Category: News

Nathan Fillion is coming to defend Joss Whedon, who he has worked with on several projects, including Buffy The Vampire Slayer and the short-lived sci-fi series Firefly. While speaking on the podcast Inside Of You With Michael Rosenbaum, the actor decided to stand up for his frequent collaborator.

Earlier this year, New York Magazine published a lengthy piece about Whedon and his on-set behavior, which has been described as “abusive” and “unprofessional” by multiple actors, including Justice League stars Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot, and Buffy actress Charisma Carpenter, who called the director “hostile” and “cruel.” Whedon denied the allegations, but an investigation was launched.

When asked about Whedon, Fillion responded, “I read that article. That was not my experience with that man.” Fillion then described the director as “funny, self-deprecating, incredibly talented and maybe a little haunted.”

Fillion continued, “I mean, listen, by his own admission that guy’s a work in progress and I appreciate that…I would work with Joss again in a second. I would work with him again in a second.” Most notably, Fillion worked with Whedon on the cult-classic series Firefly, which ran for a single season in 2005. Fillion says he “fantasizes” about bringing the series back, though doing so without Whedon would be “heartbreaking.” It does not seem like the revival will happen any time soon.

(Via Variety)

Better buy your cigarettes now. You’re going to need them after “Herogasm.”

The raunchiest episode of Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys yet contains a “massive supe orgy, airborne penetration, dildo-based maiming, extra strength lube, icicle phalluses, and cursing. It is not suitable for any audience.” But despite the tongue-in-cheek (hint: it’s not the cheeks on your face) warning, showrunner Eric Kripke is shocked with how much they were able to get away with.

“It’s probably one of the more graphic hours of mainstream television that I think anyone will have seen,” he told TVLine. “I think you have to really turn to porn to see things that are more graphic.” (Maybe this is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ backdoor pilot, so to speak, into getting into the porn industry.) While preparing the episode with director Nelson Cragg, Kripke asked himself, “Are we allowed to show all of that?” They were:

“They checked with Standards, and there’s like these hilarious rules about how often you can simulate humping and whether or not you can show an erect penis and how long you can show a private part. There’s all these rules, but we were within the bounds of what the rules were. So the answer was we could show it.”

It’s a shame that “Herogasm” isn’t in the post-Super Bowl slot, or something. I would love to see the unhinged FCC complaints.

The “Herogasm” episode of The Boys premieres on Friday, June 24.

(Via TVLine)

After securing the Democratic nomination to run for South Carolina governor a little over a week ago, former congressman Joe Cunningham has come out swinging at the “geriatric oligarchy” that’s running the country at the state and federal level. That criticism includes Joe Biden who Cunningham would advise to not run for re-election in 2024.

While stopping by CNN’s New Day on Thursday morning, Cunningham defended his “geriatric oligarchy” remarks, which appear in a recent campaign video. The gubernatorial candidate argued in favor of term and age limits on politicians, and when asked directly if that applies to Biden, Cunningham responded, “Yeah, I think we need a new generation of leadership to emerge.”

Via Mediaite:

President Biden told us himself that he was just a bridge. We’re all in a car driving across the bridge and it is time to have the discussion, what is on the other side of the bridge? What does the future look like? I think we need to have a new vision, new leadership. This isn’t about personal about Biden, but he’ll be 82 by the time of the next election. If he served out a second term, he’ll be 86 years old. I’m not sure if any of us know any 86-year-olds who should be running the entire country.

Saying that your own party’s president shouldn’t run again after delivering a massive electoral victory with record turnout is certainly an interesting tactic for Cunningham to take going into his own election. However, in fairness, he’s not the first to voice this concern. Biden’s age has already popped up as a potential factor in the 2024 election. Democratic strategist David Axelrod, who was a senior adviser to Barack Obama, has said that the president’s age could be a “major issue” if he runs for a second term.

That said, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump once before, and if there is a rematch in 2024, Biden might be the only one who can do the job again.

(Via Mediaite)

Despite being in detainment for RICO charges, rapper Young Thug is still receiving accolades. The latest is RapCaviar’s Coach Of The Year award. The Spotify hip-hop playlist is honoring Thug’s decade-plus-spanning career, his founding of YSL, and his knack for elevating younger generations of hip-hop artists.

“Young Thug is a musical icon,” RapCaviar wrote in an Instagram post. “He founded Young Stoner Life Records, helped jumpstart the careers of artists like Gunna and Lil Baby, and has mentored Atlanta rappers like Lil Keed and Lil Gotit. That’s why we’re naming him our 2022 #AllRapCaviar Coach of the Year.”

In addition to Thug’s award, RapCaviar also announced the finalists of their third annual All-RapCaviar team, which reflects the number of each artist’s streams on the platform within the last year. Among the first-team picks are Lil Durk, Kendrick Lamar, Gunna, Future, and Drake. On the second team are Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Lil Baby, Jack Harlow, and Kanye West. The third team is comprised of Nicki Minaj, Latto, Youngboy Never Broke Again, Kodak Black, and Pusha T.

