Month: April 2023

Back in January, Normani lent her voice to the Disney+ series The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder. The songwriter was able to pull inspiration from her musical career as the fictional character of Giselle, a member of the show’s fictional ’90s music group The Soul Vibrations. But that’s not the only autobiographical part of her life from which the singer is hoping to pull.

As a trained dancer, the news of her partnership with the sportswear company Fabletics makes a lot of sense. For her first collaboration with the brand, the singer’s country club-inspired line features 10 new pieces, including athletic dresses, tops, shorts, skirts, leggings, and more, available for people to purchase in colors like navy, white, and emerald green.

In a statement shared with Uproxx when discussing the collaboration with the brand, Normani said, “I love that I can wear this collection with comfort in mind — but also feel sexy, feminine, and confident.”

In the promotional images and video starring Normani, she’s seen sporting the white symmetrical cutout shaping one-piece bathing suit, the pleated skirt with a built-in short, the Payton woven jacket in emerald green, and more.

You can view the promotional images below.

For more information, click here.

On Tuesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers welcomed the Boston Celtics to Wells Fargo Center for their final meeting of the regular season. Despite both Jaylen Brown and Robert Williams III sitting out because of injury, Boston kept the game competitive and even held a lead with fewer than five minutes remaining. But the Celtics couldn’t nab the shorthanded road victory, largely because of an absolutely dominant performance from Joel Embiid, who tallied 52 points (20-for-25 shooting), 13 rebounds, six assists, and two blocks.

While the rest of his Sixers teammates struggled much of the game, he torched Boston’s flurry of ill-equipped big men with both scoring and passing. After the narrow 103-101 win, Philadelphia head coach Doc Rivers made quite clear as to how he believes Embiid’s outing should impact the MVP race, which appears rather close among Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo heading into the final few days of the regular season.

“There’s so many things that we did wrong. But we did right was Joel Embiid,” Rivers said. “The MVP race is over. … The man just scored half our points in an NBA game. And I’m biased, but the MVP race is over.”

Staring down a second consecutive scoring title, Embiid’s now notched at least 50 points in three games this year. He’ll get a chance for an encore when the Sixers face the Miami Heat on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., another game that will be broadcast on TNT.

Yes, Harry Styles turned down the role of Prince Eric in Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. But that hasn’t stopped Halle Bailey from embodying the character of Princess Ariel both on and off the big screen. The actress and singer’s fresh perceptive of the character has hit home for a lot of fans, especially young children.

In fact, late last month, while visiting Disney World one young fan wouldn’t let Bailey go after embracing her real life princess in an adorable viral video. After uploading the video to social media, Bailey talked about the loving interaction. But now, during an interview with Entertianment Weekly, Bailey shared just how special the moment was to her.

“She just hugged me so, so tight and it honestly filled me up and made me feel good that I’m making her proud,” said the actress. “I was really trying not to get so emotionally overwhelmed by it.”

Bailey talked about how moments like that made her feel like her hard work is “Really paying off.”

Her fellow cast member shared their praises of her with the outlet. Melissa McCarthy, who is set to play Ursula, told the site, “[Halle] just floats through the world with tremendous grace and kindness.”

Bailey’s on-screen love interest, Jonah Hauer-King, who plays Prince Eric said, “Halle’s just a joy to be around.”

Meanwhile director Rob Marshall, said Bailey as the “Voice of an angel.” In a past interview, Marshall made it clear that Halle was casted strictly based on her talent or as he put it “no agenda” was involved despite what trolls say on social media.

The Little Mermaid arrives to theaters on May 26.

It’s been a good eight years since Jon Stewart departed as host of The Daily Show, handing the reins over to Trevor Noah. Noah himself left last year, and since then instead of choosing one replacement, they’ve had a revolving door of week-long guest hosts. This week went to current correspondent Roy Wood Jr., whose second day on the job let Stewart make one of his periodic returns, however short-lived.

Stewart’s reunion with his longtime show came on a special day: Tuesday was when Donald Trump was set to make an appearance in a Manhattan courthouse so he could be arraigned. Stewart was very excited about this, but he wound up not doing some lengthy schtick about it. That’s partly because Wood had already done a fine job making jokes about the historic day.

