Category: News

The Alabama Crimson Tide are heading to the Elite 8 after upsetting the North Carolina Tar Heels on Thursday night. Led by an absolutely spectacular performance by transfer big man Grant Nelson, the Crimson Tide picked up an 89-87 win to earn a matchup with the Clemson Tigers for a spot in the Final Four.

The Tar Heels had absolutely nothing for Nelson, who had 24 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks while shooting 6-for-9 from the field, 2-for-2 from three, and 10-for-13 from the free throw line. And in the immediate aftermath of the game, Alabama coach Nate Oats decided to take a few shots at Charles Barkley, who said before the game that the Crimson Tide are “frail” and “can’t handle North Carolina in the post.”

“Charles Barkley called us frail, I don’t think [Nelson] was frail tonight,” Oats said. “He showed up tonight.”

Oats then went into the locker room to address his team and once again decided to go after Barkley for his comment.

“Where’s the cameras?” Oats asked. “Charles Barkley called us frail. I think he was talking about Grant … Hey, we ain’t frail, we ain’t frail. And we’re in the Elite 8, and we’re one game away from a Final Four.”

Barkley’s comments also managed to draw the ire of some Alabama players, who took exception to him using the word frail. Barkley, of course, went to Auburn and famously once said that if Alabama played Afghanistan in anything, he’d root for Afghanistan, so our hunch is he didn’t love being on the receiving end of some jokes like this.

Rap fans are looking for someone to blame after a much-hyped Drake feature touted to appear on Bfb Da Packman’s new album Forget Me Not failed to materialize. While the Flint rapper tried to explain his absense, some aren’t buying it, especially after Packman’s story changed a few times.

“I couldn’t get it cleared,” he wrote of the missing feature on Twitter. “Kendrick came out with the diss and he put everything on hold.” A likely story, right?

However, just hours before, Packman tried to ameliorate fans’ concerns, calling reports that Drake wasn’t on the album “Fake news,” and explaining that the version fans on the other side of the date line weren’t hearing Drake was because it was an “old version” and that the updated one had been sent to TuneCore.

The issue is, of course, that Bfb Da Packman has a longstanding reputation for being a bit of a trickster (it doesn’t help that he’s from Michigan, the de facto epicenter of so-called “scam rap,” which mostly revolves around its proprietors’ adventures in committing widescale fraud rather than selling drugs like a lot of street rappers). He’s even joked about being a “capper” in his raps:

While it’s completely feasible that Drake put his team on code red after Kendrick Lamar yelled, “Motherf*ck the Big Three” on Future and Metro Boomin’s album, it’s equally likely to plenty of fans that Packman just took advantage of the kerfuffle to drive streams for his album, relying on his scammy reputation to protect him from blowback. If that was the case, he severely underestimated just how much fans were unskeptically looking forward to the collab, the Flint-ness of it all aside. While he still has his defenders, the hunger for new Drake music does raise the question… If he isn’t number one, why do people care about what he does — or doesn’t do — so damn much?

No, The Simpsons did not predict the Notre Dame fire.

No, The Simpsons did not predict Donald Trump would touch a glowing orb or ride an escalator (that was a parody of something that already happened).

No, The Simpsons did not predict the Baltimore bridge crash, dear god what is wrong with you people?

Earlier this week, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after a container ship struck one of its piers, killing at least two people. Soon after, the popular X account Out of Context Human Race shared an image of Homer Simpson watching a boat sink after colliding with a bridge (presumably the Only Bridge Out of Town). “The Simpsons was right again,” @NoContextHumans wrote.

No, it wasn’t: as reported by Snopes, “The image is entirely AI-generated. We ran several reverse-image searches, and found no evidence of the image on the internet prior to the collapse of the Baltimore bridge. Additionally, when the image was scanned with AI-detection software Hive, it indicated a 100 percent chance of AI-generation.”

The Simpsons showrunner and writer Matt Selman is sick of these fake predictions going viral (the @NoContextHumans post has over 34 million views). “Sadly #TheSimpsons ‘predictions’ are now meaningless. People so desperately want to believe in the show’s ‘magic powers’ (or are just very lazy) that they ignore that obviously fake images of the so-called predictions cannot be traced to any actual episode — like this nonsense,” he wrote.

Here’s an idea: the next time someone creates and shares an obviously fake “Simpsons predicted it” image in a sad attempt at going viral, we throw them into the Springfield Mystery Spot. Also, they’re banned from egg nog. In fact, no nog, period. That’ll show ’em.

