Category: News

Lil Baby had a number of big moments in 2020 with most of them coming as a result of his sophomore album, My Turn. Another highlight during the year, however, came when the rapper released “The Bigger Picture.” The track touched on police brutality, social justice, and racism as the rapper made it clear that he understands his people’s pain despite the fame and fortune he’s attained.

More than a year after the song was release, it was the center of a conversation between the rapper and MSNBC’s Ari Melber that eventually led to Lil Baby explaining why he avoids discussing controversial topics on social media.

“I’m not into social media like that. I post on social media and interact, but I don’t really catch what’s going on or what people are saying,” the rapper said to Melber. “I don’t really wanna just speak on situations, especially when I don’t know the whole backstory [because] something I say might get misinterpreted. So, I’m quiet as far as me posting.”

“I speak through my art … I’m not posting nothing. It ain’t work like that,” Lil Baby added. “’Cause I really feel some type of way about the whole situation. So I’m not gonna be a George Floyd advocate only … It’s deeper than that with me. I know people, personally, who got killed by the police. That would be fake of me to post about [Floyd’s murder] when I ain’t even post about somebody I know who is going through [something similar].”

You can watch the full interview between Lil Baby and Ari Melber above.

For the eighth time this season, Major League Baseball has seen someone throw a no-hitter, and while every no-no is special, this one gave baseball fans something they hadn’t seen since 1953. The Arizona Diamondbacks sent Tyler Gilbert onto the mound on Saturday evening against the San Diego Padres, and in the first start of his Major League career, Gilbert did not allow a single hit en route to a 7-0 win.

Gilbert missed perfection due to three walks of Padres batters, but after letting Tommy Pham get on base to start the seventh inning, he managed to sit down every batter he faced for the remainder of the game. The final out came when Pham stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and ripped the first pitch he saw to center field, where the ball landed in the glove of Starling Marte.

A former sixth round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies, Gilbert joined the Diamondbacks in the Rule 5 draft last season. Now, he joins a list of ballplayers who walked onto the bump for the first time and etched their names in the history books.

Gilbert struck out five batters and threw 102 pitches, 64 of them strikes, to get his no-no.

FX’s live-action take on the acclaimed graphic novel Y: The Last Man has been a long time coming, but we’re just a few weeks away from its debut after years of production twists and turns. What was once a movie project gestated into an FX drama that’s been in development since 2018, with a number of departures and additions to the cast.

A pandemic didn’t help, but production began in 2020 and earlier in August we finally saw a trailer and release date for the show comic fans have hoped would arrive for years now. In the leadup to its release, however, the powers that be at FX have detailed an important note in the show’s canon. Especially considering the concept of the show and its post-apocalyptic conceit.

As the Hollywood Reporter detailed, FX chief John Landgraf and showrunner Eliza Clarke detailed how the show will handle transgender characters at the network’s Television Critics Association Press Tour on Friday. In the series of graphic novels that make up Y: The Last Man, every man on Earth except one, Yorick Brown, is killed by a mysterious event that’s based on the gender binary. A male monkey makes it out alive, too, and as the books unspool readers learn more about what happened after that event and, perhaps, why Yorick survived it in the first place.

Rather than adhere to that gender binary of male and female at birth, the report indicated that though Y is a reference to the chromosome typically associated with defining a man’s gender, the show will not be as cut and dry about gender in a variety of ways.

“A lot has changed since the graphic novel,” said Landgraf at FX’s Television Critics Association Press Tour session on Friday. “One of the things the show will make clear is that there are women with two X chromosomes and men with an X and Y chromosome — but there are also women with two Y chromosomes and men with two X chromosomes. So what happened was all the mammals with a Y chromosome — with the exception of this one man and this one monkey — died in one event. But there are numerous men in the show that had two X chromosomes, and they’re important characters. It’s also made clear that a number of women died that day who had a Y chromosome and probably didn’t even know it.”

Landgraf said that the show’s title needs to be “explained and contextualized in a much different way” than it was in the books, which adhered to the biological definition of gender pretty strictly. But he said the show worked closely with GLAAD to represent trans characters in the world in an appropriate way, something that Clarke made clear as well.

As she reiterated, the apocalyptic event in the show will still focus on the Y chromosome. But what made the books interesting was that despite erasing cisgendered men from the planet, what was left was far from a perfect utopia. And it will include a diverse group of survivors while telling the story of men and women who didn’t make it out alive.

