Category: News

In the wake of animated shows getting slashed and booted by Warner Bros. Discovery, at least one good thing is staying on our screens. Apple TV+’s Central Park is singing its way into a third season that continues a streak of delightful delightfulness.

The show, which features the Central Park-dwelling Tillerman–Hunter family and a lot of original songs, hits the streaming service September 9th. There’s also a major change in the cast. Kristen Bell is back, but not in her original role as Molly, the biracial budding comic book artist. The dilemma there speaks for itself, and Bell has been replaced by Broadway and Umbrella Academy star Emmy Raver-Lampman. Instead, Bell will play Paige’s (Kathryn Hahn) sister Abby.

The rest of the core cast is back, too. Leslie Odom, Jr., Josh Gad, Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs, and Stanley Tucci will be joined by a slew of excellent guest stars Sam Richardson, Ike Barinholtz, Ben Schwartz, Zoë Chao, Ron Funches, Jack McBrayer, Amber Ruffin, Yvette Nicole Brown, Craig Robinson, Tim Meadows, David Alan Grier and more.

They’ll either singing about the splendor of Central Park or about wanting to pave over it and replace it with condominiums. The Emmy and NAACP Image Award-nominated promises over 40 new songs this season as well as Richardson’s interim mayor not knowing what a hot dog is.

Fans should get prepared to say goodbye to Amanda Rollins. As the 24th season of Law & Order: SVU lands September 22nd, it will be Kelli Giddish‘s last, although it’s unclear when exactly her character will bow out. According to The Wrap, Giddish clarified that she was leaving the show in a statement to address some internet rumors.

“I wanted to address the chatter I’ve seen online and let everyone know that this will, indeed, be my last season on Law & Order: SVU. Playing Rollins has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life. I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of the Law & Order family for the last 12 years. There is simply no other character on TV like Rollins. She’s grown and changed, and I have as well. I started on this show when I was in my late 20s and I’m grateful I got to spend so many of my adult years with Rollins in my life,” Giddish said. She went on to thank Dick Wolf, her castmates, and the crew.

The latest season is part of an ambitious launch of the enduring cop procedural’s extended universe. The flagship show, SVU, and Organized Crime are returning with a 3-hour cross-over event involving all the major teams. It’s a gutsy move, and now we know the season will also include a farewell to a mainstay. Giddish’s exit leaves a Rollins-shaped hole in the show. If Christopher Meloni comes back full time because she’s leaving, it will prove that history rhymes. Fortunately for fans, Ice-T will never, ever leave.

(via The Wrap)

Back in 2015, the Austrian psychological horror film Ich Seh Ich Seh (Goodnight Mommy) made a sizable impact because its trailer went viral. Even Austria didn’t care about the film until then, but when people started calling it the “scariest trailer of all time,” the entire world took notice. To be fair, it’s an incredible film, and its trailer was built from whispering twins, strange masks, a cockroach placed on their mother’s face, and a whole lot of atmosphere.

Now that the long-gestating American remake is heading to Amazon Prime September 16th, it’s gotten a very Americanized trailer which shows just about everything.

A non-spoilery synopsis would point out that the new Goodnight Mommy stars Naomi Watts as a woman who returns to an isolated home after having facial reconstructive surgery, but her twin boys (Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti) begin to suspect that she’s not actually their mother. The remake was written by Kyle Warren, in what will be his first feature film produced, and directed by Matt Sobel, who won decent acclaim for the tense family drama Take Me To The River.

The trailer for the new version is also undeniably creepy, even as it flashes some clear third act sequences. Watts dancing sensually in a full face of specialty gauze is its own special brand of unsettling, and it arrives just in time for Halloween costume planning time. Where can we get gauze in bulk?

According to Deadline, Miss Juneteenth star Nicole Beharie is set to join the cast of The Morning Show as a lead for its third season. She’ll star alongside Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, providing a Millennial-aged foil to the two Gen Xers at the news desk. Apple TV+ describes her character, Christina Hunter, as a “grounded, competitive and charismatic millennial” who “works hard, plays hard, and navigates the Teacup with good-humored irreverence.” For a show that’s all about public persona as a currency of power, they’ve set up a beautiful clash between the generations, vying for different kinds of eyeballs.

Beharie will also be seen in the upcoming John Boyega drama Breaking, as well as the Sundance favorite Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Jon Hamm is also joining the Morning Show team as “corporate titan” Paul Marks. In other words, he’ll be a string-puller who tosses monkey wrenches into the works in order to get his whimsical way. Hard to beat Hamm in a role like that.

This is a solid pair of actors providing fresh blood for a series that already has an absurd amount of talent on screen and behind the camera. The third season is currently filming.

