Month: January 2024

The final week of the NFL season is always a fascinating one because there are different motivations at play for every team — and player. You have teams fighting for a playoff spot or division crown, while others just want to play spoiler for their divisional rival, even if they don’t have anything to play for themselves.

Then you have teams that have long since sewn up their playoff position, trying to run out the clock on the season without adding anyone to their injury list before the postseason begins. However, with 53-man rosters, you can’t rest everyone and some players do have something to play for, as the final week of the season often brings some contract incentive drama. Those players (and their teammates and coaches) are all keenly aware of those incentives and will celebrate accordingly when they hit one.

On Saturday, we saw Jadeveon Clowney earn a $750,000 bonus with a sack against the Steelers, leading to the most excited sack dance of the year. On Sunday, Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones (who held out the first week of the season) needed a half sack against the Chargers to hit a $1.25 million bonus for 10 sacks on the year, and got one when Easton Stick hit the deck in the third quarter, leading to Jones sprinting off the field where his teammates mobbed him.

It’s not quite Brett Favre sliding for Michael Strahan’s record-breaking sack, but Jones might want to send a little tip Stick’s way for making this one pretty simple for him.

The Chiefs were locked into the AFC’s 3-seed no matter what happened on Sunday, as they would play host to either the Dolphins or Bills on Wild Card weekend depending on who won Sunday night’s game between the AFC East rivals. That meant the focus for the Chiefs was on getting across the finish line of the season and, for Jones, getting his payday taken care of as quickly as he could, so he could then sit the rest of the way.

Taylor Swift’s star power is something to be studied, and thanks to Harvard University, you can. Last year, the Ivy League institution announced that the “Karma” singer would be the central focus of one of their newest course, “Taylor Swift and Her World.” Despite the public’s mixed reviews of the news, students at the university have enrolled in droves.

According to the school’s official website, almost 300 students have enrolled. Now, due to the overwhelming demand, they are seeking teaching assistants. On January 3, the professor for the class, Stephanie Burt, put out the open call on X (formerly Twitter).

“Ok, I’m doing this. Our Taylor Swift course at Harvard is so popular that we need additional teaching assistants. If you live in the Boston/Providence metro, love Tay, & have *qualifications or experience to teach a writing-intensive college course,* my DMs are open,” wrote Burt.

Although the posting emphasized that Harvard’s graduate students will receive priority, Swifties with a teaching background are encouraged to apply. In a statement to WBZ-TV, Burt described the inspiration behind the course. “Today she’s the most recognizable country– or formerly country? or pop? — artist in North America, if not the world: her songwriting takes in half a dozen genres, and her economic impact changes cities,” said Burt. “[Students] will learn how to study fan culture, celebrity culture, adolescence, adulthood, and appropriation; how to think about white texts, Southern texts, transatlantic texts, and queer subtexts.”

Last year, Taylor Swift was named Time’s Person Of The Year; this year, she could do it again.

The Golden Globes may be tonight, but the Oscars are still over two months off. Heck, the nominations haven’t even been announced yet. When they do, they may include a screenplay nod for Barbie, currently the 14th highest grossing motion picture (not adjusted for inflation, of course). But there’s a catch: Greta Gerwig’s blindingly pink comedy is reportedly being considered for the Adapted branch, not the Original one, despite it being an original story, based only on a toy brand. That decision has caused some uproar, including from fellow comedy maker Judd Apatow.

“It’s insulting to the writers to say they were working off of existing material,” Apatow wrote on Twitter/X, as caught by Variety. “There was no existing material or story. There was a clear box.”

Does the director of Funny People have a point? Gerwig and her cowriter/now-husband Noah Baumbach were only “adapting” a line of dolls. They came up with a completely original story — one so out-there even they can’t believe they got away with it. (They still had to fight for some of what became the more popular moments, such as that “I’m Just Ken” song and dance.)

Moreover, it’s not like Warner Bros. Discovery, its parent company, thought they had a better chance for a nomination if they went the Adapted route. Indeed, they were gunning for Original.

The nominations are still a bit away, so there’s some chance, at least, for the Academy to let Barbie compete against the likes of May December (itself loosely inspired by a real life story), not fellow release date buddy Oppenheimer.

(Via Variety)

The Falcons and Saints met on Sunday afternoon in New Orleans with each holding slim playoff hopes. Both teams could win the NFC South with a win and a Bucs loss, but that was dependent on the 2-win Panthers being anything more than a corpse on offense, which they could not do in a 9-0 loss to a Tampa Bay team that certainly didn’t look strong.

