Month: December 2023

It has been a couple of months since Atlanta trap rapper Jeezy and TV personality Jeannie Mai filed for divorce and a new development in the case now has renewed fan speculation that the divorce was prompted by infidelity. According to Us Weekly, Jeannie Mai’s representation has asked the court to uphold an infidelity clause in the couple’s prenuptial agreement. On Thursday, November 30, Mai’s attorney filed a request for “equitable division” of their marital assets, citing the clause which reads that if either Jeezy or Jeannie steps out, “a significant financial penalty” would apply.

Jeezy, however, told Us Weekly through a spokesperson that “Any claim of infidelity on Mr. Jenkins’ behalf are 100 percent false and we have no further statements at this time.”

The rapper addressed the divorce in part during a November interview with Nia Long. “I can tell you that this has not been an easy journey,” he said. “I can tell you that I’m saddened. I can tell you that I’m disappointed. I can tell you that I’m uneasy, right? But, again, God has put me on a different path, and that path is going to entail for me to take care of myself and to love myself and to be in the best situation that I can thrive as someone who’s been through all of the things that I’ve been through.”

At the time, he also denied again that he was unfaithful, quoting his own song, ““Real n****s don’t cheat.”

Reacher has been such a home run for Amazon that Season 3 has been greenlit even before Season 2 premieres later this month. Let’s just say that they found the right dude for the job, even though Alan Ritchson is 6’2″ instead of 6’5″ and doesn’t have hands quite as big as dinner plates.

As well, there was (as you definitely assumed) a rigid round of prep work (diet and exercise) involved with portraying the hulking hobo. This is where I gotta mention that, in the show (based upon Lee Childs’ bestselling Jack Reacher books), Jack Reacher does not make any effort to look the way he does. He was blessed with “genetics” and doesn’t go to the gym. He also eats a bunch of garbage (whatever is in a vending machine, fries, diner sammiches, and so on), so yep, the dude simply got lucky. Now, Alan Ritchson? Not so much.

The Catching Fire/Fast X actor previously revealed on a Reddit AMA that he lifted serious weight while gaining 30 pounds to get to 235. As for his diet, he declared on The Kelly Clarkson Show that “it’s a full time job” to inhale “a conveyor belt of smoothies and protein.” However, he kind-of ate like Jack Reacher, too: “I would order the crew Popeye’s chicken sandwiches, cookies, just so I can get the kind of calories I wanted, and it looks like a goodwill gesture.”

Hmm. Considering that he doesn’t usually diet in real life, according to his AMA, his revelation of Popeyes’ and cookies seems plausible:

“I built a modest gym in my house and hit weights 5 days a week. For twenty years I almost never used weights. 4 sets of 25 Pushups, pull-ups, dips, and sit-ups always kept me at 205. Weights for 8 months got me to 235. I usually eat whatever cause I run so much. I clean it up a little when going to camera.”

Now, if only the man could get some really great pie.

Reacher will return on December 15.

John Oliver wasted no time diving into George Santos being expelled from Congress last week following a House investigation that resulted in the extremely damaging “George Santos Vulnerability Report.” In true Santos fashion, the now former congressman vowed revenge on his colleagues and called one of them a “p*ssy” in the lead-up to this ouster.

“Apparently it takes three times to get rid of him — a sort of reverse Beetlejuice situation, if you will,” Oliver said via Rolling Stone before revealing the perfect home for Santos. “The truth is, this man never belonged in Congress, he belongs on Bravo.”

“That kind of messiness isn’t just friends of behavior, it’s full-on housewife,” Oliver continued. “Santos was a match at giving us A-plus headlines like, ‘George Santos has meltdown while holding mystery baby’ – and by the way, when Santos was asked if that baby was his, his answer was ‘Not yet,’ which is the single funniest possible answer.”

After going through the long and ridiculous list of Santos’ controversies, Oliver took his Bravo plan all the way to the top.

“Santos clearly didn’t deliver for his constituents, but he delivered hard for the rest of us. I don’t want him to be in my government and I don’t want to sit next to him on an airplane but I definitely want him in Andy Cohen‘s menagerie of damaged human beings,” Oliver quipped. “Call this man now, Cohen, and pay him what he is worth.”

(Via Rolling Stone)

Beyoncé is at the top of the North American box office this morning, December 4, as with Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé coolly collected $21 million over the weekend (as per The Associated Press). The “masterful” movie, as reviewed by Uproxx’s Philip Cosores, somehow one-upped its supremely successful predecessors, Beyoncé’s 2022 Renaissance album and supporting Renaissance World Tour. It seems overly simplified to say that such domination happened because Beyoncé worked hard, but her mother, Tina Knowles, doesn’t agree.

