Category: News

It’s always a little disheartening to see a cast of outstanding actors be slammed for appearing in a lackluster superhero movie. Unfortunately, that is the case for the latest Shazam! installment. The sequel was met with not-so-great reviews from critics, though fans are still having some fun (though not enough because the box office is underwhelming, too).

Rachel Zegler, who portrays the Greek goddess Athena in the movie, took to Twitter to encourage people to still see it despite the negative reviews: “hey our film is actually really good! but mostly i just absolutely loved making it and the people i met whilst doing so 🙂 go see it! give it a chance. we have an 85% audience score for a reason.” The actress then added a collection of fun behind-the-scenes photos to show that, hey, even if you don’t like the movie, they had a good time making it.

She continued to call certain people “senselessly mean” in their backlash for the film, which opened last week to a (somehow) lackluster $30 million at the box office. “Some people out there and just being… senselessly mean. And it’s unnecessary. And I know, I know, ‘If you can’t handle the heat…’ and all that nonsense, and you’re right. But our film is actually very good, it’s just cool to hate on fun nowadays. That’s okay. We’re good.”

Compared to the powerhouse that is Marvel, DC is not having a great time out there. After Black Adam and Shazam!, the whole universe in an odd place while James Gunn gets to work retooling the whole place. It’s okay, everyone will unite in harmony later this year when Barbie hits theaters.

(Via Deadline,Twitter)

Miley Cyrus, perhaps more than any of her peers, has an intriguing relationship with albums. Her career, from “Party In The U.S.A.” to “Wrecking Ball,” is largely defined by her singles. With each subsequent album serving as either an affirmation or rejection of the album that precedes it, Cyrus’s discography is littered with collections that contain the heights of 2010s pop music and some borderline unlistenable tracks. On Endless Summer Vacation, Cyrus is still striving to craft an undeniably consistent body of work. Funnily enough, the thing that stifles Cyrus’s latest set is the very thing that muddied her previous records; for the first time in her post-Bangerz career, Miley Cyrus plays it too safe.

When the Grammy-nominated icon unveiled “Flowers,” a blissful mélange of Gloria Gaynor’s disco-streaked perseverance and lyrical Easter eggs sourced from Bruno Mars’s “When I Was Your Man,” the song seemed to signal yet another new career peak for one of the most important pop stars of the 21st century. “Flowers,” which served as the lead and only pre-release single from Endless Summer Vacation, shattered Spotify records and clocked six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Serving as her first full-length follow-up to her widely lauded Plastic Hearts and a years-long rebrand into a properly respected vocalist following a decade’s worth of drug-fueled foam finger controversies, Endless Summer Vacation wasn’t supposed to feel this flat. Cyrus’s eighth studio album answers the question: “What would a Miley Cyrus record sound like if she tempered all of the more daring and explorative elements of her artistry with the safe predictability and facelessness of adult contemporary?”

Loosely divided into two acts – an “AM” and “PM” side — Endless Summer Vacation finds most of its triumphs in the morning. After nearly two months, “Flowers” still holds up, and, more importantly, its breeziness provides both a baseline and a foil for the other soundscapes present on the album. “Jaded” arises as an instant standout, transforming the glam rock of Plastic Hearts into a pristine vocal performance set against an arrangement straight out of the late-aughts glory days of pop-rock.

While “Flowers” and “Jaded” both benefit from infectious, immersive production, their colorless lyrics are the earliest hints at where Endless Summer Vacation begins to falter. Most of the songwriting on Endless Summer Vacation is remarkably dull, if not frustratingly nondescript. “Rose Colored Lenses,” a Sgt. Peppers-informed psychedelic rock groove, loses its bite by way of lyrics that do nothing to transform the “rose colored glasses” adage beyond its most basic meaning. “We could stay like this forever, lost in wonderland / With our head above the clouds, falling stupid like we’re kids,” she sings. This unsavory combination — drab songwriting, intriguing production, and a reliably fantastic vocal — forms a left-of-holy trinity that reigns over Endless Summer Vacation.

