Month: November 2023

Melania Trump was spotted with her frequently-indicted husband Donald for the first time in seven months on Halloween. Spooky! The not-so-happy couple “partied it up with all the Mar-a-Lago ghouls,” host Jimmy Kimmel joked during Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, including a man carrying a blow-up doll and a Bang energy drink, for some reason. There was sadly no Diet Coke Button costume. Also sad: that Melania didn’t dress up as Stormy Daniels “just to mess with [Trump],” Kimmel joked. “It would be fun to maybe scare him a little. Maybe give him his first erection since January 6th.”

Later in the monologue, Kimmel covered every parent’s dream: to watch their children testify after being accused of fraud. On Wednesday, sniffly Donald Trump Jr. became the first member of the Trump family to take the witness stand after being named a defendant in the $250 million lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general’s office against the former president, his company, and several executives,” according to CNN. Next up: Eric and Ivanka.

Once Trump Jr. and Eric have testified, their loving father “will claim he’s never met either one of them,” Kimmel cracked.

You can watch the Jimmy Kimmel Live clip above.

In a video shared on November 1st, Mariah Carey was thawed from a block of ice in order to get ready for Christmas and for “All I Want For Christmas Is You” to dominate the music landscape once again. Freshly unfrozen Carey has something perhaps more pressing to deal with now, though: a lawsuit over the song.

As Rolling Stone reports, Andy Stone, a country musician who performs as Vince Vance, has refiled a $20 million copyright infringement lawsuit. The case was previously dismissed in federal court in New Orleans due to it being the wrong venue, but has now refiled in federal court in Los Angeles.

Stone claims he didn’t receive proper credit for Carey’s song, and that it infringes the copyright of his 1989 song that’s also called “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” Douglas M. Schmidt, Stone’s lawyer, told the publication, “If you look at both songs, you can see that about 50 percent of the words are the same, in almost the same order. I think it’s a pretty strong claim.”

Schmidt also said attempts to settle the case ended without resolution, hence when they’re going back to court.

Jay Ceravolo, Stone’s manager, said in a statement, “Now we are moving forward to a financial conclusion either through settlement or a trial. It is simply a case of copyright infringement.”

Given that The Beatles broke up in the 1970s, and that John Lennon and George Harrison have since passed away, the band hasn’t exactly been releasing a ton of new music in recent years. That’s actually about to change soon, though: “Now And Then,” which is being billed as “the last Beatles song,” is set to be released today (November 2). Ahead of that, yesterday, the band shared a short film looking at the making of the track.

The video runs for 12 minutes and it looks back at how the song came to be, a story that began in 1994, when Yoko Ono offered up a demo tape by Lennon to the surviving Beatles (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Harrison at the time). From there, the film gets into more detail, creating a timeline of what happened between 1994 and present day.

McCartney previously said of the song, “[Peter Jackson] was able to extricate [John Lennon’s] voice from a ropey little bit of cassette. We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar’ So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway. We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year.”

As for what the song will sound like, BBC notes, “The original demo has circulated as a bootleg for years. An apologetic love song, it’s fairly typical of John Lennon’s solo output of the 1970s — in a similar vein to ‘Jealous Guy.’”

Check out the short film above.

The Warriors and Kings have developed a budding little rivalry in northern California now that Sacramento has taken a leap into being a playoff contender in the West. It’s not so much a rivalry in terms of animosity, but just in the fact that they always seem to play tense, highly competitive games against each other.

Last year we got to see that unfold over seven games in the first round, and that’s continued this season with the Warriors getting the edge in their first two meetings. On Wednesday night in San Francisco, the Kings appeared to have control of the game, but after Golden State got a few rare stops late, they were able to retake the lead in the final minute in a frantic finish.

After a fairly cold second half shooting the ball, Steph Curry got loose with 40 seconds to play on a drive to give the Warriors a one-point lead on a floater in the lane. The Kings answered by getting it to their star big man, with Domantas Sabonis banking in a 19-footer from the elbow to put Sacramento back in front with 14 seconds on the clock. The Kings would then trap Steph at midcourt to force the ball out of his hands, but the Warriors gladly swung it to Klay Thompson who shook free of Davion Mitchell for just long enough to create enough space to hit the game-winning midrange pullup.

It was a wild final minute of play that has become fairly typical of when these two teams meet. It’s a tough loss for Sacramento, which played a great game without their star guard De’Aaron Fox as he’s sidelined with an ankle injury. Sabonis had 23 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists on the night, but much like in the playoff series against Golden State, they went cold from three-point range as a team and could never really open up a considerable advantage in the second half.

