Category: News

While we all anxiously wait for the definitive answer to “how much Game of Thrones is too much Games of Thrones?” HBO remains hard at work on the former hits many spinoff series, scouting cast members and setting aside what has to be astronomical sums of money to pour into their high fantasy forays. However, just as important as compelling characters, lush locations, and CGI dragons is what (early) Game of Thrones was known for: great writing. Luckily for us, it seems HBO thinks they’ve found it for its upcoming prequel, Tales of Dunk and Egg.

Earlier today, HBO announced Steve Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Wonder) has been tapped to serve as writer and executive producer on Tales of Dunk and Egg (via Variety). While the filmmaker is might seem a slightly unusual choice, it’s worth noting Conrad has also dabbled into television, previously creating the Amazon Prime series Patriot.

Set 90 years before the events of A Song of Fire and Ice (and subsequently HBO’s Game of Thrones), Tales of Dunk and Egg follows the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg). The one-hour drama will be based on writer George R. R. Martin‘s series of fantasy novellas, and should hopefully hit the streaming service sometime in the next few years.

For those of you a bit put off by that wait, rest assured winter– er, I mean, another Game of Thrones spinoff series — is coming. You can catch HBO’s House of the Dragon (and its cool as hell cast featuring the likes of Matt Smith, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, and Emma D’Arcy) sometime in 2022.

Beatles fans have been waiting almost a year for the Peter Jackson-directed documentary on the band, which takes hours of previously unseen footage and stitches it together into a whole new experience. The documentary finally hit streaming services this weekend, and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with fans of the band doubling down on their exaltation of the perceived genius of these four young men. Today, Jackson even let fans know he thinks there was a way the Beatles could’ve been preserved as a band, though part of their legacy is probably due to the fact that they called it quits so early.

As far as Yoko Ono is concerned, the documentary is positive because it helps showcase the fact that she had nothing to do with tensions in the group, and their eventual ending. But, some of the more positive moments in the film have to do with the sheer musical talent these men possessed, particularly Paul McCartney. One clip from the film that keeps making the rounds on Twitter features a young McCartney messing around on his guitar, trying to make something out of nothing. And then he actually does — turning nonsense vocals and sorta riffs into the bare bones of the song “Get Back” (which the documentary is named for) in about two minutes. Even if The Beatles aren’t your thing, it’s still fascinating that this bit of songwriting magic was captured on film, check it out below.

Read our review of The Beatles: Get Back right here.

The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, ex-girlfriend and fixer for late financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, is only on its second day, and already it’s a powder keg. (She’s also allegedly not having much fun in jail, though nor did Epstein.) On Tuesday, Lawrence Visoski Jr., Epstein’s pilot of 30 years, took the stand. He saw many faces over his long tenure, and some of the names he dropped were familiar (or at least unexpected). Others were more than a little shocking.

As per The New York Post, Maxwell’s defense attorney grilled Visoski, asking him to name names. There was former president Bill Clinton, who he said flew on some of Epstein’s private flights. Prince Andrew, another name long connected with Epstein, was also on board multiple times.

Then there’s another former president, Donald J. Trump, who reportedly once considered pardoning Maxwell before whatever senses he possesses came to him. Attorney Christian Everdell asked whether he flew on Epstein’s plane with his family. Visoski said he “didn’t remember that.” But as for Trump solo? “I certainly remember President Trump,” he replied.

All three names have been bandied about in reference to Epstein before. But there were some who hadn’t been before Tuesday. They included Kevin Spacey, whose career was deep-sixed after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. But Visoski also mentioned comedian-actor Chris Tucker, Senators George Mitchell and John Glenn, even legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman.

Visoski even said that if someone like Clinton was on board, he would get advance notice. There would even be special catering, he said.

The pilot was also asked about the presence of a “mature woman,” referred to by prosecutors only as “Jane” and who, they believe, met Epstein and Maxwell in 1994 when she was only 14 years old. Prosecutors allege that the two lured her to his Florida home, where Epstein began sexually abusing her. However, Visoski said he could not picture seeing her, nor any female below the age of 20 onboard a flight.

And this is only day two.

(Via NY Post)

It’s only night three of this year’s Festival Of Lights, so Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin are just getting into full swing with their now annual “Hanukkah Sessions” series. Last year, the pair wiled away time spent in lockdown by covering eight Jewish artists to correspond with the eight nights of Hanukkah, and they’re repeating the tradition this year. Kicking off Sunday with Lisa Loeb’s iconic “Stay,” and following up yesterday with the full on punk of The Ramones’ jumpy “Blitzkrieg Bop,” tonight they’ve changed gears a bit, and are tackling Barry Manilow’s classic “Copacabana.”

