Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Denver Nuggets Offseason Report Card

After bringing Denver their first NBA championship, the Nuggets are rightfully enjoying their offseason headlined by Nikola Jokic who is back home in Serbia living his best life watching his horses.

For the front office, there had to be a quick turnaround on basking in the glow of a championship, because two weeks later they had to be ready for the start of free agency. With the majority of their team under contract long-term, including Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon, there weren’t a lot of big decisions for Denver to make this summer, but they did know they were likely to see some key rotational pieces depart and would need to come up with ways to replace them without having much money to spend. That indeed was the case, with the biggest departure being Bruce Brown signing with the Pacers, but provided health of their top stars, the Nuggets will still be a strong contender to repeat in 2023-24. There are going to be a few questions lingering deeper down the rotation, but a fairly quiet offseason isn’t a bad things when you’re the champs.

Here we’ll grade the Nuggets offseason moves in the Draft, free agency and contract extensions, and on the trade market.

Draft: B-

After some wheeling and dealing (including a rare mid-Finals trade), the Nuggets were able to move up to the 29th pick in the first round, via the Indiana Pacers. With that pick they took Julian Strawther out of Gonzaga, adding more shooting on the wing as they hope he can potentially step into the regular season rotation next season. On Draft night, our Brad Rowland gave the Nuggets a B- for the selection, noting his shooting is the headlining skill for him in the NBA, but if he’s going to stick on the champs roster the defense will need to improve.

This might be a bit early for Strawther in a vacuum, but Denver can be trusted to maximize his skill set. He is a fantastic shooter and has the size that Denver seems to covet. Defensively, it’s an adventure right now, but there is room to grow with his tools.

Denver also added Jalen Pickett out of Penn State and Hunter Tyson out of Clemson in the early part of the second round, further adding some youth and shooting to their bench unit. While unlikely they get another late round steal who cracks the playoff rotation the way Christian Braun did a year ago, the Nuggets were rather desperate to add some rookie contracts to their cap sheet and add some youth to their bench.

Free Agency/Contract Extensions: C+

It’s not a surprise they lost Brown given they could only offer him $7.8 million for next season and he got two years, $45 million from the Pacers. The same can be said for Jeff Green getting $6 million in Houston for next year. The issue for the Nuggets is they weren’t in a great place to replace either, and the result was they got a bit squeezed on the vet market and there’s real questions about their seventh and eighth spots in the playoff rotation. Adding Justin Holiday is a solid Jeff Green replacement, but the hole left by Brown has gone unfilled. Braun will almost assuredly be asked to take a larger role in his stead while Peyton Watson and Strawther figure to get cracks at the Braun role, but their only other signing was Reggie Jackson for $5 million. Jackson wasn’t really part of the playoff rotation a year ago and brings a very different skillset to the backcourt than Brown.

All of this is a bit nitpicky, but then again that’s the margins you are dealing with when you’re trying to win a title. I also understand why Denver ended up making the moves they did because they just didn’t have the kind of role to offer the top vets on the market that a team like Phoenix did. Denver is offering a chance to be the seventh or eighth man in the rotation (at best), which isn’t all that appealing, even for the defending champs. They are still going to be terrific and can absolutely win a title with this roster, but given one of their strengths was that they did not have the same kind of holes in their rotation as other top teams, they have seemingly taken a step back in that area barring some big leaps from young players.

Trades: INC

All of the Nuggets trades were involving draft picks this summer, and with those deals they did well to cash in on some future assets right now when they needed a way to fill out their roster with young players under team control long-term. Denver did not want to end up as a team rotating out five different veteran minimum guys every year, which makes a lot of sense given their team-building strategy has always been about creating cohesion and relying on the trust built internally. It’s hard to keep that going when you have significant roster turnover every year, even if the starting lineup stays the same, and Denver is banking on their development system being able to bring at least a couple of their youngsters along to being useful in the regular season, at the least.

