Category: News

For an album that we know is more or less complete, barring any extreme changes, the process toward the release of Kanye West’s tenth album, Donda, has been an extremely drawn-out effort. While the wait has certainly tested the patience of fans, one could assume that the constant work behind the scenes on the album may be a nuisance for some collaborators and that appeared to be the case for producer and engineer Mike Dean, who is a frequent collaborator of the rapper.

Thanks to a string of tweets from Dean on Saturday, many fans concluded that he quit working on Kanye’s upcoming project, but the producer insists that’s not the case.

It all started when Saturday evening when Dean sent out a number of tweets that seemed to be rooted in frustration. They included brief messages like “F*CK THIS” and “good to be at the house!!!” as well as longer ones where he writes, “100000% FOCUS ON MY SHOW PRODUCTION FOR NEXT WEEK. GONNA BE LIKE COACHELLA IN A 650 PERSON VENUE!!” A Kanye fan replied and wrote, “Fine but then go help Kanye PLZ,” to which Dean answered, “Helping myself. Thx.” Another user mentioned the producer and said, “mike dean is more than just donda guys,” and Dean replied, “A lot more. Very much more.”

Elsewhere, a fan who took notice of Dean’s tweets concluded in posts of their own that Dean’s messages were about his work on Donda. The Twitter user labeled the album’s process as “toxic” and “the weirdest rollout over.” The producer then slipped into the Twitter conversation and wrote, “Toxic. That’s it.” There was another message from Dean that called for fans to direct their album questions to the artists rather than to their collaborators.

“Don’t ask me about utopia or any other albums drop date,” Dean wrote referencing Travis Scott’s highly-anticipated fourth album. “Ask the artists. I’m not the decision makers here !!

Despite all of this, Dean returned to Twitter on Sunday morning to clear the air and assure fans that he has not stepped away from any projects. “I haven’t quit anything,” he shared in a tweet. “The album continues. Lol. People read too much into tweets. Lol.”

Hello, sweet sun bums. I hope you’ve reapplied sunscreen and rehydrated since Summer Vacation Watch season officially began, because we are truly just getting underway. This week, we’ve got Klay Thompson riding summer’s vibe on just about every vehicle there is, including that of the indomitably chill human spirit, plus hoopers in race cars, infinity pools, the ocean, at ball games and on boats. Summer is going full swing and my eyes are, as always, peeled and safety behind sunglasses at all times.

Klay Thompson

Klay is on vacation in Mexico and thank god. We started strong last week but I’d hate to have the calibee of vacations fade in just the second week. Wait, what am I saying? Summer’s a vibe and you gotta ride it, precisely like Klay is — on a boat, on a boogie board, on a jumper, out the passenger window of a speeding car. If you’re looking for a way to squeeze the juice out of the fleeting-est season then look no further, because Klay is summer. Easy, breezy, wearing the bare minimum of sleeve options on his limbs. Like, while none of us could hope to get where he is mentally, in terms of summer vacation certainty, he’s a bright light to look to, with sunglasses on.

Rating: Klay might also have the power to singularly make the song “Fast Car” not cripplingly depressing, should he choose to play it in the background the next time he hangs out the window of one.

LeBron James

While we may never get LeBron alone in Mexico again smoking a cigar and singing at the beach bar for the afternoon, we do have here LeBron alone in a bucket hat, slowly swaying, alone, in what I want to say his backyard. I also don’t mean to be rude, but close inspection of this bucket hat leads me to believe it’s just your average, everyday bucket. It’s not a streetwear bucket, it’s not an imported bucket, it’s a bucket that says, “I forgot my hat on vacation and this is what the hotel gift shop could offer me for $25.” So, maybe this bucket was purchased on the solo Mexican beach bar trip, and in that way we’ve got a vacation continuation on our hands.

Rating: See? Summer vacation really is forever, if you want it.

Serge Ibaka

Serge is also in Mexico, enjoying himself immensely, but in a yin demure way to Klay’s more kinetic yang. Serge is the kind of person who plans fits for vacation rather than throwing in several pairs of shorts and whatever sleeveless shirts are clean and leaving. He probably travels with a small clothes steamer. Can you blame him? Not when you see him in these silk shorts, you can’t. He looks off in the middle distance, presumably toward the ocean, he gets closer to the ocean in an infinity pool (still staring), and finally, he makes it to the ocean. It’s brief, he runs right out, but I’m choosing to believe it’s because he’s getting his reps in, rather than being taken by the majesty and terror of the sea.

Rating: Maybe he just didn’t want to get those shorts wet.

Bradley Beal

Ok, bear with me. Who hasn’t made plans for a jam packed summer day, out on the water, out at the beach, out at some kind of park — amusement or trees — and had the day hit them all at once the second you step back inside the house? Sun stoke or no, it’s those kinds of summer days that can feel guiltily good, recovering with A/C blasting the body in its restorative strength, blinds drawn so no one can see you doing an unfortunate Bane impression while sprawled weirdly on the couch at such an angle that your neck gets absorbed into your sternum.

Rating: He was doing the voice guys, that’s why the subtitles are on.

