Year: 2024

As Netflix enters its live sports streaming era — which was the plan all along — viewers have been decidedly unimpressed by the platform’s inability to maintain stable streams during events like its celebrity golf tournament and that odd boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.

So, needless to say, fans of Beyoncé looking forward to the Cowboy Carter singer’s halftime performance during the Ravens vs. Texans game on Sunday have their doubts about the stream quality. Beyoncé and Netflix acknowledged those worries in their latest teaser for the concert, cheekily predicting buffering issues.

All jokes aside, though, Netflix had better be ready for an influx of angry BeyHive posts if things don’t go exactly as planned. Arguments about the efficacy of the self-deprecating promo aside, the NFL is certainly hoping things go off without a hitch; in addition to encroaching on the NBA’s traditional territory on Christmas day, the league’s partnership with Bey’s husband Jay-Z has come under some scrutiny recently.

But all may be forgiven — or at least, temporarily forgotten — if Beyoncé’s performance pulls down the sort of streaming numbers Netflix hopes (and will probably massage well to ensure it all at least looks like a success).

You can watch the teaser above and catch Beyoncé’s performance at halftime of the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game, which kicks off at 1:30 PT / 4:30 ET.

Ronny Chieng acknowledges that the freshly released Love To Hate It is more physical and personal than we’ve seen him get in his two previous Netflix comedy specials. Movement punctuates jokes about his amateur efforts to inject his wife with fertility treatments as he talks about the process of preserving the possibility of parenthood before going into bits about navigating scamsters and technology with his mother and the boomer generation. There are also heartful (and funny) reflections about his father.

As Chieng points out in our recent conversation, none of the above is a strategic pivot. He’s always run his comedy through the lens of his life and experiences. Love To Hate It is merely a snapshot of where he was when he shot it. With Chieng, there is no grand five-year plan for comedy culture dominance. That’s not to say there’s no ambition, it just seems like it’s focused more on craft than credits.

Chieng has stumbled into a method of staying focused and in the moment in his life while putting in the work on work things that demand — his stand-up comedy and on The Daily Show, where he’s heading into year 10 as a correspondent and, now, sometimes host.

We spoke with Chieng about that tendency to be present, why the journey might be better than the destination when it comes to the pursuit of comedic perfection, and why a little detachment might be the key to political satire in 2025.

Does it get easier as you’ve done more of these specials (to retire material and start again)? Do you feel that you come into the process of developing new material and you start at a higher level?

Yeah, I feel like I’ve gotten better at comedy, and I’m still trying to get better. I still believe I can get better, so in that sense, it becomes a little easier because I can feel myself get better at doing stand-up comedy. But yeah, it’s always daunting. You’re always staring at a blank page, as I’m sure you know the feeling of, you are staring at this thing, and you’re not just trying to express yourself. You have a date booked where people are expecting you to express yourself. So that anxiety is always what is the love-hate with stand-up comedy, the anxiety of knowing you have to perform in front of people, and so you better have something good.

I’m sure you know comedians who have been doing this probably 10 or 15 years longer than you have – the Seinfelds of the world. Does that place exist where it’s easy and perfect and you don’t need to get better, you’re just at that level where you’ve mastered it. Does that exist?

I mean, if that place exists, I’d sure like to know what it looks like. There’s guys who make it look super easy, and I’m not inside their head. And I’m lucky enough to be around those legends who are great at comedy, and I can pick their brain sometimes. And to me, by all accounts, from what I can tell as an outsider to their head who happens to be also around them, it seems like it comes naturally. For me, it definitely does not come naturally. I feel like I have to work really hard at it just to stay at whatever this current level is. I feel like my efficiency of swimming is very low. I have to paddle really hard just to stay afloat. I also feel like I’m still trying to prove myself, so I can’t afford to not have a good show. That’s how I feel all the time.

So is there ever a part where you get comfortable with it? No. You never get comfortable with it, but I have glimpsed moments myself where I can see the Matrix, and I can see exactly what needs to be done in this moment. It doesn’t happen all the time, but I have glimpses of that. And because I know what that looks like, I try to get there again, but it is definitely not something that happens every moment you’re writing comedy.

Does being in that place of still searching for that that inform your personality? Would you miss that if that was gone?

Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think I’m not the most naturally talented person. I’m definitely not the best natural orator. My skillset, I think, is quite limited. I can’t do impressions. I can’t do special effects. I’m actually extremely untalented in almost every way. So I feel like, if I don’t work at it, how can I hang with these professionals? So yeah, I don’t know if it informs my personality. I think my personality informs that.

With all the opportunities that I’m sure you have in front of you from an acting standpoint, from the Daily Show, to stand-up comedy? Is it difficult to stay present and not get too ahead of yourself in terms of trying to be strategic and planning?