Thankfully, the album’s sequencing never allows for a string of forgettable tracks to completely muddy the overall experience. In fact, the three songs that close the album’s AM side are among its best. The Brandi Carlile-featuring “Thousand Miles” is a heartfelt country-pop ballad that puts all of Younger Now to shame, from the gorgeous harmonica outro to Brandi’s ethereal upper harmonies in the song’s back half. And while the studio version of “You” will never match gut-wrenching wails of the live version — Cyrus first gifted us “You” on her 2022 live album Attention— it remains Miley’s strongest love-focused power ballad since “When I Look At You.”

Endless Summer Vacation begins to transition to its PM side with “Handstand”: a boundless, freewheeling song where, for the first time on the album, Miley doesn’t sound like a prisoner to restraint. Consisting of a spoken word poem, a chorus, and a bridge, “Handstand” expertly captures the feverish lust and sweaty stupor of a debaucherous summer night. Miley Cyrus is always at her best when she lets herself get a little weird. In the past, her primary obstacle has been getting too weird, but on Endless Summer Vacation she could do with a few more doses of the Dead Petz/Bangerz fusion that grounds “Handstand.” Perhaps the other songs on the PM side of Endless Summer Vacation struggle to match the allure of “Handstand” because they lean too heavily into the straightforward contemporary pop that looms over the album instead of seeking an anchor in the grimier edges of hip-hop, alternative pop, and psychedelic rock that ground Cyrus’s most intriguing musical offerings.

“River,” which is currently being primed to serve as the album’s second official single, has all the makings of a pop smash, but it still feels dull. The same is true for “Violet Chemistry,” “Wildcard,” and “Island.” All of these songs are fine, but boring metaphors and production that strips some of the character from Cyrus’s voice leave us with songs that aren’t necessarily lifeless, just limp. The synth-pop-meets-electro-rock haze of “River” is well-trodden sonic territory for Cyrus, yet an aimless chorus sours the whole affair. Tracks like “Violet Chemistry” and “Wildcard” present a Cyrus who has seemingly forgotten that the world has seen her at the zenith of pop culture’s obsession with the grotesque, taboo, and sexual. The grime of the Endless Summer Vacation’s PM songs sounds as if someone transposed the wilder moments of Cyrus’s mid-2010s career through a filter that left things palatable, but derivative. Between lyrics that sacrifice a solid sting for universality and production that revels in its tedium, the back half of Endless Summer Vacation unironically sounds like an inoffensive playlist blasting throughout an airport terminal. Nonetheless, there are some bright spots, like the spunky Sia-featuring “Muddy Feet,” that offset the absolute slog that is “Wonder Woman” — the album’s closing track which nods to Sarah McLauchlin’s “Angel” in all the worst ways.

The success of “Flowers,” along with Cyrus’s new muted online persona, pointed towards an album that would feel a bit more grand than Endless Summer Vacation. A perfectly fine record that ultimately suffers from how safe it is, Endless Summer Vacation is, at the very least, undeniable proof that Miley Cyrus is still capable of playing and thriving in the mainstream pop game. Hopefully, Cyrus’s next record will prove that she’s able to do all of this while making music that actually feels urgent and fresh.

Ed Sheeran explained why he’s aligned his discography with mathematics during the November 1, 2021 episode of the Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard podcast.

“Very, very young, I was like 18 or 19, I just decided — I was like, ‘Right, I’m gonna do five math symbols as my albums,” Sheeran said, in part. “One’s gonna be orange, one’s gonna be green, one’s gonna be blue, one’s gonna be red, one’s gonna be yellow. And you’re gonna just see a poster, and the poster’s gonna have an equals sign on it, and you’ll know what it is.”

Sheeran executed that plan to perfection, with five consecutive No. 1 albums to his name. It began with the orange-covered + (Plus) in 2011, followed by the green X (Multiply) in 2014, the blue ÷ (Divide) in 2017, and the red = (Equals) in 2021. (Sheeran also stuck the No. 1 album No.6 Collaborations Project in there in 2019 for good measure.)

Now, we’ve arrived at the yellow finale, – (Subtract), due out on May 5. And with the album’s release, which will be prefaced by at least one single, Sheeran is properly reflecting on the journey to this point. This morning, March 20, the four-time Grammy winner and Disney+ — of course there’s a plus sign involved — jointly announced The Sum Of It All, a four-part original documentary series.

