Category: News

There’s a Willy Wonka prequel, because of course there is. And it stars twentysomething Timothée Chalamet, because of course it does. The young actor, about to be seen headlining the latest cinematic stab at Frank Herbert’s Dune, personally dropped the first look at him as the iconic Roald Dahl character on social media. And it inspired a lot of different reactions, because of course it did.

Chalamet took to both Instagram and Twitter to drop two separate images. One shows him in a raspberry turncoat and old-timey hat, looking very serious. Apparently it will take some doing for him to evolve into the weirdo eccentric embodied by Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005. The other picture was a close-up on his signature cane, which boasts a tiny wrapped gift, presumably containing chocolate.

It was an unexpected Sunday surprise, and while many were delighted to see everyone’s favorite floppy-haired young movie star taking on the beloved chocolatier of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it also inspired a lot of yuks.

Some thought his coat looked familiar.

Some thought he looked like a Brooklyn hipster.

Others tried to wrestle with the idea of Hot Willy Wonka.

Some thought that Hot Willy Wonka was not a great idea.

Others thought he was no Gene Wilder.

Or no Johnny Depp.

Some wondered if they’ll wind up modernizing a classic character in creative ways.

But maybe, some pointed out, Willy Wonka is just too weird for this world.

Adding in a secret ending for players to find has become something of a tradition for the Far Cry series. Typically these endings are early on in the game and can be found by doing the non-video game thing. For example, in Far Cry 4 the main antagonist tells the player to stay right there and “not move.” Of course, what anyone would do in this situation is immediately get moving. If the player doesn’t do that though and stays there for over 10 minutes they will be escorted to an early ending for the game. Far Cry 5 had one of these secret endings as well, so it was an easy assumption that Far Cry 6 would have one too.

SPOILERS FOR THE ALTERNATE ENDING OF FAR CRY 6 AHEAD.

In Far Cry 6, they do have a secret ending, but it’s not quite as early on as it was in previous games. This alternative ending takes place later in the game following the mission “Libertad Rises.” At the end of the mission, the main protagonist Dani Rojas is given the option to take a boat and flee to the United States. Of course, the game strongly implies that this is not the correct path to take. If the player chooses to ignore that though and take the boat off into the distance it will fade to black and re-open three months later with Rojas sunbathing on a beach. The radio nearby announces that the revolution in Yara was a failure and the game’s antagonist, Anton Castillo, has successfully quelled it. (h/t GameSpot)

Obviously, it’s not an upbeat ending! Of course, with the game strongly trying to tell the player how bad an idea this is it would make sense for the ending to be a “punishment” for that. Anyone that wants to see the way the game is truly meant to go will need to play through it and experience the whole thing.

While some people are tired of the Far Cry formula, these alternate endings included, it is one of the few games that still do stuff like this. It’s fun when a game rewards the player for doing something out of the ordinary and Far Cry 6 doing that is a plus.

Earlier this year, Taylor Swift returned with a new version of her sophomore album, Fearless — her third project in less than 12 months, following Folklore and Evermore. It eventually topped the albums chart and gave the singer her third No. 1 album in under a year, making her the first woman in music history to achieve such a feat. Swift also tied Madonna for the second-most No. 1 albums in a career for a female artist, behind Barbra Streisand’s 11. Now, more than six months later, it’s made its way back to the top of the Billboard 200.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) earned its second nonconsecutive week at No. 1 thanks to 152,000 album units sold for the October 16-dated Billboard 200 chart. That number is comprised of 146,000 pure albums and 6,000 streaming equivalent album units. The album’s return to No. 1 is due to the sale of signed CDs that were available only on Swift’s website as well as the release of a vinyl LP version.

Of the 146,000 album sales the project received this week, CD sales made up 77,000 while vinyl LP sales made up 67,000, which amounts to the fourth-largest week for a vinyl album since MRC Data began tracking music sales in 1991. It comes behind Swift’s Evermore at No. 1, Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour at No. 2, and Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever at No. 3.

You can revisit our review of Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) here.

More than 50 years ago, The Beatles, came to an end after Paul McCartney announced that he would be walking away from the group. The band attempted to reunite on several occasions but it never happened, and in 1980 John Lennon was tragically assassinated. While it’s been noted that Lennon privately expressed a desire to walk away from the band before McCartney’s announcement, McCartney has long been blamed for the band’s breakup. During an upcoming interview on BBC Radio 4, McCartney pointed the finger elsewhere.

“I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny,” McCartney said, according to The Guardian. “I am not the person who instigated the split. Oh no, no, no. John walked into a room one day and said I am leaving the Beatles. Is that instigating the split, or not?” He added that Lennon described his departure from The Beatles as “quite thrilling” and “rather like a divorce,” despite the fact that the other group members were “left to pick up the pieces.”

