Month: July 2023

After four short years, Kim Kardashian‘s burgeoning apparel line, SKIMS, is already worth a buttload of money. Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that the reality star is constantly making headlines. In the past week alone, she’s been the center of an actors’ strike scandal and has been romantically linked (?) to NFL quarterback Tom Brady. You can’t buy that kind of publicity. Although, Kardashian certainly has enough money if she wants to give a stab.

According to The New York Times, SKIMS will officially announce on Wednesday that the apparel line is now valued at $4 billion after securing $270 million in a new funding round. That’s a significant increase from 2022 when SKIMS was valued at $3.8 billion:

“It has grown quickly and we’re so proud of that,” Ms. Kardashian said in an interview. “We’ve had a really good flow of product launches.”

The company started as a seller of shapewear to help customers fit into body-hugging clothing. But shapewear no longer represents a majority of its sales: Skims has expanded into an array of clothing categories, including loungewear and swimwear, with plans to branch out into men’s clothing this fall.

The $4 billion valuation arrives on the heel of a viral story about a woman who credited SKIMS shapewear for saving her life after being shot four times while leaving a New Year’s celebration. She encouraged others to use the apparel for “protective purposes.”

“It was so tight on me that it literally kept me from bleeding out,” Angeline Wiley said in a TikTok video that Kardashian later shared as an Instagram Story.

(Via The New York Times)

I have no idea if it was Christopher Nolan’s intent to basically make an homage to Oliver Stone’s JFK (a movie I personally love), but it sure seems apparent to me that that’s what he’s done here, even though I’m not sure he’ll admit to it. My best guess is Nolan knows what this is, but doesn’t play fast and loose with facts like JFK does (by all accounts Nolan was meticulous in getting historical facts correct; the same cannot be said about JFK).

But visually and narratively, Oppenheimer follows the JFK script, if you will, of framing the event the title character is most famous for around hearings and an investigation. Just like JFK isn’t directly about the Kennedy assassination – instead based on the investigation and conspiracies surrounding it – Oppenheimer isn’t so much about the atomic bomb as it is about a hearing designed to railroad J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) after the end of World War II after Oppenheimer came out against further escalation of nuclear weapons. There are two hearings actually: One, a private one, involving stripping Oppenheimer’s security clearance; the other a public Senate confirmation hearing of Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.*) as Secretary of Commerce, whose relationship with Oppenheimer is being used against him. During both of these hearings we get to hear from a lot of kooky characters, played by a list of famous people too long to even begin to list out, with a lot of overacting in each of their limited time on screen. (The only thing missing is cool John Candy saying words like “daddio.”)

(*Downey is pretty terrific here and his part is especially interesting in that I’ve, quite frankly, never seen him act using this acting style before. He’s made three movies since 2008 where he’s not playing Tony Stark (Oppenheimer is the fourth) and his baseline acting style is Tony Stark. He was Tony Stark before he was Tony Stark. Why might have to go back to movies like Back to School, Johnny Be Good, or Weird Science where he wasn’t playing the wisecracking likable rascal. Anyway, it was actually pretty startling to watch Downey act as opposed to kind of just kind of be on cruise control with a persona he’s done a million times.)

Here’s where I’ll stop pointing out how much this movie resembles JFK, but just know almost every example I cite for the rest of this piece, I’m sure thinking it.

For a literal three-hour movie, Oppenheimer moves pretty well. A big reason is this is a movie that doesn’t stay on one scene very long. A character will be recounting his or her story and we will see brief flashbacks. Sometimes in color, sometimes in black and white (ahem, JFK). A character testifying will set up a scene, then we will flashback for that scene. Which, in a movie that depends heavily on very complicated science, serves as a somewhat effective way to handle exposition about how splitting atoms can be used to create atomic bombs. Though, honestly, it may not be a bad idea to read about what the difference is between uranium and plutonium and why sometimes it’s better to explode an atomic bomb and, other times, implosion works better. Oh, and how stars work and what happens when they die. Oppenheimer does kind of assume you have a halfway working knowledge of atomic energy.

