Category: News

In true MAGA style, Kari Lake is refusing to concede in Arizona’s gubernatorial race and has even taken the extra step of flying to Florida to meet with America’s #1 election denier at his home in Mar-a-Lago. However, in the process, Lake has already folded to one opponent: Tom Petty‘s estate.

According to Mediaite, Lake posted a campaign video on Wednesday featuring Petty’s hit song, “I Won’t Back Down.” The video was a not-so-subtle allusion to the candidate’s upcoming refusal to accept election results that showed her losing to Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs. It was also a completely unauthorized use of the song, which Petty’s estate did not take lightly.

On Thursday evening, a statement was posted on the singer’s official Twitter account warning Lake that her use of the track is illegal.

Via Tom Petty on Twitter:

The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song “I Won’t Back Down” was stolen and used without permission or a license to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign.

This is illegal. We are exploring all of our legal options to stop this unauthorized use and to prohibit future misappropriations of Tom’s beloved anthem.

Thank you to all of the fans who brought this to our attention and who help us protect his legacy every day.

Despite claiming she “won’t back down,” Lake did exactly that. Mediaite reports that the campaign video was deleted following the statement from Petty’s estate. What hasn’t been deleted though is Lake’s tweets about Todd from Breaking Bad. When it comes to her love for that crazy-eyed psycho, you might say she will… stand her ground.

(Via Mediaite)

It’s been a weird week in the NBA to say the least. Every time I start to think “this team is separating themselves from the pack,” they drop two of the next three games or lose to an unexpected opponent. The Bucks are awesome … except when they play the Hawks (I will note Khris Middleton hasn’t played and Jrue Holiday missed the second game against Atlanta). The Hawks are really good … until they play teams with length at all five positions like Boston and Toronto.

Our mighty Utah Jazz have tumbled losing three straight, which is partially expected, but I was ready to crown this team as the next iteration of the Iguodala Nuggets. The Suns are fantastic, but Deandre Ayton has been a shell of himself. Cam Johnson is out for a few months with a knee injury. Jae Crowder might be on the move, according to multiple outlets. Cam Payne has filled in admirably for Chris Paul and Mikal Bridges is taking a step as a scorer.

I could go on and on, but the point remains that the winds keep shifting, a significant reason I love the early season. The sample size we have at this juncture allows for some truly wild, wacky, and unexpected things to play out. It rocks.

The Boston Celtics stand alone atop the NBA for the time being. I’m not ready to crown them as inevitable champs, but they have been the most complete and dominant team on the season. You’ve heard about the league-leading offense, humming at an absurd 120.1 points per 100 possessions clip, per Cleaning the Glass. On defense, the foretelling of Boston’s demise was ill-fated.

The team is 12th on the season on that end of the floor, paltry and subpar compared to the way they took the NBA by storm last year. Marcus Smart has been good, but not the DPOY version of himself. Al Horford has taken a step back, although I think that’s more to conservation than losing gas. It is worth noting that Derrick White and Jayson Tatum have both been amazing and would warrant All-Defensive consideration. And of course, they’ve missed Robert Williams III.

Still, the switches haven’t hit the same. The communication hasn’t been to the same standard. The scrams aren’t there in a way we’re accustomed to seeing. I’m not worried, nor do I think the fuss has been warranted. The Celtics have the third-best scoring differential in the fourth quarter in the NBA, including the fifth-best defense, allowing only 104.2 points per 100 possessions.

I want to see them play with the tenacity and ferocity they had last season, which is admittedly hard to do for an entire year. They have it in them, and we’ve seen them turn it up when it’s necessary. Boston continues to answer questions to some of the playoff issues they had in the Finals, and that’s the bigger storyline here.

And now, with all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at the league’s Most Intriguing Players this week.

Malik Monk

We have to start by heading out to Sacramento. Shout out to the 8-6 Kings! They’re 6-2 in November! Light the Beam!

Malik Monk cannot take the band-aid off. Ever.

Monk is developing some excellent two-man synergy with Domantas Sabonis. We’ve even gotten some of the electric De’Aaron Fox/Monk transition play like we saw at Kentucky when the two of them starred in the backcourt for John Calipari.

