Category: News

Kyrie Irving’s vaccination status has been a hot button topic in recent days. Ever since a report came out indicating that Irving had not received any of the vaccines against COVID-19, questions have existed regarding how he’d be able to help the Brooklyn Nets this season, as the NBA has made clear that players will have to follow their city’s various mandates regarding vaccines and New York’s means that Irving would be unable to participate in team activities — like practices and games — in the city.

For a Nets team that has serious championship aspirations, not having Irving for any reason would be a gigantic blow, let alone a reason that he can remedy pretty easily, although general manager Sean Marks has stressed that he thinks there won’t be any problems being in compliance of the city’s mandate. Shaquille O’Neal has a big problem with this, and on The Big Podcast with Shaq, expressed that if he were teammates with Irving, he’d want the guard off the team altogether.

“Kyrie has his views, he has his opinions, I’m not going to knock that,” O’Neal said. “But he does have an obligation, because he took that $200 million. Only thing I don’t like is, ‘Oh, can you respect my privacy.’ Once you sign up for this life, there is no privacy, and you have to accept it.

“But if you’re on my team and you can’t play home games, I don’t want you around,” he continued. “Like, we have a chance to win, and if you ain’t on the program, go somewhere else, period. Hey, whatever your reasons are, cool, I’m with that, but we ain’t gonna be going back and forth for 41 games whether you gonna play or not, get your ass up outta here.”

It is unclear what Irving will eventually do, but his aunt recently told Rolling Stone the possibility of sitting out home games is on the table.

Season 2 of The Mandalorian ended with a bang, to say the least. But it also teased that we would be unlikely to see a Season 3 for a while. In its stead, though, would be something equally intriguing: a Boba Fett standalone series, The Book Of Boba Fett.

Months later, and after little more than a black title card announcing its existence, we now know when we will see the next live-action Star Wars series on Disney+. And it’s coming on what’s expected to be a crowded day on the platform. As Disney announced on Thursday, the series will premiere shortly before the calendar turns over: December 29 on Disney+.

Many immediately pointed out, that would mean the show could debut on a very important day for the rest of the service’s calendar. Namely, the season (or series?) finale of Hawkeye could also air that day, as the show is slated to debut on November 24.

Disney’s big release day is different than in the Mandalorian-led streaming era, as we now see new episodes drop on Wednesday. So it stands to reason that Disney fans could have a double helping of major releases that day if Hawkeye and Boba Fett stay put.

It’s worth noting, of course, that Hawkeye has a decidedly Christmas-y theme to it. So it leaving a schedule that sees its finale occur near Christmas seems unlikely. But it just means that those who stay up late to see new episodes as soon as they drop may have to crack open an extra energy drink or, worse yet, pick which show they stream first if they want to keep pace with the online discourse and stay spoiler free.

Sean Penn has finally returned to finish what he started on Gaslit. The actor who famously refused to film the series unless the cast and crew are fully vaccinated is officially returning to finish the project.

As Deadline reported Thursday, Penn returned to the set after a two-month absence after reaching an agreement with the production team about who will be on set — and their vaccination status — while he films his part in the series. Back in July, he said he would not appear in the Starz production until everyone involved was fully vaccinated. But the agreement reached this week is a compromise of sorts.

While the production continued to shoot without Penn, he and the studio finally reached a compromise. The entire crew he is working with today is vaccinated.

As the report indicated, Penn’s demand to have everyone on set fully vaccinated, while noble when it came to the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of the Delta variant, put the studio in a tough place due to contracts already negotiated before the star’s requests were made. The studio attempted at first to extremely limit who was on set, one of the many pandemic mitigation efforts productions across the world have done. And there were even attempts to encourage vaccinations on set through various organizations.

This was not sufficient to Penn, and insiders at the time said he was not doing this to embarrass the studio or out of fears he and other stars might get exposed. Penn had been fully vaccinated, and this was about principle. He volunteered to have CORE facilitate the vaccinations, free of charge, but he wanted them to be mandatory. That created the stalemate. It put NBCUniversal in a spot — like every studio, they’ve gone as far as possible with safety protocols, but could not legally go beyond terms negotiated between Hollywood unions and major companies that limited vaccinations on films and TV productions only for Zone A.

That stalemate is officially broken as of Thursday. And while we don’t know just how many people were vaccinated because of the pressure Penn put on production, it seems that after a long summer away from the set he did get what he wanted, more or less.

[via Deadline]

While the Cincinnati Bengals and the Jacksonville Jaguars played an NFL game on Thursday night, the Virginia Cavaliers and the Miami Hurricanes made sure college football gave fans something to watch, too. The pair of ACC sides squared off at Hard Rock Stadium, where the home fans probably had a hard time realizing (without the benefit of instant replay) how in the hell Dontayvion Wicks caught this touchdown for the Hoos.