The Nuggets never were going to have a huge offseason, as somehow talking Brown into returning was the only chance at a spectacular summer. Operating within their reality, they did perfectly fine but will have some interesting questions to answer once the playoffs roll around next year regarding who comes off of the bench and whether they can prop up the starting lineup the way the bench did this past postseason. All told, the Nuggets are one of the NBA’s best teams and it’s a very good place to be when your only concern (beyond health, which is everyone’s concern) is the 6-8 spots in the rotation. Having the best player in the world on top of that isn’t bad either, and despite a quiet summer, Denver fans are rightfully dreaming of going back-to-back.

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Hillary Clinton Did Not Appreciate That Time Julia Sweeney Played Her Daughter Chelsea On ‘SNL’

Dunking on presidential kids is fine — long as they’re adults. People can rag on Don Jr., Ivanka, and, sure, even Hunter Biden as much as they like. Someone like the teenaged Barron, however, is off-limits. (Although that hasn’t stopped his own father from using him to rail on Democrats.) Thirty years ago, SNL found out what happens when they don’t obey this rule.

On the Jan. 16, 1993 episode hosted by Harvey Keitel, musical guest Madonna played herself in a cold open sketch. It featured her serenading then-president Bill Clinton (Phil Hartman) for his birthday à la Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, all while Hillary (Jan Hooks) glowers. Sitting next to them is their 12-year-old daughter Chelsea, played by Julia Sweeney. At the end, Madonna signals that it’s not the president she wants but Chelsea. (The sketch is not one that SNL allows on YouTube.)

The sketch got big laughs from the studio audience, but not everyone was amused. On a recent episode of Fly on the Wall, the podcast hosted by SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade, Sweeney revealed that Hillary “wrote a letter” to the show’s honcho Lorne Michaels, expressing her displeasure with how her young daughter was portrayed.

“People were saying how unattractively I was playing Chelsea and all I did was not wear makeup and put braces on,” Sweeney recalled. “If you say that, you’re saying I’m unattractive!” Sweeney swore she “wasn’t trying to play her unattractive,” adding that she “just didn’t wear makeup and put on braces.” She also had a wig.

Still, Sweeney wound up taking Chelsea’s mom’s side. “I understood what Hillary was saying, especially now that I’m a parent. It’s like, yeah f*ck off,” she said. “I mean, don’t play kids. That was wrong. She was right, that was wrong.”

Believe it or not, it wasn’t the last time SNL sent up Chelsea Clinton. In a Wayne’s World sketch, Wayne and Garth (Mike Myers and Carvey) joked that suggested Chelsea wasn’t as attractive as Al Gore’s daughters. Not only did Michaels issue an apology but so did Myers himself.

But again, it’s fine to drag middle-aged Trump son Don Jr. for, say, straight-up telling people to stop buying MAGA merch from people who aren’t him.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Rudy Giuliani Is Apparently On The Verge Of Financial Ruin After Losing His Defamation Case In Georgia

A lot of Donald Trump cronies have it bad right now, but no one’s worse off than Rudy Giuliani. Not only is the former “America’s Mayor” one of the Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case, but he has a separate lawsuit pertaining to it: A defamation lawsuit brought on by two election workers he spent weeks falsely smearing. On Wednesday, in a brutal ruling, a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. And it might be this — even before the broader Georgia case and the Smartmatic lawsuit — that brings Rudy down.

As per Salon, Judge Beryl Howell, presiding over the case, granted a default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs after Giuliani only provided about 193 documents, which were “blobs of indecipherable data,” and only a “sliver of the financial documents required to be produced.” A trial will be set to determine how much Giuliani owes the two election workers, though he already has to pay for their legal fees to the tune of nearly $90,000 in legal fees.

CNN has reported that Giuliani could wind up being on the hook for “thousands, if not millions, of dollars.”

Looking over the case, legal expert Andrew Weissman speculated about what could be worth hiding to willingly lose the defamation case. Whatever it is, he pondered, it must be “criminally damning” — bad enough to risk a ruling he calls “financially ruinous.”

