Category: News

The 17th season of Variety‘s “Actors On Actors” series has already included the likes of Viola Davis and Jennifer Lawrence and has fans impatiently awaiting the episode with Joe Alwyn and Paul Mescal. The latest installment dropped on Sunday, featuring Austin Butler with Janelle Monáe. The crux of the conversation was Butler’s leading man turn in Elvis and Monáe’s standout performance in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. But there was room for Butler to make an endearing admission.

At one point Butler asked Monáe about their upbringing in the Baptist church, and Monáe noted they appreciated that Elvis made clear that its titular icon borrowed heavily from Black artists. Butler then shared that he went with director Baz Luhrmann to a Nashville church after he was cast to observe gospel singers, which taught him about “what movement means in music when you can’t help but move because your spirit is being moved.”

“I’ve only had a couple moments before filming Elvis where I danced in public because I was very, very shy. I’d always be a wallflower at party,” Butler told Monáe. “One of them was at that gospel church, and another was at one of your shows. You moved me in such a way that I couldn’t help but move. [I was with] some of my friends, they said, ‘Austin, I didn’t know you could dance.’”

He continued, “But you were up on stage and I was in the audience, and I just couldn’t help but dance. It was so beautiful.”

Monáe was visibly flattered and asked which of their shows Butler had attended. After coyly calling Coachella “the music festival that shan’t be named,” Butler said it was Coachella and recalled, “I danced and danced and danced. I couldn’t stop.”

Monáe played Coachella’s main stage in 2019 as part of their Dirty Computer Tour. The acclaimed set featured a twerk-off with Lizzo.

Watch Butler and Monáe’s full “Actors On Actors” above and see outtakes below.

It was yet another roller coaster of a week, with news good and bad. The good: Herschel Walker lost the Georgia runoff, the same-sex and interracial marriage is set to be protected by law, and WNBA star Brittney Griner was released from a Russian prison. The not so good: Kyrsten Sinema left the Democratic Party and a certain former president, who could very well return to office, suggested terminating the Constitution. For their latest Weekend Update, SNL made sure to cover it all.

First up was Sinema, the wishy-washy senator who is now a registered Independent. “Explained Sinema, ‘Pay attention to me,’” joked co-host Colin Jost, suggesting that she mostly does things just to get a response.

Michael Che had multiple jokes about Herschel Walker, including addressing his Senate loss. “I don’t think this is the last you’ll hear from Herschel Walker, I mean unless he’s your biological father,” he cracked.

Che returned to Walker during a bit about the 45th president. “Trump plans to terminate the Constitution by asking Herschel Walker to drive it to the clinic,” he said.

Colin Jost also brought up Samuel Alito, one of the Supreme Court justices overseeing a case about a website designer who wanted to deny service to a same-sex couple. During oral arguments, Alito brought up a hypothetical involving a Black department store Santa Claus being forced to take a picture with a child in KKK garb. “Alito added that he’d love an answer before he takes his grandkids to the mall next week,” he joked.

You can watch the segment in the video above.

Cher took to Twitter with somber news late Saturday night. “Mom is gone,” the pop icon wrote alongside an anguished emoji. The presumption is that Cher’s mother, 96-year-old Georgia Holt, has passed away. TODAY reported reaching out to Cher’s representatives for an official comment but has yet to receive a response.

Cher had provided updates on Holt, born Jackie Jean Crouch, in September. She first tweeted on September 9, “Sorry I’ve Been Mia. Mom’s Been Sick Off & On.She Just Got Out Of Hosp.She Had Pneumonia.She’s Getting Better.” The following day, Cher tweeted, “Home is the Best Medicine For Her…She’s Getting Better.” She also thanked fans for their prayers.

Replying to one tweeter’s well wishes, Cher further detailed what happened to Holt. “96 & was Taking Meds,” the Grammy-winner wrote. “At Home.I Got Nervous Made appointment. Our Dr Looked at her & Said You’re Going To The Hosp. So She Went.C’Mon 96 with Pneumonia,She’s a Champ.”

Cher was optimistic about Holt’s recovery by September 11, tweeting that she had just spoken to her mother on the phone and Holt “sounded like a teenager.”

Cher honored Holt on Mother’s Day in 2013 by executive-producing the made-for-television Lifetime documentary Dear Mom, Love Cher. The 42-minute doc is available now on Amazon Prime Video. The sprawling synopsis summed up the full life Holt lived.

“Dear Mom, Love Cher provides a rare peek into Cher’s fascinating family history and features in depth interviews with Holt, her daughters Cher and Georganne LaPiere Bartylak, and grandchildren Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman,” it reads. “The documentary begins with Holt’s humble beginnings in rural Arkansas, where she first dreamt of stardom as a little girl and continues through her six tumultuous marriages while pursuing a career among Hollywood’s elite as a singer and actress.”

