Category: News

Celebrity net worth websites are unreliable. For instance, Matt Damon having a net worth of only (“only”) $170 million sounds low. Or maybe I only think that after learning the Oppenheimer actor lost out on an extra $250 million by not starring in Avatar.

Back in 2019, Damon revealed, “Jim Cameron offered me Avatar. And when he offered it to me, he goes, ‘Now, listen. I don’t need anybody. I don’t need a name for this, a named actor. If you don’t take this, I’m going to find an unknown actor and give it to him, because the movie doesn’t really need you. But if you take the part, I’ll give you ten percent of [it].’” Ten percent of Avatar‘s highest-grossing-movie-of-all-time box office total is roughly a quarter of a billion dollars. Damon’s doing fine, but still. Oops.

Cameron was asked about Damon’s comments (he was presumably up for Jake Sully) in a BBC Radio 1 interview while promoting Avatar: The Way of Water. He had a candid Mr. Haters Need to “Shut the F*ck Up”-like response. “He’s beating himself up over this, and I really think, ‘Matt, you’re kind of like one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Get over it.’ But he had to do another Bourne film, which was on his runway, and there’s nothing he could do about that, and so he had to regretfully decline,” the director said.

The role went to Sam Worthington. His net worth? A measly $30 million.

(Via Insider)

Last year, Summer Walker had her first baby. Now, she’s giving pregnancy another go: This summer, she revealed she’s pregnant again, saying, “People asking me if I’m pregnant… I am and you know I’m very, very, very, very, happy about it. Very excited about it. And this is gonna be… I’m very very excited because it’s going to be different from how it was before. It’s really peaceful, really happy, lots of help, lots of love.”

Recently, that part about this time being “different” appears to have gotten some additional context.

A couple days ago, Walker revealed that Erykah Badu will be her doula for the second time, with an Instagram post showing them preparing for the birth. Shortly before that, Badu shared a photo with her daughter Puma Curry, writing, “Peace peace .. MEET THE WELCOMING COMITTEE. Mother – Daughter DOULA duty. Today I am training a very capable doula who is shadowing me while we assist a mommy in labor with twins. @pumacurry I’m so proud of u and I really really like you.”

So, it would seem that Walker is the one having twins. Indeed, in the photos from Walker’s post, her pregnant belly does look like it could be home to a couple of bundles of joy.

Walker has yet to share a due date, but since it’s been half a year since she made the pregnancy reveal this past June, it would seem the baby/babies is/are set to arrive really soon.

Though the band may be on hiatus until 2025, BTS is keeping the #Army fed. This past October, the boys performed at Busan’s World Expo 2030 bid, and now, fans will get a chance to see the epic performance. Next year, BTS will share their official Busan concert movie, BTS: Yet To Come In Cinemas.

Arriving to theaters in February, Yet To Come will show footage from the concert that has been “re-edited and remixed for the big screen,” according to a press release. Fans will be able to experience Yet To Come in various formats, including screenings with and immersive 270-degree field of view ScreenX, 4DX, which is designed to replicate the effects of the concert’s live atmosphere and 4DX Screen, which combines the effects of both formats. There will also be a special screening on February 4, in which fans will be given glowsticks to wave throughout the on-screen concert.

“We look forward to collaborating once again with the teams at CJ 4DPlex, and HYBE to bring BTS’ awe-inspiring Busan concert to the big screen in this special cinematic cut,” Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby said in a statement. “The group’s engagement with audiences has always been perfectly suited to the cinema, and we are excited to welcome fans from all corners of the globe to this must-see celebration.”

BTS: Yet To Come In Cinemas arrives in theaters on February 1, 2023 and will screen in 110 different countries. Tickets for the screenings will be available for purchase beginning January 10, 2023 at 7 p.m. ET.

Jack Antonoff and his sister Rachel hosted their annual talent show event at NYU’s Skirball Center last night, with proceeds going to The Ally Coalition. As promised, Antonoff packed the place with talent indeed. The show featured performances from a range of artists, including comedian Mike Birbiglia, musicians Joy Oladokun, Andrew Dost, Claud, and so many more.

While Antonoff opened the music side of the talent show by playing “I Miss Those Days” with his band Bleachers, he had even more surprises in store. After fans had spotted both Matty Healy of The 1975 and Phoebe Bridgers roaming around New York, it was sure that they’d show up. And they did.

