Category: News

Belgium are headed into the 2022 World Cup with some ultra-high expectations. Led by arguably the two best players in the game at their respective positions — midfielder Kevin de Bruyne and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois — the Belgians hold the distinction of being the No. 2 team in the world in the FIFA rankings and should be able to win a group that includes Canada, Croatia, and Morocco.

As we learned on Monday, Belgium will try to do this with one of the funnier jerseys we have seen in the lead-up to this winter’s World Cup. Adidas — which, to be clear, has knocked most of their kits ahead of Qatar out of the park — revealed that Belgium will wear a red kit with black sleeves that morph into FIRE.

Also: FIRE SOCKS.

The real reason for this is very simple: Belgium are known as the Red Devils, everyone knows the devil lives in hell, and everyone knows hell has fire everywhere, according to the 2000 Adam Sandler film Little Nicky. The far sillier reason for this is that Adidas and Guy Fieri collaborated here, a theory that several folks on Twitter believe to be true.

Google tells me that Fieri went to a Belgian restaurant in Cincinnati earlier this year, so perhaps there is something to this.

Kobe Bryant never did as much acting as the NBA legend he was most frequently compared to, Michael Jordan. But the Los Angeles Lakers great did appear in episodes of Moesha (he famously went to prom with the show’s star, Brandy), Sister, Sister, and All That. Bryant was also supposed to appear on Peacock’s surprisingly good Saved by the Bell reboot, but two days before he was scheduled to film his cameo, he was killed in a helicopter crash, along with his teenage daughter and seven others.

“A wild tidbit that I don’t think a lot of people know, or, it’s not important at all because obviously, we are the least of importance when it comes to this legend and his daughter’s passing, but we were actually supposed to film with Kobe two days after he died,” Saved By the Bell actress Josie Totah said on the Dare We Say podcast.

Co-star Alycia Pascual-Peña continued, “I remember learning that he had passed through one of our best friend Anjelika Washington. She called me specifically because she knew that I’d been talking about it for a month with her — that I was so excited to meet Kobe on set and I can’t believe that he was a fan of the first Saved by the Bell and that he was excited to be on the show.”

You can listen to the podcast below.

(Via IndieWire)

Do you recall that Ron Swanson scene from Parks and Rec where he provides his own permit for grilling in a park because he is Ron Swanson? That seems to be the mindset that James Cameron has when it comes to making movies. To be fair, Cameron’s movies have made (and continue to make) bank at the box office, so it makes sense that Fox would let him take the reigns on his post-Titanic project. But does he have to be so James Cameron about it all?

In a new profile with The New York Times, Cameron revisited his filmmaking process and revealed the various creative clashes that he went through with 20th Century Fox while he was making Avatar. “I think I felt, at the time, that we clashed over certain things. For example, the studio felt that the film should be shorter and that there was too much flying around on the ikran — what the humans call the banshees,” Cameron explained. According to the director, he fought to keep that scene in the movie which apparently became an audience favorite. Cameron used that to his advantage while also dunking on the studio execs who were trying to make cuts.

In a very ‘my house my rules!’ fashion, Cameron said that he was able to convince the studio to keep it in because of how much money his disaster film Titanic brought in for the company. “It turns out that’s what the audience loved the most, in terms of our exit polling and data gathering. And that’s a place where I just drew a line in the sand and said, “You know what? I made Titanic. This building that we’re meeting in right now, this new half-billion dollar complex on your lot? Titanic paid for that, so I get to do this.”

He added, “Afterward, they thanked me. I feel that my job is to protect their investment, often against their own judgment. But as long as I protect their investment, all is forgiven.” Let’s be honest though, a lot of that money Titanic made was from people who just wanted to look at Leonardo DiCaprio’s face. He would have made that billion dollars no matter what.

(Via The New York Times)

As it turns out, the superstar girl group Blackpink have a lot in common with fans. The four K-pop heroes stopped by a local Target over the weekend to shop the exclusive box sets of their new album Born Pink. In a video uploaded on social media, Lisa leads the girls to the display after spotting it first. While the video’s original sound was replaced with their recent single “Shut Down,” their excited reactions speak for themselves.

