Year: 2024

What do you need these days in order to make a successful blockbuster film? It’s not an award-winning cast or billions of dollars. In order to get people to see your movie in theaters, it needs to star at least one freaky little guy, who is often not little.

For Dune, it was the worms. In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, it was, obviously, Godzilla himself. And now, the worm and Zilly are joined by VENOM HORSE, the next great movie star of 2024.

The trailer for Venom: The Last Dance dropped today, and it features Venom (the voice of Tom Hardy) back and better than ever, living in harmony alongside Eddie Brock (the body of Tom Hardy), but their time together might be nearing its end.

In addition to the action-packed first look (and Hardy wearing both crocs and cowboy boots), the trailer also shows the debut of Venom Horse, a new iteration of the alien, featuring his signature long tongue. It’s enough to make this movie worth it no matter what it’s about.

Obviously, the people are loving Venom Horse:

Just wait until the eventual spinoff, Venom Dog!

Here’s more on Venom: The Last Dance:

In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.

Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters on October 25th. Check out the trailer below.

Actress, comedian, and Irish icon Ayo Edebiri can now add director to her list of accomplishments.

Edebiri stepped behind the camera for an episode of FX on Hulu’s The Bear season 3, which returns for more anxiety later this month. But which episode specifically? IMDb has Edebiri listed as the director of episode six, “Napkins,” which will probably involve Richie screaming at Carmy for buying the wrong kind of napkins. There are certain things (napkins and especially toilet paper) that you should never cheap out on.

Earlier this year, Edebiri talked to Vogue about The Bear creator Christopher Storer’s prediction that she would become a director. “The first time I met Chris, I was 21, and he was like, ‘You’re a director.’ I was like, Mind your business, bro,” she said (those are fighting words for a writer). “But then last season, he said, ‘Come to set, just come to set, see what happens.’”

So she started going every day. “And I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah. I think I want to do this.” She’ll make her foray into directing this spring on an episode of season three. Beyond that, who knows. Edebiri, down to earth, a little guarded, is loath to talk too far into the future or about anything she isn’t “sure to be 100 percent happening.”

The Bear season 3 premieres on FX on Hulu on June 27.

(Via Vogue)

Caitlin Clark once again was a headlining topic of conversation this weekend, as the Indiana Fever’s star rookie had a solid outing in a win over fellow rookie star (and rival dating back to their college days) Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky, before scoring just three points in a blowout loss to the Liberty on a back-to-back.

The win over Chicago was overshadowed by a late third-quarter incident in which Sky guard Chennedy Carter knocked Clark down with a forearm shiver as Clark waited for an inbounds pass. That became a multi-day discussion point about Clark’s treatment from other players that continued on Monday as the lead topic for ESPN’s various talk shows. First Take opened the show with 40 minutes of uninterrupted conversation about the WNBA, Clark, and Carter, ending with a rather contentious moment between Monica McNutt and Stephen A. Smith after McNutt called him out for not talking about the WNBA in this same manner until now.

Once First Take was done, The Pat McAfee Show began with a monologue on Clark, in which McAfee took issue with how many in the media are discussing Clark and this WNBA rookie class. McAfee brought out a slide show to try and make his point that race isn’t why Clark is such a superstar as a rookie, insisting that discussion of there being a strong rookie class overall is wrong, but instead there is “one white b***h for the Indiana team who is a superstar.”

That comment quickly made the rounds, and while there’s maybe a salient point somewhere in McAfee’s rambling diatribe, he managed to make sure none of that was considered because of his word choice, sparking yet another round of truly dreadful discourse. For whatever reason, the conversation around Clark has made it so no one can be normal when talking about the start of her career and the challenges she’s facing as a WNBA rookie.

If Ryan Murphy makes another season of Feud, it should be about Tom Hanks and Henry Winkler. The actors, who fall into the rare category of Celebrities Who Seem Like Decent People (along with Keanu Reeves and Dolly Parton), haven’t gotten along since the 1980s. We’ve gotten bits and pieces of what happened over the years, but on a recent episode of the How to Fail podcast, Winker offered some more details about the feud.

Winkler was the original choice to direct Turner & Hooch, the 1989 buddy cop comedy starring “Pops” and this good boy. But he was fired and replaced by Roger Spottiswoode 13 days into production. “I did 11 weeks of preparation,” the Barry actor said, according to the New York Post. “I knew this dog, this slobbery mastiff and I became friends. The star did not become my friend.” When asked if he meant Hanks, Winkler added, “I probably do.”

So what the heck happened?

Before he was fired from the film, Winkler and Hanks had an interaction with a fan that Winkler believes caused a strain on their relationship.

“We were in Carmel, this little seaside wonderful town on the coast of California, looking for a location,” he said, “and a woman comes, honest to God, comes running out of a shop and says ‘Henry, Fonz! Oh, my god!’ and I say, ‘And of course you know Tom Hanks.’ The director of photography, when I was fired 13 days into filming said, ‘I knew that this was going to happen, on that day in Carmel.’”

The feud has supposedly been buried like a dog’s bone in the backyard, but I won’t believe it until Hanks casts Winkler in Toy Story 5. If he voices the villain, then we’ll know they’re still at it.

