Category: News

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have a years-long inside joke going where they crop each other out of their photos. Here’s Reynolds on the red carpet with the right side of Lively’s face; another time, Lively wished her husband a happy birthday with a photo of Ryan Gosling (the Chris Pine of Ryans?) and the left side of Reynolds’ face.

Earlier this week, the Deadpool actor shared a picture of the happy couple with Mr. and Mrs. Claus, writing, “We met Jessica Claus and her husband on the Polar Express. She was everything I’d always dreamed since I was a kid. She smelled like cinnamon buns and sangria.” In the comments, Lively replied, “My. Shoes.” Reynolds offered a correction in his Stories. “I cropped my wife’s shoes out in the photo I posted. It’s inexcusable and I’m sorry to anyone I’ve hurt with this callous lack of fortitude,” he wrote.

But that’s not what it’s important. The initial caption is.

“We met Jessica Claus and her husband…”

Did you know Mrs. Claus’ first name? I didn’t, and neither did a lot of people, apparently. “I was today years old when I learned that Mrs. Claus is a JESSICA,” reads one comment, as spotted by BuzzFeed, while others thought her first name was Sharon. At least she’s not a Karen. People have been surprised by the Jessica revelation for years:

Mrs. Claus, who made her movie debut in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, was given the name Jessica in the 1970 Rankin/Boss special Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. Apparently, she’s also gone by “Mary, Maya, Matha, Anywyn, Layla, or Goody,” but weirdly, Goody didn’t catch on. Probably because she’s a baddie.

(Via BuzzFeed)

The reigning American League MVP is sticking around New York for a long time and for a lot of money. According to multiple media reports, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge will re-sign with the team for nine years and $360 million, marking the largest average annual value of any contract for a position player in baseball history.

Earlier in the week, Jon Heyman of MLB Network now-erroneously reported Judge would be heading to San Francisco to join the Giants. Ultimately, however, the Yankees made a substantial offer, and Judge validated the decision to turn down a 7-year extension worth $213.5 million from the Yankees earlier this year. He also reportedly turned down larger financial offers elsewhere to remain in New York.

Judge, who will turn 31 years old in April, hit .311 with a league-leading 1.111 OPS this past season. The 62 home runs he hit on the year are an American League record, and Judge led the American League in runs scored (133), runs batted in (131), walks (111), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686), and total bases (391). It may be safe to assume Judge will not replicate that level of insane production in any full season moving forward, but the Yankees are betting on the powerful slugger’s ability to maintain value deep into his 30’s while aiming to capitalize on his prime in the near future.

On Monday (December 5) night, Mariah Carey took the stage at New York’s Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts, for a Moët & Chandon event (as ET Canada notes). As she sang, Carey had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction when one of her dress straps stopped doing its job and came undone. Things went smoothly, though, as the moment wasn’t revealing and Carey’s team quickly fixed the issue while Carey sang an impromptu freestyle.

Carey addressed the situation in a dressing room video shared after the fact, in which she said, “My gosh. It was very, very close to being a full-on scandal, but we made it work! This part broke — came untethered, I should say — but we got it back and everybody was super professional.” Of her freestyling, she added, “It was just a freestyle moment, it is what it was, it’s nothing great. But, let me say this: we made it.”

Meanwhile, Carey is currently leading the surge of holiday songs back towards the top of the charts. On the latest Billboard Hot 100 (dated December 10), Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” is No. 1 for a sixth week, but Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is up to No. 2. All in all, six Christmas songs are currently in the top 10 and 25 are in the top 100.

Celebrity wax figures are hit or miss: Some look like perfect copies of the person, others are barely recognizable as human. Exaggerations aside, Madame Tussauds Dubai recently put a new Taylor Swift figure on display, and for the most part, it looks solid. From a distance, it’s clear to see that the figure depicts Swift during her Folklore/Evermore era. Upon closer inspection, though, something is off, placing the figure in the uncanny valley.

That’s what Swift fans seem to think, anyway, with one Swiftie comparing it to the titular AI doll from the upcoming horror movie M3GAN. (Appropriately enough, a recent M3GAN trailer featured a spooky remix of Swift’s “It’s Nice To Have A Friend.”)

As for what’s not quite right here, some blame the hair, while others think the “lifeless” eyes (“She looks like she’s got cataracts”) are at fault.

Others were more optimistic, though, with one user sharing a gallery of previous Swift figures and describing the latest as a “glow-up” compared to older iterations.

Meanwhile, Madame Tussauds recently unveiled a Lil Nas X wax statue that was so convincing, the rapper successfully used it to prank friends into thinking it was actually him.

Check out some more reactions to the Swift figure below.

Bartees Strange is having a great year. He unveiled his sophomore album Farm To Table, embarked on a massive tour with Pom Pom Squad, and joined The National onstage to perform “Mistaken for Strangers.” It looks like 2023 is going to be even bigger; it was just announced that he’ll be the guest curator for the Sled Island Music & Arts Festival.

