Month: July 2023

Ron DeSantis was supposed to be great hope to rid the GOP of Donald Trump — by replacing him with a younger, charmless clone. So far it hasn’t gone so hot. He’s in second place among Republican voters, but it’s a distant second. Meanwhile, the number of competitors is growing and he’s losing potential voters by dropping straight-up homophobic (and homoerotic) ads. Things have gotten so bad that even Fox News feels okay asking him to his face about why he sucks so bad at this.

As per Mediaite, DeSantis went on Fox News — the only outlet he deals with — for what he probably assumed would be a puff interview. Instead, host Maria Bartiromo confronted him with what his own team has openly acknowledged: that his polls stink.

“What’s going on with your campaign?” Bartiromo asked him. “There was a lot of optimism about you running for president earlier in the year.” She then busted out a headline from Politico this weekend that read “Failure to Launch: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Campaign to Topple Donald Trump Has Stalled.” She read another Politico headline from last week about one of his own spokespeople admitting they are “way behind.”

“What happened?” Bartiromo asked him, straight-up.

Luckily for his detractors, DeSantis wasn’t worried about addressing any issues with his campaign. He even laughed at one of the headlines.

“Maria, these are narratives,” DeSantis argued. “The media does not want me to be the nominee. I think that’s very, very clear. Why? Because they know I’ll beat Biden, but even more importantly, they know I will actually deliver on all these things.”

Besides, DeSantis said, it’s early days.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” DeSantis explained. “I’m looking forward to being able to participate in the debates, but this is not something that, you know, I ever expected to just snap fingers and all of a sudden, you know, you win seven months before anything happens. You’ve got to work, and it requires a lot of toil and tears and sweat, and we’re going to do that.”

It’s true that the Republican National Convention, when a presidential contender is finalized, is over a year away. That’s plenty of time for Trump to come up with a better mean nickname — or finally cave in and call him “Meatball Ron.”

(Via Mediaite)

On Friday, Sarah Brady, the surfer and surfing instructor who dated Jonah Hill from early 2021 to 2022, dropped some disturbing allegations on her Instagram Stories. In a series of posts, she accused the star of “emotional abuse,” particularly around pictures she had posted on social media of her in her bathing suit.

In the posts, Brady mostly dropped screengrabs of texts Brady had allegedly received from Hill. In one (which Brady captioned “Fuxk it”), Hill laid out a list of rules his then-girlfriend must follow if she wished the relationship to continue. Among the things Hill outlawed were surfing with other men, “Boundaryless inappropriate friendships with other men,” posting pictures of herself in bathing suits or posting “sexual pictures,” and having “friendships with women who are in unstable places and from your wild recent past beyond getting a lunch or coffee or something respectful.”

At one point during the discussion, Hill wrote, “Sort of done explaining himself.”

Brady complied, removing three photos of her surfing. But that didn’t mollify Hill, who told her it was a “good start” but that she didn’t “seem to get” his point. When she asked him if there were other pics he wanted removed, he mentioned one that showed her “ass in a thong.” She replied, “Not a thong but k.”

In another screengrab, Hill spoke of “losers” and “these people” who “don’t get your time or your kindness at the sacrifice of mines [sic].” In the caption, Brady noted that by “these people” he meant “any friend of mine that he hadn’t personally approved of.”

Brady did not accuse Hill of any physical abuse, only that he would “gaslight” and “manipulate” her.

After the split, Brady stayed quiet publicly, but in her posts Friday she said that “keeping it to [herself] was causing more damage to [her] mental health than sharing it could ever do.” She added, “I too struggle with mental health but I do not use it to control ppl [sic] like he did to me.”

Brady did find some empathy with Hill, who has been open about his own mental health issues, saying, “Someone being an emotionally abusive partner doesn’t mean they’re a terrible person (often stems from their own trauma) and at the same time it doesn’t mean it’s ok.”

Hill, who welcomed his first child, with fiancée Olivia Millar, last month, has not commented on the allegations.

(Via Page Six)

As the saying goes, look but don’t touch. Apparently, this isn’t an ideology Doja Cat fans subscribe to. The “Attention” rapper took to social media to blast supporters for stealing the promotional posters for her latest single. As the entertainer advertises the song’s release nationwide, her team has plastered artwork in several areas with high foot traffic. But after they were put up, some of them have been going missing.

After Doja Cat learned about the thefts, she went online to vent her frustrations. In a statement shared to her Instagram Stories, she wrote, “Stealing my advertisements off of the walls around the city is super f*cked up. We don’t put those up for free, so keep that in mind.” She added, “You’re wack, and I don’t f*ck with you if you’re doing that. Use your f*cking brain.”