No, no, no. Actually, it is easiest to stay present, I think. It’s harder to think ahead. I think it’s easier to not think ahead too much and stay in the moment. I think maybe I’ve made a conscious effort to be more Buddhist the last two years, and so staying in the present is something I actually enjoy doing because I feel like that’s when I’m me. I feel like, if I’m thinking about the future or I’m looking at my social media, I don’t feel like that’s me anymore. I feel like I’m outside myself. I guess part of what I’m saying is I might have actually unintentionally started a practice of it that I actually enjoy. So it doesn’t feel like work, just staying in the present.

And then, the second thing is, I don’t know, live-performing is very immediate. So you have to be present, right? You’re dealing with people right in front of you in that moment, so you have to be present.

I can’t think of getting ahead because I still feel like I’m trying to prove myself now. I don’t feel like I’m big enough to be like, “All right, I got that handled. Let me be strategic over here with how am I going to use my next six months to change the culture of the world.” I’m just still trying to write the next joke to make these assholes laugh. So I guess that helps me stay in the present knowing that I’m not that big a deal. I’m still just another comic in New York City trying to tell these dick jokes or whatever. Yeah, and the Daily Show also makes you stay very present because the Daily Show is probably the most Buddhist thing in America.

If you have a bad episode you have to flush it and move on to the next day.

Yeah, you have to move on. If you had a bad show, damn, guess what? You got to do one tomorrow. If you have a good show, guess what? You got to move on tomorrow. We have a new show. So it is very Buddhist at the Daily Show.

I know listening to your act, you put forth gratitude and you talk about how much you enjoy this country. Is it hard to bat back cynicism when you have to focus on the sort of political mutations of this country. Jon went through a period, left for a time. It definitely wore on him. Trevor left. That time comes for everyone.

Yes.

Are you feeling closer to the end than the beginning? Is it harder to keep cynicism at bay?

No, it’s not hard for me because I genuinely feel like I’m living the dream in America doing stand-up comedy in New York City and working on the Daily Show. So for me, I’m like, this is unbelievable.

Then the second thing is, I think I’ve figured out how to do political satire in America in terms of a mindset, and I think the mindset is that you can’t be too outrage-y. For me, that’s not how you do satire in 2025. I don’t know if it was ever a way to do satire, but it was more fashionable in 2015, 2016, that kind of outrage evisceration, this guy destroyed this dude or whatever. But I don’t think that’s the way to do satire now. I think the satire now is supposed to be more back of the room, making fun of institutions.

I’m not a good person. I’m not the leader. I’m just a fucking comic in the back of the room making fun of these assholes, whoever they are, right? No allegiance, just going for it. And I think that’s the mindset to do satire. If you have that mindset, if you don’t see yourself as a leader, which I don’t, then you don’t feel the pressure of that. And therefore it helps alleviate some of the cynicism when people don’t listen to you because I’m like, they should never have listened to me anyway. I’m just in the back making fun of these assholes. So I think that’s the mindset.

And then honestly, part of it is sometimes I feel like an emergency room doctor. I’ve been covering this shit since 2015, so you get a little desensitized, to be honest. All the stuff that comes through, it’s like, okay, well here’s another car crash, and let me try to figure this out, untangle this. And oh, okay, tomorrow’s another one. So that’s part of it too.

We got so many shows that were from the Daily Show tree and people started looking at these shows as not just vehicles for comedy, but as expressions of these comedians’ own personal political views. I’m sure I’ve committed this sin myself. And I think sometimes people look at the outrage meter and say, “Well, if you’re not screaming, if you’re not going at the guy that I think you don’t like, then you obviously don’t care.” And that’s not necessarily true. There’s a separation, right?

I think you’re spot on, and I think people took what was great about Jon Stewart, he would be earnest and angry on very serious situations. I’m talking about the 9/11 situation.

The housing crisis.

Right. Those are the clips that went viral. And so because of that, people assume that that’s the answer to not just political satire, but that’s how you build a following, and that’s how you get clicks.

And fix the country.

Right? That’s how you fix the country.

No pressure.

But I think what they missed was he used that very sparingly. It wasn’t every single time, and it has to be authentic, and it loses its power every time you do it. And also, that’s not, in my opinion, what comedy satire should be. That’s something else. That’s a point of view. That’s, as you said, a personal outrage point of view.

But I think if you’re a comic, when you do comedy, I think the best comedy has always been counter-cultural, right? Not all the time because comedy is very broad, but stand-up comedy itself is a very counter-cultural art form. All the way back to Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor and George Carlin. These guys were hated by mainstream society. They went after Lenny Bruce for saying shit. They arrested him.