“#BLACKPINK is in your local Target!” the Twitter post reads. “Shop the ‘BORN PINK’ @Target exclusive box sets now!”

“Like always, working with my members was fun. Starting with our concept meetings to our final recordings, new ideas were constantly coming out. We were able to look more closely at each other’s thoughts and emotions and bring out something from deep inside. As we gave and took feedback to and from each other, I felt that we shined the most when the four of us were together,” Jennie told XSportsNews (via Soompi) about Born Pink in a recent interview.

Target is currently offering three versions of the box sets, in black, pink, and gray. It includes a CD copy of Born Pink, along with exclusive posters, stickers, and photos. Following Blackpink’s visit to Target being shared, fans immediately took notice with different aspects of the clip.

View some of the Blinks reactions below.

The legend of Cardi B’s friendship with Beyoncé continues to grow. In July, Beyoncé made her TikTok debut with a compilation video teasing her Renaissance lead single “Break My Soul” and featuring a very energetic Cardi B cameo. Cardi was even more excited to receive a signed copy of Renaissance, as she shared with fans on Monday (September 19).

“Look what Beyoncé sent me,” the Diamond-certified rapper said in the Twitter video. “Read it, b*tch. It was so beautiful, so lovely. I’m gonna put it in a glass frame with laser beams on it. Anybody that get motherf*cking next to it is gonna get electrocuted on motherf*cking sight. I just wanna say thank you so much. I feel so special.”

The clip ends with a beaming Cardi singing a line from Renaissance track “Plastic Off The Sofa.”

Beyoncé wrote on the record, “To Cardi B, Hardworking, Beautiful and talented Queen, thank you for always supporting me. Sending so much love to you and yours. Respect.”

Cardi and Beyoncé have orbited around each other for years now, dating back to an unfortunately canceled collaboration in 2017. In 2020, Cardi explained in an Elle cover story that her then-forthcoming album would feature “my Lemonade moments, my personal relationship moments,” referencing Beyoncé’s groundbreaking, Grammy-winning 2016 conceptual album.

If Cardi needs any inspiration moving forward, it appears as if she has a direct line to Queen Bey.

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

Back in 2014, Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine and Victoria’s Secret model Behati Prinsloo got married. Earlier this month, it was reported the two are expecting a third child together. Now, if new claims from another model are to be believed, this is where things get strange: In a new TikTok video shared today (September 19), Sumner Stroh, a model with a sizable social media following, claims she and Levine had a year-long affair and now he wants to name his forthcoming baby after her.

In the 90-second video, Stroh starts, “Essentially, I was having an affair with a man who was married to a Victoria’s Secret model.” She also notes that this happened when she was younger and she feels like she was “exploited” and “easily manipulated.”

She went on to share screenshots of Instagram DMs between herself and Levine, in which they compliment each other’s looks, and she said they were seeing each other for “about a year.” Then, after not talking for months, Stroh says she got the following message from the singer: “Ok serious question. I’m having another baby and if it’s w boy I really wanna name it Sumner. You ok with that? DEAD serious.”

Stroh continued, “I was like… ‘I’m in Hell. Like, I have to be in Hell at this point [laughs].’”

As for why she decided to tell this story now, Stroh explained, “I had sent some screenshots recklessly to a few friends I thought I trusted, and one of them had attempted to sell to a tabloid. So, here I am.”

Levine has yet to offer a public comment about the video, but Twitter users sure have been talking about it in the hours since it dropped. Watch the Stroh video above and check out some reactions below.

Ron DeSantis shipping a plane full of unsuspecting migrants to Martha’s Vineyard has been making headlines as the outright political stunt has been blasted for being “straight out of the authoritarian playbook.” It’s pretty bad, so naturally, Donald Trump is jealous as all heck.

According to Rolling Stone, Trump is fuming mad that DeSantis has knocked him out of the headlines. The dude’s out here busting his hump to remind people about his pee tape, for crying out loud. On top of that, Trump has reportedly been telling people that the potentially illegal migrant shipping scheme was his idea:

Trump has fumed over all the praise DeSantis’ action has been receiving in influential conservative circles lately — such as on right-wing media like Fox News — and has privately accused DeSantis of doing this largely to generate a 2024 polling boost for himself among GOP voters. (Earlier this month, Trump and his political operation blasted out a brief statement claiming, “Mar-a-Lago raid gave Trump a 10-point boost over DeSantis with Republican primary voters, poll shows.”) The twice-impeached former president, the sources say, has also vented that DeSantis’ latest stunt was yet another one of “my idea[s]” that the governor allegedly stole from Trump.

