Category: News

Jason Mantzoukas has graduated from playing Tommy Lee’s penis on Hulu’s Pam & Tommy to playing Dionysis, god of wine on Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Variety reported several casting announcements for guest stars on the series based on Rick Riordan’s popular book series, including Mantzoukas. Megan Mullally of Will & Grace fame will Alecto/Mrs. Dodds, Percy’s strict math teacher. Mantzoukas will play Dionysus/Mr. D., the “irritable and sarcastic” wine god who runs Camp Half Blood, a camp for demigods. Walker Scobell is set to play Percy Jackson, and lead the show with co-stars Aryan Simhadri and Leah Jeffries. The Percy Jackson series is a separate entity from the film franchise including Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (2010) and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013). The film series starred Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson and Alexandra Daddario.

Variety also reports that Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, and Timm Sharp are set to recur on the Disney+ series. Disney describes the Percy Jackson series as “the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Now Percy must trek across America to find it and restore order to Olympus.”

There is no release date yet, but the casting announcements indicate that production is nigh, so we can probably expect the series to premiere sometime in 2023.
(Via Variety)

Earlier this year, David Crosby found himself in the news after he joined the Neil Young-started wave of artists taking their music off of Spotify due to issues with Joe Rogan. Back in the day, though, he may have been similarly raging against technologies like fire and the wheel. No, that’s not a jab at the 80-year-old musician’s age, but a joke about the reason he was trending on Twitter this afternoon.

First, some context: according to IFLScience, in 2019, an exhibition at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery’s Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery showed off facial reconstructions of ancient people who lived near what is now England. One of them, known as the Stafford Road man, is believed to have lived around the year 550 during the Anglo-Saxon period.

Well, one of those Stafford Road renders was shared on Twitter recently and a lot of music fans who saw it came to the same conclusion: The image looks a heck of a lot like Crosby. That was such a popular opinion, in fact, that Crosby ended up trending on Twitter. Crosby, an active Twitter user, has yet to respond to being compared to the Stafford Road render.

Check out some tweets about the Crosby/Stafford comparison below.

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

Yesterday, the jury in the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation trial voted in favor of Depp, whom Heard alleges abused her during their marriage. Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in his defamation suit, while Heard will receive $2 million in compensatory damages. Although the jury found Heard guilty of defamation, the actress isn’t giving up the fight.

Speaking to Savannah Guthrie on Today per Deadline, Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft said that the actress “absolutely” wants to appeal the jury’s decision. The jury was not sequestered throughout the trial, although they were strongly encouraged not to read news about the trial or go on social media.

“She has some excellent grounds for it,” Bredehoft said of an appeal. “She was demonized here. A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it caused the jury to be confused.” In the United Kingdom in 2020, the court ruled against Depp after he sought a judgment against the publication The Sun because it referred to him as a “wife-beater.” When asked if Heard can afford to pay Depp the millions of dollars in damages Bredehoft said, “Oh no. Absolutely not.”

Following the verdict, Heard posted a statement on social media. “The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,” she wrote.

Bredehoft suggests that the jury’s accessibility influenced their decision in favor of Depp. “They went home every night. They have families. The families are on social media,” she said. “We had a 10-day break in the middle because of a Judicial Conference. There’s no way they couldn’t have been influenced by it, and it was horrible. It really, really was lopsided. …It was like the Roman Colosseum, how they view this whole case.”

(Via Deadline)

Those dang Looney Tunes are at it again! Though this time, instead of dropping anvils on each other, they are getting their own NFTs. Who wants a Looney Tune NFT? Who knows!

Warner Bros. is teaming up with Nifty for the project, which is dubbed “Looney Tunes: What’s Up Block?” Honestly, the name is pretty clever, though also very corny. Tweety, the brand’s iconic yellow bird with many enemies, will now be among the Bored Apes of the NFT world. The NFT comes just in time for Tweety’s 80th birthday, which is conveniently the same age as someone who has no idea what an NFT is. Other Looney guys to be immortalized in NFT form will be Bugs Bunny and Marvin The Martian, with more to be announced later.