“I’ve always been guarded of my personal life; the only documentary I’ve ever made has been one that focused on my songwriting,” Sheeran captioned his Instagram announcement. “Disney approached me to make a four-part documentary on the making of my next album Subtract. Initially the documentary was just that, a documentary on the formation of an album. But, as my life took a few twists and turns, the subject matter of the album changed, and so did the documentary. It became something completely different to what I thought it would be.”

He continued, “I wanted to provide context to the album as it touches on very personal things, that we all experience. I knew if I made a documentary, I would want to put my trust in the hands of the director, so it wouldn’t be sculpted by me, and was actually an accurate reflection of who I am, even if it’s uncomfortable to watch. The team at @fulwell73productions have done a fantastic job of that. I hope you guys connect with this 4-part series, The Sum Of It All, streaming May 3rd @disneyplus.”

Read Disney+’s official description for The Sum Of It All below, and watch the official trailer above.

“Ed Sheeran: #TheSumOfItAll, a four-part Original docuseries, is streaming May 3 on #DisneyPlus.

For the first time ever, global superstar, Ed Sheeran opens the doors to a definitive and searingly honest view into his private life as he explores the universal themes that inspire his music. This series follows Ed after he learns of life changing news and reveals his hardships and triumphs during the most challenging period of his life. This original 4-part series features exclusive footage behind his iconic hits, never-before-seen personal archive with his friends and family, and epic stadium performances giving insight into Ed’s world.

In each episode, Ed faces themes and emotions that most people experience. Ed expresses his deeper thoughts as he reassesses life and explores what he thinks of the world, of himself and how this difficult time has influenced him and his new music.”

– (Subtract) is out 5/5 via Atlantic. Find more information here.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Jordan Peele is not only a great filmmaker. He’s also consistent. The filmmaker’s directorial debut, Get Out, which won him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, came out in 2017. Two years later came Us. Three years after that, Nope. Peele will continue his “new movie every two or three years” cycle in 2024 with… UNTITLED. OK, that’s not the actual name of the movie, but considering the brevity of his other titles, it could be.

Universal Pictures has scheduled a Dec. 25, 2024 release date for Peele’s untitled fourth feature. No plot details have been revealed. “Additionally, an untitled horror/thriller from Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions will open in theaters on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024,” according to the Wrap.

“Look, all of my movies, I’m trying to give you something for whatever mood you’re in,” Peele told Uproxx when Nope was released last year. “So I think that there is a way to watch this movie in a way that you’re going to come armed for that conversation afterward. There’s also a way to watch this movie where you say, ‘Look, I’ve been working all day, all week. I want to shut off and see some wild stuff.’ Then I want that to be there for you as well, and if you want it all, I want to give the audience that, too.”

(Via the Wrap)

Nick Cannon is always game to joke about his fertility. He was all for Jimmy Kimmel’s joke about Cannon having 12 children at the 2023 Oscars. Cannon and Kevin Hart cooked up a joke of their own, making people temporarily believe a game show called Who’s Having My Baby? was real.

But Cannon got serious about love in a recent interview with The Shade Room. The self-proclaimed “fearless romantic” explained his stance on monogamy and why he doesn’t subscribe to it before raving about his past relationship with his ex-wife, Mariah Carey.

When asked to name the love of his life, Cannon inferred it was Carey.

“I always talk about that, and then it goes viral and all her fans get mad at me,” he said. “I’ll say, I was 12 years old with Mariah Carey pictures on my wall, and that becomes my wife. And the fact that she’s the coolest person I ever met. I get a lot of this delightful disposition from her. She’s just always happy, always doing for others — no matter what’s happening in life. I’m like, wow, a person can really operate like that and don’t allow negative energy into their space.”

Cannon continued, “When I found that out about her and saw how remarkable she was, like, that woman is not human. She’s a gift from God.”

Cannon and Carey were married for six years before splitting in 2014 and finalizing their divorce in November 2016 (as chronicled by People). They share twins, Monroe and Moroccan.

As for whether Cannon wants a wife again, he told The Shade Room that his “focus now is my children and my business.”

“What about maybe one of the mothers of your kids?” the interviewer posed.

