Month: December 2023

The Eagles and 49ers met in Philly on Sunday evening in a matchup between the NFC’s two top teams, as the Niners had an opportunity to avenge last year’s NFC title game loss. After the Eagles took an early 6-0 lead, the Niners stormed back to score 21 consecutive points and take control of the game in the early third quarter.

As the Eagles worked their way down the field on a crucial third quarter drive, needing a touchdown to stay attached, things suddenly got chippy after DeVonta Smith got suplexed on the Eagles sideline by 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw. That drew a personal foul flag on Greenlaw and sparked a kerfuffle on the sideline, which saw the Eagles head of security Dom DiSandro to step in to separate players, which Greenlaw didn’t like. Greenlaw reached across as the two sides pointed at each other and ended up booping DiSandro in the nose.

After the NFL’s New York offices looked at the incident, they decided to eject both Greenlaw and DiSandro, which is obviously a much bigger loss for the Niners as Greenlaw is one of the NFL’s best linebackers and DiSandro does not actually play. You can rest assured DiSandro will be a Philly legend for this if the Eagles come back to win, and things only got chippier as the Eagles eventually finished that drive off with a touchdown on the tush push and saw more pushing and shoving as they closed the gap to 21-13.

Come hell or high water, Nicki Minaj will ensure her long-awaited studio album, Pink Friday 2, is on schedule. Nicki was forced to drop out of an upcoming show to ensure that the project hits streaming platforms this Friday, December 8. Tomorrow (December 4), the “Bahm Bahm” rapper was supposed to perform in Chicago, Illinois, as part of the 2023 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball concert series.

Unfortunately, the Chicago Barbz won’t see Nicki until the Pink Friday World Tour twirls through the Windy City. Today (December 3), Nicki broke the news that she can’t make the gig in a post on her official X (formerly Twitter) page. However, instead of leaving fans high and dry, she was able to tap Lil Wayne to fill in for her headlining slot.

“I have to tell you something. One last thing. I hope it doesn’t make you sad. I won’t be able to perform tomorrow in Chicago for Jingle Ball. I was so excited to see you guys. Please accept my sincerest apologies. I’ll make it up to you on the Chicago stops of my tour early next year,” wrote Nicki.

She added, “However, my beloved brother/boss stepped up for me so that I wouldn’t have to push my album back. His name is Lil Wayne, a.k.a. the GOAT. He will perform tomorrow at the Chicago show.”

She continued, “I am still performing at the Atlanta Jingle Ball on the 14th. And now I’ll also be performing at the Miami Jingle Ball on the 16th.”

Pink Friday 2 is out 12/8 via Republic. Find more information here.

If you’re still in the market for last-minute holiday gifts, Uproxx has you covered on the music front. Check out our shopping guides for the Drake, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé fans in your life. But with the scorching comeback year she’s having, you might want to make room for Britney Spears-inspired items.

Spears’ memoir, The Woman In Me, would be a start. But for something a bit more family-friendly, The OP Games has something in their knapsack of goodies. Britney Spears is the latest celebrity to have their life’s work immortalized in the board game Monopoly. Here’s how to get your hands on the Britney Spears edition of Monopoly.

You can purchase your set directly from The Op Games’ website for $44.99. You will receive one limited-edition game board, six collectible tokens, 28 title deed cards, 16 Curious cards, 16 Fantasy cards, and all other gaming pieces packaged in the decorative Spears box. The board game has sold out on the company’s website, so if that happens, be sure to head over to Amazon or Walmart (where you can save a few bucks).

In the Britney Spears Edition Of Monopoly, players (8 years old and older) can buy, sell, and trade some of her hit songs like “Baby One More Time,” “Toxic,” and “Lucky” while reminiscing on her past signature fragrance launches (Curious and Fantasy). Find more information here.

House of the Dragon has thus far been much better received than the final season of Game of Thrones. This certainly wasn’t easy to pull off, given that plenty of viewers were not thrilled about several outcomes from the original series, not the least of which was the manner in which Daenerys went mad.

