Month: June 2024

According to a law enforcement official, Justin Timberlake was arrested in the Hamptons (specifically, Sag Harbor, New York) on Monday, June 17 for driving while intoxicated, per ABC News. The singer is set to appear in court today.

This news arrives during a busy time for Timberlake. Everything I Thought It Was, his sixth album, was released in March. He also just kicked off his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour in April. His most recent show was at Kaseya Center in Miami. He has a few more shows to close out June: He’ll be in Chicago on June 21, in New York on the 25th, and in Boston on the 29th.

Earlier this year, Timberlake found himself in a contentious back-and-forth with Britney Spears, with whom he was famously romantically involved years ago. On stage in January, Timberlake said on stage, “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely f*cking nobody,” which was an apparent reference to Spears. She seemingly offered a response on social media, writing, “Someone told me someone was talking sh*t about me on the streets!!! Do you want to bring it to the court or will you go home crying to your mom like you did last time ??? I’m not sorry !!!”

On September 28, the Great Lawn in New York City’s Central Park will play host to the 2024 Global Citizen Festival. The event is coming into shape with the headliners announced today, June 18: Doja Cat, Post Malone, Jelly Roll, and Rauw Alejandro lead the way, while additional performers are set to be announced.

The event is set to be hosted by Hugh Jackman (a Global Citizen Ambassador), while Jane Goodall and Coldplay’s Chris Martin (the latter being the Global Citizen festival curator) are expected to appear.

There are two main ways to get tickets. There’s a general on-sale that begins today at 10 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster, or you can earn free tickets by “taking action” through Global Citizen. More information is available on the event website.

Doja said in a statement (as Billboard notes), “It’s been a few years since I was last on the Global Citizen Festival stage in Paris, and I’m excited to join forces with Global Citizen once again in Central Park this September to drive as much action as we can to make the world a better place. We all have a part we can play to help end extreme poverty and stand up for equity. I’m looking forward to being part of this major evening of positive change.”

A statement from organizers also notes, “The hunger crisis continues to grow, infectious diseases are still spreading, debt is on the rise, and last year was the hottest on record. Meanwhile, governments everywhere are reducing their contributions to foreign aid, with more than half of G7 countries having proposed cuts this year. Despite the emerging gap between what the world needs and what seems politically possible, the plight of the world’s most vulnerable communities is more urgent than ever. This is a critical year for the global community to support frontline organizations, invest in lifesaving solutions, and act today, to save tomorrow.”

Given that Steve-O came to fame as a member of the Jackass crew, he’s known for not sying away from extreme things. Well, he’s at it again. He didn’t put himself in harm’s way this time, but his body didn’t leave the moment the same way it entered it.

Steve-O just turned 50 on June 13, and he decided he wanted to celebrate by having Post Malone tattoo a penis right on his forehead. So, that’s what he did. Steve-O announced the stunt earlier this month, saying, “If you can believe it, I’m getting my first face tattoo… but that will be the day after my birthday. Post Malone’s gonna tattoo a dick on my forehead. That’s the plan.”

As the video shows, the inking went down the weekend Post Malone headlined Bonnaroo. There were seemingly some nerves from both Malone and Steve-O, but Malone got to work, starting “with the balls,” per Steve-O’s instruction, right above the eyebrow.

In a part of the video filmed after the tattooing, Steve-O offers a more clear look at the art, and it’s a relatively detailed piece, with the work contouring to the shape of his eyebrow, complete with some strategically placed liquid droplets.

Check out the video above.

Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks have finally arrived on WWE Monday Night Raw.

Jey Uso, who has recently claimed Bray Wyatt’s fireflies as his own, was successful in qualifying for the Money in the Bank ladder match to close out Raw. As he celebrated in the audience, the lights went out around the arena.

While music played, a door creaked open at the top of the entrance ramp and out crawled a woman to Wyatt’s infamous lamp. The camera panned to the backstage area, where fellow members of the new Wyatt clan had laid out members of the roster, dismantled the gorilla backstage position, and had effectively taken over the backstage area.

To end the show, Uncle Howdy pulled the Wyatt Sicks together and posed on stage, saying “We’re here,” before blowing the lamp out. As far as tributes go to the late, great Bray Wyatt, it was about as perfectly executed as they could do. After weeks teasing their arrival, the only question remaining is the identity of the new Wyatt family — it has been reported for quite some time Uncle Howdy is Bo Dallas, the real life brother of Wyatt.

The return of the Wyatts comes after an eventful episode that saw Seth Rollins return to challenge Damian Priest for the World Heavyweight championship at Money in the Bank, Otis turn on Chad Gable, and Drew McIntyre “retiring” from WWE.

