Category: News

In 2009, the world was enamored with two major pop culture moments. One was the continued reign that the Twilight movies had over every high schooler who had their parents bring them to Hot Topic to buy a “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob” shirt (they still sell those, by the way). The next major gossip was the fact that Jacob himself, Taylor Lautner, was dating rising country-pop star Taylor Swift while filming the second movie. If those two significant pop culture milestones had overlapped even more, the world would have been a different place. It almost happened!

Chris Weitz, the director of New Moon, recently stopped by The Twilight Effect podcast, hosted by Twilight star Ashley Greene and Melanie Howe, where he dropped a major behind-the-scenes secret about the movie: Taylor Swift wanted to be in it. And she was denied!

Weitz and Swift had the same agent, who asked if he could get the then 19-year-old to be in the popular franchise as an extra. He ultimately decided that it would be too distracting.

Chris Weitz: Taylor Swift and I had the same agent at the time, and he said ‘Taylor would like to be in this movie, not because of you. She will be someone at the cafeteria, or at the diner, or whatever, but she just wants to be in this movie.’ And the hardest thing for me was to be like ‘the moment that Taylor Swift walks onto the screen, for like five minutes nobody is going to be able to process anything.’

Ashley Greene: I didn’t know that.

Melanie Howe: I didn’t know that.

Chris Weitz: I kicked myself for it too, because I was like ‘I won’t be able to hang out with Taylor Swift.’ And I sort of felt like I cost myself a chance to-

Ashley Greene: -to hang out with T. Swift.

Chris Weitz: But sometimes you made decisions for what’s best for the film

At the time, Swift had just released her second album Fearless, and was becoming closer to Lautner. The director thought that having Swift in the movie would take viewers out of the movie. We all know what happens when a pop star enters a universally popular franchise, and it was not surprising that Weitz decided she shouldn’t make a cameo.

The two dated for a few months and broke up shortly after the movie hit theaters. Luckily, Swift parodied the vampire flick on SNL, so we got a taste of what she would be like in the universe alongside Bill Hader. Reboot it, now!

Wednesday isn’t an Addams Family reboot, it’s an “eight-hour Tim Burton movie,” but don’t hold that against it. For one thing, the Netflix series has a fantastic cast, led by Scream and X breakout Jenna Ortega as Wednesday, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia, and the statuesque Luis Guzmán as Gomez. Also, based on the piranha scene in the trailer above, it has the same wicked sense of humor as the wonderful Addams Family movies.

Described as a “sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy,” Wednesday is “something that lives within the Venn diagram of what happened before, but it’s its own thing,” co-showrunner Miles Millar told Vanity Fair. “It’s not trying to be the movies or the ’60s TV show. That was very important to us and very important to Tim.”

That would be Tim Burton, who directed multiple episodes of the series. “He was interested in where it was going, the mystery of the show,” co-showrunner Alfred Gough said about the director’s participation (he’s also an executive producer). “He had a lot of questions about the previous television work we’d done, like how we were able to achieve it. He really loved that you had time to be with Wednesday and explore the character and you didn’t have to, you know, wrap things up in an hour and 45 minutes.”

Wednesday premieres on Netflix later this year.

(Via Vanity Fair)

The hosts of the Rap Radar podcast are still plugging their upcoming episode with Quavo and Takeoff of Migos. While discussing topics like the duo’s recording processes, it seems that they also got to the bottom of a longstanding Migos mystery that has plagued fans since 2017: Why Takeoff doesn’t appear on the group’s No. 1 hit “Bad And Boujee.” While the question has been asked before, Elliott Wilson and Brian “B. Dot” Miller are just higher caliber journalists than Joe Budden and Akademiks, so they were able to get a much more positive response.

In fact, in sharing the clip on Twitter, Wilson seemed to reference the past incident, writing, “Did it look I was too shook to ask the question? Ha.” In the clip, he asks (respectfully), “Was it something about ‘Bad And Boujee’ why you didn’t wanna rap on that beat? Why wasn’t you on that song when it came out?”

