Category: News

So far, Beyoncé has offered plenty of ways to enjoy “Break My Soul,” whether it’s via the original version, one of the four remixes from the EP, or the Madonna-featuring “Queens Remix” of the song. After the latter version came out, Madonna got a nice gift from Beyoncé.

Yesterday, Madonna took to her Instagram Story to show off a note from Beyoncé, accompanied by some flowers. The message reads, “Thank you, Queen. I’m so grateful for you. You have opened so many doors for so many women. You are masterpiece genius. Thank you for allowing me to sing in your song and thank you for naming the remix!!!! Love always and forever, B.”

Madonna wrote on the post, “thank you!! from one [queen] to another [queen]. I love the Re-Mix! @beyonce.” She also shared another photo showing off the massive bouquet of white flowers.

As for the part of Beyoncé’s message about “allowing me to sing in your song” despite this being a remix of her own song, that’s a nod to the remix sampling Madonna’s “Vogue.”

The “Queens Remix,” true to its name, shouts out a number of prominent female musicians past and present, some of whom offered reactions to the nods.

Check out Madonna’s posts below.

The Detroit Lions drafting Aidan Hutchinson with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft seemed like a perfect match, as Detroit needed a potential pillar along its defensive line and Hutchinson was the Heisman Trophy runner-up less than an hour away at the University of Michigan. While that didn’t quite happen — the Jacksonville Jaguars got the top pick — Detroit was still able to get their man with the second pick.

Hutchinson projects to be a potentially special player in the league, and as we learned on Tuesday night, he’s a pretty good entertainer, too. The latest season of Hard Knocks debuted on HBO, with the Lions at the center of the show. One scene got teased by Adam Schefter of ESPN as possibly “the most entertaining rookie singing moment in show history,” and we’ll be honest: it lived up to the billing.

Here is the video, in which Hutchinson sings Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” during a team meeting and gets so into it that the entire team starts singing and dancing along.

Kudos to Hutchinson for doing such a good job that it was impossible for the entire room to not join in on the fun. The Detroit Lions got themselves a good one, both as a defensive lineman and as a bringer of incredibly good vibes.

Technically, the Golden Globes happened this year, as they have since 1944. They just weren’t on television, for the first time since a Writers Guild strike caused its on-air cancellation in 2008. After years of criticism about, among other things, a lack of diversity and corruption. They promised they would clean up their act, in the hopes that they’d be welcomed back to the airwaves. And now it appears it’s (probably) worked.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group behind the Globes, are in talks with NBC about getting them back on the small screen. Things will be a bit different, though. Traditionally the ceremony airs on a Sunday in January. But some of the January Sundays in 2023 are already booked, by New Year’s Day, by the NFL’s last game of the season (Jan. 8), and by Critics Choice Awards (Jan. 15). So they’ll likely be moving to Jan. 10, a Tuesday.

That said, Deadline reports one source saying it’s “not a done deal.” So hang onto your horses.

The Globes have often been founts of unflattering news. Ricky Gervais went from a (mostly) enjoyably venomous host to a crank who clearly didn’t want to be there anymore. (He still wouldn’t mind returning, with some conditions.) Funnily enough, the last time he hosted was also the last time it aired, so maybe it’s fate. Then there’s the virtual 2021 iteration, which featured such exciting sights as nominees Jeff Daniels recording from what looked like a spare room in his house to Al Pacino appearing to take a nap.

Hey, you know how baseball pants have pockets in them? And you know how players will usually shove their batter’s gloves or, like, some sunflower seeds or something into them and go about their duties as a baseball player. Well on Tuesday night, Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Rodolfo Castro decided to bravely ask the question “can I play the great game of baseball with my cell phone in my pocket?”

It is certainly possible Castro has asked that question in the past, but during Tuesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Castro’s phone straight up fell out of his pocket. Castro drew a walk in the top of the fourth, then scooted over to third when the next batter, Oneil Cruz, hit a single into center field. He needed to slide into third and went in head-first, and apparently, doing this made the cell phone that he had in his back left pocket fall out.

This is, assuredly, not something that anyone thought would happen when the game of baseball was invented more than a century ago. It raises the question of why did Castro have a cell phone in his pocket while he was playing, but it seems safe to assume we’ll get an answer to that at some point in the near future.

The Breakfast Club is a popular New York-based hip-hop podcast hosted by Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha God, and DJ Envy. It’s been drawing in a large audience since its inception in 2010, but now it seems like something is going to change.

Yee made an ominous tweet on Tuesday, writing, “The breakfast club as you know it is officially over.” Closing the post with the emoji of hands making a heart makes it less eerie, but fans are wondering what this means about the future of the show. Whether The Breakfast Club is ending or just making changes is unclear.

