Month: May 2023

Nintendo is behind 2023’s highest-grossing movie (The Super Mario Bros. Movie) and is about to release what’s likely to be the year’s biggest video game (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom). So there will be much to celebrate at Nintendo Live, a multi-day event celebrating all things Nintendo. There will be Switch gameplay, live stage performances, tournaments, photo ops, and more. (The “more” does notably not include any new game announcements.)

Nintendo Live will run from September 1-4, 2023, at the Seattle Convention Center (the first time it’s been held outside of Japan) alongside gaming mega-event PAX West. Start working on your Toad cosplay now.

Here’s how to attend:

PAX West badge holders with a Nintendo Account who also want to attend Nintendo Live 2023 will have a chance to register for a free ticket to Nintendo Live through a separate promotion on the official PAX West website. The promotion for Nintendo Live will be offered during the PAX West badge checkout process from when badges go on sale on Wednesday, May 31, until Friday, July 7 at 11:59 PM PT. (One ticket per person maximum, regardless of entry method). Please note that a PAX West badge alone does not guarantee entry.

You can find lots more info, including how to register, here.

Back in 1996, Sum 41 formed (although they were called Kaspir then). A few years later, they dropped their debut album, 2001’s All Killer No Filler. The Canadian rockers saw immediate success with their signature song “Fat Lip,” as well as “In Too Deep,” currently their most-streamed song on Spotify with over 400 million plays.

They’ve consistently put out other albums and singles since then, but now, it’s almost over: Today (May 8), Sum 41 announced they are breaking up.

The band shared the news on social media today, noting that while they are “disbanding,” they’re gonna tie a few loose ends first: tour dates and a new album.

Read their full statement below.

“Being in Sum 41 since 1996 brought us some of the best moments of our lives. We are forever grateful to our fans both old and new, who have supported us in every way. It is hard to articulate the love and respect we have for all of you and we wanted you to hear this from us first.

Sum 41 will be disbanding. We will still be finishing all of our current upcoming tour dates this year, and we’re looking forward to releasing our final album ‘Heaven :: Hell,’ along with a final worldwide headlining tour to celebrate. Details will be announced as soon as we have them.

For now, we look forward to seeing all of you skumf*ks on the road and are excited for what the future will bring for each of us.

Thank you for the last 27 years of Sum 41.”

Lovers & Friends Festival returned to Las Vegas this weekend, bringing classic artists such as 50 Cent, Missy Elliott, and Usher to the stage in the desert for nostalgic fans. While past festivals had been interrupted by various issues, this year’s iteration went off without a hitch — almost.

There was one set that did feature an unfortunately timed faux pas. Ginuwine, best known for hits like “In Those Jeans,” “Pony,” and “So Anxious,” took a tumble as he performed “In Those Jeans,” nearly pulling down his sign language interpreter in the process.

Ginuwine himself took the hiccup in stride, posting a video on Instagram teasing himself for the spill. “I buss my ass,” he wrote. “I am constantly laughing with the funnies but we right back at it. Next year im windmillin so don’t mis it.” In the video, he’s all smiles as he jokes about it with his crew in the car, even singing a bar of Donnie McClurkin’s gospel classic “We Fall Down.”

There was one other incident over the weekend that could have cast a pall over the festival. On Friday, rumors circulated online that Chris Brown got into a physical altercation with the festival’s host, Usher, after a run-in in a nightclub. But Usher hit the stage with no trouble throughout the festival, even bringing out Ari Lennox for a surprise appearance.

Joe Alwyn is all but a distant memory after Taylor Swift’s three The Eras Tour shows in Nashville this weekend.

Following Alwyn and Swift’s reported breakup, which Entertainment Tonight first broke on April 8 and People contextualized days later, speculation has steadily been intensifying about with whom Swift has moved on. The 1975’s Matty Healy is the leader in the clubhouse after UK tabloid The Sun reported last week that Healy and Swift “are madly in love” and were “ready to go public with their romance” during Swift’s Nashville tour stop.

Healy was allegedly spotted at The Eras Tour in Nashville on Friday night, May 5, and he joined Phoebe Bridgers for her opening set on Saturday, May 6.

This morning, Entertainment Tonight dumped lighter fluid on Swifties’ collective panic with yet another report on the purported romance.

One anonymous source told the outlet, “Taylor and Matty like each other. Taylor ha a crush on Matty, and they are having a good time hanging out. Matty also thinks Taylor is awesome and incredibly talented, too. They dated briefly in the past.”

Another anonymous source added, “Taylor and Matty have been hanging out recently, and Jack Antonoff reconnected them.”

Some Swifties are so upset by this that they’re blocking Antonoff on Twitter.

