Category: News

Following a tense investigation after the death of The Wire star Michael K. Williams, drug dealer Irvin “Green Eyes” Cartagena has pleaded guilty to selling the fatal dose to the actor.

Cartagena was arrested over a year ago in February 2022 by both the NYPD and FBI after investigators used security footage and informants to pinpoint who sold Williams the drugs that killed him, which was easy to do thanks to the transaction going down in “broad daylight.”

Via Deadline:

In front of U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams earlier in the day, Cartagena pleaded guilty to “one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl analogue, fentanyl, and heroin.” That plea specifically cited the death of Williams as a consequence of Cartagena’s drug slinging. Set to be sentenced later this year, Cartagena, aka “Green Eyes,” faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 40 years on the charges.

Cartagena’s arrest was detailed in a report from The Daily Beast, and not only did the deal take place out in the open, but Green Eyes did very little to hide his identity despite being in the same location he was arrested months earlier:

The whole scene appeared as relaxed as if dealing dangerous narcotics were as completely legal as selling milk at the Alegria Grocery next door.

Williams and Green Eyes were so at ease that they paused to take out their phones to exchange numbers, Green Eyes dialing first. Williams showed him his screen and Green Eyes pointed to it, apparently confirming his number.

Thanks to Williams making a call to his apartment, investigators were able to match up the actor’s phone to security footage, which helped them identify “Green Eyes.” However, the dealer did have enough sense to flee the area after Williams’ death went public, but he did not evade capture for long.

(Via Deadline)

Christina Aguilera revealed quite a lot during her appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. One subject she touched on was the experiences she had with double standards while on Justin Timberlake’s 2003 Justified & Stripped Tour.

“There was a lot of double standards with it,” the iconic singer said. “Because I went on tour with Justin, we did the Stripped [&] Justified Tour and there were things where I was just like, ‘Why is it okay for him and not okay for me, you know what I mean?’”

She added, “It’s just like I was constantly pushing back in my way. I mean, it was so inappropriate sometimes, the things that were asked about that era.”

She continued that at the time, there was “a different business where there was a lot of female comparisons and double standards with women.”

“It just felt like just punches in the face,” she said. “It was hard to just constantly feel like you’re making music and doing something you love and then someone spinning something so negative about it.”

“It was really hard,” she explained, “because sometimes who you were pitted against, you actually genuinely, you know, loved and respected.”

Watch the interview above.

It’s sometimes difficult to tell whether Candace Owens genuinely believes the outrageous perspectives that she’s often seen and heard wielding for right-wing outlets. This includes her meltdown over Minnie Mouse’s pantsuit or her accusations that Bill Gates engineered the baby-formula shortage. She also threw a fit over a SKIMS campaign featuring models with disabilities, and Christina Applegate challenged her to “get educated” to no followup. Owens doesn’t waver in her incredibly blunt, far-right views, though, so one must assume that she’s serious.

And now, Owens is appalled at the blunt response that she and her husband received after an inquiry to decorate her home.

As Owens told Vanity Fair, simply because she is highly partisan doesn’t meant that she doesn’t get along with liberals. She cited a nice airport conversation with Kamala Harris, but an attempt to pair with an acclaimed designer didn’t go the same way. David Netto, whose design wizardry and writing appears in Architectural Digest and Elle Decor (and that’s only a sampling), pushed back hard upon “the most polite email” inquiry form Candace’s husband. The rejection couldn’t have been more apparent: “Dear George, thank you for your inquiry. I’d rather get beat in the ass with a wooden plank than ever go near either of you. Kind regards, David.”

Owens, of course, was shocked. She attempted to make the rejection into a matter of race while suggesting that she was being rejected for being a Black conservative. “If a white conservative male had written that email to an outspoken Black liberal … They would’ve said it was like Jim Crow,” she insisted. However, Netto stood firm when reached by Vanity Fair. “It’s not a race thing, it’s a terrorism/amorality thing,” he explained.

Netto wasn’t even close to being done. “After January 6, the joke’s over,” he detailed while explaining why he didn’t want to be associated with the far-right. “People like this should expect to be recognized as complicit with something very dangerous — and I don’t mean Kanye — and expect to be told off in polite society.”

(Via Vanity Fair)

Suga has been a fixture courtside at a few NBA games this season, beginning with the reigning champion Golden State Warriors’ preseason matchups against the Washington Wizards in Japan last fall — where Naomi Osaka complimented him on a particular BTS song — and including the Dallas Mavericks’ visit to Los Angeles in January.