“What was exciting about the book was it takes this kind of idea that a world filled with mostly women … is not necessarily a paradise. Because women uphold systems of oppression — like patriarchy and white supremacy and capitalism. And that can be explored within that. Because gender is diverse and chromosomes are not equal to gender. So in our world of the show, every living mammal with a Y chromosome dies. Tragically, that includes many women. It includes nonbinary people and includes intersex people. But that’s also true of the survivors. I think every single person who is working on the show — from the writers to the directors to the cast and the crew — are making a show that affirms that trans women are women, trans men are men, nonbinary people are nonbinary, and that is part of the sort of richness of the world we get to play with.”

It certainly gives eager viewers some fascinating context for what will unfold in the show, and those who read the graphic novels will absolutely be interested in what’s different between the comics and on screen. The FX version of Y: The Last Man will air for a society that’s starting to understand gender very differently on a mainstream level. And while it’s hard to predict how it will be received, those in charge of the show have made it clear they tried to get it right despite the more dated approach to gender in the source material they’re working with.

[via THR]

HBO Max has found a number of hits in its infancy as a streaming service, but even those behind the scenes will apparently admit that the app itself is very much a work in progress. While the actual content available on a streaming service is the biggest draw to getting eyeballs and subscribers, a platform’s user interface is extremely important to keeping them around.

And while HBO Max has had a lot of hits thanks to Warner Bros. movies debuting on the platform as well as a slew of hit series making waves, some users have certainly complained about the performance of the app on certain devices. Fast-forwarding and rewinding, for example, has been a particular problem on Apple devices and for some Roku users and has even spawned some viral tweets complaining about the issue.

And according to a report in Vulture, the company is well aware that things aren’t perfect in Maxland and that a “major fix” is in the works over its various devices. The report described a number of issues on a variety of platforms, but the most egregious seems to be the fast-forward and rewind issues seen across devices.

Back in June, some subscribers who accessed Max via Apple TV’s high-end streaming devices found it almost impossible to fast-forward or rewind programs. While that bug was squashed for most users relatively quickly, HBO Max insiders acknowledge that issues with playback control and scrubbing are still popping up for some folks when they watch titles with longer run times, including movies.

Another big issue seems to be some movies and shows not playing at all, with odd freezing and slowdowns frustrating a number of users.

Roku users have borne the brunt of the Max malfunctions. In addition to overall slowness and occasional freezes, many are still experiencing repeated crashes when trying to play content on the app, often rendering it virtually unusable — or at the very least incredibly annoying.

Some of those Roku issues have come with the newer Warners films hitting the platform, which is an unfortunate annoyance for sure. Personally, I’ve had to switch to an Amazon FireTV Stick to watch movies like Space Jam: A New Legacy and The Suicide Squad in recent weeks when the app failed to play the films on other devices.

The full report from Vulture gets into some specifics about other issues, such as closed captioning errors on Apple devices. But it’s good to know that the company has admitted to the problems, especially given how often they seem to pop up for a wide variety of users given social media buzz.

[via Vulture]

Ken Jennings may be a “company man” when it comes to Jeopardy!, but according to others working on the game show, the consensus was that it was his job to take after the death of Alex Trebek. The Jeopardy! GOAT was the odds-on favorite in Vegas to take over the show following Trebek’s death after a battle with pancreatic cancer, but earlier this month, we learned that executive producer Mike Richards will take over the syndicated role while Mayim Bialik will host primetime tapings of the show.

Word of those selections has brought the show a wide swath of criticism, be it from those who wanted guest hosts like LeVar Burton to take over, or those were outraged by Richards’ history of alleged misconduct on The Price Is Right or Bialik’s past comments about vaccines. What’s also trickled out are reports about what those behind the scenes wanted to have happen, including a report that Bialik was the first pick for a full-time host before she turned the role down.

According to a story in the New York Times, many working on the show thought that Jennings was the man all but hand-picked by Trebek to host the show after passing. That detail came with an anecdote about how when he first took the guest hosting gig late last year, there was a gift waiting for him from the longtime late host of Jeopardy!

When Ken Jennings arrived at the “Jeopardy!” studios in November for the first day of his audition to become the new host of the long-running quiz show, he found a gift waiting for him: a pair of Alex Trebek’s cuff links, along with a handwritten note from his widow, Jean.

…

For some members of the “Jeopardy!” crew, the cuff links validated their assumption that Mr. Jennings, a genial Utahn who rose to fame in 2004 after winning a record 74 consecutive games, had been Mr. Trebek’s preferred successor. (“Jeopardy!” producers had arranged for a phone call between Mr. Jennings and Mr. Trebek two days before he died.) But “Jeopardy!,” while a beloved cultural icon, is also a lucrative asset of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and in the television industry, sentiment only goes so far.