McCartney notes that confusion about who instigated the band’s dissolution was caused by the group’s new manager at the time, Allen Klein, who sought to wrap up some business deals before announcing the split. “So for a few months we had to pretend,” McCartney said. “It was weird because we all knew it was the end of the Beatles but we couldn’t just walk away.” McCartney admits he became “fed up of hiding it” and it led to his decision to publicly announce the split and “let the cat out of the bag.”

“I had to fight and the only way I could fight was in suing the other Beatles, because they were going with Klein. And they thanked me for it years later,” he said about the legal drama that ensued after the group’s split. “But I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny coming in one day and saying ‘I’m leaving the group.’”

McCartney’s full interview on BBC Radio 4 will air on October 23

Few people have profited off being Donald Trump’s spawn like Ivanka Trump. Apart from clearly being the former president’s favorite child, she’s also ascended to White House positions to which she was almost certainly unqualified, along with making a ton of money for herself and husband Jared Kushner. But there was one major job she almost nabbed, had it not been for one meddling Trump staffer.

As per Insider, Ivanka came awfully close to nabbing the role of leader of the World Bank, the international institution that oversees loans and grant to low- and middle-income nations. Would the greedy daughter of one of the world’s greediest men have been a good fit for that? Probably not! Luckily Steve Mnuchin, the Warner Bros. exec-turned-Secretary of the Treasury, put the kibosh on that one.

It was early 2019, and Jim Young Kim, the physician and anthropologist who had helmed the institution since 2012, announced he was stepping down. This, Insider says, “presented then-President Donald Trump with the ability to reshape the leadership of the World Bank.” On his list of replacements was Ivanka, on the basis that, as he told The Atlantic, “she’s very good with numbers.”

Ivanka didn’t get the job, and she later claimed she turned it down. But two sources told The Intercept that it was Mnuchin who stopped her from nabbing the gig. “It came incredibly close to happening,” one claimed.

So while Donald Trump may have exited the presidency, the world may still have had to put up with the wife of a notorious alleged slumlord lording over which struggling nation gets financial assistance. And it’s thanks to one of the producers of the Kevin Hart-Will Ferrell prison comedy Get Hard (and lots of other WB titles, including Mad Max: Fury Road) that that nightmare never happened.

(Via Insider)

Andrew Yang hasn’t shown the best decision-making skills about his media appearances, and CNN’s Jim Acosta has certainly noticed. The anchor grilled the former presidential and New York City mayoral candidate on Saturday over his decision to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show in an effort to reach a new audience for his fledgling new political party.

Months ago Yang famously appeared on comedian Ziwe’s talk show, where he struggled to name a Jay-Z song and also inexplicably named the Times Square MTA stop his favorite. Those answers didn’t sit very well with New Yorkers, most of whom didn’t vote for him. But that was nothing like when he chatted with Tucker Carlson during his daytime talk show. On Saturday, as The Daily Beast noted. Jim Acosta confronted him about the appearance, taking particular umbrage with how said nothing to challenge the host as he praised, of all people, the Unabomber.

“Tucker Carlson… I mean, let’s just say he’s a bad person,” Acosta said. “And he represents so much of what is wrong in television news these days. You know this all too well; he spouts off white nationalist talking points. So why would you even go on his show?”

Acosta was more direct with his second question: Why didn’t Yang “go after” the Fox host when “he’s citing the Unabomber and just talking about crazy stuff?”

As The Daily Beast noted, Yang did his best to defend himself, saying he was attempting to reach more people for his political party.

“As you know, Tucker commands a massive audience, and if you wanted to try and build a unifying popular movement that does call attention to the fact that our system’s not working, really, for anyone, you have to, again, reach out,” Yang continued.

“And that’s what I was doing on that show. I mean, the goal is to have Republicans who are discontent to channel their discontent in a positive way. And right now, in my view, it’s not going in a positive direction. I’d like to help change that.”

He doubled down on that sentiment afterward on Twitter.

We’ll see if trying to embrace everyone works for Yang, but it’s clear that not everyone is buying it.

[via The Daily Beast]

With Saturday Night Live’s 47th season underway, Kim Kardashian assumed the duty of host for its most recent episode. She began the night with an entertaining monologue that was received well by audience members. Later on in the night, Kim returned to participate in a courtroom sketch that found her taking the role of a judge while simultaneously playing her sister, Kourtney Kardashian. In the sketch, Kim somewhat delivers decisions on family matters which includes Kylie Jenner’s “overdue” baby, Kendall Jenner’s lack of drama, and Kanye West’s tweets.

In the sketch, Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian appear as themselves while other SNL cast members and guests assumed the role of Kardashian family members and friends. Halsey appeared as Kendall Jenner, Melissa Villaseñor as Kylie Jenner, Heidi Gardner as Kim Kardashian, and Mikey Day played Travis Barker. Chris Redd also appeared as Kanye West, Pete Davidson as Machine Gun Kelly, and Chloe Fineman as Megan Fox. All in all, it was an enjoyable sketch that poked fun at the Kardashian family and their friends.