So my point is that you should be cutting against the grain. If the grain happens to be left-wing, then yeah. If the grain happens to be right-wing, then yeah. You cut against it. There should be a level of making fun of everybody from the back of the room versus being an edgelord, just going after people for the sake of it, or being tribal. I think to me, those two things are what’s out there right now, and I think the antidote to that is pulling back a bit and making fun of institutions and being like, “Hey, I’m an asshole, but these guys are assholes. And I’m not a leader. I’m just making some jokes here. This is pretty funny.” And then, you get people thinking.

‘Love To Hate It’ is streaming now on Netflix and ‘The Daily Show’ returns with new episodes in the new year on Comedy Central

Over the weekend, SZA released her long-awaited project SOS Deluxe: Lana after overshooting its expected midnight release to finish some last-second tweaks. It looks like she wasn’t quite done tweaking either; on Twitter today (never “X,” let’s be serious), the New Jersey singer promised some changes to the project on streaming arriving on Christmas day.

“After listening w a clear mind I’m Switching some mixes out when I add stuff on Christmas,” she wrote. “This means nothing to you but had to say it for me lol . Who knows u might notice.”

Throughout her career, SZA has been notoriously perfectionist, to the point that her manager/Top Dawg Entertainment President Punch Henderson has joked that he had to swipe her hard drive to ensure that she would actually release her music instead of endlessly fiddling with it. This has led to an antagonistic relationship between Punch and SZA’s fans, but the results can’t be argued with; SOS was one of the most successful releases of the decade so far — in a decade including two Beyoncé releases, a bunch of new Taylor Swift, and several big breakouts. We’ll see where Lana ends up on the charts next week, but with SZA making some ex post facto changes, there should be a surge in streams on Boxing Day as curious fans check out just what gets updated.

SOS Deluxe: Lana is out via Top Dawg Entertainment/RCA Records.

Over the years, Twitter (not “X,” you kidding?) has been a treasure trove for artists and their fans. The former get to share their thoughts and activities outside music, while the latter get to stay connected to their faves. However, after over a decade, one of the most active users in music might be letting the platform go for good.

Kid Cudi, whose account has given him a direct line to thousands of supporters for updates about his new music, old music, and even his health, said his “time is done” on the app. While he promised he’d continue to give updates on Instagram Stories, he offered his reasoning, which basically boils down to the same thing so many artists leave over: his mental health.

“Ok yall, I think my time is done on twitter,” he wrote. “If u wanna stay connected to me Ill have my ig, Ill keep yall updated thru my stories but I wont be posting much on there either. Just projects and things I got goin on will be posted by my team. Ive been thinkin, I see too much bullshit on here and life is much cooler being disconnected. I think Ive been too accessible, now when u hear from me itll be through my art. I love yall, its been real. Goodbye.”

At least he’ll probably stay out of rap beef now, right? Right?

https://twitter.com/KiDCuDi/status/1869968889611989282

The NFL’s doing something a little different on Christmas Day this year. The league will head somewhere new this time around, as both of its games — Steelers-Chiefs and Ravens-Texans — will be broadcast on Netflix. It’s a fascinating move to put a pair of marquee games on a streaming service by the league, which has dominated ratings for years, in no small part by putting almost all of its biggest games on network television.

Doing this meant that Netflix had to figure out the basics, like who was going to call these games. To do that, they turned to the Eagle family, as veteran broadcaster Ian Eagle will call Steelers-Chiefs and his son, Noah, will handle Ravens-Texans. It’s the latest marquee game that the 28-year-old Noah will call in his broadcasting career, as he is NBC’s lead for Big Ten football and called Olympic basketball this summer in Paris, this time with Greg Olsen alongside him and the duo of Jamie Erdhal and Steve Wyche on the sidelines.

Ahead of the game, Uproxx Sports sat down with the Eagle to discuss doing a game with a brand new crew, the matchup itself, Beyonce’s halftime show, talking about games with his dad, his nascent darts fandom, the best game he saw this year, and much more.

Just generally, how did you calling a game on Netflix come together?

I think that the NFL obviously made this deal with Netflix to have these two Christmas Day games and make it a global event, which I think the NFL has done a great job the last couple of years here of globalizing the sport even more. I think they’ve seen that basketball has had a legit impact around the world, and felt that football could do the same. And so, we’ve seen the international games really grow in popularity. I got to go in Brazil this year, and it was really impressive how many fans there actually are down in South America. And so I think, with that in mind, they wanted to make this easy for a global audience in that sense. So, that’s I would assume, from the NFL perspective.