“I love them! They’re amazing!” Cannon responded and explained he won’t commit to one of them because “that’s a disservice to the other ones.”

Along with Monroe and Moroccan, Cannon shares three children with Brittany Bell, three with Abby De La Rosa (including another set of twins), two with Alyssa Scott (including the late Zen, who passed away at five months old in December 2021), one with Bre Tiesi, and one with LaNisha Cole.

Watch Cannon’s full interview below.

Bruce Willis‘ wife Emma Heming is having an emotional time navigating the iconic actor’s dementia diagnosis, but she wanted to make sure to thank all of Willis’ fans for the outpouring of love and support. Heming shared a video update on the actor’s birthday where she opened up about her struggles and credited his fans for their words of encouragement.

“So today is my husband’s birthday. I have started the morning by crying, as you can see by my swollen eyes and snotty nose,” Heming said at the top of the video where she got real with fans about her day-to-day life. Heming has already begged the paparazzi to stop crowding Willis and yelling catchphrases, which understandably confuse him.

Via Deadline:

“I just think it’s important that you see all sides of this,” she said. “I always get this message, or people always tell me that ‘Oh, you’re so strong, I don’t know how you do it.’ I’m not given a choice. I wish I was. But I’m also raising two kids in this, so sometimes in our lives, we have to put our big girl panties on and get to it, and that’s what I’m doing. But I do have times of sadness every day, grief every day, and I’m really feeling it today on his birthday.”

Heming ended the video by thanking Willis’ fans for being her rock.

“I don’t know why I do that to myself because the videos are like a knife in my heart,” Heming said. “But as much as I do it for myself, I do it for you because I know how much you love my husband — don’t cry, Emma — but it means so much to me, so thank you.”

Demi Moore also shared a video of Willis’ family celebrating his birthday.

“Happy birthday, BW!” Moore wrote in the caption. “So glad we could celebrate you today. Love you and love our family. Thank you to everyone for the love and warm wishes — we all feel them.”

(Via Deadline)

Michael Jordan had a request for the Michael Jordan movie that doesn’t feature Michael Jordan. Got all that?

In Air, Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike employee who convinced His Airness to sign with the brand, leading towards the Air Jordan shoe line. It also stars (and is directed by) Ben Affleck, who revealed the requirements that Jordan had for the film.

“I had a chance to sit down with Michael Jordan, because I just wasn’t going to make this movie without asking him, ‘What matters to you?’ Interestingly, and tellingly, he had a few things that mattered,” Affleck said at the premiere for Air at South by Southwest this weekend, according to Variety. One was that Howard White, the Vice President of Sports Marketing for Jordan Brand, needed to be in the movie. Another involved an Oscar winner as Jordan’s mom.

“I got the script and then had the chance again to talk to Michael. Michael Jordan, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the most intimidating, impressive men you’ll ever see in your life,” Affleck said. “He told me about is father. And then he talked about his mother. It was the first time I saw this look cross his face. It was a look of reverence, of awe, of love, and gratitude, and innocence. He said, ‘None of this would have ever happened without my mother.’ I said, ‘Who would you like to play your mom?’ He said, ‘Well, it has to be Viola Davis.”

Affleck recalled feeling that “if I was a director one day, and I had Viola Davis in a movie, that would really be something. That would mean the world to me. And it does.” He then introduced Davis to the SXSW crowd, calling her “the best actor in the world.” She’s the Michael Jordan of actors — or maybe Michael Jordan is the Viola Davis of basketball players.

Air comes to theaters and Amazon Prime Video on April 5.

(Via Variety)

After closing out 2022 with the surprise album No Thank You, UK rapper Little Simz carried plenty of momentum into the new year as she toured Europe. Over the weekend, she released a new documentary, On Stage Off Stage, recounting her tour experiences and capturing the quiet moments between the chaos of performing.

In it, we see Simz working with her tennis trainer — staying in shape is important, after all — rocking stages across Europe, chatting with fans, and conducting interviews with her tour crew, from the manager to the sound man. She also shoots a music video, explaining how she employed its director at the last minute before the song was even done.