The festival will take place from June 21 to 25 in different venues across Calgary in Alberta, Canada. According to the website, will have not only music but also comedy, film, and visual art. The website also has a statement that reads, “Bartees’ wide range of musical influences, unique style, and dedication to fostering more diverse audiences and music scenes made him the perfect candidate to take on this role, and we could not be more excited to be working with him on next year’s festival!” More information about the lineup will roll out in the next few months.

Last year, Strange told Uproxx a funny festival story: “I opened a set with like ‘Mossblerd’ and it was like 2pm — Mimosa time at the bar — and we were playing it and it was wild. Everyone left,” he said. “I was like, ‘Damn, all right, song two, let’s do it.’ It was a problem. It’s kind of the festival nightmare — to pull up to a crowded room and empty it.” Luckily, he’s come far since then.

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 9, at noon MST. Find more information about the festival here.

On Tuesday, over one-and-a-half million Georgians voted for a former athlete who can’t string a coherent sentence together, who thought there might be 52 states in America, who ranted about werewolves and vampires at rallies, who blurted out that he didn’t even live in the state in which he was running, who had secret children and maybe secret abortions, and who once declared, “This erection is for the people.” But it wasn’t enough. Once again, incumbent senator Raphael Warnock narrowly defeated challenger Herschel Walker. And perhaps no one was more excited by the news than Walker’s son.

Back in October, amidst a flurry of surreal revelations and allegations, the footballer-turned-bumbling MAGA candidate found himself with a new, surprising foe: his son Christian. Christian, from his first marriage, used to be the only one of his four kids he acknowledged publicly. He used to be his dad’s biggest cheerleader. He, too, was a MAGA conservative. But he flipped on his father in the final weeks of his congressional campaign, accusing him of “lying” and calling out his claims that he was some “family man.”

After his father lost for a second time, coming in second in the Georgia runoff, Christian Walker offered him some helpful advice.

“Don’t beat women, hold guns to peoples heads, fund abortions then pretend your pro-life, stalk cheerleaders, leave your multiple minor children alone to chase more fame, lie, lie, lie, say stupid crap, and make a fool of your family,” Christian tweeted. “And then maybe you can win a senate seat.”

He added, Don’t compare Warnock running over his wife’s foot to my father holding guns and knives to my mothers throat, threatening to kill his therapist, her, and one of his adultresses in a therapy session, and telling my mom and I he was going to beat our asses. Get off my page.”

Christian also reiterated his claim that his family begged his father not to run, but “we got the middle finger.”

He then offered advice to his party. “Republicans, we say we don’t play “identity politics” and then you ran this man mainly because he was the same skin color as his opponent with no background other than football,” he wrote. “A boring old Republican could have won.”

Anyway, congrats to Raphael Warnock. And salutations to Donald Trump, who handpicked Walker as a candidate, only to see him, like most of his other picks, either underperform or flame out. But then, he probably has bigger fish to fry.

Spencer Krug is most known for his role in Wolf Parade, who in 2017 released their first album in seven years: Cry Cry Cry. But Krug is a man of many projects, including Sunset Rubdown, who are about to make their return after inactivity for 13 years and join all the many bands who have been miraculously reuniting as of late.

Sunset Rubdown’s last album was 2009’s Dragonslayer, and then they broke up later that year. A press release reads that Krug woke up one morning after a dream of a Sunset Rubdown reunion and proceeded to email his former bandmates. Now they’ll be touring next year, kicking it off in March in Montreal, Quebec at La Sala Rossa and then finishing at the end of April in Los Angeles, California at the Lodge Room. Hopefully this also means that new music might be on the way.

Check out the full tour dates below.

03/24/2023 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
03/25/2023 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
03/26/2023 – Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW
03/27/2023 – Portland, ME @ Space
03/28/2023 – Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
03/30/2023 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/31/2023 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
04/01/2023 – Washington, DC @ DC9
04/19/2023 – Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar
04/20/2023 – Vancouver, BC @ The Fox Cabaret
04/21/2023 – Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s
04/22/2023 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
04/24/2023 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
04/25/2023 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room

Kanye West (who has legally changed his name to Ye) has been making headlines—again—not only for his bizarre public behavior, but for blatantly antisemitic remarks he made in recent interviews.

There’s no question that Ye’s comments praising Hitler and Nazis and denying that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust are hurtful and dangerous. There’s no question that bad actors are using Ye’s antisemitic comments to push their white nationalist agenda. The question is whether Ye fans would allow their admiration of his musical talents—or whatever else they like about him—to overshadow the fact that he is now regularly spewing pro-Nazi rhetoric to millions of people.

In at least one corner of the internet, fans are responding in what may be the most effective and meaningful way possible—by countering Ye’s commentary with a deluge of Holocaust education and remembrance.