Instead the two got caught up trying to explain his outfit. Stewart emerged mysteriously, dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The two spent so long imagining who was cosplaying as which Star Wars character that by the time Stewart started talking about the importance of “jurisprudence,” Wood had to cut him off because they ran out of time. (But not before Wood, whose tenure didn’t begin until Noah took over, quipped, “The Daily Show had a white host?”)

As mentioned, Wood did Trump duties himself. “We were preparing for the craziest day in New York since the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man came to town and busted a nut on the whole city,” he said. As for all that white substance that got all over the city, he added, “That wasn’t marshmallows.”

Wood marveled at the grim demeanor Trump rocked in the courtroom. “Look at how sad Trump looks. My man looks like someone told him his dog died or Mike Pence is still alive,” he said. “You cant talk all the sh*t you want, I’m telling you, baby, the moment you in that court room that sh*t gets real. Trump’s sitting there like, ‘Wow, you’re really gonna do this to me, huh?’”

He also lamented how Trump didn’t get to experience the legal system as most people do. There was no mugshot, no handcuffs, no perp walk. (“With Trump it would be a perp waddle,” Wood said.) To him, that was an indictment of how America works when the one being indicted isn’t a former president with a volatile base.

“I’m disappointed, because today shows you how humane our courts could be. So many people get dragged into this legal system, and it’s humiliating. You get handcuffed, you get gawked out. You wait days, sometimes months for an arraignment,” he said. “My point is, for the sake of this country, I hope that Donald Trump gets a swift trial. But that doesn’t mean he gets to use the TSA pre-check lane.”

Still, Wood saw a silver lining: “The New York investigation is just one of many into the former president. So we’ll have plenty of other opportunities to get him arrested correctly.”

You can watch the segment in the video above.

Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid film is nearly here. With Halle Bailey cast as Princess Ariel and Melissa McCarthy stepping into the role of Ursula, the movie has fans stoked, especially younger ones. But the cast could have had another big name amongst its all-star cast.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marshall revealed that Harry Styles was nearly a part of the cast. Although fellow Brit Jonah Hauer-King is set to portray the character Prince Eric, Marshall shared that he was initially in talks with the “As It Was” singer for the part.

“We met with him. He was lovely. What a wonderful guy. But at the end of the day, he really felt like he wanted to go off and do the movies that he ended up doing, which were sort of darker,” said Marshall.

Those darker films in question included the drama/sci-fi/thriller Don’t Worry Darling.

“For a lot of young musical people like Harry, you’re trying to carve your way, and you don’t wanna be seen as a singer, necessarily,” said Marshall. “That’s why he was really looking to do something not in the musical genre, to really stretch himself. It was really a fun idea to play with, but in the end, I always think things happen for a reason. I’m so happy to have two young, new people in the film.”

The Little Mermaid arrives to theaters on May 26.

The Milwaukee Bucks are almost certainly going to get the 1-seed in the Eastern Conference. While anything can happen, they helped their cause on Tuesday night with a 140-128 win over the Washington Wizards, which knocks their magic number to have homecourt advantage throughout a potential run to the NBA Finals down to two.

Unsurprisingly, Giannis Antetokounmpo had a big game against Washington. The Bucks’ MVP candidate went for 28 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, two steals, and this block, which might be the most impressive rejection that we’ve seen out of any NBA player this season.

Brook Lopez attempted a pass to Antetokounmpo, but Kendrick Nunn was able to break it up and took off. Nunn had a few feet on Antetokounmpo by the time he started sprinting, and it looked like it was going to take something special to catch up. Since this is Giannis Antetokounmpo we’re talking about here, he managed to do that something special, because while he didn’t beat Nunn down the floor, he was able to pull off a chasedown block that got him some oohs and aahs on the road.

Corey Kispert was able to clean up the mess and get a layup, which is a nice silver lining for the Wizards.

Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa‘s 2023 lineup has been revealed. The three-day outdoor festival will be headlined by Mary J. Blige, Nas, and Chance The Rapper. Set to take place between July 28 and 30, this year’s festival will feature Grammy Award-winning musician Robert Glasper as the artist-in-residence, as well as special guests De La Soul, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, and more.

This is by no means Glasper’s first time working with the festival. However, each time he takes the stage, the musician finds a way to reinvent his rich discography.