The documentary is a fascinating look into the life of an independent artist and just how jam-packed Simz’s schedule can actually be, even as she’s expected to come out each night with the same energy after a day spent traveling, shooting videos, or trying to unwind with one of the hardest sports to play. On Stage Off Stage is another smart visual component to the No Thank You rollout after the short film of the same name, proving that Simz is no slouch when it comes to packaging her music.

Watch On Stage Off Stage at the top of the page.

We don’t talk too much about straight-up soap operas by that label here. Yet to be very honest, a lot of recent prime-time shows have made their mark while tossing out soap-operatic flourishes like it ain’t no thing (and also sliding those flourishes under the “Shakespearean” label). Don’t tell me that the power plays of Succession (including that d*ck pic) are anything less than soap operatic while couching it as being of The Bard‘s influence. The same goes for Sons of Anarchy and a wealth of other prime-time dramas. Heck, 1883 star Sam Elliott even compared Yellowstone to a 1990s soap opera, although those may have been fighting words.

Speaking of fighting words, a patriarch of a long-running soap, The Young & The Restless, is currently displeased with Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria for what she said about her time on the show. Eric Braeden has been portraying Victor Newman since 1990, and he’s very protective of his show, it seems. Eva recently sat down with Chris Wallace (for CNN), and he had dug a clip of her 2001-03 Y&R time, which included high drama with Paul going off on Eva’s character (Isabella) over her claim that Cricket was dead.

Wallace and Longoria then discussed how she moonlit as a headhunter during her Y&R time to make ends meet. She also explained why she hid her involvement with Y&R. Here’s her full quote; we’ll circle back below:

“When I got Young & the Restless, it didn’t pay enough for me to live off being an actor. So I continued being a headhunter and Young and the Restless. And I would hide the fact that I was on Young and the Restless to my clients because they didn’t want like a dumb actress handling their accounts. And one time one of my clients was like, you look like a girl that I’ve seen on a soap opera [and I denied knowing anything] … I was like the opposite of a publicist’s dream because I was like, ‘Don’t tell anyone I’m on that show.” Because I was, you know, still making more money on my day job.”

It appears that the “dumb actress” part has set off Victor Newman, I mean, Eric Braeden. He was so incensed about this, in fact, that he took to Twitter and put her on blast:

“EVA LONGORIA: you just made derogatory remarks about daytime actors! You simply weren’t good enough to survive the pressures of this medium! You were very lucky to get on that “housewife” show! You did one show in 8-12 days, with mediocre but salacious dialogue! Our actresses … Would run rings around you!! And they did then!! From Robert di Nero to whoever they all are, many of them started in the medium you denigrate! It shows a complete lack of class!!”

You can totally hear the palpable disappointment in Victor Newman’s voice, yes? The man knows how to put people in their places, alright. Here’s what happened when one user tried to tell Eric Braeden that he had “misunderstood” Eva’s words: “I didn’t misunderstand a damn thing!!!”

And a feud is born. Cue the vintage Y&R clips because people can’t get enough of angry Victor, no matter the decade.

For the most part, guests on television talk shows tend to be actors, there to promote a show or movie or whatever they have out now/soon. People in other lines of work sometimes get screen time, too, but if you ask Chris Martin, musicians are a low-priority talk show guest.

The Coldplay leader is the guest on a new episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast that debuted March 19. At the start, O’Brien noted how Martin has been on his various TV shows with Coldplay on numerous occasions, but that he never got the chance to have a substantial conversation with him. Martin replied, “I also felt that in the chat show hierarchy, singers are right at the bottom. I don’t know if that’s true. It’s like, ‘We’ve got this guy juggling koalas, he’s on before you. And a guy that was once on a rerun of a pilot, he’s on before you. And then at 2 a.m., we’re going to talk to you for one minute, and then we’re going to cut to…’ I thought, ‘OK, cool.’”

He understands why that may sometimes be the case, though. After making note of their recent Saturday Night Live appearance and how well Pedro Pascal did as host, he said, “If you think about all competitive music shows, The Voice, you have to remember everything is a TV show, or the Grammys. That’s what it is first and foremost. And so even if you’re the most interesting composer in the world, it might not be great TV.”

Check out clips from the interview above and below, or find the full episode here.

Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.