The Larry O’Brien trophy is returning to Boston. After looking limp and cracking the door open to make the bad kind of NBA history on Friday night after an embarrassing performance in Game 4 of the 2024 NBA Finals, the Celtics painted a masterpiece in front of their home fans on Monday night. As a result, Boston made the best kind of NBA history, as the team picked up a 106-88 win to pick up the franchise’s 18th championship, breaking a record with their rival Los Angeles Lakers for the most in NBA history.

Boston looked like it was ready to be crowned champions from the jump, as the team raced out to a 9-2 lead at the very start of the game. Not long after that, Joe Mazzulla went to his bench and put in Kristaps Porzingis, who missed the last two games due to a foot injury and received a monstrous ovation from the crowd at TD Garden.

The problem was, this looked like a terrible idea for stretches. Porzingis gave the Celtics nothing on either end of the floor for most of his time out there, as he stood behind the three-point line and missed his only attempt from the field and repeatedly got targeted by the ruthless Mavs offense.

And then, something clicked. After Dallas got the lead down to one point, Boston caught fire to end the period, as it closed things by scoring nine consecutive points. The home crowd came unglued as the Celtics found themselves up 28-18 after the opening period.

The duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown spearheaded the Boston attack in the second quarter, with the team’s All-Star duo playing like they had absolutely no intention of returning to Dallas. The pair played absolutely beautiful basketball off of one another, which opened things up for everyone else on the roster.

Slowly but surely, the Boston lead grew, as the Celtics scored 39 points in the second and routinely shredded the vaunted Mavericks defense. And as the quarter came to an end, Boston landed a knockout blow by way of their halfcourt shot specialist, Payton Pritchard. After Luka Doncic missed a free throw, Al Horford grabbed the board and immediately got the ball to Pritchard, who pulled up from the Celtics’ end of the floor, drilled it, and nearly blew the roof off of the building.

As a result, Boston took an emphatic, 67-46 lead into the locker room, with Tatum’s 16 points and nine assists leading the way. Brown went for 15 points, while Jrue Holiday had 11 points and six boards. In addition to the offensive excellence Boston showed, the team shot down both Doncic and Kyrie Irving, who combined for 14 points on 6-for-18 shooting from the floor — Derrick Jones Jr. actually led the team with 10 first half points.

The lid looked like it was on the rim for the Celtics in the third quarter, as the team only scored 19 points in the frame and only made two of their 10 shots from behind the three-point line. But unlike past games where the team’s offense hitting a cold spell meant Boston’s defense slipped just a bit, the team continued to lock in on that end of the floor and put the clamps on Dallas.

This meant that, while the Mavs were able to go on a 13-4 run to trim a 26-point lead down to 17, Boston was able to compose itself, continue to lock in on the defensive end, and keep them from getting any closer. And as the quarter came to an end, the Celtics were up 86-67, and would only miss out on the 18th championship in franchise history if a disaster happened.

It’s hard to know exactly the moment that the crowd in Boston knew that the series was going to end on Monday night. Perhaps it was when they walked in, perhaps it was in the first quarter, perhaps it was after Pritchard made his halfcourt heave. But if there was any doubt into the fourth quarter, it presumably went away in one of two moments: When Derrick White blocked Dereck Lively II at the rim, or when Porzingis threw down a dunk to get the team’s lead back up to 21 points and force timeout by Jason Kidd.

The rest of the fourth quarter was a mere formality — at no point did it seem like Dallas was going to have enough of anything on either end of the floor to make this a game. Every basket Doncic or Irving made seemed like it was just an effort to pad stats on a night where they did nothing to pad their stats for three quarters, while Boston — knowing full well that they had one hand on the Larry O’Brien trophy — did not ever show signs of slipping up.

And with just over two minutes left, Mazzulla started to let his guys get curtain calls. Horford, the venerated center who had never won a ring before in his lengthy career, was the first to go to the bench. Brown and Tatum were next, and not long after, Holiday and White got their moments of celebration. The clocked kept ticking down to zero, and when the horn sounded, confetti started to cover the floor at TD Garden as the tears streamed down the faces of the Celtics players.

Tatum led all scorers on the night with 31 points, along with 11 assists, eight rebounds, and two steals. Brown had 21 points, right rebounds, six assists, and two steals, while Holiday had a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards. Doncic had 28 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, and three steals for the Mavs, while Irving had 15 points and Josh Green scored 14 off the bench.

Creed has gone through quite the renaissance in the last year or so. While the band was huge back in the late-90s and early-00s, it’s not unusual to hear one of their songs like “Higher” or “One Last Breath” get used as a sound on TikTok by someone who was 100 percent not alive when Creed was one of the biggest bands in the United States.