Other notable acts on the lineup include Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton, NxWorries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge), Ari Lennox, Cordae, Digable Planets, Big Freedia, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, Talib Kweli & Malib, PJ Morton, Rapsody, BJ The Chicago Kid, and Smino. View the full lineup below.

The Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa 2023 will be held at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California. The event will also feature curated after parties each night, with sets from 9th Wonder, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and more. Not to be confused with their iconic New York installment slated in June, the Napa series is a much more intimate experience compared to the flagship event.

Tickets for Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa 2023 go on sale on Wednesday, April 5, beginning at 9 am local time. For more information, click here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ja Morant is no stranger to highlight reel dunks throughout his NBA career. Posterizing helpless defenders has become something of a signature play. Midway through the first quarter of Tuesday’s game between the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies, Morant added another high-flying slam to the career tally.

He weaved around a screen from Xavier Tillman, veered toward the paint and exploded over Drew Eubanks and Shaedon Sharpe, neither of whom stood a legitimate chance at stopping him. Afterward, he made sure to let the crowd know about his big dunk.

The key factor there is Morant’s change of direction and immediate explosion off the ground. Eubanks can’t match those traits or come close to doing so. At that point, the Grizzlies were practically guaranteed two points. While the play itself is the star of the sequence, the photos are pretty dang wonderful as well.

Alongisde Eubanks, the other victim of Morant’s springboard slam was Sharpe, who promptly responded with a bouncy dunk of his own on the very next possession. The rookie wing cut inside, took off from well outside the restricted area, cocked the ball back to nearly parallel with his head and powered home the dunk. Memphis evidently didn’t want for him to match Morant’s poster, so nobody dared contest him.

Look, if the Grizzlies and Blazers just want the rest of the game to be Morant and Sharpe trading eye-popping dunks, I wouldn’t object. In fact, I’d encourage it. Let’s get on that, ASAP. Thanks.

Format Festival is back for its second year. Last year, the multiday event laid down the groundwork for this year’s three-day extravaganza. This year Alanis Morissette, LCD Soundsystem, and Leon Bridges will headline across the three days.

Although the exact location isn’t listed on the event’s official flyer, it’s confirmed that the festival will be held from September 22 to 24 in Bentonville, Arkansas, within the Ozark Mountains. LCD Soundsystem will headline the festival on Friday, September 22, while Alanis Morissette takes over on Saturday, September 23. Leon Bridges will close the event on Sunday, September 24.

Other notable acts listed across the lineup include Modest Mouse, Poolside, Tash Sultana, Little Simz, Channel Tres, Kari Faux, Madeline Edwards, Serpentwithfeet, and Sudan Archives. View the full lineup below.

The fest is described as a “multidisciplinary experience,” and the organizers are continuing to blend music, visual, and performance arts. The visual and performance artists featured at this year’s festival include the Guerrilla Girls, JR’s Inside Out Project, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed.

Similar to last year, there will be main and small side stages. However, there also will be unconventional spaces on the grounds, such as forest enclaves, pavilions, barns, and speakeasies for more intimate performances.

Presale for Format Festival 2023 begins on Thursday, April 6, at 10 am central time. For more information, click here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Donald Trump has spent his entire life projecting strength. He talks a big talk, raging on social media, working up his already hotheaded supporters to defend him. But what is the real President Bone Spurs like? Those few who were able to attend his historic arraignment on Tuesday caught a glimpse of a very different version of the guy who once told Jan. 6 proteters to “fight like hell.”

Guardian reporter Hugh Lowell was one of the few allowed into the courtroom Tuesday, where live video had been banned at Trump’s request. No wonder he demanded that. Lowell described the scene during an appearance on MSNBC, and what he saw was not pretty.

Lowell said that when Trump arrived in the courtroom, he looked “particularly angry, visibly shaken, and the most gaunt that I’ve seen him.” He said it was “really striking” seeing this different, non-aggressive side of the 45th president.

“I’ve never seen him look so, I guess, afraid,” Lowell recalled. “And I’ve never seen him look so serious as he did today, and it was striking how all of this was on his face even as he showed no discernible emotion throughout proceedings.”

Trump was no doubt rattled by no longer being in control of his destiny. That was surely made worse by the judge ordering that he can’t go on social media, dropping incendiary, barely-veiled threats against those who now control his fate. One almost feels sorry for the big guy. Almost.

(Via Mediaite)