And then for me, it was really just the Netflix people reaching out to my agent, and my agent coming to me and saying, is this something that you’re interested in? I said, yeah, I love the NFL, and it’s definitely a cool opportunity, and then we wanted to make sure that NBC was going to be okay with it, so went to them, made sure that we had clearance through them, they’ve been nothing but wonderful with any of this type of stuff with me, just allowing me to continue to grow and continue to get opportunities. So, a lot of credit to them for giving the okay, and then we move forward with it, and here we are.

Obviously, you and your dad calling games on the same day is nothing new, but is this the first time he’ll ever wrap up and kick it to a game that you’re going to be calling after he’s done?

I think so, yeah, I think so. We’ve had the moments where we’ve been on the call for the same game. So, back when I was in college, that was the first time it happened, when he was doing a Syracuse basketball game in Miami. And then when I was with the Clippers for four years, there were a number of times where he got a call of, whether it was Nets versus Clippers or a TNT game that I also was on the call for, including playoff games, which was always really cool when we’re in the building. He actually was there for the last game I ever called as the voice of the Clippers, he was doing it for TNT. So, just random when stuff like that works out. And then the craziest one so far, up until this one, was last year. I got to do the Texans and Browns Wild Card game with Todd and my college football crew on NBC, and he happened to get that game on Westwood One radio. So we’ve had a couple where we’ve linked up like that, but nothing quite like this.

What’s it like when one of you is calling a game and the other one’s done with whatever they’re doing? Is your phone lighting up with text from the other? Is it taking notes for a postgame debriefing? Or has it gotten to the point where it’s just like, alright, you’re both kicking your feet up, just watching the game, and it’s cool that he’s calling a game but you’re not focusing on it.

Bill, I hear enough of his voice. Why do I need to listen to him more in a much more produced way? [laughs]

No, it’s cool. I mean, it was funny, because I think it’s like any kid, when, let’s say your parent is a doctor or a lawyer or whatever they might be, it’s normal to you. If it’s a lawyer, then you’re used to a courtroom. It’s not abnormal in any way. It’s not strange. If it’s a doctor, you’re used to an operating room or the waiting room, whatever it might be. For me, it was just always normal that he was on TV. That was almost an expectation at a very young age, because he’s been doing it my whole life, and so it’s the same, even if we do games on the same day. I mean, even this past weekend, I had a game on a Saturday, he had a game on a Sunday, and we made sure to watch one another as much as we could. I know he had meetings at one point during my game, but when those were done, I think he popped on our game in the third quarter and watched the rest of the way. And same deal when it’s reversed.

So, yeah, I think we always check out, and then we always chat about, it’s less about what was said or how we did anything. It’s more just about our crews and our partners and catching up about what’s going on in their lives and little things that might have happened, or talking to the players and coaches and some funny comment they made. It’s things like that that’s the real conversation starter.

Is this going to be your first time doing a game with Greg and with Jamie?

Yes.

All three of you, you have a ton going on in general — you’re all good at your jobs, you’re all pros. But what’s the process like of getting on the same page with a new cast of characters ahead of a marquee game, even regardless of the fact that it’s a short turnaround from Saturday and Sunday this week?

Yeah, and we take it a step further, and this happened to me a couple years ago, but we’ve got the two sideline reporters. We’ve got Steve Wyche NFL Network, and so with all of us — two years ago, I did the Vikings and Colts game on NFL Network, and we had, it was me and Nate Burleson. And fortunately, at that point, I had done some Nickelodeon with Nate, so I kind of had the vibe and we knew each other and had gotten to know just our own tendencies, but we had Lindsay Czarniak and Tom Pelissero, who I’d never worked with. And so it was just quick, and similarly, we were all in season. We all had our other jobs. And so it was a quick hey, hit the ground running, and just good luck, it’s a one off, have fun, and it went really well.

And so what I learned from that is, whatever limited time you do have together, really take advantage of it. And it’s like anything else in life when you get to meet somebody — and I’ve known Jamie, I’ve chatted with her before, and I’ve met Greg before and had interactions with him, and same with Steve. And so it’s not like it’s the first time I’m ever meeting all of these people. And same with our producer, Craig Silver, who I’ve known for a long time. So, I think having some semblance of a personal relationship is already going to help. And then for us, we just did our calls with the teams, and so already now we’re joking around and getting a feel for personalities. By the time we’ll get there, Greg has mandated for all of us that we do some kind of drink the night before the game, all of us together. He said, Noah, you’re buying, I said, okay, I get it, I’m the youngest, cool, no problem, I will assume the role, I’ll be ready to rock. But I think that type of stuff is important, and just trying to cram everything into a small period for what should be a fantastic couple of hours, and NRG Stadium is going to be great.

And on those fantastic couple of hours, what’s the thing that excites you most about this game between the Ravens and the Texans.