At its heart, Oppenheimer is about J. Robert Oppenheimer’s struggle with humanity … on multiple fronts. There’s his relationship with his first wife, Jean (Florence Pugh ), who he feels he fails. Then his relationship with his second wife, Kitty (Emily Blunt), who he also fails. (Blunt deserved a lot more to do in this movie. Relegated to pretty much one “powerful” scene where she “tells it like it is,” earning a smile from a crotchety old coot.) Then his relationship with humanity itself, and his role in killing hundreds of thousands of people with his work. After being recruited by Matt Damon’s Colonial, then, later, General Groves, Oppenheimer is in New Mexico developing the bombs, and he could tell himself that this was an unfortunate necessity. The Nazis were working on the same technology and had a big head start. If Oppenheimer didn’t develop these weapons, the Nazis would surely win. And he uses this line to recruit some of the best scientists in the Unites States.

But then what happens when Germany surrenders? And Japan, a country that wasn’t surrendering, but also wasn’t developing their own bomb, becomes the intended target? “It will still save lives by ending the war,” politicians, bureaucrats, and military leaders tell him. But this is of little solace. It was a demonstration for the Soviets and Oppenheimer realizes this – becoming his foundation for pushing for atomic treaties and his stance against the much more powerful hydrogen bomb. (Complicating matters, not mentioned in the movie because there’s enough going on, near the end of World War II the Soviets declared war on Japan. So the United States also very much wanted to end the war quickly at that point for geopolitical reasons.) But, as a movie … yeah we get making a bomb that kills a lot of people and probably keeps one up at night. Yeah, I bet. I’m not sure the movie is saying much more than that and, at three hours long, even though the editing and narrative style keeps it moving, it gets to be redundant.

When Nolan takes on true stories, it’s interesting. He’s less likely to get in his own way with some of his obsessions. Sure, in Dunkirk, he still uses time as a construct, but I found how he did it there interesting, as opposed to Tenet, which seems to exist to, mostly, please Christopher Nolan. But I do think Nolan has an obsessive eye for getting historical events correct, which makes his work about these historical events even more interesting. So, I do appreciate that aspect. (Though, there’s one eye-rolling moment in this movie where a very famous future U.S. President’s name is mentioned in a, “who is this guy,” kind of way that is nowhere as clever as he thinks it is.)

(Speaking of obsessions, I did want to mention the format I saw this in (70mm IMAX) has gotten a lot of attention for being 11 miles of film. You know, I have to admit, I was kind of excited to check this out since it’s only being shown that way in a handful of locations around the world, including here in New York. When it started, I found myself impressed. But then as the movie goes on, as always, I eventually forget. There’s only so long I can keep consciously reminding myself, “This is in film!” before I stop paying attention.)

But, in the end, JFK was about Jim Garrison’s quest to uncover the truth, if there actually was a hidden truth or not. (Garrison, and Oliver Stone, certainly believed so.) Oppenheimer shares that DNA (and style and structure) with Nolan’s fixation on the truth about J. Robert Oppenheimer. As Emily Blunt’s Kitty Oppenheimer tells her husband, “Will anyone, ever, tell the truth about this?” Christopher Nolan has obviously accepted this question as his charge.

‘Oppenheimer’ opens in theaters everywhere this week. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Thank goodness for raunchy comedies. They rose to their theater heyday for a few decades, and Judd Apatow and Paul Feig kept them alive for awhile, but then mid-budget movies hit a rough spot, and here we are. Jennifer Lawrence did her best to bring them back with No Hard Feelings, but the fine tradition appears to be having more luck on streaming.

Enter Platonic, starring Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen and which recently wrapped its first season on Apple TV+. The buddy comedy series revolves around two ex-best friends who got lost in life responsibilities after adulting became necessary (among other reasons). Seth’s character, Will, experiences a sad and pivotal moment in life, and Rose’s character, Sylvia contacts him. Soon enough, they’re knocking back shots like the old days.

Those are the best friendships, where one can pick up like not a day has passed. As it turns out, however, next day recovery isn’t nearly as smooth when one isn’t 22 anymore. Sylvia’s calm life gets turned somewhat upside down, and the ensuing hijinks were delightful to witness.

