Month: August 2023

Now that Victor Wembanyama is in the NBA, Cooper Flagg has perhaps the strongest case for being the best basketball prospect in the world. Flagg is either the No. 1 or 2 recruit in the class of 2025 depending on the scouting service you are using, and the 6’9 wing turned heads earlier this summer at Peach Jam with his AAU squad, Maine United.

Flagg is getting to the point of being a household name for basketball fans beyond the folks who follow prospects closely, and a recent story from Brian Scalabrine certainly helps his cause. The long and the short of it: Scalabrine claimed that Flagg played 1-on-1 against Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal at Jayson Tatum’s basketball camp. Beal wasn’t going full bore, Flagg started to score on him, began talking trash, and got Beal “really mad.”

It is a very funny story, but according to one of the folks involved in this, it’s not true. The Instagram account @leaguealerts posted the story on Wednesday morning, and apparently, Beal saw it and said the whole thing was a lie.

A more skeptical person would say that Beal would obviously stress that this is not true because no NBA player would admit they got mad over trash talk by a high schooler who took it to them. But this is also a pretty wild story, and we’re willing to take Beal’s word on this one until video pops up to indicate otherwise or Flagg pushes back on it.

After making the Western Conference Finals in 2022, the Dallas Mavericks entered last season with lofty expectations, but after letting Jalen Brunson walk in free agency, they stumbled toward the bottom of the West standings. A midseason trade for Kyrie Irving wasn’t enough to lift them out of their funk, as a lack of roster balance doomed them to being a high-octane offense with an equally flammable defense, ultimately falling to 11th in the West (purposefully to try and hold on to their draft pick).

This summer, there were two focal points for Dallas. One was re-signing Irving, because seeing him walk after giving up a first round pick and a key role player in Dorian Finney-Smith would’ve been catastrophic. The second was figuring out how to build out their roster to have more depth and bring in some players with a defensive focus that could fit alongside Irving and Luka Doncic. They didn’t have a lot of space to make that happen, which forced them to get creative in spots, but as the season approaches, they hope they’ve done enough to put a supporting cast around Doncic and Irving capable of getting them back in the playoff mix in the West.

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

Draft: B+

The Mavs understood that they could not fill out their roster through free agency alone this year, and they needed an influx of young talent on rookie scale deals to avoid having constant turnover in their rotation. That meant making a pair of trades, first moving back from 10th to 12th and unloading Davis Bertans contract in the process, and later using the trade exception created to add Richaun Holmes and the No. 24 pick from the Kings to add another first round rookie. With those picks they added Dereck Lively II out of Duke, who fits the bill as the rim-protecting center they desperately need, and Olivier Maxence-Prosper, who profiles as a 3-and-D wing with considerable defensive upside. Those are two areas they needed to address and our Brad Rowland gave them a B+ for both selections on Draft night.

Things worked out well for Dallas. The Mavericks moved down two spots and picked a guy they could’ve very reasonably taken at No. 10. Lively isn’t a finished product, but he was a defensive monster in the second half of the college season. Dallas needs that kind of defensive presence, and Lively’s offense should be unlocked as a low-usage guy next to Luka Doncic and, perhaps, Kyrie Irving.

Dallas could use a two-way forward, much in the way that most teams could and used their second trade of the Draft to find one. Prosper fits the bill as a high-quality defender who can also space the floor. He also doesn’t need the ball to succeed on offense, which fits nicely with the Mavericks’ system.

Free Agency/Contract Extensions: B+

There is an inherent risk in signing Kyrie Irving to a long-term, big money deal, as you just can’t be guaranteed that he won’t decide at some point he wants to be somewhere else or that he’ll be healthy enough to make the impact you want. That said, once they committed what they did to Kyrie, they had no other options but to give him a long-term deal. At 3 years, $126 million (with a player option in the final year) it’s perfectly fine value on the court given his tremendous talents, but the off court baggage Irving is always threatening to unload is an ever-present concern. If he’s healthy and engaged, it’s a positive value contract. It’s just the possibility for [gestures at recent Kyrie Irving history].