Justin Holiday

Justin took to the speedway, the blacktop, the hot revvin’ tar (made that one up), to sit pretty excitedly in an Indy car then toot around in a pace car for the day, fully decked out in a crew jumpsuit he matched his chucks to. He looks so happy the entire time that I hope Rick Carlisle harnesses this joyful summer energy and has him warm up in this suit all next season.

Rating: Please note the “Fast 8” caption, which we have to take to be Justin’s fav of the Fast franchise. Intrigue, romance, betrayal, a nuclear Russian submarine threat for some reason, this one had it all.

Khem Birch

Rare baseball crossover here in these hallowed basketball halls (again!) but look how relaxed Khem looks to be tossin’ the ball out at the Blue Jays game. This is exactly the energy I look for in baseball, which is why I don’t watch it.

Rating: Has a person who’s thrown the ceremonial ball out to start the game ever been so good at it they’ve gotten signed?

Rudy Gobert

Rudy heads will be happy to know this is the first of two appearances he’ll make in my summer vigilance, they’ll also be happy to know that I’m following this story closely in hopes of revealing where this adventure takes him. My guess is south of France, but those distant hills also look Gibraltar-y, but really until we get a closer look at the mineraloid matter of that island it will be impossible to say for sure, and I don’t peddle in half divulgences.

Rating: The punctuation of the caption worries me, quite frankly.

Jae Crowder

Here’s Jae, an enforcer on the floor and an enforcer of the strictest summer codes on the open water — no shoes, no shirt, but no flair? That’s gonna be a problem.

Rating: It might be vacation, but you can never take time off from respecting yourself.

Bogdan Bogdanovic

If you’ll remember, last week we saw Bogdan on a boat, more of a pleasure barge really, dipping his hand in and out of azure waters. This boat looks a lot faster judging but its wake but before you get worried about him, don’t. He’s clearly not.

Rating: When someone says treat summer like your job this is certainly one interpretation, standing with the same expression you’d have taking the elevator up to whatever floor on a Wednesday afternoon for another meeting with the chucklers in accounting.

Alex Caruso

Caruso got a pretty cute puppy that gnawed on his hands while he watched, fascinated.

Rating: It must be so weird to come out of the self-perpetuating, vainglorious navel gaze of the Lakers liturgic earth ship to realize there is an entirely other world out there, one with living, breathing, soft, and cute things.

Tyler Herro

Tyler Herro took his basketball on a private jet, just to show he has both? I guess?

Rating: Good luck to Tyler Herro, soon playing with a backcourt that will take one look at excess expenditures in life and on the floor with and total disdain.

Dennis Smith Jr.

Backflips into water will never not be impressive. You don’t need to be an Olympic high diver getting up into your requisite handstand dive to get your entry into water on the SVW radar. You just need to commit and fling your whole body into it, exactly like Dennis Smith Jr. did here.

Rating: Extra points for the hype man in the back with his hands up.

The Olympics (Are Over)!

Yes, it’s true, the Olympics are over and however you feel about them can give it a rest, too. Who won’t be giving it a rest anytime soon, though, are your NBA Olympic medalists! Rudy Gobert held his honkin’ silver medal, somehow not made smaller in that dream crushing swatter of a hand, while in contrast and at this angle, Evan Fournier’s looks to be about as big as half his head.

Here we have Bam Adebayo and JaVale McGee pretty much beaming showing off their golds. Another member of the Olympic gold medal squad, Draymond Green, arrived at Summer League with his around his neck, hopefully not betting it later at the craps table.

And then, two bonus JaVales: First, regarding a hologram of himself, maybe a representation of his psyche, both winners. Second, a side-to-side look at his mom, Pamela McGee’s, gold medal and his own, 37 years apart. It’s really nice!

While Trevor Lawrence’s first appearance in a game for the Jacksonville Jaguars was a struggle, perhaps no one had a worse time than his tight end in his first ever game at the position. Former quarterback and minor league baseball player Tim Tebow is trying his hand at the position this year, and his first game with the Jags saw one play in particular go viral on Saturday night.

According to the Associated Press recap of Jacksonville’s 23-13 preseason loss to the Cleveland Browns, Tebow was “cheered every time he stepped onto the field.” And he almost had a catch! But despite years of talk about how Tebow’s body type would make for a great tight end, at 34 years old he struggled to find his way in an entirely new position.

One clip in particular made the rounds on Saturday, as Tebow showed pretty brutal technique on a blocking attempt and then somehow ended up blocking his own player.

That got a lot of reaction from people who were skeptical of Tebow playing tight end in the first place.

Even Shannon Sharpe got into the mix.

A single grainy highlight of Tebow weakly attempting to throw a block and then planting his helmet into his guard’s chest may be an oversimplification of his abilities and potential at the position. But so, too, is it an oversimplification to assume an out-of-work quarterback and struggling minor league baseball player can become a professional tight end in the National Football League.

How long this experiment lasts is entirely up to Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, which means that it may last longer than it should based on his aptitude on the field. But no matter how many cheers Tebow gets, the results to justify a roster spot may be tough to come by over the next few weeks.

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.