It continues, “Holt endures a series of dramatic personal and professional triumphs and setbacks but survived and overcame the odds — no matter the challenge — to successfully raise two loving daughters. One of the daughters would live out the dream Holt could never fulfill for herself and go on to become one of the world’s biggest stars. Dear Mom, Love Cher includes unprecedented access to the family and features a never-before-heard duet performance with Holt and Cher, along with the long-lost recordings Holt taped more than three decades ago that Cher has re-mastered for commercial release later this year, making her mother’s lifelong dream a reality.”

Cher and Holt appeared together on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in April 2013 to discuss Holt’s Honky Tonk Woman album, Holt’s early Hollywood ambitions, Sonny Bono, and more. Around the same time, Cher and Holt performed their Honky Tonk Woman duet “I’m Just Your Yesterday” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Per TODAY, Holt’s acting credits included A Life Of Her Own in 1950 and Father’s Little Dividend in 1951. She had been in a relationship with Craig Spencer since 1976.

The most recent SNL brought back two of the show’s legends: former cast member Martin Short and frequent host Steve Martin, who’s lorded over the show 16 times. (During their opening monologue, they were briefly interrupted by their Only Murders in the Building colleague Selena Gomez.) Being the penultimate episode of 2022, it was a Christmas-heavy episode, complete with an opening song about ignoring all the annoyances in the world, like Elon Musk and Kanye. The episode also featured a nod to a holiday classic.

In a pre-taped segment, SNL sent up A Christmas Carol, turning the climactic moment of epiphany into one of untold bloodshed. Short played Ebenezer Scrooge, who awakens from his revelatory dreams hellbent on procuring a Christmas goose. Alas, when he flips a golden coin to an orphan boy (Sarah Sherman), the coin lands square in his eye. Other coins fare just as well, leaving multiple people blinded. Conditions do not improve upon the appearance of Martin, as one of the ghosts, who winds up only contributing to the bloodshed.

And so what began as a straight adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic turned into probably the bloodiest SNL sketch since the Dead Poets Society send-up from 2016, which kicked off with Pete Davidson losing his head to a ceiling fan and proceeded from there.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Selena Gomez visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, December 5, There, she dished on naming her kidney after Fred Armisen, preparing to “have some fun” with her new music and, of course, co-starring with Steve Martin and Martin Short on Hulu’s Emmy-winning series Only Murders In The Building.

“Working with Steve and Marty, it’s honestly a dream. They’re incredible,” Gomez said. When asked if the comedy legends’ talents are rubbing off on her, she added, “Oh, completely. I’ve become snarky and a little grumpy.”

But Gomez was all smiles on Saturday night. Martin, 77, and Short, 72, tag-teamed Saturday Night Live hosting duties, and their joint monologue was predictably hilarious. They reminisced on the SNL episodes they’ve respectively hosted in the past and joked about getting older. Short revealed that they are hard at work on the third season of Only Mwurders, adding, “Our show is like Steve at the urinal: it streams for 32 minutes.” That led into Martin and Short reading fake eulogies to each other.

“Now that Marty is gone, who will I ever work with?” Martin asked. Right on cue, Gomez appeared out of nowhere to give Martin a hug and cheerily asked, “What about me?” She pulled Short into their hug and delivered the chronic ending line to every SNL monologue, “We’ve got a great show for you tonight!”

Brandi Carlile was the episode’s musical guest, delivering performances of “The Story” and “You And Me On The Rock” with Lucius.

Watch Martin and Short’s (and, briefly, Gomez’s) SNL monologue above.

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

In some ways, things aren’t terrible right now. Voters largely rejected the GOP’s threatened “red wave,” and definitely poo-pooed all those wacko MAGA candidates. Donald Trump isn’t doing well, which is good for everybody. But there still remains untold creative headaches, not the least being Elon Musk expanding his empire to Twitter. Or there’s the fall of Kanye West. In the Cold Open to their latest episode, the cast of SNL showed how to get through the holidays by temporarily blocking out the bad stuff.

The sketch began with Bowen Yang, Cecily Strong, and Kenan Thompson attending a fancy holiday party, where they quickly agreed to spend the season pretending all the annoying woes of the world didn’t exist. They soon launched into song, singing a Christmas song with some very pointed lyrics.

“Elon, why does he own all the stuff? Why does he have to run Tesla and Twitter? Was outer space not enough?” sang Strong.

Added Yang: “And Hitler? When did Hitler come back? We basically all agreed years ago, Hitler should never come back.”

“And why are his new fans Black?” lamented Thompson.

But with the chorus, they decided how to deal with it: “Let’s block it all out for Christmas!“

“My mental health hasn’t been great,” Yang sang. “I wake up at noon and the sun is somehow setting then I fall back asleep around eight. But I can live in a delusional state.”