With Doja’s The Scarlet Tour kicking off in the fall and her forthcoming album rumored to hit streaming platforms before then, she’s keeping a close eye on every marketing expense.

While this isn’t the first time Doja has had a few fiery words for fans. In May, her off-kilter humor ended in calling those who didn’t find her jokes “dumb.”

Usher warned fellas not to leave their girls around him in 2002 via his song “U Don’t Have To Call.” YG had no clue that would remain true over 20 years later, when his rumored boo, Saweetie, crossed paths with the singer. The “My Type” rapper traveled to Las Vegas for Usher’s critically acclaimed My Way residency. Little did she know she’ll end up on stage with the musician.

During the fan interaction segment of his show, Usher serenaded Saweetie to his song “There Goes My Baby.” However, she kept her cool to avoid the same public spat with her alleged boyfriend, which Keke Palmer dealt with earlier this week. In the clip captured by a fan, when encouraged to participate, Saweetie played coy, to which Usher remarked, “Oh Saweetie, you’re too cool to sing my song?”

While it’s not clear if this was just a case of stage fright, fans are speculating that Saweetie chose not to join with Usher because she didn’t want to receive any public blowback. Keke Palmer was berated by her boyfriend, Darius Jackson, who is the father to her son Leo, after she was seen dancing and singing along with Usher in a performance prior.

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

Harry Styles is vying to be the crown of pop music. However, the “Satellite” singer’s biggest fight has nothing to do with the music charts. During his Love On Tour concert stop in Vienna, Austria, Styles was hit in the face after a fan hurled an object onto the stage. In a video of the incident, the musician can seen being struck directly in the eye, disorientating him. Stunned by what happened, Styles stopped in his tracks before leaving the stage.

Fans chimed in the comment section to share their disgust with the concert attendee’s actions. One user wrote, “This makes me so angry, dawg. Come on guys, stop throwing sh*t on stage.”

Another penned, “Whoever you are, just know I don’t care if it was by accident or intentional…you don’t deserve him.”

Another person posted, “Bro, wtf is wrong with people? They need to start banning things at concerts if people can’t handle themselves properly.”

The Grammy Award winner joins the absurdly long list of entertainers to deal with unruly crowds. Drake, Bebe Rexha, and Kelsea Ballerina have all been assaulted while performing. Alas, this isn’t the first time an incident such as this has happened to Styles. Earlier in the tour’s run, one fan threw a chicken nugget at him, then asked for it back.

Christopher Nolan movies do love — sometimes. Memento and Inception feature dead wives who haunt their heroes. There’s a tragic love triangle in The Dark Knight and a tragic love quadrangle in The Prestige. That’s it! But Oppenheimer, his forthcoming film about the “father of the atomic bomb,” is going to change that. If you thought the film’s R-rating — Nolan’s first since 2002’s Insomnia — was due to graphic A-bomb carnage…well, you may be right about that. But it’s also because there’s apparently a fair amount of kink.

There’s a new profile of Cillian Murphy, who plays J. Robert Oppenheimer himself, in The Guardian (as caught by The AV Club) in which Nolan boasts about how he thinks he nailed an aspect that’s not really been played up in the film’s advertising: the love triangle between Oppenheimer, his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt), and his on-again-off-again mistress/ex-fiancée Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). Nolan is particularly proud of that section of the film, saying it’s “as strong as I’ve ever done.”

So what makes it’s so strong? Possibly because it’s so adult, especially for Nolan. The Guardian say there’s, as they put it, “prolonged full nudity” for both Murphy and Pugh, who share a sex scene. There are also “complicated” scenes with Blunt, whatever that means, but which are described as “pretty heavy.”

When asked about these scenes, Murphy turned “coy,” saying, simply, “I’m under strict instructions not to give away anything.”

So congrats to Nolan, who got to shoot his first big sex scene, which you’ll be able to see on July 21 on a double bill with the PG-13-rated Barbie.

(Via The Guardian and The AV Club)

Tom Cruise is arguably bigger now than he’s ever been, but his career hasn’t always been smooth. He hit a rough patch in the mid-aughts when the combination of his Scientology, his attacks on therapy, and his couch-jumping antics — which, for the record, were taken out of context — made the public think of him as a bit of weirdo. He’s still seen as an odd duck and myths still persist about his behavior. At least one of them is allegedly bull.

In a piece on Tom Cruise by The Times U.K. (in a bit teased out by Deadline), Christopher McQuarrie — who’s directed the Mission: Impossible series since 2015’s Rogue Nation, as well as the first Jack Reacher — said that Cruise told him he was especially weirded out by a particular story that has persisted in the public eye. Which one? That people on Tom Cruise sets “were not allowed to look me in the eye.”

