Category: News

The Connecticut Sun set a positive tone in the WNBA Semifinals, toppling the Chicago Sky on the road in Game 1. However, Connecticut lost the next two games, including a home tilt in Game 3. That mini-skid left the Sun one game away from potential elimination.

On Tuesday evening, the Sun responded in kind, zooming to a double-digit lead in the early going and holding off the Sky for a 104-80 victory that set up a Game 5 in Chicago. The Sky took control immediately, using a 22-6 opening run that included eight straight points. Chicago turned the ball over four times in the first five minutes, with Connecticut making nine of its first 14 shots from the floor.

Connecticut’s 16-point lead was slashed to a 30-22 margin by the end of the first quarter, and it felt as if Chicago may be leveling the playing field after the early barrage. Between quarters, Sky standout Kahleah Cooper expressed frustration, and almost bewilderment, about the slow start with the opportunity to advance to the WNBA Finals.

Alyssa Thomas was a huge factor for the Sun in the early going, scoring 11 points and grabbing six rebounds in the opening period, but the Sky managed to cut the deficit to as few as five points at 38-33. Almost on cue, Connecticut used a 10-2 run to break away and, after a brief period of stabilization by Chicago, the Sun closed the first half on another 10-3 run that was punctuated by a buzzer-beater from DiJonai Carrington to give the Sun a 17-point halftime lead.

Connecticut shot 59.5 percent from the floor in the first half, and the team’s defense forced nine turnovers that led directly to 14 points. While the margin was not insurmountable for the visiting Sky, the big run necessary to close the gap never materialized. Chicago was unable to mount a push early in the third quarter, and a late-quarter flurry pushed Connecticut into an even more favorable position.

In the final seconds of the third quarter, DeWanna Bonner buried a three-pointer with two seconds remaining and Odyssey Sims ended the quarter with a steal and a bucket before the buzzer to put Connecticut up by 22 points.

From there, the Sun were never again in serious danger, extending the lead to a 93-66 and seemingly slamming the door for good. With Candace Parker returning to the game, the Sky produced a run of 11 consecutive points, forcing Connecticut into a timeout with fewer than five minutes remaining. The home team immediately converted a three-pointer on the first possession, though, and that quieted any remaining murmurs of a potential comeback.

It was a balanced and impressive effort from the Sun on both ends of the floor. Connecticut flummoxed Chicago on the defensive end, forcing 15 turnovers and holding the Sky to only three offensive rebounds. On offense, the Sun shot 57 percent from the floor and 16-for-20 at the free throw line, with seven players scoring at least nine points each.

For the Sky, the message will likely be to forget this game and, in particular, the lopsided margin. Chicago hosts Game 5 on Thursday, and that home-court advantage could prove useful on the biggest stage. Still, Connecticut likely gained confidence with this complete performance in a must-win spot, and all eyes will be on the series finale with a trip to the WNBA Finals on the line in less than 48 hours.

People have been speculating for a while about whether Adele is engaged to super-agent Rich Paul, who she’s been dating for a little over a year. They first appeared together in the public eye last July while sitting courtside for the 2021 NBA Finals. In May of this year, she revealed that the two of them moved in together. Today, she posted some photos on Instagram, and one caught fans’ eyes and have them wondering if she and Paul are secretly married.

After posting some selfies with her new Emmy award, she included a picture of the award itself. In the background, one can see a customized game of Rummikub with a label that reads “The Paul’s.” It caused conversation about the state of their relationship to be stirred up again, with many excitedly jumping to conclusions. One user commented: “‘The Paul’s’ is you married?!”, which got likes from many other curious fans dying to know the truth.

When asked last month if she was married, Adele repeatedly said insisted she wasn’t engaged. Instead she said, “I’m just in loooove! I’m happy as I’ll ever be. I might as well be married.” In another conversation with the journalist, she gave a more straightforward answer: “I’m not engaged,” she said. “I just love high-end jewelry, boy!”