As it turns out, though, Targaryens have been making bad decisions for hundreds of years in George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, and some of the worst moves will soon be on display in HotD‘s second season. Granted, a few terminally awful decisions already went down in the first season. Those include King Viserys I’s decision to yield so much decision-making ability to the Hightowers (Otto being quite the mastermind and Queen Alicent being onboard with her dad’s plans). Additionally, Aemond Targaryen screwed the pooch when deciding to scare Luc and Arrax, who ended up being a tasty snack for loose cannon Vhagar.

Still, some decisions that were arguably more damning are yet to be seen onscreen. Those should happen in up to four seasons of HotD to finish up the events of GRRM’s Fire and Blood book. As well, HBO is prepping a full season of another GoT prequel called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Yet let’s not get too far ahead of our current subject. As the second HotD outing grows closer to release, here’s what we know.

Plot

The Targaryen civil war, a.k.a., “The Dance of the Dragons,” shall soon be on fiery display in your living room as battle lines are drawn across Westeros on behalf of Teams Black and Green on Dragonstone and within King’s Landing, respectively. As the show’s recent teaser trailer confirms, yes, mistakes are made immediately following Viserys’ demise, and this leads to a bloody and flame-filled war that torches nearly half of Westeros’ population but also ends up tearing the House of Targaryen apart from the inside.

This is a Shakespearean theme, of course, but also, if the second season matches up to the applicable portions of the Fire and Blood book, this could be one of the most thrilling seasons of TV that we’ve seen in a long time. It also helps that HotD has already established itself as an event series, and the masses will tune in to watch the “Dance of the Dragons, which is actually a label that GRRM drags a little bit in the Fire and Blood book and is actually dreamed up by Westeros residents who observed the giant creatures flying above. We will also see much more of Westeros than the King’s Landing and Dragonstone locations that dominated the first season.

As well, we can look forward to many more dragons. Daemon was seen attempting to tame Vermithor in one of the most recent episodes, but Ceraxes could still be his ride as well. Rhaenyra will take flight on Syrax. Team Green and Aemond will still have Vhagar, who is the largest dragon, but Team Black will have more numerous dragons (including possibly Seasmoke), and we might also see wildcards, including Sheepstealer, Grey Ghost, and Cannibal.

Although the dragons shall be the main instrument of this war, make no mistake that this is a very human conflict. The two halves of the Targaryen crew will take up arms on behalf of Queen Rhaenyra, who was Viserys’ true chosen heir, and King Aegon II, who “accidentally” ended up on the throne after Queen Alicent “misheard” Viserys’ dying words. And you know, a lot of this sources back to the rivalry (unwittingly stoked by Viserys) between Alicent and Rhaenyra. The latter lost a son, and since the first episode is titled, “A Son for a Son,” the Hightowers had better watch their back.

Daemon will also take center stage in the battle because, let’s face it, he’s been dying to get back into the saddle, and the chaotic prince loves mayhem. In the book as well, Daemon ends up doing much of the early intimidation by fire while Rhaenyra is grieving the loss of both Luc and her father.

Cast

New characters for Season 2 shall be plentiful and include the following:

– Lord Gregan Stark (Tom Taylor), the Lord of Winterfell, who receives a visit from one of Rhaenyra’s surviving sons, Jaecerys, who spends the war’s earliest phases attempting to take a headcount of lords, houses, villages, and cities who support his mother’s claim to the Iron Throne. Although Fire and Blood doesn’t detail much about Stark’s meeting with Jaecerys, the series will likely go off book to provide details on Stark’s alliance.

– Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), a healer and unusually prolific wet nurse within Harrenhal, one of the first castles to surrender to Team Black in the book.

– Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale), who an uncle to Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), he of the foot fetish, and the Castellan of Harrenhal.

– Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), who is Otto Hightower’s son, Alicent’s brother, and King Aegon II’s uncle.

– Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), a Velaryon fleet sailor who served in the Stepstones campaign.

Additionally, HBO announced the following characters: Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), Ser Rickard Throne (Vincent Regan), Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna), and Ulf (Tom Bennett).

