The New England Patriots are entering a new era with Jerod Mayo stepping into the head coaching role vacated with Bill Belichick leaving the team after more than two decades. While Mayo is a Belichick disciple and figures to keep some elements of the team-building structure and process the same, he will look to breathe a bit of new life into the team with some fresh ideas as they look to return to being a contender sooner than later.
The front office is also turning over, as Belichick held both titles of coach and GM, and while they haven’t officially filled that spot, Eliot Wolf is effectively leading the new regime. Wolf and Mayo’s first order of business this new league year is to take advantage of their ample cap room to upgrade the roster, and there’s nowhere that needs to be upgraded more than the quarterback position. The Patriots drafted Mac Jones in the first round in 2021 and after a solid rookie campaign, he fell off significantly, ultimately getting benched last year for Bailey Zappe (who didn’t fare all that much better).
With the Patriots picking third overall in April’s NFL Draft, the expectation long has been that they will select one of the top QBs from that spot to replace Jones. Making that even clearer was the news on Sunday that Mac Jones was going to be traded to Jacksonville when the league year officially begins this week, as the Pats will unload him for a sixth rounder.
Trade: Patriots are finalizing a deal to send QB Mac Jones to the Jacksonville Jaguars, sources tell ESPN. The trade cannot be processed until the new league year begins Wednesday and he passes a physical. The two sides were discussing a 6th-round pick, per sources.
The Jaguars already have Trevor Lawrence under center, but with his injury history it makes sense why they’d invest in a solid backup. Now, whether you think Jones can be that is another question, but he has at least at one point shown some ability at the NFL level. For Jones it’s a needed reset, as he looked like a broken man towards the end in New England, routinely making some of the worst decisions possible to lead to turnovers. For the Patriots, they clear the way for a new quarterback to step in, but have to build an infrastructure and system around him to ensure they can thrive and avoid doing this song and dance all over again in a few years.
On Thursday Joe Biden delivered a fiery State of the Union address that should all but end accusations that he’s a sleepy grandpa too creaky for another term. But he was almost upstaged by the ridiculous Republican rebuttal that aired afterwards. It was delivered from Katie Britt, a semi-obscure senator from Alabama, who became an instant sensation, but not in the way she’d hoped. Her hammy, performative speech was so over-the-top SNLcoaxed Scarlett Johansson to play her during their latest Cold Open. Later that evening, Johnasson’s husband got in on the Britt dragging, too.
During Weekend Update, co-host Colin Jost brought up Britt’s speech, saying she “made some choices.” After playing a montage of some of her creepiest bits, Jost cracked, “Those were all scenes from the one-woman show A Britt Much. It’s the play critics are calling, ‘Is she OK?’” He added, “That was honestly some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen me.” (He then brought up an image of him from the movie Tom & Jerry.)
There was a lot that happened in the world last week, some of it at the expense of the GOP. Not only were Republicans humiliated by Biden’s unexpectedly strong SOTU address, but Donald Trump didn’t help things when the “reverse mortgage applicant,” as Jost put it, criticized him, saying, “The words are not flowing smoothly out of his mouth.” Did they have a clip of Trump very much not speaking smoothly? Of course they did.
You can watch the latest SNL Weekend Update in the video above.
Last week Joe Biden delivered an unexpectedly fiery State of the Union. Long depicted by the right (and the left) as a sleepy gramps, the president was instead sharp and shouty, aggressively pushing back against an increasingly hostile Republican party and their magnets understandingwannabe dictator of a leader. He even clapped back at Marjorie Taylor Greene. How did the GOP follow that up? By trying to make a star out of Alabama senator Katie Britt, who came off as at once hammy and creepy. For its most recent episode, you better believe SNL gave Britt prime real estate in the Cold Open. They even nabbed a very special guest to play her.
No less than Scarlett Johansson appeared in the back end of the night’s maiden sketch, putting on considerable airs and striking bizarre seductress facial expressions as she stood in an eerily bare kitchen to deliver the Republican response. It wasn’t that hard to get Johansson for the job; she’s married to one-half of the Weekend Update hosts. But she delivered and then some.
“I’ll be performing an original monologue called ‘This country is hell,’” Johansson’s Britt told the crowd. “You see, I’m not just a senator. I’m a wife, a mother, and the craziest bitch in the Target parking lot.”
The sketch sent up Britt’s over-the-top performative stylings, but it also made sure to point out that one of her claims was a straight-up lie. At one point during her SOTU response, Britt told a story about a woman she met in Texas who had been sex trafficked by cartels. The implication was that it was Biden’s fault, due to his border policies (which Republicans won’t let him change). As it turns out, the incident happened all the way back during the George W. Bush administration. SNL didn’t let that one slip by.