Outside of Beyonce at halftime, you’re saying?

Yeah, I will obviously note that you said that first.

[laughs] The game itself is awesome. I think that in the NFL, anytime you get elite quarterbacks, you have a chance to have just a fun game, because those guys make plays. And Lamar Jackson, right now, is playing as well as anybody in the league. He’s coming off an MVP season, and you could argue he’s playing even better this season than he did last, which is saying a lot, because, I mean, we’ve seen things out of him that we’ve never seen on a football field before. And for CJ Stroud, I mean, he took the league and the football world by storm last year with his rookie season, and while his numbers haven’t necessarily been as gaudy, he still is a playmaker. Even last week in a loss to the Chiefs, there were a couple throws that made you kind of take a step back and say, what did I just watch? And so knowing you have two guys that control so much of the game, and can do that at any given moment is massive.

And then you’ve got two teams that believed coming into the season they were going to compete for Super Bowl. They’re going to have that opportunity. Both are playoff teams already, one a division winner and one competing to win their division. So there’s still a lot at stake in terms of seeding and trying to maintain, potentially for the Ravens, a home game in the playoffs, and for the Texans, trying to improve their path all the way through. But the reason you know that both believe they can compete for a Super Bowl coming into the season is what they did in terms of moves for their team. Both of them brought in marquee running backs who were willing to pay for them, Joe Mixon on one side and Derrick Henry on the other side. And then Stefon Diggs, who, of course, got injured early this season, you bring him in — that was telling with the Houston Texans along with Danielle Hunter saying, hey, this is a team that we think can win a Super Bowl right now. And even though they’re pretty injured in some respects, they still have so much depth and talent that they can beat literally anyone on any given day. And for the Ravens, it feels like they’re playing their best football on both sides of the ball right now. And so anytime you get to be a part of that and get to see it up close, it’s going to be a fun day.

You packed in a lot over this over this year. Just for you personally, what’s this year been like between you have football, and you have basketball, and you have tennis, and you have the Olympics — for all I know you’re going to show up at the darts next and start calling the darts — and all these other things that you have going on right now?

Dude, don’t joke about the darts. I watch videos, I want to go badly.

It is the best $10 I spend every year, getting DAZN so I can watch.

Oh, have you been?

I’ve never been, but I watch it every single year.

It’s so awesome. Like, the energy in the place is unreal. I would love to go. So, that’s a separate thing, I was just telling my crew about that the other day and showing them some of the clips that recently came out. I’m like, this is amazing!

But yeah, to answer the question, I don’t know if I’ve really given myself the proper time to reflect on everything from this year yet. I think probably by the time basketball season ends, and I really have some time to sit and think back on everything, I’ll really look at it and just think back to each aspect and each step. I really look at it from when I joined NBC, which was in August of 2023, and the first assignment I got with them was to fly out in less than 24 hours notice to Dublin from L.A. to do a Notre Dame game. And so from that moment on, it just feels like it’s been this constant, what’s next, what’s going to pop up, and unknown, which I love. I mean, that’s why I think any of us get into this, is because not every day is going to be the same. In fact, there will be no two days that are the same. Everything is going to find some way to be different, and I really think I’ve embraced that this year, I’ve embraced whatever challenges come with it, and I’ve enjoyed it all. I mean, it’s been a blast, how could you not?

This is really what I got into this for, was to do marquee events. And I’ve really been blessed this year to do a lot of that, whether it’s the NFL playoffs, whether it was a Super Bowl on Nickelodeon, whether it’s now Netflix and being a part of this first-ever streaming extravaganza. And then, as you mentioned, doing Roland Garros and the Olympics, and trying and failing to learn French over 40 days in Paris, and doing Big Ten games, probably what I think is the game of the year in college football. It’s been really, really cool. So, I don’t take any of it for granted, I really try to soak up every moment best I can in the moment, but when the time comes, I’ll try to reflect on all of it.

My final two questions, I’m gonna ask for a tiny bit of reflection. What was your favorite call of yours that you made in 2024, whether it was something that was spontaneous or whether it was something that you maybe thought and planned out a little bit, but you didn’t know for sure if you were gonna get to use it and the moment popped up?

