Category: News

Jack Harlow may have been the last person to know that Brandy and Ray J are siblings. This news made headlines last week following Harlow’s appearance on Hot 97, when he was played Brandy’s “Angel In Disguise.”

When played the sound clip, Harlow was instructed to guess the performing artist. Hosts Peter Rosenberg and Ebro Darden offered hints, saying, “Her brother is the reason a lot of people are famous,” and, “Her brother has an amazing sex tape.”

Harlow immediately caught on that the hosts were referring to Ray J, to which he responded, “Who is Ray J’s sister?”

“It’s Brandy,” shouted host Laura Stylez.

“Brandy and Ray J are siblings? Nobody’s ever told me that in my life,” replied Harlow.

Since Harlow’s appearance on Hot 97, neither Ray J or Brandy had responded until early this morning, when Brandy responded to a video clip shared by a fan account on Twitter.

“I will murk this dude in rap at 43 on his own beats and then sing [h]is ass to sleep,” said Brandy in a tweet.

Her response seemed to have been all in good fun, as she followed up clarifying that her response to the “First Class” rapper was “all love.”

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Jordan Peterson’s whole “thing” is being the worst guy to be stuck in a conversation with at a party. If the right-wing professor isn’t claiming that feminists have “an unconscious wish for brutal male domination,” he’s giving an unwatchable two-and-a-half hour presentation on “identity politics and the Marxist lie of white privilege.” Peterson’s Twitter account, which has 2.7 million followers (and probably 2.1 million bots), is also a cesspool of bad takes, including one that led him to quit the social media platform.

In response to model Yumi Nu being on the cover of this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, along with Kim Kardashian, Maye Musk, and Ciara, Peterson tweeted, “Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.” Peterson quickly became the Main Character of Twitter, with his “Sorry. Not beautiful” phrasing being paired with, well, have you seen Jordan Peterson looks like?

I’m sorry in advance.

By Monday night, Peterson announced that he was leaving Twitter due to an “endless flood” of “vicious” insults. He continued, “I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structure of the platform makes it intrinsically and dangerously insane. So I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation, and am departing once again. If I have something to say I’ll write an article or make a video. If the issue is not important enough to justify that then perhaps it would be best to just let it go.”

If Peterson is doing the insulting, it’s fine. But when Peterson is the one being insulted, he’s being attacked by the woke mob. He will not be missed.

Miley Cyrus famously has some family connections in the music industry, given that her father is Billy Ray Cyrus and she’s siblings with Noah Cyrus and Metro Station’s Trace Cyrus. It goes deeper than that, though, as Cyrus’ godmother is Dolly Parton. Naturally, the two correspond and when they do, Cyrus says it happens via fax.

Cyrus chatted with Seth Meyers on Late Night yesterday and when the topic of collaborating with Parton on their 2022 T-Mobile commercial for the Super Bowl came up, Cyrus said, “It was amazing because she was doing it for the phones, yet every time I coordinate and communicate with Dolly, it’s still through fax. So I don’t know what she’s talking about. She’s rarely on the phone.”

Meyers joked about how a Parton phone commercial is false advertisement and Cyrus added, “We do use the phone, but she does a fax and then someone scans the fax, and then they put it into a text message, and then that gets sent to me. And it’s always signed, so now I’ve kind of started my own version where I go into the notes, and I’ve started to try to make my own letters, because there’s something so amazing… just about a connection, it’s not casual, you know? You know that she took the time to get out, I guess, her typewriter.”

Check out Cyrus’ full Late Night interview above and below.

Seth Meyers was spoiling for a fight on Monday night as he spoke about the sheer inanity of what has become known as the “Great Replacement Theory.” Meyers dedicated the bulk of his “A Closer Look” to debunking this “theory” and the many fraudsters who have long clung to the its basic tenet, which is that America’s leaders are trying to literally replace you with someone who will be more compliant and bend to whichever way the government directs them.

As Meyers reminded viewers, this straight-from-a-bad-sci-fi-movie plot all started back with Donald Trump, who Meyers said “tried to fan the flames of a racist conspiracy theory by claiming the Democrats were somehow organizing caravans of migrants to cross the Southern border for their own political benefit.” While the former president has spent a lot of time talking this theory up to his followers, it’s pro-testicle tanner Tucker Carlson, who Meyers seems to hold most accountable for bringing this hogwash to the forefront of the public discourse, under the guise of pretending like it doesn’t even exist.

