Category: News

What does Ted Cruz like to do in his free time, besides flee the country during a historic storm and butcher the voices of The Simpsons? Say the word “chutzpah,” apparently.

The Daily Show compiled a supercut of the Texas senator massacring the Yiddish word for arrogance. “You know, there’s a Yiddish word, ‘chutzpah,’ and Joe Biden is embodying chutzpah,” Cruz says in one clip, practically firing spit all over the camera, while in another, recorded while speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters Annual Convention, he exclaims, “There is more than a little chutzpah in that.” What is he referring to? I’m not sure. And honestly, I’m OK with that. Anyway, the supercut ends with a clip from the season six episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, “The Bar Mitzvah,” where Larry David repeatedly tells someone to “shut the f*ck up.” The Daily Show was directing the message at Cruz, who felt compelled to respond on Twitter.

“@Trevornoah is a putz,” he tweeted, continuing their feud. It’s only a matter of time before Seth Rogen weighs in, but until then, everyone else was happy to fill in. “Wow Ted u really got him great comeback,” one reply to the senator’s tweet reads, but my favorite response is, “Gey strashe di gens, Rafael.”

It’s a good insult in any language.

(Via Raw Story)

Discovering your passion can be life changing. For Chef Benoit Angulo, his passion was unlocked while growing up in Venezuela when he learned to make arepas. Arepas are like a cross between a tortilla, a pancake, and sandwich bread and are very common in northern South America. Despite his young age, Benoit quickly became the designated expert for family and friends when it came to making the dish.

“It’s just what I grew up with. Arepas are a big part of Venezuelan culture,” Benoit says. “There is definitely a comfort food aspect to it.”

Benoit can track his love for cooking from those early moments. Although his passion ultimately led him away from his home country to establish a culinary career in the US, his cooking remains rooted in the traditions learned in the kitchens of friends and family, even as he innovates new flavors and combinations.

Over the past 10 years, Benoit and his business partner and wife Rachel Angulo have turned comfort food into a full-blown business, operating two successful food trucks in New Orleans and Chicago by the name of La Cocinita, which translates to “The Little Kitchen” in Spanish. In those rolling kitchens, Benoit has expertly combined his formal culinary skills with the traditional practices he picked up as a curious kid in Caracas, introducing the two cities to the world of arepas, patacones, tacos, and quesadillas Venezuelan-style.

“A lot of people come and just want the tacos they know and love,” Rachel tells me. “It’s the people that try something new, or try the arepas, that get hooked and want to come back.”

Starting a food truck, with its freedom to experiment and fewer barriers to entry, feels like an obvious play for a young chef trying to make a name for himself in the modern American culinary scene. However, Benoit makes it clear that the roots of their choice of business model run deeper.

“Growing up in Caracas, there are different little alleys and corners in every neighborhood designated as ‘the hunger street’ — ‘calle de hambre.’ Essentially, it’s a place where you go for a quick lunch in-between shifts or a place to go after a night out with your friends and a few drinks,” he says. “I felt like New Orleans was kind of lacking that aspect.”

The idea of bringing ‘hunger street’ a little closer to New Orleans came to Benoit after a late night of drinks on the town with Rachel.

“A big part of ‘calle del hambre’ is what they call ‘areperas,’ which are essentially arepa joints that have every arepa you can imagine, baked, fried, made over coals,” Benoit says. “My spiel when I pitched to Rachel when we were hungry after a few drinks was simply, ‘Do you want to open up a food truck?’ I was just thinking about wanting an arepa before bed, and that’s how it came about.”

But as simple a story as that sounds, Benoit and Rachel were immediately hit with roadblocks when they set out to turn La Cocinita into a reality. During the process of outfitting and modifying their food truck, they learned that there were no available permits for a new food truck in New Orleans and wouldn’t be for years. Couple that with some archaic rules about where and when food trucks could and couldn’t operate and Benoit and Rachel were in for a test of their own fighting spirit. They didn’t let that challenge stop them from realizing their dream, though. Instead, they worked with the local government to reform outdated and limiting laws — giving La Cocinita and other businesses in the community a chance to flourish.

Fast forward 10 years later and La Cocinita is now a staple of the New Orleans and Chicago street food scene, meeting the demands of foodies while expanding on the idea of a classic arepa.