I think I would have to say the Steph Curry three [against France in the Olympic gold medal game]. I said golden dagger, and that was not … a lot of people asked if I had planned that one ahead of time. In all honesty, I didn’t. It came into my head the beginning of the position, and I got really lucky that it seemed to resonate. You just don’t really know, in those moments, what will resonate with people, and it seemed like that one did. So, it would be hard to say anything else because of the magnitude of the moment. I’ll never forget the feeling — that shot, Dwyane Wade basically giving me a piggyback ride, or really me giving him one, I should say, as he jumped on my back as I made the call. LaChina Robinson was with us, who was doing the women, and she was right behind us, and like, the whole game, she was trying not to be a fan, and that shot literally made her jump up and down. So, it was just pandemonium, and it’s a moment that I think will live in my brain forever. So it’d be hard not to say that one, but like I said, I was really lucky to have a lot of amazing moments, and a lot from the Olympics, from Roland Garros, getting to see Carlos Alcaraz win his first French Open title was really cool. But that one would be hard to top.

And it’s not like you can plan, oh, Steph Curry is going to go supernova in the craziest ending to a basketball game you’re going to see.

Yeah. I mean, if you could guess it would be anybody, I guess he would be a good bet to place. But yes, I had, especially with the way he started the tournament, we had no idea.

And then my last question, I have a hunch, but what was the best game that you called this year across every sport?

It’s probably really close between the the semi-final game with the U.S. and Serbia, which was the crazy comeback. It would be hard to say anything else, although, really, any of the three games for the Olympics, between that, the gold medal men’s game, and gold medal women’s game, were all phenomenal. But the the other one I think would be Oregon and Ohio State. I mean, comes down to last play and Will Howard slides down, time runs out. So I think it would probably be between the semi-final and that. I’d probably give the edge to the semi-final, just given the stakes and given the history behind it, but man, that Oregon-Ohio State game, that’s another one that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. So, pretty cool to be on the call, that was my first time at Autzen Stadium, too, and experience that was pretty amazing. But yeah, I think the edge probably still goes to the Olympics.

Yeah, that’s maybe the best basketball game I’ve watched in my entire life. So I had a hunch.

The crazy thing is, I talked to my dad after all of those games, the last three and he was like, yeah, really, awesome. I’m like, oh, thanks. He goes, you could call basketball for 40 years, you’re never getting games like that again, so hopefully you enjoyed it. I’m like, thanks, I appreciate it. But he’s not wrong. He’s spot on.

He’s called a few pretty good games in his day. Still, you get to say that you did it, and he got to watch you do it. So, that’s pretty cool.

Yeah, no doubt.

After being accused of sexual assault by a woman who claims she was 13 years old at the time, Jay-Z has filed his own lawsuit for defamation against the anonymous woman’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, according to Rolling Stone. Shortly after the news broke, Jay filed an extortion lawsuit against Buzbee, calling the rape lawsuit and subsequent story seeding in the media a shakedown; on Friday, he added a charge of defamation, saying that by going to the media before he admittedly finished vetting the woman’s story, he’d intentionally defamed the rapper-turned-businessman in order to force a settlement.

The documents filed Friday read, “Viewed in the context of Buzbee’s prior statements threatening to file criminal complaints against, and publicly shame, a ‘long list’ of celebrities, the message in the Extortion Demands was clear: pay up, or face a criminal investigation and extraordinary reputational harm.” According to Jay’s attorney, Alex Spiro, and his firm, Buzbee’s initial demand letter gave a two-week window for response, seeking material settlement and threatening further action.

“In short,” the docs claim, “Defendants placed a gun to Mr. Carter’s head. They were demanding that Mr. Carter either: (a) pay ‘something of substance’ to stop Defendants from making public the wildly false allegations of sexual assault that would subject Mr. Carter to opprobrium and irreparably harm his reputation, family, career and livelihood, or (2) endure that financial and personal ruin. Defendants’ statements and correspondence made clear the immediate and extensive threat of exposure if Mr. Carter failed to pay.”

Buzbee denied the defamation claims, replying via a press statement, “The new claim is patently frivolous and will be dismissed. I’ve never said a word about him. This is just another attempt to bully and intimidate me. It just won’t work.” Jay had previously denied the alleged victim’s accusations, asking the court to dismiss the suit. During a recent interview, Jay’s accuser acknowledged that her story had “inconsistencies” but maintained it to be true.

A high-powered CEO embarking on a forbidden office affair with a much younger intern is the premise of many an erotic thriller. And yet, you’ve never seen one like Halina Reijn’s Babygirl.

Fresh off the success of her first English-language hit, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Reijn gender-flips the script on cinema’s most controversial genre — one dominated by sexist stereotypes, gratuitous female nudity, and boiling bunnies — recruiting Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson to investigate sexual hangups – both personal and universal. A tense, psychoanalytic experiment flush with gasping orgasms, rug-burned knees, and bathroom floor hookups, Reijn’s contribution to our constantly evolving argument surrounding sex and its place on screen is more cerebral and intimate than you might expect.