Meyers shared several clips of Carlson talking about white supremacy and how the rumors of its pervasiveness are all a figment of the left’s imagination. He then went on to insist that if we rounded up all the white supremacists in America, they would likely fit into a college football stadium which, Meyers reminded us, would be a hell of a lot of white supremacists. “A college football stadium could fit like 100,000 people, which is a ton of people…. This dude’s like a search engine that just answers your questions with a series of more questions. He’s Don’t Ask Jeeves.”

But, according to Meyers, Carlson is intent on convincing his viewers that the Great Replacement Theory isn’t real specifically so that they will dismiss any reports of it outright. “Because he has openly and repeatedly promoted Replacement Theory on this show,” Meyers says.

In one clip (which you can see around the 6:35 mark), Carlson insists that “you’re being replaced and there’s nothing you can do about it—so shut up!” then breaks into the world’s most maniacal cackle, which Meyers described as “truly a haunting laugh. I love the audacity of calling people on the left literally hysterical and then ending one of your rants with an insane terror giggle.”

You can watch Meyers’ full report above.

In case you haven’t noticed, Dr. Mehmet Oz is creepy AF. He is also generally full of sh*t. Yes, those are official diagnoses from some of his peers. The TV show quack, who has long been known for his questionable medical advice, is taking a break from weirding out TV viewers to instead make voters in the state of Pennsylvania uncomfortable. And he did a great job of it with this short clip, which is presented with very little context, but really: is much context needed?

While being interviewed by Fox News, Dr. Oz assured voters that he never wants to let them down. “So when you go to bed at night, and put your head on that soft pillow, you know Oz will be doing exactly what you want him to do if you were there next to him.”

Even if we put aside the illeism, there are still many questions here. Chief among them: Is Oz in bed with us in this scenario? Never mind, we don’t want to know the answer. But plenty of other people were just as creeped out by his political pitch.

Way back in February, word leaked as quickly as Rudy Giuliani’s hair dye that the former New York City Mayor would be unmasked as a contestant on The Masked Singer, and all hell broke loose. While many criticized Fox’s ill-conceived bit of stunt casting, the network isn’t sorry.

As Variety reports, Fox Entertainment’s president of alternative entertainment & specials Rob Wade, a.k.a. the man partly responsible for Rudy showing up on the popular reality series, said that the network has “absolutely no regrets” over inviting the man who has spent the past 18 months attempting to overturn the very fair and legitimate 2020 presidential election with nonstop lies and accusations to appear as a Jack in the Box on the series.

“The marketing is all about delivering jaw-dropping moments, which is exactly what the casting accomplished,” Wade told Variety. “And whether it was on set or with the viewers at home I suppose my only regret or surprise was obviously the reveal was spoiled [by the press], but kudos to you guys. Just please don’t do it again. Thanks a lot.”

Whether Wade really regrets the press spoilers or not is unclear, as The Masked Singer used that added bit of publicity to tease that the season would reveal “the biggest event in Masked Singer history.” How it all went down, however, may not have been exactly what the network had expected, or hoped for. In a word: It was a mess.

Giuliani’s big reveal caused some mixed reactions from the show’s judges. While noted anti-vaxxer Jenny McCarthy seemed thrilled to see Trump’s former personal attorney, actor/comedian/doctor Ken Jeong walked off the set. Then there was poor Nicole Scherzinger, who asked Jeong, “Is that Robert Duvall?” But the biggest surprise of all might have been that none of it really mattered, as no one was watching; the Rudy episode scored the lowest ratings of the season—not to mention forever ruined George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone.”

Giuliani’s big reveal wasn’t the Fox series’ first brush with terrible stunt casting. In 2020, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin showed up in a bear suit singing and wildly flailing around to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby’s Got Back.” When Palin went to court earlier this year after suing The New York Times for defamation, she desperately pleaded to make sure the footage of her appearance was not shown to jurors. (But you can watch it below.)

(Via Variety)

Martha Stewart, defender of peacocks and friend to every celebrity who matters, has weighed in on gut feeling about Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian’s romance. Previously, Martha gave some initial thoughts on Pete after she ran into the duo at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, and she posed for a photo with the pair after they enjoyed Trevor Noah’s show. At the time, she described Pete as (whom she’s been acquainted with for quite some time) “kind of homely,” but she was impressed with how she’s “squiring gorgeous women around and appearing everywhere.” That included his romance with Kim K., for which Martha declared, “You know, he’s a very different kettle of fish than Kanye, you know?”

