Month: April 2023

The creators of White House Plumbers, an upcoming HBO limited series about the burglary that led to Nixon’s resignation, are betting we still care about the Watergate scandal.

Certainly, there has been no shortage of successful, zeitgeisty works about the scandal over the years. All the President’s Men is the definitive version, an inspiring, Oscar-winning tale of the dogged journalists who uncovered the truth released in 1976, shortly after the events. Secret Honor from 1984 and Nixon from 1995 painted haunting portraits of the deranged paranoiac at the scandal’s center. Then came Dick, a 1999 comedy that skewered the whole Nixon White House by reimagining Deep Throat as a pair of naive, bumbling teenagers (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) who bring down the president and his idiotic lackeys by accident.

On paper, White House Plumbers looks like that kind of comedy. It has a funny name. It is created by a bunch of guys who worked on Veep, including David Mandel, who also wrote for Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. It stars Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux, two very funny people, as E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, the White House staffers who organized the break-in and set in motion a chain of events that ended the presidency they were trying to protect. It sounds a lot like Dick, except in this case, the bumbling is coming from inside the (White) House.

Mandel swears it’s not a comedy. “It’s a drama, but it’s really funny,’” Mandel said to Indiewire. “We definitely walk a really fine line. This show doesn’t have jokes. However, there’s a lot of funny stuff because [that’s how it] happened. That’s the easiest way I can express it.”

It sounds like White House Plumbers will largely stick to the facts of the case (which are certainly ludicrous — the burglars wore wigs after all, and picturing Theroux and Harrelson stumbling around a dark office in wigs should have you laughing already) and hope that the novelty of his framing will pique viewer’s interest. Most Watergate movies spend just a minute or two on the actual break-in before moving on to what it considers to be more important subjects: the investigation, the cover-up, or, in the case of Dick, one teenager’s crush on America’s ugliest Commander-in-Chief.

Still, the biggest question surrounding White House Plumbers is if Watergate is really still of interest to the American public. It has been fifty years since the scandal that disillusioned an entire generation, and in the interim, American politics has gotten a lot more surreal and our notion of corruption has changed dramatically. In the wake of sexual harassment in the Oval Office and the manipulation of evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq, a Watergate movie in the 2000s might have seemed quaint. In fact, the only one to arrive in that decade, Frost/Nixon, had far more sympathy for the disgraced president than anyone could have expected when it came out in 2008.

In our current era, corruption is an abstract concept. The leader of one of the two major political parties, our last president, has had so many real, actual political scandals that it requires a work of serious journalistic diligence to even keep track of them, let alone parse their meaning. In 2023, corruption is subjective, extreme, highly partisan, and ubiquitous. A mere burglary could never feel significant or dramatic next to the horror show that is our actual political environment, which is why I’m skeptical that White House Plumbers isn’t more of a comedy than its creators are letting on. Simply dramatizing the facts of the case would produce a collective yawn.

But that isn’t stopping anyone. More recently, creators have been looking for untold stories in the Watergate saga. Slow Burn was a popular Slate podcast delving into the story of Martha Mitchell, wife of Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell, who was actually the first to connect Nixon to the burglary publicly. It was adapted into a largely-ignored Starz series starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in a fatsuit. There was also 18 ½, a 2022 historical fiction film that imagined the relationship between a journalist and a White House staffer who somehow had a copy of the missing White House tapes.

The mixed reception and mere existence of these projects and White House Plumbers show how our politics and our viewing habits have changed in the last fifty years. All the President’s Men, released in the twilight of Watergate itself, sculpted the story into marble, sparking deep analysis and serious thought. Years later, storytellers are still chipping away at it and using the pieces to make something new, even if those projects could never be nearly as significant.

Obviously, Watergate still has enough currency to get a green light. The question is, can Mandel’s blend of comedy and drama (and this great cast) find a way to connect with a broad audience and break new ground, where other recent other projects on the same subject have felt stuck in the mud?

Of course, some sh*t goes down when it’s billion dollars on an elevator, as Beyoncé sang on the “Flawless” remix featuring Nicki Minaj. But, the singer doesn’t want any smoke with the IRS. The Grammy Award-winning musician refutes claims that she owes millions in unpaid taxes and penalties, according to Page Six.

The Balmain collaborator is getting her financial documents into formation. Forbes revealed that back in January, the Notice of Deficiency asserted that the “Cuff It” singer owed a grand total of $2.7 million in unpaid taxes and penalties. When breakdown, the organization alleged that the entertainer had a tax bill of $805,850 for 2018 with $161,170 in penalties, and a tax bill of $1,442,747 in 2019 with $288,549.40 in penalties.