The rest of the Mavs summer signings have been solid as well. Bringing back Seth Curry on a minimum is a very nice add given his success in Dallas years ago alongside Luka Doncic was what vaulted him into some bigger money deals. While he won’t help their defense, the Mavs do still need guys that can knock down spot-up jumpers around Luka and Kyrie, and he’s as good as there is at that in the league. They also re-signed Dwight Powell, who is perfectly good value at 3-years, $12 million. The problem with Powell previously was he was being asked to play a much larger role (and paid as such) than is ideal for him, but he’s a useful player, particularly as a rim-runner alongside a great lob thrower like Doncic. Finally, they signed former lottery pick Dante Exum, who has spent the last two seasons overseas, first with Barcelona and most recently with Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, where he had an excellent 2022-23 campaign (including a very good shooting year from deep which would be quite the development in his game).

Given their resources, the Mavs did well this summer. Any issues with them lie with past decisions, but there weren’t really any better options for Dallas this offseason.

Trades: B+

I’m just going to keep with the B+ trend here, as I think their work on the trade market has been quite good. The draft night deals were done with a plan in mind, landing the player at 12 everyone figured they’d target at 10 while also moving off of a massive contract clogging their books. They then further addressed their center crisis from a year ago by using the exception created by trading Bertans to add Richaun Holmes, who can give them some scoring punch in the frontcourt, alongside another first round pick that they used on a defensive wing — something they very much need.

Then, once the league year started, they moved Reggie Bullock, a pick swap, and some second rounders for Grant Williams in a three-team sign-and-trade, upgrading their power forward spot with a versatile defender who is a capable knockdown shooter. Bullock was a streaky shooter, who certainly had value for Dallas, but Williams has become a very reliable three-point shooter (39.5 percent last year) and is a bigger, stronger defensive presence in the frontcourt.

For a team that didn’t seem to have much of a plan in terms of roster construction a year ago, this summer represents a considerable upgrade in that area. They saw clear needs and went out to try and address them in all phases, rather than trying to rely solely on a big splash in free agency or a mega trade. Instead, they utilized the Draft well, made solid minimum signings, and got a player who has proven capable of playing a sizable role on a contender in the sign-and-trade market. All of that is good work and they come into the 2023-24 season with a roster that’s considerably better than it was at the end of last year. That’s a success. The issue they face is where the roster was at the end of last year was a borderline catastrophe, so solid improvement there might still not be enough to lift them into the contender tier.

Beyoncé has been continuing her Renaissance Tour run across North America, with recent dates taking place on the East Coast, and her family is joining her for the ride. Her daughter, Blue Ivy, has popped up as a mainstay of the show for one of the songs on the setlist.

After Beyoncé performs her hit, “Run The World (Girls),” Blue Ivy then joins her for “My Power,” from the 2019 soundtrack for The Lion King. During the stop at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Blue also returned for “Black Parade” to unveil a special New York jersey.

The pop star’s young daughter debuted her skills during the European leg of the Renaissance Tour, showing off in Paris first.

“She is 11 years old, and she had one week to prepare, and she’s just getting better and better,” Tina Lawson, her grandmother, told People.

“Well, this is a heels family,” she added. “You’re trained early to walk in heels. But yeah, she’s having the time of her life… I couldn’t be more proud of her because she really worked hard… So I’m the proud grandma, always.”

Blue Ivy’s grandmother on Jay-Z’s side (Gloria Carter) has also shared a similar sentiment, revealing that she told the two musicians that they “opened up a door” with this.

Check out Blue Ivy’s performance above.

Thanks to its delightful message of female-empowerment, which naturally centered on Margot Robbie’s Barbie — the freaking star of the film — and less on Ryan Gosling’s Ken, right-wing pundits have been ranting about the film ever since it arrived in theaters. Ben Shapiro and his weird 43-minute rant is the most notable example, but he was also joined by Elon Musk, who has been actively courting the “anti-woke” right ever since purchasing Twitter.

