Category: News

With a nearly four decades-long career, you would think that LL Cool J would have a movie about his meteoric rise. Sadly, he doesn’t. However, that may change soon. The OG rapper and Kennedy Center Honoree recently took to social media to tease the idea of making a biopic about his life. One actor in particular has made it known he would love the opportunity to portray the legendary hitmaker.

“Should I do a biopic?” LL Cool J tweeted on Thursday (January 12).

Following the post’s reaction on social media, fans immediately started suggesting who could play the rap lothario. But one choice stands out from the rest. Former The Wire actor and 90210 star Mack Wilds quoted the tweet making an official plea for the possible role, saying, “I mean… what are we talking about?” he wrote with a smiley face emoji.

In a recent interview, the actor gushed about paying the iconic rapper.

“Hell, yes! I’d love to play LL,” Wilds told HipHopDX. “I’ve been trying to figure out if he’d do a biopic for years.”

Wilds then recalled when his father took him to his first concert, and LL Cool J was performing, noting that his love of the rapper-turned-actor began there.

“LL was my very first concert,” he explained. “He did a free concert at Wingate Park in Brooklyn. My dad took me ’cause he saw I really connected to his music. He was my first understanding of stage presence.”

What can’t Tom Cruise do? Last summer he turned 60 and he’s still doing death-defying stunts, sometimes just for holiday videos. He even had his biggest-ever moneymaker just last year, over four decades into his storied career. Cruise is a fount of positivity, working on his birthdays and generally paying it forward. Now we’re learning he helped save a highly acclaimed movie from being butchered by one of the most notorious Hollywood execs.

The New Yorker profiled Tár director Todd Field, who made his directorial debut over 20 years ago with 2001’s In the Bedroom. The drama premiered at Sundance and it got picked up by a powerful distributor. Unfortunately that distributor was Miramax, whose then-honcho Harvey Weinstein was notorious for cutting up films in an attempt to make them more palatable to wide audiences. Field was afraid that would happen to his film, too.

“I was weeping in the bathroom,” Field recalled. But he had an even more powerful friend, with whom he’d acted in Eyes Wide Shut (and whose cousin, William Mapother, had a major in the film).

“I called up Tom Cruise and said, ‘Something terrible has happened,’” Field remembered. “He basically said, ‘This is how you’re going to play it. It’s going to take you six months, and you’ll beat him, but you have to do exactly what I’m going to tell you to do, step by step.’ ”

What was the plan? To let Weinstein slice and dice it up, wait for it to test badly. After that, Field would remind him of all the raves it got from Sundance, saying they should release it in its original form.

That’s what he did, and that’s one reason why In the Bedroom went on to gross several times its budget and accrue five Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture.

Field also rehashed a story he’s told elsewhere: That it was Cruise who encouraged him, then an actor, to get into filmmaking. You’re going to make movies,” Cruise told him over dinner. Field told him a dream project was a film of Andre Dubus’ short story “Killings,” but he was worried he couldn’t get the rights. “You’re just making excuses,” Cruise told him. “Figure it out.”

The lesson: If you ever have a problem or need a word of encouragement, just contact your good pal Tom Cruise.

(Via The New Yorker)

It looks like a new Kelly Clarkson is arriving this year. In an Instagram live stream on The Kelly Clarkson Show‘s account, she shared so many details about the album.

“I have an album coming out this year. I swear,” she said. “I know I’ve been talking about it, but look, I’m going to be really honest with you.”

This upcoming album would mark her eighth album, and her first in six years, not including her holiday albums. This also marks her first album since divorcing her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock in 2021.

“It took a minute for me to be able to release this album,” Clarkson continued. “Because I just had to be over it, through it, all around it. I had to get past it in order to talk about it.”

While it’s certainly been a long time since she released an album, Clarkson admitted that she’s glad she spent a long time working on the project, and said that one of the last songs she wrote may end up being one of the singles.

Though she did not directly mention her divorce during the live stream, she said that the album tells the story of a relationship arc.

“It’s not all sad or bad, but it’s in there,” she said.

Elsewhere in the stream, Clarkson said that the photoshoot for the album was the most fun she ever had on set.