However, earlier this week, it is being reported by the outlet that Beyoncé and her legal team filed a petition in tax court to dispute these findings. The musician’s representatives claim that the IRS did not correctly account for several millions of dollars worth of deductions, including in charitable contributions over those two years.

To be exact, in 2018, Beyoncé supposedly contributed $868,766 to an unnamed charitable organization. In the newly filed petition, the recording artist requests that her penalties be waived since she “has acted reasonably and in good faith.”

Michael C. Cohen, the singer’s attorney, told Page Six, “We are working with the IRS and anticipate that the matter will be resolved shortly.”

The IRS might want to tread lightly as the singer’s fiercely loyal fan base, the Beyhive just might take matters into their own hands to ensure the Renaissance World Tour kicks off without a hitch.

James Corden’s final show as the host of The Late Late Show was an eventful one. Harry Styles talked about One Direction; Will Ferrell destroyed a desk; and Corden got (fake) hit by a car during “Crosswalk the Musical,” the segment most famous for the time that the host thrusted in a mouse costume.

Corden also convinced Tom Cruise to dress as Pumbaa and sing “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” for a live performance of The Lion King. That’s the kind of thing you can do when one of your goals as a late-night host is to “make friends with as many celebrities as I can,” as Corden said.

As Corden played up his sadness at saying farewell to Cruise, the duo broke into [“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”] (which, of course, won an Oscar in 1994 for its part in the animated Lion King film). Corden began: “Tom, I mean, everything you’ve done for my show, everything you’ve done for me, I’ll never be able to…” Cruise interrupted him: “James, you had me at hello.” “I love you Tom,” Corden added. “I know,” responded Cruise, before hopping on a waiting helicopter.

If you’ve ever wanted to hear Tom Cruise voice a warthog with a vaguely Brooklyn accent, you’re in luck. You can watch the video above.

Ed Sheeran’s copyright infringement trial began earlier this week in New York. Sheeran took the stand on Tuesday, April 25, and defended against allegations that he stole from Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 pop ballad “Thinking Out Loud.”

Ben Crump, the plaintiffs’ attorney, presented a past show of Sheeran’s during which he performed a mashup of “Let’s Get It On” and “Thinking Out Loud” as “a confession” to plagiarism, as reported by The Guardian, and Sheeran swatted that logic away: “If I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be a quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that.”

On Thursday, April 27, Sheeran upped his defense by playing “Thinking Out Loud” for the jury. The Associated Press relayed the scene:

“He reached back, grabbed his guitar from a rack behind the witness stand, and explained that writing a song was second nature to him. He said he used his own version of phonetics to create songs so quickly that he could write up to nine in a day. Even last weekend, Sheeran claimed, he wrote 10 songs. Then he sang just a few words of the pivotal tune, bringing smiles to the faces of some of the spectators in the courtroom of Judge Louis L. Stanton.

‘I’m singing out loud,’ he sang, loud enough to be heard but not raising decibels in the court. After he finished singing those words, he spoke a few too, saying ‘and then words fall in’ as he tried to teach the jury his method of creating music. He said he collaborated on the song with a co-writer, Amy Wadge, who wrote the opening chords.”

As explained by The New York Times, the plaintiffs in the case are the heirs of Ed Townsend, a credited songwriter on Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” and the lawsuit was filed against Sheeran in 2017.

This week we’re talking about wily veterans. And that includes Aaron Rodgers, who is the topic of the emergency Sportscast segment at the top of the episode. Steven has some heavy feelings to work out about his quarterback for the past 15 years, and all Ian can do in response is trash the 2005 film Hustle & Flow. (It makes sense when you hear the episode.)

With that out of the way, the guys get into the business of Indiecast by talking about First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, the new album by The National. Ian admits that he’s lost interest in the band after loving them in the aughts, and this record hasn’t really changed his mind. Steven meanwhile is still a believer, and thinks this album improves on the previous National record, I Am Easy To Find, though it’s not a complete comeback.

Next the guys turn to One Wayne G, the new 199-song data dump by Mac DeMarco. Did we listen to all eight hours? Not yet! Will we ever? Who knows? Steven and Ian try to figure out where Mac is at in his career. Is he quiet quitting a la Frank Ocean?

Finally, we talk about Atum, the new rock opera by Smashing Pumpkins that is so sprawling it is not yet fully released. Steven and Ian contemplate the story of Shiny, the hero at the center of the album, and whether his tale is a metaphor for cancel culture. More importantly, why does this album sound so bad? Can we reconnect Billy Corgan with Flood?