(Via Snopes)

Sydney Sweeney has achieved plenty at age 26. She and Glen Powell could very well have resurrected the romcom in movie theaters. She remains on in-demand lists for plum roles and has gone from lamenting the financial reality of most “successful” actors to cementing a secure future for herself. Granted, she puts up with some seriously bonkers behavior regarding her boobs, but she manages to do her thing with zero coffee whatsoever.

Sometimes, however, it’s nice to simply read a nice story, and Sweeney has opened up to Who What Wear in an interview about her expanding career and more. This has, as well, allowed her to focus upon her family and return the massive gesture from her parents of moving to Hollywood for her career after she made the case in a Powerpoint presentation. Really. And that has ultimately led to her achieving a longstanding dream:

Now that she is in a position to thank them, however, it’s something Sweeney takes very seriously. “I recently paid off my mom’s mortgage,” she says with pride. “As a kid, I always dreamt of being able to take care of my parents, so that was a really big thing for me to be able to do.”

See, no matter what Hollywood and its onlookers toss at Sweeney, she will always have that accomplishment under her belt. As well, Sweeney has been upfront about including her grandmas as nuns in horror film Immaculate, now in theaters. She also told Who What Wear about how she will hop on airplanes to spend only a few hours to hang out with her grandma or visit a lake in Washington. Lessons learned here: Sydney knows that her mom and grandmas rule, and she has enviable priorities and accomplishes them, too.

(Via Who What Wear)

Billie Eilish has long made it clear that she’s a firm supporter of causes that go towards environmental good, like when she ran a ticket promo with Global Citizen in 2019 or hosted a climate change seminar in 2022. Eilish hates being wasteful, which means she’s not too happy about the current trend of artists releasing a bunch of different vinyl editions of their albums.

Eilish expressed this in a recent interview, alongside her mother Maggie Baird, with Billboard. Here’s the relevant excerpt:

Eilish: “We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging … which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money and gets them more…”

Baird: “Well, it counts toward No. 1 albums.”

Eilish: “I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is. It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable — and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f*cking 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more. It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that sh*t.”

In 2021, Eilish released a version of her album Happier Than Ever that was pressed on recycled vinyl, so she’s been putting her money where her mouth is.

After being accused of some eyebrow-raising, Diddy-related behavior, City Girls rapper Yung Miami had a message for fans on Twitter. “Y’all be going for ANYTHING,” she wrote.

While the intent behind her comment was relatively ambiguous at first, a commenter’s reply ensured that everyone knew exactly what she was talking about. “You for that 250k a month,” read the sassy reply. “Something the internet made up and yall ran with it!!!” Miami clapped back. “N****s don’t even pay that for child support why tf would a n**** ever pay me 250k for. FOR WHAT??”

Well, according to Rod “Lil Rod” Jones, the man suing Diddy for sexual harassment, Miami was not only being paid to keep the music mogul “company” — the suit specifically calls her a “sex worker” — but also to ferry synthetic drugs to him via private plane when his usual (alleged) bag man forgot them.

Of course, Miami isn’t the only one casting aspersions on Lil Rod’s claims — which, to be fair, are extensive, with many way out of the range of necessary inclusions to prove Diddy ever sexually harassed him. Sir Lucian Grainge, the CEO of Universal Music Group, also issued a reply via the label’s lawyers, requesting the judge in the case to not only throw out Rod’s lawsuit but also punish his lawyer for filing it in the first place.

Is it possible that the greatest frozen food in all of existence is the Eggo Waffle? It’s convenient, delicious, more indulgent than a piece of toast, comes in various flavors, and is simultaneously crispy and chewy. I’m going to assume you’ve had an Eggo before but unless you’re a hardcore fan you probably stick to a single flavor — the flavor you grew up eating. If you lived in an Eggo Blueberry household, you probably only buy Blueberry in your adult life. And that’s fine, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it right?

But you have to have at least wondered: what do those other flavors taste like? We’re right there with you. So to demystify the entire Eggo line we’re ranking all the most popular Eggo products from least to most delicious. Hopefully, you’ll leave this article with some new waffle flavors to try next time you head to the freezer aisle.

Methodology:

For this review, I toasted each flavor of waffle and tasted a few bites. Obviously, adding butter (and syrup) is going to result in a better waffle, but I felt like the butter might obscure the flavor a bit, so I ate each waffle completely dry.

For the pancakes, I prepared them via a microwave or oven (per box instructions) and, well I’m just going to come out and say it — I don’t love them. Microwaving bread always results in a weird gummy texture, and turning on an oven for a pancake seems like overkill. If you’re going to go through all that trouble, why not just warm up a pan and make some pancakes from scratch or a box?

