Year: 2024

Harry Styles is rumored to have broken up with his girlfriend of fourteen months, Taylor Russell.

The couple was first linked in August 2023 after Styles was previously seen out and about with Emily Ratajkowski in the wake of his breakup from longtime girlfriend Olivia Wilde.

Now, The Sun has reported that Styles is single again after Russell attended the Met Gala solo. A source told The Sun, “Harry and Taylor have ended their relationship. They went through a rough patch after their trip to Japan and are taking some time apart. He’s been in America and she’s been in London. They made a lovely couple, and it was obvious Taylor made Harry happy. Things have become strained recently though and they’ve taken some time out.”

Now, as to the veracity of this statement — take it with a grain of salt until one of the couple actually confirms it for themselves. However, they were relatively low-key about their relationship over the past year, so it could be a while until that happens. For now, the answer to the question posed by this post will have to remain, “unclear.” Their time apart could signal the end of the relationship, or it could just be that they’re working on separate projects.

In March, OpenAI launched its latest product, ChatGPT-4, and a week ago, demonstrated a new voice model, nicknamed “Sky,” which many commenters observed sounded almost flirty — and very similar to Samantha, the virtual assistant voiced by Scarlett Johansson in Spike Jonze’s 2013 romance film Her. Unfortunately for OpenAI, it sounded a little too much like Johansson, who said in a statement that she was “shocked” and “angered” that the voice so closely resembled her own — especially after she had previously declined an invitation to voice Sky during its development.

In the statement, which was shared by NPR’s Bobby Allyn on X (formerly known as Twitter), Johansson revealed that recently ousted and reinstated OpenAI CEO Sam Altman contacted her with a request to voice ChatGPT-4. “After much consideration and for personal reasons,” she wrote, “I declined the offer.” However, she was alerted to the new Sky system by friends and relatives noting the similarities to her voice in Her, and reached out to Altman — who’d hyped the release of the product by posting the word “her” on X — asking for details about the product’s creation.

Sky has since been disabled, with OpenAI posting on X, “We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them.” In an attached blog post, the company says the voice “belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice,” and was designed to be “approachable” and “natural and easy to listen to.”

You can read Johansson’s full statement below. Notably, Johansson has had some luck in taking on massive corporations in the past; Disney settled in her lawsuit over unpaid Black Widow royalties a couple of years ago.

“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and Al. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.
After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named “Sky” sounded like me.
When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word “her” -a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.
Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there.
As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAl, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the “Sky” voice. Consequently, OpenAl reluctantly agreed to take down the “Sky” voice.
In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected. ”

The 2024 NBA Conference Finals will tip-off this week, with the Pacers-Celtics series being broadcast on ESPN, while TNT will carry the Mavs-Timberwolves battle. As always, TNT’s studio crew will hit the road for the Western Conference Finals, with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal going live from outside the arena with fans gathered behind.

This year, that group will be joined by Draymond Green as a permanent fifth member of the crew for the first time on the road. Green will be in Minnesota and Dallas for the entire series, and that figures to add an interesting element, to say the least, especially considering they regularly bring out stars of the game to talk with the fellas on set. Green is not on the best terms with the Minnesota frontcourt, namely Rudy Gobert, but he’s also been critical of Karl-Anthony Towns in the past. After Game 5 of the second round series with the Nuggets, Green proclaimed the series would end in Game 6 and was absolutely giddy breaking down Gobert getting worked by Nikola Jokic.

You can bet he will hear it plenty from the crowd in Minnesota and may have some icy interactions with any of the Wolves that drop by the set. And it’s also a lock that, in case things aren’t awkward enough when those guys join the crew, Chuck and Shaq inevitably instigate things and bring up everything he’s said in the past.

A month after being drafted with the seventh overall pick to the Chicago Sky, Angel Reese is living her best life. The WNBA rookie has become hip-hop’s favorite of the 2024 draft class, receiving support from Latto, who sat courtside for Reese’s debut game, Megan Thee Stallion, and GloRilla, joining the latter two on stage during the Chicago stop of their Hot Girl Summer Tour over this past weekend. This was, of course, after being featured in Latto’s “Put In Da Floor Again” video with Cardi B after her junior season at LSU.