(via Deadline)

Rejoice! As our patron saint Nicole Kidman has foretold, movies are magic, and the teaser trailer for Empire of Light testifies to that eternal truth. Sam Mendes‘ first film after 1917 features a dreamy cast, a cinema-celebrating vibe, the gorgeous visuals of Roger Deakins, and a likely-flawless soundscape from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Did you want an official synopsis? Sure thing:

“Set in an English seaside town in the early 1980s, Empire of Light is a powerful and poignant story about human connection and the magic of cinema.” That human connection is between characters played by Oscar winner Olivia Coleman and BAFTA winner Michael Ward. The other humans in the film include Oscar winner Colin Firth and Toby Jones. Empire of Light, which will see theaters for a limited award-qualifying run on December 9th, will play at the BFI London Film Festival on October 12th, which is when we can expect reviews to pop up.

There’s no doubt this is going for Oscar glory. The cast, the prestige behind the camera, and the release date all speak to high hopes with the Academy. Plus, AMPAS loooooooves movies about movies, so this thing was basically constructed in a lab to please the voters. Beyond awards hope, Empire of Light simply looks like a gorgeous romance that demands a darkened room and a very big screen.

Charli XCX found herself on the surprising side of a movie review earlier this month when Lena Wilson expressed her disdain for the comedic horror film Bodies Bodies Bodies. Among many other critiques, the New York Times writer stated that the movie doubled as a 95-minute advertisement for cleavage, as well as promotion for the “Hot In It” artist’s new single “Hot Girl (Bodies Bodies Bodies).” Charli XCX could not help but fire back.

In a TikTok posted Wednesday afternoon, the pop singer used the green screen feature to show the paragraph where her song is mentioned, and then autotuned her voice while she said “I don’t know what’s going on and I simply don’t wanna know.”

This isn’t the only backlash Wilson has received, as Newsweek reports she deleted all her social media after a spirited exchange with actress Amandla Sternberg. Last week, Sternberg contacted Wilson over Instagram DM, telling her, “Ur review was great, maybe if you had gotten ur eyes off my tits you could’ve watched the movie.” Wilson ended up leaking the messages and claiming homophobia, which only wound up backfiring.

Check out Charli XCX’s TikTok above.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of a few teams that are still looking to make roster upgrades with a month to go until training camp begins, and with the Kevin Durant saga over (for now), teams are going to be a bit more willing to make moves and fill up roster spots.

On Wednesday night, word broke late that the Lakers had made their first trade of the offseason, but one that doesn’t seem likely to be their last, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported they were finalizing a deal to send Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson to Utah for Patrick Beverley, who joined the Jazz in the Rudy Gobert trade from Minnesota last month.

Beverley will give L.A. the defensive-minded point guard they desire on a roster without that right now, and one would think this is a precursor to a deal that sends Russell Westbrook out. For one, Beverley and Westbrook have a rather long history of not liking each other, but the fact that the Lakers clear an additional roster spot, dropping down to 13 by sending Horton-Tucker and Johnson out and only taking Beverley back, means they can more easily add multiple players for Westbrook (which is necessary given his massive contract).

We’ll see if that’s the long-rumored deal with the Pacers that would bring Buddy Hield and Myles Turner to L.A., or if there’s another Westbrook suitor out there, but this is the first real indication that the Lakers have traction on an offseason plan to reshape the roster beyond minimum signings. Beverley, to his credit, manifested this back in May when he went on ESPN and said the Lakers were his top destination if he weren’t on the Wolves — and claimed his presence alone would’ve gotten L.A. to the playoffs last year.

Back in January of 2021, Mitch McConnell made a huge mistake: He ensured that Donald Trump could run for president a third time, even after Jan. 6, whose blame he put at his feet. Ever since then, Trump has been tearing the House minority leader a new one, early and often. Over the weekend, Trump went after his wife, Elaine Chao, who was even a member of his administration. A few days later, McConnell responded. Sort of.

In one of his increasingly lengthy and unhinged Truth Social posts, Trump began by tearing into McConnell, calling him a “hack politician” who “openly disparage[s] hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate.” He was referring to McConnell’s worries that all the doofus candidates Trump has supported, including Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker, may wind up costing the GOP a Senate flip. He then accused him of spending more time “helping his crazy wife and family get rich on China!”

Chao was actually a member of Trump’s administration, serving as his Transportation Secretary. She resigned in protest of the Capitol riot, which surely made him hate McConnell all the more.

During a press conference Tuesday, a reporter asked McConnell if he cared to comment, to return fire, to maybe even denounce Trump as not only a potentially jail-bound crook but also a jerk who besmirched his wife’s name. Instead, McConnell simply responded, “No.”