My advice — toast the pancakes. But if you for some reason need to make a lot of pancakes in a short amount of time, the oven is a viable option and while I don’t find the texture of those pre-made frozen pancakes to be as delicious as fresh pancakes, they get the job done. Sorta.

The Ranking:

17. Pancake/ Pancake Minis — Chocolate Chip

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I’m going to go ahead and lump the full-size and mini versions of this particular Eggo product together because they taste identical. Here is what I like about these: you don’t need butter. Simply warm them up, and eat, the minis are small enough that you don’t even need a fork or knife.

Eggo goes heavy on the chocolate here, which dominates the entire pancake. It’s a bit like a super soft chocolate chip cookie.

So why are they ranking at the very bottom? Well, making pre-made pancakes work is an uphill battle. And unlike a toaster waffle, reheating these doesn’t give the food an interesting textural component. Unfortunately, that holds this product back, leaving it well behind the rest of the line of Eggo products.

The Bottom Line:

These get the job done, but they’re my least favorite Eggo products.

16. Buttermilk Pancakes

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I think the texture of the full-sized pancakes is a bit better than the minis. There is more bread here to chew, making this pancake a lot more enjoyable. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have chocolate chips in it — so you’re going to need butter and syrup here.

The Bottom Line:

Chewy and surprisingly close to a freshly made pancake.

15. Grab & Go Vanilla Bean

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

The whole draw of the Grab & Go Eggo products is that you can simply, well, grab these individually wrapped waffles and, you know, go. No toasting required, simply thaw it out, unwrap it, and eat it. Yay?

I’m not sure anyone needs this product, I suppose it’s the most convenient way to eat a waffle but, how long is your toaster taking that you can’t toast a waffle? Throw that thing in the toaster, go put on some socks and shoes, grab the waffle from the toaster, and head out the door. It’s simple.

Anyway, concept aside, I don’t love the Grab & Go line flavorwise either. This waffle was a bit too chewy and I found the Vanilla Bean flavor to be just a bit too sweet. I suppose it had to be that way though, considering Eggo assumes you don’t have time to add luxuries like butter or syrup.

The Bottom Line:

Completely skippable. If you don’t have the time in your life to toast a waffle, the convenience of this might appeal to you, but eating this just made me wish I was eating… almost any other Eggo waffle product.

14. Pancake — Blueberry

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Considering how consistently low I ranked the pancake products, this one surprised me. Maybe I’ve been beaten into submission here, but I enjoy this pancake. It’s sweet, rich, chewy, and doesn’t need butter or syrup to be enjoyable.

I still think the waffles are better, but this might be worth a pick-up if you love blueberry pancakes but don’t want to go through the trouble of making them.

The Bottom Line:

The best Eggo pancake flavor.

13. French Toast Sticks — Original

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

A little bland. These French Toast Sticks desperately need some sort of dip to make a truly delicious snack. I like the crispy texture, but without butter, syrup, or some sort of frosting, these just taste too neutral.

The Bottom Line:

Desperately needs a sweet component. I have a lot more to say about the Cinnamon flavor French Toast Sticks coming up soon.

12. Grab & Go — Buttery Maple

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

It’s a step up from the Vanilla Bean because it tastes a bit like it was brushed with syrup, which is a natural pairing companion with the waffle.

The Bottom Line:

Good in a pinch, but I’d still rather have a freshly toasted waffle.

11. French Toast Sticks — Cinnamon

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

As a big French toast fan, I fully expected to hate these. How was Eggo going to capture the culinary excellence of a chewy, cinnamon-heavy, buttery, and sweet slice of French toast? Well, they didn’t.

Eggo’s French Toast Sticks don’t replicate the experience of eating French toast at all, instead what you get here is a crispy cinnamon-infused treat that tastes like a cross between a toaster waffle and a cinnamon roll. For what it is, I really like it.

The Bottom Line:

The key to enjoying these is… don’t compare them to French toast. If you can manage that, what you’ll find here is an addicting treat that doesn’t need butter, syrup, or anything else to make it enjoyable.

10. Thick & Fluffy Original (With Madagascar Vanilla)

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

This is great, it takes Eggo’s familiar texture and buttery flavor, beefs it up, and adds a subtle kiss of vanilla on the backend. What makes this waffle really work is how it balances the typical crunchy texture of a well-toasted Eggo with a bit more chew.

The Bottom Line:

Vastly superior to the original waffle texture-wise, but it leans a bit sweeter than the OG and I think that holds it back from being better.