Returning cast members? Oh yes: Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra), Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Steve Toussaint (The Sea Snake), Fabien Frankel (Ser Cristan Cole), Ewan Mitchell (Aemond Targaryen), Tom Glynn-Carney (Aegon Targaryen II), Sonoya Mizuno (Mysaria/The White Worm), and Rhys Ifans (Otto Hightower).

Release Date

House of the Dragon‘s second season will return in early Summer 2024. Post-production surely continues at this time, given that plenty of special effects are needed to render all of those dragons and their fire. That’s less than two years from the series premiere, which is a miracle, especially considering how long those final Game of Thrones seasons took to arrive and all of the upheaval that hit Hollywood in 2023.

Trailer

HBO released this teaser trailer on December 2, and they did not hold back on showing off the dragons in battle.

HBO’s first ‘House of the Dragon’ season can currently be streamed on Max.

50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) has been extremely invested in his longtime foe Diddy’s legal battles. On Saturday, December 2, the rapper even hinted at developing a documentary about him. But his attention might have been best served elsewhere. Although he reportedly won’t face criminal charges in his mic-throwing incident, he’s still facing another case.

In court documents obtained by AllHipHop, Jackson and his attorneys reportedly want to have one lawsuit tossed out due to its delayed filing. Back in March, Corey Holland named Jackson in two lawsuits. The first filing, worth $1 billion, accused Jackson, Courtney Kemp, and the Starz Network of using his life’s story, even down to his nickname of Ghost, as the foundation for their Power series.

In the second case, this one for $300 million, Holland alleged Jackson intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon him. According to Holland, Jackson at one point even physically assaulted him, and Starz’s parent company, Lionsgate Entertainment, didn’t make any effort to stop it. Jackson hasn’t released a public statement regarding the matter. However, in the responding legal paperwork, Jackson’s attorneys agree that the timing of Holland’s filing should be examined further.

“The alleged conduct—Jackson ‘came to plaintiff home and neighborhood’—took place over a year before this Action was commenced,” the documents read. “Around late July or early August 2021, Plaintiff can’t remember exactly your honor, but defendant Jackson decided to come to the Plaintiff’s neighborhood, not once, but twice. This claim is thus untimely. The assault claim should, therefore, be dismissed for failure to state a claim because the First Amended Complaint is devoid of any allegations to support such a claim against Jackson.”

It’s unclear if the judge presiding over the case has made a formal decision on the matter. However, the allegation of assault is just one minor part of Holland’s $300 million lawsuit against Jackson.

Martin Scorsese, vindicated. This weekend was the fourth for The Marvels, the latest from, well, Marvel. But where is it in the box office Top 10? Nowhere.

Per Variety, the latest from the once indefatigable Marvel Cinematic Universe added merely another $2.6 million to its paltry sum. That means it’s bubbling under, at #11, behind Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving but ahead of the surrealist Nicolas Cage indie Dream Scenario. It’s not common for blockbusters to tumble after a great first weekend. But The Marvels never had a great opening weekend.

What’s more, while it’s common for MCU titles to gross $200 million, $300 million domestically, and even more internationally, The Marvels is currently sitting at a mere $80.7 million. (For perspective, Scorsese’s 3 1/2-hour Killers of the Flower Moon has grossed about $66.5 million so far.) The Marvels is already running on fumes, so it’s likely it won’t even cross the $100 million mark, which Marvel movies tend to speed by on opening weekend.

It’s a tough break for all involved, including its Oscar-winning star, Brie Larson, the talented Teyonah Parris, and charming Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani. The same goes for director Nia DaCosta, whose previous film was the more relatively successful reboot of Candyman. DaCosta is already hard at work on another film, though, so she should be fine. Still, yowza.

(Via Variety)

Cardi B is often credited as one of the most fashion-forward entertainers in rap music. The “Bongos” rapper’s sartorial skills have landed her on the cover of several major fashion magazines and front row at countless designer collection previews. Now she’s taking things even further: On Saturday, December 2, Cardi made her debut as a runway model.

