Category: News

Cancer is serious. Ryan Reynolds is not. Luckily his characteristic sense of humor—along with being true to his word—has helped shine a light on a sobering topic in a fun way.

After apparently losing a bet to friend and “Welcome to Wrexham” co-star Rob McElhenney of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” Reynolds agreed to get a colonoscopy … while broadcasting it to the entire world, of course.

Reynolds is an actor famous for hilarious hijinks. From his intense fictional feud with Hugh Jackman to performing epic pranks on talk shows, he is often the best thing on the internet for a good laugh.

However, he is also not one to shy away from difficult conversations, particularly when it comes to health. So raising awareness about the importance of colonoscopies was, as he quipped, “enough motivation for me to let you in on a camera being shoved up my ass.”

Reynolds might have lost the bet, but his actions paid off. The procedure turned out to be lifesaving.

The video shows the “Free Guy” actor getting the news that an “extremely subtle” polyp was discovered and cut out. Reynolds had previously shown no symptoms.

“I’m not being dramatic,” his doctor told him. “This is exactly why you do this. You are interrupting the natural history of a disease, of something of a process that could have ended up developing into cancer and causing all sorts of problems. Instead, you are not only diagnosing the polyp, you are taking it out.”

Ever the expert marketer, Reynolds smoothly slid in a quick plug for his alcohol brand, joking that “I can’t believe you pumped all that Aviation Gin into my IV. I was out like a light” before thanking the doctor.

Reynolds got his colonoscopy at 45, which is the recommended age to begin routine screenings. Though it’s a preventable cancer, colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths for men and women combined, and it is predicted to be the top cancer killer for people under 50 by the year 2030.

Because of the inherent invasiveness of the procedure, many people feel uncomfortable even talking about colonoscopies, let alone getting one, despite early detection being so vital. But now, thanks to Reynolds hilariously riffing on his experience, the whole thing might not seem so daunting after all.

Thanks for the delightfully silly PSA, Ryan.

Ever since Matt Smith reigned as Prince Phillip on The Crown and also as Prince Daemon Targaryen in House of the Dragon, it’s easy to forget that he is Just A Guy and not an actual member of the royal family. But when it comes to the actual royal family, it seems like they might have appreciated his role after all!

While on The Today Show, Smith revealed that he actually met Prince Harry, Phillip’s grandson, while playing polo. Polo is one of the most royal-adjacent things you can do, as it is literally nicknamed “the sport of kings.” At the event, Smith ran into Prince Harry, who gave him a familiar greeting. “I met Harry once, at polo, which sounds a bit grand, but it wasn’t that grand,” Smith said. “And he walked up to me and went, “Granddad.’”Smith then mimcked a very stern handshake.

Smith added, “He watched [The Crown]! Well, I can’t claim to know if he watches it currently, but he watched a bit of it then.” He knew enough of it to be aware that Smith played Prince Phillip, so that’s definitely something! Smith also mentioned that he has met the now King Charles, and complimented his shoes.

Production on the current season of The Crown is currently suspended out of respect for the Queen, but the show saw a massive spike in viewership after her death last week. It’s unclear if the royals really watch the show, which follows their family over decades. The current reincarnation of Prince Phillip will be portayed by Tobias Menzies on the upcoming season of the Netflix drama.

Even though he’s not really a Prince, Smith traveled the universe for several years as The Doctor, so he’s basically British royalty anyway.

(Via Variety)

If you’re lucky enough to see Blonde in a theater this weekend, you should do that. Unless you’re under 17 years old. Then you’re not allowed.

Blonde is the first Netflix film with an NC-17 rating, for reasons unclear to both star Ana de Armas and director Andrew Dominik. “We live in a world where ‘[WAP]’ is, like, the number one song,” he told MovieMaker. “This sort of Eisenhower morality doesn’t really seem to bear much resemblance to what’s going on in the world. But I feel like anything that’s showing a woman in sexual situations is sort of something that — nobody wants to look under that hood.” Dominick doesn’t “even think the rating is deserved,” so he was “kind of surprised that they would consider that to be worthy of an NC-17.”

Blonde is rated NC-17 for “some sexual content,” according to the Motion Picture Association. And according to the parents guide on the film’s IMDb page, there’s “strong uses of ‘f*ck,’ ‘damn,’ ‘ass,’ ‘crap,’ ‘asshole,’ ‘whore,’ ‘c*ck,’ and ‘sh*t.’” So, parents, don’t let your little ones watch the nearly three-hour Marilyn Monroe biopic based on a Joyce Carol Oates book, no matter how much they beg.

