries are always lurking in the NFL, and the Niners appear ready to replicate that with three options they’ll be comfortable with coming into 2023.

Every time Rachel Bilson opens up about her sex life, Bill Hader adds a new line item to his Raya profile.

The O.C. star’s been frank about her romantic relationships via her podcast Broad Ideas, sharing how she co-parents with her ex-fiance, Hayden Christensen, revisiting her teen soap fling with co-star Adam Brody, and, most recently, breaking down her one-year relationship with Hader. Bilson’s gone on the record to talk about her painful breakup from the SNL alumn and grieve the loss of his “big d*ck” after they split. Now, she’s offering up another candid confession about her bedroom activities, and fans are already suspecting it’s Hader’s umm … skills she’s referencing.

On Monday’s episode of her show, Bilson and stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings discussed all things orgasms — why women have them, why they don’t, and what a tilted uterus has to do with it. After Cummings confessed she first orgasmed from penetrative sex after getting off birth control, Bilson chimed in that she’d never experienced an orgasm from the old hetero way of shagging — the penis-in-vagina intercourse model (PIV) — until three years ago, at age 38.

“Isn’t that crazy,” Bilson asked Cummings, agreeing with her co-host that she could orgasm other ways but ” not from, like, d*ck inside.”

Naturally, fans sidestepped the importance of two women being honest about the ways women’s pleasure is different from men’s and instead began theorizing that Hader is the master lothario who introduced Bilson to her first Big O.

According to the Twitter-sourced timeline, Bilson and Hader began dating in 2019 when the actress was 38 years old. They ended their relationship in July of 2020 with Bilson saying it was the hardest thing she’d ever done, “harder than childbirth” even.

Our condolences to Christensen, Brody, and Pete Davidson, who’s never dated Bilson (that we know of) but is undoubtedly cowering in a corner somewhere just waiting for Hader to usurp his “funny guy with BDE” throne.

(Via Page Six)

There are a lot of reasons to feel a twinge of nostalgia for the final days of the 20th century. Rampant inflation, a global pandemic and political unrest have created a sense of uneasiness about the future that has everyone feeling a bit down.

There’s also a feeling that the current state of pop culture is lacking as well. Nobody listens to new music anymore and unless you’re into superheroes, it seems like creativity is seriously missing from the silver screen.

But, you gotta admit, that TV is still pretty damn good.

A lot of folks feel Americans have become a lot harsher to one another due to political divides, which seem to be widening by the day due to the power of the internet and partisan media.

Given today’s feeling of malaise, there are a lot of people who miss the 1990s or, as some call it, “the best decade ever.” Why? The 1990s was economically prosperous, crime was on its way down after the violent ’70s and ’80s, and pop culture was soaring with indie films, grunge rock and hip-hop all in their golden eras.

The rest of the world was feeling hopeful as globalization brought prosperity and Communism fell in Europe and Asia.

The mood in America would swiftly change at the turn of the century when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 and the 2001 9/11 attacks would lead to the never-ending “war on terror.”

A Reddit user by the name purplekat20 was clearly feeling some ’90s nostalgia on May 16 when they asked the online forum to share “What ’90s trend would you bring back?” A lot of people noted that it was a lot cheaper to get by in the ’90s, especially considering gas and rent prices. Others missed living in the real world instead of having one foot in reality and the other online.

Here are 17 things people would love to bring back from the 1990s.

1. 

“Inflatable furniture and transparent electronics.” — Dabbles-In-Irony

2.

“Hope.” — DeadOnBalllsaccurate

To which HowardMoo responded: “I hate this despair thing that’s all the rage these days. I miss optimism.”

3. 

“The ’90s web was the best web. People actually made their own home pages. Now it’s all social media.” — IBeTrippin

4. 

“Affordable housing.” — Amiramaha

5. 

“Ninety nine cent per gallon gas.” — Maxwyfe

6. 

“The ‘mean people suck’ statement everywhere. People seemed generally a lot happier and kinder back then. It was a nice reminder to be kind.” — simplyintentional

7. 

“Being detached. Not being attached to an electronic gadget every minute of every day.” — SuperArppis

8. 

