Category: News

Doja Cat is always up to something — painting herself gold, lying about her album to journalists, shaving her eyebrows. Her latest antic is an eccentric TikTok in which she updates fans while giving Illuminati signs. One of her updates, though, is that she cried watching Stuart Little.

“Hey, you guys. What’s up? I have just been having such a great time, you know? The holidays are coming, and I just wanted to fill you guys in with what’s going on in my life,” she starts off. She says she’s been hanging out with her cats and playing video games and watching movies. “I did watch Stuart Little today. It was so sad; it made me cry. But then things got better in the end.”

Doja recently made headlines for flashing her breasts at her 27th birthday party in Los Angeles. This was because of a promise she made two years ago; she said she would “show my boobs so hard” if her song “Say So” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “IF ANYBODY GOT NUDES OF ME FROM LAST NIGHT PLEASE SEND CUZ I WANNA POST EM,” she tweeted after the shindig. Fans quickly fulfilled that request in the replies.

Aaron Carter sat down for an episode of No Jumper in late October, which was uploaded November 2, and he expressed a desire to mend what had become an estranged and tumultuous relationship with Nick Carter, his 42-year-old brother and Backstreet Boys star. “I just hope that relationship gets fixed,” he said toward the end of the conversation. Tragically, Aaron Carter was found dead at his California home yesterday (November 5). He was 34.

Nick Carter publicly addressed his brother’s sudden passing this morning (November 6) with an Instagram carousel. “My heart is broken,” he wrote in the caption. “Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss, but the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you Chizz. Now you can finally have the peace you could never find here on earth….I love you baby brother.”

It’s been nearly three years and just as many booster shots since the COVID pandemic turned the world upside down. As many businesses — at least those that made it through the global shutdown it caused — have spent the past year reopening and adjusting to life in a post-COVID world, some of us are desperately missing the days of working from home in the world’s most unflattering sweatpants and being able to scream “COVID exposure” as an excuse for pretty much anything. Saturday Night Live’s writers feel you.

In what is bound to become an instant classic SNL moment, a fake pharma ad touted COVID as the newest cure-all. “Are you feeling tired and worn down?,” the voiceover asks. “Sick of the endless grind at work? Exhausted by your family [and] desperate for some peace and quiet? Then ask your doctor about COVID.”

According to the hilariously dark bit, which perfectly encapsulates what so many of us are feeling at this very moment, some of the benefits of having COVID include a five- to 10-day “vacation from all of life’s problems.” Side effects, meanwhile, include “having COVID, which is still kinda bad, but doesn’t it just feel different now?” Indeed!

COVID is promoted as the perfect excuse for getting out of such painful activities as jury duty, your friend’s improv show, or your husband’s murder trial. “At this point, COVID is basically a 10-day cruise — which is also a great way to get it,” the narrator explains.

“I needed a break — just some time away from everyone,” explains one happy COVID-positive patient (Sarah Sherman). “So my doctor suggested I get COVID, and it was the greatest week of my life.”

“At first I was worried about getting COVID, but my doctor assured me it’s fine now,” adds another satisfied coronavirus survivor (Michael Longfellow). “I’m triple-vaxxed — quadruple if you count HPV. So it’s my time to shine.”

For an extra fee, you can also pay someone to knock out the Wi-Fi in your neighborhood, so no one can add you to one of those mandatory Zoom meetings. For patients who’d prefer all of the benefits of COVID with none of the brain fog, there’s the Always Positive COVID Home Test — “the only COVID test that comes with two pink lines already drawn on.” Making it easy and convenient to make any time COVID time.

You can watch the full commercial above.

The Atlanta Falcons have been a surprisingly competitive bunch this season despite entering the year with the expectation they’d be among the league’s worst teams, somehow holding the lead in the NFC South division at 4-4 coming into Sunday.

Against the Chargers, Atlanta jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter before seeing L.A. score two unanswered touchdowns to lead 14-10 at the half. In the third quarter, the Falcons forced a quick three-and-out and immediately set off on a march down the field. While Atlanta is best known for running the football this year, they decided to throw it to their first round pick Drake London in the red zone and he picked up a first down but then got stood up trying to fight for the goal line as Chargers star edge rusher Khalil Mack came over.