“First and foremost, I’m a mom, and like any mom, I’m going to do a pivot out of nowhere into a shockingly violent story about sex trafficking,” Johansson said. “Rest assured, every detail about it is real except the year, where it took place, and who was president when it happened.”
The sketch also dragged Britt’s choice of setting. “You know, my husband Wesley and I spend a lot of time in this kitchen — worrying,” she said. “Kitchens are where families have the hard conversations like the one we’ll have now about how mommy freaked out the entire country.”
The first half of the sketch depicted Biden’s amped-up State of the Union address, with Mikey Day, who tends to play him as aloof, changing gears. At one point he even mocked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (Michael Longfellow) for spending most of the speech clenching his jaws and shaking his head.
Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.
Adam Sandler’s Netflix partnership keeps yielding new permutations, and he’s really going for it, even if these results will not tickle fans’ funny bones in the traditional way. A talking spider-like creature is voiced by Paul Dano, and Sandler’s astronaut is a bit more dramatic (even melodramatic) than we’re used to from him. This doesn’t have the adrenaline boost of Uncut Gems, but it’s still worth seeing the Sandman shift into a different gear in this adaptation of Spaceman of Bohemia, the novel by Jaroslav Kalfař.
If only those Taylor Swift rumors of involvement had turned out to be true, this movie probably would have fared much better at the box office. Still, that is no disincentive for people to enjoy this film at home, in which fictional (?) author Elly Conway’s espionage begin coming to life. This admittedly messy film stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Dua Lipa, John Cena, Henry Cavill, and Sam Rockwell.
The Duplass brothers executive produce this unshakable glimpse behind the murder of journalist Danny Casolaro, whose family refused to believe that he committed suicide in his hotel room. What resulted was an unyielding investigation into the “The Octopus” conspiracy (which Casolaro had been looking into prior to his death) by researcher Christian Hansen, who worked to unearth secrets that could untangle the inner workings of a hidden organization and its many misdeeds.
HBO and Kate Winslet are old friends and current partners as she takes charge again of her old Mildred Pierce and Mare of Easttown stomping grounds. Winslet portrays the authoritarian leader of a crumbling European government, and given that she falls under the spell of a new and unlikely yet handsome confidant, Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), that slide into the ocean might soon be complete. Hugh Grant and Martha Plimpton co-star, and Winslet might be having too much fun with this messy role.
The masses have spoken, and Netflix duly answered by renewing this live-action adaptation for two more seasons to give the story a full run to completion. As a result, this show that was conceived with at least three seasons in mind can take Aang’s story much further and on a fast-tracked schedule to make sure that the younger cast doesn’t age out of their roles. This show isn’t as celebrated of a success as the recent One Piece, but it did clear the low bar set by the M. Night Shyamalan movie, which is a relief. Next challenge? Whatever the next iteration of Death Note brings.
6. The Tourist (BBC One/Stan series streaming on Netflix)
Finally, Jamie Dornan has strapped into an ongoing project that fully decimates his Fifty Shades era, and his character has hopped across a few ponds from the Australian Outback to Ireland, where he’s still attempting to make progress against those ultra-bad dudes who want to take his also-bad dude self off the map. The show continues to be a hit overseas and has firmly crossed over into the Netflix streaming audience in the U.S., which bodes well for its longevity, if Dornan’s character lasts that long.
Guy Ritchie likes gentlemen and weed-kingpin stories, and he’s evoking both in this continuation of the film starring Matthew McConaughey. In this series, Theo James portrays Eddie, who’s the heir of that same weed empire, and the series doesn’t have Charlie Hunnam or Henry Cavill’s tongue, but it’s still great fun and will not disappoint fans of Ritchie’s stylized brand of crime caper.
4. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (AMC show streaming on AMC+)
Beware of the starved moaning coming from Rick Grimes, who never thought he’d have Michonne back in his arms again. Now, however, they’re both in CRM clutches, so that leaves a difficult situation ahead. Will they get back to Judith and R.J. without having trackers on their trail? Perhaps, but first, someone really needs to do something about Jadis’ hairdo. Thus far, we have learned the long-awaited meaning to “A”s and “B”s, and from there, a dual escape needs to happen, so that we can all start crossing fingers for them to cross paths with the rest of the original ensemble in the future. Maybe also get Rick a fancier hand, too, and have more Nat flashbacks.