Mind you, Giuliani did all this for Trump, a guy who infamously refused to help him out financially beyond a vague — and so far unfulfilled — vow to slip the poor guy at least a couple bucks. But Giuliani did this to himself, partly while reportedly tanked.

(Via Salon)

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Sebastián Silva Can’t Decide If He Wants You To Know The Shocking Secret Inside ‘Rotting In The Sun’

If you are planning on seeing Sebastián Silva‘s Rotting in the Sun (in theaters Sept 8, on streaming the week after), you probably shouldn’t read this interview. If you aren’t planning on seeing Rotting in the Sun, you should read this interview. You see, Rotting in the Sun isn’t exactly quite what you think it is. The trailers show a lot of sex and nudity and a plot that involves Silva, playing himself, sad that he doesn’t have an idea for a new project – at least until he meets influencer Jordan Firstman at a beach resort in Mexico. This is not what he movie is about. Well, it kind of is, until it very much isn’t.

And that’s the dilemma with Rotting in the Sun: keep the surprises a secret, and maybe lose some audience members who would otherwise be interested. Or be honest about what the movie is about, but lose the element of surprise. When I saw Rotting in the Sun, it was recommended to me by a publicist back at Sundance in January who thought I’d like it. For the first act I was amused by the premise, but didn’t quite understand why it got such a high recommendation. And then the scene happens that completely upends the movie.

Here’s where we will get into that scene a bit. Again, you should stop reading now if you want to be completely surprised like I was.

Let’s just say there’s a freak accident and Silva (again, playing himself) is no longer in the movie. And Catalina Saavedra’s Vero, who witnesses this event, is in the country (Mexico) illegally and doesn’t want to get in any trouble, so decides to cover this whole thing up. So the movie is actually about this event, the cover-up, and Silva’s friends and business associates wondering what happened to him. (At one point, Jordan Firstman thinks he’s being ghosted and decides to try to cancel Silva.)

Personally, I found this movie fascinating. I can’t think of another film where a director plays the lead in his own movie and less than halfway through kills himself off. And what is Silva trying to say by doing that to himself? We did into all of that ahead.

How are you today?

I’m good. I’m a little tired because yesterday we ended up at The Box, out of all places. Man.

Oh yeah?

The Box. Have you heard about it? It’s like this club downtown.

I have.

But yeah, it was a great night, man. I lived in New York for so long that it feels like my hometown, so it was really nice to show it to such a big audience. It was a lot of people last night. It was so fun.

I’m curious, how does the audience react to that scene? I assume you know the one I’m talking about.

A lot of people covering their mouth. And it is funny how some people don’t accept it. It’s like 20 minutes after the fact and they were texting me, “Wait, are you dead?” I’m like, “Yeah, bitch. I’m like, wrapped in plastic. I’m totally dead.” But some people can have a hard time believing that that’s what happens to Sebastián in the movie.

Do you want people to know that happens or not?

You know what? I think the experience of the movie, it’s better if you don’t know. It’s so fun, because it is really surprising. But, again, I feel that at some point it’s going to be very hard. People, they won’t read anything if they don’t want to learn. So it did become one of those movies that are maybe easily spoilable? But I don’t want to think that because I don’t respect those movies so much.

This is a tough one because I’ve talked to people who didn’t have much interest in seeing this. They think it’s about an influencer. Then I tell them what the actual plot is and then they want to see it. I know two people who saw it only after I spoiled the twist. But they wouldn’t have seen it without doing that.

I hear you, man. I hear you. And it has been a little bit of an issue, for me even, because Jordan Furzman is a part of the movie. But because he’s an influencer… I think that my distributor movie should make sure that the movie is not perceived just as a horny gay movie with an influencer in it, because it is damaging.

People think that’s the plot, and it’s not at all the plot of the movie. I mean, it is at first, but then it’s very much not.