Josh Hackbarth, head of NFT Commercial Development for Warner Bros, told The Hollywood Reporter: “Looney Tunes is not afraid to make fun of itself, or the broader pop culture as a whole. It will be a bit tongue in cheek with how we are playing with blockchain technology, but what is more exciting is that we can use that to bring people into a new space to play.” That’s one way to look at it! Here’s another way.

Hackbarth added “We think that blockchain and NFTs and web3, in general, is going to be a great evolution in entertainment,” says Josh Hackbarth, head of NFT Commercial Development for Warner Bros. “It doesn’t need to be really deep, deep storytelling, it is about gags and gimmicks and really recognizable characters, so it was a fun one to dig into.” We all know those Tunes love their gimmicks.

The New York Knicks are expected to try and shake things up on their roster this summer, with very few players, if any, guaranteed to be on the roster next season as trade rumors swirl. At the top of their to-do list is finding a new starting point guard, as that position has remained a problem spot for years and is the biggest area of need.

The player the Knicks have been connected to most often is Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson, who had a terrific postseason to cement himself as one of the top free agent guards set to hit the market. Brunson has a connection to the Knicks through his father Rick, who played in Newy York in the late 90s and has worked with Tom Thibodeau in the past, and that has only further stoked rumors he could choose to bolt Dallas for the Garden this summer. Those rumblings certainly won’t be going away anytime soon, even as reports indicate the Mavs are prepared to offer whatever is needed to keep him, after a report from SNY’s Ian Begley emerged on Thursday that Rick Brunson is joining the Knicks coaching staff as an assistant.

The Knicks are finalizing a contract with Rick Brunson to become an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff, SNY has learned. Brunson, a nine-year NBA veteran, has been an assistant coach under Thibodeau in Chicago and Minnesota. The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming days, per people familiar with the matter.

As Begley notes, Brunson, who has most recently been the head coach at Camden High School in New Jersey, has been an assistant for Tom Thibodeau on two separate occasions in Chicago and Minnesota, and will fill the vacancy left behind by Kenny Payne, who took the Louisville head coaching position earlier this year. As such, it’s not solely a play for Jalen to come to New York, as Thibodeau turning to a familiar face isn’t a shock, but the timing will certainly perk people’s ears up and it does feel an awful lot like when a player’s parent gets hired during the recruiting process at the college level.

What one does wonder is if Jalen wants to play for his father or not, as it’s not a guarantee this is something that would be a draw for the young guard. We’ll find out in early July whether this swings Brunson’s decision-making or not.

In 2018, Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen died after a battle with cancer. Ever since, a trust, headed by his sister Jody Allen, has operated the two franchises, but there is a report from John Canzano that it was written by Paul Allen that after his death his trust must liquidate all assets, including selling the Blazers and Seahawks.

On the heels of that reporting a week ago, word broke on Thursday from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Nike founder Phil Knight and Dodgers co-owner Alan Smolinisky have put in a written offer to purchase the team for a price of over $2 billion.

That is about the going rate for an NBA franchise these days, as the Timberwolves sale to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez’s group went for $1.5 billion. Most importantly to Blazers fans is that Knight’s presence in this particular prospective ownership group is that his deep Portland ties would indicate he would keep the team in Portland, while there were rumblings (as is the case any time a team in a smaller market is up for sale) that new ownership could explore relocating the franchise.

It would seem that won’t be the case should the Knight-Smolinisky group’s bid be chosen, as Nike’s headquarters are in Beaverton, Oregon and Knight is the most famous University of Oregon graduate there is. New ownership could breathe new life into the organization that is currently trying to rebuild itself on the fly, with a lot of new players and a new GM, but the expectation that they’ll be looking to be playoff bound again next year with Damian Lillard returning from injury.

So far, a lot of skin has been involved when it comes to Megan Thee Stallion’s single “Plan B.” First, she announced the tune by posing naked in a bathtub. Then, promo images shared in the lead-up to the video’s premiere saw Meg wearing more clothes this time, but not a lot more. Now, the “Plan B” video has arrived and it stays on theme.

