Being a Taylor Swift fan is a lot of work. Getting tickets to The Eras Tour was famously difficult, and her Midnights merch gave fans almost too many items to choose from. However, if you couldn’t afford a colored vinyl or a seat at her concert, there’s another option for you.
Confetti from The Eras Tour is being sold by Swifties, according to The Messenger. Ranging from $10 to $200, the confetti is selling at a competitive rate and Swifties are profiting. “Everybody wants everything, but it’s impossible,” a confetti-selling fan named Shelley told the publication. “She makes everything special, and she’ll only put out a certain amount or only certain people can get it. Only floor seats and maybe some of the 100 sections can even get confetti.”
“Taylor Swift has created an insane business model. People are getting mad that I’m selling confetti at like $30. But what’s crazy is that A) people are buying it, and B) you’re in denial thinking Taylor Swift is not a capitalist,” another seller named Jen said. Along with confetti, she resold two crewnecks for The Eras Tour, flipping the $65 pieces for $200 each. She added that Swift has “created a capitalist empire that’s easy for people to jump on.”
Since Heidi Gardner‘s debut on Saturday Night Live in 2017, she’s been pretty clear about her rooting love for her hometown Kansas City Chiefs – often appearing in the show’s sendoff/finale (aka the “goodnights”) dressed head-to-toe in Chiefs gear. Already a standout cast member, this past season Gardner took on an even bigger role with the show after the departure of eight cast members. In fact, of the current cast who appear in sketches, Gardner is now third in seniority (only behind Kenan Thompson and Mikey Day). Gardner had a terrific season, and as she says ahead, it was for her, the most creatively satisfying season of her career.
But, her shining achievement this season just might have been the Travis Kelce episode. Kelce, the star tight end for the Chiefs, had just won his second Super Bowl and has a reputation of being a, let’s say, lively personality and is actually pretty funny (unless you’re a fan of whatever team Kelce is playing that week, then it’s a little less funny). Gardner, as she tells us ahead, had been pitching Kelce for the last two years thinking he’d be a great host. On March 4th, Gardner finally got her wish … and then felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility. What if it didn’t go well? What if Kelce wasn’t having fun? What if she didn’t get on the show that week? Finally, as she tells us, she just had to let go and just enjoy the ride. (By the way, Kelce was incredible and Gardner appears in almost every sketch. And as I mention ahead, I was at the dress rehearsal that night and it was obvious even from the audience what all this meant to Gardner.)
How did you pull off Travis Kelce hosting? How did you even mention this in the first place?
I just usually say that I just did a good job of never shutting my mouth about it. It was probably about two years ago, I think I had just worked with Travis on something, like the ESPYs, and also I just noticed his persona during games and I was like, he’s really funny. He’s charming. He’s personable. I saw him on other telecasts and he seems very comfortable in front of the camera. Every couple of years SNL has an athlete host and I always feel like that’s one of the most exciting types of hosts because no one expects them to be great. So if they are, it’s very cool and very fun for everyone. Something to me just said: Travis Kelce’s the next. I was saying that, it was after the Chiefs had won their second Super Bowl ever…
In 2020, Super Bowl LIV…
Yeah. Then they lost to the Bucs. And then they didn’t win the AFC Championship the next year. It was just in this weird time where I think everyone was like, “Well yeah, we’re beginning to know who Travis Kelce is, if you’re not a football fan. But it sure would be nice if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl.” Then this year the Chiefs were just picking up a lot of momentum. To the ladies who work in the talent department, I would be like, “I really think Travis should host, I really think Travis should host.” They’re like, “Yeah, Lorne does too. It’s just, he has to win the Super Bowl.” And I wasn’t sure if that was actually true or not…
Right. Because J.J. Watt hosted and he didn’t win the Super Bowl.
Yeah. I think they were just messing with me because they were like, “If he doesn’t beat the Bengals this week and we’re asking Joe Burrow.”
Oh, no.
I don’t think any of that’s true. I think they were just messing with me. But when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, I think the offer was out that next day. Everybody was very on board. It was literally just me running my mouth for two years straight. That’s all I say. I don’t know, I think a lot of other people are responsible for it. I think Travis Kelce is responsible for his talent. I just never shut up.
I love Patrick Mahomes, and I think he’d be good. But, Kelce seems on another level…
Yeah. I was also trying to pitch them as a combo.
Oh, wow…
But I also think if you start to watch Patrick from his latest Jimmy Kimmel interview after they won this last Super Bowl…
I did watch that. Yes.