Brennan Armstrong dropped back on a second-and-17 in the third quarter with Virginia holding onto a close lead. He decided to go for broke, throwing the ball into the end zone and hoping someone would come down with it. Unfortunately, it went right into the hands of Miami cornerback Marcus Clarke.

But somehow, Clarke was unable to come down with it, and while the ball was falling softly to the ground, it somehow rolled around on Wicks’ body and perfectly popped into the air as he rolled onto his back. In an absolutely remarkable moment of awareness, Wicks managed to reel it in with one hand before it hit the ground and helped Virginia extend its lead to 27-14.

It is very hard not to feel bad for Clarke after this one, but hey, shout out to Wicks for keeping his head on a swivel.

The fight between Disney and one of Marvel’s Avengers is apparently finished months after a less-than-stellar box office outing for Black Widow. Following a very public fallout and legal action between the Marvel owners and actress Scarlett Johansson, the two sides apparently came to an agreement on Thursday.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the terms of the deal were not disclosed but both sides are publicly very happy to have resolved things.

“I am happy to have resolved our differences with Disney,” stated Johansson. “I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in years to come.”

Disney Studios chairman Alan Bergman added: “I’m very pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement with Scarlett Johansson regarding Black Widow. We appreciate her contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look forward to working together on a number of upcoming projects, including Disney’s Tower of Terror.”

That last quote from Bergman, in particular, seems to reinforce the idea that this is not simply a parting of ways between the two sides. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to evolve toward its next crew and big bad in Phase Four, her time as an Avenger seemed to already be at an end before the pandemic-addled Black Widow rollout didn’t go according to plan. But that’s not the only Disney role available to Johansson, and now it seems the two sides are comfortable enough to at least move forward on one project now that the legal stuff is settled.

[via THR]

Later this year, Jay-Z will celebrate the 22nd anniversary of his fourth album Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter. The 15-track body of work is highlighted by records like “Big Pimpin” with UGK, “Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)” with Amil and Beanie Sigel, and “Jigga My N****.”

During a recent episode of the New Rory & Mal podcast, The Alchemist and former Roc-A-Fella Records A&R Kyambo “Hip-Hop” Joshua, who were guests on the show, reflected on Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter while Joshua revealed what one of Jay-Z’s inspirations was for the album.

Joshua noted that the closing song on Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter, which packages “Hova Song (Outro),” “Jigga My N****,” and “Girl’s Best Friend,” was inspired by the outro track on Dr. Dre’s 1992 album, The Chronic.

“I remember with The Chronic, ‘B*tchs Ain’t Sh*t was on the album and it wasn’t on the credits,” Joshua said. “I remember a n**** playing it in school and I’m like, ‘I can hear it, but I can never find it!’ They were like, ‘Nah, you just gotta let the album play.’”

Rory stepped in and added, “When y’all put Vol. 3 out, I remember the next day in school everyone was like, ‘Yo, did you let that outro rock? There’s three more records!’” Joshua replied straightforwardly, saying, “I did it strictly because of that, because of The Chronic.”

Jay and Dre have worked together on a number of occasions with the latter appearing on “Watch Me” from Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter. Jay-Z was also responsible for Dre’s verse on his popular record, “Still D.R.E.” Most recently, Jay’s Roc Nation imprint was responsible for recruiting Dre, along with Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar, as performers for the Super Bowl LVI halftime show in February 2022.

You can watch the episode of New Rory & Mal with The Alchemist and Kyambo “Hip-Hop” Joshua above.

Aside from her role as a judge on The Voice, Kelly Clarkson also hosts her own talk show, aptly titled The Kelly Clarkson Show. And one of the best parts about having a vocal powerhouse host a show is that there’s always a featured artist on hand to perform, too. Occasionally, Kelly gets up on stage to sing her heart out for a segment called “Kellyoke,” and this week she decided to cover another pop star’s hit, tackling the title track of Billie Eilish’s second album, Happier Than Ever.

But while Billie began the song in her own signature downtempo style with a breathy vocal and muted emotion, Kelly was perfect to cover this one because of the way it turns into an epic power ballad befitting her own massive vocals. She’s better suited to belting than Billie is, naturally, so her version helps make emotional epicenter of the song hit even harder. Of all the songs on Billie’s new album, this is definitely the one that best suits Kelly’s range, but now I’m wondering how she’d sound covering other tracks like “Oxytocin” or “Male Fantasy.” For now, check out Kelly’s version above and read our review of Billie’s new album right here.