The right-wing freakout has been so bad that even conservative commentators like Tomi Lahren have told her male counterparts to pump the brakes. Naturally, she’s a woman so her argument fell on deaf ears, but maybe Marc Maron can get through to a few of them.

The comedian recently dropped a new TikTok video where he raves about the Greta Gerwig film and calls out the right-wing dudes trying to grift off the film’s pro-women themes.

Via Mediaite:

The fact that certain men took offense to the point where they, you know, tried to build a grift around it in terms of their narrative is right wing ****. Is so embarrassing for them.

I mean, so embarrassing for them. Any dude that can’t take those hits in that movie, they’ve really got to look in their pants and decide what they’re made of. I mean, Jesus Christ, what a bunch of f*cking insecure babies.

Maron also called Barbie a “masterpiece” and he couldn’t believe how it seeped in “basic feminism in a way that’s funny, informative, and well-executed in a context that is completely engaging is f*cking monumental.”

You can watch the full video below:

Barbie is now playing in theaters.

(Via Mediaite)

The Justified: City Primeval Roundup is a weekly recap feature where we take the various people, places, and things from the new limited series and score them on a scale from one to five cowboy hats. We play fast and loose with the rules here, similar to the way Raylan Givens handles an investigation. A real loose cannon situation over here.

EPISODE FOUR — “KOKOMO”

Getting your leg crushed by your own huge metal panic room door

Real tough stretch for this mob-adjacent Albanian hot dog tycoon who thought he was about to get married to a pretty blonde casino hostess and ended up getting his lower leg smushed like a pretzel rod by the massive metal door in his own panic-room-slash-man-cave by the actual boyfriend he thought was her brother. I mean, think about the worst day you’ve had recently. Can you top this one? I sincerely hope not. Poor guy woke up in love and ended the day heartbroken and legbroken in a Detroit hospital with a mob war breaking out over it. Kinda puts your own troubles in perspective a little bit.

Getting your teeth extracted with pliers by a pair of Albanian henchmen

Some notes:

• Also not ideal
• If a pair of pliers-wielding Albanian henchmen were holding me hostage and threatening to yoink my teeth out of my face with something they pulled out of a rusty toolbox, I would probably not talk quite as much trash as Sandy’s roommate did when they were looking for her to get to Clement Mansell
• “Rusty Toolbox” would be a great name for like a professional bass fisherman

Moving on.

Getting dangled off the roof of a multi-level casino parking garage

Are you picking up on the theme here? I can spell it out for you if not: This was a very bad week to be associated with Sandy Stanton. The people she lives and/or works with are getting roughhoused by the Albanian mob because the Albanian goof she tried to hustle got his leg mangled by her psycho boyfriend. The lesson here is pretty straightforward: If you see Sandy Stanton, at a casino or at your hot dog stand or really just anywhere, turn around and run in the opposite direction.

Clement Mansell

This is unfair. I’m not being fair. I’ve watched the first few episodes of the show and I just can’t make myself dig this character. Not as much as I want to, at least. And I can’t tell if it’s the fault of the show or if I’m just holding him to a borderline unreasonable standard of previous Justified villains. Clem is smart and crazy and violent and chaotic and basically like if the Joker were from Oklahoma, but I miss the country eloquence of dudes like Boyd and Limehouse. Maybe I’ll feel differently as we keep going. But right now I kind of just want someone to hit him with a hammer a little bit.

Sandy Stanton

Sandy is in way too deep. It’s her own fault, really. She had outs and options along this route. Lots of them, probably. But she liked the action and she liked the danger and now she’s an accomplice in Albanian leg crunching and responsible for former friends getting amateur dental work done in their apartment. She’s almost definitely about to get fired from the casino, just on account of those goons roughing up her boss. Bosses hate that. And one of the two Albanian henchmen who spent the episode scouring Detroit for her is now dead at the hands of a Detroit cop who is somehow more trigger-happy than Raylan, which will not help her cause at all.

There are very few situations where any of this ends up working out great for Sandy Stanton.