The 1975 hopped up on stage to share three songs — “Be My Mistake,” “All I Need To Hear,” and a joint performance with Bleachers on “Wintering.” Antonoff produced the band’s most recent album.

Weyes Blood did a two-song mini set, with “Picture Me Better” and a cover of “O Holy Night.” There was also a partial Boygenius reunion, as Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus (and Christian Lee Hutson) played Bridgers’ scream-worthy 2020 hit, “I Know The End,” and a fan-favorite, “Graceland Too.”

The Antonoffs closed out the Ally Coalition talent show by bringing back Bridgers, Dacus, Weyes Blood, Healy, and Phish’s Trey Anastasio for a tight-knit cover of Nico’s “These Days.” The girls took the forefront around the mic as the three guitar bros provided the instrumental.

Watch the full finale cover of “These Days” above. Continue scrolling for some fan reactions.

Vladimir Putin is reportedly heading to the bunker for the holidays, but he did find time to point some fingers over his disastrous war in Ukraine. Most recently, we’ve heard reports that Russia itself is feeling the squeeze (and people can’t even find paper throughout the nation). Putin has been ignoring the reality of Russia making soldiers use degraded ammo, and the Russian President has decided that making a champagne-fueled speech would somehow help matters, although it clearly did not.

Forbes now has details on Putin starting to admit that things are “complicated” over in Ukraine, as though he’s typing out a Facebook relationship status update. This news also arrives courtesy of Russian state news agency TASS, which reported that Putin is calling upon his security and intelligence officials to “significantly improve” the Russian border situation to ward off against potential terror attacks. Putin also seems nervous about being able to hold onto the Ukrainian territories that he claimed to annex in 2022:

The Russian leader added that the security situation was “extremely complicated” in the four occupied Ukrainian territories–which Moscow claimed to illegally annex following a sham referendum earlier this year–as he urged the security agencies to do everything needed to ensure the safety of “Russian people” living there.

The Moscow Times further reports that Putin is wagging fingers at his various counterintelligence experts while urging them to crack down on any “traitors, spies and saboteurs” within Russia’s ranks or coming in from elsewhere. Although paranoia might seem “normal” for a man who’s rumored to order his enemies/critics to be poisoned, this report did arrive after Russia passed the 300-day mark in Putin’s imperialistic war. He’s feeling the heat, and we can probably expect him to keep lashing out. For now, though, he’s off to the bunker.

(Via Moscow Times & Forbes)

Argentina won the World Cup on Sunday over France in one of the greatest soccer games of all time. The win meant that Lionel Messi finally lifted the one trophy that evaded him over the course of his legendary career, and as an added bonus, he now has the most liked post in the history of Instagram.

In the aftermath of Argentina’s win, Messi — or, probably more accurately, someone with the keys to his IG account — posted a number of pictures of Messi and his teammates celebrating, whether it was during the game or with the World Cup.

As of this writing, the post has more than 61 million likes. It almost immediately started flying up the list of the most liked posts of all time, and early on Tuesday morning, it became the most liked post ever put on the platform, overtaking a picture of an egg which was posted back in January of 2019.

Messi has another post with a chance at taking down the egg, too, as a picture of him on an airplane with the World Cup has more than 36 million likes, as of this writing.

The egg was posted in an effort to beat what was, at the time, the most popular post in IG history — the first photo Kylie Jenner ever posted of her daughter, Stormi. Now, the record belongs to Messi, and it will be interesting to see if I will be able to beat it the next time I post a picture of my dog to my Instagram account.

The White Lotus is TV’s thirstiest show, both on and off the screen.

Meghan Fahhy (Daphne), the season two MVP of the HBO series, and Leo Woodall, who played rowdy English boy Jack, have “been connected” and romantically linked, according to Bustle. “Eagle-eyed fans noticed flirtatious comments between the two stars on Instagram, hinting at something more than just friendship between them.” Fahhy commented “I love you! I love these! I love you!” on one of his posts on Instagram, to which “he responded by saying he loves her right back.” There’s further proof:

In one of the pictures, Fahy also appears to have Woodall’s finger in her mouth. He returned the favor on her feature in Elle UK in which she proclaimed she loved “the UK and all of the Elles,” commenting on behalf of his country with a similar refrain: “UK loves you back.”

Woodall was also prominently featured in a collection of photos that Fahy shared on Monday, which you can see below. “Sizzley Sicily,” she wrote as a caption. (Be sure to click to photo five to see Aubrey Plaza’s wild-looking orange bucket hat.) There’s no official confirmation that the two of them are dating, but if they are, they should stay away from hiring a trainer. Unless they’re into that! I don’t mean to kink shame.