Ain’t that the truth. Well, Martha’s still answering questions when asked, and Us Weekly asked for a followup on the situation, to which Martha described the situation as “fun,” but her first response to whether the couple would last is a telling one:

While speaking to Us Weekly just a couple weeks later, the Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party host said of the couple, “They’re hanging out. They seem to be very fun with one another.”

Does she think their relationship is going to last? “No, of course not,” Stewart said. However, she quickly added that she has “no idea” how serious the pair are about their romance.

Yup, Martha probably nailed it. And that’s not a negative response, either, merely a realistic one. Kim just got out of a marriage that ended on a very stressful note, and it’s highly doubtful that she’d want to jump right back into something very serious. And Pete’s doing his thing while they both seem to be very happy at this moment in time. As for Martha, yep, she’s keeping it real, always, and enjoying life, as with this relatively recent moment.

(Via Us Weekly)

Harry Styles and Billie Eilish are both young musicians in their 20s (they’re 28 and 20, respectively) and even though their music careers only started a few years apart, they’re very much part of different musical generations. Eilish’s approach to the industry was distinct from Styles’ and it turns out that had a major impact on Styles when he was going solo post-One Direction.

In a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Styles said:

“I definitely had a really big moment, I think, when Billie Eilish first blew up. And I think being in the band, I’d always felt like we were really young. We were just really young, and it was fun and exciting because we were young. And I had a moment seeing her do this at such a young age where I felt like, ‘I’m not that young anymore.’ And for a while it was, how do you play that game of remaining exciting? And I just had a moment where I felt like, ‘ OK, we are not the same thing.’ And in the same vein of, you’re not always going to be the young thing, I was like, ‘OK. I would like to really think about who I would like to be as a musician.’

Well, I think we’ve ran into each other a couple times, but I’m, from afar, incredibly thankful to her because I feel like she felt like she represented something to me that… I don’t know. It felt like, came in in a way that was like, ‘Don’t worry about being this thing ever,’ because she’s a lot younger than me and there’s no point in me going like, ‘OK, how do I get back in? How do I get back to… She totally broke the spell for me in a way that I’m very grateful for that. It’s maybe weird because I’ve never told her that, but for me, it just let me go. This is so unbelievably liberating to go, ‘I just want to make good music.’ That’s it. That’s what I want to do. And everything else is what it will be. And that’s kind of it.”

Watch the interview above.

Judd Apatow was a guest on Monday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Donald Trump’s former-secretary of defense (before he was fired in a tweet) Mark Esper was also a guest on last night’s episode. They did not share time on the couch together; if they did, things would have been even more awkward than they already were.

After Esper promoted his tell-all book, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, Apatow came out to discuss his George Carlin documentary with Colbert — and to trash Esper. “I don’t think George Carlin would like Mark Esper,” Apatow said. “Carlin’s whole idea was that people with money manipulate the whole system. So if somebody knows that Trump is a maniac, you would think the day after he gets fired is the day to go, ‘Hey, he wanted to shoot all the George Floyd protestors in the legs.’ But he waits a year to write a book and he makes money. And I think that was George Carlin’s whole thing, which is that they’re not looking out for you.”

Colbert then smoothly transitioned the conversation to Apatow’s family, including his Euphoria star daughter, Maude. You can watch The Late Show interview.

In Top Gun: Maverick (which is incredible), Jon Hamm is in full-on asshole mode. And he’s obviously enjoying every single second of it. Hamm plays Cyclone, a no-nonsense admiral who runs Top Gun these days. Unlike Tom Skeritt’s Viper from the first film, Cyclone is no fan of Maverick. And, if it were up to him, Maverick would not be back at Top Gun training a crack team of pilots that will be carrying out The Most Dangerous Mission Possible. Hamm was 15 when the original Top Gun came out, which was a prime viewing age back in his hometown of St. Louis. So, no, Jon Hamm can’t believe he’s in a Top Gun movie. To the point when he first heard about it, his answer – without seeing a script or even knowing what he’d be paid, was, “Yes.”

It’s also interesting that Hamm is staring in a sequel to Top Gun 36 years after the original, but, next will play the title character in Confess, Fletch, the first Fletch movie in 31 years and is another long-rumored sequel (more a reboot in this case) people just kind of assumed would never happen.