The second film and that gross popcorn bucket are crushing the box office, thank god. That’s what happens when Timothée Chalamet rides a sandworm and Austin Butler goes into full-on weirdo mode. Beyond those male attractions, Zendaya bumps up to a lead role, and Florence Pugh is set up for the same in the next film. The overall consensus is that this is a sci-fi masterpiece. Our own Mike Ryan absolutely loved this sequel from Denis Villeneuve, and the first film is available to stream before sequel-time.
2. Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures streaming on Hulu)
This film could dominate a hefty chunk of Oscars gold, and finally, it’s available to steam ahead of time as part of Hulu’s streaming package. Emma Stone portrays the young woman, Bella Baxter, who is resurrected in a Frankenstein way in the victorian era. The film is a little saucier than initially portrayed to be (surprise!), but audiences have gotten lost within Bella’s whirlwind ride around the globe, in which she achieves true liberation.
Despite the restraint of this show in not adhering to canon with John Blackthorne’s dong, this series is scoring high enough viewership to qualify as an epic-home run (look, no dragons, ma). If you haven’t sat down yet to check out this James Clavell’s most famed novel, you’re still early enough to get caught up without feeling out like you’ve missed the initial party. There also seems to be plenty of interest for a second season, so it’s up to FX to see if they want to carry this story beyond the confines of this particular novel. This show proves that audiences are willing to dive into vast historical depths, and it also helps that viewers do not have to do any homework(!).
You’ll have to wait until November to see Ariana Grande and Bowen Yang on-screen in Wicked. But you can still see their chemistry in action. Last night (March 9), the two showed off their musical talents in a theatrical sketch on Saturday Night Live. The sketch is modeled after a PBS special honoring Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film, Moulin Rouge.
However the producers of the special weren’t sure which songs they could get the rights to, so Yang, who plays Ewan McGregor’s Moulin Rouge character, and Grande, who plays Nicole Kidman’s character, make their own mash-ups using portions of popular songs.
Some of the songs featured are TLC’s “Creep,” Elton John’s “Our Song,” and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.” But at the end of each mash-up is “Happy Birthday,” which is always a safe, royalty-free bet.
Toward the end of the sketch, Grande delivered the final note of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, giving fans an early taste of what to expect from the movie-musical adaptation.
In a painfully relatable Saturday Night Live sketch that aired last night (March 9), Heidi Gardner leads a support group comprised of recovering people-pleasers. The group of people pleasers addresses several problems they’re dealing with in their day-to-day lives.
One member of the group explains that he had agreed to go out to dinner with his boyfriend, despite having already eaten dinner earlier in the day. “I said ‘Sounds great. I’m so hungry. I’ll drive, unless you want to. Either way, no worries at all,” says the member, played by Bowen Yang.
Another group member, played by Molly Kearney, shows up to the group meeting with a bad haircut. Gardner’s character guesses that a barber had messed up Kearney’s character’s hair, however, the character was too polite to stop the barber. “But can I say something? In my defense, I gave him a huge tip.”
Later on in the sketch, a young lady named Sarafina, played by Ariana Grande, talks about how she doesn’t like her job, however, explains why she chooses to stay.
“I hate my job, so I need to quit, but they give me great health insurance and it’s so nice of them to pay me,” says Grande’s character.
Though Gardner can’t seem to disabuse the group members of their people-pleasing ways, they wrap their meeting with the people pleasers’ prayer of deference.
“God grant me the serenity to say no. But if you’re too busy with heaven, then no worries,” says the group in unison.
Sean O’Malley (18-1) dominated Marlon Vera (23-9-1) to retain his Bantamweight Championship at UFC 299 from the Kaseya Center in Miami.
O’Malley was active to open the fight, connecting on a spinning back kick and a nice slapping left kick to the ribs. O’Malley continued to go to work with snapping leg kicks, both inside and outside. O’Malley picked Vera apart with a nice straight left, switching his stance and refusing to stop his active movements with a slew of feigns. Vera charged forward with a quick combo, but it was O’Malley back again with his collection of body shots before heading back upstairs on the challenger.
In the second, Vera’s corner encouraged more activity, but it was O’Malley who continued to pick his opponent apart. O’Malley popped Vera late in the round with a huge knee, but it didn’t seem to hurt him. The champ followed that with a left and right that opened up a cut on Vera. A late right hand dropped Vera to a knee before the buzzer sounded.
Vera opened the third with a persistence that O’Malley wouldn’t just steamroll through him. Vera came out of the gate with his own combination of strikes, but eventually it was O’Malley who was finding his range. Understanding he was likely down two rounds to none, Vera opened up with heavy-handed shots, but it was O’Malley yet again counter striking and picking him apart. At the end of the round, Vera began to find his footing, striking O’Malley with a big right before the buzzer.
