Category: News

For thousands upon thousands of years, humans have been looking for a reason, roamin’ through the night to find their place in this world. But there is a question that is much larger than that one which has puzzled our silly little species for just as long: what happens when we die?

Now, I’m not here, good reader, to impose any sort of philosophical belief onto you. It is between you and the higher power(s) that you worship (if you worship any at all!) to answer that question, and for you to have faith in the plans you are making for when the lights go out, if you are even doing that in the first place. I am simply here to tell you that Shaquille O’Neal went onto The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and was posed this question, and after a moment of thought, came to one conclusion.

“Nobody knows,” Shaq said. “Heaven? Barkley’s going to hell, so.”

While I suppose it is possible Shaq has some really strong thoughts on New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, it seems pretty safe for us to assume that the big fella is predicting that fellow Inside the NBA personality Charles Barkley‘s soul is destined for eternal damnation. I’ll give Shaq this: If the lord is a Warriors fan, I don’t like Barkley’s chances.

Tensions boiled over during Saturday afternoon’s game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson and White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, who got into it with one another last week during a game in Chicago when Donaldson appeared to push Anderson off the bag while trying to tag him out, had several run-ins with one another during the game, including one moment where Donaldson got face-to-face with Yasmani Grandal and Anderson ran in from shortstop, which led to both teams’ benches emptying.

At another point, the two got into it again after the final out of an inning.

After the game was over, White Sox manager Tony La Russa said that Donaldson “made a racist comment” towards Anderson. This was eventually confirmed by the All-Star infielder, who told the press after the game that Donaldson “made a disrespectful comment, you know, trying to call my Jackie Robinson, like, ‘what’s up, Jackie?’”

“I wasn’t really bothering nobody today, but he made a comment and it was disrespectful,” Anderson said. “I don’t think it was called for, it was unnecessary.”

Donaldson spoke about it after the game. He first claimed this was a joke between them before claiming he was trying to diffuse a situation.

Donaldson went on to say that he apologized if this was taken as disrespectful. Regardless, it is obvious that this isn’t an inside joke and Donaldson is very much in the wrong here.

John Mulaney has never been an “edgy” comic, and by that we mean he doesn’t tell jokes that deliberately piss people off. The closest he comes to that is in a recently released clip, in which he tells people who believe all stand-ups are damaged people to “f*ck off with that s*it.” In other words, he’s no Dave Chappelle, who seems to have rebranded himself as a performer who makes lots and lots and lots of trans jokes. Perhaps that’s why people were taken aback when a show did on Friday featured a surprise appearance from the guy who pissed off a legion of Netflix staffers.

As per Variety, Mulaney was in at Ohio State University in Columbus. Fans expecting another leg of his “From Scratch” tour found themselves ambushed by Chappelle, who proceeded what he now does best: make jokes about an already marginalized group of people whose lives are being being made even worse by GOP politicians.

Audience members were forced to lock their phones before the show, so no video or even audio exists of Chappelle’s comments. But sure as God made little green apples, he reportedly dropped some more of his anti-trans gags. When Chappelle’s set was over, Mulaney came out and gave him a big hug.

Though Chappelle’s jokes reportedly got laughs, it left others present fuming on social media once they got their phones back, slamming both Chappelle and Mulaney for inviting him.

It also prompted other performers to promise they wouldn’t pull a Mulaney on their ticketholders.

Chappelle so loves going after people who are already targeted by states like Florida that, after he was attacked on stage earlier this month, he made sure to slip one of them in, too.

(Via Variety)

Billie Eilish has remained open about honest about a number of personal topics during her time in the spotlight. She has spoken candidly about her struggles with mental health, her gripe with society’s body image standards, the ups and downs of fame, and much more. One example came when she revealed the exact moment she stopped feeling comfortable in public during a recent interview. She recalls the moment occurring when she was 16 years old ice skating with a friend in Los Angeles. Eilish says it resulted in a “huge stampede” that left her feeling very “powerless.”

In her latest interview, one that came with David Letterman, Eilish opened up about a topic that she’s been very tight-lipped about before: her experience living with Tourette’s Syndrome, which she says she was diagnosed with at 11 years old.

It didn’t appear to be a topic that Eilish planned on talking about during the interview, but it eventually came up after a change in the set’s lighting seemingly provoked one of her tics. “If you film me for long enough, you’re going to see lots of tics,” Eilish said. “I don’t care. It’s really weird, I haven’t talked about it at all. The most common way people react is they laugh, because they think that I’m trying to be funny. They think I’m [ticcing] as, like, a funny move… And I’m always left incredibly offended by that.” Eilish continued:

“What’s funny is so many people have it that you would never know. A couple artists came forward and said ‘I’ve actually always had Tourette’s.’ And I’m not gonna out them, because they don’t want to talk about it, but that was really interesting to me. I was like, ‘You do?! What?’”