She concluded the stream apologizing to Atlantic Records for divulging so many details about the upcoming record.

You can watch Clarkson’s recorded live stream above.

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

Cate Blanchett has spent the last couple months winning award after award for Tár, in which she plays an acclaimed orchestra conductor accused of misconduct. What does Blanchett herself listen to? Probably not Metallica, Judas Priest or Venom.

On a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show, Blanchett appeared alongside fellow Aussie Margot Robbie. Norton asked Robbie about her misspent youth, specifically if she had a Goth phase. She said she sort of did. It was more of a mix of Goth and emo, although she “listened to only heavy metal music.” She also said she would dye her hair black and only cut it with a razor blade. It’s an interesting unusual combination, but Blanchett, sitting to her right, was more puzzled by the metal part.

“Does anyone like heavy metal music?” asked a confounded Blanchett. “Was that something you genuinely liked?” Robbie said she did and still does. Blanchett then went one curious step further. “Do you like monster trucks and things like that?” Robbie doesn’t, which makes sense: Just because you adore Ratt doesn’t mean you also love to watch giant vehicles running over things and stuff.

Robbie also shared a story about when she was younger, when she was on the Australian soap Neighbours, and seeing the Iowan metal outfit Slipknot. She found herself attracting lots of attention from Slipknot heads who also watched Neighbours — an unexpectedly large Venn Diagram crossover to be sure.

Anyway, someone get Blanchett a copy of Black Sabbath’s Vol. 4 stat. “Supernaut” ought to be a good gateway into metal god-dom.

For Westside Gunn‘s swan song year, the “Shootouts In Soho” rapper wanted to meet his fans from various parts of the world. Unfortunately, he was forced to cancel the European tour he was set to embark on, noting that logistics for the concert “weren’t handled right.”

Gunn took to Instagram to share the unfortunate news, per HipHopDX.

“It was nothing more I wanted to do than to start seeing my supporters around the world,” he said in the caption of the since-deleted post. “It’s def still a dream and I’m gonna work on it to still make it happen but unfortunately this time things weren’t handled right and that’s too far for me to be gone and something isn’t right and I’m somewhere I’ve never been and sh*t already not right now.

Gunn also revealed that because of the cancellation, he lost a huge chunk of money.

“I haven’t even been giving deposits so don’t even think I took y’all money,” he continued. “[People] out of $40 I’m out 50,000 I spent just on plane tickets!!!”

He ended his post expressing gratitude and remaining hopeful that he will get to perform for his international fans. He also promised he is working to get the dates rescheduled and that he would “make it up to” disappointed fans.

Before he was improbably elected to Congress, George Santos was busy. He wasn’t busy doing a lot of the things he told voters he’d done, such as going to prestigious universities and having Jewish heritage. Instead, he’s been accused of all manner of underhandedness and tomfoolery. On top of allegations ranging from fraud in Brazil to lying about being a college volleyball star, you can now add “worked for a company accused of being a Ponzi scheme.”

As per CNN, the embattled New York representative worked at a Harbor City Capital Corp. in 2020 and 2021, an investment company located in Florida. A year after his employment, the company was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, calling it a “classic Ponzi scheme” in which existing investors are paid with funds from new investors.

Santos’ name was nowhere in the complaint and it’s possible he had no inkling of the company’s malfeasance. Last year he told The Daily Beast that he was “as distraught and disturbed as everyone else” to learn about their possible wrongdoing.

However, in April of 2020, in a now-deleted tweet, Santos responded to someone over Twitter who had accused the company of being a “complete fraud.” He responded by calling the company “100% legitimate.”

Santos has refused to remove himself from the House amidst an ever-growing Scooby Doo-sized sandwich of allegations, some he has admitted were spot-on. Instead it appears he spends his days on Capitol Hill trying to ignore reporters and palling around with some of the other sketchy members of Congress.

(Via CNN)

Donald Trump’s got a lot of problems. His third presidential campaign has so far been a non-starter. His tax records were finally made public. His company was found guilty of fraud. He was widely mocked, even by his own supporters, over his dorky NFTs. And then there was the time he dined with anti-Semites. Still, nothing every sticks to him. And yet there’s a chance his fate is already sealed.