Raylan Givens

Raylan:

• Is meeting with high-ranking organized crime figures and throwing his weight around a little bit
• Is actually behaving kind of like a real lawman instead of a cowboy, which is a change I’m going to chalk up in equal parts to 1) maturing a little bit as he grows into the role of father, and 2) not having decades of contentious personal history with the people and places he is policing
• Is drinking expensive bourbon in cars with high-powered defense attorneys he is kind of trying to protect but also kind of making googly eyes at

We’ll come back to this last one.

Willa Givens

ON ONE HAND: Nowhere to be seen, mostly on account of Raylan shipping her back home after Clement showed up at the hotel and put his arm around her. This is a bummer for a few reasons, with the main one being how fun it is to occasionally watch Raylan get thwarted by a teenage girl who could not be less impressed with his whole deal.

ON THE OTHER HAND: She is in Miami. Which is probably better than being in Detroit. I kind of hope the next episode just halts the action temporarily and follows her as she does little schemes and scams in Coconut Grove. That would be fun.

Sweety

Sweety is my favorite criminal on the show so far. He seems like an okay dude, too, at least as far as “dudes who are all tangled up with psychopath serial killers and are currently in possession of both a murder weapon and a crooked judge’s ledger of crimes and/or bribes” go. I hope he and Carolyn team up to help Raylan put Mansell away and I also hope his bar starts hosting fun events like a doggy beauty contest or maybe even a bunch of wild bachelorette parties. I don’t know. I just like him. I do not consider any of this unreasonable.

Carolyn Wilder

Carolyn has problems, man. She wants to be a judge but she’s facing a double whammy of hurdles that includes “her scoundrel former partner did shady financial stuff that has her in a very bad spot that looks very bad in a judicial review” and “the murderers she defends keep kind of threatening her.” Goons are tailing her on the orders of mob bosses. Her clients keep putting their gross feet on her desk. None of it is going super great but she seems to be handling it all pretty well. Lanky fellas in cowboy hats showing up at her office and home helps a little. If only for a little thrill.

I hope we get to see her in court someday. I bet she gives a powerful closing argument. And I bet she’s really good at slamming the desk and shouting “OBJECTION.” These are important lawyer things.

Kokomo

Is it the best Beach Boys song? No.

Is it kind of corny when deployed by some beach-themed bar in some landlocked town in the hopes of providing shore-adjacent vibes? Kind of.

Am I bringing any of this up just to remind you all that John Stamos plays the drums in the music video for the song and has a really incredible story about how he met The Beach Boys? Yes.

“I never even dreamed of meeting the Beach Boys, let alone playing with them,” he told an astounded Kelly Clarkson. The actor/musician, who was then appearing on “General Hospital,” attended one of the band’s concerts, where his friend was playing guitar. But he got recognized — and chased, and ended up hiding backstage where he ran into the band.

“The show was over; they were still going to do the encore,” he related. “And these cheerleaders chased me (backstage) and (band co-founder) Mike Love turns to my friend and says, ‘Who’s that?’ And he says, ‘That’s John Stamos; he’s on ‘General Hospital’ and always has girls chasing him.’ And Mike Love, without missing a beat, says, ‘Get him onstage.’”

As Stamos recalled, he took the stage to play with the band on their 1965 hit “Barbara Ann,” and the rest is history. “It’s over 34 years now, something like that,” he said.

As far as stories go, “I became friends with the Beach Boys while fleeing and hiding from lust-crazed cheerleaders” is a pretty good one to have in your pocket.

Robes

One of my great dreams in life is to become a Robe Guy. I don’t see it happening. I don’t think I have the right energy for it. And there’s not much creepier than a dude with bad robe energy trying to pull off a robe. Especially a daytime robe. Things can really go south quickly if you’re not making it work. I have a lot of opinions about robes, it turns out.

I don’t know. Maybe I’ll become a Robe Guy someday. It’s nice to have goals.

High-ranking organized crime figures who go on long monologues about the difference between order and justice

I always like to picture these guys practicing speeches like this in the mirror. Possibly while wearing a robe. I swear I’ll stop talking about robes soon. Probably. Maybe.