Suga even met Steph Curry, but his association with the Association just became official: Overnight, the NBA announced Suga as an NBA Ambassador.

“Hi, I am Suga of BTS,” he says in the video. “I am proud to announce that I’ve become an NBA Ambassador. It is personally a great honor, as I have loved basketball since I was young. Stay tuned for more to come with the NBA! Thank you.”

The league’s news release explained the extent of the new partnership:

“As an NBA Ambassador, SUGA will engage NBA fans around the world through the remainder of the 2022-23 NBA season and beyond. SUGA, an avid NBA fan, will participate in several league initiatives that will be featured on the NBA’s and his personal social media channels, including attending NBA games and events in the US and Asia, and participating in the league’s promotional activities.

Additionally, the NBA will have a presence throughout SUGA’s first solo world tour, collaborating around select concerts in celebration of the release of SUGA’s debut solo album, D-Day.”

Earlier this week, BigHit announced D-Day will arrive on April 21, preceded by the single “People Pt.2″ featuring IU” this Friday, April 7.

Suga’s subsequent tour was also revealed. The global run is set to begin with back-to-back shows at Belmont Park, New York on April 26-27 before executing three nights at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum in May.

Suga has time to explore personal endeavors like the NBA and solo projects, as BTS’ hiatus is expected to last until at least 2025. The historic K-pop group announced their hiatus last October, citing “plans to fulfill their military service” mandated by South Korea.

Are Emily Ratajkowski and Harry Styles dating? Maybe, maybe not. But if they are, do you think she teases him that she was in a David Fincher movie, and he was in (gulp) Don’t Worry Darling? OK, fine, Styles was also in Dunkirk, but even that very good movie from a very good director is no Gone Girl, a masterpiece. Ratajkowski’s filmography has been spotty since then (including the Entourage movie and I Feel Pretty), and now she’s basically done with acting. She explained why in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet.’ I felt like a piece of meat who people were judging, saying, ‘Does she have anything else other than her [breasts]?’” Ratajkowski said. She was tired of making herself “digestible to powerful men in Hollywood,” so she fired her team — including her acting agent — sometime in 2020. “I didn’t trust them,” she explained. “I was like, I can handle receiving phone calls. I’m gonna make these decisions. None of you have my best interest at heart. And you all hate women.”

The last movie Ratajkowski auditioned for: Best Picture nominee Triangle of Sadness. The role went to the late Charlbi Dean, who was egregiously snubbed from the “In Memoriam” segment at the Oscars.

(Via the Los Angeles Times)

Paramore‘s new album This Is Why was one of the most invigorating releases of this year, but yesterday (April 5) was a point of reflection for the “Misery Business” band. It was the 10-year anniversary of their beloved self-titled record, which contains ubiquitous hits like “Ain’t It Fun” and “Still Into You,” and fan-favorite deep-cuts like “Now” and “Part II.”

For the anniversary, Hayley Williams took to socials to share a poignant statement about what that LP means to her. She also discussed the “reality show-style drama” concerning the exit of Josh and Zac Farro (though Zac returned in 2016). Last year, she also actually changed the record artwork because of complaints from ex-bassist Jeremy Davis.

Read Williams’ rumination below.

“10 years ago we put out a record that took a lot of guts and self-determination to make. Mainly because after losing 2 members of the band there was so much discourse around whether or not the band could make anything worthwhile — let alone stay together.

The story of Paramore has been rife with reality show-style drama. Well, until the last 6 or 7 years. It’s really great to be able to look back from where we are now, knowing the story didn’t end when some said it would.

If all that led to our Self-Titled album hadn’t happened, we’d be the most boring band of all time. If we hadn’t been forced out of our trauma-bonded comfort zones, we would’ve never known what we might be capable of.

Thank you Justin Meldal-Johnsen for expanding our musical vocabulary and believing we could be more than a band from one specific scene. And thank you Carlos de la Garza for engineering the shit out of the album. Thank you Ken Andrews of Failure for mixing it, singing backups on it, and being a musical hero to us.

Taylor and I wrote these songs having no idea if people would accept a reformed, more liberated version of Paramore. Our fans not only accepted but championed our rebirth.

Thank you for allowing us the room for creative risk and for keeping this story going.

We love you.

Paramore forever.

-H.”

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

Chlöe’s new album In Pieces mostly generated excitement among fans, but there was some backlash as well, over the Chris Brown-featuring song “How Does It Feel.” Now, Chlöe has spoken up about the collaboration.