This time, rather than popping up to intimidate the questioner, Takeoff left much of the talking to his uncle. “I just think it was just timing,” Quavo replies. “We was just trying to get something out. We was actually pissed off because we ain’t have no music out. I think like a couple months before the whole little wave and we was going through the litigation with 300 [Entertainment, their former label], so we ended up leaking ‘Bad N Boujee’ on SoundCloud first. Sh*t, I wasn’t even gonna be on it. I had to do my verse on some quick fast in a rush sh*t. So it was just like everybody running to the song and trying to get it done.”

So, there you have it. It seems it was all a matter of bad timing and rushing to get the song to market. Sometimes, things just work out, though… “Bad And Boujee” was Migos’ first No. 1 single, making them a household name outside of hip-hop and setting off their pop culture dominance for the next three years. As for whether or not their current duo configuration is temporary or permanent, I suppose we’ll have to wait for the full episode, which drops on August 18.

Arriving on the heels of the critically acclaimed Ms. Marvel, which ended its six-episode run in July, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is the next big Marvel series smashing onto TVs in August. Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany steps into the titular role of Jennifer Walters, a high-powered attorney who finds herself becoming a high-powered superhero after being in a life-changing car accident with her cousin, Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Incredible Hulk. (Mark Ruffalo is on hand to reprise his role as the green Avenger.)

Just like all of the MCU series starting with WandaVision, She-Hulk will exclusively stream on Disney+. However, that’s where the similarities end. Unlike previous Marvel series, She-Hulk will be a fourth wall-breaking sitcom that will run for nine episodes as opposed to the typical six for the MCU shows. The show also moved its release date, and will now premiere on August 18. Episodes of She-Hulk will become available on Thursday instead of Wednesday, which marks a new release strategy for the Marvel series on Disney+.

You can see the full She-Hulk: Attorney at Law release schedule below:

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 1 – August 18
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 2 – August 25
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 3 – September 1
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 4 – September 8
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 5 – September 15
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 6 – September 22
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 7 – September 29
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 8 – October 6
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 9 – October 13

Here’s the official synopsis:

She-Hulk, a new comedy series coming to Disney+, stars Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases. She-Hulk will welcome a host of Marvel characters to the series, including the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and the Abomination, played by Tim Roth.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premieres August 18 on Disney+.

The latest installment of EA Sports’ mega-popular football video game franchise, Madden NFL 23, is just a couple days away from its August 19 release. The game has also turned into a music event in recent years, as the soundtrack has become a venue for premiering new music. Indeed, that’s the case again this year, as EA has announced this year’s soundtrack features a good handful of songs making their debut in the game.

The 39-song tracklist features 14 previously unreleased songs, including “Run It Up” by Bas, “Extra Credit” by Big K.R.I.T., “The Best (TUA Remix)” by Erica Banks, and “Get Some Money’ by Killer Mike. A couple of the new songs — Money Man, Babyface Ray, and Key Glock’s “No Limit” featuring Bleu, and Cordae and Hit-Boy’s “Checkmate” — will only be made available after the game’s launch.

On top of the soundtrack, Hit-Boy also created “33 exclusive beats for the game’s cinematics.” Beyond the new material, the Madden 23 soundtrack will also include familiar favorites from Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Tyler The Creator, and plenty of others.

Check out the full list of songs on the Madden 23 soundtrack below.

