Month: April 2023

Jerry Springer, who hosted the controversial Jerry Springer talk show from 1991 to 2018, died at his Chicago home on Thursday. TMZ reports that Springer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer “a few months ago, and this week he took a turn for the worse.” He was 79 years old.

We’re told his cancer battle got much worse about a month ago, and he finally had to stop working. He had been hosting a folk music show on a local radio station in Cincinnati. He’s survived by his daughter Katie Springer and his older sister Evelyn.

Springer, a former politician who ran for Congress in the 1970s before becoming the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, got his start on TV as a political commentator before he found his true calling: dodging chairs. The more Jerry Springer leaned into sensationalism, with episodes about kung-fu hillbillies, a guy who “cut off his own male organ,” and a woman who “broke the world’s sex record,” the bigger it got. At the show’s cultural peak, it was more popular than The Oprah Winfrey Show, drawing in 12 million viewers.

After ending Jerry Springer in 2018 (spinoff The Steve Wilkos Show is still on!), Springer debuted a courtroom show, Judge Jerry, that lasted for three seasons. He’s also appeared on The X-Files, The Simpsons, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and starred in Ringmaster, a movie loosely based on Jerry Springer. His final TV appearance was on The Masked Singer.

(Via TMZ)

TikTok is blaming Morgan Wallen’s last-minute cancellation of his second show at the University of Mississippi on alcohol, but according to his label’s CEO, that’s false. In the past, the “Last Night” singer has found himself in the eye of a racial controversy storm stating alcohol consumption as the cause. However, the musician did seek treatment back in 2021.

Following the news of the concert’s cancellation, the entertainer took to his Instagram Story to share that he “started to lose his voice” the night before and thought he could shake it off but could not. Quickly after, video footage from fans at the venue started to surface. One viral clip featuring a security guard who worked that show alleged that the singer was “too drunk” to perform and was carried away in an ambulance.

The company responsible for hiring the worker, BEST Crowd Management, issued a statement on Instagram denying the employee’s claim.

“A hired employee of BEST Crowd Management made false claims related to last night’s Morgan Wallen concert, and we do not stand by the detail in his statement.” wrote the company.

After the statement was posted, Seth England, the CEO of Wallen’s record label Big Loud Records, commented on the matter on his own. According to People, the executive to took his Instagram Story first to thank the company.

“Thank you, @bestcrowdmanagement, for correcting your employee, who made up an entire story that was nowhere close to true. Every detail was false,” adding, “Laughable what some people will just say for a reaction.”

Just yesterday (April 26), Halle Bailey shared her rendition of “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. An extended trailer for the film was released in February, and it’s finally arriving next month.

The public has expressed overwhelming support for her in the face of racist attacks she’s been dealing with for playing the role. Along with fans praising her, she was lauded at her audition, which she just revealed in a new interview with V Magazine made everyone in the room cry. She said:

“I went to the first audition in New York, and they were very warm and very kind to me. They asked me if I wanted to sing or act first, and I was like, ‘I’ll just sing first because I feel I can get all the nerves out.’ So I just remember singing and closing my eyes, and then when I opened my eyes, everyone was crying. And at first, I was like, ‘Oh, no! Did I do something bad?’ And then I quickly realized that it was good. So from there, I had two more auditions and then a screen test, and then months passed and I completely forgot about it. I thought, ‘Well that ship sailed.’ And then I got a call saying that I got the role a few months later.”

Check out the full interview here.

HBO’s White House Plumbers will roll around in your head after an episode, even if you didn’t exactly expect to enjoy the experience. Perhaps I’m making an assumption that you, like many people, suffer from political fatigue and don’t quite know if you should sign up for a show about Watergate. As well, the scandal has already been explored by Hollywood on multiple occasions (including with 1976’s All The President’s Men and decades later with the comedic reimagining, Dick), and there’s the temptation to wonder whether the mess is still relevant. That’s the case not only because of the passage of time but due to what we’ve seen in the past several years.

This is where I admit that I’ve been dreading the moment when I type about how it feels awfully strange to describe Watergate as “quaint” compared to what the U.S. has recently witnessed. It’s all relative, you know? I mean, sure, these guys infiltrated the DNC, but we watched a president attempt to topple democracy by inciting an insurrection that unfolded live on TV, among other things that we don’t need to mention here. You know the drill. People are numb at this point when it comes to political mudslinging.