She was asked about it in a recent interview with V-103 Atlanta’s The Big Tigger Morning Show (as Stereogum notes). She said:

“I always just wanna let the music speak for itself, and to be honest, no matter what I do, people always find things to say about it, so I’m used to it. I just choose to ignore it. People have every right to their opinions, freedom of speech, and it’s up to me to choose what I give my attention and energy to.”

In another recent interview, she also addressed negativity, saying, “The thing is, the same people who say that weren’t fans of Halle and [me] when we had our Ungodly Hour album out, The Kids Are Alright. So, it’s a bunch of people who are just putting in their two cents now just to really say things. Sis and I, we’ve been underground for a minute and the same people who talk weren’t around then or giving us our props then, and it’s like now they want to talk trash for some reason.”

We hope the QAnoners sleep terribly at night knowing Brooke Shields once lived out their wildest dreams.

The actress and model is doing the rounds to promote her new documentary on Hulu, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, and she stopped by The Howard Stern Show where talk quickly turned her illustrious Hollywood dating history. Shields was once married to tennis pro Andre Agassi and in a relationship with actor Liam Neeson, but neither of them made it to the top of her “Best Kiss” roster.

No, that honor went to the late John F. Kennedy Jr., who Shields locked lips with on a ski trip in Aspen, Colorado sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. Shields told host Howard Stern that the two met while attending a friend’s wedding and initially hit it off.

“He kissed me and it was the best kiss of my life,” Shields told Stern of the pair’s first date. “The lips are beautiful and the face is amazing and he was down to earth and funny.”

But the fairytale ended when Shields, who had a massive crush on the man since she was three years old, told JFK Jr. she wasn’t going to sleep with him on the first date.

“I wasn’t playing a game, I really was just so afraid of being really hurt,” Shields explained. “Because if I slept with him, I would have given him my entire universe, my heart, my everything.”

Unfortunately, John John didn’t handle the rejection too well, leading to some awkward moments on the slopes (and back at Shield’s family chalet). Listen to the full story below:

(Via Page Six)

Recently, Bud Light debuted a new ad campaign featuring trans activist and TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney. Anheuser-Busch has consequently come under fire (literally) from Kid Rock, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the partnership by shooting some rounds into Bud Light cans. Now, Travis Tritt, a Grammy-winning country star whose commercial and critical peak came in the ’90s, has joined the conversation.

On Twitter yesterday (April 5), Tritt declared he’s boycotting Anheuser-Busch, writing, “I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider. I know many other artists who are doing the same.” He added, “Other artists who are deleting Anheuser-Busch products from their hospitality rider might not say so in public for fear of being ridiculed and cancelled. I have no such fear.”

He also shared a graphic showing a bunch of Anheuser-Busch brands, including Budweiser, Stella Artois, Rolling Rock, and many others. Additionally, he made note of a campaign Jack Daniels had with drag queens.

Tritt later added, “In full disclosure, I was on a tour sponsored by Budweiser in the 90’s. That was when Anheuser-Busch was American owned. A great American company that later sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer. Such a shame.”

Of the Mulvaney partnership, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson recently said, “Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.”

(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s episode of Snowfall will be found below.)

Last week’s episode of Snowfall was dedicated to loss, mourning, and survival. The Saints were still reeling from Jerome’s death and some were doing better than others. Franklin was affected by the loss, but continued forward as business still needed to be taken care of. Louie was absolutely distraught, but to the surprise of no one, revenge was heavy on her mind. Others like Cissy and Leon also took Jerome’s death close to heart, but if anything, it made them want peace in their worlds now more than ever. Last week’s episode also saw Franklin and Gustavo inch closer to beginning their plan to take down Teddy, and while that went down, Louie left us on a bit of a cliffhanger as we had no idea who she would go after in the name of Jerome. Would it be Franklin or would it be Teddy?

Well, in the eighth episode of Snowfall season six, we get an answer to that. During the repast for Jerome’s funeral, Louie reluctantly agrees to keep her promise to Franklin and help take down Teddy with some assistance from Gustavo. The plan is to trick Teddy into thinking that Louie is giving up Franklin to him, all for Gustavo to arrive and help take down Teddy. Naturally, things don’t go according to plan after Teddy makes a few requests that make it harder for them to execute, but it’s when Gustavo is arrested by the DEA that it appears that all was lost. Luckily for them, the KGB agent arrives to break Gustavo free and take him to Teddy’s warehouse where Franklin is nearly hanging with a cable tied around his neck. By the grace of the powers that be, Gustavo is able to take out the KGB agent and handcuff Teddy to safely free Franklin to make their plan a near success.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways that we have after season six’s eighth episode, “Ballad Of The Bear”:

