Category: News

LeBron James’ success extends well beyond the basketball court, as he has built and empire off the court in business and entertainment, but the only area where he rivals his on-court excellence is in his ability to spin a tall tale.

James’ lying prowess is the stuff of legend on the internet, with such classics as “I called Kobe’s 81-point game was coming when I watched it live” and “lying about watching soccer to a guy who played for Liverpool,” and he recently became a viral meme after paying tribute to Takeoff by saying he introduced his Heat teammates to the Migos in 2010 despite the Migos not releasing their first record until 2011. All of them are pretty innocent white lies, but it is very funny when you see them all put together in a compilation, as folks on Twitter did after the Migos quote.

On Thursday night, LeBron’s latest effort at spinning a yarn happened during The Shop crossover broadcast on Thursday Night Football, when he told Jalen Ramsey about how he started using him in the slot as a blitzer before Sean McVay. Ramsey, who is very online, couldn’t help but call out LeBron for lying by noting this is exactly what everyone on Twitter says about him.

The best part is, LeBron doesn’t seem to know what everyone’s laughing about at first and just says “we were just talking about this the other day” after Ramsey explains, which feels like another lie to seem like he’s in on the joke. It’s a very funny moment and kudos to Ramsey for being willing to call it out in real time, because if not it would’ve just gotten added to the list like the rest.

With the Lakers off on Thursday night, LeBron James was able to do his first alternate broadcast for Thursday Night Football as part of a collaboration with The Shop, where he, Maverick Carter, Jalen Ramsey, Jamie Foxx, Dez Bryant, and Paul Rivera watched Titans-Packers and talked about ball and life and everything else.

As they watched Aaron Rodgers and the Packers continue to struggle moving the ball consistently, with Christian Watson operating as the only significant receiving threat on the outside, LeBron James voiced his frustration with seeing the Packers front office wasting a “transcendent” quarterbacking talent in his prime by refusing to trade draft picks to put better players around him now.

Rivera quickly stepped in to ask if they were still talking about football or if this was about basketball, noting what everyone else was thinking watching which was, James was projecting a bit about his own frustrations with the Lakers doing the same thing to him. James’ desire for L.A. to trade their 2027 and 2029 first round picks for help now is well-known, but for the most part he’s let the sourced whispers get that out into the world while the front office drags its feet on such a move. This, however, feels like his most blatant and public acknowledgement of that, as he couldn’t help but say “it definitely translates” to basketball as well. We’ll see if the Lakers front office is listening.

Speaking with Elvis Mitchell to promote his new book Cinema Speculation, Quentin Tarantino revealed that his 10th and final film will be completely original. According to IndieWire, Tarantino considered adapting Elmore Leonard’s novel Stick — maybe the novelist’s most famous noir, which was previously adapted as a no-frills thriller by auteur director Burt Reynolds in 1985 — but has instead dismissed doing an adaptation or sequel as his final send-off. For those keeping score at home, that also rules out a new Kill Bill entry (as well as any other Tarantino continuations on your fantasy draft).

However, Tarantino has found a small loophole.

During the conversation he intimated that the rapidly closing theatrical window created an existential crisis for defining “cinema,” and questioned whether creating something for streaming (and not for the big screen) would technically count as a feature film at all. Or at least a final one.

Even without employing the loophole, Tarantino isn’t exactly retiring. He also revealed that he’s directing an 8-episode series for a streaming service due out in 2023. That might be his western Bounty Law, unless all of his talk of making Bounty Law has been an elaborate in-Tarantinoverse joke. He also has another book contract with HarperCollins following Cinema Speculation, a play in the works, as many series as he wants to do, and he can always say he was joking about 10 before coming back for the lucky 11th. The big question for his “final” film is how he’s going to stuff every one of his recurring actors into it.

(via IndieWire)

The YSL trial is set to take place in January, with Young Thug, Gunna, and 26 others as defendants. Thug, Gunna, and several others on Thug’s Young Stoner Life label were arrested back in May on racketeering, armed robbery and murder charges.

Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that “around 300 witnesses” will be called to testify in the upcoming trial.