Letterman extended some gratitude to Eilish, saying, “I hope to God what we’ve done didn’t exacerbate this,” adding, “I know nothing about [Tourette’s].” Eilish replied, “I actually really love answering questions about it because it’s very, very interesting. And I am incredibly confused by it, and I don’t get it.”

She continued, “These are things you would never notice if you’re just having a conversation with me, but for me, they’re very exhausting,” she explained. “It’s not like I like it, but it’s part of me. I have made friends with it. And so now, I’m pretty confident in it.”

Eilish’s conversation with Letterman is a part of the latter’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman series on Netflix. Eilish’s full episode is available on the platform now.

For years, A24 has carved out a niche at the multiplexes, making and releasing eccentric high-end “indies” that often break through into the mainstream. But their latest may wind up being their biggest yet. As Deadline noted, Everything Everywhere All at Once, the other new movie about the multiverse, is about to hit a major milestone.

On Friday, at the North American box office, the action-comedy-sci-fi-comedy — in which Michelle Yeoh plays a woman who learns she can access infinite versions of herself — added another near million to its rapidly towering pile of cash. That put its North American tally at $50.01 million. As it happens, A24’s biggest North American hit, 2019’s Uncut Gems, grossed $50.02 million. So it’s safe to say that, as of this writing, Everything Everywhere is the company’s biggest hit, at least on this continent.

Mind you, it will have to gross a lot more to top A24’s biggest worldwide hit, Hereditary, which Hoovered up some $80 million across the globe back in 2018. Director Ari Aster’s follow-up, Midsommar, did just over half that the following year, making $27 million in North America and $47.8 million worldwide.

But back to Everything Everywhere All at Once, the film was a moneymaker right out of the gate, and it’s given the very busy Yeoh her biggest-ever solo hit in the States. And to think her sometime co-star/sometime rival Jackie Chan turned it down — but as Yeoh herself noted, that’s his loss.

(Via Deadline)

One year ago today, Olivia Rodrigo released her debut album Sour. The project arrived after she topped the charts for several weeks thanks to “Drivers License” which set Spotify records after its release. Rodrigo’s success continued after the album was released as it gave the singer her first No. 1 album as well as multiple Grammy awards which she was selected for last month. At the award show, Rodrigo won awards for Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Best New Artist. It’s all of these accolades and more that have Rodrigo extremely grateful as she celebrates the first anniversary of Sour.

“My first album SOUR came out a year ago today,” Rodrigo wrote in an Instagram post. “It is impossible for me to sum up in words how much this album means to me and how grateful I am to have gotten the privilege to make it and watch it exist in the world.” The post included pictures of handwritten lyrics, her Grammy awards, a text message screenshot, and more. Later on in the post, Rodrigo went on to thank producer Dan Nigro, who co-wrote and co-produced “Drivers License” with her.

She continued, “Thank u @dan_nigro for making it with me and believing in me more than anyone and thank u to everyone who has embraced my 17 year old lamentations and forever changed my life in the process.”

You can view Rodrgio’s post above.

For years, Real Madrid have made no secret about their interest in luring Kylian Mbappe to Spain. From a trial with the club as a 12 year old to a very public flirtation with the Frenchman last summer, Real Madrid’s intention for quite some time has been to build its club around the player viewed as the future face of the sport.

Mbappe’s contract with Paris Saint-Germain runs out this summer, and for months, the belief has been that he will finally make the jump to the club for which he’s long dreamed of playing. But despite negotiations between the player and the club, reports began to circulate on Saturday morning indicated that Mbappe will stay in France for the next three years after opting to sign a contract extension with PSG.

Via ESPN:

Kylian Mbappe has said he will stay at Paris Saint-Germain, sources told ESPN, in a shock U-turn that sees Real Madrid miss out again on their long-term transfer target.

Mbappe, 23, had been widely expected to move to the Bernabeu this summer, with his PSG contract due to expire on June 30. But after a late change of heart, Mbappe is set to sign a three-year contract with PSG.

Later in the day on Saturday, PSG released a video to confirm that Mbappe put pen to paper on an extension.

Sky Sports reports that Mbappe’s contract will be the most lucrative in the world, with the French star set to make £4 million a month in addition to “a mammoth signing-on figure in the region of £100m.” It also includes “concessions over image rights as well as bonuses for goals, Ballon d’Or honours, and Champions League success.”

