Category: News

It’s been about a month since a deadly crowd surge during Travis Scott’s set at his Astroworld festival in Houston injured hundreds and resulted in ten deaths. Since then, hundreds of lawsuits have been brought against both Scott and festival organizers. While Scott has offered to pay for funeral expenses (which half of the families refused), the rapper has now reportedly filed court documents that deny all responsibility in one of the lawsuits.

Per a recent report from TMZ, Scott is first seeking to have the lawsuits against him dismissed before attempting to fight them in court. The rapper allegedly just filed new court documents through his lawyer which deny the claims brought against him by plaintiff Jessie Garcia, who alleges they were in the crowd the night of the Astroworld tragedies. Essentially, the court documents ask a judge to dismiss the lawsuit permanently and issues a “general denial,” which denies all claims brought against him and his Cactus Jack label by Garcia.

TMZ’s report goes on to claim that Scott plans on issuing a similar response to all other Astroworld lawsuits brought against him, which there have been many of, and a new motion filed last week might make that a bit easier for him to do. The attorneys for both the victims and the festival filed a joint petition for the 275 lawsuits (representing over 1,200 people) to be combined into a multi-district litigation that would be handled by one judge.

Despite the controversy surrounding Dave Chappelle‘s latest Netflix comedy special, The Closer, which resulted in an employee walk-out at the streamer and pushback from high school students at his alma mater over his trans jokes, the comedian and Netflix are still working together. On Monday, the streamer announced the massive 130 comedian line-up for its 2020 Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival, and Chappelle’s name is noticeably tucked into the list of A-list stars.

According to a press release, Chappelle will feature prominently in a Hollywood Bowl event that’s simply titled, “Dave Chappelle and Friends.” Of course, this move shouldn’t come as a huge surprise after Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos‘ response to the Chappelle controversy, and he ultimately defended streaming Chappelle’s special.

“This group of employees felt a little betrayed because we’ve created such a great place to work that they forgot that sometimes these challenges will come up,” Sarandos told The Hollywood Reporter in October.

Here’s the official 2022 line-up for Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival:

Produced by Netflix in association with Live Nation, the 11-day comedy fest in Los Angeles will feature over 130 artists including Ali Wong, Amy Poehler, Amy Schumer, Aziz Ansari, Bert Kreischer, Bill Burr, Chelsea Handler, Chris Rock, Conan O’Brien, Cristela Alonzo, Dave Chappelle, David Letterman, Deon Cole, Eddie Izzard, Ellen DeGeneres, Felipe Esparza, Fortune Feimster, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng, Iliza Shlesinger, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Jerry Seinfeld, John Mulaney, Jonathan Van Ness, Ken Jeong, Kevin Hart, Kevin Smith, Larry David, Margaret Cho, Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum, Michael McIntyre, Mike Birbiglia, Mike Myers and David O. Russell, Nick Kroll, Nicole Byer, Patton Oswalt, Pete Davidson, Ray Romano, Sandra Bernhard, Seth Rogen, Theo Von, Tig Notaro, Tim Robinson, Tina Fey, Wanda Sykes and more.

Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival will run from April 28 to May 8, 2022.

Mullet-sporting hero MacGruber is being sprung from prison to save the world while undertaking a Task Force-X-like suicide mission. That sounds about right for a MacGruber streaming debut, after Will Forte told us that he anticipated Peacock greenlighting the MacGruber TV show. It’s all happening now, approximately 11 years after the MacGruber film based upon Forte’s recurring SNL sketch. The raunchiness of the film, co-starring Kristen Wiig as MacGruber’s sidekick (Vicki St. Elmo), surpassed the network version of the sketch, and boy, does this show look filthy, too.

That’s no surprise, given what we’ve seen already from the title character’s return, and his recent jailhouse interview showed that he hadn’t changed one bit over the course of a decade. His life sentence (after the demise of Val Kilmer’s Dieter Von Cunth) is apparently no more, and only MacGruber can save the world, although one should note that R&R is not exactly “rest and relaxation” for this hero. Amping up the camp quotient here would be Billy Zane, and along with Wiig, Ryan Phillippe’s back and as poker-faced as ever. One can also behold the marvels of a bewigged Sam Elliot with the ultra-serious Laurence Fishburne on board, too.

From the revival’s Peacock synopsis:

After rotting in prison for over a decade, America’s ultimate hero and uber patriot MacGruber (Will Forte) is finally released. His mission: to take down a mysterious villain from his past—Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth (Billy Zane). With the entire world in the crosshairs, MacGruber must reassemble his old team, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) and Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe), in order to defeat the forces of evil.