In contrast, the most damning part of the Watergate fiasco revolved around President Nixon’s coverup of said attempts to gather mud against the opposition. Underneath it all, though, there’s actually an entertaining story to be had. White House Plumbers gives us that look at the bumbling-burgler-filled underbelly of the maneuverings of key players, and man, were they a sloppy bunch. History tells us that the careless group was led by two former intelligence agents — Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy — recruited to help ensure the reelection of a president who didn’t really need extralegal assistance. Dozens of convictions resulted from Watergate, which remains a bona fide scandal and led to the resignation of Richard Nixon following impeachment efforts by Congress. This was a dark time in our nation’s history, but we’ve seen darker by now. Much darker.

With that twisted context in mind, the act of looking back on this low-tech disaster, however, is rather fun. Not funny in a contrived way, per se, but fun. Because this didn’t need to be painted as a comedy — the circumstances were amusing enough on their own. These idiots tossed sh*t around, didn’t cover their trails, and the burgling was spectacularly obvious. It’s almost breathtaking to consider that much of the detail (although certainly not all because liberties are taken) is purportedly real.

Throughout the course of five episodes, Veep guys Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck (showrunners and writers) and David Mandel (director) adapt Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh’s book, Integrity. In doing so, the team puts a satiric spin upon the experiences of Egil (played by Rich Sommers) during and after his time leading the Special Investigations Unit that was tasked with plugging information leaks. Liddy and Hunt thought it cute to call themselves “The Plumbers,” and they were Patriots in the way that the word is a right-wing badge of honor these days.

As well, much of the initial lead-up to the central burglary involves intentionally bad wigs and a fake nose and prop glasses and essentially makes Liddy look like Groucho Marx had a love child with any given Woodstock attendee. Let me also say that Justin Theroux really goes for it throughout the series. He is bitingly comical and the standout of the entire show. Whereas casting Woody Harrelson as Howard Hunt feels like a natural move — he can probably play this type of role in his sleep — placing Justin Theroux into the shoes and ‘stache of Liddy is nothing short of inspired. He warmed up for this series by playing the brilliant, paranoid, and annoying Allie Fox in Apple TV+’s recent The Mosquito Coast, and Theroux’s at the opposite end of the political spectrum here but transforms into a firecracker.

A firecracker who’s invigorated by Hitler’s speeches, that is. Theroux has an absolute ball while playing a reprehensible guy and future talk-radio host who undoubtedly influenced modern-day snake oil salesmen like Alex Jones. The supporting cast includes Domnhall Gleeson as terminally murky White House Counsel John Dean and Lena Headey as Howard’s wife, Deborah, a CIA asset who knows too much for her own good. Their long-suffering children (Kiernan Shipka, Liam James, Zoe Levin) receive a lot of airtime to show what a shattering experience Watergate was outside of simply being a political scandal that took down a presidency. Oh, and Judy Greer pops in as Liddy’s wife, Fran, which looks like a fluffy role from the outside, but I suspect it was not the easiest gig to pull off. Kathleen Turner as dramatic lobbyist Rita Beard is an absolute hoot, too. Good actors all around.

In the end, White House Plumbers is a fairly tight portrait of a loose-as-hell f*ck up. There are some anxiety-ridden moments, and I don’t think I can hear Woody Harrelson yell, “Don’t answer the phone!” one more time. I wish I could unsee one scene, in which Theroux literally acts his ass off. You’ll know it when you see it, and like me, you may be ashamed to also kind-of enjoy it. And there’s a marvelous sense of comeuppance to be gained by watching the confidence of Hunt and Liddy sending their guys into battle, only for everything to explode on them. White House Plumbers is both fun and tragic, but thankfully, it blends those ingredients in the most effective way possible.

HBO’s ‘White House Plumbers’ premieres on May 1.

One of the only credible complaints about Dune, a movie that otherwise rules, is that it didn’t have enough Zendaya. Well, like Homer being fed donuts, Dune: Part Two will have all the Zendaya in the world!