The Breakfast Club has not been without drama. Earlier this year, DaBaby used his time on their platform to defend himself from accusations of homophobia. “I didn’t mean what you think I meant,” he said. “What you want me to do? Go look myself in the mirror and say, ‘You don’t like gay people?’ Nah. I’m not trippin’ on gay people at all. If I said what I said to get people to raise they cell phones and it was misinterpreted by people who watch a five-second clip at home. You not supposed to understand what’s going on. You could raise your cell phone if you wanted to. You ain’t supposed to be able to digest a clip that’s been altered and shortened with a narrative to go along with it, with enough people driving it, it gonna do what it do.”

The 2021-22 season was a disaster for the Los Angeles Lakers in virtually every way. Despite the presence of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers floundered to a 33-49 record and posted the No. 22 offense in the NBA on a per-possession basis. Some of that downturn can be attributed to James and Davis missing almost 70 games combined but, even when the stars were on the floor together, things did not click in Los Angeles. With a new head coach in place in Darvin Ham, changes are on the horizon and, on Tuesday, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports shed light on a recent meeting between the powers that be in Los Angeles.

Though the meeting took on a number of subjects, one of the more interesting revelations from Haynes was that Ham “said one wrinkle he will implement and stick with is having the offense run through Anthony Davis, and James concurred.” Davis missed more than half of the 2021-22 campaign and struggled with his jump shot, but Yahoo’s reporting indicates the belief that Davis will be able to carry a heavier load on the offensive end. In theory, that would also take some pressure off James as he adds another year of wear and tear to his body.

At the same time, it may be hard to envision James operating as the No. 2 option on any court, and there may be a balance to find between Davis being the clear go-to option and keeping James engaged. Perhaps a clear stagger of the two superstars might accomplish that, but Haynes also reports that the Lakers are “also hopeful for a corner-3 shooting percentage bump from Russell Westbrook next season.” Westbrook has been a topic of consternation for months in Los Angeles and, at the very least, it will be interesting to see if Ham can get him to buy in to that kind of role in conjunction with Westbrook improving his shooting efficiency.

The Lakers are always an object of fascination in the NBA world, and that will be the case this season. Having Davis and James healthy is a strong starting point, but the work on the margins will also be interesting, even if Ham and James seemingly agree on the broad approach to lean on the younger star a bit more this season.

Perhaps, if anything, Cecily Strong underplays when she plays Judge Jeanine Pirro. The Fox News personality is known for her epic on-air meltdowns, where she seems to enter some fugue state as she works herself up into a discombobulating mess. Even a seasoned pro like Strong can’t touch the real deal. On Tuesday, Pirro had one of her best blow-ups yet.

Since the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on Monday, Fox News has been pretty much 24/7 screaming fits. Everyone’s angry that the feds are formally investigating the potential criminal activity of former president Donald Trump. And even though exactly what authorities are searching for has yet to be revealed — it has something to do with the 15 boxes of classified material he lugged down to Florida after leaving the White House in disgrace — that hasn’t stopped commentator after commentator from blowing their gasket.

On Tuesday’s episode of The Five, it was Pirro’s turn. “You do NOT — You do NOT breaking into a house of a guy that you’ve been working with for nine months, that you have to admit has been cooperating with you, for presidential records? No!” she shouted into the camera, barely able to stay in her chair.

“You do not do that and have guys with AR-15s — and women, I might add — at the front of Mar-a-Lago, in a situation like this where the man’s about to announce for president, if he’s going to run for president!” she continued. She then speculated about representing Trump:

“But if I were the lawyer, the first thing I’d say is [she then pointed a stern finger at the camera], ‘As a citizen of the United States, I want to know from the Department of Justice why you’re doing this? I want to know from the FBI whether or not this is legitimate, because everything you’ve done regarding Donald Trump has been illegal, illegitimate, and amoral, and the country knows it. And you have destroyed our faith in the justice system!’”

One of Pirro’s co-hosts tried to get a word in edge-wise, but she had one last hurrah: “And it’s not Donald Trump’s fault! It’s their fault!”

Was it as funny as Jesse Watters, right after the news broke, grasping at straws like a sweaty octopus, reaching for any and all conspiracy theories to defend Trump? Was it as beautiful as Marco Rubio declaring that the FBI was punishing political opponents, only to have people remind him he was fine with them doing that with Hillary Clinton? It’s for each of us to decide for ourselves.

Tuesday, August 9 would’ve been the late rapper King Von‘s 28th birthday. In honor of the hip-hop icon, his estate has unveiled a music video, “Get It Done,” featuring OMB Peezy from his posthumous album What It Means to Be King.