The playmaking has hit to a higher degree in this up-tempo, high motion offense. Monk, to his credit, has helped the team achieve that. He is thriving and it’s awesome to watch.

Usman Garuba

If Garuba could play starter’s minutes, he’d warrant All-Defense honors. He’s that good on that end of the floor. His hand speed and hand-eye coordination are unreal. He’s remarkably strong with a low and sturdy base. I’d go as far as saying that he may have defended Giannis Antetokounmpo the best I’ve ever seen anyone defend him, including the likes of Onyeka Okongwu, Draymond Green, Thad Young for that one season, and Al Horford.

He’s so disciplined and sound. It’s almost like watching a highly technical boxer picking apart opposition. Never off-kilter, but playing with an edge.

But I’m not here to write about his defense. What matters is doing enough and being aggressive to a degree on offense that he can play more and showcase his defense. It’s early, but there are encouraging signs. He’s carving out a role as a screener, hand-off hub, roller, and occasional popper. He’s played double-digit minutes in every game the team has played November, and that’s in due part to starting to look at the rim.

He’s taking fewer than four attempts per game in November. It needs to be more without question, but that he’s starting to even take anything is encouraging. There were moments the opening weeks of the year and in his limited play with the club last season that he didn’t even contemplate taking a shot. He’d get an offensive board and auto-pilot kickouts. Now, he’s starting to find some assertiveness.

His game against the Mavericks, which the Rockets won, showcased what Garuba appreciators and purveyors believe in: scoring easy baskets out of hustle seals. Popping and shooting without thinking. A few rolls. Stellar backline defense and switchability.

There’s a really intriguing player there who could also fit around the top picks of the organization, which can’t be said of all of Houston’s numerous role-player prospects.

Jevon Carter

If you missed it, Carter put up a career high 36 points last week against the Thunder.

Carter should not be expected to score 20+ points a night, but man, it’s been awesome to see him find some aggression, much like Garuba. Mike Budenholzer mentioned earlier this season that Carter needed to take more shots and be less passive within the offense, and that’s played out recently, as he’s taken double-digit shots in five of the last six games.

There has to be a blend, of course. Carter taking 13 shots a game isn’t going to happen when the Bucks are mostly healthy. On the other hand, we’ve seen Carter’s playmaking open up by taking more shots.

He’s more of a combo guard who can continue plays, attack off of secondary actions, or start initial actions due to the gravity and screening of Milwaukee’s bigs. He has the basic pick-and-roll reads down pat. He has pretty fun and budding synergy with Brook Lopez. His pull-up three isn’t going to bend defenses — he’s shooting 31 percent on one pull-up attempt per game — but he’s solid relocating and moving without the ball. He has some juice off the bounce inside the arc.

With how incredible his defense has been, I’m leaning towards the idea that Carter should be part of Milwaukee’s starting lineup, even when the team is fully healthy. It’s probably imperfect, to a degree. And yet, I can’t help but think that Carter remains the answer as a starter this season if that blend can be found. Regardless of how this plays out long-term, it’s been awesome watching Carter put together the best stretch of his career, and help the Bucks win some games.

Taylor Swift fans are distraught. To put it simply, Ticketmaster underestimated how many Swifties would be participating in the Eras Tour presale yesterday. “The site was supposed to be opened up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans,” said Liberty Media CEO and Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei. “We had 14 million people hit the site, including bots — another story — which are not supposed to be there.”

After a majority of the pop star’s fan base did not acquire tickets after hours of attempting, they called on Swift to speak out. Meanwhile, second-seller sites like Stubhub had tickets up from scalpers at absurd prices like $30,000. This fiasco ended with Ticketmaster canceling the general sale that would’ve been today.

And now, finally, Swift has posted a statement on he Instagram Story claiming that her team “asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.” She also noted, “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

Read the full statement below.

“Well. It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans. We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house. I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.

There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.

And to those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs. Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”

Drake‘s love for art is almost as well-known as his penchant for appearing in memes making fun of his emo tendencies. Recently, though, he took that hobby to a whole new level. Instead of buying a new piece to prominently display in one of his many mansions dotted around the globe, he’s invested in an entire art amusement park, according to a feature in New York Times.