Thug’s upcoming trial is scheduled to take place early next year.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

2022 is rapidly shaping up to be the Summer Of Black Dance thanks to new releases from Drake and Beyonce that tapped into the sounds of early and contemporary house music. While Drake shocked the world with the release of his surprise album Honestly, Nevermind, Beyonce brought the energy with her motivational anthem “Break My Soul,” earning approval from house music pioneer Robin S. in the process. This has prompted an ongoing discussion about the role of Black Americans in the creation of house music and related forms and their place in the current subculture.

One of the ways this discussion has manifested itself is in renewed or increased attention to the works of artists in the space like Kaytranada, Leikeli47, Doechii, and Azealia Banks. Some enterprising fans have even taken to creating mashups of “Break My Soul” with songs by Azealia Banks — a time-honored tradition of the dance music scene.

Unfortunately for those fans, Azealia Banks herself is not having it. The outspoken, often controversial Harlem rapper has never been afraid to upset the apple cart or take aim at sacred cows, and despite no cow being more sacred than Beyonce, Banks risked the Beyhive’s ire to demand fans stop mixing the two artists’ music. “Please for the love of God, stop the ‘Break My Soul’ AB mashups,” she wrote in a post on her Instagram Story. “They are horrible.”

For what it’s worth, the main mashup I was able to find online — which added AB’s verses from “F*ck Him All Night” to Beyonce’s new runaway hit — is highly competent and sounds pretty good, but let’s face it: Azealia Banks has always been a bit of a contrarian (he wrote with as much sarcasm as he could muster). Given that her ongoing and growing list of feuds includes Cardi B, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Megan Thee Stallion, and more, it doesn’t seem that Banks has any qualms about adding yet another fan-favorite media personality to that list.

For two years, college football programs have been tripping over themselves to try and earn the commitment from 2023’s top quarterback recruit Arch Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli who is expected to be the next great from that family.

The quarterback from Isidore Newman in New Orleans is the consensus No. 1 player in the country and has had just about every big program vying for his commitment, with coaches going to great lengths to try and woo him. Ultimately, it seemed to be coming down to a battle between Nick Saban at Alabama and Steve Sarkisian at Texas, with the star taking visits to both programs this offseason.

On Thursday, Manning made his decision official (at least for now), as he’ll turn down Saban for the chance to bring Texas back (again).

It’s obviously a huge get for Texas, which will now place even more pressure on the Longhorns and Sarkisian to get the program back to being a national power once Manning arrives. The star QB will surely reap the benefits of college football’s new NIL structure, as maybe the most well-known recruit in recent memory who happens to share bloodlines with two of the most marketable stars football’s had in the last two decades.

Buried in the daily barrage of bad news and worrying developments in the American experiment these days was a report that one Google employee is worried an artificial intelligence created by the company has become sentient. In a completely unrelated story, Amazon apparently wants its smart devices to sound like a beloved but diseased person in an effort to… make you feel better?

Life in 2022 is hard enough, but on Wednesday Amazon showed off a new feature where its AI voice-activated technology can be trained to mimic an actual human’s voice thanks to a bit of machine learning. At Amazon’s MARS conference, Amazon’s head Alexa AI scientist detailed some features the team has worked on to give more human touches to the robotic voice ordinarily attributed to the device. In an effort to add “human-like empathy,” a video showed a child asking Alexa to read a story at bedtime in the voice of his grandmother. Who is, in this example, dead.

“As you saw in this experience, instead of Alexa’s voice reading the book, it’s the kid’s grandma’s voice,” Rohit Prasad said in the keynote. The scientist noted that “in these times of the ongoing pandemic, when so many of us have lost someone we love” the team wanted to include the feature to bring some of those dead back to life.

“While AI can’t eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last,” Prasad said.

According to The Verge, Amazon didn’t give an indication the feature would ever become widespread, but in theory it would need just a single minute of audio to learn how to mimic a dead person’s voice and make it its own. And while most technology is created with the best of intentions, there is something undeniably creepy about reanimating the voices of the dead. Reading a bedtime story is one thing, but this tech opens up a literal casket full of creepy hauntings, horrible pranks and disturbing opportunities if you pair a certain voice with a certain text.

Amazon would know the market better than I, but most people probably don’t need a dead relative informing them their grocery delivery just showed up on the front porch. You do have to admit, though, this is far more effective at bringing back the voices of the dead than that mummy whose windpipe was 3D printed back into working order.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

[via The Verge]

On Monday, the NBA Draft betting markets saw some major movement regarding Paolo Banchero going No. 1 overall. The former Duke standout moved from 16-1 to under 2-1 in a 24 hour period, as serious steam from big bets pushed his odds to go first on Thursday night.