If Only Franklin And Louie Put Their Issues Aside Earlier

For the first time all season, Franklin and Louie are working together to complete a mission. Granted, neither of them wants to work with the other, but despite a few bumps and detours in the plan, things work in their favor. After Gustavo is placed under arrest by the DEA, the KGB agent, who’s been seemingly following them all day, attacks the DEA officers to break Gustavo free and bring him to Franklin and Teddy. To the KGB agent’s surprise, Gustavo turns on him and kills him to set free a tied-up Franklin. This is essentially the plan Franklin, Gustavo, and Louie had in mind: to trick Teddy is coming out of his hiding place so that Franklin could kill Teddy. Seeing that it worked, or so we hope it did, it makes you wonder what could’ve been accomplished and what lives could’ve been saved if Franklin and Louie stuck together. Maybe things were just meant to break apart, but still, it’s something worth thinking about.

Gustavo Was Ready To Fail, Franklin Was Not

One million dollars and new passports. That’s what Gustavo required of Franklin for him to give up Teddy and risk any protection from the CIA, DEA, or KGB. Franklin agreed, and granted that price was more than what the aforementioned agencies were willing to offer Gustavo to give up Teddy. That asking price was also not for Gustavo himself, but for his family, who he shipped away in the first half of episode eight. When we exam the moments of defeat between them in this episode — Gustavo under arrest in the back of a DEA agent’s vehicle and Franklin dangling above the ground with a cable wire around his neck — you can see a slight difference in their demeanor. Gustavo doesn’t appear to be as worried as Franklin whose inner fear scream at high volumes in eyes. That’s because Gustavo was ready to fail and prepared to do so, by making sure his family escaped the possible grasp of the DEA. Franklin’s own remained in Los Angeles, vulnerable to whatever damages were absorbed in this failed plan. The thing with Franklin is, the thought of failure didn’t seem to enter his mind. There was always a way out, but through luck and some sort of a plan, things once again fell in his favor. In this case, it appears that Franklin’s refusal to fail worked just as well for him as Gustavo’s preparation to fail worked for him.

Teddy Overestimated His Powers

Let’s just assume that Teddy did kill Franklin’s father, just for the sake of this section. You would think maybe Teddy would’ve realized that he bit off just a little more than he could’ve chewed. But nope, next came stealing Franklin’s $73 million and turning half of his family against him. By season six, you got the sense that Teddy believed he was this impenetrable force. Yet, as he stood handcuffed to a forklift in the warehouse he planned to kill Franklin in, the realization that he is far from the force he believed he was begins to settle in. As Franklin looks at him while pondering his next move, Teddy is forced to accept that he is no longer the top dog. If we’re honest though, Teddy’s true power was only his government status. His ability to get Franklin and other families out of sticky situations and provide money, drugs, and arms gave the Saints a true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which they indulged in over the last six seasons. And despite all of that, Teddy was alone in Los Angeles. If things were to go left for him, like they did in episode eight, there was no nearby backup. There was no guardian angel. He’d committed the same amount of wrongs that anyone he worked with did. The difference is, he had no family or nearby associates to come save him unlike Franklin. When it was needed, Gustavo and Louie were there to save Franklin and that wasn’t the case for Teddy. In the end, he’d simply overestimated his powers.

Franklin And Louie’s Relationship Ends Here

This isn’t much of a surprise truthfully, but with the way their relationship once was, it’s worth noting. From this point on, Franklin and Louie’s relationship will be as good as nonexistent. Yes, they saved each other’s lives with the presumed takedown of Teddy, but it was a mission they both had an equal hand in. It certainly doesn’t make up for Jerome’s death, something that Louie will forever hold over Franklin’s head. When Franklin requests Louie’s help to take down Teddy, her response is yes only because she also wants to be free from Teddy, not because she has it in her heart to help Franklin. With the nod of the head from Franklin, Louie storms back off to who knows where before they, along with Gustavo, reunite to set their plan in motion. The Saint family that was once new is no more, and any potential of a reunion is as good as any of us hitting the lottery simply because the leaders — Franklin and Louie — won’t see eye to eye, at least not anytime soon. There’s only two episodes left in the Snowfall series, so it remains to be seen what things look like for Franklin and Louie going forward.

New episodes of ‘Snowfall’ are available on FX on Wednesdays at 10pm EST/ PST.