Month: August 2023

Pink‘s Summer Carnival Tour has been a whirlwind. The singer has been handed a wheel of cheese by an audience member, and the ashes of a death mother from another. She notably paused her show in Austria for an important reason: “I’m gonna eat my damn chocolate,” she told the crowd. “I can’t concentrate.”

When it comes to big concerts, it’s good to know set times so as to get to the venue on time, find parking, and head to your seats. According to sources like National World and The Pink News, the “Just Give Me A Reason” singer typically hits the stage at 8:50 sharp, with curfew at 11.

At her gig in Cincinnati, Ohio, she paid tribute to Sinéad O’Connor following her tragic passing. “When I was a little girl, my mom grew up in Atlantic City and I used to go down to the Ocean City Boardwalk with my $10 and I would make a demo tape,” Pink told the crowd. “I would make a little cassette tape and imagine it was my demo for the record company.”

She continued, “And it would always be either ‘Greatest Love of All’ by Whitney Houston or ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Sinéad O’Connor. So in honor of Sinéad, and in honor of my very, very talented friend Brandi Carlile I asked her if she would come out here and sing this song with me.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene has never been so good at attacking Joe Biden. Sometimes she heckles him like a child. Other times her insults sound like compliments. Last month the MAGA lawmaker tore into all the “big government programs” the sitting president has enacted, comparing them to ones concocted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt that helped everyday Americans pull themselves out of the Great Depression. That didn’t sound like much of an attack. Biden even cut her words into a campaign ad. And he’s still feasting on it.

As per Mediaite, the commander-in-chief was in Michigan Tuesday touting the year-old Inflation Act and other policies that have helped states adversely affected by out-sourcing, including Wisconsin. These bills have been so good that even Republican lawmakers who initially trashed it have reluctantly admitted they’ve helped their constituents. Biden made sure to call them out on that one.

“Folks, every Republican voted against our clean energy investment known as the Inflation Reduction Act,” Biden told the crowd. “The vast majority voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law. But that didn’t stop them from claiming credit for protecting the health of their constituents by getting rid of the lead pipes or putting to work in building new roads and bridges.”

Biden then singled one of them out.

“You have Marjorie Taylor Greene – the very quiet lady from Georgia,” he said, winkingly. “Well, she’s talked about, ‘What Biden’s doing is what Roosevelt did, what Kennedy did!’ Well, yeah.”

Greene actually mentioned LBJ, not JFK, but close enough. Here’s the chilling portrait Greene painted about the Biden administration last month:

The Great Society were big government programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, the office of Economic Opportunity, and big labor and labor unions. Now, LBJ had the Great Society, but Joe Biden had Build Back Better. And he still is working on it. The largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started that LBJ expanded on.

Yeah, sounds awful.

(Via Mediaite)

On Monday, Donald Trump didn’t just nab his fourth indictment. He also added another 13 criminal charges to the many he’s received from those other three cases. For those keeping count at home, the former president has amassed a whopping 91 counts against him, or 91 more than any other American president in history. Congrats? How many of these will end in convictions, if any, remains to be seen, but what if he’s found guilty of all 91? Well, then he’d be spending quite a lot of time in the slammer.

Mediaite broke down the amount of jail time Trump faces with each charge should he receive the maximum sentence, which is unlikely. Here’s the latest batch, in the case from Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis, pertaining to his alleged attempts to interfere in the state’s 2020 election:

1. Count 1: Violation Of The Georgia Rico Act – 20 Years

2. Count 5: Solicitation Of Violation Of Oath By Public Officer – 3 years

3. Count 9: Conspiracy To Commit Impersonating A Public Officer – 2.5 years

4. Count 11: Conspiracy To Commit Forgery In The First Degree – 7.5 years

5. Count 13: Conspiracy To Commit False Statements And Writings – 2.5 years

6. Count 15: Conspiracy To Commit Filing False Documents – 5 years

7. Count 17: Conspiracy To Commit Forgery In The First Degree 2.5 years

8. Count 19: Conspiracy To Commit False Statements And Writings 2.5 years

9. Count 27: Filing False Documents – 10 years

10. Count 28: Solicitation Of A Violation Of Oath By Public Officer – 3 years

11. Count 29: False Statements And Writings – 5 years

12. Count 38: Solicitation Of Violation Of Oath By Public Officer – 3 years

13. Count 39: False Statements And Writings – 5 years

Put together, that’s a shocking 71.5 years. But that’s only one of the four cases. What about 34 felony counts from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case involving alleged hush money? Or the 37 counts (plus three added later) from Jack Smith’s classified documents case? Or the three from the Jan. 6 case?

If you put all those together (and generously round up), the big guy gets an epic 713 years in the clink.