(Via Bustle)

Mariah Carey has done it: Last week, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” managed to yet again return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the fourth consecutive holiday season. The song still has some juice left, as it maintains its No. 1 spot on the latest rank. Appropriately, the new chart is dated December 24, Christmas Eve.

This is the tenth week at No. 1 for “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which makes Carey the only woman to ever have three songs spend at least ten weeks on top. Previously, “We Belong Together” was No. 1 for 14 weeks in 2005, while her and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day” topped the chart for 16 weeks in 1995 and 1996.

Carey celebrated the song’s chart-topping return last week, writing, “YAYYYYYYY!!!! Such an amazing surprise and an early Christmas gift!!! Thank you so much!!!”

While the top 10 is mostly owned by holiday songs, SZA landed a pair of tracks from her new album, SOS, in the region: “Kill Bill” is No. 3 and “Nobody Gets Me” is No. 10. All in all, she has 21 SOS songs on the new chart, with the Phoebe Bridgers collaboration “Ghost In The Machine” among them. The song is now Bridgers’ first top-40 hit.

Puddle Of Mudd is a successful rock band. “Blurry” was a top-five single in 2001, “She Hates Me” was also a hit the next year, and the album both of those songs are on, 2001’s Come Clean, is multi-platinum and peaked in the top 10 on the charts.

All of that said, the group returned to the spotlight in 2020, but not for a good reason. That January, the band sat down for a SiriusXM live session, where they covered Nirvana’s “About A Girl.” A few months after that, the video started getting some viral attention online due to singer Wes Scantlin’s questionable vocal performance. One YouTube comment reads, “This literally sounds like something South Park would do to imitate Nirvana.” Another says, “When you think 2020 couldn’t get any worse… You find this exists.”

Now, two years later, in a new interview with Songfacts, Scantlin has addressed the cover. He was asked about it and he responded, “Oh yeah, you know what? I was acclimating and it was a tiring day, and I had already performed five or six songs at one time, and by the time I got to that one — which I shouldn’t even have done because I cannot nail that song — I was a little tired. It looked and sounded like total sh*t. But live to fight another day, dude.”

Revisit the performance above and read the full interview here.

Beyoncé’s cultural impact has spanned nearly two decades, but it has never been more evident than in 2022. The multi-hyphenate brought the world to a screeching halt after releasing her seventh studio album, Reinassance, this past July, sparking national debates about topics like the “Great Resignation,” the Black roots of House music, and more.

2022 has been quite the year for Queen Bey. Aside from releasing her highly anticipated album, the singer starred in a new campaign with Tiffany & Co. earlier this year. She also achieved the record for having the most Grammy nominations ever — tieing with her Jay-Z for 88 nominations. Here are the three biggest moments from Beyoncé for 2022.

Beyoncé Releases Her Seventh Album, Renaissance

Beyoncé brought the world to a screeching halt with her latest album, Renaissance, an ode to House music, which was heavily influenced by Black and queer artists. The album sparked national debates about burnout in the workplace and the Great Resignation, making everyone want to “release their jobs.” The pop singer has yet to release the visuals for the project, causing considerable frustration within the “Hive.”

She is also rumored to be gearing up for a tour in 2023, guess we’ll have to wait and see.

2022 Oscars Performance

For her Oscar performance of King Richard‘s “Be Alive,” Beyoncé hit the streets of Compton, performing at a local tennis court. Surrounded by dancers with glowing, yellow ensembles and the signature hair beads that defined Venus and Serena’s early careers, the singer brings the song to life. It had been the first performance from Beyoncé in over five years, and the singer got to have her daughter, Blue Ivy, right alongside her, bringing the moment full circle.

The over-the-top performance was peak Beyoncé, which means sheer perfection, and we should expect nothing less.

Queen Bey Celebrates The Big 4-0

Along with dropping an album and racking up several nominations, Beyoncé hit another milestone this year — turning 40. The pop singer celebrated her 40th birthday this past September and in this new stage in he life, Beyoncé said she is working to “obliterate old boundaries” as she heads into uncharted territory.

“My wish is for my 40s to be fun and full of freedom,” she told Harper’s Bazaar last month. “I want this next decade to be about celebration, joy, and giving and receiving love. I want to give all the love I have to the people who love me back.”