Fashion house Balenciaga held an outdoor show in Hollywood, California, to display their Fall 2024 collection. Cardi appeared in the show sporting the brand’s floor-length royal blue faux fur off-shoulder coat. Cardi’s look was paired with a diamond Cuban chain containing a Balenciaga initial clasp necklace and name ring.

In September 2020, Cardi was featured in the brand’s campaign. So walking in their show was a full-circle moment for her.

Fellow musicians Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Tinashe, Sexyy Red, and more attended the show.

Last year, many of Balenciaga’s celebrity brand ambassadors, including Kim Kardashian, distanced themselves from the company after their holiday advertisement campaign, which featured children in provocative situations, sparked outrage. However, like several others, Kardashian has since recounted with the high fashion company.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Latto, SZA, and several other musicians have shared how beauty standards have affected their self-esteem. This pressure eventually led them to undergo different cosmetic procedures. However, others, like Cardi B, maintain that any time she’s undergone plastic surgery, it was as a special treat. Another musician is saying something similar.

During an Instagram livestream on December 1, GloRilla revealed that she, too, made a slight modification to her frame. This led fans to ask, did GloRilla get breast implants? Based on what she shared in the broadcast, it seems like yes.

“I just bought some new titties,” GloRilla said. “Y’all like my new titties? I’m on my bullsh*t, I just bought some new titties. I ain’t with that overboard sh*t. These are just a little fill-in. Just filled them in. I just got them done so my man can grip on.”

GloRilla confessed to having had breast enhancement surgery, but the nature of the procedure was not revealed. To be fair, given the advancement in plastic surgery, GloRilla could’ve gotten some sort of filler to pump up her breast rather than a saline or silicone implant.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

A second Donald Trump presidency would not be pretty. The former president wouldn’t be a leader so much as a guy out for revenge on his many, many enemies, including anyone who disagrees with him. Then again, maybe he’s not up to the task. He certainly seems more tired, more prone to weird gaffes than he has in the past. His brain seems broken, so much so that he even accidentally told the truth.

Per Newsweek, the only Republican presidential candidate with 91 criminal charges against him — or any, really — spoke at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he launched into a rambly, semi-sensical detour about how great he did during his lone term in office.

“We want to put our country first. They haven’t done that in a long time, but we did it for four years and that’s why we did so well,” Trump told the crowd. Then he kept talking:

“That’s why it was one of the great presidencies, they say. Even the opponents sometimes say he did very well, I have to say. ‘Take it back,’ they scream. his people say ‘Take it back.’ From that day on, our opponents, a lot of opponents, but we’ve been waging an all-out war on American democracy.”

Even Trump seemed to catch that he’d said the quiet part loud, so he attempted to correct himself, claiming it was Democrats who really wanted to end the Great American Experiment after nearly 250 years.

“You look at what they’ve [Democrats] been doing and becoming more and more extreme and repressive,” Trump spun. “They have just waged an all-out war with each passing day.”

Every now and then Trump accidentally tells the truth. Recently, though, he’s been making some truly dunderheaded slips of the tongue, claiming his successor wants to start World War II, even confusing presidents. When he attempted to spin that one, he only made it worse.

(Via Newsweek)

On December 1, GloRilla revealed that she underwent breast enhancement surgery as a special treat to herself and her boo. “I just bought some new titties,” the “Lick Or Sum” rapper said during a broadcast. “Y’all like my new titties? I’m on my bullsh*t, I just bought some new titties. I ain’t with that overboard sh*t. These are just a little fill-in. Just filled them in.”

She added, “I just got them done so my man can grip on.”

In a screengrab captured by The Shade Room, GloRilla slammed negative comments about her slender physique. “This is my last time addressing this,” wrote GloRilla via her Instagram stories. “You motherf*ckers better get use to this slim body, green pretty ass eyes, and big beautiful nose of mine cause ain’t a damn thing gone change. Y’all can hate y’all self all you want, but I love me some Big Glo.”

GloRilla isn’t the only woman musician to speak candidly about undergoing cosmetic procedures. Nicki Minaj, Latto, Cardi B, and SZA are just a few others who have revealed the work they’ve had done.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.