“I know from historical trials of this nature, it’s going to take a while,” said Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville.

Authorities have alleged that Thug and Gunna are leaders of a criminal street gang responsible for much of Atlanta’s crime. Prosecutors had previously filed a motion to push the trial back to March of 2023, however, said motion was denied by Glanville.

“Most of these people have no bonds, that is something that weighs heavily on the court in terms of a start date for this trial,” he said. “They deserve to have a right to go to trial.”

Earlier this week, Thug and Gunna received Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance Grammy nominations for their collab, “Pushin’ P,” which appears on Gunna’s most recent album, Drip Season 4Ever.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Maren Morris, no stranger to giving some shade to problematic celebrities, weighed in today on Candace Cameron-Bure making recent homophobic comments. The Full House star had announced she’d be contributing to the Great American Family channel. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Cameron-Bure shared that the programming would “keep traditional marriage at the core,” sparking serious controversy.

“Make DJ gay again,” Morris joked in a comment on Instagram. The viral post, complete with a photo of Cameron-Bure, reads, “you went decades without ever having to see an LGBTQ character on screen. now, we’re in 1 out of 5 movies. sorry if this disturbs you. sending thoughts and prayers.”

“I had also expressed in my interview, which was not included, that people of all ethnicities and identities have and will continue to contribute to the network in great ways both in front of and behind the camera,” Cameron-Bure offered as a rebuttal to the WSJ backlash. However, she also left the Hallmark Channel after a commercial featuring a same-sex couple aired, which… We will let the actions speak for themselves.

In addition to Morris jumping in, other celebrities have too. One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton tweeted her reaction to Cameron-Bure’s comments. “Make your money, honey,” she posted. “You ride that prejudice wave all the way to the bank.” Selling Sunset‘s Chrishell Stause also gave some clapping hands emojis under the same viral post as Morris.

Pixar‘s offering for 2023 looks like a gorgeous, inventive successor to its personified emotions in Inside Out. The teaser trailer for Elemental follows the fiery Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis) as she dons her hoodie and headphones to ride the metro into Element City, passing by all the weird and wonderful denizens made of earth and air and water. It’s a great showcase of gags capped by a meet cute when her hand sizzles against Wade Ripple’s (voiced by Mamoudou Athie). She’s tough and sarcastic. He goes with the flow. And they’ll create an unlikely friendship in a world where different personalities all get to ride public transport together.

Director Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) said back in May that the story was inspired by his parents.

“My parents emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s and built a bustling grocery store in the Bronx,” Sohn said. “We were among many families who ventured to a new land with hopes and dreams—all of us mixing into one big salad bowl of cultures, languages and beautiful little neighborhoods. That’s what led me to Elemental.”

So far Pixar hasn’t explained what the movie is about, which is par for the course for a company that usually lets the animation and vibes of the world sell us on going. Speaking of which, we’ll have to physically go somewhere to see it because Elemental will be only in theaters June 16th. If you run into an attractive stranger on the metro on your way there, try not to drip on them.

Sliding into Steve McQueen’s shoes is never easy, but Bradley Cooper is going to give it the old college try. According to IndieWire, the 9-time Oscar nominee is dipping his toe back into the action world as Frank Bullitt, the character made famous by McQueen in the 1968 Peter Yates film that revolutionized the thriller genre. Granted, it’s being written by Josh Singer (Spotlight) and directed by Steven Spielberg (voice of the Amity Point Lifestation Worker in Jaws), so it’s completely possible that this foray into the underworld is another attempt at Oscar glory.

The funny thing is that, as daunting as it might be for any actor to take on a role owned by McQueen, a ton of pressure might face Spielberg, who will attempt to add another cinematic chapter to an iconic film that changed the game. Everyone will name Bullitt‘s car chase as one of the best in cinema history (we see you, Ronin), but its airport shootout and the rest of its action sequences were also top notch and creatively ambitious. It will be interesting to see if Spielberg uses the opportunity to go back to the car chase roots laid down by Bullitt in an era marked by jump cuts, blink-fast edits, CGI beef ups, and other nonsensical trickery.

Regardless, it’s an exciting jump back into genre with a hefty dose of prestige involved.