The love for Reese among rappers was noted by fans on X (RIP, Twitter.com), who pointed out how she has generated much more buzz among that demographic than many of her peers in this much-hyped WNBA rookie class.

Meanwhile, on-court, Reese has lived up to the billing, averaging 11.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, an assist and a steal over her first two games in the league (both against the Dallas Wings, splitting wins between the two teams). Reese also attended the Met Gala in New York when her team played there in the preseason, proving she has the versatility to look just as good off the court as she has on it.

Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 made its Cannes Film Festival debut on Sunday. This is the first of four planned films and first of two completed films in this “saga” from the ex-Yellowstone frontman, and he dropped dozens of millions of his own money into the production. In addition to presenting his return to the director’s saddle, Costner has also used his press time to deliver a long explanation for why he will not appear on Taylor Sheridan’s flagship series again. And how did the film premiere go? Costner received a 7+ minute standing ovation, but critics do not appear to be enthralled with what is being described a three-hour movie that acts as the setup for a much bigger story without much action in and of itself.

In other words, this movie might mostly be for current-era Costner devotees. That’s especially the case since Ryan Lattanzio of Indiewire described the film as though Costner was “trying to out-Taylor Sheridan Taylor Sheridan”:

“Horizon” is shot handsomely with a capital H by J. Michael Muro with the aspect ratio and camera placement of a high-budget television series. Which, along with the movie’s clumsy episodic structure, leads you to believe that Costner may have been trying to out-Taylor Sheridan Taylor Sheridan, the “Yellowstone”showrunner he’s rumored to have drama with as the show supposedly readies for return sans Costner. Costner’s vainglorious efforts in crafting a sincere Western opus he poured much of his own money into are commendable mainly for what he’s put on the line here. But “Horizon” makes even that other $100-million-plus vanity project at Cannes — Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” — look like a work of uninhibited genius by comparison.

Vanity Fair‘s Richard Lawson called the film “more like Waterworld than Dances with Wolves” and wasn’t done there:

The strangest, most dismaying thing about the film is that it doesn’t feel like a film at all. Costner, who co-wrote the script with Jon Baird, introduces us to a television season’s worth of characters and plot threads. He jumps from one location to another, much as Game of Thrones did. Yet Costner never lets us feel the grand interconnectedness of these stories. They play as distractions from each other, intruding when something else was maybe, possibly about to find some traction.

Peter Bradshaw of Guardian called out Costner’s “zestless” and age-inappropriate (among other things) writing of his character’s lover-boy ways:

[T]he weirdest and most unconvincing part concerns Kevin Costner’s character: stolid, capable and undemonstrative in the traditional style. This is cool, slow-talking Hayes Ellison , who comes riding into town and immediately gets into most bizarrely unconvincing and zestless onscreen relationship with Marigold (played by 36-year-old Lee; Costner is 69). After Hayes’s violent altercation with Caleb Sykes (Jamie Campbell Bower) this deeply unlikely romantic duo head off together with the child, with weary Hayes apparently not up for sex all that much – but Marigold really finding him very attractive.

Bilge Ebiri of Vulture can’t believe there’s so much more to come:

Addressing the audience at his Cannes premiere, after receiving an extended standing ovation, a clearly emotional Costner yelled, “There’s three more!” Part Two, we know, has already been shot and will be released this fall. Parts Three and Four, it seems, will only be made if audiences come out for Parts One and Two.

Was Costner’s bellow one of triumph or an apology? Maybe a bit of both … Horizon: An American Saga is Dune: Part One for dads (and, hi, I’m dads), and that film also seemed to stop just as it got going.

Robbie Collin of Telegraph, however, believes that this the inception of “granddad cinema”:

with his first feature in 21 years, Kevin Costner may have just invented granddad cinema. Horizon: An American Saga is a western of the breed John Ford made in the 1940s and 50s: earnest, stately and – even in the face of dire odds – humane and hopeful; full of crisply drawn characters and wide landscapes golden with promise, and without a crumb of cynicism in sight.

Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney zeroed in on Costner’s treatment of Indigenous characters:

What’s most perplexing coming from Costner is the uncomfortably long time the film takes to show sensitivity toward its Indigenous characters. We’re well into Horizon before the perspective on Native resistance is broadened to acknowledge that their murderous attacks on new settlements are a direct response to the occupation of their ancestral lands. It’s very confusing to see a Western in 2024 and find yourself thinking, “Wait, so American Indians are the bad guys again?”