Over the weekend, Knowles celebrated her daughter’s Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé release with several “Proud Mom” Instagram posts. And one of her captions hinted that Beyoncé might already be working on a new album.

“Last one about the Rotten Tomatoes!” Knowles captioned a screenshot of the 100% Rotten Tomatoes reviews of the concert movie. “Just saw this !! When you see how hard someone works and all the sacrifices they make because for the last month my child was in a studio almost 24 hours a day I was with her most of that time sleeping in the studio! She only went to take her kids to school to shower and come back.”

She continued, “There are only a few people that understand how hard she works ! how she works on every single thing that goes out in a movie or a video or a tour . #that is why I ride so hard for her !!! She deserves every [accolade] that she gets.”

Whether Beyoncé is actually preparing another album is anyone’s guess. Renaissance arrived in July 2022 as her first solo LP since April 2016’s Lemonade, a substantial gap.

It’s worth noting that Beyoncé initially billed Renaissance as a “three-act project” in a statement on her website around its release. She also shared that she had recorded it all “over three years during the pandemic,” so it would seem that she already has two more releases in the vault ready for release.

That said, a generational artist like Beyoncé never rests, so maybe she’s in the studio still tweaking the other two parts? Maybe she’s recording another album entirely? Or maybe she’s just wired to work on music around the clock regardless of if anyone else hears it? History would suggest Beyoncé will let us know what she wants us to know precisely when she wants us to know it, and not one second sooner.

Magazines have handed out their own annual superlatives for decades, but perhaps none of them receive more attention than the Time “Person Of The Year.” The publication has been handing out the award since 1927, when aviator Charles Lindbergh was the first honoree. Now, Time is gearing up to announce their 2023 selection: They revealed today (December 4) that this year’s pick will be announced on Wednesday, December 6. For now, though, they’ve shared the nine shortlisted candidates who were considered, and among them is Taylor Swift.

Of Swift, the publication notes, “Grammy-award winning artist Taylor Swift has had a major year, from re-releasing her albums with record-setting streams to making one of the most successful concert films in history. Swift’s Eras tour is also on track to become the highest-grossing global tour of all time.”

The other finalists are Hollywood strikers, Chinese president Xi Jinping, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Donald Trump prosecutors, Barbie, Vladimir Putin, King Charles III, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

If Swift is chosen, it actually won’t be her first time on a Time “Person Of The Year” cover: She and others were on the cover in 2017 when the Person Of The Year was “the silence breakers,” people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment.

Everyone who didn’t see Killers of the Flower Moon in a theater because “it’s too long” is out of excuses. Martin Scorsese’s latest masterpiece, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert de Niro, and Jesse Plemons’ big hat, will be available to watch on video-on-demand and digital purchase beginning Tuesday, December 5th. Despite it being a Apple TV+ and Paramount Pictures co-production, no Apple TV+ streaming date has been announced.

Lily Gladstone won her first of hopefully many major awards at last week’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards, which also named Killers of the Flower Moon the year’s best film.

“When I accepted this role, I knew that my life was going to be taking a very different turn and I would have a much bigger spotlight on me. So I’ve had a low level of anxiety for the last couple of years about what’s going to happen when the internet figures out who I am,” she told Elle during a recent interview. “So far, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised that there’s way more love than hate out there. And that goes back to community. It’s been an incredible reminder of like, OK, maybe all these things that I’ve been saying — that representation really matters, that seeing yourself represented gives you a sense of your place in the world [resonated with people].”

(Via Elle)

With all the great new music that was released in 2023, it was a great year to be a Spotify subscriber. 2023 was less awesome, though, for a noteworthy amount of now-former Spotify employees: Throughout the year, the company has had a number of significant layoffs.

In January, they cut 6 percent of their global workforce, which amounted to about 600 people. Then, in June, Spotify cut about 200 jobs from its podcast division. Now, more layoffs have arrived and it’s the biggest round of the year so far. Today (December 4), Spotify announced they’re cutting a whopping 17 percent of its employees. As The Verge notes, “Based on its total headcount of 9,241 revealed during its last earnings release, the cuts are expected to impact over 1,500 people.” So, across all three rounds, that’s about 2,300 people this year.

In a message shared to employees (and here), Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in part:

“Over the last two years, we’ve put significant emphasis on building Spotify into a truly great and sustainable business – one designed to achieve our goal of being the world’s leading audio company and one that will consistently drive profitability and growth into the future. While we’ve made worthy strides, as I’ve shared many times, we still have work to do. Economic growth has slowed dramatically and capital has become more expensive. Spotify is not an exception to these realities.

This brings me to a decision that will mean a significant step change for our company. To align Spotify with our future goals and ensure we are right-sized for the challenges ahead, I have made the difficult decision to reduce our total headcount by approximately 17% across the company. I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions. To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us.”