On the other side, the Warriors likewise struggled from beyond the arc and got dominated on the boards, but were very efficient inside the three-point line and were able to attack downhill against the Kings to stay in the game and, ultimately, pull out their fourth straight win of the year. Curry finished with 21 points to lead Golden State in scoring, with Dario Saric giving them a big boost off the bench with 15. Thompson was fairly quiet with 14 points on 15 shots, but showed up at the right time to lift the Warriors to the W.

When asked by TMZ in September, Gunna playfully credited his recent weight loss to “lifting legs.” He made clear that was a sexual reference by pantomiming what he meant. So, it makes sense that Turbo chose Gunna as the featured artist on his upcoming single “Bachelor.”

Turbo, Gunna’s longtime producer, has been busy promoting his single on Instagram for over a month. Most recently, he posted the single’s official artwork — a bouquet of roses — alongside the caption, “Official Cover art for my new single Bachelor Ft. @Gunna dropping November 3 THIS FRIDAY! PRE SAVE THE SONG NOW! LINK IN MY BIO! Who else you thinking about.” Previously, Turbo had posted videos showing him listening the final “Bachelor” mix and master in his car and the live debut performance of the unreleased song. (As per setlist.fm, Gunna added it to his The Curse concert setlist on September 28 in Inglewood, California.)

Leading up to releasing solo material, Turbo was a credited producer on six of 15 tracks on A Gift And A Curse, Gunna’s latest album from June. Turbo also produced Young Thug’s “From A Man,” a single released in tandem with Mariah The Scientist’s “From A Woman” in mid-October.

Gunna and Young Thug are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Washington Wizards began the rebuilding process this offseason, trading Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, and a couple other veterans over the summer to reset their roster and try to build a new foundation.

This season will largely be about evaluating the players they have and figuring out who they want to build around long-term. The headliners on the roster currently are Jordan Poole, who was eventually the top player they got in return for Beal by way of Chris Paul, and Kyle Kuzma, who they re-signed for $100 million this offseason. Both Kuzma and Poole have shown the ability to be quality role players on a winning team, but this year they’ll get the chance to show what they can do in a starring role.

To this point, it’s been a rough start for the Wizards and their two leading stars, which was to be expected, but they have provided a couple of funny moments in this early season. Poole’s lackadaisical three that got blocked by Kristaps Porzingis over the weekend went viral, and on Wednesday they authored another rather hilarious moment when, after getting a steal down 21 in the third quarter to the Hawks, they decided to go for an off-the-backboard alley-oop in transition.

It is objectively funny to do this while down 21, and I think it might be made funnier by how gently Kuzma flushes the dunk home, as he seemed to realize in real time this might not be the best idea. To their credit, in this one, they battled to the end and made it just a 9-point loss, even though the outcome was never actually in doubt.

I do, honestly, appreciate that the Wizards are gonna have some fun this year even if they aren’t going to win a lot, and this figures to be just the beginning of some entertaining moments from this team — whether that’s a good thing or not if you’re a Wizards fan is all about perspective.

Anyone who grew up listening to compact discs is bound to feel old after watching this video of 3 young Taylor Swift fans trying to figure out how to get a CD out of its case. Understandably, anyone under the age of 15 would be confused by the ‘90s technology because they’ve probably streamed music their entire lives.

CDs peaked in popularity in 1999 but began a steep fall after pirating music and streaming made physical media less practical. At their peak, compact discs made $22 billion a year, compared to 2022 when they accounted for $482 million in sales.

The video was initially posted by TikToker @shannonschmidtmn, who later made it private, and according to Comic Sands, even Swift herself liked the video.

@swiftiebabies13

Hahaha – what is a CD 🫶🫶 #1989 #swifties #taylorsversion #tweens #iamold

The girls all have a different way that they think will get the “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” CD out of its case. One believes the center knob works as an eject button to dislodge the CD. While another thinks that spinning the disc will unscrew it from the jewel case.

A third is afraid that they will break the disc. Then they won’t be able to hear “Blank Space” in crystal clear quality! “You guys are making me laugh because this is how we listened to music,” an older person behind the camera quips.

Eventually, the girls were able to pry the disc out after pushing the knob in the center and gently lifting it out of the case. When the disc was released, one of the girls explained: “I knew that was a button!”

To some Tommy Tuberville is the senator who doesn’t know what the three branches of U.S. government are. To others he’s the guy who keeps saying white nationalists are people, too. Lately, though, he’s become best known as the guy who’s singlehandedly holding up hundreds of military promotions, all so he can make a culture war point. Now, after months of putting up with his intransigence, Tuberville’s fellow Republicans finally gave him what for.