The series of increasingly smoldering looks Raylan and Carolyn are shooting at each other

There’s a ton going on right now in the MAGA political realm, what with the most recent ex-president being indicted for a third time. Additionally, there’s quite another controversy at hand, and although this one doesn’t involve circumventing the entire fabric of democracy, it might nonetheless give you the heebie jeebies. A few months ago, the world learned about a sexual harassment suit against Rudy Giuliani from his former assistant, Noelle Dunphy. The revelations at that time included claims that Rudy guzzled Viagra (one can only hope this is not related to his hair-dye problem in any way) and demanded that she help him “take care of this.” Another part of the suit discussed Giuliani’s offer to represent her in another lawsuit on a pro bono basis, as long as she agreed to “f*ck me like crazy.”

Well, the wheels of justice are always slow, so that suit’s been simmering in the background, and the man who was filmed in a compromising position during Borat 2 is still up against allegations that he sexually assaulted and sexually harassed Dunphy, who worked for him in 2019. Also and for what it’s worth, Rudy previously attempted to have all Borat 2 references stricken from the record of this lawsuit, in which Dunphy alleges that he forced her to perform oral sex upon him.

Via Business Insider, newly filed transcripts from Dunphy paint an alleged portrait of long-lived sexual harassment, claiming that Giuliani repeatedly referred to Dunphy as “big tits,” and he wanted to legally “own” her.

“Come here, big tits. Come here, big tits. Your tits belong to me. Give them to me (indiscernible). I want to claim my tits. I want to claim my tits. I want to claim my tits. These are my tits,” Giuliani told Dunphy on March 12, 2019, according to one transcript filed as a court exhibit.

“I want to own you, officially,” Giuliani told Dunphy according to a March 4, 2019 transcript, punctuated by her affirmative response. “Legally, with a document.”

Dunphy’s attorney, Justin Kelton, relayed that his client was “in possession of multiple additional recordings” but had only provided “a handful of straightforward examples in the interest of efficiency and economy.” This included Rudy reportedly declaring, “I can’t think about you or I get hard,” and then there was his alleged rant about Matt Damon (who married Luciana Barroso almost two decades ago): “Matt Damon is a f–. Matt Damon is also 5’2. Eyes are blue. Coochie-coochie-coochie-coo.”

Somehow, that’s not all. Via Rolling Stone, Rudy went off on the subject of penises, and somehow, he continues to make things worse for himself: “Jewish men have small c*cks because they can’t use them after they get married. Whereas the Italian men use them all their lives so they get bigger.” Presumably, Giuliani was arguing that he’s Italian, and therefore… yeah, no one wants to think about that.

Before these new transcripts surfaced, Rudy had already attempted to get this lawsuit dismissed while denying all of Dunphy’s claims and asking that she and her attorney should be sanctioned. That hasn’t happened yet.

(Via Business Insider & Rolling Stone)

The Dallas Cowboys are, once again, entering the 2023 NFL season with high expectations. The team is coming off of its second consecutive 12-5 campaign that led to a playoff berth, but for the second year in a row, Dallas lost in the postseason to the San Francisco 49ers in rather embarrassing fashion.

As such, there have been some pretty major changes, particularly on the offensive side of the ball — Ezekiel Elliott got released and the team parted ways with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Dak Prescott, however, is still the team’s starting signal caller, and on Tuesday, things got a little chippy between himself and starting cornerback Trevon Diggs. Following a rep, Diggs got in Prescott’s face and told him to “shut your b*tch ass up,” which led to Prescott gently tossing a ball at him after he turned to run back to the huddle.

This kind of stuff just happens during training camp, and above all else, the Cowboys are probably just happy that things didn’t boil over. They’re probably just as happy that Prescott was able to be out there, because at one point during practice, star pass rusher Micah Parsons was able to get to Prescott. While he looked like he tried to hold up, Parsons stumbled and hit Prescott low.