Granted, Trump will likely not serve the maximum sentence for any of these charges. Nor would he be convicted on all of them. Or maybe he might! There’s a chance he did a lot of criming. Or maybe he’ll find sentences cut down by throwing some of his pals under the bus.

(Via Mediaite)

If you’ve watched Lars von Trier’s movies, you’ll know he isn’t exactly a romantic-seeming dude. Melancholia (starring Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland) might be the least controversial of his most recent works and probably the one that’s least traumatizing to watch if you haven’t dabbled in his body of work. Von Trier, however, is looking for a new body of sorts. He is seeking, via Instagram, a new “girlfriend/muse” to inspire his final installments in the cinematic realm. He supposes that there are “a few decent films left in me,” if he can find the motivation.

You can thank (?) IndieWire for the find, and anyone who has watched Antichrist may have already closed the browser window, but hear him out at least. Via an Instagram video, Von Trier lists what he apparently views as the potential dealbreakers for anyone interested, and yes, he admits that this is basically a personal ad:

“All this is as suggested meant as an old-school contact ad, where I, without knowing the least about social media, am looking for a female girlfriend slash muse. And despite of all the whining, I still insist that on a good day, in the right company, I can be quite a charming partner. All enquiries regarding this ad must be sent to [omitted].”

So, there you have it. I remember seeing a few actors do this back in the MySpace days, and come to think of it, at least one of them got married, although god only knows how things actually turned out. You can watch von Trier’s video below, and if he turns up at the Cannes Film Festival with a special lady in a few years, then you know what happened.

(Via Indiewire)

As the Barbie movie continues to be a pop culture phenomenon whose charm not even Joe Rogan can resist, the casting directors for the film recently opened up about populating the film with a wild assortment of Barbies and Kens.

While Ryan Gosling obviously scored the role of the main Ken, others like Simu Liu played various incarnation of the iconic accessory. However, the actors auditioning reportedly felt the need to show off their action figure abs, which wasn’t necessary. According to casting directors Allison Jones and Lucy Bevan, this happened a lot while picking actors for the “beach off” scene.

Via The Credits:

Before it became a go-to quote in the Barbie fandom lexicon, rival Ken’s challenge — “I’ll beach you off any day, Ken” — was one of the film’s audition lines. “Those scenes were fun to audition,” said Bevan. “Some of the Kens would take off their t-shirts, and we were like, no, no, you don’t need to take off your t-shirt. But Simu [Liu] just nailed that [line] in the film.”

As an aesthetic match to Barbie, you would assume Ken has to be in killer shape, but Jones and Bevan revealed that writer/director Greta Gerwig was genuinely more concerned with the actors matching the personality of their respective Kens. Rock-hard abs weren’t a concern.

“The thing that Greta did always stress was that none of these people were sarcastic or winking at the camera. They were really Kens and Barbies,” Jones said. “She really made the characters for who she liked best in different auditions.”

Barbie is now playing in theaters.

(Via The Credits)

Starbucks needs to chill tf out. The world-renowned coffee brand has over 30+ iced and blended drinks on its menu and that is, quite simply, too many. I’d guess that the average person has explored maybe 1/10th of the entire menu (unless you’re me, I’ve tried them all), and truthfully there is absolutely no need to order anything out of your comfort zone — nothing at Starbucks is delicious enough to cause you to stray from whatever your favorite drink already is.

So when we heard Starbucks was launching a brand new summer menu of six new cold drinks… we straight up ignored the news. I’m sorry Starbucks, but that’s six on top of your previously exceeded allotment. You can’t make people care about all those drinks!

And yet… every time I visited a Starbucks this summer, I saw that summer menu, looking at me, taunting me, calling to me. So I finally gave in. I’ve now tried all six of the Starbucks summer drinks and ranked them from least essential to most delicious. The full summer menu includes the Frozen Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade Refresher, the Frozen Strawberry Acaí Lemonade Refresher, the Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher, the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino, and the Chocolate Cream Cold Brew.

Hardcore Starbucks fans will notice that at least two of those drinks aren’t new at all but are actually returning favorites. Are they worth the trip to the Starbucks drive-thru? Let’s find out, starting with our least favorite of the six.

6. Starbucks Chocolate Cream Cold Brew

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

There isn’t anything really new here aside from the chocolate-flavored cream foam. The flavor and build are identical to Starbucks vanilla-infused cold brew. The vanilla flavor falls a little flat here, tasting a bit watery, but the cold brew coffee has a nice soft mellow flavor to it.

The chocolate cold cream has the faintest hint of chocolate notes but otherwise tastes pretty flavorless. Once the cream is mixed into the drink, it tastes identical to the Vanilla Cream cold brew.

The Bottom Line:

Totally redundant, it does nothing to improve the Starbucks cold brew experience and barely even registers as being chocolate flavored.

5. Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino Blended

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Here is what frustrates me about this drink — it’s nearly identical to Starbucks’ menu staple, the Java Chip Frappuccino, only better. The Java Chip is simple, it features chocolate chips and chocolate syrup blended with Starbucks’ Frappuccino coffee base. The Mocha Cookie Crumble features the same build with some added chocolate cookie crumbles with chocolate sauce on the whipped cream, which makes the drink objectively better.

The chocolate notes are much more pronounced here thanks to the cookies and chocolate sauce and overall the drink has more texture thanks to the crumbles. It tastes like what the Java Chip wants to be — so why isn’t this a menu staple? Why do we have to wait until summer to have a better drink?

Make this a staple Starbucks, and ditch the Java Chip.

The Bottom Line:

The Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino, elevated. More texture, more chocolate, more better.

4. Frozen Strawberry Acaí Lemonade Refresher

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

The next three drinks in our ranking are all frozen versions of Starbucks’ Lemonade Refreshers, and I really feel like Starbucks knocked it out of the park with all three. The Frozen Refreshers really speak to the season by taking pre-existing drinks from the Starbucks menu and remixing them to fit in with the weather.

My least favorite of the three is the Strawberry Acaí, only because it feels like it covers the same ground as the other two drinks. Each of the three drinks features strawberry puree as a base, but this one comes across as pretty one note.

It tastes like frozen strawberry with a sweet and tart lemonade twist, the acaí doesn’t really come through at all. It’s not bad by any means, but compared to the other two this one comes across as boring.

The Bottom Line:

The least essential of the new Frozen Refreshers.

3. Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A nice medley of flavors, the drink begins with a tart strawberry flavor before tropical mango notes take over, finishing with a sweet lemonade finish. A scoop of diced dragonfruit brings some nice texture to this drink, but on its own is flavorless.

The Bottom Line:

Tropical, sweet, and tart, the perfect summer beverage.

2. Frozen Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade Refresher

Tasting Notes & Thoughts

Your personal ranking of pineapple and mango is going to determine whether you like the Frozen Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade Refresher over the Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher. I’m team pineapple! I just think the tart and sharp flavors of this drink are more pleasing and complementary.

Once again, tart strawberry dominates the flavor palate, followed by a citrusy tropical flavor and a strong lemonade finish. The freeze-dried pineapple adds a bit of texture and helps to emphasize the tart flavors of this drink.

The Bottom Line:

This drink comes across like a drinkable Bigstick Popsicle, aka the greatest popsicle on Earth.

1. Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Last summer I named Starbucks’ Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino the best blended drink on the entire menu, and now here we are a year later and I still feel that way. The fact that drink still isn’t a permanent fixture on the Starbucks menu annoys me to no end.

What makes this drink work better than the stock Caramel Frap is the more interesting build. Instead of being one note, this drink has three different flavors of caramel here, it begins buttery and light, courtesy of the stock caramel syrup, but is topped with a layer of dark caramel sauce that has rich molasses undertones, and a slightly salty caramel sugar topping the whipped cream.

It has that sweet caramel flavor you love from Starbucks, but richer, and a textural element that helps make the drink taste more decadent.

The Bottom Line:

If your go-to order at Starbucks is the Caramel Frap, you need to try this ASAP. It takes a good thing and makes it even better. This is hands down the best drink on the Starbucks summer menu, even if it is just a returning recipe.

Following the explosive events of the Succession season finale, a bloody yet relieved Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) is seen sitting down to a bar where here he’s notably served a martini, the favorite drink of his seemingly lost lover Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron). It’s a quiet scene that sees Roman smile down at the drink, leaving an ambiguous ending to the youngest Roy sibling after suffering years of abuse from his family. However, one line could’ve sent things in a more definitive direction.

In a new interview to discuss Succession racking up an impressive number of Emmy nominations, longtime series director Mark Mylod opened up about his thoughts on the characters’ post-finale lives. He also revealed Roman’s cut line from the finale that series creator Jesse Armstrong previously teased, but never divulged.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

The line we cut I am happy to share. He walked into the bar where, in our head there was a barman he already knew from fairly regular visits, and the line was, “What up, motherfucker?” Which was a bookend to the very first line of dialogue that we heard Roman speak back in season one, episode one. I imagine that Jesse’s intention there was to show the cyclical nature of Roman’s journey. That for all that illusion of evolution, on some level those four seasons over which we followed Roman was some kind of fever dream, and he finds himself right back where he started.

While the finale gave Roman a more open ending, Mylod is also of the mind that the youngest Roy is pretty much doomed, emotionally, thanks to his father’s abuse.