Housed in a 50,000-square-foot warehouse, Luna Luna, conceived by the Viennese artist André Heller in 1987, contained works from the likes of contemporary art greats like Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, but closed down shortly after its opening in 1990. While the project was greeted with enthusiasm by art connoisseurs in West Germany, it didn’t make much money, and plans to sell it to the city of Vienna and tour Europe with it fell through.

And so, for the past 30 years, was consigned to the realm of the historical footnote, gathering dust in Texas for around 15 years. However, when Michael Goldberg, the creative director at American Eagle, found out about Luna Luna online, he became obsessed with the idea of resurrecting it. It was Goldberg who reached out to Drake, who said in a statement: “When I first heard about Luna Luna I was blown away. It’s such a unique and special way to experience art. This is a big idea and opportunity that centers around what we love most: bringing people together.”

With Drake onboard, a sale was finalized pretty quickly. The works comprising Luna Luna have been restored and a worldwide tour has been planned for the relaunch, akin to similar traveling exhibits like the ones that you always see being advertised on Instagram. And with Drake’s name attached, this time, the hope is that it’ll turn out to be as profitable as everything else his brand has produced.

You can read the fascinating full story here.

Bad Bunny and Rosalía were big winners at the 2022 Latin Grammy Awards. Last night (November 18), Rosalía made history with one of her wins and she also delivered a memorable performance.

Out of his 10 nominations, Bad Bunny won five Latin Grammy Awards, though he was not in attendance. The biggest winner of the night was actually Uruguayan rocker Jorge Drexler, who took home six awards. Rosalía and her Motomami album were close behind with four wins.

Rosalía won the biggest award of the night Album Of The Year for Motomami. With her win, she made history as the first female artist to win Album Of The Year twice. She previously won in the category for her 2018 breakthrough album El Mal Querer.

Rosalía also performed a medley of songs from the Motomami album. She started out on the piano singing “Hentai” and moved her way to the stage to perform “La Fama.” Rosalía then later danced through the audience while singing her breakup anthem “Despechá.” She grinded on her boyfriend, Rauw Alejandro, who was in the front row during the performance.

Another one of the awards top moments was Karol G’s medley of her hits. She opened her set with a sensual performance of “Gatúbela” that was reminiscent of the music video. Karol G also danced through the audience while singing her feel-good bop “Provenza.” She later turned the stage into an astonishing Egyptian set to perform her latest single “Cairo.”

Anitta also delivered one of the night’s most-talked about performances. The Brazilian superstar performed her global hit “Envolver.” On the Latin Grammy stage, she executed her viral dance move of twerking to the ground that helped the song blow up on TikTok. Anitta went out in the audience as well and playfully danced on Colombian singer Sebastián Yatra.

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

We’re living in a society where we could wake up tomorrow, and Twitter may have imploded. It’s not looking wonderful over there with a mass employee exodus shutting down the office until next week and Elon Musk reportedly scrambling for engineers (what’s left of them) to help him “better understand” what’s going on at a tech level.

With that said, it’s time to celebrate what the platform gave us, and one of my fave takeaways is this: several Ted Cruz moments were the height of hilarity. Remember those times when the noted The Princess Bride superfan feuded with Cary Elwes and disastrously tweeted about Fight Club? Then there was the time that Twitter collectively pounced upon his Cancun vacation during a Texas ice storm.

Yet all of that madness doesn’t hold a candle to 2017 moment when Ted Cruz, a sitting senator from Texas, was up late on 9/11 and “liked” porn on Twitter.

The self-proclaimed “fighter for liberty” then decided to blame staff members for this “mistake.” I don’t think anyone believed him then, and they sure don’t believe him now. Yet it’s one of those moments that shall live in Twitter infamy, long after Twitter itself no longer exists and has been launched to Mars as part of a SpaceX mission.

Remember the good times, people!

It’s too early to say RIP Twitter, but at least we can all have a laugh while the platform continues to hiccup its way into the weekend.