Kim’s monologue was highlighted by her making jokes about her and Kanye West’s divorce earlier this year. “I mean, I married the best rapper of all time. Not only that, he’s the richest Black man in America, a talented, legit genius, who gave me four incredible kids,” she says. “So when I divorced him, you have to know it came down to just one thing: his personality.”

You can watch The People’s Kourt sketch in the video above.

Prequels have long been one of Hollywood’s favorite genres, but surely the one about Willy Wonka seemed unexpected. But it had good pedigree: It was being helmed by Paul King, best known as the auteur behind the Paddington series. And Wonka, usually played by weirdos like Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, was going to be played by an actual hottie: Timothée Chalamet. And on Sunday, the actor decided to introduced the public to the first look at him in his Wonka garb himself.

“The suspense is terrible, I hope it will last,” Chalamet wrote on Instagram alongside two pics: one of him in a crushed raspberry turncoat and hat, the other a close-up of his walking cane, the top of which contained a miniature wrapped gift.

Not even 26, Chalamet will be far younger than previous Wonka actors. Wilder was in his late 30s when he made 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, while Depp was in his early 40s in the more accurately titled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for frequent director Tim Burton.

Based on the photo, Chalamet’s Wonka looks far more brooding than either. The prequel will follow Wonka before he becomes the honcho of a giant chocolate factory, so perhaps he learned to become an eccentric ham a little later on.

The photos caused a big uproar on social media, including a wide array of jokes.

Anyway, get ready for a Hot Willy Wonka Who F*cks, looks like.

(Via EW)

The Chicago Sky made the trek to Phoenix on Sunday for Game 1 of the WNBA Finals against the Mercury, as the 6-seed took on the 5-seed in a matchup of teams that have had to grind through the entirety of the WNBA playoff format.

In the first quarter, the Mercury took early control at home, leading by as many as nine in the opening period and took a five-point advantage into the second quarter. However, it was in that second quarter that the Sky took over, going on a 17-0 run to turn a 29-33 deficit into a 46-33 lead in just under five minutes of game time. Candace Parker led the way in that stretch with seven points, as the Sky locked down on defense and turned around and ran beautiful offense on the other end to extend a double-digit lead into halftime.

Parker finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks, as the future Hall of Famer did a little bit of everything for the Sky. Allie Quigley added 18 points and Courtney Vandersloot had 12 points and 11 assists, but it was Kahleah Copper (21 points, 10 rebounds) who did the most damage in the second half to help the Sky extend their lead out to 20 and effectively put away the Mercury with sharp shooting (2-of-4 from deep) and flat out out-working Phoenix.

Also playing a big role for the Sky was Stefanie Dolson, as she came in and provided a different look for Britney Griner, who still put up 20 points, six rebounds, and three assists, but wasn’t nearly as impactful as she had been throughout these playoffs. Dolson’s combination of size inside and her ability to pull Griner out of the paint on the other end, spacing the floor by hitting 2-of-3 from deep on her way to 14 points, proved to be a wrinkle that the Mercury weren’t quite ready for in the opener.

Phoenix would pull back to within 12 late in the fourth, but could never mount much of a real threat to the Sky in the second half, losing 91-77, as they’ll have plenty to work out before Game 2 on Tuesday. They got some quality production out of Griner, Diana Taurasi (17 points), and Skylar Diggins-Smith (15 points), but need to get some of their others going and, most importantly, have to find a way to disrupt the Sky better on offense, because Chicago was able to get to their spots and produce good looks far too easily for Phoenix’s liking.

We’re closing in on a year since the 2020 election, which wasn’t as terrible for Republicans as it could have been but was bad for one of them: former president Donald Trump, who lost to Joe Biden by over eight million votes. Ever since then, Trump and a number of loyalists have claimed, without proof, that voter fraud robbed him of a second term. Some of them are even getting sued to kingdom come. And it’s probably not great that some prominent GOP leaders still refuse to admit Biden won fair and square.

One of them is Steve Scalise. The House Minority Whip went on Fox News, surely hoping for a softball interview. Instead he got Chris Wallace, who has long had no problem grilling Republicans — Trump among them — on issues that actually matter.

At one point during the interview, Wallace asked him, point blank, if Trump’s re-election was stolen from him, tacking on another query: Does questioning the legitimacy of elections, including those considered to be safe by authorities, as last year’s was, “hurts or undermines American democracy.”

Scalise, of course, didn’t answer it point blank. Instead, the congressman — one of a number of Republicans who voted against the certification of the election, even after the Capitol attack — “didn’t follow their state passed laws that govern the election for president.”

But Wallace wasn’t having that. He inferred that what he was really saying was yes. “So you think the election was stolen?” he asked. Again, Scalise dodged it. So Wallace tried one more time.

“I guess the question is: Do you think the election was stolen or not? Last time, I promise. I understand there are irregularities and things that needed to be fixed,” the veteran anchor continued. “Do you think the election was stolen?”

But Scalise wasn’t budging, which is to say he wasn’t answering his question. But surely there’s nothing to worry about when prominent Republicans refuse to say whether or not America’s voting system works.