It was at this point that Mack gave London his “welcome to the NFL” moment, absolutely stealing his cookies and then running the ball back towards midfield.

It’s an unbelievable play by Mack, who reminds everyone of his outrageous strength to just rip the ball away from London (whose best attribute is size and strength) and then lumber down the sideline. The good news for Atlanta is they’d get an interception on the ensuing Chargers drive and march for a touchdown (running the ball most of the way) to take the 17-14 lead they seemed destined for moments before. Still, it’s an amazing play by Mack for a Chargers team rather desperate for playmaking on both sides of the ball right now.

Just yesterday, November 5, news broke that Aaron Carter tragically passed away at the age of 34. The music world — like New Kids On The Block, Diane Warren, Parson James, and more — has been reacting to his death with immense grief and sorrow. Last night, his twin sister Angel shared her feelings on Instagram with a heartfelt statement that was met with an outpouring of love.

“To my twin… I loved you beyond measure,” she wrote. “You will be missed dearly. My funny, sweet Aaron, I have so many memories of you and I, and I promise to cherish them. I know you’re at peace now. I will carry you with me until the day I die and get to see you again.”

There was also an emotional statement from Hilary Duff on her Instagram Story. In 2001, Carter appeared as himself on a Christmas episode of Lizzie McGuire. “I’m deeply sorry that life was so hard for you and that life was so hard for you and that you had to struggle in front of the whole world,” Duff wrote. “You had a charm that was absolutely effervescent … boy did my teenage self love you deeply. Sending love to your family at this time.”

Smino’s “90 Proof” featuring J. Cole is housed on his new Luv 4 Rent album, but the “90 Proof” video shifted the spotlight from Smino to Cole once fans started speculating that the Dreamville boss slyly included his son in one of the scenes.

Cole shares two sons with his wife, Melissa Heholt. “She gave me the gift of my son, and plus we got one on the way,” he revealed in 2019’s “Sacrifices,” a track on Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation album that also featured Smino. Cole confirmed the boy’s arrival in a July 2020 essay written for The Players’ Tribune. The boy in the “90 Proof” video looks older than two or three years old, so if it were either of Cole’s sons at all, it would have to be his oldest. But it’s a moot point.

DJ Paradime posted the backstory to Instagram. “My homie who was the casting director hit me two days before the video shoot and asked if I wanted to be an extra in Smino new video featuring @realcoleworld,” the caption reads, in part. “He told me I had to be there at 8am and it would probably last all day. I told him I can’t make it, I gotta drop off / pick up kids from school and it’s no way I can make it. He said maybe you can bring the kids and if I got anyone else I know who got small kids to maybe ask them too. First kids that came to mind were Biscuit’s bestest friends! So I hit up @nervreck and told him the the concept for the video. So Nerv and I both had a lot of errands to run so we could make this happen and we both took them kids outta school early! I felt like we made them skip class for this.”

DJ continued, “I’m so proud of all of them! First because they were patient after doing so many takes. Second because they were brave when presented with new ideas on the spot that were asked of them. Last because they didn’t cry and fight for almost 8 hours.”

Cole might have been toying with fans’ curiosity about his intensely private personal life. The boy’s cameo coincides with Cole rapping, “I bought a condo and it’s cozy, my neighbors’ nosy as f*ck / They see a young n***a walked in with his kids / They don’t know who he is, they just know that he up.” Coincidence?

Watch the “90 Proof” video above.

Phoebe Bridgers is gearing up to open for Taylor Swift on her 2023 The Eras Tour. Paul Mescal is generating praise for his leading-man turn in A24’s Aftersun. Will the power couple ever collaborate on music? Mescal said no, but it looks like they’ll have their whole lives to change their minds.

This morning (November 6), The Guardian published an interview with Mescal and casually slid in the news that Bridgers and Mescal are engaged to punctuate a passage about his breakthrough in Hulu’s Normal People in 2020:

“Although Mescal had anticipated the show’s success — ‘It was like the perfect storm for a young actor to get a shot at reaching a global audience’ — he wasn’t prepared for the level of scrutiny that came with it. Last year, he made the decision to quit social media. ‘I just don’t think it’s particularly useful for people to see, like, literally you,’ he says, making a box shape of his hands and framing his face. ‘I thought it’s either get off the bus now or stay on it, and I wanted to get off. In 10 years I might rue the day I threw out my social media, but look, it just is what it is.’ (Mescal did, however, stay on long enough to exchange charged messages on Twitter and Instagram with the musician Phoebe Bridgers; the pair are now engaged).”