Antonoff has contributed production and songwriting to every Swift album since 2014’s 1989, and Swift shared that October’s Midnights was “the first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators.” Antonoff was also one of four producers on The 1975’s Being Funny In A Foreign Language album from last October.

Not for nothing, Swift surprised fans at The 1975’s O2 Arena tour stop in London this January, and Healy thought so highly of her that he opted against making out with fans in the crowd in her presence, which he’d been doing like clockwork throughout the tour.

None of the involved parties have commented publicly on the swirling rumors — Swift was too busy announcing the July 7 arrival of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and playing in the pouring rain — but The Eras Tour next hits Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from Friday, May 12, to Sunday, May 14, so prepare your magnifying glasses to search for more perceived clues.

(WARNING: Spoilers for the latest Power Book II: Ghost episode will be found below.)

Nine seasons. That’s how long Shane Johnson played the role of Cooper Saxe in both the Power and Power Book II: Ghost series. Through it all, Saxe was a character that viewers hoped to see fall into his demise at any point in the last decade, and there were a few times that he tumbled to the delight of Power fans. He was fired, rehired, and fired again as U.S. Attorney in New York on the show, all during the pursuit of his No. 1 career goal: putting James St. Patrick in jail.

As we all know, Saxe was never able to achieve this, and his failure to do so created his lifelong hate for the St. Patrick family and their associates. It was created in the original Power series and it transferred in new ways and reached new heights in Power Book II: Ghost, even though Saxe was supposed to be working as Tariq St. Patrick’s defense attorney. Saxe’s pursuit to take down Tariq led to him working with prosecutor Jenny Sullivan, who he was also in love with, in stealing documents, lying to his co-workers, and more. Most notably, led to Cooper Saxe’s death. Tariq and Davis MacLean both found out that Saxe was working with Sullivan to build a case against Tariq. This information found its way to Davis’ brother Theo who took it upon himself to kill Saxe.

Following the shocking events of Power Book II: Ghost season 3, episode 8, we caught up with Shane Johnson to talk about everything Cooper Saxe: his flaws, the fun moments, and what his Power legacy will be.

Well, we must pay our condolences to the one and only Cooper Saxe. When did you find out that Saxe would be killed off in this episode and what was your first reaction?

Well listen, it’s one of those things that, as you can imagine being Cooper Saxe, for years and years and years, I was kind of like waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was always expecting that well, has my time come? So, the fact that I survived a decade on the show has honestly been such a huge blessing and really incredible. That being said, when I found out I was getting it, it was like a mix of things. At first, I was in shock because they do this thing where they don’t necessarily want to tell you too far in advance because they don’t want it to affect how you perform. They don’t want to affect your psyche too much and I appreciate that, I do. I found out maybe a month ahead of time, and we were already filming. So I was like going like, “Wait, hold on a second.” As an actor, the other thing is, you’re kind of going “Oh, so I’m looking for another job now.”

Being somebody that also really just loves and cares about this Power Universe that we’re in, I had all kinds of ideas. In my mind, I thought Cooper Saxe could go off and be a really dangerous asset to Davis MacLean (Method Man). In my mind, there definitely was a future for Cooper Saxe. To have it cut short like this, was exciting for sure but, I’ll be real, it was unexpected for me too.

Since the original Power series, Saxe has been chasing the St. Patricks and while there were small wins along the way, he was never able to fully take them down. Why do you think that Saxe never gave up?

I think the reality is Saxe racked up so many losses along the way. Never really being able to get a foothold with the cases that he was trying to pursue, and never really winning, I feel like what happened was that as he continued to build up losses, he also continued to change his tactics. He got riskier, a little bit more illegal, a little bit more off the books, and a little bit more willing to put it all out there in order to get justice/revenge. He got sloppy and he got messy. He’s somebody that I’m very proud of the trajectory that we created with Cooper Saxe, but at the end of the day, he wasn’t going to make it out of this Power Universe. He can’t win, this dude can’t win. If he wins, what? He puts everybody in jail and the show’s over, you know what I mean? I’m really happy man, I’m satisfied with how things ended.

This season we see Saxe work more closely than ever with Jenny Sullivan to backdoor Tariq and the Tejadas into RICO. Is Saxe’s decision to work with Jenny rooted more in his feelings for her or through this long-lasting desire to take down the St. Patricks?

I would say 50% of the sloppiness, came from the fact that he had love for Jenny Sullivan. He was willing to do things for her, because of her, that he wouldn’t have done previously. As I said, they’re sloppy and messy, and he allowed her to have leverage over him that, to me, didn’t really seem like leverage. She was like, “Oh, well, you told me that one story that one time and I’ll tell people that you told me that story.” It’s like, okay, whatever, then I’ll just say you’re full of sh*t. I think that his heart, his care for her, his wanting to have a family, and his wanting to be a human being that was outside of this dark world they’re in were part of his weakness. If Cooper Saxe was a ruthless motherf*cker that was like, “This is how it’s gonna go. I don’t care about anything. I’m getting this. Jenny doesn’t matter, the Tejadas and the St. Patricks don’t matter,” I think he probably would have been more successful. But, he allowed his heart to affect some of his choices along the way. Ultimately, I think his heart might be his demise.