I’m going to take a risk here and assume that, unless you’re brand new to this planet, you’ve heard of Serena Williams. It’s almost impossible to believe that there was ever a time that people didn’t know who she was, and thanks to this unearthed video, we can see that, even at age nine, the world was starting to know her name. In a 1991 video posted by CNN, 9-year-old Williams is interviewed along with her father, Richard Williams, and she mentions her dream to become No. 1 on the junior tennis circuit.

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Little did Williams know, her dreams of being No. 1 would surpass junior tennis and take her on to win so many titles that the tennis star may have to Google herself to be able to name them all. During the interview with CNN, Richard Williams reveals that Serena and her older sister, Venus, had already been offered multi-million dollar contracts but the family refused to sign—although not for reasons one may think, like wanting more money or being unhappy with working conditions. Richard Williams tells CNN they didn’t sign because, “If we accept all of these millions of dollars that people are offering us, we won’t have little girls no more. We’ll have a business. And they’re too young to be a business.”

With Williams announcing her retirement before emotionally completing her last matches amid standing ovations and tears from fans, it feels fitting for CNN to pull this out of the vault. Seeing a pint-sized Williams dream big as a little girl in Compton, California, and witnessing her career evolution, this video clip is bound to bring a smile to your face.

Check it out below:

People have been speculating for a while about whether Adele is engaged to super-agent Rich Paul, who she’s been dating for a little over a year. They first appeared together in the public eye last July while sitting courtside for the 2021 NBA Finals. In May of this year, she revealed that the two of them moved in together. Today, she posted some photos on Instagram, and one caught fans’ eyes.

After posting some selfies with her new Emmy award, she included a picture of the award itself. In the background, one can see a customized game of Rummikub with a label that reads “The Paul’s.” It caused conversation about the state of their relationship to be stirred up again, with many excitedly jumping to conclusions. One user commented: “‘The Paul’s’ is you married?!”, which got likes from many other curious fans dying to know the truth.

When asked last month if she was married, Adele repeatedly said insisted she wasn’t engaged. Instead she said, “I’m just in loooove! I’m happy as I’ll ever be. I might as well be married.” In another conversation with the journalist, she gave a more straightforward answer: “I’m not engaged,” she said. “I just love high-end jewelry, boy!”

Trump cronies have had a bear of a time trying to defend him amidst the Justice Department investigation into all the highly classified material he took with him to Mar-a-Lago. Now it’s getting somehow even worse for him: Sources tell The Washington Post that among the over 300 documents that have been seized from his current abode, one pertains to another country’s nuclear capabilities.

It’s not been revealed, obviously, what that nation is. But the document appears to be among the most high-level security risks of the documents Trump took down to the resort in which he now lives. To get a sense of the seriousness of Trump’s alleged actions, consider this:

Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.

Indeed, such documents, the Post reports, “require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance.” They are also “kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location.”

And yet there was a document about nuclear secrets, located in Mar-a-Lago under questionable — by some reports incredibly lax — security.

A week-and-a-half ago, Trump tried to play chicken with the DoJ, daring them to release the secretive affidavit that led to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. When they released a heavily redacted version, Trump did a questionable victory lap, noting that the word “nuclear” hadn’t appeared anywhere. And yet here we are. But we’re sure Trump will tell his side of the story on his possibly dying Twitter clone.

(Via The Post)

Ari Lennox is only a few days away from releasing her highly anticipated album Age/Sex/Location, which will follow up her 2019 debut Shea Butter Baby. The new LP is full of amazing guests, like Chlöe Bailey, Lucky Daye, J. Cole, and more.

Today, she shared her gratitude for her collaborators with a lengthy, heartfelt message on Instagram, making sure not to leave anyone’s name out. Read it below.

age/sex/location Sept 9th

This album is the transitional space before my current eat pray love journey

Chloe you are the realest angel. A super legend ready to take over the world that’s rightfully yours. Don’t know anyone who works as hard as you other than cole and lil baby.

