Month: May 2024

The name “Max” appears in the title of every Mad Max movie, but it’s usually another character who stands out more than Mr. Rockatansky. In Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, for instance, it’s Aunty Entity (RIP Tina Turner), while The Doof Warrior was the breakout character from Mad Max: Fury Road. Who is the ensemble MVP of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga? I’m tempted to say my beloved Pissboy, but the correct answer is Mary Jabassa, Furiosa’s mom.

“My mother… she was magnificent,” Furiosa says about her mom. Boy, was she. One of the Many Mothers in the Green Place takes quick action when her daughter is kidnapped by warlord Dementus’ raiders. She tracks down and kills the men who took Furiosa, and looks rad as hell on a bike while doing so. The entire opening sequence is thrilling — and comes to a tragic conclusion – and a big reason for that is model-turned-actress Charlee Fraser, who gives a remarkable, largely-silent performance as Mary Jabassa. She plays Mary like The Terminator: she has one objective, and she’ll do anything to achieve it.

Fraser’s performance is even more impressive when you learn Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is technically her first movie. The only other title in her filmography, Anyone But You (she plays Glen Powell’s charming ex-girlfriend, Margaret), came out before the Fury Road prequel, but was filmed second.

Fraser is quickly gaining fans, including Hideo Kojima

Below, you can find more reactions to her MVP performance.

There was no bigger Grateful Dead fan than Bill Walton, the late basketball icon who died yesterday (May 28) at 71 years old: He saw over 1,000 of the band’s concerts. So, some of the group’s members came through with tributes to their old friend.

Dead & Company, the new band that features original Grateful Dead members, shared a gallery of Walton photos on Instagram and wrote:

“Fare you well, fare you well, we love you more than words can tell.

Bill was an irreplaceable force and spirit in our family. Father Time, Rhythm Devil, biggest deadhead ever. Over 1000 shows and couldn’t get enough. He loved this band and we loved him.

We will miss our beloved friend, @BillWalton, deeply. Rest in peace and may the four winds blow you safely home.”

Bob Weir also shared a gallery and wrote, “Yo Bill, thanks for the ride. Thanks for the wonderful friendship, the years of color commentary – and the Hall of Fame existence that you wore like headlights. Bon voyage ol’ buddy. We’re sure gonna miss you – but don’t let that slow you down…”

Mickey Hart wrote in his own post:

“Bill was my best friend, the best friend I ever had. He was an amazing person, singular, irreplaceable, giving, loving. His love for our music was beyond description. He called himself the luckiest man in the world but it was us who were lucky—to know him, to share the adventure with him. He was the biggest Deadhead in the world and used our music as the soundtrack to his life. After our shows, he would regularly send messages that said, ‘thank you for my life.’ Over 1000 shows, he just couldn’t get enough. Bill had an incredible passion for drums. After any meal at his house, we would play. There was nothing like a Bill Walton… nothing.

There are things you can replace. And others you cannot. Bon voyage, old friend, I love you.”

Bill Kreutzmann shared a particularly long tribute:

“There are incredible stories about Bill Walton that I promised him I would only tell after he passed away, and it’s not nearly that time yet because before we laugh, first we must allow ourselves to cry. Darn it. This is a mournful day. This is a period of mourning.

Sure, Bill Walton was an NBA legend. But in the Grateful Dead orbit, he was just a fan – and that made him a legend here, too. In many ways, he was our number one fan… but Bill would’ve taken issue with that ranking because, while he won many awards in his storied basketball career — including MVP — Bill insisted that the Grateful Dead was not a competition — and that all Deadheads were equal.

By that same notion, as I flash through decades of adventures with him, there isn’t one favorite memory. They all shine through. And they’re all important, because they all brought us both real happiness. And that’s special. That’s friendship.

Bill was a genuine fan that became a genuine friend and someone I always looked up to. But his towering presence was more than just literal. Whenever I play, there will now always be a hole where a seat should be, about ten rows back, center, where Bill used to stand, eyes closed, arms raised, while he felt the music running through him. That was a happy place for him and seeing him out there was one of mine. We never did have a hard time finding him in the crowd.

Similarly, when he walked into a room, you knew it – but it wasn’t because of his size. It was because of that laugh of his that broadcasted joy, and it was his easygoing smile that beamed sunshine across any space he ever entered.

So, yeah, losing Bill is an irreplaceable loss and, in simple terms, I am heartbroken. When somebody means that much to you, when their friendship is that important – that’s called love. I loved Bill Walton. As we say in the land of the Dead: May the four winds blow him safely home.”