What would you say are the similarities and differences in characteristics and personalities between Cooper Saxe and Shane Johnson?

One of the things that I’m very proud of is the sense of humor I brought to Cooper Saxe. I feel like Cooper Saxe added a much-needed, but also very personal for me, sense of humor to the show. Not because it’s a comedy, but because even tragedy has comedy to it. Tragedy has a sense of humor to it, and it’s the way we let steam out and it’s the way we survive. Cooper Saxe was that note for me in this show and I’m very proud of that. I don’t know anything about law, Shane Johnson, I don’t know anything about courtrooms. I grew up in. I grew up in a trailer park man in a little farm town in Washington State. I am completely the opposite of Cooper Saxe.

What are your interactions like with Power fans when you run into them in public?

Usually, things start off with like, “Oh my god, I hate this guy,” “I can’t wait for him to die,” “You need to die,” and “I’ll kill you if I ever see you.” The thing that’s really cool about the fans, man, our fans are so involved. It’ll go from “I hate you, I can’t wait for you to die. I’ll kill you myself,” to me going, “Oh, hey, that’s so sweet of you to say,” and they’ll respond like, “Oh my god, you responded! I’m such a huge fan. I love your character on the show.” To me, that speaks volumes about the universe that we’ve created because people are engaged, people care, and I love the fact that people have access to us. I love the fact that people can engage with me, that I can respond to them, and we can commiserate over the fact that this universe means something to us. Listen, they know that I’m not Cooper Saxe, but it’s fun to kind of pretend that Shane Johnson and Cooper Saxe are like the same person.

What would you say Saxe’s overall Power legacy is?

I would say that he’s kind of the relentless do-gooder that just can never seem to win. I would like to think that, on a selfish level, if people said, “Hey, what did Cooper Saxe bring to the Power Universe?” that people will go, “Dude, that guy was funny. He made me laugh. I loved his antics and I loved his take on things.” That would be the thing that I’m probably most proud of, that I brought that energy to something that could have been very straight. Cooper Saxe could have been like a straight-laced, serious kind of guy. He, instead, was somebody that had a lot of sardonic humor and a lot of levity. I feel like our audience really appreciated that.

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.

The Inside the NBA crew got their first weekend off of the postseason, as they had Thursday through Saturday off before being back at the desk in Atlanta on Sunday night for Game 4 between the Suns and Nuggets.

With Formula 1 in Miami, Kenny Smith and Shaq both headed down to enjoy the festivities. While Shaq usually garners the most attention when he’s at events, it was Smith who became the more talked about Inside member in Miami after TMZ posted a number of photos of him and a young woman enjoying the sun on South Beach.

Once back in Atlanta for Sunday night’s show, it didn’t take long for the crew to poke fun at Kenny’s beach escapades, as Ernie Johnson teed up the fellas by cheekily asking if they had any photos to share from the weekend, allowing Charles Barkley to immediately go “I got one of Kenny!” sending Shaq into a fit of laughter.

The best part is Kenny trying to drag Shaq down with him, saying O’Neal was his “right hand man” all weekend, which Shaq wanted no part of. Ernie eventually offered Kenny a reprieve by getting to the upcoming sponsored segment, but not until he’d allowed Chuck and Shaq to get their jokes off about Kenny’s accidental TMZ shoot on the beach.

With the many (many) recent conversations surrounding on-screen sex scenes, it seems like more actors are standing firm in their own preferences. Penn Badgley boldly decided that he wouldn’t have any sex scenes in season four of his raunchy drama You, and it seems like he isn’t alone in feeling like certain scenes aren’t necessary. He was also surprised when people were shocked about that, but that’s a whole other conversation.

The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil recently revealed that she “doesn’t do” sex scenes, even if it means missing out on a hit show. The actress was featured on Badgley’s podcast Podcrushed, where she admitted, “I don’t do sex scenes. In fact, I was supposed to audition for the most recent season of your show,” Jamil told Badgley, referring to You.

While she didn’t reveal which character she was set to audition for, Jamil knew she wasn’t right for it. “My character was supposed to be quite sexy, and I pulled out of the audition, because I am so shy about anything sexy that I can’t,” she explained. Jamil said she was inspired by Badgley opting out of sex scenes, which is something she didn’t realize she had the power to do. “I was like, ‘I didn’t even know that was a boundary that we could draw.’ But then I was like, I should have gone and done the f*cking show,” she added. To be fair, by the time a lead actor makes it to season four of a Netflix show, he probably has a lot more flexibility when it comes to those things. What would You be without Joe Goldberg? And all of his other personas, for that matter.