9. Chocolatey Chip Banana

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I was fully expecting little pieces of banana in the waffle but that’s not what you get here. As far as I can tell, it’s some sort of powdered banana flavoring and it permeates the entire waffle. Every bite has a banana aftertaste. I love the combination of banana and chocolate but found this waffle to be a bit too overwhelming.

The Bottom Line:

If you want a banana with your waffle, I strongly suggest cutting up a fresh one. This one is a bit too banana-forward for me.

8. Chocolatey Chip

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Surprisingly heavy on the chocolate, each bite provides a good ratio of waffle-to-chocolate. It’s very sweet, and because of that, I think this waffle is a little less versatile than the other flavored Eggos. Rather than being a simple snack, it wants to be a dessert because it tastes amazing with a scoop of ice cream or some cinnamon sugar sprinkled all over it.

The Bottom Line:

If you have a sweet tooth, this waffle will satisfy, but if you’re looking for a simple breakfast, this might lean a bit too sweet and dessert-like.

7. Thick & Fluffy — Cinnamon and Brown Sugar

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

It’s a slight step up from the Madagascar Vanilla flavor because you can actually taste the added flavor here. The flavor leans much heavier on the brown sugar than the cinnamon, but there is a slight spice to it that your tastebuds will perceive on the aftertaste.

The Bottom Line:

Thick, fluffy, sweet, with a hint of cinnamon. What more could you ask for?

6. Homestyle

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

The fact that Homestyle, an essentially flavorless flavor, has ranked this high should put into perspective just how good the base Eggo experience is. Homestyle is all about texture, it’s crunchy and slightly chewy with a slight butteriness.

I don’t suggest eating Homestyle sans butter, you should definitely butter this thing up, heavily, but the fact that it’s not completely unpalatable with nothing on it speaks to how enjoyable a warm and toasty Eggo really is.

The Bottom Line:

It’s a classic, and while it’s not my favorite, I’d never turn down a freshly toasted Homestyle Eggo.

5. Buttermilk Waffles

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

In the opening to this piece, I mentioned that your go-to Eggo flavor is likely what you grew up with, and for me, that’s Buttermilk. This is the flavor that comes to mind when you say the word “Eggo,” it’s the default for me, and I love it.

How is it different than the Homestyle version? I honestly couldn’t tell you. I’ve had these waffles side by side and they taste… about the same. I’d like to tell you the Buttermilk was chewier or has a more delicate flavor, but I got to be real with you, I’m not tasting any difference here.

I’m ranking Buttermilk above Homestyle because that’s the one I grew up with. That’s all.

The Bottom Line:

You’re either a Buttermilk or Homestyle person. Consider me Buttermilk.

4. Strawberry

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I was a bit worried the tart flavor of strawberry was going to clash with the subtle buttery flavor of the waffle, but that wasn’t the case here. This flavor is surprisingly refreshing in a way I never thought a toaster waffle could be.

There definitely is some tart here, but it’s incredibly nuanced and doesn’t overwhelm the base flavor in an off-putting way.

The Bottom Line:

Bright and surprisingly refreshing.

3. Blueberry

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

A nice balance between savory buttery notes and blueberry sweetness. I’m not sure how Eggo has managed to find blueberries this small but it keeps the berry sweetness from ever being too overwhelming.

While you’re chewing through this waffle you’ll mostly get the neutral mildly buttery flavor of the waffle with the occasional burst of rich blueberry goodness.

The Bottom Line:

If you fear that the blueberry will be too overwhelming, it’s not, it’s surprisingly balanced and much more palatable/less intense than a blueberry pancake. If the strawberry was bright and refreshing, I’d call this blueberry is dark and rich.

2. Eggo Minis — Berry Blast

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I didn’t expect one of the gimmicky lines of product to rank this highly, but I love this! It’s the only Eggo product that mixes blueberry and strawberry into one super waffle. It’s sweeter than both the stock Strawberry and Blueberry flavors, I think that’s because there is a higher amount of berries loaded in here. At least that’s how it seemed to me, as every bite I got a wonderful mix of rich and tart berry flavors.

The Bottom Line:

Can’t decide between Strawberry and Blueberry? This waffle is for you! I desperately want Eggo to make a Thick & Fluffy version of this flavor combination. If the waffle was just a bit thicker, this would take the top spot.

1. Thick & Fluffy — Blueberry

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Here it is, the greatest Eggo Waffle flavor and product. Everything I said about the OG Blueberry waffle applies here: the waffle has a buttery savoriness with the occasional burst of dark berry sweetness, only here the texture is improved. It has a lot more chew than the OG form factor, but still provides crunch from a toasted outer.