Yeah, I think he is getting really comfortable in front of the camera. I will also be campaigning for him to host. This is all I do there now, I try to get Chiefs to host SNL.
I’m looking forward to five years now when Harrison Butker hosts SNL.
[Laughs] I’m just getting maybe season tickets by that point.
How was this last season for you? The season before a lot of people left. It felt like you kind of took charge after that.
It was so cool. Yeah. I just felt like we did have the biggest exodus I’d ever experienced at SNL. We hadn’t had anything like that prior from my time there. I just … I thought this year would be a rebuilding year. I thought that’s what it would be categorized as and so I really had no idea for me or the rest of the cast how it would read. Just because we had so many people leave, I thought that would be the story … and that was a story. But then also, just by default, I just feel like I got passed the ball a lot more. Personally, for me, it was a very creatively fulfilling season. When you just feel useful, it just felt busy. Also, I think when you’re doing more at SNL just consistently, then so much pressure isn’t just on your one sketch or your chance to shine every three weeks. It’s like, “Well, I’m active throughout the show. I’m doing a lot. I’m not holding anything too tight. It’s all just fun.” That energy, I really felt that this season. I just got to do so much that I got to be a lot more loose and free and that felt great.
You mentioned more creatively fulfilling and being loose and free. Even the year before, season 47, you still didn’t feel quite that way?
I think I was having a lot more fun in season 47. I just think, and I’m trying to think back, it’s hard. They all blend together. No, I just did feel a bigger difference this year. It just felt more creative. There was just more to do and that felt great. It was a difference.
I feel like the Kelce show was your crown jewel of this past season. You made this happen, you’re in almost every sketch. Before that show, did you feel more pressure since this is what you’ve been wanting?
I felt like I was just having fun talking about it for the last two years. Just being like, “This should happen. This should happen.” I would say it to Travis all the time. I only knew him a little bit. Then once the week of the show started and I suddenly realized, oh… hosting SNL is a huge responsibility. Like, oh my God, I hope he is having fun. And, oh my God, I hope the show all goes well. I suddenly felt this massive responsibility that I had not planned on. But, for me, I was like, okay, the only way for me to have fun this week is actually to let go of that responsibility and be like, “Everyone’s an adult. Everyone can take care of themselves. Heidi don’t.” But also make sure, just like with any host that comes in, that I’m also helping take care of the host and make sure we welcome them into our home.
With Travis, it was really cool, since I’m such a fan and I love sports so much. I was asking him, “What’s your game day routine?” He was like, “Oh, you wouldn’t believe it. But I eat Uncrustables. Before the game and even during the game to keep my energy up.” So on Saturday I bought three boxes of Uncrustables. I made sure he had those.
Oh, that’s great.
It was funny. It was during dress rehearsal, we were in a sketch together and he leaned over before it started and he was like, “I’ve been pounding those Uncrustables all day. Thank you.” And I was like, “Good!” That was just such a fun show. But I also tried to make sure everyone knew that show was so special to me. But even when I got asked to do – not the Thursday promo, I did do that – but the Tuesday promo. I just politely declined. I was like, “I know everyone knows this is really special to me. I don’t want this week to be about me.”
You’ve made it clear during the goodnights what team you root for on a weekly basis. I think people knew.
That was the first week I don’t think I wore a Chiefs thing. Because I was like, I’ve made it abundantly clear and this is the cherry on top. I don’t need to wear full head-to-toe Chiefs this week.
Did he agree to just anything? Because even the “American Girl” sketch, I can’t believe he agreed to that.
I know he was so down for everything. Also, I had to give myself a talk to my inner child self at the beginning of the week that was like, “Hey, I know you want this week to be perfect, but there is a chance, like sometimes happens at SNL, where you might be blamed for a show. You might not get in a sketch. Hope that you are, but just a very realistic, take your ego out of it no matter what. This is so cool. A Kansas City Chief is hosting the show.” Also, my brother Justin was there, my younger brother was there. I had friends fly in from Kansas City. I threw a tailgate in my dressing room and I told myself, “If you’re not in the show this week, you get to watch it with your entire family and that’s really cool too, and we can all just be Chiefs fans.” Then the Kelce brothers came before the live show and they tailgated and ate barbecue. I was like that’s so cool. “I know for a fact you’re the only host that’s ever tailgated before a show.”
There were a lot of Chiefs fans in the crowd, which surprised me. Your brother told me you had something to do with that with a charity auction.
Yeah, it just so happened, this charity that I’m a part of, the Big Slick, I had auctioned off two tickets to SNL the summer before. It just so happens those people picked that March 4th date to come to the show. Because I never do it dependent on a host because I don’t know the host. When they came back to my dressing room, I was like, “Can you believe you picked this date?” And they were like, “No!” It just couldn’t have been more Kansas Citian perfect.