It wasn’t a simple “no.” It was so dripping with contempt you could drizzle it over pancakes. It’s the McConnell seen on the floor of the Senate after the Capitol riot had quelled and lawmakers could finally return to doing their duty, free of the likes of QAnon Shaman and the influencer who though she wouldn’t serve time because she was “white.” (She later served time.) In some ways it said more than McConnell ever could have put into words. In other ways, words would have helped more.

(Via The Hill)

After a rather stunning blowout in Game 2 that saw the Dallas Wings even their first round series with the Connecticut Sun at 1-1, the series shifted to Texas for a winner-take-all Game 3.

Both teams had travel issues on their way to Dallas, requiring charters from the league just to get in town with a day to spare, but with only 14 people able to take those charters each, Connecticut hadn’t practiced at all until shootaround on Wednesday morning due to a lack of personnel and equipment. Early on, it looked like both teams were shaking off some rust, as neither offense could really get much going in what was a low-scoring game throughout.

The Wings would take a four-point advantage after the first quarter, finding success attacking the rim early — but those lanes would soon be closed off.

Connecticut would tie things up at halftime in a low-scoring, 34-34 affair that saw both teams struggling to find a rhythm, although Natisha Hiedeman and Marina Mabrey would provide some rare three-point makes for both teams in the second.

The third quarter saw the Sun start to gain their footing, with the Wings simply not having the size to deal with Dewanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones, Brionna Jones, and Alyssa Thomas on the boards, as those four players piled up 30 combined rebounds, which was more than the entire Wings team had combined. Part of the issue for the Wings inside was losing Isabelle Harrison to an ankle injury after she went down in the second quarter and had to be helped off the floor.

From that point on, the Sun dominated inside on both ends and after a terrific Game 2 off the bench, Teaira McCowan was unable to find that same level of effectiveness for Dallas in Game 3. Bonner led the way with 21 points for the Sun, with Thomas adding 13 points and Jones and Hiedeman providing 11 points each in the win. The Sun weren’t spectacular offensively, shooting just 35.5 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from three, but their defense truly was something to behold, as they forced 18 turnovers and held the Wings to a nearly identical poor shooting night, and pounded the glass with 16 offensive boards to consistently give themselves second-chance opportunities.

Dallas simply could not deal with the length and activity of the Sun’s defense, and even bringing Arike Ogunbowale back briefly off the bench in the third quarter couldn’t stop Connecticut from pulling away. The fourth quarter saw Dallas show some fight and keep things fairly respectable, but they never mounted a true charge. The most interesting part of the quarter was some jawing between Marina Mabrey and DiJonai Carrington that earned them both technical fouls to the delight of Ja Morant, who was seated courtside and was thoroughly enjoying the on-court chatter.

Ultimately, the Sun cruised to a 73-58 win, building some confidence in the process after there were surely some lingering doubts after getting knocked out as the 1-seed a year ago in their first series and finding themselves in a win-or-go home situation again (in a new round one format).

Connecticut will now head to Chicago to face the 2-seeded Sky in a Best of 5 semifinal series for the right to go to the WNBA Finals, where either the Storm or Aces will be waiting. The Sun will need to find their shooting stroke again if they’re to dispatch the defending champs, but they will certainly feel good about where they’re at as a unit on defense coming out of this game.

For Dallas, they head to the offseason with some positive vibes for the first time since the franchise moved to Dallas, as they won their first playoff game in 13 years in Game 2 and finished with their first .500 season since moving from Tulsa. They’ll hope that better health and a few tweaks to the roster can get them back in the playoff hunt next year, with designs on a run beyond the first round.

It is one thing to write a song about someone; it’s another to perform said song with them present in one of the most legendary arenas in the world. Olivia Rodrigo can now lay claim to that honor after joining Billy Joel onstage Wednesday at his Madison Square Garden show to perform her hit “Deja Vu” (as well as Joel’s classic “Uptown Girl”).

It is a surreal moment for Rodrigo, as “Deja Vu” is about how she introduced someone to the extremely, extremely, extremely popular music of Billy Joel. She sings lines like “I’ll bet that she knows Billy Joel ’cause you played her ‘Uptown Girl’” and “Play her piano, but she doesn’t know that I was the one who taught you Billy Joel.” The pop star was clearly elated when she entered the stage, telling him, “Thank you so much for having me, Billy. I’m such a huge fan. And, uh, I kind of wrote this next song about you.”

Rodrigo has had a very big last two years, with her 2021 debut album Sour playing host to three separate hits, namely “Deja Vu,” “Driver’s License,” and “Good 4 U.”

Check out the video of Rodrigo and Joel performing together above.