That phone call, gift, and note made many on staff assume that the newly-minted consulting producer suddenly thrust behind the most important podium in game shows would be there to stay, even after the long list of guest hosts that tried out after he and Richards had their turn. But his own appearance, while strong on stage and in the ratings, was not without controversy as well.

And while Jennings has been cordial about the process in the press and said he didn’t want to publicly advocate for himself, it’s clear a number of people behind the scenes saw it as his job to lose well before he actually did.

Kaley Cuoco wants to put a positive coda on one of the more disturbing incidents that happened during the Tokyo Olympics. That came during the Modern Pentathlon, specifically the show jumping portion of the competition. A German competitor, Annika Schleu, was atop the leaderboard before she mounted a horse named Saint Boy for her portion of the equestrian event. But Saint Boy, a randomly assigned horse to the frontrunner, essentially refused to jump at her direction.

What followed was a gruesome display where the horse ran around and did everything but jump after the first few gates, while Schleu began to cry as her Olympic dreams disappeared with every fault and lost point. The visual of a German woman crying atop a strange horse instantly went viral, as sympathy for Schleu as well as a bit of schadenfreude made it an instantly fascinating Olympic moment. It looked like this:

The videos are, arguably, even worse.

Saint Boy was somewhat vindicated as at least one expert determined that its refusal to jump was “largely due to rider error,” but the story continued to evolve. Reports emerged that a German coach actually was disqualified from competition after punching Saint Boy, a horrifying development to an already disturbing story.

Now that the Olympics are over in Tokyo, though, there are some who are concerned about the fate of Saint Boy. Among them is The Flight Attendant star Kaley Cuoco, a horse and animal rights enthusiast who has declared she wants to buy the beleaguered horse and make sure it’s never again struck in the name of competition.

Earlier in the week Cuoco declared her intent to buy the horse in a series of Instagram stories. According to Page Six, Cuoco said “name your price” for the horse, which she’d like to care for on her own.

“You and your team did not do your county proud, or this sport,” the 35-year-old actress wrote in a now expired Instagram story on Friday. “You make us look bad. Shame on you and godspeed to any animal that comes in contact with you.”

“The Flight Attendant” star even offered to buy Saint Boy from them, writing, “Name your price.”

Cuoco continued to advocate for its purchase through the weekend, sharing a number of clips from news reports about her Instagram offer. At one point, she posted a photo of herself with the caption “I’m waiting.”

It’s unclear if this will actually lead to a sale of Saint Boy, but it’s obvious the actress is serious about her offer and has the facilities and interest to offer the horse a punch-free life. Animal cruelty is no joke, and the bizarre incident in Tokyo is a reminder that using animals for sport can turn ugly when people don’t see the desired performance from a living creature. Hopefully if the owner of Saint Boy is willing to sell, they pick someone who will do right by an animal that may have gotten an unfair reputation in recent weeks.

Taylor Swift has dealt with a number of trespassing incidents in her career, and unfortunately, she has another one to add to the list. According to TMZ, the singer’s New York City apartment was the scene of a trespassing incident as law enforcement arrested a man who traveled from out of state in desperate search of the singer.

Patrick Nissen, a 28-year-old from Nebraska, was caught in the vestibule of Taylor’s Tribeca apartment building and he now faces a misdemeanor charge of second-degree criminal trespassing. Law enforcement sources told TMZ that Nissen entered the building through an unlocked door and when a security guard saw that Nissen did not have permission to be in the apartment complex, he called the police.

Nissen allegedly told officers that he was in love with Swift, who was not home at the time of the incident. Cops also revealed that other men have also tried to see the singer at the New York City apartment. The incident joins previous trespassing cases that Taylor has dealt with at her other homes across the country. In 2018, a man was arrested after he tried to scale the wall of her Beverly Hills mansion and just a little over a week later, a man was charged with stalking, burglary, and criminal mischief after he broke into her Manhattan home.

In that case, the individual in question entered the building, took a shower, and fell asleep in a bed before officers arrived. The following year, a man was caught trying to break into the gate of the singer’s Westerly, Rhode Island mansion. The suspect claimed that he previously spoke to the singer and arrived at the mansion to marry her.

Since its emergence last spring, Verzuz has done an excellent job of spotlighting artists from an array of genres and generations. For the most part, the battles that the platform hosted involved solo artists but viewers have watched matchups between groups with the most recent being The Lox against Dipset. Additional examples include SWV vs. Xscape and The Isley Brothers vs. Earth, Wind & Fire.