“I feel that character has a lifetime of wearing a mask,” Mylod said. “It’s a false setting to slip behind it and pull up the drawbridge, emotionally. His long-term happiness or contentment, I don’t feel optimistic about that. His ability to connect in any meaningful way is so torpedoed by his upbringing that I fear for any emotional connection of meaning. But I don’t fear for his physical well-being. I think he can wear that mask so efficiently, it probably feels like the real him sometimes to be that witty, deliberately offensive court jester.”

Succession Seasons 1-4 are available for streaming on Max.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

You know you’ve really made it when they start naming scientific discoveries after you. Keanu Reeves has his fungus, Taylor Swift has her little bug, and even ABBA has a spider named after them, even though it has probably never seen Mamma Mia! and therefore doesn’t deserve it (fake fan). But now Harrison Ford is getting his own snake, which would offend Indiana Jones even more than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull did.

Ford inspired a newly-discovered snake, Tachymenoides harrisonfordi. Why did it have to be snakes? The species was named after the actor to thank him for his ongoing commitment to conservation. The man also has a spider and an ant named after him, for the record.

“These scientists keep naming critters after me, but it’s always the ones that terrify children,” Ford told Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t understand. I spend my free time cross-stitching. I sing lullabies to my basil plants, so they won’t fear the night.” This is a lot to process because, realistically, basil plants should be fine after dark. It’s the sunflowers that really should fear the night.

Ford then claimed he was joking (?) and continued, “In all seriousness, this discovery is humbling. It’s a reminder that there’s still so much to learn about our wild world — and that humans are one small part of an impossibly vast biosphere. On this planet, all fates are intertwined, and right now, one million species are teetering on the edge of oblivion. We have an existential mandate to mend our broken relationship with nature and protect the places that sustain life.” While he was probably trying to be optimistic this more or less just confirmed that we are all doomed.

Can we focus on the real news here? Ford probably has a cross-stitch Etsy shop out there somewhere and none of us even know.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

It’s hard to believe that we have gone nearly one year without a dragon-related incident, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on the horizon. Production on season two of House of the Dragon is currently underway, and even though we likely won’t get to see the ice-blond dragon-tamers until next summer, director Clare Kilner recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about what to expect from season two of the hit series. She did not, however, give an update on Matt Smith’s hair extensions but that will likely come at a later date.

Controversially, the second season will be much shorter than the first, clocking in at eight episodes, though Kilner says they are still filled to the brim with the three D’s: drama, dragons, and Daemon (hopefully). “There are eight wonderful episodes with so much happening in every episode, and we have trouble, at times, bringing them down to one hour. Ryan [Condal]’s decision was to give it a good opening and a good ending, and they’re jam-packed with emotional and visually exciting events.” How much more visually exciting can you get?

Season one was also split up between two main parts, with the first acting as a prequel of sorts. While season two won’t follow that structure, Kilner says it was an integral part of the story, in order to see the character arcs play out in context. “We’re really invested in these characters now and understand where they came from — especially with the fighting between [the characters as] kids and what they did to each other — and the effect of that feels very present in this season.”

As for the cast and crew, Kilner notes that there is a different feel on set after the global success of the first season. “I think [the cast is] more settled, because they’ve seen it, too. It’s scary doing a new show that you know is going to be huge and have this global impact,” Kilner said. “They’ve come in this season more relaxed, and there’s a sense of family. Everybody knows one another and wants to do good work, and they know their characters so much better.” Not only do they know the characters, but they also know how audiences will react to certain storylines. So maybe less deteriorating flesh this season, yes? Hopefully.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Rootin’ tootin Lauren Boebert will surely have some thoughts about this development, given her criticism of Bidenomics. If she doesn’t weigh in, then her congressional frenemy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, will probably do so. Otherwise, this is a story that doesn’t require too much fancy introduction (I am not fancy) because it somehow involves U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen inadvertently consuming “magic mushrooms” (in a dish called jian shou qing) after someone else did the ordering at a restaurant in China.

On CNN, Erin Burnett broached the subject because this incident apparently sent people flocking to this restaurant chain, Yi Zuo Yi Wang (In and Out, not a U.S.-based burger joint), in order to share the experience. And Yellen sounded pleased to spill the details:

“There was a delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties. I learned that later … [I] read that if the mushrooms are cooked properly, which I’m sure they were at this very good restaurant, that they have no impact. But all of us enjoyed the mushrooms, the restaurant, and none of us felt any ill effects from having eaten them.”

Yes, she “enjoyed” this fun fungi, for what it’s worth. And in my twisted brain, that’s not even the best part of this story. Rather, consider that this conversation happened after a quick segue from discussing the Russian ruble’s rapid fade at the hand of Putin. He would probably enjoy some mushrooms right about now in order to escape the embarrassment.

(Via CNN)