The first episode of AppleTV+’s The Problem With Jon Stewart (which is available to stream on Apple TV+) reminds me of Stewart’s remarkable “it’s not a fucking game” takedown of CNBC’s Jim Cramer for his and his network’s rah-rah behavior during and in the run-up to the 2008 financial and housing market crisis. Watch the clip for greater context, but Stewart was, in effect, a prosecutor, countering Cramer’s spin and efforts to come off as a “doe-eyed innocent” by showing his hypocrisy in real-time. It was a moment that was highly satisfying and which illuminated Cramer’s bullshit for all who chose to see it.

The title of Stewart’s Apple TV+ debut is “War.” Specifically, it’s about the tragedy of soldiers suffering from long-term medical issues due to their exposure to burn pits and the bureaucratic tangle that stands in the way of us taking care of them.

If you’ve followed Stewart all these years, you know this issue runs in parallel to his efforts fighting Congress and bureaucrats for Ground Zero first responders and their long-term care. So the empathy and passion are doubtless, and it really comes through here when he’s talking, in studio, with veterans living through the consequences of this toxic exposure and the ensuing inaction. It also comes through when he is, once again, using his access to act as a pseudo prosecutor while talking with Denis McDonough, the US Secretary for Veterans Affairs.

I don’t want to take away from the impact of seeing Stewart juke past mollifying “I’m on your side, buddy” tactics to pose sound and tough questions to McDonough. Seeing it is kind of the point. But I will say that, while this is a very different situation with different circumstances, it illuminates the bullshit blocking the way on this issue and it’s similarly satisfying to the Cramer takedown, albeit in more of a truth-to-power (no-matter-who-is-in-power) kinda way.

In these conversations and in the way Stewart approaches and experiences them it becomes clear that The Problem With Jon Stewart is going to be very good. Is it going to be effective? And how is that even defined now? Those are more complicated questions. Before we get into them, though, we need to spend some time talking about Stewart’s Daily Show and the six years since he left.

In many ways, Stewart’s 2015 exit proved the power of his legacy. Late-night had an awakening. Daily Show alums Sam Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Jordan Klepper, Larry Wilmore, Hasan Minhaj, Stephen Colbert, and Roy Wood all made noise in the post-Stewart era through their own shows, docs, and other projects that were largely set in the late-night space. Collectively, that work helped to shape and (more importantly) examine the conversation while diving deeper into often overlooked single issues. They’ve also packaged their message in creative ways engineered to reach audiences that detached from standard TV viewing. The impact is clear and widespread, primed for Stewart to come back and add to what his peers have done. You just have to acknowledge the limitations of the form to not get distracted.

It’s a fallacy to think that a TV show, no matter how well-intentioned and well-oiled, can singlehandedly change the world or swing a sword of truth so powerful that it can pierce the bomb shelter thick walls of our ideological bubbles. Jon Stewart gutting his way through six more years at his old desk would not have stopped the ascent of Donald Trump or lessened the chaos of a presidency that took a wrecking ball to American life. We know this because, at the height of his powers, with next to no competition and a media landscape that was less splintered and more focused, Stewart’s constant pushback against the Bush administration failed to put John Kerry in office in 2004. But that’s not a mark against Stewart and it doesn’t make irrelevant what he can do or what his peers did in his absence simply because they never found the right combination of phrases to awaken half of the country and cancel Trump. That’s not really their job.

If you are over 30, you were raised to believe in the decimating force of the gotcha moment. A sex scandal, a crude gaffe, and revelations of corruption or hypocrisy would end careers or render politicians and pundits irrelevant. The Stewart Daily Show leaned heavily on the wow factor of those last two even as their power clearly eroded. It was still thrilling to see, even if it never brought the warranted results because politicians long ago found pockets of acceptance for their ill deeds, upending the need for broad approval. Because if you’ve got 100% of 40% of the voters, you can mud sling and con your way to the other 10.1%. That’s the key to Trumpism, but its roots are in the way politics and politicians have been covered for years.

As Trevor Noah told me in 2017 when speaking about the evolution of his Daily Show, “hypocrisy and shame don’t hold the power that they once did.” This was six months before Nazis brought violence to Charlottesville, Virginia, prompting President Trump’s disastrous “fine people, on both sides” response. And while there were condemnations from politicians on the right, most re-bent the knee as the mainstream coverage changed from a rising scream to a fading memory. Suddenly, we were all made to accept that that’s just the kind of thing a President says in the era of tear-sipping politics where the points are doubled if you tell the opposing side to fuck their feelings. This is the “game” Jon Stewart is walking back into with his new show.

