Category: News

On Thursday, more than a month after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the set of the low-budget indie Western Rust in New Mexico due to a live round of ammunition being accidentally loaded into a prop gun, Alec Baldwin, who was holding the gun, gave his first public interview about the tragedy to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

It was an emotional conversation, as Baldwin recalled the details of the moment leading up to the shooting, but the Oscar-nominated actor was adamant about one thing: “Someone is responsible for what happened,” he said. “And I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.” As noted by The Wrap, at least one veteran gun expert isn’t buying it.

According to Baldwin, he and Hutchins were working together on blocking a scene. “I’m holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which ended up being aimed right below her armpit,” Baldwin explained.

But Baldwin swears he never pulled the trigger. He says that he “let go of the hammer of the gun, the gun goes off.” Even when he saw Hutchins hit the ground, he wasn’t sure what had happened. His first thought was that she had fainted. It apparently took about 45 minutes for it to occur to the actor that Hutchins’ condition might be related to the firearm.

But Steve Wolf, an armorer with more than 30 years in the business, isn’t buying it. When The Wrap asked him to comment on the likelihood that the Rust accident went down the way that Baldwin explained it, Wolf’s reply was matter-of-fact: “One a scale of one to 10? Zero.”

“You know, guns don’t go up by themselves, right?,” Wolf continued. “It’s an inanimate object. It has no batteries. It has no timer. It has no web connection. It’s not a smart piece of equipment. It’s a very reliable device that shoots when you press the trigger, and it doesn’t shoot when you don’t press the trigger.”

Though Baldwin stated that he “would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger,” Wolf says that the gun in question, an F.LL1 Pietta Long Colt 45 Revolver, has an ultra-sensitive trigger and can be easily discharged.

“I believe that he believes what he’s saying, because I don’t believe that he intended to press the trigger,” Wolf told The Wrap. “But I also don’t believe that the trigger pressed itself. A single-action Colt 45 like that has a very, very light trigger. You know, if you have your finger on the trigger, you can almost think to yourself, ‘shoot’—and then the gun goes off. But it’s not because you were thinking ‘shoot,’ it’s because you had some muscle tension. And when that increases, it’s sufficient to fire the gun.”

The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department is echoing Wolf’s comments. “Guns don’t just go off,” Sheriff Adan Mendoza told Fox News. “So whatever needs to happen to manipulate the firearm, he did that and it was in his hands.” The Sheriff’s Department is currently awaiting a report from the FBI that should shed additional light on what exactly happened.

(Via The Wrap)

Okay, let’s talk about villains. Villains are important. We need villains, if we’re being honest about it, because we love having heroes. You can’t have a hero without an equal and opposing force for him to battle. Something that forces the hero to behave heroically. It can take a million forms. Sometimes the villain is a cartoon chaos agent who just wants to upend things in the name of anarchy, like the Joker. Sometimes the villain is, like, the various systems and forces and structures we’ve enacted as a society that hold some of us down. And sometimes, if we’re lucky, as we have been recently, the villain is some extremely charismatic and menacing dude played by Tony Dalton.

You know Tony Dalton, probably. Hopefully. He popped up in the most recent seasons of Better Call Saul, the wonderful Breaking Bad prequel, as Lalo Salamanca. Lalo is a member of the cartel that later brings us Tuco and Hector, and he’s currently at war with Gus Fring and Nacho, and, again, I kind of hope you know all of that because Better Call Saul is so good and you deserve to enjoy good things. Either way, the facts aren’t super important. What’s important can be identified in a short three-item list:

• Lalo is always well-dressed and usually smiling, presenting himself as mostly harmless while a twinkle in his eye tells you he might slit your throat with a box cutter for an offense as trivial as “the delivery guy forget to include utensils, which wasn’t even your fault, but that guy left already and you’re the closest person, so here we are”
• Lalo rules
• I love him very much

Evidence will help. Here is Lalo Salamanca descending from the ceiling with a gun in his hand, displaying surprising athleticism and just generally being cool and/or awesome.