As you might expect, Grohl and Kurstin are more ready than ever to ham it up to the campy hit single, which is the kind of song that everyone loves to sing along to at a bar, and both donned sparkly suit jackets to pull the whole affair off. With plenty of bongos, cowbell, keyboard and drums, it’s Dave, obviously, who takes on the signature role of Barry, while interstitial clips show him playing the drums, too. It’s just more musical fun with these pair who can pull off covers most people dream of accomplishing with a little tinsel, a keyboard, and a drum kit. Watch above.

Candace Parker is a sure-fire Hall of Famer and will go down as one of the best of all time in women’s basketball. Parker led the Chicago Sky to its first championship in her first season in her hometown, giving her a pair of WNBA titles to go along with two league MVP awards, a DPOY, six first team All-WNBA honors, and three second-team selections.

However, Parker has been somewhat conspicuously left off of USA Basketball rosters since winning her second Olympic gold medal in 2012. While USA Basketball has a robust player pool to select from on the women’s side, Parker’s absence has raised eyebrows and led to many a theory about why that was, with many placing the blame on the UConn contingent that has long held power within USA hoops. Huskies coach Geno Auriemma was the long-time coach before Dawn Staley took over this past Olympics, and the Tennessee-UConn rivalry made for a rather easy explanation.

Parker herself subscribes to that theory as to why she hasn’t made a team since 2012, speaking with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks on Tuesday about her USA Basketball experience and explaining how it very clearly had nothing to do with her on-court performance.

As long as you have prominent coaches at the helm of USA Basketball, there will always be some question of fairness in selections, but Parker’s point is particularly compelling. She notes that part of her frustration comes from the fact that no one would really tell her a real reason for her being left off, as she knows it has to be for some fit concerns but because they’ve never been addressed with her while she dominated on the floor, it could never even be something she tried to adjust.

Parker isn’t alone in feeling excluded by the politics of USA Basketball, as Nneka Ogwumike was snubbed from this year’s squad despite being a reigning MVP and the leader of USA hoops in the run-up to the Olympics last year before things got shut down. Parker voiced her support for Ogwumike after being left off, noting the similarity to their situation, and it seems there is some serious work to be done by USA Basketball to mend fences if they are to change the frustrations players feel towards the selection process.

Though Lorde’s Solar Power album and the self-titled lead single that kicked it off didn’t necessarily become critic favorites this year, within the industry, plenty of artists have tried their hand at the song. Griff did a cover of it as part of her Spotify Singles release earlier this year and now the massive UK indie-pop band Glass Animals have also tried their hand at a rendition. Following up a pretty massive Grammy nomination in the Best New Artist category, Glass Animals just finished up a massive live tour, so this is a nice end cap for fans who might’ve missed a live show.

As part of a visit to the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, where every visiting band offers up a live cover for fans, Dave Bayley and his crew turned the breathy, ’70s-inspired anthem into a much glitchier thing. Since electronic pop music is kind of their thing — and used to be Lorde’s — their version makes perfect sense. But what made the whole thing even better? The soulful backup singers that the band brought into the studio to help flesh out their more upbeat version. Tackling it at a slightly different speed, Bayley’s signature falsetto sounded great flanked by the female vocalists who were singing harmonies. Check out the Glass Animals version of “Solar Power” above.

While you might not be able to enter the Matrix, you can enter a Denny’s… and that’s kind of the next coolest thing, right? Right. And hey, stopping by American’s favorite 24-hour breakfast spot has just gotten even better since the chain has entered into a new, limited-time partnership with Warner Bros. in anticipation of The Matrix Resurrections, the newest entry in the long-running Matrix saga.

The promotion began, quite fittingly, on Cyber Monday (November 29) and is scheduled to run through January 4, 2022. According to Denny’s, the partnership largely impacts Denny’s Rewards members, who will be transported to a “real-life Matrix” when they log into their account filled with personalized “glitches,” resulting in major savings and exclusive offers.

“There’s a glitch in the Matrix… and it’s impacting Denny’s Rewards Members. Receive offers like free drinks, special discounts and more as a Denny’s Rewards member while the glitch lasts.”

In addition to a five-week period of free menu items and other discounts, the partnership also includes a two-week window of free deliveries with all orders over $5. That promotion is scheduled to run until December 12, and is valid only through Denny’s mobile app.

For people more into bullet-dodging than eggs benedict, The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max December 22, and features returning cast members Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as well as series’ newcomers Neil Patrick Harris, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Priyanka Chopra.