MacGruber comes to Peacock on December 16.

Have you ever taken a big bite out of a dessert pie and wondered, “What if this could get me drunk?” Now thanks to Cardi B, you don’t have to wonder any more. The rapper partnered with Starco Brands for Whipshots, cans of whipped cream that are infused with vodka. After releasing a select number of cans last week, Cardi officially debuted the new boozy dessert over the weekend at Art Basel in Miami.

Cardi shared Whipshots with guests at a star-studded sweets-themed party this weekend, offering a preview of the three flavors — vanilla, caramel and mocha — which have been flying off the shelves this month. The rapper offered partygoers the Whipshots served in cones, cocktails, on desserts, and straight from the can throughout the event, per a report from Billboard.

About her decision to create the dessert, Cardi told Billboard in a statement that it’s the perfect combination of sexy and tasty: “I’m not really a hardcore liquor-drinking person. And I like things that are sexy and tasty. It’s going to be a party in every can. At one time I was planning to do margaritas, but this is more fun.”

Echoing Cardi’s statement, Starco Brands CEO Ross Sklar said the rapper was the perfect addition to their product. “You’ve got to find somebody that has a personality that is transparent, super fun, super playful,” Sklar said. “Someone who doesn’t mind being flirty, but above all, is herself. The product delivers and the personality delivers … That authenticity delivers credibility.”

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When Barcelona’s annual Primavera Sound festival announced they had set their sights on LA for a new iteration of the event in 2019, US fans were over the moon. But seeing as a global pandemic was on the horizon months after the original announcement, Primavera Sound LA never happened — but that will change next year. Primavera Sound LA is set to make its US debut next September with musicians like Lorde, Arctic Monkeys, Nine Inch Nails, and many more.

Taking place over the weekend of September 16-18 at the LA State Historic State Park, Primavera Sound LA is inviting some of today’s top pop and indie stars to take their stage. On Monday, the festival released the first 59 acts that are booked for 2022, which includes Arca, Chai, Cigarettes After Sex, Clairo, Darkside, Dry Cleaning, Faye Webster, Fontaines DC, James Blake, Kim Gordon, King Krule, Khruangbin, Low, Mitski, Paloma Mami, Pinkpantheress, Shygirl, Stereolab, Tierra Whack, Squid, Tim Hecker, and more.

Watch Primavera Sound LA’s announcement video and see the announced lineup above.

Pre-sale tickets for Primavera Sound LA start 12/10 at 10 am PDT starting at $399 for a 3-day pass. Remaining tickets will go on sale on 12/10 at 2 pm PDT. Get them here.

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

With his social media accounts still on lockdown thanks to his spurring of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, Donald Trump has taken to firing off tweet-size statements from his office in Mar-a-Lago. Judging by his latest missive, the former president should probably spring for a copy editor.

Over the weekend, Trump clearly had election fraud on the brain, as he often does, and decided to fire off a statement blasting anyone who doesn’t believe the election was stolen from him. However, despite his self-proclaimed very large brain, the former president used a double negative in his statement, which essentially targeted himself and anyone who is still parroting his Big Lie. Via Liz Harrington on Twitter:

Anybody that doesn’t think there wasn’t massive Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election is either very stupid, or very corrupt!

Naturally, people on social media latched onto the hilarious grammatical error and went to town on Trump calling out all of MAGA-land.

If Trump isn’t aware of the grammatical error yet, he’s guaranteed to be fuming once he does. Trump is especially sensitive about having his intelligence questioned, which happens a lot. He recently went so far as to ask Ohio Republicans to pull an ad against J.D. Vance even though the crux of the spot was to question Vance’s loyalty to Trump. However, by doing so, the ad showed Vance calling Trump an “idiot” in 2016, and the ex-president did not like that. Trump demanded that the ad be taken down because it might hurt his chances in 2024, should he run for president again.

(Via Liz Harrington on Twitter)

Lil Wayne was recently pardoned on gun charges earlier this year, but a new report from TMZ suggests he could be back in hot water after an altercation with his security guard. According to TMZ, one of Wayne’s security guards claims that a disagreement between the two men escalated into a physical altercation, during which Wayne allegedly pulled out a gun.

According to the guard, after the initial scuffle, which started when Wayne accused the guard of leaking photos to the media, Wayne told him to leave the house, but when he stopped to use the restroom first, Wayne pulled out an AR-15, prompting him to escape to the guardhouse outside and call the police. When the police arrived, Wayne had already vacated the premises. While police are investigating, TMZ’s sources say the guard showed no signs of a physical attack, while a source close to Wayne denies that the rapper even owns a gun (which would be a felony, as he is a convicted felon).