“Marilyn Monroe was a confusing, alluring contradiction, and so, necessarily is Blonde,” Uproxx’s Vince Mancini wrote in his review. “But it’s also mesmerizing, hard to watch, and impossible not to watch almost in equal measure, a somewhat guilty pleasure, compelling in spite of, partly because of, the fact that you don’t quite understand.” For everyone who can’t see it this weekend, Blonde hits Netflix on September 28.

(Via MovieMaker)

The long wait is finally over: Blackpink’s sophomore studio album, Born Pink, is finally here and it’s trending high on socials.

After successfully dropping “Pink Venom” as a pre-release single last month, it comes to no surprise Blinks, K-pop fans, and pop music lovers alike are celebrating and reacting to today’s album release from the quartet. Featuring eight songs on the album, Born Pink is a well-packaged sophomore project from the K-pop icons that explodes into a sonic roller coaster of powerful, bass-bumping hip-hop dance tracks with a little mesh of acoustic rock and R&B, all while embodying pop in between.

Born Pink’s tracklist features a variety of songs produced by YG Entertainment’s in-house producer Teddy, Bekuh BOOM (“Ddu-Du Ddu-Du,” “Kill This Love,” “Ice Cream”), 24 (“Kill This Love,” “Lovesick Girls,” “Pink Venom”), and more. Not to mention a track co-written by members Jisoo and Rosé title “Yeah Yeah Yeah” and “Hard to Love,” a solo sung by Rosé.

At the moment, there are no signs of the hype dwindling down as promotions have just begun. Blackpink is set to do some stateside promotions, including an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel next Monday, followed by a world tour next month.

To grab a glimpse of what the internet feels about the album, alongside their favorite B-sides, here’s what they have to say:

The Rocky Cinematic Universe has generally done a pretty good job getting people from the world of boxing involved in some form or fashion. Since the focus of the series shifted away from Rocky Balboa and towards Adonis Creed, fighters like Tony Bellew and Andre Ward have been given roles as antagonists, while there were rumblings in the early days of planning Creed III that Deontay Wilder could have a role as Clubber Lang’s son.

That last thing won’t end up happening — Jonathan Majors is apparently going to serve as Creed’s main opponent this time around — but that doesn’t mean a big name boxer isn’t going to appear in some capacity. Michael B. Jordan, who is going to direct the film in addition to his role as the series’ protagonist, posted a picture to his Instagram account of himself looking over a clip with super middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez.

The post comes on the brink of a major weekend for Álvarez, who lost his last bout back in May — Álvarez moved up to light heavyweight to fight Dmitry Bivol, who won via unanimous decision to give Álvarez the second loss of his decorated career. Instead of a rematch, Álvarez will step into the ring on Saturday night for his third fight against Gennady Golovkin. Their first fight, which occurred back in 2017, ended in a controversial split draw, while Álvarez won their 2018 rematch via majority decision.

Ozzy Osbourne’s 13th album, Patient Number 9, was released last week. The day before it dropped, Osbourne was playing a medley of songs as part of the NFL season’s kickoff halftime show in the game between the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills at LA’s SoFi Stadium. It was a high-profile moment for Osbourne, who earlier this year left LA and moved back to London with his wife Sharon.

But while Ozzy was in LA and recording Patient Number 9 with producer Andrew Watt, he had an opportunity to work with a number of collaborators, including late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins before he died this past March. Hawkins appears on three songs on Patient Number 9, but apparently, he and Osbourne recorded much more than just that.

Watt revealed to Rolling Stone that not only does Hawkins play drums on “Parasite,” “Mr. Darkness,” and “God Only Knows,” but that Hawkins and Osbourne made ‘”a bunch” of recordings, which Watt says are “going to be used for another thing.”

Both Hawkins and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers appear across the 13-track Patient Number 9, as well as other collaborators like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi. But Osbourne dedicated the album to the memory of Taylor Hawkins and any future releases of their recordings together will certainly serve as another homage to Hawkins.

The last time we checked in on those shirtless dancers over at Magic Mike HQ, it seemed like the upcoming installment was going to skip the theatrical release and dance head first into living rooms via HBO Max. Then…a bunch of stuff happened and suddenly the future of HBO Max became a little more uncertain. But! There is good news! The sweaty men of Magic Mike will be getting their big screen premiere after all.

Deadline broke the incredible news that Magic Mike’s Last Dance will head to theaters over Super Bowl weekend on February 10th, 2023. If there’s anything that goes well together, it’s shirtless men and football, right?