In response to Mbappe’s decision, La Liga released a statement indicating it plans on filing a complaint against PSG to UEFA and alleges that this deal “attacks the economic stability of European football, putting at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs and the integrity of the sport, not only in European competitions, but also in domestic leagues.”

Mbappe joined PSG from Monaco on a permanent basis in 2018 for €180, the highest transfer fee ever paid for a teenager and the second-highest in history behind only his teammate, Neymar. He has scored 168 goals in 216 matches for the French giants.

This year has been a great one for Pusha-T. He kicked things with his impressive “Diet Coke” record which featured production from Kanye West and 88-Keys. He followed that up with “Neck & Wrist” alongside Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z. Both songs later appeared on his fourth studio album It’s Almost Dry which became Pusha’s first No. 1 album of his career and an early favorite for rap album of the year in 2022. The project was his first since 2018’s Daytona, but as Pusha tells it, it will be far from his last album. That’s because he seeks one major thing in his career going forward: rap immortality.

During a recent profile with NME, Pusha T shared his desire to prove that he is indeed an immortal rap figure. “A lot of our forefathers, the greats, they didn’t stand the test of time,” he said. “As great as they were, I don’t know how much they are [still] appreciated. [I want] to show that rap doesn’t have to age out. When people look at me, they need to understand that I can do this forever.”

It’s a tall task for anyone to accomplish, even those as talented as Pusha, but with his steady improvement over the years, Pusha might achieve his goal.

You can read Pusha’s full profile with NME here.

It’s Almost Dry is out now via GOOD Music and Def Jam. You can stream it here.

Last night’s Western Conference finals Game 2 was mostly memorable for the Warriors coming back from a 19-point deficit to beat the Mavericks and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series as it heads back to Dallas. But while Kevon Looney was having the game of his life and Steph Curry and company were surgically picking apart the Mavs in the second half, Dallas owner Mark Cuban and Lil Wayne were settling a score themselves courtside.

Ahead of Game 1, a very messy Twitter beef between Cuban and Lil Wayne bubbled over with Weezy telling Cuban, “Mark Cuban don’t make me get u smacked boy U playin w me?? I will piss in ya fkn mouth ho.” Gross, right? This all stemmed from Cuban coming to Luka Doncic’s defense eight days after Weezy tweeted “Luka a ho.” At any rate, it seemed as though things were patched up between the pair last night at Game 2 in San Francisco. Lil Wayne and his son were sitting courtside and Cuban came up to fraternize with the pair, even giving err… lil Lil Wayne a high five.

And according to unofficial Lil Wayne beat reporter Skip Bayless (I know, this doesn’t make sense to anyone), Cuban was the one who invited Tunechi and his boy (whose name is actually Kam) to the game.

So it seems as though this short-lived beef has ended with nobody peeing in anyone else’s mouth. Thank God. But the chances of the pair celebrating a Championship together again took a big hit.

The Dallas Mavericks looked like they had the Golden State Warriors on the ropes during Game 2 of the 2022 Western Conference Finals. Thanks to some scorching hot shooting, Dallas led by as many as 19 points and seemed primed to even up the series before it made it way down to Texas.

And then, the wheels came off altogether. The Mavericks offense completely fell apart in the game’s third quarter, as they scored 13 points and opened the door for Golden State to get back in the game — ultimately, the Warriors picked up a 126-117 win. And after the game, Dallas coach Jason Kidd expressed some gripes about how the team attacked Golden State’s defense in the third quarter.

“When you go 2-for-13 and you rely on the 3, you can die by the 3,” Kidd said, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “And we died in the third quarter by shooting that many 3s and coming up with only two.

“If you make [3s], that’s great, but you just have to understand, if you miss four in a row, you can’t take the fifth,” Kidd continued. “You’ve got to make it. That just puts too much stress on yourself and on your team because, if you’re not getting stops on the other end, it turns into a blowout.”

Dallas shot 3-for-6 on twos in the period, but repeatedly pulled up from deep and were punished by the home team. This happened despite the Mavericks having a generally very good night from behind the arc, as they made 21 of the 45 triples they attempted. The 21 makes were tied for the third-most in a losing effort in postseason history, and despite the loss, Jalen Brunson supported the team’s repeated attempts from deep.

“I mean, we were getting great looks,” Brunson said. “When we’re open, we’re going to shoot. We have a lot of guys capable of making shots, knocking shots down. So I think as long as we’re open and shooting the correct shots, making the extra pass, doing the things that we do, we have confidence in everybody, I have confidence in everybody to knock it down.”

Dallas will hope the ball is a bit more kind in Game 3 on Sunday night.