Aha Gazelle — “Tear It Down”
Bas — “Run It Up” *
Benny The Butcher — “Remember Me”
Big K.R.I.T. — “Extra Credit” *
Blackway, Aeph, Koko — “Impossible”
Boslen — “Levels”
Cam Wallace — “Energy!”
Charmaine — “Logic (Lucky Charm Freestyle)”
Coast Contra — “505”
Cordae — “Sinister” Feat. Lil Wayne
Cypress Hill — “Hit Em’”
Doechii — “Crazy”
Dreamville with Bas — “Lifestyle” Feat. A$AP Ferg
Earthgang — “Ghetto “Gods
Erica Banks — “The Best (TUA Remix)” *
Gizzle — “One Shot” Feat. BRE-Z *
IMRSQD — “Run It Up”
Joey Badass — “The Rev3nge”
Kendrick Lamar — “N95”
Killer Mike — “Get Some Money” *
King Green — “Cold” *
Kwesi Arthur — “Winning” Feat. Vic Mensa
Lord Afrixana — “Touchdown” *
Malachiii — “Hold Me”
Malachiii — “How To Be A Star” *
Marqus Clae — “Are You Ready” *
Nas — “Meet Joe Black”
Nigo — “Come On, Let’s Go” Feat. Tyler The Creator
OnCue — “Any Given Sunday”
Pap Chanel — “No Biggie” *
Pusha T — “Scrape It Off” Feat. Lil Uzi Vert and Don Toliver
Risqkae — “The Intro” Feat. Rti$ *
Robert Glasper — “Black Superhero” Feat. Killer Mike, BJ The Chicago Kid, and Big K.R.I.T.
Simon Said. and Jazzfeezy — “You Gotta Choose” Feat. Steve Samson *
Snoop Dogg — “Conflicted” Feat. Nas
Symba — “Go Get It” *
Symba — “Put Me In The Game” *
Trev Rich and Wallis Lane — “Whole Team” *
Ty Dolla Sign — “Champions” Feat. Wiz Khalifa
Money Man, Babyface Ray, and Key Glock — “No Limit” Feat. Bleu *^
Cordae and Hit-Boy — “Checkmate” *^

* exclusives and debuts
^ additional tracks with the start of the NFL season

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Since Kanye West discovered Kid Cudi through the latter’s 2008 breakthrough mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, the two have been frequent collaborators, though their friendship has proven tumultuous. Despite the fact that they have been able to resolve past conflicts, Cudi revealed in a tweet this past April that despite recording a track with Ye for the Pusha T album It’s Almost Dry, he chose to end their friendship.

“I am not cool w that man,” Cudi said. “He’s not my friend and I only cleared the song for Pusha cuz thats my guy. This is the last song u will hear me on w Kanye.”

Now, in an interview with Esquire ahead of the premiere of his upcoming animated series Entergalactic, Cudi revealed fans shouldn’t hold their breath for him and Ye to bury any hatchets.

“With all due respect, I’m not Drake, who’s about to take a picture with him next week and be friends again, and their beef is squashed,” Cudi said. “That’s not me. What I say, I mean. I will be done with you. It’s gonna take a motherf*cking miracle for me and that man to be friends again. I don’t see it happening. He gon’ have to become a monk.”

Young Thug is being sued for canceling a concert at State Farm Arena. A-1 Concert Entertainment wants $150,000 after paying a deposit for a 45-minute performance on June 18. Unfortunately, Thug was unable to perform that night because he was incarcerated after being arrested on racketeering charges in May and being denied bond by a judge. A-1 says that after reaching out to Thug’s tour management, YSL Touring, they were promised a refund, but have not received one.

“To date, A-1 Concert has not received any reimbursement of the $150,000 owed to it,” the lawsuit, which was filed last week, states. Suing YSL Touring for the funds owed, the complaint also demands damages and attorneys’ fees.

In May, 28 people including Young Thug, Gunna, and Yak Gotti were charged with 56 counts of conspiring to violate Georgia’s criminal racketeering law, murder, armed robbery, drug possession, and more. Prosecutors allege that they are members of a street gang, Young Slime Life, with ties to the Bloods. Meanwhile, Young Stoner Life, or YSL, is also the name of Thug’s label, and instances of the rappers shouting out YSL in their songs were included as evidence against them, prompting a fierce debate.

Meanwhile, a trial has been set for January 2023.

Elon Musk‘s trolling is not going over well with Manchester United fans. Earlier in the week, the Tesla CEO tweeted that he’s buying the football club, which immediately raised hopes that a new owner might be able to lift Manchester out of its stance at the bottom of the league. The club is currently owned by the Glazer family, who also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and there’s been constant criticism that the American-based family have been reticent to properly invest in Manchester.

However, everyone should know by now that when Musk announces he’s going to buy something, you should take it with a huge grain of salt. In fact, that was the joke he was trying to make, but he clearly biffed the landing.