While actors are certainly accustomed to a fair amount of violence and drama thanks to their line of work, it feels pretty safe to say nothing can prepare you for what happens when the stakes are real. This is a lesson The Hangover and Silver Linings Playbook star Bradley Cooper unfortunately learned when he was reportedly “held up at knifepoint” in New York City two years ago. Cooper opened up about the terrifying incident in a recent episode of Dax Shepard‘s podcast, Armchair Expert, revealing for the first time the details of exactly what happened back in October 2019 (via Mediate).

According to Cooper, the assault happened while he was on his way to pick up his daughter from school. The actor said he was waiting at a New York City subway station listening to music when he noticed a person was approaching him, however he quickly dismissed the behavior as a fan approaching him for a photo — until he noticed they were clutching a knife.

“I realized I had gotten way, way too comfortable in the city,” Cooper admitted. “My guard was down.”

After noticing the weapon, Cooper said he looked up at his assailant and was “taken” by how young they were. He then proceeded to describe the whole encounter as something out of a movie, citing The French Connection and light-heartedly adding in “the whole thing was scored” by the music playing from his headphones. Thankfully — and in spite of how surreal the situation was — Cooper was somehow able to literally jump into action, and even managed to snap a few photos of his attacker.

“I just started booking, just started running,” he recalled. “I jumped over the turnstile, hid around the white, tiled entrance to the subway, took my phone out. [The suspect] jumped over, running away. I took a photo of him. Then I chased him up the stairs. He started running up 7th Avenue. I took two more photographs of him.”

Cooper said that he then showed the pictures he took to a group of New York City Police officers, one of which asked the actor to check if he had been stabbed since some people are too in shock to realize. Luckily for Cooper, he escaped scathe-free and was able to get back on the subway to pick up his daughter.

“It was crazy,” he told Shepard.

In a new interview with Fox Nation, former Donald Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany revealed the divine inspiration she received before holding her first press briefing with the White House press corps. According to McEnany, she was so nervous that she found herself crying in the bathroom where she began to pray and allegedly received the calm touch of Jesus, who prepped her to spout Trump talking points in front of the whole world. Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter:

“I was a wreck, I was crying .. I got down on my knees in the bathroom and I prayed. All of the sudden, when I took the podium, all those tears had melted away and I had this total serenity that was only made possible because of Christ.”

Considering who McEnany worked for and the numerous falsehoods she told in service to that administration, and continued to tell while making the inevitable jump to Fox News, there was plenty of eye-rolling on social media as people asked if she’s seriously trying to say that Jesus told her to lie for Donald Trump. It also doesn’t help that McEnany was so ensconced in Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election that she’s been subpoenaed by the January 6 select committee. It’s not exactly a sterling reference for the Almighty, as Twitter observed.

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)

La Brea (NBC, 9:00pm) — Natalie Zea and the gang are still attempting to survive in that primeval hellhole, and the good news this week is that they’ve found some sort of portal, and Eve might shove a boy through it. Also, there’s another sinkhole opening in present-day Los Angeles, and Eve’s family is frantically racing against time, space, and whatever other dimensions are involved here.

Mo Amer: Mohammed in Texas (Netflix stand-up special) — Arab-American comic Mo Amer heads out in Houston to deliver jokes about pandemic panic, Bradley Cooper, and how to properly curse in Arabic. The stock market and hummus are also subjects, so I guess nothing is off limits anymore.

The Summit of the Gods (Netflix film) — This film adapts the manga series of the same name and follows the discovery of a game-changing camera in the realm of mountaineering. Every climber here is obsessive and hungry for greater heights, and the fate of a missing climber could be the key to ascending, well, “the summit of the gods.”

Riverdale (CW, 9:00pm) — The gang must deal with unexpected ultimatums after a mysterious figure arrives in the community.

The Flash (CW, 8:00pm) — Despero’s future vision is off, somehow, according to Iris, and Barry meets up with Black Lightning to regroup.

Chucky (SYFY and USA, 10:00pm) — The O.G. homicidal doll is still at it, and my god, he will never stop trying to settle the score. This week, he’s wreaking havoc in a public venue.

The Last O.G. (TBS, 10:30pm) — Tray and Josh discover a mysterious hat, and they’re trying to figure out what it means for Amira’s mysterious ways.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Rita Moreno, Dusty Slay

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Peter Dinklage, Lee Jung-Jae, Aaron And Bryce Dessner

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Kristin Chenoweth, Kal Penn, Kristin Chenoweth

In case you missed this streaming pick from last week:

Jonas Brothers Family Roast (Netflix special) — The Jo Bros are back and making music, so of course, this is also a great time for the trio to roast the hell out of each other. The special aims to prove that no one can get to the root of a roasting quite like another family member, and everyone’s gonna pick on Kevin, right? Expect some special guests along the way to help juice things up even more.