And Owen Gleiberman of Variety echoed what many elsewhere hinted at — this film simply feels like a miniseries rather than a movie:

“Horizon,” simply put, doesn’t feel like a movie. It feels like the seedbed for a miniseries. Much of what happens is wispy and not very forceful; the film doesn’t build in impact, and it seldom seems to aim in a clear direction. Costner, as an actor, doesn’t show up until an hour in, and when he does, playing a gruff horse trader who’s more than a horse trader, one feels the grounding so much of the film lacks. What you realize, after a while, is that “Horizon” isn’t just a glorified TV series made with more expensively gritty production values. It’s the setup for a TV series. It’s the early stuff we need to know before the drama totally kicks in.

Horizon‘s first two chapters arrive in theaters on June 28 and August 16.

New music from Vince Staples is on the way, in the form of his final album for Def Jam, Dark Times, which arrives on May 24.

In announcing the new album, Vince gave an uncharacteristically earnest accounting of its creation, writing, “Eleven years ago, a young, uncertain version of myself was given an opportunity with Def Jam Recordings. I released my first project under their banner, Shyne Coldchain Vol 2, a year later. I was unsure of what to expect from the world of music, but deeply aware of what I needed: a change in my surroundings and a clear understanding of self. Ten years and seven projects later, I’ve found that clarity. Now, I share with you my final Def Jam release, Dark Times.”

Here is everything to know about Dark Times, Vince Staples’ sixth album overall, and his final one for Def Jam.

Release Date

Dark Times is out 5/24 via Def Jam/ARTium/Blacksmith. Find more info here.

Tracklist

1. “Close Your Eyes And Swing”
2. “Black & Blue”
3. “Government Cheese”
4. “Children’s Song”
5. “Shame On The Devil”
6. “Étouffée”
7. “Liars”
8. “Justin”
9. “Radio”
10. “Nothing Matters”
11. “Little Homies”
12. “Freeman”
13. “Why Won’t The Sun Come Out?”

Singles

So far, Vince has released one single, “Shame On The Devil.”

Features

There are no listed features on the tracklist, but that could just mean Vince wants to keep them a secret

Artwork

Tour

Vince hasn’t announced a tour yet, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he did after the release of his new album.

Law & Order: Organized Crime is heading to NBC’s hip younger cousin Peacock for its fifth season, but just because the series is getting a new home, it doesn’t mean that familiar faces won’t be showing up.

Mariska Hargitay confirmed that she is in talks with her (former) on-screen partner Christopher Meloni to reunite on-screen (again) and probably not kiss (again). The Queen of “will they/won’t they” told Variety that she’s already working on a crossover between Meloni’s Organized Crime and SVU.

“I’m actually planning on it,” she said when asked about a potential crossover. “I just told him the other day. We had a party the other night, we saw each other. It was heavenly,”she said. Unfortunately she did not give any fun details about said party, but hopefully they at least sang some karaoke.

Hargitay continued, saying that they have been laying the groundwork for an in-person meet up. “I met his showrunner. They want us together, and Chris and I were talking about it, and it’s time. It’s time now for us. This was a long time not being in each other’s universe. That’s why we did the calls and stuff like that. But we’re excited to get back in there, get back in the ring.”

The last exchange the two characters had was when Benson told Stabler she had given away the necklace he gave her to a victim’s mother. Hargitay says she hopes that one day, the necklace finds its way back to her:

I hope I do. But that’s why we added the scene with Elliot and I on the phone. He gets it. If anyone understands how somebody could have needed it more than I do, he would. Because he lived it with me. I thought that was such an intimate scene and I wanted to get his blessing. That was why we wrote that scene. It’s very much our relationship. It’s underneath. There’s so much that words don’t do. One of the things that Chris and I do that’s so beautiful is when we read a scene, we’re always like, ‘Too much, we don’t need that much.’ Because so much of our communication is here [motions to her eyes]

By this rate, the Benson and Stabler will likely be married by 2045. SVU will probably still be on by then.

(Via Variety)

After kicking off the rollout for his new project with the assertive single, “Knocka,” earlier this month, YG has announced the project’s release date. It’s called Just Re’d Up 3 and it’s due in July. YG shared a preview of its cover art, which will apparently follow the theme of its predecessors. For now, it’s just a white field, but on the previous iterations of the cover art, the Compton rapper has posed with cash (the first), and a brand-new car (the second). What’ll his latest acquisition be?