Find all of those posts below.

Wake up, the Knives Out cast is being announced. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Josh O’Connor, from Challengers, and Cailee Spaeny, from Priscilla and Civil War, will join returning star Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson‘s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third Knives Out movie.

There are also (unconfirmed) rumors that Lindsay Lohan and Tom Hardy be involved in an elaborate mystery that Benoit Blanc will solve using the power of his very authentic South accent in Wake Up Dead Man, although the movie’s official Twitter account might have put the kibosh on those.

Little is known about the plot of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, other than it will be a “brand-new murder mystery in an as-yet-undisclosed setting, surrounded by a new colorful cast of suspects,” according to Netflix. In a post on Twitter about the film, Johnson wrote, “I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is. There’s a whole tonal spectrum from Carr to Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will be released in 2025.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Jennifer Lopez stars in the new movie Atlas, which is streaming on Netflix now and sees her playing a data analyst who must leverage AI to help save the planet. Beyond the screen, Lopez has had some run-ins with AI in her own life and they weren’t exactly positive.

At the movie’s premiere in Los Angeles, Lopez told Variety that she has seen advertisements created with AI that used edited photos of her face covered in “wrinkles,” to sell “skincare that I know nothing about.” Lopez said, “It’s really scary. Right away we had them stealing our faces. So, yes, [AI] is really scary.”

She added, “I think you should be respectful of AI. […] We have to be open to all possibilities. These movies that are talking about AI — especially this one — do a really good job of showing both sides.” Lopez also said, “I think this movie does a good job of showing how AI could go incredibly wrong, and this is how it could go really right.”

Meanwhile, Lopez has seemingly had some issues with her latest concert tour. It was reported in March that Lopez had quietly canceled a handful of shows of This Is Me… Now The Tour. Later, amid reports of low ticket sales, the tour was renamed This Is Me…Live The Greatest Hits.

The Boston Celtics are on their way to the NBA Finals. Despite yet another spirited effort while Tyrese Haliburton watched on the sideline with an injury, the Indiana Pacers were unable to pick up a win on their home floor to elongate the Eastern Conference Finals, and as a result, Boston completed a sweep with a 105-102 win.

For the second game in a row, despite being undermanned due to Haliburton’s injury, the Pacers did not back down in the first half. While they were not able to open up the sort of double-digit lead that they had at halftime in Game 3, Indiana always had an answer when Boston looked like it was positioning itself to go on a run — the first half saw five ties and 13 lead changes.

The play of Andrew Nembhard, who was once again terrific, and Pascal Siakam carried the Pacers, as the former had 16 points in the first half and the latter had 13. T.J. McConnell, as he’s done all postseason, was excellent off the bench, going for eight points in nine minutes.

But the problem was Jayson Tatum brought his A-game. Tatum had his fingerprints all over the game, as went into the locker room with 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Thanks to that, along with 10 points each from Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown, Boston held a 58-57 edge at halftime.

The third quarter was defined by Boston going cold from the field. The team went 1-for-10 from behind the three-point line, with their only made triple coming at the very end of the period. In all, the Celtics only scored 22 points in the third, their lowest-scoring quarter of the entire series.

While they did not run up the score, Indiana was able to take advantage of this by leading for nearly the entire quarter. The lead got up to as many as six points, and while the Celtics never quite let them open up a lead, the Pacers were able to take an 83-80 lead into the fourth.

Indiana continued to build out its lead to start the fourth quarter, getting it up to as many as nine points. But with a little less than seven and a half minutes left, the team saw its spark plug head to the locker room, as Brown caught McConnell after the Pacers guard reeled in an offensive rebound. While he had to go to the locker room, there was no flagrant foul assessed to Brown on the play.

McConnell was able to return to the game, and by the time he returned with just under four minutes to go, Boston had gotten the lead down to two. And eventually, after a dunk by Tatum and a floater by Brown, the Celtics tied things up at 102 each with 2:40 to go in the game.

And then, both teams went cold, as there were six consecutive possessions with a miss or a turnover before someone decided to call a timeout. Out of the break, Brown denied Nembhard as he went up for a layup, and on the ensuing possession, he got the ball into the hands of White in the corner, who drilled a three.

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1795283205358051522

Nembhard missed his effort to tie the game from three, and after a foul, the Pacers opted to try and play out a possession before trying to force overtime. The plan looked like it was going to work, as Tatum bricked a three with eight seconds left, but Holiday beat Aaron Nesmith to a rebound, and Indiana was unable to foul before the clock hit zero.