“It’s Christmas,” sang Strong. “And all of my stress fades away. All the problems and issues and crying and tissues can wait until Jan — you — ware — ay.”

Anyway, sounds about right. You can watch the sketch in the video above.

In October, Big Hit Music confirmed that BTS was planning to go on hiatus until at least 2025 so as to allow each group member to fulfill his mandatory South Korean military service. The statement detailed that Jin, who turned 30 on December 4 (and who is the oldest BTS member), would “initiate the process as soon as his schedule for his solo release is concluded by the end of October. He will then follow the enlistment procedure of the Korean government.” Jin’s solo debut, “Astronaut,” dropped on October 28, and now, he appears to be fully engaged in the military process.

Jin shared a selfie featuring a new buzz cut on Weverse on December 11, which was captured by several BTS fan accounts. “Hehehehehe it’s cuter than I expected,” he wrote as the caption (as noted by Soompi). Jimin also made the photo his new his Weverse profile picture:

Last week, Big Hit provided an update on Jin’s enlistment. The statement, translated by Soompi, reads as follows:

“Hello,
This is BIGHIT MUSIC.
We want to thank you for your continued support of BTS and would like to update you on Jin’s upcoming enlistment into the military.
Jin will fulfill his required time with the military by enlisting in the army. Please note that we will not be holding any kind of official event on the day of his recruitment.
The entrance ceremony is a time to be observed by military personnel and their families only. In order to prevent any issues that might occur from crowding, we ask fans to please refrain from visiting the site. Instead, we ask you to keep your heartwarming words of support and farewell in your hearts.
We also advise you not to get adversely affected by purchasing unauthorized tours or product packages illegally using artist IP. Our company will take necessary action against any attempts at commercial activity making unauthorized use of such IP.
We ask for your continued love and support for Jin until he finishes his military service and comes back. Our company will also strive to provide every support he needs during this time.
Thank you.”

ARMY reacted immensely to BTS’ military-related hiatus, and the outpouring of support for Jin is just as prevalent. See some of the tweets below.

Multiple times per week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Emancipation (Apple TV+ movie)

Sadly, that Oscars slap was bound to overshadow this movie on multiple fronts, although the movie itself may not have held up against the inevitable scrutiny even without Will Smith’s awards-show spectacle. Antoine Fuqua directs this film that was very clearly intended as awards-show fare, but critics pointed toward a messy final product. Still, this slavery epic is riding the streaming charts with some B-movie touches confusingly appearing alongside the project that strives to not be mere entertainment.

TIE: 10. His Dark Materials (HBO series on HBO Max)

The final season of this adaptation revolves around Phillip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass to bring Lyra’s story to a close. In doing so, HBO has delivered a much more worthy project than the 2007 movie starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, and this season, we’ve got extra doses of James McAvoy’s Lord Asriel. As well, Dafne Keen has kept up her strong performance while making plucky heroines everywhere proud and helping the audience explore the parallel world of Dæmons.

9. Black Adam (Warner Bros. movie streaming on Amazon Prime/VOD)

The Rock’s passion project finally arrived on big screens after seven years in the making. One successful VOD run later, the movie lands on HBO Max beginning on December 16. That will provide for plenty of holiday-bound screenings of Teth-Adam being mad as hell at the world, and you can’t blame him, since he was imprisoned for using his powers in ancient Kahndaq. A lot has changed 5,000 years later, but an understandable chip still sits on his shoulder. Also, get ready more of Black Adam vs. Superman while the DCEU/DCU’s transformation keeps taking shape.

8. The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney+ movie)

James Gunn is wrapping up his time at Marvel (before riding off to his DCEU/DCU future), but here’s a nice little shrink-wrapped gift for the masses before Guardians 3 arrives. We are Groot! Gunn is not sorry about that Bucky reference, and I’m sure gonna miss my man, Rocket Raccoon.

7. Warrior Nun (Netflix series)

The critical buzz for this show’s second season hasn’t been as plentiful this time around, but to be fair, the streaming floodgates have opened full force (with lots more competition) lately. Still, Alba Baptista’s Ava continues to lead the Sister-Warriors after receiving a too-slight taste of normal existence following being shackled by illness while growing up. As it turns out, she might be the only being who can save humanity from Adriel, who is neither angel nor demon but is a major, unholy pain in the ass.

6. Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX series on Hulu)

Claire Danes plays a truly loathsome character to Jesse Eisenberg’s more affable (although not too terribly relatable) divorcing spouse, who ends up juggling all of the balls and attempting to rebuild a personal life. The real attractions of this story, however, are Fleishman’s two best friends. That’s especially the case for Lizzy Caplan’s Libby, who’s narrating this story and also wrestling with what’s become of her life. Adam Brody plays the stereotypical finance bro who’s also an unwaveringly good friend. The show’s based upon Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel, and she adapted the project with some changes, which reveal themselves as the season unfurls as an anxiety-ridden slow burn on a weekly basis.

5. Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Netflix movie)

Emma Corrin (who portrayed The Crown‘s first Princess Diana) picks up the leading role in this film that’s much steamier (positively sizzling, in fact) than the recent My Policeman co-starring Corrin with Harry Styles. Here, Emma portrays an aristocratic wife whose husband falls prey to a war injury. Keeping in line with the classic D.H. Lawrence novel, she ends up getting randy with one of their gamekeepers. Expect sexy times, yes, but also plenty of drama because these things can never be clear cut.

4. Emily The Criminal (Roadside Flix/Netflix movie)

Aubrey Plaza is finally everywhere, as she deserves to be. Unlike her The White Lotus character, though, Emily is enduring a tough life. This show puts the student-loan hierarchy and the criminal-justice system on blast as Plaza’s protagonist resorts to joining the underworld to make enough cash to stay afloat. Before she knows it, she’s lured into dark and dangerous scheme that eventually transforms this film into an action-thriller. In some lights, Theo Rossi looks like a sinister version of B.J. Novak, so have fun with that visual, and watching Plaza break bad (with a nebulous past in the mix) promises to be a satisfying watch.

3. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix movie)

Fresh off his successful Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix, The Shape of Water and Crimson Peak director continues to revel on the small screen. Here, he delivers a stop-motion delight while reinventing the story of a wooden puppet who we all thought we knew best. It’s dark stuff and perhaps too frightening for the younger kiddos, but the story takes on layers of thematic relevance and more than justifies its own existence.

2. Wednesday (Netflix series)

Jenna Ortega picks up your favorite monotone heroine for Tim Burton, and this series continues to provide record-busting numbers for Netflix. Call this a case of Thanksgiving leftovers that do not spoil, although I have a feeling that The Addams Family daughter would enjoy that, too. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán are perhaps too good as Morticia and Gomez, and there’s plenty of room for zero blinking in Season 2.

1. The White Lotus (HBO series streaming on HBO Max)

By now, plenty of people know who lived and died on this Sicilian adventure, so go get caught up, and you can find out if Brian Grubb’s predictions came true. Multiple bodies were mentioned early on, but at least everyone knew from the beginning that Daphne lives, and Valentina and Rocco should be just fine, but from there, all lips were zipped. It’s been one hell of a passive-aggression fueled season, and that pent up energy was bound to lean into carnage. That’s The White Lotus way, and now, we’re left to wonder where the next season of malaise (in idyllic surroundings) shall take place.

In her second performance of the night, Brandi Carlile delivered a cozy performance of “You And Me On The Rock” on the Saturday Night Live stage. The song comes from Carlile’s Grammy-nominated album, In These Silent Days.

While on stage, Carlile donned a bright blue suit, as she was joined by indie-pop duo Lucius to perform the light-hearted love song.

“Me out in my garden and you out on your walk / Is all the distance this poor girl can take / Without listenin’ to you talk / I don’t need their money, baby / Just you and me on the rock,” they sing on the song’s chorus.

“You And Me On The Rock” is up for three Grammys at the upcoming 2023 awards show, including Record Of The Year, Best Americana Song, and Best American Roots Song. In an interview with Stereogum, Carlile shared how her family inspired the song during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When my life changed, when everything that I identify myself by went away, I was just kind of left with a question of, well, is what I’ve built my life on really a solid foundation? I turned to [my wife] Catherine and the girls, and I wrote that song,” Carlile said, “and I realized that, yeah, even the most intensely self-identifying things can go away, but what my life is really built on, which is faith and my family, it’s a rock, and it’s solid.”

Check out the performance of “You And Me On The Rock” above.

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

Lizzo is set to perform on Saturday Night Live next Saturday (December 17) in an episode hosted by Elvis actor Austin Butler. The news was announced last night during the SNL broadcast.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were originally set to perform, however, due to keyboardist Nick Zinner’s pneumonia, they have been forced to cancel their appearance.

The band issued a statement on social media saying:

“As many of our fans know Nick has had pneumonia over the past month and it’s been and up and down recovery process. The band’s top priority is supporting Nick through a full recovery, as a result, we had to pull out from our engagements of KROQ’s Acoustic Christmas and Saturday Night Live. YYYs have enjoyed the incredible highs of being supported on KROQ and the huge honor of being chosen to close out SNL‘s 2022. We are deeply thankful and expectedly heartbroken we cannot rise to these occasions.”

This marks Lizzo’s second time performing on SNL this year, and her third time overall.

“It’s an honor to fill in for the yeah yeah yeahs who unfortunately could not perform next week,” said Lizzo in a tweet.

Lizzo is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.