Will we see a Season 2, though? Apple TV+ hasn’t announced a greenlighting as of yet, but hopefully, one will be coming. At the end of Season 1, Sylvia has signed up to make Will’s wedding be a dream (or nightmare?) come true, so presumably, that’s where the story will go if it happens. (Fingers crossed.)

Platonic is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

Jason Aldean’s recent song, “Try That In A Small Town,” is facing controversy for both the song’s intense pro-gun content and music video. Lyrically, the country singer reacts to various acts with his own apparent threat: that those in a “small town” will take care of you with their guns.

The track opens with the lines, “Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk / Carjack an old lady at a red light / Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store / Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like / Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough.”

“Try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / ‘Round here, we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won’t take long / For you to find out, I recommend you don’t,” Aldean then goes on to warn in the chorus.

Other later lyrics in the song include “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that sh*t might fly in the city, good luck” and “Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right / If you’re looking for a fight / Try that in a small town.”

As some have pointed out, Aldean was performing during the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, where over 400 people were wounded.

Check out some reactions to Jason Aldean’s lyrics below.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Las Vegas Police had served a search warrant in nearby Henderson in connection with the 1997 murder of Tupac Shakur. Today, more information was revealed about the nature of the warrant — and its connection to the long-cold murder case. According to TMZ, the address on the warrant had connections to a man who claimed to have been an accessory to the shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.

The home that the police searched belongs to Paula Clemons, a woman married to a character in the 26-year-old drama named Keefe D. Keefe D claims to be the uncle of Orlando Anderson, a man many believe to have been the triggerman in the shooting. After he was jumped by Tupac and his crew at the MGM Grand, many observers believe Anderson plotted to get revenge in the drive-by shooting that killed Tupac later that night. While Anderson himself denied such claims, he was later killed in a shooting himself, making it impossible for him to corroborate or deny Anderson’s claims.

Clemons comes into the picture by virtue of previously owning a home in Compton, where LA Sheriffs recovered a gun in 1998 that might be connected to the murder. TMZ pulls a lot of yarn here, subtly suggesting that these events are connected — the home where the gun was recovered might be the home Clemons owned, and that gun might have been the one that did the dirty deed.

Well, Las Vegas Police clearly believed that the connection was strong enough to justify searching Clemons’ home in Henderson, searching for more evidence connecting to the murder. After 25 years, it seems unlikely, but hey, there have been a few cold cases over the years solved decades later.

We are just days away from Post Malone’s fifth studio album, Austin. Ahead of the album, Post has been on his If Y’all Weren’t Here, I’d Be Crying Tour, meeting fans across the country. While in Buffalo, Post took time to meet with a fan named Garrett Belanger.

Last year, Garrett’s sister, Taylor, shared a TikTok with Garrett’s story about how he suffered a brain hemorrhage earlier in the year. Garrett was in a coma, but has been making a recovery.

TMZ reports that Post sent Garrett some merch that August, and also told him to let him know when he’d be able to come to a show, and he’d make sure he’d get to see him. This past Monday, Post made good on his word by providing Garrett and his family with VIP tickets and a backstage meet and greet.

At the time of writing, Garrett can only communicate by blinking, but he seemed very much excited to meet the “Chemical” hitmaker. With over a year in the making, this meeting arrives as a full-circle moment.

Over the course of his If Y’all Weren’t Here, I’d Be Crying Tour, Post has been delivering on the surprises. Yesterday, he took to Times Square in New York City for a free performance of many of his hits. This marked the first-ever performance on the TSX Stage.

Austin is out 7/28 via Republic. Find more information here.

James Cameron is finally sharing his thoughts on the controversial debate over artificial intelligence, which has become a pressing topic in recent months thanks to the growing use of machine-learning writing tools like ChatGPT. While the topic has been mostly centered around AI replacing Hollywood writers and actors, the Terminator director has more apocalyptic concerns.

“I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn’t listen,” Cameron told CTV News about his sci-fi epic, which revolved around a nuclear holocaust sparked by a war between humans and killer, sentient machines that also happen to look like Austrian bodybuilders.

According to Cameron, the major concern is whether AI is being used for “greed” or “paranoia,” the latter of which could be disastrous:

“I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger,” he said. “I think that we will get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don’t build it, the other guys are for sure going to build it, and so then it’ll escalate.