“No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams,” Musk responded to a Twitter user who asked if he’s serious about the purchase. “Although, if it were any team, it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid.”

According to Reuters, Manchester United fans are not thrilled with Musk toying with their emotions. If you know anything about football clubs, they take their love of their teams very seriously:

“It’s just a tweet from somebody who not always thinking twice before write something (sic),” The Manchester United Fanatics Club Hungary said.

The Kolkata fans club added: “It again reinstated the fact that Elon and his tweets are just gimmicks. Although it would have been great if he really invested 1/10th of what he paid for Twitter to own this legendary club … the entire fan base is sick and tired of the Glazers.”

While Musk cares more about trolling than helping his supposedly favorite team, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are practically the anti-Elons now. The two actors not only followed through on their purchase of Wrexham A.F.C., but they actually filmed the experience for a new reality series on FX.

(Via Reuters)

At the unveiling of bronze statues depicting Breaking Bad characters Walter White and Jesse Pinkman at the Albuquerque Convention Center last month, Vince Gilligan acknowledged the meth-making elephant in the room. The pride of the New Mexico city is “two fictional, infamous meth dealers,” he said, and “no doubt some folks are going to say, ‘Wow, just what our city needed.’ And I get that.”

Gilligan was right: some folks (Republicans) are saying that.

Variety reports that “Albuquerque-based conservative talk radio host Eddy Aragon and Republican state representative Rod Montoya are two public figures condemning the 500-pound statues.” While appearing on Fox News, Montoya said, “It’s not the type of recognition we want for the city of Albuquerque, or for our state.” He added that “what you saw on Breaking Bad should be a documentary, honestly. I think, really, that is the reality in New Mexico. We try to say it’s fictional, but that is the reality… We’ve joked that [Breaking Bad] should be on PBS. That is, unfortunately, the reality.” He also said the statutes are New Mexico “going down the road of literally glorifying meth makers.”

Aragon blasted the state for erecting Breaking Bad statues after it decided to take down a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate, who was the first Spanish governor of New Mexico. “Now we have brand-new statues,” Aragon said. “Now we’re putting fictional characters out in front. We have Jesse Pinkman and, of course, Heisenberg, and we have now erected statues and our progressive mayor from the city of Albuquerque has stood behind them. We’re funding those, so it’s OK to go get rid of real historical figures and now, somehow it’s even better, to [have] fictional, drug-dealing figures.”

Gilligan believes the statues are appropriate because he sees “two of the finest actors America has ever produced,” while Albuquerque mayor Tim Keller has preached the positive economic impact that Breaking Bad has had on the city. Maybe Montoya and Aragon would stop griping if a Kim Wexler statue was erected, too. That’s something everyone, no matter your political beliefs, can enjoy.

(Via Variety)

Earlier this month, the world lost an entertainment icon when Olivia Newton-John died at 73 years old after a decades-long battle with breast cancer. Aside from starring in Grease, one of the most successful and beloved musicals/movies ever, she was tremendously prosperous as a musician; She had a No. 1 album with 1975’s Have You Never Been Mellow and maintained that success into the ’80s, producing some of the era’s most memorable songs, including the chart-topping singles “Magic” and “Physical.”

Now, Coldplay, Natalie Imbruglia, and Jacob Collier have honored Newton-John with a live rendition of a Grease classic.

At Coldplay’s show at London’s Wembley Stadium on August 16, towards the end of the set, Coldplay, Imbruglia, and Collier performed “Summer Nights” (which was a top-5 single in the US in 1978). Chris Martin took on the Danny Zuko/John Travolta role, Imbruglia sang the Sandy Olsson/Newton-John part, and Collier provided backing vocals and additional instrumentation.

The Chicks recently offered their own tribute to Newton-John, covering “Hopelessly Devoted To You” at an August 13 concert. Meanwhile, Coldplay recently incorporated another unusual-for-them cover into their setlist, playing a quick rendition of the viral “Jiggle Jiggle” song.

Watch Coldplay, Imbruglia, and Collier perform “Summer Nights” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.