Last night (November 17), #RIPTwitter was trending on Twitter as people said bye to the platform. Why? Elon Musk’s acquisition of the site and the instability that followed, specifically the reported mass exodus of employees over the past few days, has people thinking Twitter won’t last much longer.

If this really is the end, Twitter had a strong run. The social media site was launched in 2006 and not too long after that, it really took off and attracted big-time celebrities. So, as this trying time for Twitter, let’s look back at the first-ever tweets from some musical artists.

Drake’s first tweet was from March 28, 2009, and it reads, “Fine…you got me.” For reference, he previously noted on his MySpace page that he didn’t intend to ever get on Twitter.

Speaking of Canadians, Justin Bieber entered the Twittersphere right as his career was about to take off: His first post directs to his MySpace page and says, “Check out my single ‘ONE TIME’ on my myspace and spread the word for me. Thanks www.myspace.com/justinbieber.”

Others were trying to get a feel for the place with their first tweets. Alicia Keys wrote in 2009, “It’s officially me, the real AK…trying to figure out the Twitter thing.. Looking forward to the weekend, gonna be gorgeous in NY!” In 2010, Lil Wayne wrote, “im super new to this twitter sh*t but wudup tho !……….follow me biot¢h……….wudup mak……happy bday LO……8 days of freedom..ym.” Carly Rae Jepsen’s first tweet seemed to be styled like an early-era Facebook status update: “Carly Is finally on twitter.”

Check out some other first tweets — from Eminem, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Post Malone, Machine Gun Kelly, Madonna, and others — below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Living cardboard cutout Mike Pence doesn’t share much in common with his brashly gregarious former boss, but if the former vice president did learn anything from Donald Trump, it might just be how to make a total buffoon of yourself in public. On Thursday night, Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t wait to play the evidence of this shared trait, which was on full display during Pence’s recent CNN Town Hall with Jake Tapper.

“The former video poodle has been making the rounds promoting his new book and wowing the world with his Robin Williams-caliber charisma,” Kimmel said, before sharing a clip of the stone-faced politician-turned-author interacting with the audience during a Q&A. First up was an independent voter named Andrea Barber-Dansby, who Pence then addressed as “Barbara.” OK, so maybe the last name tripped him up. Fortunately, “Barbara” responded to Pence’s wooden attempt at small talk with a simple “It’s Andrea.”

“It happens,” Kimmel said of the interaction. “Honest mistake. You know, he usually isn’t allowed to talk to women, so he got nervous. I’m sure it won’t happen again.”

Sure enough, when Indiana University student Daniela Moloci stood up to ask a question, Pence made it clear to “Michelle” that he cared about her and her concerns.

“Maybe the reason he calls his wife ‘Mother’ is because he can’t remember her name,” Kimmel suggested. Which certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

You can watch the full clip here.

The White Lotus became an unexpected hist last year when the comedy-drama introduced the world to the strange but lovable White Lotus hotel universe. The show was initially ordered as a limited series, but by popular demand, the show was renewed for a second season which premiered last month with a whole new cast of characters… and returning player Jennifer Coolidge. Now, fans will be able to take another beautiful destination vacation as the series was just picked up for a third season (!!!!).

According to a press release, the third season will feature a new cast of quirky characters who will undoubtedly have some sort of haunting secret or dramatic monologue, along with a brand new location. Season one took place in Hawaii, while season two took a new crew to Italy. This begs the question: where will season three take place? France? Spain? South Philadelphia?

There has been no casting news yet, but it would be nice for the only constant character to be Coolidge, who won an Emmy for her portrayal in season one. Creator Mike White said, “There’s no place I’d rather work than HBO and there’s no people I’d rather partner with than Casey Bloys, Francesca Orsi, Nora Skinner and their incredible team. I feel so lucky to get this opportunity again and am excited to reunite with my amazingly talented collaborators on The White Lotus.”

Alongside Coolidge, season two features Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, F. Murray, Abraham, Michael Imperioli, and Haley Lu Richardson as a group vacationing around Italy, sometimes totally naked. Everyone can thank Theo James for that!

The White Lotus is currently streaming on HBO Max. New episodes air Sundays at 9 pm on HBO.