While the details of the movie are mostly under wraps, director Steven Soderbergh recently gave a sneak peek into what fans can expect from the third installment in the franchise, which stars Channing Tatum alongside Salma Hayek, who replaced Thandiwe Newton while filming earlier this spring.

“The movie is sort of a fictionalized procedural on how Mike comes up with the idea of a show — and then the obstacles, of which there are many, to trying to realize his vision of what this new thing could be.” Soderbergh explained, adding “It’s a variation on All That Jazz.” Hopefully, Warner Bros will announce some Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque showings with dancing in the aisle. It’s what we deserve after Tom Cruise single-handedly brought movie theaters back from the dead using nothing but his own two hands and a plane.

(Via Deadline)

Adewole Adamson, MD, of the University of Texas, Austin, aims to create more equity in health care by gathering data from more diverse populations by using artificial intelligence (AI), a type of machine learning. Dr. Adamson’s work is funded by the American Cancer Society (ACS), an organization committed to advancing health equity through research priorities, programs and services for groups who have been marginalized.

Melanoma became a particular focus for Dr. Adamson after meeting Avery Smith, who lost his wife—a Black woman—to the deadly disease.

Avery Smith (left) and Adamson (sidenote)

This personal encounter, coupled with multiple conversations with Black dermatology patients, drove Dr. Adamson to a concerning discovery: as advanced as AI is at detecting possible skin cancers, it is heavily biased.

To understand this bias, it helps to first know how AI works in the early detection of skin cancer, which Dr. Adamson explains in his paper for the New England Journal of Medicine (paywall). The process uses computers that rely on sets of accumulated data to learn what healthy or unhealthy skin looks like and then create an algorithm to predict diagnoses based on those data sets.

This process, known as supervised learning, could lead to huge benefits in preventive care.

After all, early detection is key to better outcomes. The problem is that the data sets don’t include enough information about darker skin tones. As Adamson put it, “everything is viewed through a ‘white lens.’”

“If you don’t teach the algorithm with a diverse set of images, then that algorithm won’t work out in the public that is diverse,” writes Adamson in a study he co-wrote with Smith (according to a story in The Atlantic). “So there’s risk, then, for people with skin of color to fall through the cracks.”

Tragically, Smith’s wife was diagnosed with melanoma too late and paid the ultimate price for it. And she was not an anomaly—though the disease is more common for White patients, Black cancer patients are far more likely to be diagnosed at later stages, causing a notable disparity in survival rates between non-Hispanics whites (90%) and non-Hispanic blacks (66%).

As a computer scientist, Smith suspected this racial bias and reached out to Adamson, hoping a Black dermatologist would have more diverse data sets. Though Adamson didn’t have what Smith was initially looking for, this realization ignited a personal mission to investigate and reduce disparities.

Now, Adamson uses the knowledge gained through his years of research to help advance the fight for health equity. To him, that means not only gaining a wider array of data sets, but also having more conversations with patients to understand how socioeconomic status impacts the level and efficiency of care.

“At the end of the day, what matters most is how we help patients at the patient level,” Adamson told Upworthy. “And how can you do that without knowing exactly what barriers they face?”

“What matters most is how we help patients at the patient level.”https://www.kellydavidsonstudio.com/

The American Cancer Society believes everyone deserves a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer—regardless of how much money they make, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, gender identity, their disability status, or where they live. Inclusive tools and resources on the Health Equity section of their website can be found here. For more information about skin cancer, visit cancer.org/skincancer.

Donald Trump does not like paying for things. Ever. As the search of Mar-a-Lago went public, the former president was hounded by reports that he was having trouble finding legal representation because he routinely stiffs his counsel. (Or tries to pay them with horses. That really happened.) Making matters worse, the Republican National Committee has refused to pay his legal fees for the increasing quagmire around the documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Trump is essentially on his own as he faces a possible indictment.

Knowing Trump’s penchant for not paying his attorneys, Maggie Haberman provided evidence this week that seemingly proves Trump knows he’s in serious trouble. His newest lawyer just got a fat check for $3 million. Granted, the money came from Trump’s Save America PAC, but that’s a very rare move for the former president who, again, notoriously loves to stiff people.

Here’s what Haberman recently told Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s The Situation Room. Via Mediaite:

Privately, he has said a range of things, Wolf. But, generally speaking, people around him have started to detect anxiety, not the least of which he just hired a very new high-priced lawyer who is being paid through PAC money. Even if it isn’t Donald Trump’s personal money, he doesn’t like parting with it if it is in his control. This tells me that there is a real level of concern here despite whatever bravado he is showing.