As per The Guardian, a grand jury in Georgia spent had been quietly convening to consider what to do over Trump and cohorts’ interference in the 2020 election. They broke on Monday and recommended that their findings be made public. Those findings won’t be made public till the end of the month, but if they recommend prosecution, it will come down to a county district attorney, Fani Willis, to decide whether Trump becomes the first American president in history to be hit with a criminal offense.

It’s not just Trump who’s in danger of prosecution. Georgia prosecutors have warned 18 other Trump allies — including Rudy Giuliani — that they are targets of the investigation as well. Among the crimes with which they may be charged are criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, conspiracy, and racketeering.

The investigation was launched shortly after Trump left office in disgrace. Some of those subpoenaed have fought them, including Lindsey Graham, who took his grievances all the way to the Supreme Court. Their star witness is Brad Raffensperger, who oversaw the elections. He voted for Trump only to find himself on the other end of a damning call from Trump himself, who was caught on a recording asking him to “find 11,780 votes.” He subsequently found himself the object of death threats.

In other words, Trump may already be screwed — unless he’s screwed by one of those other investigations, including the federal one involving his absconding with hundreds of classified government documents then obstructing investigations into it.

(Via The Guardian)

It looks like Lana Del Rey fans may have to wait a little bit longer. For new music. Yesterday, she took to her private Instagram page to reveal that her upcoming ninth album, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Ocean Blvd is set to drop on March 24, two weeks after its original planned release date. But she did manage to tide fans over by sharing the tracklisting, which features artists like Bleachers, Jon Batiste, and Tommy Genesis, as well as production by Jack Antonoff, Zach Dawes, Drew Erickson and more. Additionally, she shared another steamy photo from the album’s photo shoot, shot by her frequent creative collaborator, Neil Krug.

In the picture, Lana is seen wearing a coat with no shirt underneath, exposing her breasts. While the picture was shared on her private Instagram account, fans have since shared it on Twitter. You can see the NSFW picture here.

The topless photo will be one of several variants of the album artwork for Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Ocean Blvd‘s vinyl editions.

Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Ocean Blvd is out 3/24 via Interscope and Polydor. You can pre-save it here.

It was a great Texas meet-up on yesterday’s (January 13) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. Pop icon Nick Jonas stopped by to discuss fatherhood, and the success of the Jonas Brothers’ Las Vegas residency.

Clarkson asked Jonas if he’s prepared to balance marriage, fatherhood, and life on the road. He revealed that he and his brothers, Kevin and Joe, are actually in the process of gearing up for tour.

“Later this year, there will be a tour,” he said. He also revealed he may seek advice from Clarkson, who is a mother of two. Jonas shares a child, one-year-old Malti, with his wife, Priyanka Chopra, however, he has not been on the road since Malti’s birth.

“Kevin and Joe have had kids on the road, but I haven’t,” said Jonas

Of course, with every tour comes a new album. Jonas then revealed that a new era of the Jonas Brothers is imminent.

“The album is done,” he said. “We are very excited about it. We’re kind of in that planning moment with the campaign, the album, the single — all the things.”

Their upcoming album will mark their first in four years, as their last release was 2019’s Happiness Begins/

You can check out the interview above.

Some extracurriculars during Friday night’s game between the Sacramento Kings and the Houston Rockets led to four players, two from each team, seeing their nights come to a premature end. During the fourth quarter of action in a game that Sacramento led, 112-94, Kings guard Malik Monk took exception to some extra contact from Rockets guard Garrison Mathews while the two chased down a loose ball. It led to Monk poking the ball out of Mathews’ arms after play stopped and the two confronting one another.

Players, referees, and coaches had to intervene to break the two up, but tensions were quite high. Both Mathews and Monk were hit with technical fouls and ejected from the game, while additional players on both teams were kicked out for their actions in the ensuing fracas: Kings big man Chimezie Metu was tossed for “being an escalator,” while Rockets rookie Tari Eason “came in and he was an instigator.”

Prior to his ejection, Monk was one of the game’s leading scorers with 15 points off of the bench. This is the second game of a two-game series between the teams in Sacramento, with the Kings defending their home court on Wednesday night, 135-115. They’ll play a similar series in Houston on Feb. 6 and 8.