The actress clarified that she doesn’t have problems with other actors who choose to partake in sex scenes, it’s her own personal choice.
“I have so much deep, like, childhood sexual trauma stuff. So I think that was never in the cards for me. You know, I still wear the little skirt or the busty top, but like, occasionally. But generally, I feel quite protective of myself in that way.”

Even though she didn’t land the role, Jamil appeared on Disney+’s She-Hulk where she luckily didn’t have to do a sex scene. But she did get to repeatedly punch Tatiana Maslany, and not many people can say that!

(Via People)

Before getting fully ensnared in the increasingly volatile and titular “Tailgate Party” in the latest episode of Succession, The Disgusting Brothers duo of Tom and Greg are tasked with laying off a sizable portion of the ATN staff. As the top executive, Tom kicks off the Zoom meeting by saying how much he hates these situations and that sometimes he even cries during them, so he’s going to hand things off to Greg, who’s becoming more and more adept at firing people after his disastrous performance with Kerry.

However, the meeting isn’t entirely professional as Tom mocks the employees being fired off-camera as Greg reads a confusing statement loaded with nonsense corporate jargon. After making it clear that everyone has been terminated, he ends the call without taking any questions.

For anyone who’s ever been fired from a corporate job, the scene probably felt a little too real. And for anyone who was fired from Better.com, it probably seemed even more familiar. Back in 2021, CEO Vishal Garg laid off over 9% of the mortgage company’s workforce in a viral video where he also said that these situations make him cry.

“This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried,” Garg said in the video, which seems pretty close to Tom’s speech before handing things over to Greg.

Considering this season of Succession has skewered reality numerous times from Logan Roy standing on copy paper boxes to deliver a speech a la Rupert Murdoch to Lukas Mattson having some very Elon Musk qualities, it would absolutely track if the show skewered this brutal moment in corporate culture.

(Via CNN)

Kendrick Lamar’s album To Pimp A Butterfly is returning to vinyl for Interscope Records’ Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined project. The limited-edition set comes with packaging designed by Gucci; in addition to a custom linen-wrapped vinyl jacket, the album will come with a print designed by South Central contemporary artist Lauren Halsey. Only 100 copies of the limited-edition vinyl will be sold at $2500 apiece.

You can find more information about the release here.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Kendrick Lamar earned one of the best-selling vinyl releases of 2022 for his 2012 debut album Good Kid MAAD City as it celebrated its 10-year anniversary. 254,000 copies were sold, good for the fourth-best-selling vinyl overall and best-selling hip-hop vinyl of the year. Meanwhile, Kendrick’s 2017 album DAMN. crossed a major threshold of its own, spending 300 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The Compton rapper’s most recent album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, earned the Best Rap Album Grammy earlier this year, continuing his trend of groundbreaking albums and incredible success.

Kendrick’s got a busy schedule for 2023, with appearances set for Outside Lands, Life Is Beautiful, and Lollapalooza in Chicago. But the thing fans might be most excited about is the possibility of a Black Hippy project, which Top Dawg teased in March.

Game 4 between the Suns and Nuggets was a shot-making exhibition between stars on both teams, as Nikola Jokic piled up 53 points for Denver, while Kevin Durant and Devin Booker scored 36 each in a winning effort.

However, within that incredible duel was one of the strangest incidents of the postseason, as Jokic got into it with Suns owner Mat Ishbia after the ball landed in Ishbia’s lap and Jokic wanted to quickly get it back in play with Denver having an advantage. The two wrestled over the ball, having it pop into the row behind, and then Jokic gave Ishbia a little shove, which the Suns owner (and former Michigan State player) sold with a flop into his seat.

Jokic got a technical for the shove, as Tony Brothers deemed it a purposeful act, while another fan who reached out to hit Jokic was ejected from courtside. After the game, Jokic and Michael Malone expressed their frustration with the situation, not caring that Ishbia was the owner as that doesn’t change the fact that, when seated courtside, he has the same rules as any fan. Jokic thought he should’ve been kicked out for interfering with the game, noting multiple times he thought the league was supposed to protect players.

On Monday morning, Ishbia released his first statement on the matter, calling for everyone to move on and hoping the league won’t do anything else to punish Jokic, as there was talk after the game wondering if a suspension could be on the way.

Hopefully the league heeds Ishbia’s advice, as the technical should suffice as punishment for Jokic as neither party is without fault in the incident and it didn’t escalate into anything more.