Yeah, I agree. And I don’t think that people need to know exactly what happens, but I think that if we were just giving more attention to Catalina, people at least will be intrigued. Then it’s like, “Oh, it’s Catalina Saavedra,” this older amazing actress from Chile. It is a crime mystery movie, half of it at least. Of course, I knew that the explicit sex was going to become the headline, which is sad, but also very predictable.

But I didn’t want to stop myself from it because… I don’t know, man. I did want to make a movie that felt fresh, even in that sense, where it’s like, come on guys, can we stop really showing just ass cracks and sides of boobs in movies? We all watch porn, everyone does, or a lot of people. Or people have genitals, they can see them in the mirrors. Genitals should not be so surprising. But there you go. They really still are.

I think what I’m going to do, I’m just going to put a warning at the beginning of this. If you don’t want to know anything about the movie, don’t read this. But I think I’m going to leave all the stuff in you say about what happens in the movie. I think people who might not be interested might be curious, “Well, what is this actually about?”

And to me, it’s really sort of highlighting the participation of Catalina Saavedra, which I think that honestly, if the movie starts getting good bump, she’s going to be nominated for awards.

Out of the blue she becomes the main character.

Yeah. Yeah, I know.

You do such a good job of not foreshadowing what happens to you at all.

Well, in Psycho, I think Janet Leigh dies in the exact same minute. Coincidentally, you know?

Even if you haven’t seen Psycho you kind of sense something is going to happen. She had just committed a crime.

You’re right. You’re right. But it has been done. It definitely has been done before.

Hitchcock also had it set up where you couldn’t come in late and posted warnings about it.

I didn’t know he was giving warnings before that. That’s amazing.

So she stole money. She’s on the run. There are these warnings. In your movie, you’re just trying to figure out your next movie and then you trip and fall off a building.

It’s such a good moment. I always enjoy that moment when you’re with an audience. That’s why it’s tricky. It’s like, do we want to spoil it? Should it be this important? It just makes the experience more fun. I don’t think that you’re disappointed with the movie if you know, but it just makes that part way more thrilling. That’s really it.

It is a weird balance of you kind of want to tell people, “Hey, something crazy happens. You might want to watch this.” But it’s more fun when you don’t think anything crazy is going to happen.

But I feel that if enough people watch the movie, they’ll go. Same as you did. It is like, fucking go watch it and you’ll see. I hope so.

I love the pitch meeting scene. Is that based on any actual experiences?

It’s very close, actually.

I’m assuming your ideas were heightened for the movie. One was about aliens who come to earth to rape men, with “a Twin Peaks vibe.”

Oh my God. You know what?

What’s that?

I have to be honest, that is actually real. Because there is this guy called David Huggins. I don’t remember who he was, but I think he has a little documentary called Love and Saucers and a little book called Love in the Alien Purgatory. And I had been fascinated with this weirdo from Jersey who says that he was abducted by aliens, and his stories were very sexual. So I don’t know if I ever pitched that really to a network or a producer like that, but it is something that I was interested in – aliens and abductions. But yeah, that’s kind of a real meeting that I’ve had. But those are the meetings, man.

What about the one about the virus that kills men?

Oh my God, that is real. That was told to me in the midst of the pandemic, which made it so much worse. They were developing that, and in the midst of COVID. So many people were dying and it was so somber and so scary. So they were sort of mixing feminism and a pandemic. It was so rotten. It was really rotten. So yeah, I had to put it in. Any rotten experience was going to go into this film, and that’s definitely one. To try to make a show about men dying, it’s terrible.

You’re told that would need to be directed by a woman.

It’s so explicitly passive-aggressive.

But they love the idea of you hanging out with an influencer.

That part, I feel for me, is the broadest comedy of the film, how they react to Jordan. It’s so ridiculous. They know his videos line by line, and they’re absolutely thrilled. It makes no sense.

After you’re not in the movie anymore, Jordan thinks he’s being ghosted and tries to cancel you. So your character is dead and now also being canceled.

Yeah. I love that. Jordan feels like he got ghosted. My character is sad about nothing. Just being completely fulfilled with everything and just being bored. I really have nothing to be sad about, really. And then Vero is the only one with a real problem. She has a corpse in the rooftop, hiding.