As part of the band’s renewed popularity, Creed is about to embark on a tour with a bunch of acts that were also popular back then: 3 Doors Down, Daughtry, Switchfoot, Tonic, Big Wreck, and Finger Eleven will all be involved at one point or another. And hopefully, this mariachi band that played “Higher” during Monday night’s game between the New York Mets and the Texas Rangers gets some love at one point on the tour, because this is legitimately a beautiful cover of the song.

That little musical section before the chorus is terrific — well, the whole thing is terrific, but that was my favorite part. And while it took a second for the Mets’ SNY broadcast to catch onto the performance, once they did, they loved it.

Anyway, the Mets entered Monday night’s game in Texas having won nine of their last 11 games. Grimace is involved in this run. Baseball rocks.

Imagine being able to reliably detect when someone is lying. You could catch your kids in a fib or quickly find out when a used car salesman is trying to pull one over on you. If people could be 100% perfect in determining the truth, it would make the legal system so much easier for everyone involved.

In an interview with Steven Bartlett on his “Dairy of a CEO” podcast, former Secret Service Special Agent Evy Poumpouras shared how she can tell when someone is being dishonest.

Poumpouras is the author of “Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, Live Fearlessly.” She also served in the Presidential Protective Division, working for Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

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In this TikTok video with over 350,000 views, Poumpouras shares some signs someone is lying and how it’s possible to detect lies.

I asked Former U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Evy Poumpouras how to tell if someone is lying… 

@steven

I asked Former U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Evy Poumpouras how to tell if someone is lying… #p#podcastp#podcastclipss#stevenbartlettd#diaryofaceos#specialagents#secretservices#securityevypoumpouras #lying #liar

What are signs someone is lying?

Poumpouras believes the key is to talk to someone for a while to get a “baseline” on their behavior. She used the podcast’s host, Steven Bartlett, as an example. “So if I sit and I speak to someone and the whole time they’re speaking, like when you talk, Steven, your hands are usually here. You go on the iPad, you do this. That’s your baseline, right? You do a lock, eye contact,” Poumpouras said.

Once she has established a baseline of behavior, she can tell when someone is being deceptive if it suddenly changes.

“This whole time I’m talking to Steven, he’s locked in with me. He’s got a certain posture. I asked him this question. He just showed me something different,” she said. “And then now I know to be curious… when you’re done asking or answering my question, I come in with good follow-up questions. Cause you’re showing me something is happening here.”

Once Poumpouras sees a dramatic shift in the subject’s body language, she begins to ask some follow-up questions. The key is to be measured and not too pushy during the interrogation. “You don’t want to be nosy, but you want to be curious,” she adds.

Poumpouras says you should always trust your gut when you think someone may be lying. “You can figure out who’s full of B.S. and who isn’t one,” she continued. “You feel it. I think your intuition is a huge thing and we dismiss it.”

On her website, Poumpouras adds another dead giveaway that someone isn’t being honest: if they take a longer time than usual to answer a question. She says that this is part of an F3 response, short for flight-fight-freeze. When some people are placed in situations where they are experiencing high anxiety or sense danger, their response is to freeze and become incommunicative.

“Long pauses or silence after being asked a direct question can be a huge indication of deception,” she wrote. “When the liar doesn’t see the question coming, their F3 kicks in, causing them to freeze as they frantically try to think of what to say or what lie to spin.”

The Boston Celtics looked to close out the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and got a bit of an emotional boost, if nothing else, in the form of Kristaps Porzingis’ return to the court for the first time since Game 2 when he suffered a rare leg injury.

Porzingis’ return certainly injected some life to the TD Garden crowd, but the Mavs were also quick to try and test him, attacking him on most every possession as a defender. They also looked to bring physicality to him on the other end, with PJ Washington getting a bit too physical and picking up an early second quarter foul away from the ball by tossing Porzingis to the court.

It was deemed simply a common foul on review, and while the ESPN crew watched the replays, Doris Burke couldn’t help herself from making a joke about how if that were Caitlin Clark, the foul would “spark debate for a week.”

Burke is, of course, making light of how much overreaction there has been to every time Clark takes a hard foul, and how those moments become leading topics on the various sports debate shows — including ESPN’s. Most recently, Clark took a hard hit from Angel Reese on a very normal basketball play, as Reese went for a block on a layup by Clark and missed the ball, catching the No. 1 pick in the head. It was made a Flagrant 1 and everyone moved on on the court, but it became national news on a level that’s honestly outrageous. Places like CNN and Deadline Hollywood were covering it like breaking news, and some on social media were claiming it was assault and doing exactly what Clark asked them to stop doing, which is using her as a prop to push racist and misogynist agendas.

That all stands in stark contrast to how quickly we move on from something like Porzingis getting tossed to the floor jostling for post position in the NBA, and Burke earned some laughs from her colleagues by pointing that out.