Wayne dodged major jail time earlier this year when he was pardoned by outgoing Oval Office resident Donald Trump. Wayne denied a quid pro quo arrangement being made in exchange for the pardon, but he did shout out Trump on his latest No Ceilings mixtape and endorse his 2020 Presidential campaign. Wayne had been charged with and later pled guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon after a 2019 arrest at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport when his plane was searched and turned up a gold-plated handgun and the drugs cocaine, heroin, and MDMA.

The Succession Report Card is a weekly recap feature where we attempt to assign grades to the important people, things, and themes from each episode of ‘Succession.’ The grades are entirely subjective and the criteria for scoring will change from week to week and occasionally mid-week. Someone might get detention. It’ll probably be Roman.

Kendall

When did you realize things were not going to end well for Kendall? Was it when he showed up with the saddest buzz cut you’ve ever seen, one he probably gave himself at like 3 a.m. during a post-cocaine comedown crisis? Was it when his mother basically banned him from her wedding because she considers her ex-husband more important, or when his father slapped down his cry for help and stormed out of dinner? Was it last week when he had a meltdown during his birthday party and realized he had no one in his life who really cared for or about him? Was it when every TV critic got this week’s screener and started tweeting stuff like “You HAVE to watch this week’s episode LIVE” like little kids with a secret they were trying not to spill but sort of spilling anyway? Was it when this profile of Jeremy Strong dropped yesterday and was littered with quotes and stories about how exhausting he sounds to work with? You had options, is my point.

The big question here, of course, is as follows: Dead or nah? I’ve been going back and forth since I watched the screener last week. My gut reaction was no, both because it would be such a massive twist in a show that — despite lots of things happening, always — tends to bring things back to the status quo and because I generally do not assume a character is dead until I see them in a casket or another character says “He’s dead” out loud, preferably straight into the camera.

But I’ve been wavering. Kendall has been a tragic figure from the jump, and he’s pretty much been operating separately from the family this season anyway, and there’s not much use for him if he’s not doing the legal battle or coming back into the fold, and that profile sure did not make it sound like his castmates will miss him a lot. So I don’t know.

In conclusion, Kendall Roy is a land of contrasts.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: … breathing?

Roman

No.

No.

Noooooooooooo.

Real rollercoaster of a run for Roman these last few weeks. He had a little success at work, hopped on a speedboat to save the deal with Matsson, acted like a total dipshit about it all, then capped it all off by accidentally sending a dick pic to his father during a business meeting. And then, in the face of all that, he still managed to be the most reasonable person in the room by suggesting that they can’t fire Gerri just because he has been sexually harassing her.

Strange family.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Keeping body parts inside his pants

Shiv

Here’s the thing about Shiv: Shiv sucks. It can be tempting to overlook that sometimes because all of her brothers are world-class trainwrecks and she can display little flashes of competence, but then she’ll do things like role-play with Tom by saying objectively true things — to her, at least — like “I don’t love you” and “You’re not good enough for me” and then use Roman’s texting calamity to kick off a power play that involves intimidating Gerri and just generally being a soulless ghoul about it all. It’s bad. Shiv is bad. Let’s not forget that the next time she does a semi-smart thing while the rest of the family lights itself on fire.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Like, everything

Logan

Let’s see…

• More or less bullied one son into a semi-suicidal bender and then basically called him a junkie and a coward when the son came to him in a moment of weakness
• Received a picture of another son’s penis by accident
• Strongly implied he would be willing to poison his grandson if he felt threatened

It’s not great!

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Parenting, generally

Connor

The fact of the matter is that Connor should have received an F by any objective standard on account of, like, just being a big old dope and thinking he could run for President without anyone snooping around about his former escort girlfriend and thinking he could fix it with a disastrous public marriage proposal that had about the same chance of success as his run for high office.

Huge bozo behavior through and through. And yet, compared to his siblings… not all that bad. We are grading on a curve here.

GRADE: D-

MUST IMPROVE: Awareness

Comfry

Agreed to go on a date with Greg based mostly on their shared annoyance with Kendall and then stood by at a fancy Italian wedding while he made the most awkward move you’ve ever seen on some sort of duchess or contessa. Her boss might be dead. She’ll probably have to put out a press release about it.