And here is Lalo Salamanca showing up to a meeting and rolling down the window of his car. It is one of my favorite things ever. Look at his face. Keep looking at his face. Watch this GIF loop through a dozen times and watch his expression change zero percent and then remember this man is the biggest threat to any of the characters on the show. He’s a blast.

The only downside here is that Better Call Saul takes place before Breaking Bad and, in Season 4 of that show, Gus Fring says that all the Salamancas are dead, which means Lalo is not long for this world, probably, when the show returns next year. I will be honestly, truly sad when this happens. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Let’s not.

In fact, let’s just shift to good news instead: Tony Dalton just started popping up in the new Disney+ Marvel series Hawkeye. He plays a rich dude named Jack who is obsessed with swords. He’s the creepy stepdad of Kate Bishop, who is played by Hailee Steinfeld. He has a really terrific mustache. At one point in the first episode, he swaggers into some secretive black market auction with a tuxedo on and says, “I’m going to buy that sword,” which is now way, way high up on the things I want to do just once before I die.

And it’s all so great. He oozes charming evil out of every pore on his skin. He hasn’t even done anything “bad” yet, really. He’s mostly just stood/sat there with a deeply unsettling smile on his face and displayed an as-yet-unexplained mastery of swordplay. A little Googling tells me his character is or will become a notable Marvel villain named Swordsman who, in the comics, starts doing crimes to cover gambling debts, which is pretty funny and relatable as far as supervillain origin stories go. But you don’t need to know that to know this guy is a villain. All you have to do is look at him.

Again, examples will help. This is more or less how the show introduced him to the audience.

To be clear, what we have here:

• Tuxedo
• Rose
• Smile that screams ulterior motives
• Mustache waxed to needle-sharp little points

He could not possibly look more evil unless he was tying a woman to railroad tracks with his free hand. I gasped when I saw him. Part of this was because I recognized him as Lalo and I get excited about things, but a bigger part was because I suddenly realized Hawkeye had become a show I was very interested in. I’m a sucker like that. There should be a character like this in every show. Preferably played by Tony Dalton. For me. Thank you.

But yes, fine, the rose is a bit of a cheat. Anyone can look like a villain in that pose. What about other situations? What about, say.., sitting down and smiling at his also possibly evil father-in-law at the black market auction, shortly before the aforementioned father-in-law dies of — SPOILERS, BUT YOU GUESSED IT ANYWAY — a mysterious sword wound?

Yes, this will do. This is primo villain material here.

What if we lose the tux and put him in… oh, I don’t know… a stylish turtleneck?

Mother of God. Look at him. He gives off more Bond villain energy in this single still image than any Bond villain has given off in an actual movie in decades. Now I’m mad he hasn’t been a Bond villain already. Let’s hurry up and cast a new Bond and then let’s get Tony Dalton in there with a plan to blow up the Sphinx. I’ll settle for a Paddington villain. Who also wants to blow up the Sphinx. I’m willing to be flexible here but only so much.

And that’s all before we get to the best image of all…

I need to be clear about what’s happening here: The man is sitting on a couch, looking deliciously villainous, while eating a Werther’s original. Do you understand the degree of difficulty here? All due respect to the Werther’s corporation and their fine array of candies, but they might be the least cool/intimidating foodstuffs on the planet. And yet. And yet! There’s Tony Dalton unwrapping one and popping it into his mouth, just below his pointy mustache, looking like he’s about to press a button that causes the floor to open up and reveal a bubbling lava pit that he will dangle a terrified subordinate over for failing him in some trivial task. Maybe it’s the delivery guy from earlier. I know I was technically talking about Lalo in that example and this is a different character, but come on. Work with me. Look at him. It’s… it’s perfect.