Thank you Lucky, you are my music industry husband lol

J. Cole you a real ass n thank you for your production and writing and for singing your heart out on POF. and thank you for your sweet insightful words of encouragement

Summer nobody compares to your gentle slayage I love you sister. You’re Phenomenal.

Theo Your solo gives me chills every time I hear mean mug. Thanks Angel.

Thank you to all the producers Elite, cole, dzl, wu-10, tim suby, loxe jermaine dupree, brian michael cox, michael bearden, ron gilmore,theo croker, ib, J white, cardiak, slim wave, and Organized Noise

And last but not least Elite for executive producing my album. My brother from the same mother, I love you Elite. You sweet angelic best friend you, you make it easy to have so much fun and create the most beautiful soul music. I can’t wait to make many more albums with you.

Shout out to my management Mk and matty, I adore you cute sweetie pies.

Thank you greatly to Justin Lamotte for all the love and hard work you’ve provided over the years. Love you so much.

Dreamville and Interscope y’all are so cute and sweet. I love Y’all

Age/Sex/Location is out 9/9 via Dreamville and Interscope. Pre-order it here.

It’s been 21 years since Thursday released their seminal post-hardcore opus Full Collapse, an album that influenced generations of bands and contained the classic hit “Understanding In A Car Crash.” The Geoff Rickley-led group is celebrating this anniversary with a limited-edition 10-inch vinyl collection.

The box set is limited to only 5,000 copies and spans the whole album across three 10-inch LPs. It also includes a hardcover book and a collection of never-before-seen photos from 2001 and 2002 that were taken by photographer Nathaniel Shannon. “It’s really an honor to see Full Collapse get the deluxe box set treatment for its 20th anniversary,” the New Jersey-native act said in a statement. “We’ve worked hard to make sure this little package that captures the feeling of those unforgettable days.”

Thursday have been having a great year. They’ve been playing shows with none other than My Chemical Romance, who have been taking the US by storm with their comeback tour that boasts a setlist jam-packed with hits. The “Welcome To The Black Parade” group unexpectedly received love from Cardi B earlier this year when she shared the iconic 2004 video for “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” on social media, writing in the caption, “They don’t make music like this anymore.”

The limited edition Full Collapse box set arrives 10/28 via Craft Recordings. Pre-order it here.

Indies don’t often get sequels (though they sometimes do), but as you may recall, there was serious talk that Call Me by Your Name might get another round. Then, well, something happened with one of the stars. But a year and a half after all the Armie Hammer mishegoss went public, there’s still hope for a follow-up. It just won’t feature Oliver and Elio sharing another peach.

In a new interview with IndieWire, director Luca Guadagnino reveals that he still wants to do Call Me by Your Name 2. Thing is, it almost certainly won’t be called anything like that. For one thing, Guadgnino doesn’t like a certain movie trend.

“A sequel is an American concept,” Guadagnino grumbled. Besides, it will only focus on one of the main characters. See if you can guess which one. “It’s more like the chronicles of Elio,” he said, referring to the character played by Timothée Chalamet, in what proved his breakout turn. As such the film, should it get made, would be the “chronicles of this young boy becoming a man. It is something I want to do.”

As it happens, Guadagnino is at the Telluride Film Festival, where he’s doing press for Bones and All, another movie with Chalamet where the actor plays a fine young cannibal. The film was announced around the same time that allegations about Hammer’s life were being lodged, including that he engaged in some disturbing cannibal talk. So much has changed since then.

(Via IndieWire)

The Los Angeles Lakers added some much needed three-point shooting and defensive bite when they pulled off a deal to acquire Patrick Beverley from the Utah Jazz. Beverley played an important role in helping the Minnesota Timberwolves make the postseason through the play-in tournament last year, and even though he has not always seen eye-to-eye with Russell Westbrook in the past, he seems ready to let bygones be bygones and focus on contributing to the Lakers.