That’s not to say that Cruise’s relationship with film crews always goes swimmingly. He made news in late 2020 when he blew up on M:I 7 crew members who were violating COVID safety protocols, thus jeopardizing not only the production but potentially the entire industry that he loves. Audio of him shouting “Do that and you’re gone” eventually went public. Thing is, many took Cruise’s side, including some of his fellow actors.

“Everything that Tom cares about, in terms of his job, was at stake due to the pandemic,” Simon Pegg, who’s been on the M:I team since the third entry, told The Times in the same piece. “For him there was a danger this virus could wipe cinema off the face of this earth.”

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters on July 12. It’s long.

(Via The Times and Deadline)

Even before the Writers Guild of America went on strike in early May, Marvel was in a bit of a pickle. Last fall they up and delayed a bunch of movies, including the next two Avengers pictures. On top of that, the actor playing the big bad in those films, Jonathan Majors, is currently facing assault charges, which may further complicate things. Somewhere in the middle of all this is Simu Liu, the actor who became famous after starring in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It sequel was greenlit shortly after its box office success, but when will Marvel even get around to making it? Don’t ask Liu because he doesn’t know either.

As caught by The Hollywood Reporter, Liu took to Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s newly launched “Twitter killer” (maybe), asking if anyone has any questions. Inevitably someone asked him what’s up with Shang-Chi 2.

“Was told it would follow Avengers,” Liu replied. “But that keeps pushing back due to circumstances beyond my control.”

Liu didn’t offer up any more specifics, but it’s worth noting that The Kang Dynasty, the first of the two Avengers films, isn’t slated to drop until May 1, 2026, while the second, Secret Wars, is scheduled for May 7, 2027. That means you won’t see another Shang-Chi solo installment till at least another three years.

In the meantime, there’s still a bunch of more Marvel films en route in the interim: The Marvels this fall, Deadpool 3 and Captain America: Brave New World next summer, then Thunderbolts and Blade and Fantastic Four into 2025. But again, who knows what the WGA strike — and the possible SAG-AFTRA one — will do to all of this. In other words, hang tight.

(Via THR)

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Extraction 2 (Netflix film)

Chris Hemsworth did it again as Tyler Rake. This sequel to an early-pandemic streaming success is still hanging around in the charts nearly a month after the fact, proving that he’s not simply a pretty Thor. In fact, Hemsworth might currently be the most successful mainstream action star (beyond Gerry Butler) who can maintain that status while not appearing in an ensemble film. Netflix has already greenlit a third installment of this franchise, and surely, that 21-minute, one-take action scene helped that news happen quickly.

TIE: 10. Run Rabbit Run (Netflix movie)

Those who love Sarah Snook (with or without Succession‘s Shiv Roy in the mix) will dig this little psychological thriller. Snook portrays a mother and a fertility doctor who must deal with her own daughter’s bizarre behavior, which makes her question her values about life and death and also deal with a nightmare from days past. This is a far cry from the HBO series, of course, but the tension is cranked up high and makes that balcony fight look like a day at the spa.

9. Secret Invasion (Disney+ series)

As the world awaits more of the ridiculously successful Loki series, Nick Fury is here for some heavy “one last job” vibes. Actually, Fury is not doing so great at his job these days, but it’s not entirely his fault. Those Skrulls have lost their patience while waiting around for a new home and have decided to turn evil again. Hopefully, Ben Mendelsohn’s soda-sipping Talos can help save the day with Fury down for the count as the MCU continues to absorb more household names (Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman here) with each successive outing.

8. The Witcher (Netflix series)

As painful as it feels to behold, Henry Cavill’s impending exit as Geralt of Rivia weighs heavily upon this third season, and viewership is reportedly dropping accordingly, even as each episode progresses. It’s quite a turn of events since the smashing first season, but at least we’ll always have Jaskier’s bangers. Next season, Liam Hemsworth will don the monster-hunting wig, and we’ll see if the ship can be turned around to inspire as much fervor as that bathtub did.

7. Warrior (HBO series streaming on Max)

The martial-arts/crime-drama series inspired by Bruce Lee’s original, unrealized concept continues to hum away in San Francisco’s 19th century Chinatown while following the plight of rival tongs. This season picks up with the Chinese community maneuvering around new, racially-motivated laws that lead unlikely teammates to come together in ways that they’d otherwise prefer not to do. Universal themes collide with an unconventional assembly style, and the whole isn’t entirely cohesive, but that’s part of the show’s messy charm.