Before people get to the twist, were you worried people would think you’re being indulgent by casting yourself as yourself trying to come up with a movie idea?

And it is still. Well, not so much anymore. I moved on. I’m doing new things. But yeah, that was a concern, even writing it. I was like, “Should I put in myself?” I think I try to be clear that I’m making fun of myself in the beginning when I’m Googling myself.

Well, the pitch meeting’s very clear, too.

Yeah, exactly. You would expect that if somebody shows themselves Googling themselves, they’re making fun of themselves. So I guess that gives you a clue that it’s not a completely self-absorbed decision, but it is in a way. But it’s been my career in a way where it’s like, I just look around my life and pick stories from experiences that I’ve had. I did it in Nasty Baby. And now I did it again, and in the most explicit way. And back to your question, of course, I am. I’m a vain guy, and I don’t want anyone to think that I’m a self-absorbed mother fucker who has nothing else to think about but himself. But yeah, the fact that I kill myself in the movie, I guess sort of redeems that quality.

I truly can’t think of another example of a director casting himself in a movie as himself, and then killing himself off. Maybe it exists, but I can’t think of one.

I mean, it’s so specific.

What does that mean? Why’d you do that? What are you trying to say about yourself?

Yeah, exactly. Maybe I was saying, “You know what? This is the last movie. This is the last movie.” But it’s not.

Yeah, I don’t think it is.

I don’t think it is the last movie. But yeah, there is definitely a before and after. And I think also the fact that I’m killing that Sebastián. Because of course, I have some of those traits: self-deprecating or death wishy. Or, I don’t know, judgmental, withdrawn, a self-mortifying guy. I do have the qualities that the character in the movie has, but it was very satisfying to also kill that part of me and sort of become fully aware of the downsides of that personality. Or of those personality traits: the whining, self-deprecating Sebastián. And take all of that to its maximum sort of expression, and then destroy it. So there was something therapeutic about it, for sure. I can’t say I feel way better about myself and life after the movie, but a little better.

Well, that’s good. That’s something.

Step by step, right?

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Hulu Has Cancelled ‘The Great’ And Fans Of The Show Are Prepping To Storm A Castle With Torches And Pitchforks

When Billy Joel crooned that only the good die young, he was talking about Hulu’s The Great.

The satirical comedy from The Favourite scribe Tony McNamara has been canceled by the streaming platform after just three seasons, leaving fans grief-stricken. Starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, the show was an absurdist exercise in historical re-telling, intentionally fudging the truth behind Catherine the Great’s (Fanning) rise to power after her marriage to the murderous spoiled man-child that was Peter III, the 18th-century Russian monarch overthrown just one year into his reign. And sure, there are plenty of great TV shows biting the dust because of piss-poor management decisions made by bloated egos in Brooks Brothers suits but this one stings — mostly because it sparked a delightfully unhinged era in Hoult’s cinematic career but also because it was a sharp, witty period romp with bizarre characters, lush costumes, and truly ridiculous storylines.

Werner Herzog once described civilization as the thin layer of ice atop a deep ocean of chaos and darkness. We’ve never felt closer to that lawless void than right now. Faced with the reality that making good art is futile because streamers can shelf entire masterpieces on a whim — and with the possibility that we may never again witness Hoult toss a Pomeranian off a balcony for the sake of scientific advancement — we’ll now leave you to mourn the death of this underrated TV gem with a collection of tweets that should, hopefully, catapult you to the next stage of the grieving process: the part where we assemble a dozen Molotov cocktails to launch at Hulu’s headquarters. Huzzah!

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Here Are Daniel Caesar’s ‘Superpowers World Tour’ Openers

Daniel Caesar embarked on his Superpowers World Tour this week, opening on Tuesday night at the Murat Theatre in Indianapolis. The tour will be supported by a slew of opening acts, which includes BADBADNOTGOOD, Charlotte Day Wilson, Flying Lotus, Montell Fish, Moses Sumney, Omar Apollo, and Orion Sun.