All of which brings us to the point here, one I’ve been toying with for a few days but now feel confident enough about to share in public: Tony Dalton, between his roles in Better Call Saul and now Hawkeye, is the best villain working in television today. It’s not particularly close, either. Part of me wants him to slide into every show as a new antagonist, just to test out this theory a bit. Put him on Succession as a fellow media titan and let him do battle with the Roys. Put him on The Righteous Gemstones as a Spanish-language televangelist and let him encroach on the family’s Southern turf. Put him on The Mandalorian as a scoundrel space pirate and let him dismissively tussle where the hair would be on Baby Yoda’s head if Baby Yoda had hair. I need it. Especially now that I’ve typed it out and read it out loud a few times. There’s no going back now. I went and committed us both.

In short: Villains are good. Tony Dalton is good at playing villains. This isn’t hard. The ball is already rolling here. There is momentum. Let’s just make sure it never stops. For me. For us. For society. But mostly for me.

September brought a new Grimes track, “Love,” and now, December marks the start of a new era for the artist with “Player Of Games,” an ethereal, club-ready banger. Grimes sings on the chorus, “If I loved him any less / I’d make him stay / But he has to be the best / Player of games.”

Ahead of the song’s release, she indicated it is part of something bigger, writing, “Tonight at Midnight – Chapter 1…” After the track dropped, she tweeted, “And so the BOOK 1 era begins.”

Meanwhile, Grimes recently took to Twitter to address her relationship with fame, writing last month, “I just have literally zero interest in being famous anymore. My job requires being on social media. It’s equivalent to an emotionally abusive relationship to hear countless times throughout the day about what a failure I am.. just in order to do my job on the most basic level.” A couple days later, she added, “Concluded that things can only hurt you when u decide to let them. Stand by what I said, cuz we must improve internet mental health situation 4 all, but I choose optimism as core vibe rather be free and hated than beloved but in psychological chains. nite.”

Listen to “Player Of Games” above.

Ted Cruz and Jimmy Kimmel’s feud reached new heights this week. The late-night host produced a photoshopped nightmare of a naked dude (with Cruz’s face) riding a hot dog. Ted called Jimmy “obsessed” while continuing to obsess over a video of “Me kicking his ass at hoops.” No one looks mature here, although it must be noted that Kimmel’s an entertainer, so dragging current events is part of the game, and Ted’s a sitting senator who should have been attempting to avert a government shutdown on Thursday.

However, Ted spent time tweeting at Jimmy while also threatening to rally GOP lawmakers and shut down the government over “pissant” Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate (he also flipped over a Biden joke). Well, this whole round of feuding began earlier this week when Kimmel accused Ted of trying to “scare old people” by vilifying Dr. Fauci (which Ted and Tucker Carlson truly have been attempting to do). And so, Kimmel addressed the subject again (around the 2:30 mark above) while slamming “desperate” Ted for ridiculously tweeting at a late-night show when he should be, you know, working:

“Biden said he spoke to Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, and he believes that there won’t be a shutdown unless somebody decides to be erratic, and by somebody, he means Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas. #HotDogTeddy, he seems to be desperate for attention again. Ted Cruz and I had an interesting back-and-forth today. Last night I posted a very nice picture of him naked, sitting on a hot dog on Twitter. This morning, he took time away from holding the government hostage to tweet… So I wrote back because it’s the polite thing to do.”

Yep, Kimmel continued this mess because, on his behalf, it’s almost obligatory. So, he tweeted the hot dog photo again (while noting that Ted suggested that it was Jimmy’s hot dog) and added, “Dearest Ted, what a strange erotic fantasy you turned this into… I’ll see you in Cancun. #HotDogTeddy.”

Then came a half-hearted, non-discouragement about how Ted doesn’t want that photo tweeted, and “He doesn’t have time for nonsense like this. He’s busy trying to shut the country down, okay?”

On Friday morning, Ted could not miss another opportunity to tweet a basketball gif. I’m surprised this one didn’t come with an elbow shot because that’s how Cruz rolls.