The Dune not-a-sequel (“It’s not a sequel, it’s a second part. There’s a difference,” director Denis Villeneuve emphasized to Vanity Fair) was filmed during golden hour in Jordan, which did not leave much time for shooting. Especially during scenes where Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, as Paul Atreides and Chani, need to have believable — and instant — chemistry.

“​​There’s kind of, like, a ticking timer,” the Euphoria actress told Vanity Fair. “You kind of feel like, OK, we got here, but we have maybe an hour to get this. So we revisited a bit every day, and over a few days, that gives us a few hours.” She added, “Every time we revisited it, we kind of got to sleep on it and think about it, and come up with a new set of ideas.”

Villeneuve called Zendaya a “fierce warrior” and that Chani has a “opinion about her world, about the politics of this world, about the religions and all the impact of colonization on their culture, but there’s something about that young man that cracks her heart.” As for that young man, Chalamet “did a beautiful job to bring that sincerity onscreen,” Villeneuve said.

The Wonka star also did a beautiful job riding that worm:

Dune: Part Two opens on November 3rd.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Quavo has shared a few new songs since the tragic passing of his nephew and fellow Migos member Takeoff last year. This includes “Honey Bun,” “Without You,” and “Greatness,” the last of which he used to hint at the end of Migos.

Quavo also recently sat down with Chloe Bailey for Complex‘s G.O.A.T. Talk series. When he was asked to pick a “G.O.A.T. ad-lib,” he answered, “Mama,” and went on to explain why the word was often used by himself, Offset, and Takeoff when they got into trouble at home.

“The story behind the ‘mama’ ad-lib is she used to chase us up and down the house trying to whoop us,” he explained. “And we’d make sure to call her name and say, ‘I’m just playing, mama! I’m just playing, mama! I’m just playing!’

He continued, “Then when she get to you, you say, ‘Mama, mama, mama!’ Only when you in trouble is you calling her name like that.”

In March, Quavo also appeared on NBC’s music show, That’s My Jam, hosted by Jimmy Fallon. He performed a humorous cover of Lil Jon and The Eastside Boyz’s classic song “Get Low,” in which all of the track’s lyrics were changed.

Watch Quavo on the G.O.A.T. Talk series above.

There’s no spitting involved (yet?), but things are getting Olivia Wilde/Harry Styles-level interesting between Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell.

The two comically attractive actors got close while making the R-rated romantic comedy Anyone But You, maybe a little too close for some people’s comfort. Powell’s girlfriend, Gigi Paris, initially “commented a string of celebratory emojis on Sweeney’s post announcing the casting news for the rom-com in January,” but “now [her] comment appears to have been deleted.”

On Wednesday, Paris shared a cryptic post on Instagram. “know your worth & onto the next,” she wrote, along with a video where she’s walking on a sidewalk and flashes a knowing smile. Page Six reports that she also no longer follows Sweeney or her Top Gun: Maverick star (ex?) boyfriend.

Sweeney, 25, revealed her cheeky nickname for Powell during an appearance at CinemaCon 2023 in Las Vegas. She said on Monday that she affectionately calls him “Top Gun” because of his role in Top Gun: Maverick.

“We love seeing ourselves on the big screen,” Powell then quipped, according to People, before the first trailer for their upcoming film played. “Oh, please, Top Gun,” the White Lotus star said in response, prompting Powell to tell the convention attendees, “I love when she calls me that.”

It must be serious: Sweeney and Powell are at the cute nicknames (that everyone else finds extremely obnoxious) phase.

(Via the New York Post)

This week, word surfaced that Donald Trump was so busy attempting to evade the law that he might not have time to attend his wife’s birthday. Melania was said to be preparing for a “low key” celebration of her concluding a 53rd trip around the sun as Team Donald sent out word that he would attend “if his schedule allows.”

His schedule, it seems, was filled with delivering dozens of mini-rants online to form an all-day rant. As well-wishers tweeted at Melania all day long, Trump stayed silent on the matter, as though he had forgotten the occasion or chose to ignore it. Instead of mentioning his wife, the ex-president spent the day publicly freaking out on the first day of the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit, in which she alleged that he raped her.