The original Just Re’d Up mixtape was released on May 2, 2011, by Pushaz Ink; it was YG’s third mixtape and featured one of his early viral hits, “B*tches Ain’t Sh*t.” Two years later, YG followed up with Just Re’d Up 2, which featured appearances from fellow West Coast underground artists like Dom Kennedy, Nipsey Hussle, RJmrLA, TeeFlii, and Ty Dolla $ign, in addition to national stars like Jeezy, Juicy J, and Wiz Khalifa.

Just Re’d Up 3 will be either YG’s seventh studio album or tenth mixtape, depending on how he chooses to market the new project, and his first solo project since 2022’s I Got Issues, which held his hit single, “Scared Money” featuring J. Cole and Moneybagg Yo. Stay tuned for its official release date.

[This post contains spoilers for Hacks season 3, episode 6]

Before Hacks season 3 premiere, star Hannah Einbinder joked that she now believes “God is real” after filming a make out scene with Christina Hendricks. You, too, can have your faith restored since that episode of the exhilarating and hilarious Max series is now out.

In season 3, episode 6, “Par for the Course,” Ava (Einbinder) turns into a cartoon wolf when she lays eyes on a “gorgeous golf queen” (Hendricks) while working as a caddy for Deborah Vance (Jean Smart). Hendricks’ character invites Ava up to her room, but as soon as things start to heat up, they cool way back down when Ava learns that the object of her horny affection is a pro-fracking Republican whose kink is peeing on working-class folks.

“I think that the whole twist of my character being a Republican is something that we all sort of acknowledge about ourselves, but maybe don’t talk about,” Hendricks, who was nominated for six Emmys for her performance on Mad Men, told Variety in an interview with Einbinder. “We’re allowed loosey-goosey morals in the bedroom and behind closed doors, because that’s our decision, and we may behave the opposite of how we behave in the real world.

She continued:

“But all of a sudden you bring politics into it, and it’s like, ‘Things just got real. Real f*cking fast. I might be able to degrade myself, but I cannot stoop so low as to agree with your politics.’ It’s funny. ‘What I choose to do with myself is my own business, but you start f*cking with the rest of the country and I’m out.’”

Christina Hendricks rules, and so does Hacks.

Below, you’ll find reactions to Hendricks’ appearance.

You can watch Hacks on Max.

(Via Variety)

Not everyone is born to be assertive. There are billions of people on the planet so there are billions of different personalities. Some people are sweet and accommodating by nature while others…not so much. But there’s something to be said about the people that have more of a no nonsense approach to life–they tend to stick up for others.

Lydia Kyle recently uploaded a video to her Instagram page advocating for “sweet” people to have a “mean friend.” In the video she explains that she watched a clip where a woman complained about the frat boys that live next to her who borrowed her porch swing without asking. The woman who was now missing a swing didn’t march over and demand to get the swing back, instead she watched the group of guys use the swing that belongs on her porch.

Kyle says, “the only thing I could think when I was watching that is, ‘girl you need to get yourself a mean friend.”

She goes on to explain that not everyone is cut out to say something in uncomfortable situations. “There’s some of y’all that God made gentle and docile and kind, and I can assure you if God made you that way, he also made you a best friend who is not that way,” Kyle declares.

Listen to her argument below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lydia Kyle (@lydia_kyl)

Commenters were quick to agree with the points Kyle was making, some even volunteered their own services to be the mean friend for someone else.

“Volunteering to be that friend for any ladies who need my services. I do not back down and have zero problems with confrontation,” one person says.

“Ma’am, we aren’t “mean.” We simply have clear boundaries that we don’t mind enforcing,” another reminds.

“This is me! I will be that mean friend for you. I will uphold those boundaries come hell or high water. Mess with my bestie, you mess with me. And that ain’t a pretty picture,” someone writes.

“The mean friend is like the cat distribution system. We are out there ready to love you gentle girlies and scrap with anyone on your behalf,” one commenter explains.

Is there an app for this sort of pairing or do you stand out in the wild and wait for a mean friend to home in on you? The nice humans have questions that need answers.