6. The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC series streaming on AMC+)

Those who miss the “Old Negan” should enjoy Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character using his greatest gifts for good in this spinoff. He’s been unwittingly recruited by Maggie for a perilous journey into Manhattan, but Negan gets into the spirit of things with a cheese grater, among other brutal tactics to defeat adversaries. Overall, the series is a thrilling throwback that is landing strong ratings, which could lead to a second season after the franchise checks up on Daryl Dixon, along with Rick and Michonne. Seriously, the undead are somehow still so hot right now.

5. I’m A Virgo (Amazon Prime series)

Get ready to get surreal with sci-fi dalliances and dizzyingly delicious touches from Boots Riley, who is here to serve up Jharrel Jerome as a giant (yes, that’s right) teenager who unhides himself from the world for eye-opening lessons. His parents tried to warn him that this wouldn’t go smoothly, but following the rules doesn’t make for fun TV like this story does. Walton Goggins is (finally) The Hero, which is all the incentive you should need to roll into this series if you weren’t already onboard for the mind behind Sorry To Bother You. This show is a trippy way to cool down if your brain is fried by the summer heat.

4. And Just Like That… (Max original series)

All hail the triumphant return of Steve Brady and his “revenge bod,” which both deserved much better than for Miranda to cuck him with Che Diaz. So far this season, the Sex And The City revival is going too heavy on the Miranda and Che, but we’ll still be able to see Aidan Shaw return to inexplicably hang out with Carrie Bradshaw even though they were both so clearly wrong for each other. Kim Cattrall will be onboard for a brief cameo, and I’ll hold onto wishes for Miranda to recover at least part of her old personality this year.

3. The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix series)

This series didn’t go too heavy on the promotional blitzing, probably because the show’s loyal audience would turn in no matter what. The series somehow one-ups the Matthew McConaughy film with more adventures of Los Angeles’ most talked-about defense attorney. Naturally, Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is still running business out of his Lincoln’s backseat, where he’s game to tackle almost any case, and if you’ve been missing Neve Campbell after her departure from the never-ending Scream franchise, you can find her here. Expect Part 2 of this season to arrive in August.

2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount movie streaming on Paramount+)

Never fear, movie theaters. Tom Cruise is preparing to save the box office with Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, in which he will drive right off the side of a cliff like it ain’t no thing. Ideally, this daredevil feat will help resurrect the summer box office so that Barbie and Oppenheimer have a nice lead-in after the superheroes underperformed. We sure could use some MCU Phase Three juice up in this bad boy, but wild man Tom is ready and willing to pick up the ball with Ryan Gosling’s Ken not waiting too far in the wings. Run Tom, run like the wind.

1. The Bear (FX series streaming on Hulu)

The Beef is now officially The Bear, and if you have somehow not binged this season and also not been spoiled, then I’m not sure how you’ve been on the Internet for the past few weeks. This season keeps that heat going while showcasing the journeys of side players including Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Richie and Lionel Boyce’s Marcus to marvelous, heart-warming effect. There are also more (and better) cameos than one could have ever hoped for, and that includes a giant mess of them within one hour of fury. Get on it, and I’ll keep rooting for Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney to eventually not be waiting around for Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy to get it together.

Alexander Volkanovski (26-2) earned a TKO victory over Yair Rodriguez (16-4) to unify the UFC featherweight championship at UFC 290 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Volkanovski opened the first by stalking Rodriguez around the cage. The interim champion kept Volkanovski at distance with a handful of headkick shots, but Volkanovski jumped under a kick early in the round for a takedown. Rodriguez was able to fight Volkanovski off on the ground and made his way back to his feet. Volkanovski kept his hands locked on their feet and tossed the challenger back to the ground to maintain his control, then slid sideways into an arm triangle but couldn’t get his hips in position. They finished the round swinging hands at each other on the ground.

The second round started with a more aggressive Rodriguez, who took the fight to Volkanovski with more kicks from range. Volkanovski appeared to hurt Rodriguez with a couple of big right hand shots that stumbled him before the champ picked him up and slammed him to the mat. Rodriguez escaped to his feet, but Volkanovski again showed his strength in taking the interim champion down. On the mat, Rodriguez was a bloody mess as Volkanovski let his hands fly before the end of the round.

The third saw a bit more of a cautious Rodriguez, wary of Volkanovski’s takedown abilities as he attempted to keep the champ at range. Rodriguez began to chip away at Volkanovski with a slew of head kicks and punch combinations. Volkanovski hurt Rodriguez late in the round with a monstrous right hand shot before scooping him up, slamming him and finishing him on the ground.

Rodriguez summited Josh Emmett to claim the interim featherweight championship in February. Before that win, he knocked out Brian Ortega to move into title contention.

Saturday night’s contest was Volkanovski’s return to the featherweight division after dropping a decision loss in his attempt to move up to lightweight against Islam Makhachev.