(via IndieWire)

In Inside, Willem Dafoe plays an art thief who learns very quickly why you don’t trip the alarm system in a penthouse filled with non-edible art. Trapped inside with rising temperatures, nothing to eat, and a fish that looks like Dafoe’s character in Finding Nemo, he has a totally normal one besides scrawling nonsense on the walls and imploring an uninterested pigeon to help him out.

The drama from Greek director Vasilis Katsoupis hits theaters in March, when fans will try to spot if there are any other Finding Nemo nods (Dafoe’s character is, in fact, named Nemo). Dafoe was also in Inside Man, so there are a lot of opportunities for callbacks here. For what it’s worth, only three other actors are currently credited as working on the project. One of them is on the other end of Nemo’s comms, one of them is a cleaner, and one of them is listed as “Owner.” It’s highly likely that this movie is 99% comprised of Dafoe going slowly mad.

Just as perhaps all movies should be.

It’s a wild premise with the ideal actor for the part, and the trailer looks phenomenal in terms of dangerously high levels of blood pressure, claustrophobia, and forced refrigerator licking. Dafoe losing his mind should be the ideal thing to watch with a gigantic tub of popcorn.

If you use social media in one form or another, there’s a high chance you’ve seen hordes of Taylor Swift fans scrambling to get tickets to the 2023 US leg of her upcoming The Eras Tour. What you might not know, is that the Swiftie chaos was just for the presale alone. Today, Ticketmaster canceled the general on-sale — that is commonplace for most, if not all musicians (except for BTS’ Permission To Dance shows, which also had general cancelled). And this has only added fuel to the online fire.

Originally, Swifties were able to sign up for Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program until November 9, which allowed them to rank their preferred show dates. If chosen for the presale, fans were sent an exclusive code that would’ve allowed them to purchase up to six tickets. However, as fans on the East Coast found out Tuesday morning, this was not the case.

Between long queue lines, fans with merch boosts not getting in, repeated false charges, technical issues with the site, and much more, by the time fans made it into the ticket purchase area, there were none left. This prompted the West Coast presale to get postponed. Capital One offered another presale for cardholders yesterday, which saw similar results.

In the wake of disastrous ticket sales for large-scale acts like Swift, Blink-182, Olivia Rodrigo, and more, even politicians are calling Ticketmaster’s policies into question. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tennessee’s Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti, have pointed out the potential of Ticketmaster breaking consumer laws and antitrust violations for their Live Nation merger.

“The site was supposed to be opened up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans,” Greg Maffei, Live Nation’s CEO, said on a CNBC appearance today. “We had 14 million people hit the site, including bots — another story — which are not supposed to be there. And despite all the challenges and breakdowns, we did we sell over two million tickets that day. We could’ve filled 900 stadiums.”

And, while they might’ve sold two million tickets, the majority of those haven’t appeared to land in the hands of fans. Most are currently on sites like Stubhub and other ticket resale companies, going for as high as $27,000 for certain seats. One fan even pointed out that people are selling non-tickets, merely for listening access outside of Swift’s Massachusetts show.

Continue scrolling for some more Taylor Swift fan reactions to Ticketmaster’s problems.

On the heels of their latest album, The Family and their final album, TM, Brockhampton has announced their final show. Their swan song will take place at The Fonda on Los Angeles this Saturday (November 19).

The band announced their final show today via social media, and informed fans that they could purchase tickets. As the tickets are expected to sell out quickly, and the fact that non-LA fans may not be able to attend, the band has also shared that the show will be available to stream on Twitch.

Last year, the group spoke about their final era to GQ, noting that while they are not ending on bad terms, they are looking forward to experiencing life outside of the group.

“…at a certain point, people deserve to give their lives to themselves,” said Romil Hemnani, a producer and DJ for the band. “So it feels like it’s time to let everyone just spread their wings and do the things that they want to do. Being in a group, I love it so much, but there’s also compromise. And I think everyone kind of deserves the shot to do what they want—no compromises.”

The Family is out now via Question Everything and RCA Records. Stream it here. TM arrives 11/18 via Question Everything and RCA Records.