BADBADNOTGOOD and Charlotte Day Wilson are scheduled to join Caesar at his hometown show in Toronto at the Scotiabank Arena on October 15. The first five dates will feature Montell Fish, who will rejoin the tour for two of its final dates in Boston and Philadelphia in October. Meanwhile, a sizable chunk of the September dates will be supported by Orion Sun, and on September 21 at the Hollywood Bowl, they’ll be joined by Flying Lotus.

Moses Sumney will rock the remaining Canadian dates, while Omar Apollo will join Caesar and Montell Fish in New York.

You can see the full schedule of dates below.

08/29 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre^
08/30 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit^
08/31 – Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center^
09/2 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Eagles Ballroom*^
09/3 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed^
09/5 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live!*#
09/7 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy#
09/9 – Miami, FL @ FPL Solar Amphitheater#
09/10 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live#
09/12 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall#
09/13 – Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater#
09/14 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom#
09/16 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium#
09/17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex#
09/20 – San Diego, CA @ Gallagher Square Park at Petco Park#
09/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl!
09/23 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl*#
09/24 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre#
09/26 – Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley*#
09/28 – Portland, OR @ Alaska Airlines’ Theater of the Clouds#
09/29 – Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater#
09/30 — Vancouver, BC @ Pacific Coliseum%
10/3 — Calgary, AB @ Scotiabank Saddledome%
10/5 — Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place%
10/6 — Saskatoon, SK @ SaskTel Centre%
10/7 — Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre%
10/10 — Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre%
10/12 — London, ON @ Budweiser Gardens%
10/13 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena>
10/15 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem^
10/16 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway^
10/17 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden+
10/19 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia^
* Not A Live Nation Date
+ With Omar Apollo with special guest Montell Fish
^ Support from Montell Fish
# Support from Orion Sun
! With special guests Flying Lotus and Orion Sun
% Support from Moses Sumney
> Featuring Charlotte Day Wilson playing with BADBADNOTGOOD, with special guest Moses Sumney

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

‘Jurassic Park’ Is Getting The Lego Treatment In A New Special For Peacock

With Lego now in the hands of Universal after spending considerable time over at Warner Bros., Peacock has officially announced an all-new Jurassic Park special will arrive on the streaming platform later this year.

The special was announced with a new poster featuring the Jurassic Park logo as well as the first look at Jeff Goldblum‘s Ian Malcolm, both in Lego form. Although, apparently, the chaos theory practitioner will be much older this time around judging by his gray hair, but that won’t stop the character’s penchant for bare-chested-ness.

Here are more details via Variety:

The 22-minute special, titled “Lego Jurassic Park: The Unofficial Retelling,” will stream exclusively on the platform this fall. The poster features the iconic dino park logo assembled out of Legos.

From Universal Pictures, Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and the Lego Group, the special is part of a year-long 30th anniversary celebration of the original “Jurassic Park” movie and is linked to Lego’s “Jurassic Park” 30th anniversary merchandise.

With Universal now holding the rights to make Lego movies, that opens the door for other franchises besides Jurassic Park. The studio owns the right to the classic movie monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein as well as The Fast and Furious series. (Dom Toretto’s Dodge Charger is already available to buy in Lego form, and pretty sweet.)

However, the studio jump did come at a cost: RIP, The Lego Batman Movie 2.

(Via Variety)

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Charli XCX Unfollowed Rina Sawayama And There’s Been Lots Of Speculation, But Charli Herself Explained What Happened

For a little while now, there has seemed to be some beef between Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama, which saw Charli unfollow Sawayama on social media. Now, Charli herself has addressed it.

In a tweet shared today (August 30), Charli wrote, “look – this all got a bit crazy – me and rina spoke about things on the phone just now. my unfollowing (which happened a couple of weeks ago) was over a personal disagreement between friends which we’ve now spoken about <3.”