By Wednesday evening, things had stabilized to have Jabari Smith, once again, as the heavy favorite (-350 at some books) to go first, but when people woke up on Thursday morning, Banchero was suddenly favored at -200, with Smith at +140 at Caesars as of 8:37 a.m. ET. Four minutes later, Adrian Wojnarowski sent this tweet pouring cold water on all that Paolo movement, insisting that Smith-Holmgren-Banchero was going to be the order of the first three picks 12 hours from then.

At that point, books pulled the odds off the board completely — with some refusing to put them back up. When others did return, Smith was as high as -10000 and Banchero back down to +900, but bettors were undeterred, once again hammering Banchero odds.

Now, Smith is -420 and Banchero is +280 at FanDuel (at 12:15 p.m. ET) and the odds have somewhat stabilized again, but it’s clear that some big bettors are holding out some belief that Banchero is going to go No. 1, which doesn’t necessarily mean to Orlando. There are some who think — and this isn’t coming from any major NBA newsbreakers but just some in the betting community — there could be a swap like the Tatum-Fultz deal between Boston and Philadelphia that sees Houston jump to No. 1 to ensure they get their guy in Paolo, with Orlando falling back with the belief that if it’s Chet or Jabari, OKC will take Holmgren and the Magic could possibly add another future pick (or another pick later in the first.

Again, there’s not a lot of smoke there, but considering just about every report indicates the Magic prefer Smith, it’s about the only explanation for the level of steam coming in on Banchero, despite the top NBA newsbreakers regularly saying things like this.

We’ll find out who is right when the Draft begins at 8 p.m. ET, but right now it’s bettors vs. Woj.

Bridgerton might be more famous for its sex scenes than it rightfully deserves to be, especially when it comes to the Duke-less version maintaining momentum in equally effective ways. We’ve already heard from star Jonathan Bailey when he explained that the intimate-type props included a deflated netball. Now, his leading lady, Simone Ashley, has explained more about how the cast prepped for the mood. It’ll remind you a lot of how Ben Affleck’s cucked Deep Water character apparently observed sensual snails to live (and get his rocks off) vicariously.

So now, I’m crossing my fingers for a crossover. Put Affleck in Bridgerton! With a Dunkin’ Cup and everything. This seems like it might work, given that Simone Ashley told The Los Angeles Times‘ The Envelope Podcast (via IndieWire) that observing snail mating was in integral part of her lead-up to Kate-and-Anthony scenes:

“We explored the movement of different animals to kind of portray different paces or different sexualities or how sensual something could be. For example, we look to how snails mate, and when snails mate, they actually produce a plasma that intertwines.”

So if it was a really sensual, slow kind of scene, we’d be like, ‘Oh, it’s like the snail.’ And it’s super like the plasma, like falling like honey. So we would make it about that or how dogs mate or chimpanzees mate — it’s very like fast-paced and a different kind of style.”

Somehow, this makes plenty of sense. And I’m willing to make plenty of logical leaps to get that Deep Water crossover, too. Hell, I already began to lobby for Season 3 to add Jason Momoa because he should (as our own Brian Grubb pointed out) be in everything. And then put the snails onscreen, too. DC stars Affleck and Momoa meet again, with their favorite beverages, Dunkin’ and Guinness. Don’t crush my dreams.

(Via IndieWire)

Donald Trump has never been very good at admitting failure—or admitting anything really—but he’s pretty dexterous when it comes to throwing people under the bus (his own children included). As the world watches and listens to the January 6th hearings, more and more shocking details are emerging about the ways in which the former president attempted to rewrite democracy as we know it. Rather than admit any wrongdoing or attempt to quietly tiptoe away from the public spotlight, Trump is instead blaming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for the circus that Trump and his “dipsh*t” cronies created.

As CNN reports, Trump—who seems to be watching every second of these hearings—has been lashing out at McCarthy to anyone and everyone who will listen. According to one GOP source, his main complaint is that he doesn’t “understand why Kevin didn’t put anyone on the committee.” McCarthy, of course, did have the chance to offer up a list of Republicans to sit on the committee. But when two of his picks, Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, were rejected by Nancy Pelosi, McCarthy pitched a fit and declared that “​​Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.” Pelosi called his bluff. (And Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee, claimed McCarthy was purposely trying to prevent the American public from understanding what happened on January 6.)

Now, SFGATE reports that a pissed-off Trump—who likely overestimates the power of his endorsement (Ron DeSantis doesn’t even want it)—is apparently saying he’ll refuse to endorse McCarthy for Speaker of the House should Republicans regain control.

In an interview with Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman, Trump trashed McCarthy’s decision to boycott the committee, saying that it “would have been very smart” to put Republicans on the committee, even if it wasn’t Jordan or Banks. “We should’ve picked other people,” Trump said. “We have a lot of good people in the Republican party.”

(Via CNN)