Rumors flew in April that the couple had gotten engaged after Jezebel relayed reports Bridgers was referring to Mescal as her fiancé at a Coachella party, which predictably set off an internet meltdown. In June, Bridgers was asked about it by The Guardian and responded, “F*ck the f*cking tabloids to hell, that’s what I’ll say about that!”

Bridgers and Mescal were first linked in May 2020, when Bridgers sent a tweet about watching Normal People.

Mescal starred in Bridgers’ “Savior Complex” video in December 2020 but didn’t go Instagram official until December 2021.

Rob Gronkowski once again retired from football this offseason, a move not everyone anticipated would stick, assuming at some point he’d get the call from Tom Brady to come back. However, midway through the season and Gronk’s only responsibilities on Sunday continue to be his duties as an analyst on Fox, as he seems to have made the right decision on when to jump ship from the sinking Bucs.

On Sunday, Gronk joined the Fox NFL Kickoff crew for a game of “glass half-full or half-empty” to talk about some of the teams in the middle of the pack in the NFL. When it came time to talk about the Jets, Gronk got that little twinkle in his eye realizing he had a perfect opportunity for a one-liner, and decided to be an optimist with the Jets with the condition that “they can get [Zach Wilson]’s head in the playbook instead of outside at parent-teacher conferences.”

That was a not-so-subtle quip about Zach Wilson’s ex-girlfriend alleging this summer that Wilson slept with his mom’s best friend, which garnered plenty of attention while also being something most major NFL broadcasts have tried to avoid — just not Gronk. The best part is the reaction from the rest of the crew in the studio, as Charles Woodson has no idea what he’s talking about, Sean Payton can’t help but laugh, Michael Vick just wants to move on, and Charissa Thompson makes a quip of her own.

It’s possible that Drake and 21 Savage‘s press rollout for their collaborative album Her Loss, which dropped Friday (November 4), is more entertaining than the actual music: a spoof Howard Stern interview, a fake Vogue cover, a faux NPR Tiny Desk, and now a parody SNL performance.

Introducing the duo is the one and only Michael B. Jordan, who calls Her Loss “one of the most relatable albums of our time.” The setup looks pretty convincing while they break into the “On BS” flow. In the comments, many artists praise the skit. Machine Gun Kelly typed, “Y’all are smart as f*ck.”

Her Loss has been at the center of the conversation not only because of the fake promotion but because of a Megan Thee Stallion diss, which she responded to. “I know I’m very popular,” she wrote on Twitter, “but y’all gotta stop attaching weak ass conspiracy theories in bars to my name lol N****s nor hoes EVER address me or @ me WITH a fact or receipts. I AM CLOUT B*TCH keep sucking my p*ssy.” The line, on “Circo Loco,” goes, “This b*tch lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion / She don’t even get the joke, but she still smiling.”

Watch Drake and Savage’s “On BS” performance below.

The sudden loss of Takeoff (real name Kirshnik Khari Ball) is occupying hearts across the music industry — from Drake and Offset to Lil Baby and Metro Boomin. His death is also being felt in sports. The star Migos member, 28, was fatally shot early Tuesday morning (November 1) at 810 Billiards & Bowling in Houston. Takeoff was attending a private event with Quavo, whose assistant reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries. A suspect has yet to be identified.

This morning (November 6), Minnesota Vikings starting cornerbacks Cam Dantzler and Patrick Peterson honored Takeoff through a Dreamathon-designed graphic tee. Dantzler wore his during pregame warmups, while Peterson was spotted in an Instagram post shared by Dreamathon, which was founded by Bruce Thompson and has generated numerous statement pieces for players across the league.

This summer, Dantzler dedicated this season to Jeff Gladney, his former Vikings teammate who died in a May car crash aged 25. Both players were drafted by Minnesota in 2020.

Several other athletes reacted to Takeoff’s tragic passing earlier this week, including New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara and Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Darius Slay. “Our legends are being taken away too soon,” former All-Pro defensive back Darrelle Revis tweeted. “A big supporter of Migos. It’s just not good to wake up to news like this.”

See more reactions from around sports below.