It’s neat to know that Trump actually paying for goods and services is up there with pigs flying or Hell freezing over. Cool stuff.

(Via Mediaite)

Calling a bourbon whiskey the “last of its kind” feels pretty inflated from the jump. Some might even call it hyperbole. But it’s true. Wild Turkey’s new limited release of Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse is never going to be seen again, and that’s kind of the whole point.

Let’s get some details out of the way before we dive into the review of the juice. The new Russell’s Reserve line is a limited edition and the first in a yearly expression drop, or “limited collection” if you will. The inaugural edition of the new Rickhouse Collection is from Wild Turkey’s famed and very old Rickhouse C in Camp Nelson, an off-site set of rickhouses where barrels are stored. Rickhouse C at Camp Nelson was literally falling apart and has since been bulldozed. Before that happened, Eddie Russell, Wild Turkey’s Master Distiller, went through and tasted all the barrels and found that the center cut was a honey pot of amazing bourbon barrels. He found 72 prime barrels and made this whiskey.

Here’s what makes this special: each rickhouse/warehouse has its own vibe and biome (if you really want to get scientific). Different warehouses will produce barrels of whiskey with wildly different flavor profiles even though those warehouses are mere yards apart — florae and fauna, atmospheric pressure, stock, weather patterns (and protection from treelines or other warehouses), and human interaction all help create little micro-biomes in each warehouse. So the juice in this bottle of Russell’s Reserve will never be tasted again. That environmental biome that it was made in is gone… forever.

That makes this whiskey something truly special and worth a stand-alone review. So let’s get into what’s actually in this bottle!

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Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse Limited Release Rickhouse Collection Camp Nelson C

ABV: 56.2%

Average Price: $249 (Limited time and only in CA, FL, NY, TX, and CO)

The Whiskey:

All of Wild Turkey’s bourbon is made from the same mash of 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley. Comparatively, Turkey uses less rye and more barley than your average bourbon. These barrels were loaded into Rickhouse C in Camp Nelson and left alone on floors three and four for years (those are the central floors of the seven-story rickhouse). As the rickhouse was falling apart and it became clear it was beyond repair (nearly hundred-year-old structures tend to do that), the Russell crew started tasting whiskey to see what they could do with it. 72 barrels rose to the surface with a parallel flavor structure that became this whiskey, which was bottled completely as-is without filtration or proofing.

The Bottle:

The bottle is a classic Russell’s Reserve bottle with a wide body. The label is dark forest green and feels like something you’d see on a bar cart in a Wyoming cabin/lodge deep in the Tetons. It’s woodsy, which is appealing and helps it stand out from the white and red labels on the rest of the Russell’s line.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is super supple with a soft marzipan fondant that leads to mince meat pies with plenty of rum-raisin, brown sugar, and mild cinnamon/nutmeg/clove spice with a thin layer of powdered sugar frosting over the buttery crust. The nose also has a sense of brandy butter with a hint of salted caramel and vanilla taffy next to a faint whisper of apple fritters. The palate is lush and silky with rich buttery toffee rolled in roasted almonds and coconut and dipped in dark and creamy chocolate sauce with plenty of orange zest and flakes of salt. The mid-palate leans into cinnamon bark, allspice berries, and a freshly ground nutmeg next to tart apple pies loaded with pecans. The mid-palate stays silken as mild hints of soft cedar bark mingle with cardamon pods and more of the nutmeg (almost like eggnog) and maybe a hint of dried mint. The finish circles back around the brandy butter, rum-raisin, and powdered sugar frosting for a sweet and luxurious end.

Bottom Line:

This is dessert in a glass. When I tasted this, I was in a group and everyone felt a different nostalgic dessert when they sipped. The signature Wild Turkey spice on the mid-palate was drawn back a bit, but still just there. What’s wild is that this is a barrel-proof whiskey at 112.4 proof and it has zero burn or high-ABV warmth. It’s truly silky smooth and soft.

This was a stellar sipper neat. I added a little water (maybe three or four drops) and it really bloomed in the glass. The creaminess of the dark chocolate and toffee amped up and the orange zest got brighter. The whole thing became a cream and bright delight.

Ranking:

95/100 — This is a great whiskey. It’s unexpected (from Turkey) and truly unique. The only thing keeping this from a perfect score is that it was a little sweet and that can be off-putting for someone looking for a little more spice/sweet balance. I can put that aside and confidently say this is a solid A. It’s just freakin’ delicious.