You can listen to the podcast below.

(Via the New York Post)

Samuel J. Seymour was one of the approximately 1,700 people at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was also the last to live long enough to talk about that historic night on television.

Seymour was 5 years old when he went to see the play “Our American Cousin” with his nurse, Sarah Cook, and Mrs. Goldsboro, the wife of his father’s employer.

When Booth shot Lincoln, he pulled the trigger during the biggest laugh of the night so that it wouldn’t be heard. What caught Seymour’s attention was when Booth fell from the balcony after a scuffle with Henry Reed Rathbone.

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Chaos erupted in the theater and Seymour was ushered out by his nurse. While they fled he overheard people screaming, “Lincoln’s shot! The President is dead!”

“I saw Lincoln slumped forward in his seat,” the old man later recalled. “That night I was shot 50 times, at least, in my dreams—and I sometimes relive the horror of Lincoln’s assassination, dozing in my rocker as an old codger like me is bound to do.”

Two months before Seymour’s death at the age of 95, he appeared on the game show “I’ve Got a Secret,” where panelists tried to guess his secret: “I saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1865).”

Seymour didn’t speak much during the show but he did make a historic understatement when panelist Jayne Meadows asked if his secret was “a pleasant thing,” to which Seymour replied, “Not very pleasant I don’t think. I was scared to death.”

This article originally appeared on 2.3.23

A 42-year-old mother wondered whether she did the right thing by disciplining her 18-year-old daughter, Abby, who disinvited a friend from vacation because of her weight. The mother asked people on Reddit for their opinion.

For some background, Abby had struggled with her weight for many years, so she went to her mother for help. The two set up a program where Abby was given a reward for every milestone she achieved.

“Four months ago, she asked that I don’t get her any more rewards and add it up to her birthday gift, and for her gift she wants a vacation I will pay for, for her and her friends instead of the huge party I had promised for her 18th. I said OK,” the mother wrote.

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So, instead of a series of small gifts, Abbey wanted one large one, a vacation with two of her friends. The vacation would also celebrate Abby’s 18th birthday. The mother agreed and booked the trip for the 3 girls.

“Fast forward to last weekend, we started preparing for her vacation,” the mother wrote. “I called the other two girls’ parents to confirm the girls would be and learned Abby’s best friend Betty isn’t going. Betty loves traveling and was looking forward to the vacation, so I asked why. Apparently, Abby uninvited her because ‘she is too chubby to look good in pictures.’”

When the mother approached Abby about the situation, she doubled down on her comments to Betty. “I calmly talked to Abby and reminded her how Betty would feel being left out for such a reason, and she went off with, ‘I didn’t work so hard for this vacation so my pictures will be ruined,'” the mother wrote.

Abby then asked Betty to contact her mom and say that she decided not to go on the trip because she wasn’t feeling well. Betty refused to lie, and Abby sent her a “ton of hateful texts and body-shaming insults.” Betty shared screenshots of the texts to the mother, and she promptly canceled the entire vacation.

Now, Abby’s father, who shares 50-50 custody with the mother, is livid, and Abby won’t speak to the mother. The mom asked the Reddit
AITA forum to see if she was in the wrong, and the commenters overwhelmingly said she did the right thing. “Some of my friends agree on my approach, while others think I should have put my daughter first,” the mother said.

The most popular commenter was short and to the point.

“Teaching your daughter to not be a horrible human being IS putting her first,” Due_Laugh_3851 wrote. “I commend your strength and parenting skills. This was the right thing to do and would’ve been hard to do. Well done, you deserve to go on the holiday yourself,” Loud_Wallaby737 added.

“… uninviting someone because you only want skinny people in your pictures is a disgusting attitude frankly. Sorry, I just don’t find a nicer word for it. I am totally with you that this needs to have consequences, and while I’m very much against breaking promises, I do believe this is an exception. Like you said, your daughter knows what it feels like. She (but anyone really) should be supportive of friends wanting to lose weight if that is the case and if it isn’t they she should just mind her own
business body,” SensitiveSires wrote.

One of the few people who thought she was in the wrong believed that the mother set her daughter up for failure.

“[You’re wrong] for giving your daughter who is a child rewards for weight loss. Her behavior of value based on weight shows she likely has developed disordered eating patterns and attitudes and this will cause her a lifetime of pain,” tamtheprogram wrote.

The silver lining to the story is that many people who commented said that even though her daughter did something very hurtful, she’s still a teenager and there’s a chance she’ll realize the error of her ways.

“The daughter is just a teenager, she still has a lot of time to learn and grow up. Writing off her entire future as a mean girl when it’s very rare to be the same exact person you were at 18 as you grow up is a lot,” Stephapeaz wrote.

This article originally appeared on 9.18.23

Ellis Bextor’s 2024 North American headlining tour kicked off at August Hall in San Francisco, California on May 30. The British star played in San Diego on May 31, and she will next perform at 9:30 Club in Washington, DC on Monday, June 3.