People in my circles know I am a big Chiefs fan. If he wasn’t good, I would have heard about it. Even Eagles fans I know have come up to me, begrudgingly, “Yeah, he was good.”
Here’s why I knew he’d be good. SNL is its own beast. Then once you’re in it and you’re reading all these sketches, you’re learning to read cue cards, you’re learning to go back and forth with your eye line between cue cards. I started to feel like, oh my God, this is so overwhelming. It’s even overwhelming for me sometimes. Okay, I’m looking at Ego here, Bowen at this set of cue cards and just remembering all that. But when he was getting notes like that from writers, producers, all these things, I was like, “Oh man. That’s a lot to remember.” And then I was like, wait, this man gets adjustments an entire game. Just remembering full on plays. And he’s also on live TV every week. I was like, “wait, this is all going to come together.” I just had this moment before the live show where I was like, “He’s so good. He’s going to be just fine. It’s his job.” That’s what I think can really make an athlete shine and where our jobs are kind of similar.
He seemed to have great chemistry with Bowen in “Straight Male Friend.”
I think there was. I think also, I heard some stories from the set. In that scene where he’s eating the Buffalo Wild Wings? Either you have prop food or it’s like no one wants to eat those. Travis was just going through the wings and I think the director was like, “Dude, you don’t have to eat those.” And he is like, “I’m hungry.” I was like, so “football player.” Perfect.
Okay, so what other show stands out for you this past season?
That show and the Steve Martin, Martin Short one. Because those are just, that was my whole childhood with older movies. I just really felt like the kid in me was like, “A Chief is hosting SNL and my favorite actors from my childhood are hosting SNL.” And I just couldn’t not be so happy.
Also, we had a couple of new writers at the show this year. Jimmy Fowlie, we shared an office together and he is an old friend of mine and I felt like I had a lot of fun writing with him. Ceara O’Sullivan, I worked with her on a couple “Updates,” actually a few “Updates” that I’m really proud of. Towards the end of the season, we did the mom who has three daughters and one son. Then we did the busy coworker doing seemingly nothing. Those “Updates” for me are a couple of my favorites ever.
But is the Kelce episode your favorite? It has to be.
I think it is, for the Chief’s reasons, for sure. I can’t imagine my world’s colliding in a more beautiful way than that and having my family there. It was very sweet.
No, trust me, I’ve talked to a lot of people in Kansas City. You’re very popular there now.
I think it might be because of that episode.
Well, wherever you were at before, it doubled because of that episode because everyone knows how involved you were…
Yeah, I think it helped.
I heard a story that during the Chiefs’ bye-week last season he was in New York and showed up at the after-after party and sang “My Way.”
I think he just wanted to come to the show. It was the Jack Harlow show and it was really fun seeing him out there watching from the floor. Then I actually didn’t go to that after-party, or maybe I didn’t go to the after-after, but I’m sure he probably did sing that. But I do know on Monday it was as if, when I got to work, it was as if my best friend had been at the after party and everyone was coming up to me, “We love them. Oh my God!” Everyone was reporting back to me and I was like, “Well that’s great to hear.” We’re not that close. I didn’t want to false represent, but it was just like, you could tell everyone was like, “He would be a good host. You’re not crazy.”
Well, it’s not false representing, like you said, you pushed for this for two years. If you’re not in the cast, he probably doesn’t host. That’s a fair statement, right?
I don’t know if that’s a fair statement because I just want to give the talent department credit that they’re always looking for interesting, cool hosts. Whether they be entertainers, athletes, or both. I would assume he would be on their radar? I don’t know, maybe it’s my Midwest modesty.
Okay, yes, I would’ve said the same answer. But even from the audience, I could tell how much that show meant to you.
That was really cool. Yeah, thanks for reliving that with me.
Anyway, I look forward to Chris Jones hosting next season.
I’ll get them all! Gotta catch them all, to come on.
Fan fiction happens. With a franchise as enduring as The Walking Dead, it would be unheard of to not see people wistfully hoping that characters would hook up while living through the ongoing gasps of the apocalypse. For example, the “Jaaron” whispers (not the greatest word for me to use, given how one of these characters died) of Jesus and Aaron possibly hooking up make a lot of sense. And surely, some people have thought about what would have happened if Jesus walked in on Rick and Michonne with different results.
There are also, if you care to look them up, fanfics about Negan’s love affair with his baseball bat, Lucille. The barbed-wire aspect makes this sound, well, unfeasible to achieve, but what makes even less sense is the suggestion that Maggie would ever decide to get busy with Negan. Yeah, that would never happen, or a bigger contingent of fans would certainly rage. Granted, Negan did at one point reveal that he wished to get down with “the widow,” but Maggie was rightfully full of nothing but contempt for the Saviors’ leader.
Yet jokingly or not, the fanfic beast did come for Maggie and Negan, and ahead of The Walking Dead: Dead City, here’s what an “amused” Jeffrey Dean Morgan (and apparently Lauren Cohan) offered on the subject:
“I am incredibly amused by it. I find it fascinating that people are shipping them because when I watched the show and when we were playing these scenes, what’s really fascinating is that she might kill me at any minute, or he may kill her. I thought that was more interesting than anything else. But other people look at it like, “Oh, hey, they should be together.” We both are very amused by the whole thing.”
Good god, a Maggie and Negan hookup would be an abomination. He essentially ruined her life and shattered her family (and broke the spirit of Rick Grimes) while beating the hell out of Glenn in the show’s most brutal death scene. Redemption arc or not, there is no place for any warm or fuzzy feelings between these two. Yikes.
As Donald Trump stares down a damning indictment over his mishandling of classified documents, a common refrain is that the former president has no one to blame but himself. Throughout the entire process, Trump rebuffed the government’s requests to return the documents stored at his golf clubs in both Florida and New Jersey. That refusal prompted the infamous raid of Mar-a-Lago and a public spectacle that now includes photographs of documents stacked ceiling high in a bathroom.
However, a new report claims that Trump dug his own hole even deeper thanks to taking the advice of some guy who’s not even a lawyer. According to The Washington Post, Trump’s legal team attempted to broker a settlement with Attorney General Merrick Garland that could’ve avoided the prosecution of a former president. Hell-bent on keeping his “boxes,” Trump reportedly rebuffed legal advice and opted to battle it out with the Department of Justice due to the advice of a right-wing activist with no legal training:
Trump time and again rejected the advice from lawyers and advisers who urged him to cooperate and instead took the advice of Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch, and a range of others who told him he could legally keep the documents and should fight the Justice Department, advisers said. Trump would often cite Fitton to others, and Fitton told some of Trump’s lawyers that Trump could keep the documents, even as they disagreed, the advisers said.
The Post reports that several of Trump’s advisors blame Fitton for filling the former president’s head with false hopes of keeping his “boxes,” which put Trump in the crosshairs of one indictment and possibly another in New Jersey.
There’s only one head coach in the history of the Denver Nuggets who has led the team to an NBA championship, and unsurprisingly, he’s having some fun in the aftermath. Michael Malone appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday to discuss the team’s 5-game series win over the Miami Heat, and at one point, he was asked about how the conversation following their Western Conference Finals win over the Los Angeles Lakers focused on the team that got swept.
Malone ended up giving a pretty good answer — he specifically pointed out the discourse following Game 1 of the series, which revolved around L.A. figuring things out by having Rui Hachimura guard Nikola Jokic — but before that, he cracked a joke at the expense of LeBron James.
“Well, a really good question, and speaking of the Lakers: I just want you guys to know, this is breaking news, I’m thinking about retiring, so don’t tell anybody,” Malone said at the 14:14 mark of the above video. Malone, of course, stressed that he was kidding, largely because he doesn’t want the Kroenke family to start looking for a new coach and that he’s not going anywhere.
In the aftermath of the Lakers getting swept, James was complimentary of Jokic and the Nuggets, but also dropped a few hints that he’d consider retiring this offseason. Over the next few days, reports began to circulate that those aware of James’ situation would be stunned if he actually did call it a career.
In February, President Joe Biden proposed the Junk Fee Prevention Act, to eliminate the “junk fees” that make concerts (as well as flights) so expensive. “For example, we’re making airlines show you the full ticket price upfront and refund your money if your flight is canceled or delayed,” he said at the State Of The Union. “Baggage fees are bad enough — they can’t just treat your child like a piece of luggage. Americans are tired of being played for suckers.”
According to NPR, Live Nation and Ticketmaster will pledge to get rid of junk fees, which will be starting in September. Instead, the full prices will be shown upfront. “Today’s voluntary actions demonstrate that companies both big and small recognize the importance of providing consumers with honest, up-front all-in pricing, rather than tricking them with surprise fees at the end of checkout,” the White House said. “It is also just a first step towards addressing junk fees in the economy.”
In March, Live Nation’s President and CEO, Michael Rapino, responded to Biden’s proposal by sharing that the company was aiming to “relieve a lot of the stress [and] the consumer’s perception that there’s this magical extra fee added on.”
After pleading not guilty to over three dozen federal counts stemming from his handling of classified documents, a.k.a. leaving a bunch of top-secret boxes by the toilet, Donald Trump celebrated (?) by going to the famous Miami restaurant Versailles. He posed for photos and yelled “food for everyone!” at one point, seemingly promising to cover the bills for his supporters. But not only did Trump not make good on his offer — he didn’t order anything.
The Miami New Times reports, “A knowledgeable source assures the New Times that Donald Trump’s stop at Versailles totaled about ten minutes, leaving no time for anyone to eat anything, much less place an order.” He probably stormed off after learning that there isn’t a taco bowl on the menu.
Inside the bakery, Trump supporters fawned over their man, regaling the soon-to-turn-77-year-old with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” a day early and holding a group prayer. Former MMA fighter Jorge Masvidal, sporting a University of Miami ball cap, hailed Trump as “everybody’s favorite president of all time” after embracing the former leader of the free world.
Versailles didn’t post a photo of Trump on its Instagram page, but the restaurant’s Yelp has been overrun with comments about the former president’s visit. “The food is good but your political theater is a disgrace. I won’t support a business that celebrates a villain,” reads one, while another goes, “Food is good, but not worth betraying your country.”
Nikola Jokic capped an all-time great run in the NBA playoffs by leading the Denver Nuggets to the first championship in franchise history earlier this week. Unsurprisingly, this meant that Jokic was named NBA Finals MVP, and while there were plenty of players on the Nuggets who performed well in their series against the Miami Heat, it would have been the shock of all shocks if anyone else took the award home.
Actually, scratch the last part of that sentence, because “took the award home” doesn’t quite apply to Jokic. The two-time league MVP sat down with Malika Andrews of ESPN in the aftermath of the win and actually revealed that he lost the trophy, which he last saw in the office of the team’s equipment manager, Sparky Gonzales.
“Basketball is not the main thing in my life. It’s something that I’m good at.”
“I really don’t know,” Jokic said about the trophy’s location after Andrews noted that he’s the first Finals MVP to not bring it into a post-Finals interview she’s conducted. “I left it in Sparky’s room and it’s not there anymore. So, I don’t know. But hopefully it’s gonna arrive in my house.”
After the interview aired, Andrews was able to add a bit of clarity to the whole thing, saying that Gonzales actually has the trophy and it will be in Jokic’s possession by the time the team holds its championship parade.
Rest assured, the Nuggets’ longtime equipment guru Sparky Gonzales has the trophy cleaned and detailed and it’s ready for Thursday’s parade. https://t.co/2p1NQYzNPS
“LOUIS VUITTON MEN Spring-Summer 2024,” Pharrell captioned an Instagram photo showing him posing in front of a larger-than-life photo of Rihanna, presumably the face of the campaign.
In the photo, Rihanna is strutting effortlessly with a coffee. She’s draped in duffel bags, framing her bare pregnant stomach. (She and ASAP Rocky are expecting their second child, as revealed during her Super Bowl LVII Halftime performance.)
Predictably, notable people are gushing over Rihanna in the comments section. Lindsay Lohan simply left a hearts-as-eyes emoji, while Busta Rhymes commented with eight crown emojis. Sam Smith also went the emoji-only route, with a red heart and fire.
Complexrelayed that it had “reached out to Louis Vuitton reps for comment on the Rihanna campaign” and will update accordingly.
Upon Pharrell’s appointment in February, Louis Vuitton had plenty to say.
“I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and 2008 for Louis Vuitton, as our new Men’s Creative Director,” Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Pietro Beccari said in a statement. “His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”
The upcoming The Boys spinoff, Gen V, is looking to explode a few heads at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and it looks like the show already started with Homelander. The massive fan event unveiled a new poster for Gen V as it tweeted that “Vought-approved” badges have started shipping out. The poster features a headless Homelander statue that’s still smoldering, and the official Twitter account for the college-based spinoff played dumb about the decapitated Supe.
“Not sure what happened to our Homelander statue??” the Gen V account tweeted.
While plot details about Gen V are being kept closely under wraps, Amazon has confirmed that the series will be based on a group of college-aged Supes who are preparing to become the next generation of corporate-produced “heroes” in the mold of Homelander. A statue of the ultimate Supe was seen in the first look teaser for Gen V, and judging by its current headless state, the next generation is either not a fan of Antony Starr’s character, or even more reckless and dangerous than their corporate handlers were expecting.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