Did Trump actually forget Melania’s birthday? The Daily Beast wonders if this is the case. Early in the morning, federal attorney Ron Filipkowski suspected that Trump had forgotten and brought it to everyone’s attention while guessing that “when the staff reminds him, and he will have flowers sent over to her chambers.”

Well, Trump was in the midst of another Big Grumpy Boy whine-fest, and it’s impossible to tell if Melania even cared about his fixation elsewhere. She didn’t fly to New York when he was arrested, and heck, we’ve already heard that she’s essentially enjoying a Donald-free life at Mar-a-Lago and only popping out for occasional obligations with her husband. That’s not too surprising, considering that she brushed right past Donald on Biden’s Inauguration Day as though she had “clocked out” and gave no f*cks.

Meanwhile on Thursday morning, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski has made mention (via Raw Story) of how, “Even Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted birthday wishes, but Donald Trump did not.” She continued: “Instead, he posted 15 times on his social media platform criticizing Ron DeSantis and commenting on the civil trial accusing him of sexual assault.”

And heeeeere’s Lindsay:

By Filipkowski’s count, however, there were “about 30 posts today.” and “[n]ot one about Melania’s birthday though. Not to worry, Lindsey’s got it covered.”

This actually wouldn’t be the first time that this happened. Back in 2018, Trump said he was “very busy” and didn’t buy Melania a present, but he did get her “a beautiful card.”

However, does Melania even care at this point? She very well may have had a much better birthday without that dude.

Coachella continues to be the defining music festival of the year, but if you ask Diplo, when it comes to headliners, there’s something to be desired.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said:

“I think they honestly might be having a hard time booking headliners. There’s not much left. We kind of left the era of great superhero acts, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Daft Punk. Their [2006 Coachella set] was the most epic show. Now they book acts like Bad Bunny and Blackpink, who are cool, but they’re just the most Top 40 there is. It’s almost like they’re stadium acts.

[Coachella producers Goldenvoice] have a hard time, because I think there’s not a lot of really culturally relevant new acts. I saw Labrinth. That was amazing. I think that represents real Coachella. He’s part of the zeitgeist. But the rest of it just felt like they had to scramble to find things that were cultural touchstones, but also could bring a big crowd in.”

He then noted that he’s not big on Frank Ocean (but did say he “has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard”) and speculated that “he just doesn’t really care about shows”:

“I don’t think Frank Ocean’s concert needs to be the best or worst anything. It was a show where the ice rink didn’t work and that’s all it needs to be. I didn’t see his show, because I’m not a huge fan. It’s probably a generational thing. I think I was a little older when Frank Ocean came out. I was in my 30s. He has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard. I really think he just doesn’t really care about shows. I think that’s Coachella’s fault. He doesn’t really care about his fans, to give them a concert. I don’t think it matters. He’s just a musician. Some people just don’t care.”

Diplo, meanwhile, is heading into a weekend at Stagecoach, another Goldenvoice festival.

Read the interview here.

Tonight (April 27) will mark the end of an era as the final episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden airs. Corden is making his final shows count, whether it’s with a surprise Adele “Carpool Karaoke” or a touching reunion with a couple that met on the show in 2015 and ended up getting married. On yesterday’s episode, something unexpected and previously unannounced happened: Coldplay leader Chris Martin sat in with the house band.

At the top of the show, Corden made note of Martin, who was seated alongside Reggie Watts and company, wielding an acoustic guitar. Corden explained that Martin called and said he wanted to hang out for one more night, so he asked if he could sit in with the band. Martin joked, “I need the work, you see. How long is this gig?”

A few minutes later, Corden asked Martin to draw from his own experiences of ending long concert tours and give him advice on how to handle The Late Late Show reaching its conclusion. Martin said, “Well, like I’m doing today, you’ve got to find other work. You’ve got to think practical, you’ve got to apply for jobs. Dress smart. Just look at what I’m doing today: I’m humbling myself, I’m wearing a suit, I have to call Reggie ‘boss.’ I don’t really get paid for today.”

“I think you do get paid for today,” Corden noted. “I think you get $425.” Martin gestured to the band and quipped, “But they’re making me pay for all their drinks.”

Watch Martin on The Late Late Show above.

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