Of course, this tactic is nothing new for Trump. Even before the Martha’s Vineyard stunt, Trump and his underlings have accused DeSantis of copying everything from Trump’s speaking pattern to (get ready for this one) stealing ideas from Don Jr.’s tweets. Trust us when we say no one is taking political cues from a guy who thinks his dad keeping the nuclear codes at Mar-a-Lago is actually a good thing. You’d be better off getting campaign strategy from a ham sandwich.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Arlo Parks started her North American tour earlier this month, but has canceled various dates to take care of her mental health. Originally scheduled to play shows in Milwaukee, Denver, and Minneapolis, with opening acts Puma Blue and Del Water Gap, Parks posted to Instagram, informing fans of what was happening with the cancellation.

“I’ve been on the road and off for the last 18 months, filling every spare second in between and working myself to the bone. It was exciting and I was eager to grind and show everyone what I was capable of, how grateful I was to be where I am today,” Parks wrote. “The people around me started to get worried but I was anxious to deliver and afraid to disappoint my fans and myself.”

She continued, “I pushed myself unhealthily, further and harder than I should’ve. I find myself now in a very dark place, exhausted and dangerously low — it’s painful to admit that my mental health has deteriorated to a debilitating place, that I’m not okay, that I’m a human being with limits.”

Parks, who released her debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams in 2021, is still scheduled to resume her tour at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom on September 26. She has also added two new October shows in Dallas and Houston. Refunds are being offered for the three canceled shows.

Read Parks’ full Instagram post above.

NMIXX sure are mixing things up in K-pop. As one of the fresh faces to come out of the industry this year, the JYP Entertainment girl group offers a new perspective on the global phenomenon with their compulsive ways of blending in different tempos, genres, and arrangements in their music.

Following their debut with “O.O” earlier this year, Lily, Haewon, Sullyoon, Jinni, Bae, Jiwoo, and Kyujin are back with their new lead single “Dice.” The seven-piece K-pop ensemble released their second single album ENTWURF on Monday, September 19 with their B-side “Cool (Your Rainbow).”

Just like the song’s concept of gambling into the unknown, the music video takes viewers on a trip to the circus which eventually leads to a fairytale-esque story once the switch up happens after the first chorus. (One can arguably say it’s giving Panic! At the Disco meets Alice In Wonderland, but with NMIXX as the main characters.)

Earlier this year, NMIXX made their debut with “O.O” that literally mixed pop, hip-hop, dance, and electronic music all in a span of three minutes and 33 seconds. The song — which became a hot topic between fans, critics, and netizens — represented what the group stood for: N for now, new, next, and unknown, like the math symbol, while “MIXX” means combination and diversity.

Stranger Things season four was a fun, entertaining success (not a given considering the long break between episodes — and the long episodes themselves), but one valid criticism of the Netflix series is that there’s too many freaking characters. Eddie and Argyle were great, but it left less time for old favorites, like the most ’80s dad ever. Millie Bobby Brown wants Stranger Things to thin the herd, and her co-star Maya Hawke agrees.

“I don’t think [Eddie] should’ve died,” the Do Revenge actress told Vanity Fair while strapped to a lie detector, “but I do think the show has too many characters.” If this is Hawke’s sneaky way of getting more screen time, no complaints here.

Previously, a blood-thirsty Bobby Brown pleaded with co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer to kill some folks. “Last night [at the premiere], we couldn’t even take one group picture because there were like 50 of us. I was like, ‘You need to start killing people off.’ The Duffer brothers are two sensitive Sallies that don’t want to kill anyone off. We need to be Game of Thrones,” she said. The Duffers have heard her complaints and confirmed that season five will have fewer new faces. “We’re trying not to do that so we can focus on the OG characters, I guess,” Ross said.

It’s his time.

Stranger Things season five does not currently have a premiere date.

(Via Variety)