Back in 2019 when Hamm was still filming Top Gun: Maverick, by chance, we were at the same bar watching a St. Louis Blues playoff hockey game. (“By chance,” in that it was the St. Louis sports bar in New York City. RIP, Foley’s.) The Blues were the victim of a bad call to end the game and Hamm, in full Cyclone mode, was furious. The announcers say, “I think the Blues are the victim of a bad call,” and Hamm yells, in the only way Hamm can do, “You think!?!?” But then he took a moment, turned, and looked at the table I was at. And in the most calm, but confident way, he said, “Guys, we’ll get them in game four.” And he did a little clap, like meeting’s adjourned, and walked off into the night. I swear I have never felt more confident in anything that the Blues would win game four. I saw, first hand, the magic of Jon Hamm. The Blues would win their first Stanley Cup that year. And as it turned out, on the day we spoke, the Blues had won a big playoff game the night before…

I’m very happy with the Blues game last night.

You and me both, buddy.

Around the time you were filming Top Gun: Maverick, we both just happened to be at Foley’s watching game three of the Blues-Sharks series and the Blues lost on a bad call. We were all very mad, then you looked at our table and gave an encouraging speech.

[Laughs] Well, I think they felt that way too. They definitely had some, they had some baggage. They had some bulletin board material, for sure. That was a hell of a run.

You were in Cyclone mode. I feel that there was Cyclone coming out that night to give us a pep talk.

A pep talk? Well, that was definitely around the time. That’s for sure.

Do you get any say in what your call sign would be?

No. That was assigned to me that was written into the script, which I was very pleased with. I thought that’s a very cool name. So I was very happy that I was able to be adorned with a cool moniker, for sure.

Cyclone doesn’t actually fly. Tom Skerritt in the first one gets to fly. Did you want to fly?

Yeah, it would’ve been nice. It would’ve been nice, but I keep telling people it’s about 90 percent/10 percent. There’s about 90 percent relief, the fact that I didn’t have to go through all of that and get bounced around, and about 10 percent of FOMO or jealousy.

When the first Top Gun comes out, you’re 15. That’s the perfect Top Gun age.

Yeah. I’m dialed in.

What was your experience with the first one? I assume seeing it at something like the Des Peres Cinema?

Yeah, probably we went to see it at a Wehrenberg Theater somewhere in the ’80s. And I just remember the experience of going to see it was coming out of it was like, “I have to see that movie again. I want to see that movie again.” And those were the days when going to see a movie wasn’t repeat viewing. It wasn’t just clicking a button and starting it over again. It was you had to go outside and stand in line and get another ticket, if you could, and wait. And so it was definitely a movie that we were all dialed into for sure. And by we, I mean just me and all of my friends at that age.

If they told you then they’re going to make a sequel to this, the bad news is it’s going not come out for 36 years, but the good news is you’re going to be in it, how do you react to that?

No, look, the interesting thing about waiting this long for a sequel is that obviously the movie, the events of this film, don’t take place the day after the first one ends. Time has passed. The movie is able to, and I think this is why it’s hitting people so emotionally, the movie’s able to really explore doing this over the course of a lifetime and a career. What happens to people? Words like responsibility and loyalty and friendship and loss and grief and all of those things, what do they mean? They mean something different when you’re 25 than they do when you’re 55. And I think that’s what the movie’s really exploring. I mean, yes, of course, it’s got all the planes going fast and dipping and diving and spinning and all of that stuff, which is exciting. But there’s a real emotional core to the movie. And it’s about Maverick. It’s about his journey, his life. What’s he doing with his life? And he has to kind of reexamine it. And what does it mean to keep writing checks that your body can’t cash if you don’t have anybody else in your life? And I think that’s where the emotion of the film really comes from.

I’m not just saying this, this is one of the best movie theater experiences I’ve had, maybe ever. I know you’ve seen some of the reactions, but this is no joke. This thing really is phenomenal.

I think there are a couple of reasons for that. I think there are a lot of people who grew up on the first one. There are a lot of people who came to the first one on home video or, or direct cable, what have you. But the first one definitely has a very special place. And it holds up, and it’s an example of ’80s moviemaking that we continually look to. And I think you see other films that are inspired by that. I think you could point to Michael Bay’s career and say that he owes a lot to Tony Scott. And I think that there’s a lot of that DNA in a lot of the films that we’ve loved over the years. So I think that it’s fertile ground for people to like the film. And then the fact that it actually is a good film that people can really sit back and enjoy. And it’s not a movie to be watched on a streamer, or a tiny screen. It’s a movie to be watched big and loud and only in theaters. And it’s very exciting.

