Category: News

It should come as no surprise that Texas native Megan Thee Stallion has repurposed her home state’s unofficial slogan for her latest single. In fact, the only surprise is that it took so long for her to make “Bigger In Texas,” considering how much pride she has for her hometown, Houston, and the surrounding territory.

“Bigger In Texas” arrives along with 10 other all-new songs as part of her new album, Megan: Act II. Also included on the new project are a remix of her social media favorite, “Mamushi,” featuring K-pop girl group Twice, and the previously released RM collaboration, “Neva Play.” And while fans weren’t sure about the new collection’s artwork, they’ll almost certainly eat up new collaborations with Flo Milli (“Roc Steady”) and Spiritbox (“TYG”).

The new version of Megan follows a productive year for Thee Stallion, who independently released the original Megan as she completed her Hot Girl Summer Tour along with GloRilla. She also collaborated with Glo a couple of times, first on “Wanna Be,” then on its remix with Cardi B, and most recently on “How I Look,” leading to calls for the duo to consider a collaboration album — calls they appear ready to oblige. Meg also teamed up with Latto and Flo Milli on their “Sunday Service” remix. All that in just 2024 makes you wonder just how much she’ll be able to get done in 2025.

You can watch the “Bigger In Texas” video above.

Megan: Act II is out now via Hot Girl Productions. Find more information here.

Jack Antonoff has been popping up in some unexpected places these days. There’s the production work he did alongside Michelle Zauner for Marvel’s Agatha All ALong on Japanese Breakfast’s pop version of the show’s signature song “ The Ballad Of The Witches’ Road,” there’s the re-imagined version of his band Bleachers’ debut album, and of course, there’s the studio shot with Taylor Swift and frequent Kendrick Lamar collaborator Sounwave. But his latest output finds him on the Great White Way, playing musical director to a new adaptation of Romeo + Juliet starring Rachel Zegler.

Zegler sings and Antonoff plays on the first single from the cast recording, “Man Of The House.” From its opening chords, it’s very clearly an Antonoff production, with slow and steady keys building to a soaring, cheap seat-pleasing ballad. It’ll certainly be fascinating to see how it fits into the show, with Zegler’s Juliet singing it to Kit Connor’s Romeo (I think).

Romeo + Juliet opened at Circle in the Square Theatre tonight, October 24th, and is set to run through February 16th for a strictly limited 20-week engagement — although, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it get an extended run with a new cast after the uber-busy Zegler and Harrington move on. You can find more information about the show here.

Listen to Rachel Zegler and Jack Antonoff’s “Man Of The House” above.

After teasing her new song, “Disease,” earlier this week, Lady Gaga has released the paranoid new song, which follows her Bruno Mars collaboration “Die With A Smile,” and sees her back on track for the rollout to her upcoming seventh album after a detour to promote Joker: Folie À Deux (and its accompanying soundtrack).

Lady Gaga has adapted remarkably well to the “conspiracy theory” era of album marketing, kicking off the rollout for “Disease” by hiding clues in the tracklists of her past releases. By updating the titles of seven songs from Chromatica with lowercase letters, she spelled out the title of the new single, giving fans an epic Easter egg hunt to pique their curiosity and stoke their enthusiasm.

Gaga’s had a busy year so far; while she focused mainly on preparing for the media blitz for Joker, she also found time to rehearse for a huge, elaborate performance at the Summer Olympics in Paris and bring back her Jazz & Piano residency in Las Vegas (which, technically, probably helped out a lot with the Joker soundtrack, which also saw her cover plenty of standards). Now, with her anti-Harley Quinn in the rearview, perhaps her anticipated album will be arriving sooner than later.

You can watch Lady Gaga’s “Disease” video above.

The days of calling Addison Rae a “TikTok star” before any of her other talents are rapidly coming to an end. The release of her new single “Aquamarine” should speed along her acceptance as a true-blue pop star. The song, which arrived today with a gritty but glittery music video, displays her sensibilities, which borrow clubby production from the late 1990s (think “Ray Of Light”-era Cher) and combines them with ethereal vocals (picture prime Enya) for a dance floor burner that evokes the time of the singer’s birth. In the video, she struts the streets of Paris, after a cigarette break, dancing the night away with moves choreographed by veteran dancer Danielle Polanco.

Rae kicked off her musical career in earnest in 2021, with the release of “Obsessed,” which saw her pivot from dancing to singing with a more traditional pop angle. Then, last August, she delved into spacier production styles alongside Charli XCX on “2 Die 4,” reuniting with Charli on the latter’s remix of “Von Dutch” from Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat.

In the meantime, Rae continued to make waves as she branched out from the video-based social media service to signing a multi-picture deal with Netflix.

You can watch the video for Addison Rae’s new single “Aquamarine” above.