“Calling fake-ass people ‘poser.’ The state of social media and ‘reality’ tv demands that this word be taken out of retirement.” — rumpusbutnotwild

9. 

“Grunge music.” — ofsquire

10. 

“I want movies to be the same caliber as ’90s.” — waqasnaseem07

Cremmitquada nailed it on the head with their response, “Everything has been redone. It’s all recycled ideas now.”

11. 

“Pants that didn’t have to be super-tight to be in style.” — chad-beer-316

12. 

“People really expressing themselves. Very few people take any risks with style anymore, or they do something ‘different’ that’s just enough to still conform. In the ’80s and ’90s there were people doing crazy things with hair and piercing and just didn’t give a fuck. I don’t think I’ll ever see that come back.” — FewWill

13. 

“Great animated TV. Spongebob started in the 90s (99 but it counts), Hey Arnold, X-Men, Batman, Justice League, Dexter’s Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Boomerang cartoons… the list goes on.” — Phreedom Phighter

14. 

“Fast food restaurant interiors.” — Glum-Leg-1886

Another fantastic photo of Taco Bell in the 1990s, before the disease of modernismpic.twitter.com/GIiAyNWxiu

— Jules (@Jules)
1590273071

15. 

“Hypercolor shirts and neon puff paint designs on t-shirts. But here in a few months, that’ll be changed to abortion and voting rights, probably.” — TheDoctorisen

16. 

“News that was news instead of rage bait.” — nmj95123

17. 

“We had a stable country with a vigorous economy. In fact, we drew a budget surplus some of those years.” — jeremyxt

This article originally appeared on 05.17.22

The fallout from GloRilla’s fatal concert in Rochester, New York continues, as TMZ reports the rapper has been targeted by one of the victims’ families for a lawsuit. The family of 35-year-old Brandy Miller, one of the three people who died as the result of a crowd crush after the concert, plans to sue GloRilla and tourmate Finesse2tymes along with the venue, the Main Street Armory, and the event’s promoters.

Both rappers had reportedly already left the venue by the time the stampede took place, but that isn’t stopping the family from seeking out a high-profile attorney to argue they share some responsibility. According to Miller’s brother, who also attended the concert but had a different vantage point, the show was out of control from the start.

GloRilla and Finesse2tymes both addressed the tragedy when they found out about it, with Glo tweeting, “I am devastated & heartbroken over the tragic deaths that happened after Sunday’s show. My fans mean the world to me. Praying for their families & for a speedy recovery of everyone affected.” Unfortunately, two more people have died since then — the third, Aisha Stephens, died on March 8.

In addition to the potential lawsuit, the Armory also had its entertainment license revoked when its owner failed to appear for a meeting with the Rochester Police Department’s business licensing unit.

As Donald Trump continues his 2024 presidential campaign, which started barely two seconds after the 2022 midterm elections, the former president has released a dark video (literally and figuratively) letting everyone know that they’re going to be murdered into oblivion by World War III if he doesn’t defeat Joe Biden.

No exaggeration, that’s literally the gist of the entire message. Trump doesn’t talk about his policies or address pressing topics like the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, he just gets right to shouting about all-out war and the destruction of America. Also, for some reason, he appears to be sitting in the dark? It’s all very weird.

Here’s the text in case you don’t want to squint at an old man yelling with the lights off:

This time in the history of our country, WORLD WAR III IS LOOMING LIKE NEVER BEFORE in the very dark and murky background. Lack of leadership is solely responsible for this unprecedented danger to our beautiful USA and, likewise, to the world itself. HOPELESS JOE BIDEN IS LEADING US INTO OBLIVION. We cannot let it happen. We have to take back the White House or our country is doomed. Thank you very much.

Trump also took some shots are Ron Desantis.

He also cried “reverse racism” over his legal issues.

As for why Trump is suddenly shouting more than usual about a war-torn apocalypse that only he can stop, well, the former president is likely facing an indictment this week for his alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

If it seems a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is claiming the world will blow up if he’s not allowed to walk free of all charges and become president again, have you met the guy? This is his whole deal. He lives for stuff like this.

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)