The Cowboys will play their first preseason game on Saturday, Aug. 12 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

For a little under a decade now, Texas rapper Travis Scott has had his fingers firmly on the pulse of the hip-hop zeitgeist. Starting with his second mixtape Days Before Rodeo in 2014, Travis has embodied the sort of chaotic, disaffected energy anyone born after Y2K finds intrinsic to their nature. It’s sort of a combination of the shoulder-shrugging nihilism of Generation X, multiplied by the molar-grinding anxiety of the millennial generation, cut with the hyperspeed stream of always-on, instantly gratifying internet culture. The dude always seemed great at aesthetics and giving the impression of perspective without really having much to say, and that seems to be catnip for the algorithmically programmed YouTube junkies we’re all turning into.

Travis’ ascension to hip-hop supremacy seemed certified with 2018’s Astroworld, which finally alchemized all the components and influences he’d always jammed together into more than the sum of its parts. Hip-hop, for the better part of the next couple of years, sounded like Astroworld. Travis became the influence instead of just the living mood board showcasing his inspirations. His dominance appeared inevitable. Then, a pandemic happened. Then, just when it seemed things might be getting back to normal, Travis’ 2021 Astroworld Festival ended in disaster, and he was semi-forced into a year of exile, just when he was prepared to present the next phase of his stylistic evolution and pay off his potential in full.

Now, five years after Astroworld, Travis finally presents his vision of Utopia — and it seems that his aim, once so very true, is off for the first time in his career. The thing is, I’m not sure in which direction. It’s obviously forward facing, positing a view of hip-hop very different from its current trajectory. On the other hand, it seems like Travis has once again presented a project that is the sum of its influences, without being sublime enough to portend the future of the culture and the genre. Maybe it’s a dud or maybe, as with so many works of true genius, it’s just too ahead of its time.

It’s said in the fashion world — another realm in which Travis has always appeared to be intensely interested — if something goes out of style, just wait. In a decade or so, it’ll be back in style with a vengeance. In the case of Utopia, the common consensus appears to be that Travis is once again being moved by the spirit of his greatest inspiration, Kanye West. Unfortunately, it’s at a time when Kanye is not the hero to the world at large that he once was. Even worse, the album Travis chose to channel was one of Ye’s most controversial: Yeezus, the mercurial Chicago producer’s 2013 attempt at being deconstructionist and avant garde.

Like Yeezus, Mike Dean’s fingerprints are all over Utopia; distorted drum breaks blast through “Hyaena,” ghostly, stripped-down synths under-gird “My Eyes,” even a broken Nina Simone sample appears on “I Know?” It’s like Travis and Dean took the maximalist-minimalist approach from Yeezus and wrought it on a more massive canvas. Rather than the zoned-out groove of Astroworld, we’ve got the twitchy, nervous energy of Kanye right before his first breakdown, when it seemed like he stopped trying to impress us and started trying to see just what we’d let him get away with.

The thing is, Yeezus, for better or worse, was never really in style. Some critics loved it, some listeners hated it, but the thing is, there has never really been anything else that sounded like it in hip-hop since — until now. The culture, whether you believe it’s a hivemind or an algorithm or just advertising dollars being spent, went in other directions. In fact, Travis Scott’s sound was the one that seemed most in-demand, spawning a horde of imitators and collaborators from Future and Nav to Quavo and Young Thug. Everyone incorporated a little of what Travis did from 2014 to 2020, while Kanye seemingly moved on from his own experimentation by his next album, 2016’s The Life Of Pablo.

That avant-garde style sounds just as out-of-step now as it did ten years ago. Where hip-hop has decided to reincorporate its ’80s club sister sounds like house and techno (perhaps in an escapist effort to shake off the world’s looming problems through cathartic dance), Utopia perhaps more closely reflects the anxious, apocalyptic times we’re currently living through. If music is supposed to be an escape, Utopia sounds less like its namesake than a sharp-angled, iron-walled maze, a gilded cage, or a chair made of swords. It’s jagged and concussive and claustrophobic, while Travis’ raps haven’t really improved enough to feel like he’s trying to make any kind of a coherent statement about all of this.