“It’s not a classic Venezuelan Arepera. It’s something that’s influenced by our market. A classic arepa is arepa, shredded cheese, and butter… but being here, we made the decision to stuff our ingredients inside. It’s the same way I learned how to make them back home. Here in Chicago, we have actual Venezuelan moms making your empanadas and arepas, we have a Venezuelan heavy kitchen so that brings a lot of traditional influence, but with a modern twist,” says Benoit.

Like countless other restaurants and food trucks, Benoit and Rachel faced an existential threat to their business in March 2020 when COVID-19 hit. With her background in social work and a passion for helping others just as strong as Benoit’s passion for cooking, Rachel made sure that La Cocinita continued to serve the community. Waiting for the storm to pass just wasn’t an option.

“We had a team that wanted to work and food in the kitchen so it was kind of a no-brainer to start collecting donations for meals that we were discounting and serving to frontline workers,” says Rachel, who had previously worked in ICUs and quickly thought about the risk of burnout for doctors and nurses.

“We figured comfort food would bring a ray of sunshine to their days.”

The pandemic gave Benoit and Rachel a lot of time to think about what the evolution of their “little kitchen” looks like. Unsurprisingly Benoit is still exploring ways to push his culinary style to meet the demands of tomorrow. While the pandemic was hard on business, it helped Benoit and Rachel develop a future-focused game plan.

“We definitely have some ideas that were probably influenced by the pandemic,” Benoit says. “We’ve been talking about plant-based local sourcing type stuff, changing our menu in a way where we are a little more sustainable and more locally driven. One of those big things about the pandemic was revealing supply chain issues. That’s one of the many ideas we have for what La Cocinita will look like, but that’s the one I think about the most — how we’ll change and how we can have a more positive impact.”

Whatever La Cocinita’s future looks like, Rachel and Benoit’s efforts show that it’ll be one forged from passion and a fighting spirit.

Hello, sun seekers, and welcome back to NBA Summer Vacation Watch! It’s been too long. While this brief and beautiful respite is always the high-point of the NBA cycle, we’ve never needed SVW more than right now, as we find ourselves in such an uncertain, gloom and doom time.

And if you are a new beach freak, then allow me to welcome you to your ultimate all-inclusive! NBA SVW is concerned, above all else, with delivering the summer vacation destinations of some of your favorite and tallest people in the world, in the very short window they have to literally and figuratively dip their toes in tropical waters, walk on the beach, go fishing a lot, and drink the wine they make and the tequila they brand-partner with in (relative) abandon. This is a positive space, and vacations are, as always, rated completely arbitrarily but to the highest degree of discernment based on my years of expertise on this simultaneous carefree and stringently serious beat.

So please, new and returning guests, crack a cold bev of your choice and sit back, relax, and scroll through these vacations.

Serge Ibaka

Starting strong here because there is no other way to do it. Here we have Serge Ibaka — aka Ma Fuzzy Man, aka Mr. Avec Classe, aka Original Thirst Trap Man — doing what we love to see in summer by staying hydrated while staying partially submerged in a pool. Can you multi-task any better than this when the weather gets hot and your only uniform requirement for the day becomes a bucket hat and, I want to say, two tight pairs of shorts? No, you can’t. Weaker men have tried and failed horribly.

Rating: May Serge use that new Ballmer money to install a water feature in his pool, amen.

Deandre Ayton

Western Conference champion Deandre Ayton returned home to the Bahamas just in time for his birthday and a beautiful parade in his honor. He didn’t stay suuuper long, because as we all know the relentless grind comes for everything, even summer vacation, but please just take in how wide a smile he had while he was delivered the homecoming of a champ. That’s the kind of thing you keep with you long after you’ve come home and unpacked, like sand you later find in your suitcase.

Rating: Let’s get some IG developers on here so we can ban people from commenting things like “Bro if you develop a shot from the 3 you will be so cold” on a person’s vacation photos.

Buddy Hield

Previous readers of this esteemed column will know that Buddy Hield is a regular as much as he has vacation in his blood, not just being from the Bahamas but also because pictures of him “working out” on the beach have made it into past SVWs, because he somehow makes maximum exertion look easy and carefree. But here we have a rare glimpse into Hield at play on vacation in Turks and Caicos, paddle boarding around some ancient shipwrecks, casually climbing up and jumping off those wrecks into the sea, then reclining on said paddle board.

Rating: All in a day’s (off) work.