December means that the holiday season is in full swing, and hopefully, you want to avoid watching the news while also staying safe amid our ongoing global situation. Well, at least one good thing happened this week: Netflix dropped sleighs full of content, so you don’t even have to wait until Christmas to open up these offerings. For that same reason, there’s a holiday romcom with some twists that also stars Jennifer Coolidge, and nobody does those messy, boozy characters as well as Jennifer freaking Coolidge.

Naturally, there’s something for everyone here because that’s the way that Netflix rolls. There’s the final season of a popular sci-fi series and a Benedict Cumberbatch/Jane Campion movie that’s a major awards contender and is equal parts unsettling and breathtaking to behold. A reality series and a nostalgic, Y2K-set film, a fresh reality series, and a few mountaineering-based projects arrive this week. When you’re finished with those selections, well, let’s get real: you won’t have time to watch everything on this list this weekend. Still, here’s the best of the options to watch, so let’s get cracking.

Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.

Single All The Way (Netflix film streaming 12/2)

What you really need to know here is that Jennifer Coolidge is starring in a Christmas movie. There’s also Michael Urie starring as a perpetual singleton and Philemon Chambers as his best friend (and pretend lover for nosy-family purposes), along with Kathy Najimy as a doting mother and Luke Macfarlane as a hot personal trainer. I just need to see Coolidge boozing it up, and the rest is gravy.

Lost In Space: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming 12/1)

The final season raises the stakes for the survival of the Robinsons after being stuck on a mysterious planet. They’ll aim for an evacuation, but will buried secrets rise up to threaten their escape? Overwhelming odds and emotional challenges and alien threats will all rear their heads. Man, this is almost as stressful as our current life on Earth, but it’s an enormously popular series.

The Power of the Dog (Netflix film streaming 12/1)

Benedict Cumberbatch briefly leaves the MCU to collaborate with director Jane Campion as he portrays a “charismatic rancher,” which is certainly something that we’ve never seen him do before. However, he’s got a sinister streak and terrorizes his brother and sister-in-law (played by real-life spouses Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst) while whistling and apparently never saying a word (at least in the above trailer). Cumberbatch Chills are a real thing, as you’ll witness from this film.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (Netflix documentary streaming 11/29)

A fearless Nepali climber, Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja, feeds into his country’s deep connection to daredevil mountaineering at the top of the world. As the title suggests, he undertakes the mission to climb the world’s 14 highest peak, and he enlists the power of skilled Sherpas to get the job done. In the process, he encounters extreme weather while also processing heavy emotions about his everyday life on sea-level altitude.

Mo Amer: Mohammed in Texas (Netflix stand-up special streaming 11/30)

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 streaming 11/29)

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.”

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean (Netflix series streaming 12/1)

Jolyne Cujoh receives a fifteen-year prison sentence, but once she’s incarcerated at “the Aquarium,” a gifted pendant causes her to embody a mysterious power. As if that doesn’t sound weird enough, a mysterious child appears to spread secrets, and there are other horrible truths that awaken which makes this much more horrible than a flat-out boring prison sentence in a stone ocean would have been. Yikes.

Mixtape (Netflix film streaming 12/3)

An awkward orphaned tween (right as Y2K happens) discovers her parents’ old mixtape that they created during courtship. She subsequently uses these carefully arranged songs to learn about the parents that she barely new, and of course, there’s a trip to an actual record store in the mix, too. A whole lot of nostalgia’s going on here.