The clip is aesthetically uncomplicated, as it’s mostly Meg in a dark room, showing off her physical assets in lingerie and sometimes less. It’s striking, though, and she also makes use of water and more for some intriguing visual moments.

Lyrically, the tune sees Meg opting to not be tied down to a man, as the first verse begins, “Dear f*ck n****, still can’t believe I used to f*ck with ya / Poppin’ Plan B’s ’cause I ain’t plan to be stuck with ya.” The song’s release came after Meg debuted it live at Coachella, which she teased by saying, “I got this song that I recorded and every time I play it for a woman they start jumping and clapping. I think I wanna perform it at Coachella for the first time before I actually drop it.”

Watch the “Plan B” video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Rap fans of a certain age will certainly appreciate this week’s UPROXX Sessions guest. Back during the blog rap era, when XXL was just kicking off its tradition of finding an annual class of freshman rappers to promote as the future of hip-hop, The Cool Kids, (Chuck Inglish and Sir Michael Rocks) were considered among the exemplars of this group of future-minded, nostalgia-influenced, internet-raised trailblazers. Since then, we’ve seen both members take on solo projects, expand their sounds, reunite, and experience a resurgence of sorts, but they never truly went away and they remain near and dear to our hearts.

Chuck Inglish dropped by Uproxx Studios to remind us of that fact with a coolly confident performance of “Driver” from the duo’s March album, Baby Oil Staircase/Chillout. Initially released in 2020 featuring Ye Ali, the single was repurposed for the group’s triple-disc comeback album, which consisted of Before Shit Got Weird and Baby Oil Staircase/Chillout. Before Shit Got Weird featured both performing as a group for the first time since 2017, while the latter split release consisted of two solo projects from Chuck and Mike, a la Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003.

Watch Chuck Inglish’s performance of “Driver” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

After bringing Three Thousand Years of Longing to Cannes, director George Miller‘s next project will be the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy. Miller had the whole thing planned out until filming Three Thousand Years led to a problem: He loved working with Tilda Swinton.

With his appreciation for the actor at an all-time high, Miller tried to find a way to get Swinton into Furiosa, but he couldn’t bring himself to shoe-in a character just for her. He’s seen how that story ends too many times. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“In Suspiria, she played three roles, one of which is an old man, so I thought, well, she could play one of the men [in Furiosa]. But unfortunately, there was no role that she would fit. If you force a character into a film, it’s usually the first one to end up on the cutting room floor,” said Miller of Swinton, whom he met five years ago during Cannes. “I would never do that to her, but I definitely wanted to make it happen.”

When we say Miller is jumping straight to Furiosa, we weren’t kidding around. The Mad Max prequel started filming on Wednesday, less than two weeks after Miller stopped by Cannes to premiere Three Thousand Years and gush about Swinton. While that means Furiosa will be arriving sooner rather than later, Miller will no doubt take his time in an effort to match the technical wizardry of Fury Road, which is regarded as one of the best action films ever made.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

One of the NFL’s most well-traveled quarterbacks is calling it a career. A report by ESPN indicated that Ryan Fitzpatrick, who spent 17 seasons in the league as a member of nine different franchises, decided it was time to retire. Fitzpatrick found a unique way to announce his retirement, as he apparently texted his former teammates a list of the names alongside whom he played, and one of them — former Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson — posted it to Twitter.

Fitzpatrick, especially in his later years in the league, was known for being one of the NFL’s more unique and entertaining personalities, which might explain his apparent next step. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Fitzpatrick is in talks with Amazon to join their team ahead of the network becoming the home of Thursday Night Football next season.

While it is unclear what Fitzpatrick’s role would be, the network’s top broadcast duo for games will be Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit.

Fitzpatrick retires with 34,990 career passing yards and 223 career passing touchdowns. During his career, Fitzpatrick suited up for the St. Louis Rams, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins, and Washington Football Team. He was limited to one game in what ended up being his final year in the league due to a hip injury he suffered in the season opener.