So, I don’t see this album having the impact of an Astroworld. It’ll likely go No. 1, because in the world where listeners are fans of the person (or the persona, rather — cults of personality abound on Elon Musk’s Twitter) more than the music, there will surely be those who “Emperor’s New Clothes” their way into convincing themselves they’re enjoying the listen. But I can’t help but wonder if, should we wait another decade, we’ll finally start to see the true influence of Utopia — even if the world itself seems further away from the concept than ever.

Utopia is out now via Cactus Jack Records / Epic Records.

While the cynic might label the wedding tradition of a father walking his daughter down the aisle as some sort of nod to patriarchy, many brides dream of the moment, picturing it as a sweet send-off from the man who protected and cared for them throughout childhood to the man who will now fulfill those duties in adulthood.

But the truth is, for many, Dad wasn’t the protector…he was the opposite. So the notion of being given away by him feels inappropriate. And at the same time, there can be shame or regret for not getting to participate in such an endearing moment.

That’s why one bride’s unique idea to have not one, not two, but 15 positive male figures in her life accompany her down the aisle on her wedding day is infusing other women with hope for their own big day—even if Dad won’t be there.

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Ivy Jurgensen, 28, shared with Good Morning America that a decade ago, her father was convicted of rape of a child and child molestation and was sentenced to prison.

As a teen, Jurgensen would confide in a school resource officer about the abuse she was experiencing at home. Though she was raised to distrust law enforcement, the officer’s genuine care and “big heart” dissolved her fears. She credits their friendship as being “vital” to her ability to “escape and find justice.” He even inspired her to become a cop herself.

Thanks to this officer, along with her brother and uncle, her brother-in-law, her childhood sports coaches and a handful of other close friends, Jurgenson said she was “never alone” during a traumatic childhood.

In a video posted to Instagram by the event designer, we see Jurgensen looking lovely in her wedding dress as these outstanding men collectively stand by her side, taking turns walking her down the aisle toward her new husband, Tristen. Indeed, she certainly doesn’t look lonely.

Watch:

See on Instagram

The moment quickly went viral online and deeply resonated with other survivors. One person wrote:

“This is beautiful. Have had an abusive father myself, I know what that does to our heart and soul. Raising a daughter who is now 20, she has been fatherless since 5, I see what his absence has done to her.

To all the good men out there, you don’t need to be blood to be a father or role model, the love and respect you will receive back is endless. 💞”

Being able to honor her male champions was special for Jurgensen, but she hopes that her story also helps others.

“I hope that what people take away from my story is strength. That they are able to gain courage to get and receive help that they deserve and to no longer be voiceless,” she told GMA. “You are not alone and deserve to be heard and get justice. Saving yourself could be saving other unknown victims.”

Congrats to Ivy and Tristen. And thank you to those 15 men who never stopped showing up.

Leah Remini, The King of Queens actress and author who grew up a Scientologist before leaving the “truly evil organization” as an adult, has filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology.

“For 17 years, Scientology and David Miscavige have subjected me to what I believe to be psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, significantly impacting my life and career. I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last,” she said in a statement posted to Substack.

Remini, who starred in and produced the Emmy-winning series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, alleged that she’s been targeted since asking a question about Miscavige’s wife Shelly at Tom Cruise’s 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes.

Remini alleges in a suit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court that she has been “stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated, and, moreover, has been the victim of intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors” to intimidate and silence her. She points to a “series of retaliatory activities” against people and groups deemed an “enemy” of the church.

Remini wants people in the entertainment industry, like herself, to “have a right to tell jokes and stories without facing an operation from Scientology which uses its resources in Hollywood to destroy their lives and careers. With this lawsuit, I hope to protect the rights afforded to them and me by the Constitution of the United States to speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology without fear of vicious and vindictive retribution, of which most have no way to fight back.”

You can read the full lawsuit here.

(Via Substack and the Hollywood Reporter)