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks up the DJ Avalon Emerson, while Steven stumps for the Nashville garage band Country Westerns.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 136 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Here and there, Post Malone has dealt with rumors about drug use and other worrisome health issues. His recent weight loss has fed into that some, and now Malone laid his cards on the table and shared how he’s doing.

In a new Instagram post, Malone wrote, “i wanted to say that i’m not doing drugs, i’ve had a lot of people ask me about my weight loss and i’d suppose, performance on stage. i’m having a lot of fun performing, and have never felt healthier. i guess dad life kicked in and i decided to kick soda, and start eating better so i can be around for a long time for this little angel. next up is smokes and brews, but i like to consider myself a patient man… lol!”

He added of new music and where he’s at mentally these days, “i’ve spent a bit in the studio lately working on new music, and am so excited to share it with you, thank you for your patience and support y’all. you make my heart beat. i just wanted to say hi, and hopefully i’ll be posting more on here, my brain is in a super dope place, and i’m the happiest i’ve been in a long time.”

Find his full post below.

“4/28/2023, Antwerp Belgium! hello everybody, i hope you’re having a great night. i wanted to say that i’m not doing drugs, i’ve had a lot of people ask me about my weight loss and i’d suppose, performance on stage. i’m having a lot of fun performing, and have never felt healthier. i guess dad life kicked in and i decided to kick soda, and start eating better so i can be around for a long time for this little angel. next up is smokes and brews, but i like to consider myself a patient man… lol! i’ve spent a bit in the studio lately working on new music, and am so excited to share it with you, thank you for your patience and support y’all. you make my heart beat. i just wanted to say hi, and hopefully i’ll be posting more on here, my brain is in a super dope place, and i’m the happiest i’ve been in a long time. if you’re having a hard time or need some love, i can say that you’re loved more than you know, and keep f*cking crushing it. goodnight nerds [face with steam from nose emoji] spread love and rock on [boot emojis]”

It’s over: Last night (April 27), James Corden hosted his final episode of The Late Late Show. His eight-year run on CBS is over, and Harry Styles, a friend outside of the show, was on hand to help wrap things up.

Styles was Corden’s final guest (as was Will Ferrell), and since Ferrell is such a fan of the game “Spill Your Guts Or Fill Your Guts,” the three of them played a quick last round. When it came to Styles, his question was about if there would ever be a One Direction reunion.

Instead of eating something nasty, Styles actually answered the question, saying, “I think if… I would never say never to that. I think if there was a time when we all felt like that what we wanted to do, then I don’t see why we wouldn’t.”

A few minutes later, Styles had some vulnerable words for Corden, telling him, “Can I just say that as a friend, I’m so incredibly proud of you for everything you’ve done. I know… I remember when you decided to take doing the show and watching you do it has been incredibly inspiring to me. On a personal note, you’ve been a safe space for me always as a friend, and I’m selfishly very excited that you’re coming home because I’m going to see you more, but I’m so happy for you, and I’m really really proud of you, and I love you.”

Watch the full final Late Late Show episode above.

We’re going to be real with you — Jack in the Box is not our favorite fast food restaurant. It’s not Burger King-levels of bad, but in terms of quality, the menu can be a bit lacking. Aside from the curly fries and shakes, nothing in our opinion is really worth a trip to JiB’s drive-thru. Maybe the tacos when you’ve got four shots of vodka sloshing in your belly. So when the brand announced that it would be launching a brand new burger, The American Ribeye Steakhouse Burger, and relaunching its discontinued Mozzarella Sticks with a brand new recipe, we didn’t know how to feel.

On the one hand, we’re always happy when a fast food menu has mozzarella sticks, but Jack in the Box has had three different recipes in the past and there is a good reason why they keep changing them. They’re never that good. Similarly, the American Ribeye Steakhouse burger sounds like a great idea, but JiB doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to burgers (see how we ranked them here). So while we’re always excited to try a new fast food burger, we’d honestly prefer if it weren’t from JiB.

Will they be able to win us over this time? Let’s find out, starting with the Mozzarella sticks!

Mozzarella Sticks

Tasting Notes:

A marker of a good mozzarella stick is the cheese trail, and I’m happy to say that even after a 15-minute drive time between the drive-thru and my apartment, this mozzarella stick delivered on that front. The cheese was melty, stretchy, and adhered to the outer batter nicely. There is nothing worse than a cheese stick that slides out of the fried casing when you bite into it, these don’t have that problem.

On the flavor front, I’m getting a nice salty and creamy mozzarella cheese with a super thick breading that is well-seasoned with Italian herbs. That cheese has a subtle sweetness to it and it pairs nicely with JiB’s marinara sauce.