Of course, L.A. can use Beverley’s help in making it to the playoffs — the team missed out on the play-in tournament altogether due to an old and disjointed roster mixing with some absolutely horribly timed injuries. This was top of mind for Beverley when he was asked about teaming up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on Tuesday after he was formally introduced as a Laker.

“They’re gonna be playing with me,” Beverley said. “I made the playoffs last year, they didn’t. It’s a difference.”

Beverley then changed up his approach when asked about whether or not he has spoken to those two, saying that “I’m glad that we get to play with each other than anything else, I’m excited to see it go on.” As long as the Lakers make the playoffs, our hunch is James, Davis, and everyone else will likewise be excited to see it go on.

This story originally appeared on 08.06.19

Remember Brendan Fraser? 10 years ago, he was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Then, he suddenly disappeared.

If you were a kid in the late ’90s and early ’00s, chances are you saw a Brendan Fraser movie. The comedy and action star catapulted to fame behind blockbusters like “The Mummy” franchise, “George of the Jungle,” “Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” and the Oscar-winning film “Crash.”

But after 2008, he largely disappeared from major starring roles. His absence wasn’t due to drugs, a sex-scandal, or illness — despite memes and even reported articles speculating about his career arc, with many blaming it on poor career choices.

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Fraser revealed in a recent interview that an incident of sexual harassment led him to withdraw from his high-profile lifestyle.

Lately, the actor has gradually returned to more high-profile roles, and in an interview with GQ, he explained that the real reason he stepped back from the spotlight was because of being physically groped by Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

In his own book, Berk admitted to “pinching” Fraser in the buttocks after an event, but Fraser says the incident was much worse. “His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around.”

“I felt ill. I felt like a little kid,” he told GQ. “I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry.”

He said it’s time to speak out, and other male victims of harassment are supporting him.

Berk has called the allegation a “total fabrication” but acknowledges he sent Fraser an apology letter after the incident when the actor complained to the HFPA. Fraser said he tried to bury his feelings about the incident, but he was moved into action after seeing actresses and actors speaking up at this year’s Golden Globes.

“Am I still frightened? Absolutely. Do I feel like I need to say something? Absolutely. Have I wanted to many, many times? Absolutely. Have I stopped myself? Absolutely.”

Despite his reservations, people seem to believe, and be genuinely moved by, Fraser’s claim. Once the target of jokes, Fraser has become a catalyst for moving praise across social media.

All these years and we discover that Brendan Fraser really is the guy you think he is, which means he’s too pure for this world and the world put some scars on him. I love him more than ever now.https://t.co/XGXV8FG5GK

— Geek Girl Diva (@geekgirldiva) February 22, 2018

I love Brendan Fraser and I am so proud of him for speaking his truth. https://t.co/Ev3seJavsf

— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) February 22, 2018

The Brendan Fraser story is a good reminder to always side-eye established, assumed narratives. So many people have been beaten up and spit out by our major institutions, forgotten until we cycle back around to empathy.

— A.B. (@AlannaBennett) February 22, 2018

He’s also earned some public support from actor Terry Crews, who has publicly discussed experiencing a similar incident years ago.

“Brendan is amazingly courageous in telling this,” Crews wrote on Twitter. “His assault experience is extremely similar to mine — ending with the assailant explaining away his actions. One man’s ‘horseplay’ is another man’s humiliation.”

Brendan is amazingly courageous in telling this. His assault experience is extremely similar to mine— ending with the assailant explaining away his actions.

One mans “horseplay” is another man’s humiliation. https://t.co/nNjtmKq5D7

— terry crews (@terrycrews) February 22, 2018

Victims of sexual harassment and assault often face deep shame and fear in speaking out. Speaking out takes courage.

Speaking out after experiencing harassment or assault can be an incredible challenge, often full of personal and professional risk. Though the majority of assaults are against women, men face their own similar challenges in overcoming shame, doubt, and repercussions for coming forward and speaking out. When men like Fraser and Crews speak out, they help clear the path for other men to come forward with their own stories.