Directed by 20K Visuals, it follows other posthumous videos, like “Don’t Play That,” “Too Real,” “Demon,” “Armed & Dangerous,” “Mine Too,” and “Wayne’s Story.” As per usual, the “Get It Done” video has lots of fire, strobes, cash, and scenes with cars. Mostly it watches King Von and OMB Peezy rapping alongside one another.

In Uproxx‘s 2020 interview with King Von, which was conducted just days before he was killed, the rapper discussed the making of his music videos. “It be fun when you putting together the ideas but then when it’s time to make it, I be mad as hell, that I put together all this,” he said. “It’s tiring, man. We would get it out in one day. Sometimes it would drag over to the next day, if that was the plan, but if it was that day, we would just punch the hours in. We out five o’clock in the morning damn near.”

Watch the video for “Get It Done” above.

If you think the American wing of Trump World has lost their minds over the FBI searching Mar-a-Lago (and boy, have they), you clearly haven’t been watching Russian state television. The Daily Beast has, and they’re making the likes of Jesse Watters, Lauren Boebert, and Rudy Giuliani look like amateurs.

Russian State TV has long been virulently pro-Trump (and pro-Tucker Carlson, of course). On Monday night various shows were praising CPAC for sticking by their favorite U.S. president even as Fox News has threatened to decamp for Ron DeSantis. Then the feds arrived at the resort where Trump now resides. Tuesday night’s news broadcasts went all-in, repeating some of the more outlandish takes from most hysterical sections of MAGA-land, and throwing in some bald exaggerations about “one hundred FBI agents” as well.

Take Russian 60 Minutes. Appearing on Tuesday’s show, military expert Igor Korotchenko — who’s straight-up called for Putin to support Trump should he run in 2024 — called the FBI search a “witch hunt,” “worse than McCarthyism,” and a “symbol of inordinate despotism.”

On the same broadcast, Evgeny Popov, deputy of Russia’s State Duma and a self-avowed “friend” and “protégé” of Trump, offered a little theory on why Trump received a visit from the feds. “As soon as Donald Trump complained that Biden was the worst president in the history of the United States, which is fast becoming a third world country, there was a knock on Donald’s door: “Knock-knock, this is the FBI!” (Biden has claimed to have had no knowledge of the search and learned about it along with everyone else.)

Popov also had the stones to cry about the persecution of dissidents. “Biden, with his dictatorial tendencies, repressions, and persecution of dissidents, is turning America into Ukraine,” he bellowed. “He already did that, since the opposition is being persecuted by authorities.” Popov then fantasized about Florida seceding from the U.S.

Meanwhile, on Full Contact With Vladimir Solovyov, its host rhapsodized about the potential for violent conflict in the United States. “Could this be the beginning of a civil war?” he mused. “This is totally unprecedented, I don’t remember anything like this in American history. If Trump calls on his supporters to come out—and half the states are led by Trump’s allies — there’ll be hell to pay.”

Correspondent Valentin Bogdanov, speaking from New York City, weighed in, saying, “The civil war is already underway in the United States. For now, this is a cold civil war, but it keeps heating up.”

Then again, Russian State TV isn’t the only one going to such hysterical lengths. Talk of a civil war is all the rage on Trump’s rinky-dink Twitter clone.

You can read more about the madness at The Daily Beast.

Red Rocks in Denver, Colorado is known as one of the world’s most beautiful concert venues, but looking at pictures it’s not hard to notice that it’s probably not great for accessibility. Cushioned between massive natural rocks and full of steps, the amphitheater is not easy to navigate. However, the venue is now under fire for allegedly overcharging for wheelchair-accessible seats, as reported by 9 News.

The U.S. Justice Department announced on Monday that it settled a lawsuit against the City and County of Denver, Red Rocks, and concert promoters Live Nation, AEG, and PBS12 over this controversy. The discrimination claim was under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). There are 121 wheelchair-accessible seats available for Red Rocks events, but, according to The Justice Department, between 2018 and 2020, “concertgoers who used wheelchairs, and their guests, were charged $47,950.90 more for those seats than was permitted by ADA regulations.”

By setting yesterday, Denver has agreed to set aside that amount — $47,950.90 — to refund those who’ve spent money on wheelchair seats. “Red Rocks is an iconic concert venue, and people with disabilities who attend events and watch their favorite bands there should not be unfairly overcharged for wheelchair-accessible seating,” U.S. Attorney Matt Kirsch stated in a news release. “This agreement reflects our commitment to enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires equal treatment for people with disabilities.”