The Bottom Line:

As a fan of Jack in the Box’s old Mozzarella sticks I have to say, these are probably the best iteration so far.

Bacon All American Ribeye Steakhouse Burger

Tasting Notes:

The All American Ribeye is available both with or without bacon, for this taste test we went with the bacon because… well come on, it’s bacon — how can you go wrong? The burger features 100% ribeye beef, cheddar cheese, aioli, red onion, lettuce, and tomato on a potato bun.

Biting into the burger is a wonderful experience — the meat is incredibly beefy, it’s rich, and almost buttery, I wouldn’t immediately clock this as ribeye, but it’s significantly beefier than every other burger in JiB’s lineup. The tomatoes add a layer of juiciness and savory umami notes into the mix, pairing excellently with the beef.

Going with an aioli over mayo is a nice move, it adds even more savoriness to the mix with a subtle hint of garlic. It lacks the tang that something like straight mayo would provide, and in this case, I think that’s a good thing.

That’s the good, now here is the bad: the cheese is way too thin, I appreciate the use of real cheddar but it doesn’t add much to the overall flavor of the burger. The lettuce is awful, it’s watery and it attempts to drown out the flavor. The bacon suffers from the same issue as the cheese, it’s so thin that it might as well not be there at all.

Then there is a small issue with the marketing — it claims to be a steakhouse burger, and the use of ribeye over your typical meat blend sort of implies that this is going to be a big and substantial burger… it’s not. It’s thicker than the other burgers in JiB’s lineup, but it’s not quite as meaty as the name suggests.

Thankfully none of the bad stuff really brings this burger down, you could always ask for extra cheese or switch out the cheddar for Swiss or American. I’m shocked to say this but, JiB has completely won me over, these are the two best new menu items to come to Jack in the Box in a while!

The Bottom Line:

Skip the bacon. The All American Ribeye is easily JiB’s best burger, it’s beefy, rich, and super savory. Definitely worth a trip to the drive-thru, especially if you pair it with an order of mozzarella sticks.

Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.

(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s Power Book II: Ghost episode will be found below.)

We have finally reached the point in season three of Power Book II: Ghost where we can say that everything that was done in the dark, has indeed come to light. There’s plenty of backstabbing and deception that goes on in a season of Power Book II: Ghost, but it seems to occur more frequently and with more audacity this season up until episode six so far. Just think about it: Jenny Sullivan tricked people about Lauren’s death to build a case around Tariq for allegedly having her murdered, Saxe is working with Sullivan to take down Tariq and the Tejadas, Monet secretly had Lorenzo killed by Gordo who is Dru’s lover this season, and Tariq and Brayden are running a whole drug operation in Weston Holdings. So yeah, there’s a whole lotta trickery going on this season, but it’s all a part of the drama that makes Power Book II: Ghost such a necessary watch. Speaking of that drama…

In episode seven of Power Book II: Ghost, titled “Deal Or No Deal,” the true nature of everything that’s going on in the Power Book II: Ghost world gets revealed. Brayden finds out that Kiki knows that he and Tariq are selling drugs out of the Weston Holdings building. Brayden also learns that the operation run by his uncle at Weston Holdings is a Ponzi scheme that Kiki is involved with. That means that the trust fund money Tariq put into it, as well as the Tejada money, are in big jeopardy. On the Tejadas’ side of things, Dru finds out that Gordo was the one who killed his father, and despite their growing love, he makes the emotionally tough decision to kill him. Of course, Monet comforts him as if she wasn’t the one that enlisted Gordo to kill Lorenzo. Unfortunately, karma came back for her as Diana was arrested to close the episode. Oh, and Tariq? Yeah, he not only knows that a RICO case is being built around him, but he also knows that Saxe is helping put it together. Plenty of drama this week! Let’s get into it.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways that we have after season three’s seventh episode, “Deal Or No Deal”:

Tariq Needs To Brace Himself For The Fall

Tariq has impressed us since the original Power series with his ability to wiggle out of any situation no matter how unlikely it seems that he can break free. He’s beat murder accusations and charges and he’s walked away from prison on technicalities that seem a bit too dramatic for one of TV’s most dramatic crime shows right now. However, with the feds closer to him than ever with a RICO case, it seems damn near impossible that Tariq can break free from this one. Diana was caught and arrested for moving drugs on Stansfield’s campus, and those drugs were connected to others that were found at multiple locations which all connect back to Tariq. There are the murders of Jabari Reynolds, Carrie Milgram, Lorenzo, Zeke, and Mecca which make the whole situation worse. The feds have it all mapped out with Lauren and Saxe as the confidential informants. Lauren broke that confidentiality to tell Tariq what was going on, and though he wants to put forth a plan to get out of this jam, it’s just too little too late. Just like after the drugs that were found in his dorm in season two, Tariq will just have to brace himself for this fall because there’s no way out of what’s next. In fact, he may not even be able to beat the case as he did last season.