The Minnesota Vikings have fallen back to earth after their 5-0 start to the season, losing back-to-back games to the Lions and Rams. That loss to the Rams finished under some dubious circumstances on Thursday night, as Los Angeles, leading 28-20, sacked Sam Darnold in the end zone for a game-winning safety, as they were able to put knees on it to end the game after the free kick.

However, it was very apparent that Byron Young grabbed Darnold by the facemask on the sack, meaning instead of the game being over, the Vikings should’ve moved the ball out to the 20 yard line and had a little bit of life.

In case there was any doubt, Young didn’t even celebrate his sack and grabbed his helmet in frustration because he figured the ref would’ve seen an obvious facemask on the quarterback — who they protect to an insane degree usually. Instead, he got away with an egregious facemask and the Rams were able to not even sweat out a game-tying drive from Darnold and the Vikings.

Now, the likelihood the Vikings came back to win the game was extremely low, as they would’ve needed an 80-yard touchdown drive with 90 seconds on the clock and no timeouts. However, that’s still a chance, and the Minnesota sideline and their fans are understandably furious with the lack of a call. It was bad enough that the NFL didn’t even post the video of the game-winning safety to their social accounts, which is usually a pretty good indicator that there was a big time mistake made by the officials.

It has been about a year since Beyoncé launched her Cé Noir fragrance, which — like most things Beyoncé puts on the market — has been a roaring success. Today, she announced its follow-up, a new fragrance called Cé Lumière. For those who don’t speak French (or took the Beauty And The Beast character’s candlestick transformation less metaphorically), that means “light.”

As such, the fragrance leans in a different direction than its predecessor. According to fragrantica.com, Cé Noir is considered a darker, more mysterious scent, while Cé Lumière is a lighter, brighter fragrance; essentially, “Cé Noir” represents darkness and “Cé Lumière” represents light. To that end, it switches up the original scent, which had “top notes of clementine and golden honey, heart notes of rose absolute and jasmine sambac, and base notes of Namibian myrrh and golden amber,” opting for Madagascar black pepper and Italian mandarin, a heart consisting of jasmine Sambac absolute and rhubarb, and a base of Indonesian patchouli and skin musk.

Cé Lumière is available for pre-order on Beyoncé’s official website in the US and Canada, priced at $160 for a 50 ml Eau de Parfum, with shipping scheduled for November 2024.

You can watch the trailer for Beyoncé’s latest fragrance above.

Piece By Piece, the Lego-animated biopic/documentary about the life and career of Pharrell Williams is out now. Although its box office receipts don’t exactly reflect it, it’s one of the most innovative and interesting examples of the genre, even with a growing number of “weird” biopics on the market. The new music video for its title track is a shining microcosm of the vibrancy of the film, including clips from the movie’s musical sequence highlighting the song and bits and pieces (heh) from throughout its colorful narrative.

The film knows it’s an unusual take on the genre, too, pointing out repeatedly that animating a story — with Lego pieces, no less — is a move most musicians wouldn’t take. Pharrell even went so far as hiding its animated format from some of the interview subjects, like Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar, to ensure they’d give more naturalistic responses. The result is as visually stunning as Pharrell’s production catalog has been for audiences’ ears for the past 20 years — although it does take a few liberties with the facts of Pharrell’s development as an artist and a pitchman. It’s still fun to see little animated details on the Lego avatars of his collaborators, like Lego Snoop Dogg’s little pocket bandana or Lego Gwen Stefani’s painted-on, Rocksteady-era abs. It’s worth checking it out, when you get some time.

In the meantime, you can watch the “Piece By Piece” video above.

The NFL slate rolls along into Week 8, where one of the marquee games on the schedule has a very large asterisk next to it. CBS flexed the Bears-Commanders showdown into their main national window at 4:25 p.m. ET, in hopes of getting Caleb Williams vs. Jayden Daniels. That would be the most interesting game of the week by a decent margin, if we get Daniels in the lineup. He left with a rib injury against Carolina and hasn’t practiced yet this week, with the Commanders hoping to get him back on the field on Friday but no guarantees for him to play. If he plays, that is the most exciting matchup of the week, as the two rookies have their teams above .500 and in the hunt for not just a Wild Card berth, but both are alive in their division races as well. If it’s Marcus Mariota instead of Daniels, the game is still important for the two sides but loses a good bit of its national luster.

With that uncertainty in Washington, we are going to look at the rest of the NFL in Week 8 to identify the games we’ll be keeping a close eye on, as well as a best bet down in the NFC South.