Even so, the Saints could still make the postseason with some help from the late window with a win, and, even without any playoff ramifications, any time the Saints and Falcons meet the other side will want to get some bragging rights over their rivals. After a wild first half that saw the two teams go back and forth to a 17-17 tie, the second half was all Saints, as the Falcons imploded on both sides of the ball. Turnovers plagued Atlanta’s offense, which had a fumbled snap and two interceptions lead to New Orleans points, as the Saints ran it up to a 48-17 final score.

The last of those interceptions came after the Falcons pulled Desmond Ridder, with backup Logan Woodside tossing a near pick-six, where Tyrann Mathieu returned it to the one (after celebrating a bit too early and getting caught).

Instead of kneeling it out, the Saints opted to hand it off to Jamaal Williams out of victory formation for the touchdown.

That move didn’t sit well with Falcons head coach Arthur Smith, who was hot going to the postgame handshake (where there was no handshake) with Dennis Allen, yelling very clearly “why the fuck would you do that?” before the two exchanged words.

On the call, Tiki Barber wasn’t having it with Smith’s frustration, noting that if you want to do something about it, stop them from scoring.

Smith is surely on edge because he is on the hot seat in Atlanta — at minimum with the fans, who would almost all like him gone, and likely at least some with ownership who will have to make some decisions this offseason. However, making the matter even funnier is that Dennis Allen said after the game he told the guys to take a knee, but the players opted to run that play on their own for Williams.

Jameis Winston going rogue and calling an inside handoff out of victory formation is, honestly, the perfect way for this NFC South regular season to end.

While many teams figured to be scoreboard watching on Sunday afternoon, the Jacksonville Jaguars came into their game in Tennessee against the Titans knowing their playoff hopes rested solely on their shoulders. A win meant Jacksonville would win the AFC South and host a playoff game next weekend. A loss, and the Jaguars would be watching the playoffs on TV.

In theory, facing the 5-11 Titans shouldn’t have been that tall of an order, but this is the AFC South, where bad teams beat good teams regularly, and playing spoiler is more than enough motivation to show up and play hard in the last weekend of the season. Sure enough, the Titans jumped on the Jaguars early and after an early back-and-forth, Tennessee opened up a 28-13 lead. Jacksonville would claw back to within a score, and after a Ryan Tannehill pick set them up in plus territory, it seemed they might avoid an embarrassing loss.

Instead, things got even more embarrassing when they stalled out on the goal line, throwing the ball away on third and goal from the 1 and then Trevor Lawrence getting submarined trying to reach for the goal line on 4th down, coming up clearly short of the end zone.

After Tennessee worked some clock, they did eventually punt it back to the Jags with just over two minutes to play, but Jacksonville couldn’t get anything going offensively. Their season ended on a 4th and 2 airmail by Lawrence, and now they go into the offseason with a lot of questions about how they will proceed.

With the Jaguars loss, the afternoon window lost a bit of its drama, as the Bills officially clinched a playoff spot before they even took the field. They will still play Miami for the AFC East division crown, so there’s plenty on the line in the form of a home playoff game and the 2-seed in the AFC. The loss also clinched a playoff berth for the Steelers, who needed help after beating the Ravens on Saturday afternoon and got it from Tennessee. That puts them in the 7-seed in the AFC, meaning they’ll visit whichever team wins between the Dolphins and Bills in the afternoon window. The Texans, meanwhile, are now AFC South champs and will host the Browns next weekend, while the Chiefs will host the loser of Miami/Buffalo in what figures to be one of the primetime slots on Wild Card weekend.

“F*ck The Girls” rapper Doja Cat’s daring fashions have repeatedly been a topic of conversation. Sometimes, the garments are deemed controversial. Other times, the looks were hailed as groundbreaking. On Friday, January 5, another one of Doja Cat’s looks set the internet ablaze.

While attending The Book Of Clarence movie premiere in Los Angeles, Doja Cat managed to avoid a wardrobe malfunction when her ‘kitty’ nearly made an appearance on the carpet. While she stopped to pose for photos in her Luar one-piece, Doja used her full-length jacket to cover up her goodies.

After the images began circulating online, users online chimed in using Doja’s past lyrics to laugh off the mishap.

“Amala did say, ‘Look at me, look at me.’ Oh, she’s a supernova,” wrote one user.

“She didn’t lie when she said, ‘Now my bald hair, match my ….,” penned another.

“She literally said, ‘let that coochie breathe ,” added a user quoting Sexyy Red.

“Look at me. Look at me. You looking,” joked a fan.

At the same time, users online couldn’t help but point out the irony in the nearly NSFW moment, given the religious nature of the film. “I love her, but I find it odd to wear a cross with Jesus on it while ur c00chie is out like this ,” remarked a user.

The Book of Clarence is set to hit theaters on January 12. Find more information here.

When the American Born Chinese show bowed on Disney+ last summer, it had good timing. Everything Everywhere All at Once had recently won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and here was something similar: an action comedy about Chinese-American life. What’s more, it featured, in prominent supporting roles, two of the film’s Oscar-winners, actors Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. The reviews were positive. So will it be coming back for more?