The only silver lining in it all is that she might finally be free of this stupid family.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Romantic decisions, career planning

Caroline

Logan gets most of the credit for turning the children into little monsters who will happily kneecap each other if it means acquiring even the tiniest little advantage in the long-running power plays they’re engaged in with each other, but let’s not overlook this ice-hearted gem either. It all almost makes you feel bad for the kids. Almost.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Mothering

Various Karls, Franks, and Karolinas

A big part of me wishes we’d had a split-screen of Karl and Frank’s faces as Logan looked down at his phone and shouted and stormed out mid-meeting and then started having little emergency meetings with his children in another room. I can’t decide if they would have been concerned or if they’re just so used to it all that they went ahead and rolled with it. Like, I feel like Frank just started doing a crossword puzzle and Karl stared ahead blankly the whole time.

I love them very much.

GRADE: D+

MUST IMPROVE: Leave them alone

Kerry

Honestly, I’m kind of impressed at the audacity of attending the wedding of your boss/lover’s ex-wife with his current wife in the entourage and still appearing to act normal about it all. None of this will end well for Kerry. She should run while she still has a chance.

GRADE: D+

MUST IMPROVE: Not doing any of this, to whatever degree possible

Tom

I genuinely feel bad for Tom now. He’s just a big insecure little boy who married into the worst family alive and even Greg is making some little status-raising moves as Tom is flailing about. He should be happy. He’s probably avoiding jail. His wife kind of agreed to have the baby he’s been begging her to have, even if it’s a spite-based plan based on one disastrous conversation with her emotionally-bankrupt mother. He’s getting everything he’s been asking for. Kind of.

Hmm. As I’m typing this, I’m realizing what a low bar there is for characters on this show. I really said “he should be happy” and then my reasons were “not going to prison” and “wife who doesn’t respect or love him wants a baby to spit in her awful mother’s face.”

GRADE: C-

MUST IMPROVE: Poor Tom

Gerri

I have yet to figure out Gerri’s side of the Roman thing. I think I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities:

• She likes the power aspect of it, how her boss’s son is a sicko little puppy at her feet just peeing and pooping on the floor and being naughty and letting her feign outrage about it even though she loves the mess
• She just enjoys having some young dude shower her with attention, even when it’s not healthy

Either way, it’s a weird situation that was bound to explode at some point and finally did. It’s always been a tough spot for Gerri because she’s more expendable to Logan than his own weird son, but now it’s, like, double tough. I hope she hits Shiv with a frying pan.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Decision-making

Stewy and Sandi

Okay, close your eyes. Not now. After this paragraph. But then close them. And picture Stewy’s entire face as he realizes both the GoJo deal and the whole company are now in a state of chaos because one of Logan’s children might be dead and another clicked the wrong button while trying to send a picture of his penis to the CEO during a meeting.

It’s a fun mental image.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Choosing dance partners

Willa

I paused this episode on a still frame of Willa’s face after Connor proposed and I started laughing out loud, like a quiet chuckle building to a full-on giggle. It’s not that I want to see bad things happen to her. I like Willa, mostly. It’s just… look at her face. She’s realizing so many things all at once. She has regrets.

GRADE: C+

MUST IMPROVE: Connor

Peter Onions

Peter Onions is…

• A capitalist sleazebag who is destroying nursing homes
• Probably marrying Caroline for her money
• A big old doofus

And yet… I love him? This show does weird things to you, man. I should hate this chump with every fiber of my being and I would if you plopped him another show with more redeemable people on it. But here we are. Look at his pants!

GRADE: B-

MUST IMPROVE: Giving me existential crises

Iverson Roy

His grandpa was willing to poison him and his dad might be dead in that pool but Iverson Roy gets a B anyway because I feel like he needs a win. And it’s still deeply funny and perfect — and maybe says more about Kendall as a character than any line of dialogue or plot development ever could — that his first name is Iverson. He’s a sweet boy who has no chance.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Trusting the evil and/or stupid authority figures in his life

Lukas Matsson

Used goofy tweets to manipulate his stock price and corner Waystar Royco into a merger instead of a buyout. Lives in any number of scenic mansions around the world, all of which I imagine he hates for specific and petty reasons. Probably will find the Roman Texting Fiasco very, very funny, even if it ends up costing him money and/or time.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: I feel like he should have a mustache for some reason

Weddings, generally

I love weddings. They’re a blast. I love the mingling and the corny DJs and the one uncle and/or aunt who has a couple of drinks more than they usually have and starts getting ambitious on the dance floor. And I’m a blast at weddings. I thrive in a reception hall. I’ve been asked to give a speech twice and I brought the house down both times. The only problem is that most of my friends and family members are married now and I haven’t been invited to a wedding in a few years. It’s honestly a problem.