Monet Underestimated Everyone’s Intelligence

I can’t ever decide if Monet is blinded by her perceived invincibility and status or if everything she does is part of a yet-to-be-revealed plan. For now, I’m going to say that she underestimated everyone’s intelligence, specifically Cane and Dru’s. It just doesn’t make sense that Monet would go to Gordo’s family to indirectly suggest that Lorenzo should be killed for killing Gordo’s father Frank, just to enlist Gordo to do it himself, all to have the evidence lead Dru to discover that Gordo did it, which leads to Dru killing Gordo. It’s just a messy situation altogether. Dru will be vocal about killing Gordo to avenge his father’s death, but things will take a turn for the worse when Frank’s wife realizes that the Tejadas are once again responsible for a death in the family. Monet originally approached Frank’s wife with the info that Lorenzo killed Frank with the hope that the family would kill Lorenzo in retaliation. Now, Gordo’s death after killing Lorenzo will look like a setup to take them down and we can only imagine what that lead to. Monet underestimated Dru’s ability to figure out Lorenzo’s real killer, and then there’s Cane who seemingly knew something was up the whole time. Monet is the queen, but her team isn’t filled with peasants and it’s only a matter of time until this blows back on her.

Lauren Can Save The Day, But Not The Week

Man, bless Lauren! It was looking like she had her mind set on tearing down Tariq due to her belief that he was a part of Effie’s plan to murder her. Luckily, thanks to a few meetups and phone calls that gave Tariq the chance to share his side of the story, the truth, Lauren was convinced that it was a plan that Effie enacted all on her own. Still, it’s a bit too late for Lauren to talk Sullivan out of pushing the RICO charge on Tariq and company, but with the little bit of time that they have left, she gives Tariq two pieces of information that will prove to be beneficial to him moving forward. 1) She confirms that Saxe is working with Sullivan and Sergent Rodriguez to put the RICO case together, and 2) She promises to buy a little more time for Tariq to piece together a plan in preparation for this RICO. For someone that many believed would be unable to hold it down when times got rough, Lauren is doing her part to cushion the blow that’s approaching Tariq. She can save the day, or a day, for Tariq, but nothing more than that. Nonetheless, the effort is appreciated.

Saxe’s “Win” Won’t Mean Anything In The Long Run

I’ve said it once, I’ve said it twice, and I’ll say it a million more times: Saxe playing both sides is dumb. Since the original Power series, we’ve known Saxe to be incredibly selfish, but this time around, his moves with the opposition (his former team) are so illogical because there isn’t a good enough win for him to be selfish about obtaining. Tariq and Davis McClean both know that Saxe is working with the feds, so his connection and future work with McClean are as good as dead. Saxe’s work with Sullivan and Rodriguez is also a huge ethical violation in the law world that will make it impossible for him to work anywhere else simply because he’ll be beyond untrustworthy. All this to put a St. Patrick in jail, something he hasn’t been able to do in years, and this is under the assumption that he’s successfully able to put Tariq, the Tejadas, and maybe even McClean in jail and keep them there. Saxe is so desperate for this win that he can’t see the consequences that come after it, and man, it’s not going to be pretty. But hey, this is the bed he made so he’s gotta lay in it.

New episodes of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12:00 am EST and on the STARZ TV channel at 8:00 pm EST.

Less than 48 hours after announcing his third studio album, Jackman, Jack Harlow has dropped the album, which features another promising set of bangers. While his previous two albums boasted viral hits and chart-toppers, making Harlow a household name in both the real of hip-hop and pop, Jackman features Harlow at his most introspective and self-aware.

The album’s closing track, “Questions,” features Harlow reflecting on his rise to stardom, and dealing with the responsibilities that come with fame. He also attempts to disabuse himself of internalized misogyny and challenges his fanbase to do the same.

“Why I treat my brother like he ain’t my only brother? / Why I gotta treat my manager like I’m above her? / Why I gotta get so intimate with my lovers? / Why I gotta cheat and make her question if I love her? / Why am I so fly? why am I so skeptical?,” he asks on the song’s opening verse.

It’s gearing up to be a busy season for Harlow. While this album is likely to have the summer on lock, Harlow is also dipping his toes in the waters of acting. Next month, he will star in his acting debut alongside Sinqua Walls in a remake of White Men Can’t Jump.

You can check out the video above.

Jackman is out now via Atlantic. Find more information here.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.