Coming Out Colton: Season 1 (Netflix series streaming 12/3)

Former The Bachelor star Colton Underwood (who’s also a former pro-football player) takes viewers on this journey of how he and why he found his place in the LGBTQ community and how he decided to come out as a gay man.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 11/28
Elves

Avail. 11/29
14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible

Avail. 11/30
Charlie’s Colorforms City: Classic Tales with a Twist
Charlie’s Colorforms City: Snowy Stories
Charlie’s Colorforms City: The Lost Valentines Musical
Coming Home in the Dark
More the Merrier
The Summit of the Gods

Avail. 12/1
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean
Kayko and Kokosh
Lost in Space: Season 3
The Power of the Dog
Are You The One: Season 3
Blood and Bone
Body of Lies
Bordertown: Mural Murders
Chloe
Chocolat
Closer
Death at a Funeral
Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
The Final Destination
Final Destination 3
Final Destination 5
Fool’s Gold
The Fourth Kind
Ink Master: Season 3
Ink Master: Season 4
Knight Rider 2000
Knight Rider: Seasons 1-4
Law Abiding Citizen
The Legend of Zorro
Life
Looper
The Mask of Zorro
Minority Report
Pet Sematary (1989)
Premonition
Sabrina (1995)
Soul Surfer
Stepmom
Stuart Little 2
Sucker Punch
Think Like a Man
Tremors
We Were Soldiers
Wild Things
Wyatt Earp

Avail. 12/2
The Alpinist
Coyotes
Single All The Way
The Whole Truth

Avail. 12/3
Cobalt Blue
Coming Out Colton
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Season 4
Money Heist: Part 5 Vol 2
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays: Season 4
Mixtape
Money Heist: From Tokyo to Berlin: Volume 2
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas

Avail. 12/5
JAPAN SINKS: People of Hope: Season 1

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 12/7
Before I Fall

Leaving 12/8
It Comes at Night
Mariah Carey’s Merriest Christmas

Leaving 12/13
Halt and Catch Fire: Seasons 1-4
Fifty: The Series: Seasons 1-2
Saint Seiya: Seasons 1-6

Leaving. 12/15
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Maps to the Stars
The Theory of Everything

George Clooney wasn’t lacking for money before he sold his Casamigos tequila company for $1 billion, and he’s certainly not lacking for money now, but he could have been $35 million richer if he agreed to star in a commercial for an airline company. Think of all the Harleys he could have bought with those 35 million clams. But the Oscar-winning actor turned it down, as he explained in a new interview with the Guardian.

“I was offered $35 million for one day’s work for an airline commercial, but I talked to [his wife] Amal about it and we decided it’s not worth it,” he said. “It was [associated with] a country that, although it’s an ally, is questionable at times, and so I thought, well, if it takes a minute’s sleep away from me, it’s not worth it.” Clooney did not agonize over this decision, which is what happens when you’re worth an estimated $500 million.

Clooney also discussed why he doesn’t appear in as many films as he used to:

“In general, there just aren’t that many great parts – and, look, I don’t have to act. My wife and I had this conversation when I turned 60 this summer. I said, ‘I can still bounce around pretty good, and we both love what we do. But we gotta make sure we don’t book ourselves silly.’ So, part of it is just us making sure we live our lives.”

It seems like a good life, traveling around the world, pooping in various character actor’s litter boxes. Clooney’s new movie The Tender Bar, which he directed, comes out in theaters on December 17 before hitting Amazon Prime Video on January 7, 2022.

(Via the Guardian)

For months, Ed Sheeran has been teasing a new Christmas song with Elton John, and now, their holiday tune, succinctly titled “Merry Christmas,” has arrived. The two were clearly going after the classic Christmas vibe, as the song has plenty of bells and cheery hooks. At the same time, though, it addresses hardship, as Sheeran sings on the chorus, “So just keep kissin’ me under the mistletoe / Pour out the wine, let’s toast and pray for December snow / I know there’s been pain this year, but it’s time to let it go / Next year, you never know.”

Sheeran recently explained that the song came about after John noticed his his 1973 track “Step Into Christmas” on the charts in 2020. Sheeran said, “He rung me on Christmas Day and he said, ”Step Into Christmas’ is No. 6 on the charts, and I’m 74, and I’m still having f*cking chart hits, this is great! I want to do another Christmas song, will you do it with me?’”