The answer, sadly, is no, at least for now. Per NBC News, while Disney was happy with the series, viewership, they said, was not large enough to greenlight another round of episodes. The team behind the show still have hope for more, as they’re shopping it around to other outlets.

The show was based on Gene Luen Yang’s 2006 graphic novel of the same name, which itself was inspired in part by the Chinese folk tales contained within the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. It followed a 10th grader (Ben Wang) who is tasked with showing around a new exchange student (Jimmy Liu). He finds himself embroiled in a battle between mythical Chinese gods played by Yeoh and Daniel Wu. As for Quan, he played a character inspired by himself: an actor known for a role done in his youth, modeled after his Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom sidekick Short Round.

You can watch the first season of American Born Chinese on Disney+.

(Via NBC News)

SZA’s year is off to a rough start. Instead of enjoying the lingering effects of her record-breaking accomplishments last year, the “Snooze” singer has been forced to combat leakers.

“Leaking my music is stealing,” wrote SZA. “This is my job. This is my life and my intellectual property. You are a f*cking thief, and I promise to put maximum energy into holding everyone accountable to the full extent of the law. I am tired.”

Unfortunately, SZA is no stranger to having her unreleased work illegally shared with the public. During a sit-down with Variety in November, she discussed the devastating effects of leaking an artist’s music.

“When people leak my songs, they ruin them,” she said. “Then it’s not mine anymore; it’s actually yours. It’s something unfinished that you decided was ready to be shared. And it’s like, ‘F*ck you. Now I’m not releasing it.’ Play your leak, but you’re not gonna bully me into dropping music. I’m now embarrassed by this less-than-correct version that you put out. You’ve sent me into a weird space creatively when you could have just waited for me, but you’re selfish.”

SZA has officially had enough, and her post on X was her way of putting those individuals on notice.

Donald Trump is a master of the art of the deal. He even hired a ghostwriter (who later denounced him) to write a book with that very title. He claims he could stop any major conflict through mere talk. Nevermind that his attempts to bluster his way into overturning an election loss only got him indicted. Regardless, he thinks negotiating can solve any crisis, even historical ones. For instance, the Civil War? Wouldn’t have even happened on his watch.

“The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible,” Trump said at a rally on the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, which he helped foment and in which multiple people died. “So many mistakes were made.”

But Trump would have done things differently. “You see, that was something that could have been negotiated, to be honest with you,” he speculated. “I think you could have negotiated that. All those people died, so many people died.” He added that it was “just such a sort of a horrible time.”

Still, Trump said he was “reading something,” which got him thinking. “I said, this is something that could have been negotiated,” he told the crowd, saying that there was “nothing nice” about the Civil War (except maybe that it led to the emancipation of slaves, perhaps).

Trump then turned his sights on arguably the most esteemed Republican president (at a time when the Republican party was very different than it is today): Abraham Lincoln.

“Of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was,” he said. “He would have been president, but he would have been president, he would have been, he wouldn’t have been the Abraham Lincoln. He would have been different. But that would have been okay.”

Trump noted that the northern and southern states, “just couldn’t get along,” but insisted that their beef — over things like states’ rights when it came to enslaving human beings — “could have been negotiated, and then they wouldn’t have had that problem. It was a hell of a time.”

Trump didn’t go into specifics about what could have been negotiated. Is he suggesting that Lincoln should have cut a deal that allowed perhaps some slavery? Is he upset about the outcome after the South lost? It’s hard to tell with someone whose brain has so turned into mush that he understands magnets less than Insane Clown Posse does. Incidentally, this man is running for president, again.

(Via CNN)

There are a lot of big albums coming out in 2024; Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Charli XCX are just a few of the artists on Uproxx’s most anticipated projects of 2024. Another big one is Ariana Grande. Around the end of the year, the musician will be promoting the film version of Wicked, which is slated to hit theaters on Thanksgiving. She’s also working on new music.

On Sunday, January 7, Grande made a big announcement on Instagram about her forthcoming single, “Yes, And?” The caption reveals the song will arrive sooner than expected, hitting streaming services this Friday, January 12.

Not much else is known about Grande’s highly-anticipated track. However, based on those tagged in the image, Grande appears to be working with longtime collaborator Katia Temkin on the song’s visual component. As for the track’s producer, Grande seems to have enlisted Ilya Salmanzadeh, who was also behind her holiday song, “Santa Tell Me.”

Last year, Grande surprised fans by teaming up with The Weeknd for “Die For You (Remix).” The track quickly shot to the top of the music charts. With “Yes, And?” being her first solo release since 2021, this record is sure to do the same.

“Yes, And?” is due out 1/12 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

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