Reddit’s r/kanye subreddit is a page dedicated to discussing all things Ye, and it currently has more than 700,000 members. After Ye’s interviews on Tim Pool’s podcast and Alex Jones’ Infowars this past week, in which he spoke of loving Hitler and Nazis while complaining of being wronged by Jews, members began flooding the forum with posts about people who fought the Nazis in World War II, information about the victims of the Holocaust and remembrances of those who were murdered in the genocide.

It was a heartening response to Ye’s horrific views, and especially powerful coming from people who consider (or considered) themselves huge fans of the artist.

One example is this post of a photo showing emaciated prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp with a quote from Ye’s Infowars appearance, in which he said, “I don’t like the word ‘evil’ next to Nazis.”

Another poster shared a photo of three survivors of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp, showing the tattoos of their prison camp numbers on their forearms.

Another shared a photo of the “Book of Names” at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the names of those murdered in the Holocaust are written.

Dozens of posts shared in the subreddit include photos of Jewish children who had their childhoods destroyed, people who suffered in concentration camps, heroes of the Holocaust who helped saved lives and more. Judging from the posts and comments, there appears to be widespread agreement on the subreddit that Ye’s antisemitism must be condemned in the strongest terms and that people need to know that his statements about the Holocaust are wrong.

“This is officially a Holocaust awareness sub,” wrote one poster who shared an infographic about how many young people are woefully uninformed about that piece of human history.

The transformation of the subreddit is a testament to the power of social media. Though misinformation spreads fast and social media can easily become a cesspool of toxicity, when people use it for good it can be a place where reasonable, righteous voices rise to the top.

It’s certainly sad and frustrating for folks who have felt a connection with Ye’s music to witness him spiraling further and further into bigoted madness. Feeling the need to speak out against someone who has been a positive force in your life isn’t a comfortable spot to be in. But there are views that are unconscionable and messages that simply cannot be tolerated, and Ye’s remarks egregiously cross both of those lines.

Fandom doesn’t mean fanaticism and no reasonable person can possibly defend the antisemitism Ye is pushing. (Heck, some of the most unreasonable people aren’t even trying to defend it.) Whatever his mental health situation may be, attacking Jews and supporting Nazis is wrong and harmful and needs to be named as such.

Simply calling it out isn’t enough, though, when falsehoods flow freely. Sharing accurate education about the Holocaust so that people can gain a deeper understanding of the scale and systemization of the world’s largest genocide is one way to not just call out antisemitism but to battle it with truth. The Holocaust carried out by Hitler and the Nazis is a historical reality no one should remain ignorant of and no one should get a pass for denying, no matter how famous or once beloved they may be.

People love staring at celestial oddities: meteor showers, lunar eclipses, solar eclipses (which you shouldn’t look at). This Wednesday and Thursday, there’s another big event happening in the sky. Not only will there be what’s called a lunar occultation, when the moon appears to block another object for us humans, but a perfect storm of astronomical events will make it even more special.

As per Space.com, on Wednesday, Dec. 7, Mars will appear to move behind Earth’s moon for a full hour. What’s more, Mars will be at opposition, meaning it will be seen directly opposite to the sun. But that’s not all: On November 30, Mars was in perigee, meaning it was at its closest point to Earth. The lunar occultation will happen about a week after that event, which means the Red Planet is still close and bright.

If that wasn’t enough, Wednesday will be the last full moon of 2022. Ergo, lucky observers will be able to see a bright Mars next to a full Cold Moon, making for some very pretty pictures (though you’ll probably need a telescope or binoculars).

How does one watch this? Well, there’s a couple ways. For those who want to behold it with their very own eyes, it will be visible to most of North America, with the exception of the southeastern United States, the northeast coast, and most of Alaska. For those who can see it, Mars will disappear behind the moon around 9:31 pm EST and reappear an hour later.

For those unlucky to live in areas where the lunar occultation is not visible can still see it, in a sense. Both the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin have set up livestreams, which will begin around 9pm EST.

The lunar occultation of Mars isn’t that infrequent; it happens every 26 months. Still, two years and change is a long time not to see something this gorgeous.

Shaquille O’Neal trying to race Kenny Smith to the big board on the TNT set during halftime of NBA games is nothing new. Sometimes, something silly happens during their race, like the time the set was all decorated for the holiday season and Smith decided to shove the big man, which led to him flying into a Christmas tree. It was very funny, because “Shaq gets shoved into a Christmas tree” is a very funny collection of words.

Fast forward to Tuesday night and Smith did it again. The fellas were discussing the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers when Smith spun around to go to the board. Shaq decided to race him, so The Jet laid him out and sent him so far into the tree that his feet were barely sticking out.

The single ornament rolling slowly while Shaq’s huge feet are sticking out and just kinda wiggling around is my favorite part. He was so far in there that Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley had to come over and pull him out, while Shaq was cracking up as he repeatedly said “this means war, Kenny.” It’s hard to know what, exactly, Shaq has up his sleeve, but I am very excited to find out.