Primetime Game of the Week: Cowboys at Niners (Sunday 10/27, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC)

I don’t like it, but the mix of a not great primetime slate this weekend and the sense of desperation following both of these teams makes Sunday night’s showdown between Dallas and San Francisco fascinating. Usually when they meet, it’s a game with major stakes for winning the NFC, but this time around, the loser is going to find themselves fighting for their postseason lives in the coming weeks. The Niners are remarkably banged up, especially on offense, while the Cowboys seem constitutionally incapable of doing anything on offense. I have no feel for who wins this game, but I do think that this has the potential to be a game where one team runs away with it at the expense of the other.

Sunday Funday Game of the Week: Bills at Seahawks (Sunday 10/27, 4:05 p.m. ET, FOX)

Here’s why this game has the potential to be a blast: One team has Josh Allen, who attempts and completes insane throws every single game. The other team has Geno Smith, who does the exact same thing. This game has the potential to be a good, old-fashioned QB battle between two of the most fearless dudes who line up under center in the league, and I’m especially excited to see what Buffalo’s offense looks like after another week of getting Amari Cooper embedded. We know Seattle is going to put up points, and if the Bills finally have given Allen a WR1 to replace Amari Cooper, they should be able to do the same.

Under the Radar Banger: Eagles vs. Bengals (Sunday 10/27, 1:00 p.m. ET, CBS)

Both teams are coming off of back-to-back wins, and while neither has exactly looked like a Super Bowl contender in either of those games (well, Philly did last week, but it was against the Giants, which, come on), building up a head of steam and banking wins at this point of the year is always good. The big skill position weapons on the respective offenses — Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown, JaMarr Chase, Tee Higgins, etc. — have really started to get going in recent weeks, and at the bare minimum, this one has the potential to turn into a track meet.

Who Won The MVP Last Week: Lamar Jackson

The Ravens offense took a few weeks to warm up but it is humming right now. The combination of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry is working out as well as anyone could’ve hoped, as teams have no idea what to do against Baltimore on defense. Jackson is picking defenses apart in the passing game, going 17-for-22 for 281 yards and five TDs against the Bucs, while Henry seems to rip off a 40+ yard run each week — and totaled 169 yards on the ground against Tampa Bay. Because the MVP has become a QB award, Jackson is again the frontrunner after his play of late, and if the Ravens keep up this pace it’s going to be really hard to justify not giving him his third (and second in a row).

Best Bet (3-4): Falcons vs. Buccaneers OVER 46 (1:00 p.m. ET, FOX)

I am an Under bettor at heart, but this total is startlingly low for an NFC South matchup. The Falcons have played three times in the division and not had a game finish under 50 points. The Bucs have played two NFC South teams and the lowest score was a 36-30 shootout with the Falcons. There’s not a lot of defense that gets played in this division, and both of these offenses can get it rolling in the passing game. I like both teams to reach the mid-20s at least to take this thing Over.

Horror revival king Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus pulled in $350 million globally at the box office, and more Xenomorph action still sits on the horizon. FX TV showrunning wizard Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth TV series will stream on Hulu in 2025, and Romulus should arrive on Hulu in the interim. That might not be enough for the masses when it comes to the so-called “perfect organism,” so a question awaits regarding the interquel story’s future.

Will There Be An Alien: Romulus Sequel?

Probably! Before Romulus released, Facehugger Father Ridley Scott expressed his confidence (to LA Times) in Álvarez’s “streak of brilliance” while adding, “I hope Fede’s got another one up his sleeve because I think this is going to do really well.” And in a new wide-ranging Hollywood Reporter interview, 20th Century studios chief Steve Asbell’s response sounds promising:

“We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, ‘Wow, where do people want to see them go next?’ We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.”

In other words, good things are happening behind the scenes, and hopefully we will see confirmation soon that Cailee Spaeny will return to strike more Ripley poses. That wouldn’t be the best news for those who would like to see David Jonsson as Gus in Industry‘s fourth season, but more of Rain and Andy is absolute nothing to complain about.

Until we hear more, you can catch every Alien movie over on Hulu.

In two years, there will be at least five WNBA stars with their own signature sneaker, as Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu have their own sneakers with Puma and Nike, and A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark have their own signatures coming with the Swoosh as well in 2025. Joining those four in 2026 will be Angel Reese, as the rookie sensation for the Chicago Sky re-signed with Reebok on a new deal that will bring her own signature hoops sneaker to the market in two years.

Reese has already come out with her own off-court apparel and sneaker designs for Reebok, but will now add a signature hoops shoe. The promo images for the announcement blur out the shoe, as we’ll have to wait until closer to launch for an official first look at Reese’s signature shoe.

Reese broke the news on her podcast, Unapologetically Angel, as she talked with Shaq (who is the president of Reebok basketball) about her shoe and the process they’re in of bringing it to life.

Reebok has been steadily building back its basketball business of late, with Reese as a centerpiece and adding some young players on the men’s side earlier this month with Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis, G League prospect Dink Pate, and 5-star high school prospect Nate Ament.