The Jays led the way on the night for Boston, with Brown putting up 29 points and Tatum going for 26 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists. Holiday had 17 points and nine rebounds, while White did a little bit of everything with 16 points, five steals, four assists, four rebounds, and three blocks. Nembhard had 24 points and 10 assists for Indiana, while Siakam had 19 points and 10 rebounds. McConnell (15 points, five rebounds, four assists) and Toppin (12 points, seven boards) gave them good contributions off the bench.

Boston will now wait to see if the Dallas Mavericks can finish off their sweep in the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night. Regardless of what happens in that series, the Celtics will not play again until June 6, when the NBA Finals begin.

The soft sound of slow-moving water down a creek. The smell of fresh coffee roasting in the morning. A thick blanket resting across your lap during the first snowfall of winter.

Sure, you might find these things soothing. But none of them — none of them — compares to watching (and listening to) Bob Ross paint.

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In case you’ve never experienced Ross, he’s that “soft spoken guy painting happy clouds, mountains, and trees in about 26 television minutes,” as his website explains. And if you think that sounds boring, well, you’re wrong. It’s one magical half-hour of television euphoria. End of discussion.

Ross died back in 1995 (rest in peace, Bob), but you can still catch his show, “The Joy of Painting,” on TV from time-to-time (or you can binge watch it on YouTube after a rough day at work). His website claims it’s the “most recognized, most watched TV art show in history.” And who could argue with that? No one. No one, I tell you.

Although it’s been more than two decades since Ross’ show was canceled, one episode recently resurfaced online.

An especially old one — episode four of season two — made its way onto the front page of Reddit on Sept. 1, 2015. It begins like any other: Ross smiling brightly next to a blank canvas, ready to take us on an endorphin-filled visual journey.

But then, plot twist, as Ross explains, this episode won’t be quite as colorful as the others…

“Anyone can paint.” (I wish he could give me Monday morning pep talks every week.)

In case you want to print out that quote and hang it on your wall or something (we could all use a little more Bob-spiration, after all), here it is in its entirety:

“Just recently I was doing a demonstration in a mall, and I had a man come to me and he said, ‘Bob, I could never paint because I’m colorblind. All I can see is gray tones.’ So I thought today we’d do a picture in gray just to show you that anyone can paint.”

Ross had a wonderful habit of reminding viewers that art is for everyone.

While his talents were extraordinary, Ross never made viewers feel like they couldn’t create their own beautiful works of art, too.

The colorblind fan could have had achromatopsia — a condition that affects roughly 1 in every 33,000 Americans by limiting their vision to see only in grayscale. But Ross was determined to make painting — an activity seemingly dependent on color — an accessible art form for him: “Any color will work, as long as you use the basic method.”

In the episode, Ross goes on to paint his own version of 50 shades of gray, masterfully creating rocky mountains behind a wintry sky.

As Ross explains, he only used various hues of browns and blues mixed together (which end up coming through as various grays), along with white.

“Isn’t that fantastic? That you can make whole mountains in minutes? And you can do it. There’s no big secret to it. All you need is a dream in your heart.”

Bob Ross was incredible.

Not only at painting (and assuring me with that soothing voice that the world is a wonderful place), but at helping everyone feel good about themselves and their own abilities. Thank you, Bob.

Check out the whole episode below:

This article originally appeared on 09.01.15

Bill Walton died on Monday after a battle with cancer at the age of 71, and the news stunned and saddened the basketball world.

The tributes and memories fans, players, and media members shared of Walton offered a terrific example of how he had such a lasting impact on the game. From his time at UCLA to Portland to San Diego to Boston, people posted stories of Walton’s on-court prowess and anecdotes from his career. Others remembered Walton’s time calling the NBA on NBC, providing the soundtrack to the biggest games of the 90s. Many younger fans remember Walton’s most recent chapter as a broadcaster, calling college basketball games (mostly in the Pac-12) for ESPN.

His partner for the majority of those games was Dave Pasch, who had an incredible chemistry with Walton, playing the straight man trying to call games while Walton wandered about, going down whatever path his mind presented to often discuss anything and everything but the game. They were a joy to watch, and on Monday, Pasch called in to SportsCenter to offer a remembrance of his longtime partner and share a touching anecdote about Walton, the person.

He also offered up an incredibly funny story of how they made up a bit about George Lucas creating Chewbacca in Walton’s image and then it got picked up by big entertainment outlets.