“You could imagine an AI in a combat theatre, the whole thing just being fought by the computers at a speed humans can no longer intercede, and you have no ability to deescalate.”

As for the threat to writers, Cameron doesn’t believe “a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said” can create “something that’s going to move an audience.” At least not for a while.

“Let’s wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for Best Screenplay, I think we’ve got to take them seriously,” he quipped.

(Via CTV News)

During Beyoncé’s recent Renaissance Tour stop in Louisville, Kentucky, one hometown musician made sure not to miss her performance: Jack Harlow. The rapper met her backstage during the show — and made sure his mom came along for the party too.

Harlow shared a picture of the moment to Threads. In it, he appears to have given Beyoncé a gift as she holds the bag. She has her back turned to chat with him and his mom in a sweet capture where all the parties look genuinely invested in the conversation.

“Introduced my Mom to Beyoncé in Louisville, Kentucky tonight,” he captioned.

Harlow has been on a roll lately with bumping into his famous musician friends. Shortly after the release of his recent album, Jackman, he shared during an interview with the Rap Radar Podcast that he had another wild encounter.

“I ran into Kendrick [Lamar] at the Met,” he said. “It was like a few days after the album dropped, and he was like, ‘Yo. Sh*t is incredible.’ And he gave me enough props that I could have just walked home. I didn’t even want to meet anyone else.”

For now, fans can check out the picture of Jack Harlow and his mom meeting Beyoncé here.

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

The controversy over Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” song and video continues today (July 19): As of this post, Aldean is the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter. In a nutshell, after Aldean released a new video for the two-month-old song a few days ago, the song received broad attention for its allegedly racist and pro-violence lyrics, as well as for the imagery of robbery and protests in the video.

We’ve heard from Aldean, we’ve heard from detractors like Sheryl Crow, and now, we have the perspective of a supporter: “Pound Town“-hating conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.

This morning, Shapiro tweeted, “Good for Jason Aldean not backing down on this idiotic non-troversy. Never apologize for your perspective based on the bad-faith trollery of the Twitterverse.”

He then quote-tweeted a tweet that reads, “These are the Jason Aldean lyrics liberals are saying are racist: ‘Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk, Carjack an old lady at a red light. Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store. Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like. Cuss out a cop, spit in his face. Stomp on the flag and light it up. Yeah, ya think you’re tough. Try that in a small town.’ Somebody point me to the racism.” Shapiro added, “If you think these lyrics are racist, you are a racist. You apparently think these crimes are exclusively black or some such nonsense.”

As for what Aldean himself said, he wrote in part, “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far.”

It sure doesn’t take long for “is Drake dating…” rumors to start up. Seemingly every time there’s a new female performer on the scene, you can bet Drake will show up eventually to hang out, give advice, or potentially collaborate with them. And there will be pics or videos, so inevitably, folks on the internet will start wondering — no matter how unlikely the pairing (call it a career hazard of being the Certified Lover Boy).

This time, it’s St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red being connected with Drake by fans after the “Pound Town” performer posted pics cuddling up with the constantly crushing Canadian. Drake also reshared the photo on Instagram with the caption, “Just met my rightful wife.” The speculation started up almost immediately, with fans either praising Red for “bagging” the biggest star in music today or excoriating Drake for his supposedly thirsty ways.

Of course, the pics popped up only a little after a month since the last Drake dating rumor, when he was supposed to be hooking up with singer Lilah Pi and had everybody Googling “Who is Lilah Pi?” Other famous women Drake has supposedly romanced include Kim Kardashian, SZA, and even Taylor Swift, once upon a time. Honestly, if even half these rumors were true, you have to wonder when Drake would ever have time to, you know, record music.

Truthfully, it’s probably just a case of a connection, by chance or intentional — after all, networking is the lifeblood of the entertainment industry — and the two artists’ naturally flirtatious natures giving fans some fat to chew on a slow Wednesday. Still, it’s a great look for Sexyy Red, who is proving she’s equally great at stirring up controversy as she is at cooking up raunchy raps that we just can’t stop singing.