That chewy and crunchy ratio is very similar to a fresh Belgian waffle. My favorite way to eat this one is by ditching the butter and syrup and instead dropping a scoop of French vanilla ice cream on top. It’s a quick way to take a simple snack and elevate it to a satisfying and decadent dessert.

The Bottom Line:

The greatest waffle in the entire Eggo line. You need a box of these in your freezer at all times.

When you think of famous nude scenes in Hollywood history, what comes to mind? Maybe Ben Affleck in Gone Girl, or the Psycho shower scene, or Phoebe Cates’ slow-motion walk out of the pool in Fast Times at Ridgemont High? Those are all iconic, for sure, but when asked “what’s the best nude scene hollywood has ever produced?” Reddit went in a different direction.

The top reply on the post from user Inside_Lead3003 is “Frank Reynolds coming out of the couch” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That answer has over 16,000 points. In second place? “Alexandra Daddario in True Detective. easy choice” with approximately 7,000 points. A breathless Danny DeVito emerging from a couch, like Jim Carrey forcing himself out of the mechanical rhino in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, is over twice as popular as any other nude scene. Sometimes, the internet is good.

Here are some other prominent replies:

The Triple t*ts of Total Recall.

Roller Girl scenes in Boogie Nights.

Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool.

Denise Richards, Neve Campbell Threesome Sex Scene from Wild Things

Shower scene in Starship Troopers.

Nicole Kidman kicking off the dress in Eyes Wide Shut.

As for the It’s Always Sunny couch scene, DeVito once described what it’s like emerging naked in front of dozens of strangers. “You can’t come out in front of fifty people you don’t know with your wanger hanging out, right?” he said. “So they put a little cap on it, know what I mean? And you go back there, and what’d they do, the makeup people, spray you with all kinds of oil, so now you’re like back there, waiting for your cue, and you’re gonna slide out of this thing naked, like a halibut, and you do it.”

It was all worth it for Reddit’s approval.

(Via Reddit)

Beyoncé’s new album Cowboy Carter is out now, and while it’s the latest execution of her beloved vision, she didn’t make the project all by herself: Shaboozey, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, and others make appearances on the album. The way some hear it, though, it sounds like Taylor Swift is involved, too.

Is Taylor Swift Featured On Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Album?

Some reports have indicated Swift is credited on the song “Bodyguard,” citing supposed credits on both Spotify and Genius. As of this post, though, Swift does not appear to be officially credited on those platforms or others. That said, while Swift may not be credited, there’s one snippet of the song that fans point to, a brief portion that to them clearly indicates Swift sang backing vocals for the track.

Give it a listen:

Worth noting is that back in February, “a source with knowledge of the situation” told Entertainment Weekly that despite rumors, Swift is not featured on the album “in any way.” Of course, the source could have been denying the rumor to keep the truth a secret, Swift could have gotten on board with the album since then, or the source could have just been wrong.

Either way, listen to “Bodyguard” above.

Cowboy Carter is out now via Parkwood/Columbia Records. Find more information here.

Earlier this month, a new report stated that Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Anna Karenina, Bullet Train, the upcoming The Fall Guy and Kraven the Hunter, and so on) was fielding an offer (and had been “formally offered,” even) the opportunity to be the next 007. That report originated in the U.K.’s The Sun tabloid, which further reported that Taylor-Johnson “will sign contract this week.” At least 10 days later, there has been only silence as a followup.

EON Productions has opted to stay quiet, neither confirming nor denying the report, as noted by Deadline, and producer Barbara Broccoli also hasn’t spoken on the subject. Taylor-Johnson himself has only stated to Numéro that he is flattered that people would associate him with the role.

However, the question also popped up (as posed to Sam-Taylor Johnson) on The Johnathan Ross Show, according to The Independent, which relayed that she declared, “Carry on speculating. He’d be great.” However, she apparently did preface this response by “joking” about herself: “You mean that I might direct a Bond film? The first woman director.”

Granted, yes, that was a joke from every indication. However, Deadline reported Sam’s response with a headline about her having “a vested interest.” Whether or not there’s some unreported insider information beyond that headline and possible suggestion, nobody can truly say yet.

Sam and Aaron originally met on the set of 2009’s Nowhere Boy, which she directed and he appeared within as an actor. They teamed up again for 2018’s A Million Little Pieces. They have four daughters together, two of them being from Sam’s former marriage. And yep, until EON Productions speaks on who will portray and who will direct the next James Bond, the speculation will surely “carry on.”

(Via The Sun, Deadline, Numéro, Vanity Fair & The Independent)