It is a perfect tribute to Walton by someone who knew him like few do, and a glimpse into the man who was a truly unique force. Another of Walton’s play-by-play partners, Jason Benetti, who called games with him on ESPN and later joined Walton for the always bizarre Throw It Down simulcast on NBA League Pass, posted a similarly fitting tribute to the legend.

The sports world was met with sad news today, May 27: Bill Walton, basketball hall-of-famer and NBA legend, is dead at 71 years old after a battle with cancer. This is a noteworthy loss for the music world, too: If you know two things about Walton aside from his basketball achievements, one is that he had an unceasingly optimistic and offbeat personality. The other is that he was perhaps the world’s biggest (both in terms of enthusiasm and physical size) Grateful Dead fan.

Naturally, when Dead & Company — an offshoot band featuring some original Grateful Dead members, John Mayer, and others — launched nearly a decade ago, Walton was all in. This means Mayer has gotten to know Walton a bit, and back in 2023, he spoke about his experiences with the sports icon.

Mayer was Walton’s guest on an interview-style NBA broadcast in January 2023, and he reminisced about Walton speaking to him before taking the stage for a Dead & Company show. It was very Bill Walton.

Mayer said, “You know, it’s really just him being very laser-sharp. When Bill gives you advice, he looks you dead in the eye and everything stops, and he speaks with this cadence: ‘Go out there, give it your absolute all. Don’t be shy, they are here to watch you play. Go play to the greatest of your ability.’”

Mayer also noted that Walton gave him “some of the greatest compliments I’ve ever been given,” including “some very nice things that sent me on stage with a lot of confidence.”

Dead & Company, by the way, is in the midst of a run of shows at Sphere in Las Vegas.

Check out the Mayer/Walton clip above and revisit more of the broadcast below. Basketball fans have also been sharing their favorite clips of Walton, so find some of those here.

It was a weekend for Nicki Minaj. On Saturday, May 25, Minaj live-posted her chaotic arrest at an Amsterdam airport during her Pink Friday 2 World Tour. According to The Associated Press, Netherlands police “discovered marijuana in her bags as she was preparing to leave the country.”

Minaj was released later that night, as reported by various reputable outlets, after “sitting in a jail cell for five-to-six hours,” according to Minaj. The debacle forced Minaj to postpone her scheduled May 25 Pink Friday 2 World Tour concert in Manchester, England. (Minaj also had a pre-existing May 30 Manchester show on her tour.)

“OK guys, I was JUST RE-ADVISED that we actually CAN NOT do any other date for the make up #gagcityMANCHESTER date besides JUNE 3rd,” Minaj wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, May 27. “So JUNE 3rd is the new official date for all ticket holders who originally had tickets to the MAY 25th #Manchester show. I apologize for all the inconvenience this has caused. I really hope you can make the #JUNE3rd show. It’ll be really special. Ticketmaster will contact you to advise officially. #GAGCITY Love you.”

Minaj was able to perform as scheduled in Birmingham, England, on Sunday, May 26, and she will hit up London’s famed The O2 on May 28, Glasgow on May 29, Manchester on May 30, Paris on June 1, and Amsterdam on June 2, before looping back to make up her May 25 Manchester date on June 3.

See all of Minaj’s remaining dates here, and check out some of her posts regarding the matter below.

While the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef is primarily focused on those two rappers, others, like Metro Boomin, have gotten involved as well. Things have mostly died down in terms of the feud, and now Metro was even joking about it on a recent Instagram Live broadcast from 21 Savage.

21 Savage hopped on Instagram Live over the weekend, and at one point, he added Metro to the broadcast, as HipHopDX notes. However, Metro jokingly called 21 “OVO Savage” in the comments section, also joking, “I JUS KNOW U GOT A OWL TRAMP STAMP.”

After realizing what happened, 21 booted Metro from the broadcast and said, “Oh, you was talking sh*t, b*tch? Get off my Live. […] I’m finna block this n****.” He then quoted Drake’s “Push Ups” and yelled, “Metro, shut your ho-ass up and make some drums, n****.”

21 is of course caught in the middle of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud: Metro is on Kendrick’s side, while 21 has a relationship with both Drake and Metro. In a different Live session from earlier this month, 21 said, “Don’t keep coming on to my motherf*cking Live talking about no motherf*cking beef. Metro my brother and Drake my brother. Those n****s going to figure that sh*t out eventually.”