It’s interesting how far away from his Daily Show this new series is. Stewart has ditched the suits and celebrities that came with the talk show facade. The set is homey instead of slick. At the moment, it seems that correspondents have been tossed in favor of intimate roundtable micro-chats between Stewart and his diverse staff. Clips play a role, but more as a sort of opening statement. The Daily Show wasn’t inauthentic, but this is somehow more authentic. Something that may be a result of it feeling less concerned with those efforts to be a comedy show while leading with humanity, empathy, and nuance. Which, I suppose, we can attribute to the power of being Jon Stewart and being able to worry exclusively about being good and doing the show you want and not so much about pulling viral moments or adapting to network notes.

I’m going to close as I began, by talking about satisfaction, effectiveness, and the value of identifying bullshit.

It feels fantastic to luxuriate in the moments when Stewart lights up a powerful person to the point where they stammer. It gives off the illusion of a consequence. But Jon Stewart’s value isn’t as a tank, it’s as an armory.

When I said Stewart illuminated the bullshit for all who chose to see, it was a purposeful distinction. We know not everybody chooses to see it, either because it offends their political bias or because they’re tired from apocalyptic headlines and the perfect circle of villainy, ineffectiveness, and fear coming from the halls of power. Cynicism is such a natural response to all of it. Pulling away too. I don’t watch as much late-night, Oliver, Bee, or Noah as I used to because, to an extent, it all starts to blend together and nothing seems to change. Maybe Stewart’s show will lose me too, but for now, I’m seeing this very personal, very deliberate conversation as something unique (even if that may be something of a mirage) and holding out hope.

It’s so easy to look at these shows and think that nothing that’s said will change anything. And again, directly, they will not. But we waste too much time thinking about the supposedly necessary correlation between calling out bullshit and punishing the bullshitters. We really have to forget all of that and realize that there are people who fight and feel empathy for true victims. People who need a light in the dark sometimes because we often ignore them. And so, if this show, and these shows, can deliver information and inspiration to those people in ways that get into the bones and bolster their causes and their resolve to outlast the bullshit, then that’s the definition of effectiveness. And that’s how, slowly, the game that isn’t a game gets won.

‘The Problem With Jon Stewart’ is available to stream on Apple TV+ with new episodes airing bi-weekly and a podcast launching new content weekly.

It’s been a wild ride for Britney Spears over the last few years as support for the #FreeBritney movement grew. Soon after, it became clear to the world that something wasn’t right in the way Britney’s conservatorship had been established, and that her super fans might actually be onto something with their protests. Now, a judge has finally suspended her father from the legal system that controls her, and it looks like she’ll be able to free herself from it all together. In celebration of that important, landmark legal decision, she seems to be celebrating somewhere tropical.

After posting a beautiful boat ride or two and even a video of herself flying the private plane (!) Britney did what every girl does when she’s on vacation and feeling happy after a massive ordeal… she posted nudes. These are tastefully done nude photos with emojis covering up the explicit bits, pretty clearly shot by by her loving partner Sam Asghari and intended to celebrate her body and self-expression. I, for one, am all for them! Check out the photos from her Instagram post below the other videos.

“Playing in the Pacific never hurt anybody !!!! Pssss no photo edits … the tub curves !!!” she posted as the caption, making sure to clarify that this bod is 100% real life.

It’s a beautiful thing when the internet is used for good. Like helping the world learn something new, for example, rather than for negative things like cyberbullying and stan culture. An example of the former came on Thursday when a fan learned that singers Ray J and Brandy are siblings. It’s a fact that many people already knew, but better late than never to learn about it. That fan’s tweet likely came after Ray J got a tattoo of his sister’s artist logo, but their comments quickly went viral as some also learned something new as a result of it.

Others used it as an opportunity to reflect on Ray J’s biggest media moments and to remind people about the things the singer accomplished in his career.

One person recalled Ray J’s infamous interview with Complex where he claimed his Bunny Eyez glasses were indestructible, something that Complex’s Speedy Gonzalez proved incorrect just moments later during the sit-down. Another fan brought back a 2015 interview with Vince Staples on HOT 97 where the rapper asked for respect to be placed on the singer’s name due to the many things he’s accomplished in his career.

On the flip side, a number of fans had fed up reactions to people just learning that Ray J and Brandy are siblings. “I think I’m to old for Twitter because users are just now finding out that Brandy and Ray J are siblings & I’ve never been more confused on how someone can not know that,” one person wrote. Another person echoed a similar message, writing, “The fact Ray J is trending bcz people didn’t know him and Brandy are siblings is mind blowing.”

You can read more tweets about Ray J below.