Sheeran later noted he couldn’t believe the song’s simple title wasn’t already taken by another song, saying, “We write it and I title it ‘Merry Christmas,’ and I’m like, ‘We’re going to have to change that title because there’s probably loads of songs called ‘Merry Christmas.” I went on Spotify and I typed in ‘Merry Christmas’: nothing. There’s ‘Merry Christmas, Everyone,’ there’s ‘Happy Xmas,’ there’s ‘Merry Xmas,’ there’s ‘War Is Over.’ There was not a song called ‘Merry Christmas.’ And then I went on YouTube and checked it out and it baffled me. It’s kind of like this glitch in a video game where no one’s thought to… yeah.”

Watch the “Merry Christmas” video above.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The success Blxst has attained this year began with the work he released to the world to close 2020. His No Love Lost project, and its deluxe reissue, put the West Coast singer on the map as one of the latest artists to catch the attention of R&B world. This would kick off a streak of impressive releases that continued all throughout 2021. Now, with just a few weeks left in the year, Blxst submits another track to appear on his portfolio for the year.

He returns with “About You,” his first solo track in over a year, and on it, he dedicates his time to a new love interest who seems to doubt his commitment to their growing love. Blxst promises that his focus is on her and her only, and while she may have had bad experiences with love in the past, he assures her that this time will be different.

Blxst’s latest release comes after he and fellow West Coaster Bino Rideaux reunited for Sixtape 2 earlier this year. The project came complete with 12 songs that showed how much the duo improved since dropping Sixtape in 2019. Blxst also teamed up with Snoop Dogg for “Go To War” and stopped by The Tonight Show With Starring Jimmy Fallon to play a high school chamber in his video for “Chosen” with Ty Dolla Sign and Tyga.

You can listen to “About You” in the video above.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Saweetie has left her fans waiting for her anticipated debut album, Pretty B*tch Music, for the past six months as the Bay Area native delayed it from its original June release. For what it’s worth, Saweetie has continued to release plenty of music despite the delay. This includes her Pretty Summer Playlist: Season 1 project and her latest single, “Icy Chain.” With that being said, it looks like the wait for Pretty B*tch Music will continue as Saweetie announced a different project that’s set to arrive next month.

During a conversation led by journalist Gerrick Kennedy on Thursday, Saweetie said she plans to release a new project, Icy Season, next month on January 7. Tomás Mier, a music writer at People confirmed the news in a tweet, adding that Saweetie “promises collabs galore and considers the new record to be the ‘pretty b*tch bible.’”

The news comes after she contributed “Get It Girl,” a bouncy record that finds her comfortable in her confident pocket, to the soundtrack for the fifth season of Issa Rae’s Insecure. She also made her debut on Saturday Night Live where she performed “Icy Chain” and a medley of “Tap In” and “Best Friend.”

You can hear Saweetie talk about Icy Season in the video above.

Icy Season is out 1/7 via ICY/Warner Records.

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

While it’s been two years since Cordae released an album, the DMV rapper has made the wait for his next full-length release more than bearable. Between a collection of strong singles and guest features, Cordae has supplied his fans with plenty of music to ease the wait for his second album, From A Birds Eye View. That streak continues with his latest single, “Sinister.” The track pairs the young spitter with a hip-hop veteran, Lil Wayne, as the two strike fire for an impressive lyrical onslaught.

The new track arrives with a matching visual that sees Cordae and Wayne lead a well-orchestrated revolution. Similar to what the likes of Malcolm X and Fred Hampton might have done back in the back, the two rappers stand in front of fellow group members to lead a charge against the oppressor. Through it all, Cordae and Wayne deliver very sharp verses that only build anticipation for what will appear on From A Birds Eye View.

“Sinister” arrives after Cordae lent a verse to Nas’ “Life Is Like A Dice Game” and a remix of Eminem’s “Killer” with Jack Harlow. Cordae also dropped off his Just Until EP with Young Thug and Q-Tip earlier this year.

You can listen to “Sinister” in the video above.

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