Below is Ellis‐Bextor’s setlist based upon fans’ chronicling on setlist.fm from opening night in San Francisco, and find Ellis-Bextor’s upcoming tour dates here.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor called Uproxx from her European tour bus in March, and the “Murder On The Dancefloor” singer spoke about how excited she was to bring her tour to North America.

“The whole thing is pretty dreamy,” Ellis-Bextor said. “For a while, I’ve had a little cluster of American fans. They’d say ‘Come to America!’ and I was always like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, it feels risky.’ Putting this on sale and seeing people buy tickets is incredible.”

Here Is Sophie Ellis‐Bextor’s 2024 North American Tour Setlist

1. “Crying At The Discoteque” (Alcazar Cover)
2. “Take Me Home”(Cher Cover)
3. “Music Gets The Best Of Me”
4. “Young Blood”
5. “Hearing In Colour” (Interlude/Costume Change)
6. “Hypnotized”
7. “Mixed Up World” (Audience Choice)
8. “Dancing Queen” (ABBA Cover) (Audience Choice)
9. “Get Over You”
10. “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)” / “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” / “Can’t Fight This Feeling” / “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”
11. “Not Giving Up On Love” (Armin Van Buuren Cover)
12. “Like A Prayer” (Madonna Cover)
13. “Heartbreak (Make Me a Dancer)” (Freemasons Cover)
14. “Murder On The Dancefloor”

Encore:

15.”Bittersweet”
16. “A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed” (Theaudience song) (Acoustic)

If you imagined that Cobra Kai — which will never die — would live on for future generations as an increasingly popular baby name, I would bet that you might not guess which name is pulling off that wizardry. Spoiler alert: It ain’t Anthony LaRusso.

TMZ recently revealed the coveted moniker (and “the second fastest-rising boy name”) that would never have appeared on the Social Security Administration’s annual hit baby-name list without the Netflix continuation of The Karate Kid franchise. That would be Chozen, the character who barely made it out of Season 5 alive after battling with Terry Silver and has transformed from antagonist to a hero and a much goofier character on the Netflix series. Actor Yuji Okumoto touched base with TMZ:

Yuji Okumoto tells TMZ he always thought the name was cool, but since Chozen was such a d-bag in the 1986 film, he never imagined parents would want to name their kid after him!

Yuji tells TMZ it was getting old hearing “a**hole,” among other unpleasant comments from random fans, so the character’s return has been awesome for several reasons.

It must be noted that, although currently rising, “Chozen” sits around #800 on the SSA list, so it sounds like there won’t be several Chozens in any given classroom like Twilight did to Bella awhile back. Yuji, however, is stoked and “[l]ooking forward to meeting the young Chozens in the future.” Same.

(Via TMZ & CBS)

Sabrina Carpenter has a thing for making substantial announcements before performing at festivals. In April, Carpenter prefaced her impressive Coachella 2024 debut by releasing “Espresso,” which has ballooned into the biggest hit of her career — reaching Adele’s bedtime routine and the Billboard Hot 100 top 10. Now, Carpenter is preparing to perform at Governors Ball Music Festival 2024 on Saturday, June 8, and there will be even more curious eyes on her setlist after her latest announcement.

On Monday, June 3, Carpenter revealed that she would release Short N’ Sweet, her sixth full-length studio album, on August 23.

“I am so excited to announce my brand new album Short N’ Sweet coming in August,” Carpenter said in a statement. “This project is quite special to me, and I hope it’ll be something special to you, too. I also have a surprise coming for you on Thursday night so keep an eye out.”

To that end, a press release confirmed that “new music” is due out on Thursday, June 6, which probably explains Carpenter’s teaser video from yesterday, June 2. The 25-year-old pop supernova posted a 14-second video across her social media accounts showing her kissing the camera and leaving lipstick marks on the lens before a groovy instrumental plays.

Carpenter’s last LP was Emails I Can’t Send in July 2022 — home to Carpenter’s “Nonsense.”

Short N’ Sweet is out 8/23 via Island Records. Find more information here.

Vince Staples just dropped his new album, Dark Times, to widespread critical praise. His final album under Def Jam, its release signals a new chapter for the Long Beach rapper, who also just announced the renewal of his Netflix series, The Vince Staples Show, for a second season. Now, he’s hitting the road to promote it on the Black In America Tour, which he announced today. He’ll be supported on the tour by singer Baby Rose.

Running from mid-October to early November, it’s not the longest tour, sticking mainly to major cities, but if you can get to one, it’s sure to be one hell of a show. If not, there are always his performances at a slew of festivals this summer, including Lollapalooza, Flow Festival, and more.

Tickets for the Black in America Tour go on sale Friday, June 7th at 10AM local time. Pre-sale begins Tuesday, June 4th at 10AM local time. You can find more information on VinceStaples.com.

10/14 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern*
10/18 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5**
10/20 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner*
10/21 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall*
10/23 — Toronto, ON @ History*
10/24 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem*
10/26 — Detroit, MI @ Masonic Cathedral Theatre*
10/28 — Minneapolis, MN @ Palace Theatre*
10/30 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom*
11/02 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo*
11/03 — Portland, OR @ McMenamins Crystal Ballroom*
11/05 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield*
11/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall*