Category: News

In recent months, many Kanye West associates have chosen to speak out against the rapper, all stemming from his antisemitic comments. Now, so too has longtime collaborator Pusha T.

In a new Los Angeles Times interview, Pusha was asked about he has “felt watching everything that’s happened with him over the last few months.” He responded, “It’s definitely affected me. It’s been disappointing. As a Black man in America, there is no room for bigotry or hate speech. So yeah. It’s been very disappointing, let’s talk straight.”

Before answering that question, he spoke about what it’s been like to work with West over the years, saying, “Writing and recording with Ye is a very special thing for me. We actually have a lot of the same taste, we love just barred-out rap. He would tell me things like, ‘Man, you just be the extreme version of yourself. And I’m gonna be the extreme version of myself.’ […] Creatively, Ye has meant freedom to me. A lot of times, people would try to get me to change certain things about my process, change certain things about me lyrically, change certain things about the content. He never has been like that. He always saw me for who I was and knew how to take it to the next level.”

Check out the full interview here.

The Lakers entered Monday night’s game with the Pacers feeling better about themselves than they had all season, riding a 5-1 streak that had them feeling like a playoff contender again.

The good vibes continued for most of the game against Indiana, as L.A. took a 9-point lead into the fourth quarter, saw a fan drill a halfcourt shot to win $75,000, and proceeded to expand their lead to 101-84 with just under 10 minutes to play. It was at that point that everything fell apart for the Lakers, as they saw the Pacers claw their way back to within a possession of L.A. in the final minute, where Indiana would miss three point-blank shots at the rim for the lead with 50 seconds to go.

While that proved to be a missed opportunity, the Lakers weren’t done providing the Pacers with multiple chances at the lead, and that proved costly on the last possession of the game with L.A. up 115-113. After a Myles Turner three for the lead missed, Tyrese Haliburton snagged a long rebound, got trapped at the elbow, and somehow managed to find Andrew Nembhard on the opposite wing, who was able to get off a game-winning three just before the buzzer to stun the Staples Center crowd.

It was a wild sequence that capped off a 32-14 run by the Pacers to close the fourth quarter, with Tyrese Haliburton (24 points, 14 assists) and rookie sensation Bennedict Mathurin (23 points, 8 rebounds) leading the way for Indiana. The Lakers got 25 points and 13 rebounds from Anthony Davis, but went away from the big man down the stretch, as he only had two fourth quarter shots after dominating much of the first three quarters. LeBron James was 2-of-8 from the field in the fourth quarter on a 21-point night, with Russell Westbrook providing a 24-point effort off the bench, but it wasn’t enough.

For a Lakers team looking to build momentum this is a brutal loss, and one they can ill afford as they look to reengage on the West playoff chase. On the other side, it’s a tremendous win for the Pacers who looked dead in the water in the early fourth but kept plugging away and improve to 12-8 on the season after many predicted they would be in the East’s basement this season.

As for how rare this comeback was, it’s the first such blown lead ever for the Lakers, while just the second by a LeBron James team in his 20-year career.

The Los Angeles Lakers are finally starting to feel some optimism about the 2022-23 season as they came into Monday night riding a 5-1 stretch with the Pacers coming to town.

It was an intriguing matchup chiefly for all of the trade chatter involving to two teams, with Russell Westbrook plus picks for Buddy Hield and Myles Turner being brought up numerous times since the start of free agency, but never getting done. Trade talks again swirled on Monday, with there being multiple reports about how the Lakers are approaching the start of trade season on December 15, and how their current stretch of strong play impacts how they’ll proceed.

The good vibes continued through three quarters at Staples Center, as the Lakers took a 9-point lead into the fourth quarter behind another dominant Anthony Davis performance and some solid shooting that wasn’t just reserved for those on the L.A. roster. Between the third and fourth quarters, the Lakers had a fan come out for a halfcourt shot worth $75,000 and, despite an unorthodox shooting form, he drilled it.

The best part is the Lakers bench erupting, with Anthony Davis greeting the fan in the middle of the court for a hug after he hit the Griddy and ran around dapping up those sitting courtside. This is also a reminder that if you’re going to hit a halfcourt shot at an NBA game, there is no better place to do it than a Laker game, because the $75,000 prize is considerably more than most other arenas, where you might get a car or $10,000.

The Indianapolis Colts fell to 4-7-1 on Monday night with a 24-17 home loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. After a hideous first half in which they could muster only three points, the Colts offense did produce two touchdowns in the third quarter, but once again stalled out in the fourth.

Despite that, they still had a chance late in the fourth quarter, trailing by seven and needing a 93 yard drive in a two-minute drill. After moving the ball across midfield, the Colts found themselves in a 2nd and 17 with the clock winding and all three timeouts in their pocket. Matt Ryan, who can only be described as “statuesque” in his movement at 37 years old, stunned everyone (and most of all the Steelers) when he took off for a 14-yard run to give the Colts a manageable third down (in part because of the fairly new rule where a dive is the same as a slide for a QB and he’s ruled down when he starts going to the ground).

Ryan dives down with 50 seconds to play, and on the broadcast Joe Buck said “they have got to take a timeout here,” only to be shocked when Jeff Saturday stood there on the sideline letting the clock wind.

Indianapolis would try to hustle into formation and ran a dive play that lost yardage, setting up a 4th and 3, begging the question of why Saturday didn’t call a timeout with three in hand in order to get the Colts into the best possible play. After the game, Saturday gave a rather bizarre answer about how he “didn’t think time was of the essence” and how he “wasn’t too concerned” with the clock.

I understood letting the clock wind before the 2nd and 17 play, because there was a possibility they’d be in a situation where they’d need all three timeouts to get the ball back if they didn’t pick up any yardage on the next two plays. However, after Ryan got it into 3rd and 3, that’s such a high leverage spot that calling a timeout isn’t just about stopping the clock, but it’s about getting organized and discussing what the best possible plays are going to be for the third (and possibly fourth) down to ensure you still have a chance to win the game.

While with all three timeouts it’s not necessary to stop the clock, it was clear that the Colts were still rushing to get the snap off and in that situation with the importance of getting a first down, that’s more valuable than holding onto timeouts. Saturday’s inexperience in this situation (along with an offensive coordinator who has never called plays before three weeks ago) certainly seemed to work against the Colts in this spot.

The good news is, Saturday should be well aware of what the lead topic will be on ESPN tomorrow morning.

Ranking Drake albums has never been a feasible task. The rapper has a lengthy discography, full of hits, misses, and everything in between. However, the “Rich Flex” performer himself is not afraid to share his opinion on his own albums.

A clip is circulating of a recent interview in which Drake says Her Loss is a top shelf work. “[Her Loss] is one of the greatest albums I ever made in my life,” he stated. “I said the other day, I think this is a clear entry into my top five of my catalog — if not, top three.”

In the quote-tweets, people are not hesitating to roast the rapper. “Well drake is a liar,” one person wrote. “He lying his ass off,” said another. One simply wrote, “He’s wrong.” Others are saying they can’t stand him. Meanwhile many are naming what they believe to be his best albums.

In the same interview, Drake shared that Her Loss is a part of a trilogy. “We got CLB, Certified Lover Boy, that was like the, you know, ‘I’m trying my best to make her love [me], I’m chasing you,’” he explained. “And then Honestly, Nevermind is the realization that maybe that lifestyle is not for me.”

Last season, there was a disturbance in Curb Your Enthusiasm: It was missing Richard Lewis. The comic and actor has been with the show from the start, which is to say since the special that launched Larry David’s second beloved show. But after over two decades of occasionally playing a version of himself on the HBO staple, he had to play hooky. He had a good excuse: He’d had surgeries on his back and both shoulders and he wasn’t fit to work, even for a gig that mostly involves him joking around with an old pal. But the dark days are over.

“I’m back shooting Curb!” Lewis tweeted Monday, purportedly from the set of Season 12. “I’m a lucky cat to be with my oldest pal who just so happens to be a genius. Don’t tell him I called him that or he’ll mock me to my grave. A 22 year ride so far!”

Last year, when he broke the news to Curb enthusiasts of his going AWOL, he said that he was “crushed” that he couldn’t partake of the show’s first post-start-of-pandemic season, which found Larry blackmailed into casting an aspiring actress who can’t act while J.B. Smoove’s Leon tried to find a women with the same name as his ex to join him on vacation (long story). But he was able to make a surprise visit to the set.

Anyway, welcome back both Curb Richard Lewis and Real Richard Lewis.

Today, Vanity Fair shared their sixth annual filmed interview with Billie Eilish, which has been a tradition since 2017. The first time they did it, the “Bad Guy” performer had 257,000 followers. Now she has a whopping 106 million. The star’s status is constantly rising, it seems, and she always has more to talk about. This time, she discussed many things, including an unexpected fitness goal of hers: To get ripped.

“I’ve had a very big transformation this year with my fitness lifestyle and it’s been a really insane process,” she explained. “I feel better about myself than I ever have which makes me really proud and I worked really hard on it. I just want to get really f*ckin’ buff. I just want to be buff. Hopefully by next year I will be ripped.”

In that same interview, the star discussed her boyfriend, The Neighbourhood frontman Jesse Rutherford. “I managed to get my way to a point in my life where I not only was known by a person that I thought was the hottest f*ckin’ f*cker alive, but pulled his ass,” she said. “Are we kidding me? Can we just [claps]… round of applause for me. Thank you. Jesse Rutherford, everyone. I pulled his ass, all me. I did that sh*t. I locked that motherf*cker down.”

Now that Thanksgiving weekend is over, it’s time for everyone to act like it’s Christmas Day. The holiday season is here, and if you don’t believe it, you can just take a gander at the current top 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. There you’ll find that four are occupied by Christmas songs.

That’s right: Cushioned between Taylor Swift, Steve Lacy, Harry Styles, and more are classic holiday hits. According to the new Hot 100 dated December 3, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey can be found at No. 5. That’s followed by Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” at No. 6. Then there’s “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms at No. 9, and finally “A Holly Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives at No. 10.

Of course the No. 1 spot is still occupied by the one and only Taylor Swift with her Midnights hit “Anti-Hero.” It has been there for five weeks and counting. At one point she took up all 10 spots with different Midnights tracks, but her reign ended with the highly anticipated release of Drake and 21 Savage’s collaborative LP Her Loss. “Anti-Hero” is the “Love Story” singer’s ninth No. 1 song of her career, and it’s her fifth to debut on top.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Fabelmans.

Over his 50+ year career, Steven Spielberg has kept himself out of the picture — mostly. His latest, The Fabelmans, may be the closest thing he’s made to an autobiography, but elements of his true self have often creeped into his work. His movies are lousy with broken families, wrecked by divorce (E.T., Catch Me If You Can), the law (The Sugarland Express), cruel spouses (The Color Purple), war (Empire of the Sun), and obsession (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which our hero abandons his family to go to space).

But how much of The Fabelmans is true to life? For one thing, our young, aspiring filmmaker lead (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord as a boy, Gabriel LaBelle as a teen) is named Sammy Fabelman, not Steven Spielberg. Even if (almost) all the other names are changed, too, there’s a lot that’s true-ish to life. Let’s break down what’s real.

Accurate (more or less):

Spielberg’s mom really did fall in love with his father’s best friend. In the film, Michelle Williams’ Mitzi is secretly in love with Seth Rogen’s Bennie, the best friend of Paul Dano’s Burt. That’s more or less true: Spielberg’s mom divorced her husband Arnold in 1966, one year later marrying his best friend Bernie (that’s one letter off).

Spielberg learned about the affair by accidentally filming it. In the movie, while checking back on footage he filmed of a family-plus-Bennie camping trip, Sammy discovers he accidentally caught images of their tryst. Spielberg recently discussed this with The New York Times’ A.O. Scott. “That was one of the toughest things, I think, that I had to sit down and decide to expose,” he said, “because it was the most powerful secret my mom and I shared since my discovery when I was 16.”

Spielberg’s mom really was a concert pianist. Leah started playing piano at 5 and even studied at the Music Conservatory in Cincinnati. It’s not public whether or not she had to reluctantly clip her long nails before a performance, as Mitzi does in the film.

His mother really did bring home a monkey (though not at the same time as in the film). In The Fabelmans, after the family moves from Phoenix to northern California, a depressed Mitzi one day whimsically brings home a monkey. In real life, she obtained it in Phoenix after walking past a pet store and seeing it looking depressed.

Spielberg really did get bullied by fellow students over his Judaism. In real life, the young Spielberg was one of the few Jewish kids at his Saratoga high school. (In the film, it appears he’s the only one.) He was also bullied by two students over his faith, though it’s unclear if one of them got mad over Spielberg making him look like a golden god in a spring break film shown at prom.

Yes, the final sequence really happened. Spielberg has told the story of how he lucked into meeting John Ford before, and it’s almost the same as it is in the film. Here, the legendary filmmaker is played by another legendary filmmaker, David Lynch, who offers the budding auteur some very specific advice before bluntly kicking him out of his office.

Here’s one of the maybes:

Spielberg may or may not have dated a Christian girl who tried to convert him. Spielberg hasn’t discussed this one (yet), though The Los Angeles Times claims it’s based on a girl he dated in seventh grade. (In the film, they’re seniors.)

So there you have it. Spielberg kept some fact and sprinkled it with fiction. But he didn’t have to print the legend (borrowing a line from one of the films featured in it, John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).

The Fabelmans is now playing in theaters (mostly) everywhere.

The Minnesota Timberwolves saw another rough night get exponentially worse on Monday when Karl-Anthony Towns went down in the third quarter, falling to the ground and grabbing at the back of his right leg running back up the floor in Washington. Towns was then helped to the locker room by Rudy Gobert and the training staff, not putting any weight on his right leg and clearly in considerable pain.

It wasn’t immediately clear exactly what Towns injured, but he initially grabbed at the back of his right calf as he fell to the ground and there’s always concern when a player goes down with a non-contact injury.

Minnesota can ill afford any extended time without Towns, as they are a team still working their way into form and trying to establish a rhythm with Towns and Gobert together in the frontcourt. Towns has not been able to find his typical elite offensive form so far this season, as he got a late start after dealing with an illness in training camp, averaging 21.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists on 50.8 percent shooting and 32.8 percent from three-point range, which would be a career low.

Towns was quickly ruled out of the game with what the team is calling a right calf strain.