Read the full message here.

John Lennon is still in the news, 43 years after his death.

The Beatles released a “new” song last month, “Now And Then,” that features all four members, including Lennon on vocals. “We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI,” Paul McCartney explained.

A new documentary will also reveal Lennon’s last words on the day he was shot and murdered by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980.

Apple TV+’s John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial features an interview with Jay Hastings, a concierge at the Dakota building in Manhattan, where Lennon lived with his wife, Yoko Ono. “He runs past me. He goes, ‘I’m shot.’ He had blood coming out of his mouth,” he recalled in the documentary. “He just collapsed on the floor.” Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 p.m.

The documentary includes audio recordings of Chapman speaking to his lawyers. When asked why he shot Lennon, he said, “‘All You Need Is Love,’ have you ever heard that? Well, this is what I say to that: all you need is love and 250 million dollars. He was the biggest, phoniest bastard that ever lived.”

John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial premieres on Apple TV+ on December 6th. You can watch the trailer below.

Billie Eilish popped up at a Variety Hitmakers event over the weekend, and in a red-carpet interview with the publication, the subject of her recent Variety interview came up, in which she said, “I’ve never really felt like I could relate to girls very well. I love them so much. I love them as people. I’m attracted to them as people. I’m attracted to them for real. […] I have deep connections with women in my life, the friends in my life, the family in my life. I’m physically attracted to them. But I’m also so intimidated by them and their beauty and their presence.”

Reflecting on the red carpet, she said, “I kinda thought, ‘Wasn’t it obvious?’ I didn’t realize people didn’t know… I just don’t really believe in [coming out]. I’m just like, ‘Why can’t we just exist?’”

Now, it appears Eilish was perhaps annoyed by that line of questioning.

In an Instagram post shared last night (December 3), Eilish wrote, “thanks variety for my award and for also outing me on a red carpet at 11 am instead of talking about anything else that matters i like boys and girls leave me alone about it please literally who cares stream ‘what was i made for’ [disguised face emoji].”

Meanwhile, in a September interview, Eilish revealed her next album is nearly complete, saying, “There is lots of music coming. There is a whole album of music coming. We’re in the final stages of making it, so that doesn’t mean it’s about to come out, but it is getting there and it’s very exciting.”

Van Gough never got to enjoy his own historic success as an artist (even though we’ve been able to imagine what that moment might have looked like). But it turns out that those of us who have appreciated his work have been missing out on some critical details for more than 100 years.

I’m not easily impressed, OK?

I know Van Gogh was a genius. If the point of this were “Van Gogh was a mad genius,” I would not be sharing this with you.

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But I found this and I thought, “Oh, what a vaguely interesting thing.” And then I got to the part about the Hubble Space Telescope, and, let me tell you: Mind. Blown.

We’ve got the set up here, but you have to watch the video for the full effect. It’s all the way at the bottom.

Get this: Van Gogh was a pretty cool artist (duh), but as it turns out…

…he was also A SCIENTIST!*

*Pretty much.

Here’s the story.

While Van Gogh was in an asylum in France, after he mutilated his ear during a psychotic episode*…

(*Or, and I’d like to thank the entire Internet for pointing this out, there’s a theory that his friend Paul Gauguin actually cut off his ear, in a drunken sword fight, in the dark. The more you know!)

…he was able to capture one of science’s most elusive concepts:

~~~TURBULENCE~~~

Although it’s hard to understand with math (like, REALLY HARD), it turns out that art makes it easy to depict how it LOOKS.

So what is turbulence?

Turbulence, or turbulent flow, is a concept of fluid dynamics where fluid movements are “self-similar” when there’s an energy cascade — so basically, big eddies make smaller eddies, and those make even smaller ones … and so on and so forth.

It looks like this:

See? It’s easier to look at pictures to understand it.

Thing is, scientists are pretty much *just* starting to figure this stuff out.

Then you’ve got Van Gogh, 100 years earlier, in his asylum, with a mutilated ear, who totally nailed it!

The folks who noticed Van Gogh’s ability to capture turbulence checked to see whether other artists did the same. Most impressionists achieved ” luminance” with their art (which is the sort-of *pulsing* you see when you look at their paintings that really shows what light looks like).

But did other artists depict turbulence the way Van Gogh did?

NOPE.

Not even “The Scream” could hold a candle to Van Gogh!

Even in his darkest time, Van Gogh was able to capture — eerily accurately — one of nature’s most complex and confusing concepts … 100 years before scientists had the technology to observe actual star turbulence and realize its similarity to fluid turbulence mathematics as well as Van Gogh’s swirling sky. Cool, huh?

Watch the video below to learn even more:

This article originally appeared on November 14, 2014