You mentioned Tony Scott. And obviously, the original Top Gun has such a specific tone to it because of him. How do you find a similar tone for this?

That’s on purpose. They really wanted to hit those tonal notes because I think that’s what makes Top Gun Top Gun, too. It’s kind of a deep dive into cool and looking cool, and feeling cool, and cool music, and cool backdrops. And everything is beautiful and backlit and magic hour and all of the things that make movies so cool and so special and so impressive. And I think the filmmakers definitely leaned into that. And, of course, that’s homage to Tony, who’s unfortunately no longer with us. But when you have a lot of the same folks that were there for the first time around, it’s just, “Oh yeah, remember this? Let’s do that one. Let’s do that.”

How do you first find out about this? I mean, obviously, this has been rumored to be made for forever, but when do you actually hear the words, “This is happening”?

I got a call. I remember I was in my car and the phone rang. And I picked it up, hands-free of course. They said, “They’re looking at you for this Top Gun sequel.” And I was like, “What? Hell yes.” They said, “We haven’t seen a script.” I said, “Tell them yes.”

“I’m in.”

Yeah! “Well, we don’t know what we’re getting paid.” “I don’t care. Tell them, yes. We’ll work all that shit out later.” And I had a meeting with Chris McQuarrie and everybody, and a phone call with Jerry Bruckheimer, and everybody seemed very excited. So I was very happy to be brought on board and made part of the team. And it was kind of a dream come true to be working on that, from the costume fittings, to all the way up through doing the press. There was a pretty legitimate smile on my face.

I keep trying to think what it would be like to just to look around and go, “I’m in a Top Gun movie.” I can’t fathom that.

Yeah, there are some pretty impressive and humbling moments being on the set with things. We’re on an active USS Teddy Roosevelt. We’re on this active nuclear aircraft carrier with real jets on it. You know?

Right.

I just wanted to make sure I didn’t step on anything or break anything or push the wrong button or start an armed conflict.

Instead of volleyball, there’s a shirtless touch football game. Did you feel left out?

No. I was very happy to keep my shirt and my shoes on, in that particular moment. There’s something uniquely me about being on a beach, watching the sunset in loafers and socks.

A lot of competition out there for who’s most buff.

Exactly.

So your Fletch movie, Confess, Fletch, is done?

We finished principal photography in Rome, in September, August, of last year. I can’t really say much more about it, but we’re very much looking forward to people getting a chance to see that, too, on some platform somewhere.

Between a third Fletch and a second Top Gun, these are two movies that people have tried to get made for over 30 years. It’s the Jon Hamm magic getting this stuff made.

Well, I hope so. I was a big fan of those books growing up. And I remember having seen the first film, which I think was in ’85, and thinking, Oh man, this was so funny and so good. And Chevy is so good. And then realizing there’s 10 more books. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I get to go read more stories about this. The books are quite different. There’s some shared DNA, but the tone of the books is very different from the tone of Chevy’s films.

Right. Those movies are Chevy Chase vehicles basically.

Exactly. And God bless. He knocks it out of the park, especially with that. But we decided to kind of go a different way in making them because we knew that we had all this source material. Greg Mottola who directed the film and co-wrote it, he’s a great guy. I’ve worked with him on several occasions and I hope to again. But yeah, we really wanted to kind of have our own version of fun with it. And I think we did. We made a very funny, fun Fletch movie. So, hopefully, people will dig it.

See, it would be great if there was a new Fletch movie every couple of years.

You and me both, man.

I cannot believe it’s been 12 years since you hosted SNL. I realize you’ve made appearances, but that’s a long time.

Yeah. It’s been a minute. Hopefully, I’ll get asked to do it again. It’s one of those funny things. It’s like, if you’re part of the cultural moment, then that happens. And sometimes you become less of the moment or something. It’s a very weird calculation that I’m very glad I don’t have to do, but the calculation exists in the mind of Mr. Michaels. And I’ve always been a friend of the show. So I’m looking forward to it. I was actually meant to have a little cameo on my friend Paul Rudd’s five timers nomination…

Oh yeah, when Omicron hit.

It was a COVID casualty. So it goes.

Anyway, I still can’t believe Top Gun: Maverick exists. In 2010 a colleague tweeted, “If Top Gun 2 happens, I’ll eat a shoe.” People are trying to hold him to that.

There you go. Like a lot of tweets … it hasn’t aged well.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ opens May 24th. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.