“I thought it’d be great therapy,” she jokes of writing and directing the film for A24 when we spoke with her recently. “I thought, ‘I want to make something about consent and power and sex and control and surrender and just everything that I’m ashamed and scared of.’”

That fear manifests in the boardroom and the bedroom of Kidman’s Romy, an uber-successful executive at a robotics company who seemingly has it all… except easy and regular access to mind blowing orgasms from her devoted husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas). But this movie is not about the Banderas character (though he adds life and color to every scene he’s in). It’s not even about Dickinson, whose dark, enigmatic Samuel feels like a barely leashed animal, even when he’s taming wild dogs on the streets of New York.

No, this is Kidman’s show — a spiritual successor to Eyes Wide Shut that puts her firmly in control — and Romy’s story and Heijn’s reversal of everything she views as backwards when it comes to how women and their desires have been treated – on screen and off.

“What in us is a beast and what in us is civilized? What is animalistic and what is enlightened? That’s what connects all of my work,” she summarizes. “Why is everything inside myself so conflicting? Why do I want to be a feminist and be degraded in the bedroom? Of course, that’s just a metaphor. Not everyone likes to be degraded in the bedroom. But I think everybody can relate to feeling very conflicting layers within your own personality. Sometimes it’s very hard to bring light to that, so it’s about trying to find a way to be closer to your authentic self without shame.”

The movie hinges on Kidman’s ability to bring that internal struggle to life, manifesting her diametrically opposed urges in increasingly physical ways. Romy begins as a tightly-wound tradwife, donning different masks at home and in the workplace, switching between performative orgasms, domineering matriarchal tendencies, and stereotypically masculine corporate speak with apparent ease. But it’s all wearing on her, taking its toll as she sneaks off in the dead of night to pleasure herself to daddy porn or makes a rooftop escape during an office holiday party. She pokes and prods and tightens and cryofreezes her body to fit a standard of perfection meant to make her desirable to others without ever fully-realizing her own deep-seated carnal needs. That pent-up frustration and lustful hunger finally finds a release through her inappropriate relationship with Samuel, a disarming, almost anarchic figure vibrating with an intensity that’s mesmerizing and off-putting in equal measure. In motel rooms and five-star suites and grimy back alleys, the two share a raw intimacy – Romy crawling (literally, on hands and knees) her way to Reijn’s vision of an authentic self, Samuel stumbling his way through a power dynamic, thrilling, terrifying, and completely foreign to him.

Every squeeze and tug and slap is met with even more glimpses of tenderness and suggestive sensuality. But the thing Reijn is especially proud of? The surprising lack of sex scenes in her “sexiest film of the year” contender.

“My movie doesn’t have a lot of actual sex in it,” she confirms. It is all suggestion. And that is what I think a lot of women are actually hungry for, because for us, sex is a story. Sex is foreplay, sex is in the mind, sex is imagination.” It’s here she references two of the film’s most bizarre scenes, both using milk as a metaphorical milemarker in Romy and Samuel’s erotic adventure. “A lot of people talk about the milk, and the milk is so sexual to me. We are playing with the old cliches in a fun way, using them as tools for their kink and seeing how far they can take it. I love sex scenes that are more suggestive than just two bodies banging into each other. For me, that doesn’t tell me anything.”

That’s likely one reason Babygirl has earned its feminist chops. As often as Kidman exposes herself (physically and emotionally), Reijn’s gaze is steadfastly female.

“We live in a patriarchal society so we’re still exploring what the ‘female gaze” even is,” she explains. “Do we even know because we’ve internalized the male gaze for so long? If you look in the mirror, the question is, ‘What do you see?’ Do you look at yourself through male eyes or female eyes? I think almost every straight woman looks at herself through male eyes without realizing it.”

Correcting that on-screen doesn’t simply mean mirroring past work with scenes that reverse gender roles – though Reijn does that brilliantly with a Dickinson dance montage set to George Michael’s “Father Figure” halfway through the film. “The female gaze should transcend just doing it the opposite way,” according to Reijn, morphing into something that feels more authentic, honest, and devoid of inherent gender bias.

Directing an erotic thriller in that vein meant Reijn relied on Kidman’s fearlessness, Dickinson’s creative curiosity, and the professional mediation of an intimacy coordinator to make sure the set was a safe and comforting one for her actors and crew. After Anora actress Mikey Madison made headlines for turning down the option to work with an intimacy coordinator while portraying a sex worker in Sean Baker’s gritty dramedy, an actor’s autonomy on set came into question. Who should be making these decisions and why? For Reijn, there’s a simple answer.

“I am against any movie that says we have a lot of sex, and the actors didn’t want the intimacy coordinator,” she says. “I’m so excited that we have structure now when it comes to intimacy scenes and I think it should be just as mandatory as using a stunt coordinator. I think some directors and actors still think that it will take away from their autonomy as creators. The opposite is true.”