The fourth saw an invigorated Vera bring the aggressiveness to O’Malley. The champ picked up the pace, showing his expert footwork and yet again snapped jabs at Vera. The challenger jabbed O’Malley, looked for a flying knee, and brought the fight to the champ. Vera rushed O’Malley on occasion, but it was the champ evading and putting together combinations that kept him at bay.
In the final round, O’Malley hurt Vera a minute into the round, but refused to finish his opponent. O’Malley continued to pick and pop Vera, doing just enough to keep the clock moving toward a successful defense.
The bout was a return fight for O’Malley, who suffered a nerve injury in the first round against Vera and lost via TKO in 2020. That loss temporarily derailed his hype train. But eventually he got back on track and he reached the top of the mountain with a second-round knockout against Aljamain Sterling in 2023.
Since 2021, Vera had lost just one fight coming into Saturday night’s main event, with victories over Pedro Munhoz, Dominick Cruz, Rob Font, and Frankie Edgar.
In her second performance of the night, Ariana Grande took to the Saturday Night Live stage, singing the latest single from her new album Eternal Sunshine. While delivering a raw performance of “Imperfect For You” Grande let the music speak for itself, taking command of the stage, as day turned to night, but the beauty of Grande’s vocals and the surrounding greenery
Grande’s mother, Joan, added a very personal touch to the performance.
Lyrically, “Imperfect For You” features Grande touching on her insecurities and learning to coexist with her anxiety. In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, Grande shared how she’s managed to deal with the feelings that weigh on her.
You have to learn to live with it. You have to learn what tools work for you and how to befriend it, how to shine a light on all your little monsters and see them and look at them and say, “Okay, I see you. How can we live together? How can we survive together? How can we get through what we need to get through and work on this together?”
Ariana Grande is pulling out all the stops for her latest era. Tonight (March 9), the pop hitmaker made a return to the Saturday Night Live stage to perform songs from her new album, Eternal Sunshine. In her first of two performances, Grande delivered a cinematic performance of the album’s latest single, “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)”
Grande performed the song in a living room setting, as the song’s music video played on a small television. The camera cut to Grande as she delivered polished vocals. On the walls are visual displays of outdoor settings, as seasons change and Grande moves through heartache. This particular performance noticeably pays homage to her latest album’s namesake, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
Grande’s new album arrives over three years after her 2020 album Positions. This marks the longest wait between albums in her entire career, but as she’s been hard at work on the film adaptation of Wicked, her vocals have become noticeably more full. Equally as impressive are the visual elements of her performance, which noticeably indicate her artistic growth.
When it comes to breasts, Americans really have it twisted. We’ve sexualized them to such a point we no longer see them for their main purpose: feeding babies.
This disconnect is so extreme that when women breastfeed their children in public they are often met with scorn or shame.
Florida mom and anti-circumcision advocate, Ashley Kaidel, isn’t having it anymore.
Kaidel was breastfeeding in an unnamed restaurant when another diner gave her the stink-eye, just for feeding her child in public. So Kaidel took a photo of herself staring right back at the shamer and posted it to Facebook. The photo quickly went viral, receiving over 420,000 likes.
In her post, she explained why she had such a stern look on her face.
“In the picture, it appears I’m staring off into the distance. In reality, I’m staring into the eyes of a woman staring at me. She is looking at me with disgust and shaking her head with judgement in an attempt to shame me and indirectly tell me without words that I am wrong and need to cover myself.”
Kaidel says she breastfeeds in public to reduce the stigma surrounding it.
“I do this for the person that has the mentality ‘Boobs are to be covered. They’re for your husbands eyes only. They’re intimate. It’s a personal/private thing to feed your baby. Cover up out of respect. My kids don’t need to see that. Walk out of the room’ and any other derogatory, close-minded comments and sentiments alike.”
Then, she cut through all the nonsense surrounding breasts to explain their real purpose.
“[B]reasts were made to sustain your baby’s life before they were made to bring pleasure to any other man, woman, partner or spouse. Their sole purpose is to make food and dispense it straight into a baby’s mouth. There is nothing weird about this and there’s no difference in me feeding my baby with my breast than you feeding yourself with a spoon.
Finally, Kaidel had some strong words for the next person who attempts to shame her for breastfeeding in public.
“No person should be isolated and shunned because they’re eating, especially when you yourself are eating while ridiculing how someone else is eating. Is it not certainly easier to avert your eyes from a displeasing sight rather than suggest or demand a mother and child remove themselves from your presence? How pompous and selfish is this? Just look away. It’s simple to do so. No harm done at all.”
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