While fans of Verzuz wait for the platform to announce its next participants, a potential pairing has been thrown into the mix for a future battle, that being Dreamville vs. TDE.

The former features names like J. Cole, Bas, Earthgang, Ari Lennox, JID, Cozz, and more while TDE houses Kendrick Lamar, Isaiah Rashad, SZA, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and others. With that being said, the group of artists are responsible for multiple impressive albums over the last decade and in Bas’ eyes, a Verzuz between the two would be great.

The rapper was asked about a potential Dreamville-involved Verzuz during an interview with DJ Charisma on Power 106. “It’s gotta be TDE, right?” Bas replied. “That’s family, but it be good competition, for sure.” While Bas is all for the battle, he made sure to clarify that nothing is set in stone for it yet. “We gotta solidify everything,” he added.

You can listen to Bas’ interview with DJ Charisma on Power 106 above.

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

Simu Liu is certainly not afraid to call out Hollywood’s problems with Asian-American representation, even when it’s with a company he’s working with. Though some have criticized him for deleting tweets about a Marvel-adjacent actor amid his casting as the star of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Liu isn’t afraid to speak up. And this week he responded to Disney’s CEO after calling his upcoming entry into the Marvel canon an “experiment.”

The comment, made by CEO Bob Chapek on Thursday during an earnings call, was not about the film’s mostly non-white cast but rather about the projected theatrical release of just 45 days in theaters. While the unique factors of a film’s release have gotten Disney into a legal battle with Scarlett Johansson about the release of Black Widow, the comment seems to have irked the star of the next Marvel release as well.

On Saturday, Liu addressed Chapek calling Shang-Chi “an interesting experiment for us” with a post on Twitter that directly contradicted that language.

“We are not an experiment,” Liu wrote on Twitter with a collection of behind-the-scenes photos from filming Shang-Chi. “We are the underdog; the underestimated. We are the ceiling-breakers. We are the celebration of culture and joy that will persevere after an embattled year.”

While it’s a bit of a stretch to call a multi-million dollar film in the biggest movie franchise on the planet an “underdog,” the point is clear that Liu is very proud of the film he’s made and doesn’t want it tokenized in any way, even when it comes to its distribution.

“We are the surprise,” he concluded. “I’m fired the f**k up to make history on September 3rd.”

Liu’s post is both a reply to Chapek as well as a call to arms for Marvel fans who may still not feel quite comfortable returning to the theaters amid the still-ongoing pandemic and the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant. But while it’s clear Liu is excited about the movie and its arrival at the box office, its rollout will be different from even the films Disney has brought to market during the pandemic. As The Hollywood Reporter pointed out, Shang-Chi’s brief theatrical window will come without the simultaneous Disney+ release some films like Mulan and Black Widow have seen.

Shang-Chi will arrive on Disney+ 45 days after its Sept. 3 release. “The prospect of being able to take a Marvel title to the service after going theatrical for 45 days will be yet another data point to inform our actions going forward on our titles,” Chapek said during the call.

That may not be worth the phrase “experiment” to Liu, but it’s certainly a departure from what we’ve seen in recent months. And one that may frame the way future Marvel films hit the market whether or not it’s the box office smash Liu hopes it will be.

[via THR]

On a day in which four rookie quarterbacks debuted in NFL preseason, No. 11 overall pick Justin Fields started things off in thrilling fashion for the Chicago Bears after coming in for starter Andy Dalton.

After puzzlingly falling a bit on draft night following an excellent tenure at Ohio State, Fields came in on Saturday and immediately put two touchdowns on the board, showing off his athleticism as well as his downfield accuracy.

It wasn’t just the touchdowns that turned heads, though. Fields made multiple plays in which he showcased an ability to move around in the backfield before finding receivers downfield.

Bears fans, who have been aggravated by poor quarterback play for decades, understandably began taking a victory lap pretty soon after Fields lit Miami up. After the Mitchell Trubisky era, watching Fields in orange and navy had to feel like a breath of fresh air.

Even LeBron James, who has his Buckeye fandom but no particular connection to the Bears, got in on the swooning over Fields.

Preseason football has a way of creating premature and sometimes hilarious hype, but in this case, Field looked so thoroughly comfortable and versatile for Chicago that it’s hard not to get excited. If he wasn’t already, Fields seems likely to have a shot to start Week 1 for the Bears and be one of the most intriguing young players in the NFL this season.