GRADE: B+

MUST IMPROVE: Invite me to your wedding. I won’t be weird. I promise.

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright who lived in the late 1800s. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest writers in history and an important figure in the history of theater, but is probably best known today for the storytelling rule commonly referred to as Chekhov’s Gun:

Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.

I bring this up now because I shouted “CHEKHOV’S DICK PIC” at my screen when the Roman thing happened at the end of the episode. I’m sure he’s proud.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: He died of tuberculosis at age 44 and his body was transported home in a refrigerated train car that carried oysters and a bunch of mourners accidentally joined the funeral parade of a military figure by mistake, so let’s go with “dying gracefully”

Cousin Greg

I was tempted to penalize him for trying to trade up from Comfry within moments of scoring that sweet little peck kiss, but then I saw his attempted wooing of the duchess and I couldn’t help myself. He’s a good boy. Misguided and awkward and a little evil way down in there, but still, a good boy.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: Talking, walking, etc.

Hats

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: No notes. I love a fancy and/or floppy hat.

Jess Jordan

Jess Jordan has been absent for the last two episodes. This is the kind of thing that would usually be bad for a character on a popular television show, if only because it implies a lack of importance. Here, though, it provides hope. She managed to avoid Kendall’s disaster of a birthday party and the somehow bigger disaster of the wedding. She might be free of the whole thing if Kendall does indeed die in that pool. These could be huge developments for Jess Jordan.

You remember in Good Will Hunting when Ben Affleck gives that little speech about the best part of his day? I’ll just go ahead and blockquote it.

Every day, I come by your house and I pick you up. And we go out, we have a few drinks, and a few laughs, and it’s great. You know what the best part of my day is? It’s for about ten seconds when I pull up to the curb to when I get to your door. ‘Cause I think maybe I’ll get up there and I’ll knock on the door and you won’t be there. No goodbye, no “see ya later”, no nothin’. You just left. I don’t know much, but I know that.

That’s how I feel about Jess Jordan when she’s not in an episode

GRADE: A+

MUST IMPROVE: Fulfilling her destiny

Over on the Trump Store, you can buy all sorts of crap for the meat-breath Taekwondo master in your life this holiday season. There’s Trump bears, Trump flasks, and Trump ice cube trays, except, oops, those are inexplicably out of stock. One item you can’t buy on the store, however, is Trump’s 2021 Christmas card that’s going viral on Twitter.

As seen here:

That’s because it’s not real. The real one looks like this, but can you blame people for thinking the fake card is legit? The dreary background, the miserable expression while wearing a tuxedo, the tacky font, the kids and Melania appearing in ornaments (Community did it), the insistence that he still belongs in the White House — this is the sort of tastelessness we came to expect from Trump after four years as president, and the decades preceding his administration. Also, uh, take a look where Santa is placed:

Again, not real (this is where the photo came from). But it is really funny.

As pointed out by the BBC’s Shayan Sardarizadeh, “Plenty of blue tick accounts are currently spreading a fake ‘Donald Trump Christmas card’ (left), which is so obviously made up. The real one (right) is available to purchase on the former president’s website.” Each card costs $10, but Twitter is free. Stick with Twitter.

Taylor Swift may be nominated for Album Of The Year at the 2022 Grammys thanks to her album Evermore, but she’s now no longer named in the category for Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour. A few weeks after the 2022 Grammy nominations were announced, the Recording Academy has now removed Swift, Jack Antonoff, and St. Vincent’s names from Rodrigo’s nomination.

Swift, Antonoff, and St. Vincent were all credited songwriters on Sour, despite not actually ever taking part in the writing process. Rodrigo credited them because she interpolated Swift’s song “Cruel Summer,” a song which appeared on the album Lover, while writing her second single “Deja Vu.” But because the three musicians didn’t directly have a hand in making the album, the Recording Academy has opted to remove them from the Sour nomination, per a statement given to Billboard:

“During the submission process, the Academy received credits from the label for the track ‘deju vu.’ Last week, we received the correct credits from the label that recognize Annie Clark, Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift as songwriters of an interpolation on the track, ‘deja vu.’ In keeping with current Grammy guidelines, as songwriters of an interpolated track, Clark, Antonoff and Swift are not nominees in the album of the year category for Sour. Antonoff and Swift are nominated in the category for Swift’s album, evermore.”

See the full list of 2022 Grammy nominations here.