Tom Thibodeau is known as a coach who has his favorites. The truth is, every coach trusts guys they’ve had success with, but Thibs is particularly aggressive about bringing in vets he’s worked with in the past.

A big reason for that is, Thibs isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to his coaching style. He is as demanding as it gets as an NBA coach, particularly with his expectations on defense, and it’s pretty tough for someone not wired just the right way to get dropped onto one of his teams and succeed. That’s why New York has been so deliberate with the kinds of guys they’ve gone out and acquired, with Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo as shining examples of players who quickly became “Thibs Guys.”

However, there is no one who embodies being a “Thibs Guy” more than Taj Gibson, who has played for Thibodeau in three different places — Chicago, Minnesota, and New York. He’s had brief stops in between each of those, but Thibs always comes calling when he needs some frontcourt depth. Gibson was out of the league for the first half of the 2023-24 season, but when Julius Randle got hurt in January, the Knicks found themselves with a need for a big man.

On a recent episode of the Club 520 Podcast with Jeff Teague, Gibson hilariously recounted seeing Randle get hurt, noting to himself there’s no way the Knicks call him, and then waking up at 3 AM to Thibs calling and asking “you in shape?” and “can you be ready tomorrow?”

The best part is Gibson explaining he was told they’d ease him in, but instead got thrown in the game immediately, which caused Teague to laugh and go “that’s Thibs!” As Teague notes, Taj is one of those guys that will always have a spot if they want it on a Thibodeau team — also admitting he is also one of Thibs’ favorites from his time in Minnesota. Gibson played 16 games for the Knicks before finishing his season with the Pistons, appearing in four games, and we’ll find out this summer if he ends up anywhere for training camp or if he’ll just have to make a decision during the 24-25 season when the inevitable Thibs call arrives.

While the Los Angeles Lakers are busy trying to figure out who will be their next basketball coach in the aftermath of Dan Hurley turning down their offer to return to UConn, LeBron James has decided to hop into the podcast game. Earlier this year, James started the “Mind the Game” podcast with ESPN analyst JJ Redick, and the show has received praise for its high-level approach to talking about ball.

Of course, Redick is one of the favorites to earn the Lakers head coaching position, which opened up after the team decided to fire Darvin Ham after two years at the helm. And apparently, the fact that James started a podcast with someone who is now in the running to replace Ham while he was on the hot seat during the season has rubbed some people in the coaching world the wrong way, according to Stephen A. Smith on Monday’s episode of First Take.

“Numerous coaches, Black coaches, called me expressing how they took issue with that podcast taking place,” Smith said about Mind The Game, and went as far as to say there were coaches who felt “very salty about that.”

Molly Qerim interjected and asked a specific question: Was the frustration over this pod because James did the podcast with “a white guy,” or was it because of what this did to Darvin Ham?

“Cause it hurt Darvin Ham, cause it hurt Darvin Ham,” Smith clarified. “So, any of us would do a podcast with LeBron James. Anybody who says otherwise, that they wouldn’t do a podcast with LeBron James, is lying through their damn teeth. I know I would, I know you would, I know anybody would. That would be an honor for us because he’s one of the greatest who have ever played, he’s a basketball savant.

“So, we’re not faulting JJ in any way for doing the podcast, or for the content on the podcast with LeBron James,” Smith continued. “But at some point in time, we do have to do this, Jay. As I said to [Brian Windhorst] last week, we have to remember the things that we’ve said about LeBron James as it pertains to his brilliance, as it pertains to controlling a narrative, as it pertains to being two, three, five steps ahead of others, in terms of what you’re plotting and what you’re planning and what have you. And then that’ll raise an antenna. We knew before the podcast ever started that Darvin Ham was on the hot seat, we knew this.”

Smith pointed out that James and Redick starting the podcast was celebrated on First Take, but started to link together the launch of the podcast with the pressure that came onto Ham, including from Lakers teammate Anthony Davis. Then, when you tie everything together, Smith believes launching the podcast didn’t look all that great.

“Couldn’t have started it during the playoffs?” Smith asked. “Couldn’t have started it after Darvin Ham lost a job? Did you have to start it in the middle of the damn season when he’s on the hot seat? Because why? That’s what some of the coaches were saying.”

Qerim then pushed back on this, saying it’s a bit absurd to suggest that James would go to these lengths to show he didn’t want Ham as his coach, before Smith quickly clarified that wasn’t what he was trying to imply.

“I’m not saying he orchestrated something to push Darvin Ham out the door to get JJ Redick the job, that’s not what I’m saying,” Smith said. “I’m not going there. What I’m saying is you are a person known for being mindful and cognizant of the optics. How could you possibly think that was going to look good?”