She’s also a firm believer in rewarding women – even flawed ones – who have the courage to break the molds of civility to unapologetically embrace their own power. Unlike so many other heroines on screen, Romy’s liberation is not a punishment, her reward doesn’t come at the expense of everything else that she holds important in her life. For once, a woman’s self-actualization isn’t found in the wreckage of her self-destruction.

“So before I started writing, I knew one thing: I wanted to start and end with an orgasm,” Reijn explains. “I wanted to start with a fake one and end with the real thing. I wanted to create a movie with a happy ending, figuratively and literally speaking, because I wanted to have everybody leave the cinema with hope and joy, wanting to celebrate their authentic self.”

“For me, this movie is a warning. It’s a cautionary tale about what happens when you suppress your inner beast. When you don’t have the courage to be honest about yourself, then you will find it in risky, dangerous places and you’ll start to hurt yourself. You’ll start to hurt others. [We] need to communicate, to [embrace] what we’re afraid of so we can really connect with each other.”

Every one loves a good New Year’s resolution. While most folks will focus on goals that sure themselves (and rightfully so), Sir Paul McCartney is committing to something to behind his longtime fans. Thanks to Martin Scorsese’s latest Disney+ documentary, Beatlemania has returned.

But McCartney still have some solo work for all to enjoy. During a recent exchange with supporters (posted to his website here), Paul McCartney shared that one of his New Year’s Resolution for 2025 is to “finish an album.”

“Do you have any New Year’s resolutions for 2025,” asked the fan.

McCartney replied: “Here’s one: finish an album!”

He went on to explain what has delayed him from releasing a new body of work. “I’ve been working on a lot of songs, and have had to put it to the side because of the tour,” he said. “So, I’m hoping to get back into that and finish up a lot of these songs. So, how’s about that? ‘My New Year’s resolution is to finish a new album!’”

Paul McCartney’s last album, McCartney III, arrived in December 2020. The project topped the UK charts and secured the No. 2 spot in the US.McCartney III also received Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Rock Song (“Find My Way”).

New year, new McCartney. Fans love the idea of that.

Typically in the US, a child’s sixteenth birthday is cause for an over-the-top celebration. For other cultures, the thirteen or fifteen birthdays are also significant milestones. However, DDG isn’t waiting until then to shower his son, Halo with extravagant gifts.

Over the weekend, the “I’m Geekin” rapper and Halle Bailey celebrated their bundle of joy’s first birthday. The remixed Cocomelon theme shindig was right on par with a toddler’s even. But DDG dialed thing up when it came to the gift reveals. DDG treated his son to a brand new decked out shiny red Ferrari. In the vlog of the party (viewable here), DDG’s subscribers found the reveal to be a hilarious troll.

However, users online slammed DDG for making a such an exorbitant purchase. Now, DDG issued a response. Over on X (formerly Twitter), DDG clapback at the critics, writing: “N****s mad cuz they son playin hot wheels and mines playin wit ferrari’s & M’s. Just work harder gang .”

Halo was temporarily impressed with the as he can be seen playing with the luxury car’s interior. Still, he won’t be legally allowed to drive for in most states fifteen more years. In the meantime, DDG will make sure rubber hits the road until Halo is ready to takeover.

Hayley Kiyoko is a pop star, LGBTQIA+ advocate, novelist, and now a budding movie director. Kiyoko’s recent resume update might have shocked others, but the “Deep In The Woods” singer manifested her upcoming directorial debut.

During a recent sit down Hayley Kiyoko told People, although she manifested her forthcoming film (based on her song “Girls Like Girls”) it was deep sense of “relief.”

“[I felt] like it’s my destiny to direct this song and to get this story out there,” she said. “I was like, ‘If I give up, then who else is going to do this?’ And so that was what kept me going. This feels like a huge win for our community… [a] relief.”

She continued: “For so long, I’ve told myself that this is something that I could do and that I could accomplish and achieve. There are a lot of times where I lost that belief. You start to lose hope after so many ‘no’s. So to finally get a ‘yes,’ it just felt like, ‘Ugh, I am not crazy. It’s going to be OK.’ And it felt like I got on top of a mountain and was able to breathe.”

Kiyoko also answered a fan theory about her single “Greenlight.”

“It’s funny. I had some fans be like, ‘Did you write ‘Greenlight’ for this,’” she said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, I wrote ‘Greenlight’ last year because I was so frustrated that the film wasn’t getting green-lit.’ I did it to manifest the green light.”

Girls Like Girls was ultimately green-lit by Focus Features. At this time, a theater release date has not been revealed for the picture.