Charli and Sawayama, by the way, collaborated on “Beg For You” in 2022, so they were previously on good terms. As for what’s going on now, The Tab compiled a history of some factors that could potentially be at play.

Sawayama called out The 1975’s Matty Healy multiple times this summer. During her Glastonbury performance in June, she addressed Healy’s podcast controversy, saying, “I wrote this because I was sick and tired of these micro-aggressions. So tonight, this goes out to a white man that watches Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters! I’ve had enough!”

The next month, she said at a different show, “So I was thinking a lot about apologies. It’s just funny how some people get away with not apologizing ever for saying some racist sh*t, for saying some sexist sh*t. Why don’t you apologize for once in your life without making it about your f*cking self?”

Charli, meanwhile, appears to be dating The 1975 drummer George Daniel. So, there was speculation that Charli unfollowing Sawayama was related to that, but Charli has not confirmed what sparked the “personal disagreement.”

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

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Earthgang Attends Their Own Funeral In Their ‘Die Today’ Video And Denzel Curry Does The Eulogy

Earthgang‘s new song, “Die Today,” offers a scathing look at the ephemeral nature of fake love, so it’s only right that their video similarly lampoons the way rappers often become much more famous after they die. With hilarious bookends featuring a dazed Denzel Curry delivering an unhinged eulogy and an equally funny plot twist toward the end, the video is stuffed with clips from real-life news shows — from Fox News to SNL‘s Weekend Updates — with their deaths as the lead graphic.

There’s also some funny and insightful stuff about the performative nature of social media, as the news sends the Atlanta duo’s follower count skyrocketing and attracts messages from the likes of former President Obama, Elon Musk, Kris Jenner, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. This is all especially funny when you consider that Earthgang only has one Billboard Hot 100 charting single (with J. Cole and JID, no less), and has yet to crack the top 40 on the Billboard 200 (their first album, Mirrorland, landed at No. 40, while their last album, Ghetto Gods, came in at No. 114).

But as Vince Staples once pointed out, there is no better album promo than death, and Earthgang’s new video allows them to enjoy its spoils without experiencing its obvious drawbacks. “Die Today” will appear on Earthgang’s upcoming album Earthgang Vs. The Algorithm, alongside the Adam Sandler-approved “Bobby Boucher.” The album is due soon via Dreamville.

Watch the “Die Today” video above.

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

The ‘Our Flag Means Death’ Teaser Shows That Stede And Ed Have A Lot Of Making Up To Do

Season one spoilers ahead, but when last we left the crew at the heart of Our Flag Means Death, everyone was scattered and recovering from the consequences of Stede Bonnet’s (Rhys Darby) decision to return to his fancy life ashore. This includes Stede, who quickly realized his place was back at sea.

From Stede in his row boat to poor drowned Lucious, the members of the crew who had been marooned to the point of near-cannibalism, and those who were suddenly being held captive by a version of Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) hellbent on proving that hurt people hurt people, the fallout from his and Stede’s breakup was wide and deep. It’s also pretty long-lasting, from what we can tell from the freshly released season two teaser trailer above.

Clearly, Stede and Blackbeard (or Ed) are in different places post-breakup, with one longing for those quiet moments of togetherness that sparked their love and the other violently crashing weddings and unleashing all manner of violent piracy and chaos on the high seas. When will they get back together? That’s anyone’s guess but also probably everyone’s wish. When we spoke with Darby in between seasons, he spoke about the magic of the mundane between he and Waititi’s character.

“We like the mundane, just hanging out and having conversations and going back and forth and having less action. I think that will definitely happen. But I think there’ll also be the idea of trying to find that buddyship again.”

Oh yeah, we’re far away from “buddyship” right now, but when the show comes back it’ll be a delight to see Stede eventually get to Blackbeard and try and get through to him. If anyone can. It’ll also fun to check in with the rest of the crew and see how they react to being put in the middle of what’s either a great love story or a killer breakup story.

The eight-episode second season of Our Flag Means Death returns to MAX on October 5 with two episodes dropping each week.