Per Mediaite, the Senate floor blew up Wednesday night after Tuberville took his blocking next level. The college football coach-turned-Alabama lawmaker has placed holds on over 300 nominations to the Department of Defense. Why? Because he wants the Pentagon to revoke a policy that reimburses out-of-state expenses for service members who seek abortions but are stationed in states where it’s now illegal.

For months, Tuberville has said he’d allow his colleagues to find a workaround: They could do each one one-by-one. It would take ages, but he claimed he wouldn’t block them. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader called his bluff…only for Tuberville to block each one.

But it wasn’t just Democrats who called Tuberville out on his short-sighted sabotage. It was Republicans.

Alaskan senator Dan Sullivan was among Tuberville’s harshest critics, calling his antics a “national security suicide mission.” He also wondered aloud if this will make China think about attacking Taiwan as the U.S. military sleeps.

Tuberville’s actions were so beyond the pale that they enraged no less than backbone-less Lindsey Graham, who tried desperately to talk some sense into him.

As some noted, if you’re too crazy for the guy who can’t stand up to Donald Trump for too long, well…

The scene on the Senate floor Wednesday evening was really the culmination of months of the GOP tension.

As of this writing, Tuberville had not come to his senses. For now, you can enjoy a clip of the senator falling down some stairs.

(Via Mediaite)

Reneé Rapp cut her artistic teeth portraying Regina George in Mean Girls on Broadway and Leighton Murray on Max’s The Sex Lives Of College Girls. She’s since released her debut album, Snow Angel, in August and staged her subsequent Snow Hard Feelings Tour. On Tuesday, October 31, she indulged her acting instincts for Halloween.

Rapp performed a sold-out show at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York — the second of four New York City shows this week to wrap the Snow Hard Feelings Tour — and couldn’t help but mention the holiday. The rocketing pop star dressed up as My World 2.0 era Justin Bieber and serenaded The Summer I Turned Pretty actress Lola Tung with “One Less Lonely Girl,” replicating the now-famous manner that Bieber serenaded a different fan with his classic ballad during his My World Tour in 2010-11.

“only you shawty @lola.tung,” Rapp captioned her Instagram carousel, showing the moment play out. Tung commented, “I was starstruck” and “thanks for making me feel so special.” Even the official The Summer I Turned Pretty account chimed in, writing, “reneé is now mayor of cousins beach.”

Don’t fret, Mean Girls fans: The singer, songwriter, and super producer Alexander 23, who produced and co-wrote Rapp’s Snow Angel album, dressed up as Rapp’s Regina George for his opening set. (Fittingly, Alexander 23’s 2022 debut LP Aftershock housed a song called “Cosplay.”)

Once upon a time Nicolas Cage almost played his favorite superhero. In the late ‘90s there was nearly a Superman reboot. Tim Burton and Kevin Smith were involved at various points. Cage did test shoots, in a costume. Obviously it didn’t happen. But about a quarter century later he got a second chance to do it. And he’s not all that crazy about the results.

In a new chat with Yahoo!, the Oscar-winning actor opened up about his quickie cameo in The Flash, in which he can be seen as a long-haired Kal-El, shooting down a giant spider with his heat vision. Thing is, that’s not what he filmed.

“When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that. That was not what I did,” Cage said. He said it looked like they used CGI, not AI, to “de-age me” and make it look like he’s fighting a spider. But, he added, “I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there.”

Cage admitted it was all “out of my control,” but explained what he actually did when he was on-set. “I literally went to shoot a scene for maybe an hour in the suit, looking at the destruction of a universe and trying to convey the feelings of loss and sadness and terror in my eyes. That’s all I did.”

On the other hand, Cage was a lot more sanguine about the whole thing than Tim Burton.

Cage also used the occasion to make like Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, and President Joe Biden and trash artificial intelligence.

“I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art … and appropriating them,” he said. “AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane. You can’t get more inhumane than artificial intelligence.”

Cage’s The Flash cameo is brief, taking place during a stretch where we see lots of old DC movie stars, including the late Christopher Reeve as Superman. Knowing that Cage was supposed to be doing something completely different — looking aghast at mass destruction, as it were — certainly changes the scene where he battles a giant spider, which had long been a dream of producer Jon Peters. Peters eventually got his wish with 1999’s disastrous Wild Wild West.

You can watch Cage’s The Flash bit in the video below.

(Via Yahoo!)