Kyle Lowry

Dude, I can’t tell you how happy I am for Kyle Lowry, who rode around for a while this summer on the front of a boat in the Strait of Gibraltar, after chilling in Spain, before signing a contract to match the circumference of his great rear assets that will take him to a place he can golf and ride on boats to his heart’s content, while remaining a pest on an All-NBA Pest team. But this is about summer, so, KLOE, even the whims of the sea.

Rating: Summer forever. Kyle Lowry forever.

Myles Turner

Turner took us on a rugged turn (ha ha) away from the beach, briefly, for a dudes camping trip up to Flathead Lake in Missoula, Montana. Hard to say what he enjoyed most: the vistas, the rugged backcountry, wearing matching camo coveralls with his guys, or doing handstands out in the lake — but the best part is you don’t have to decide!

Rating: Dudes, getting back to nature, rock.

Pascal Siakam

Spicy P is a big “I’m spending my summer reclining on a boat” guy, and really there’s no better person for the task. Once you’ve got the location (boat) and activity (reclining) planned out, the rest of vacation becomes a breeze, toggling between matching your probably custom bucket hat to your shorts and figuring out the best places to spend the day leaning back, sideways, and sort of flopping casually over. Maybe you’re asking, “But did he leave the marina?”

Rating: And I’m here to ask you, does it matter?

Ben Simmons

A lot has been swirling around Simmons this offseason, like whether or not he’ll be back with the Sixers and whether he or the Sixers want that, but not much has been swirling around him in terms of what matters, like where is he and is he on vacation? Well, this could very well be his beautiful home, but a swirling summer sunset that’s a cross between cotton candy and a resort drink melting down at the side of the pool at least gives me hope that the man is taking some time to just gently sigh and be like, “This is alright.” The kind of swirling we’re here for.

Rating: Here’s hoping a grill is being fired up just out of frame.

Paul Millsap

Let it not be said that here at SVW we do not not recognize some summers, or parts of some summers, must be spent catering to the whims of children to ensure that they too have a memorable one in that all too brief window before back-to-school. Millsap appears to have taken his kids to golf camp, actually led them there, and they appear to be pretty excited about it. Millsap is sort of a maverick in that you never know what his downtime will be spent perfecting (magic, somersaults, etc.), and it’s nice to see that runs in the family.

Rating: But still, I would love to see some new tricks from Millsap, the only respectable magician on earth.

CJ McCollum

McCollum hiked up a mountain with two of his strength and performance coaches so you know this was a hike with a lot of “friendly pointers.” Jk, maybe it was chill, but I’m not sure there’s ever been a chill hike? At some point you get hungry, thirsty, tired, too hot, but when CJ got to the top to enjoy the view, he looks almost zen, so perhaps bringing your medical staff with you is the way to go.

Rating: Is this the new glamping?

Bogdan Bogdanovic

Bogdan also did a boat cruise and chill day, his was on Piva Lake, a gorgeous looking reservoir in Montenegro. While this capture might make it look like he was deadly serious about boating, he also, at one point, dipped his hand down over the side of the boat in that classic move where you feel totally in the moment while an easy listening ballad plays indoor head. For Bogdanovic it was likely something Serbian, but I’ve no doubt it bangs.

Rating: Turquoise waters are off to a great start this summer.

Jordan Clarkson

It’s Jordan Clarkson time … to lie on the floor of an art gallery and contemplate life, or maybe, because it’s summer, just think about where to go to eat something nice after this.

Rating: But what IS summer? And how does one even watch it?

Tyrese Maxey

In the cutest offseason crossover thus far, Tyrese Maxey threw out the first pitch at a Phillies game and because I don’t respect baseball, his pitching form seems perfect, if not avant garde to me.

Rating: The only time baseball has ever been good, for a second.

Mo Bamba

Mo rules because he’s giving us exactly what we all want and he’s not being coy about it — a big damn dump of summer vacation photos to revel in. We got parrots, we got fishing AND a self-depreciative joke, we got a little monkey, we have Mo’s dog dressed like a cute granny and with a cup stuck on its face, we have Mo’s agent getting fake mad that Mo is having such a good time being OOO, we have Mo on a boat, in the studio, Mo doing jokes, we have it all. A meaningful gift when this most precious and carefree time is at a premium.

Rating: Bamba’s Summer Dumps could be a SVW training camp.

Maxi Kleber

Kleber went to Amsterdam and did three things everyone who visits Amsterdam should do: eat fries, ride a bicycle, look at the canals. People pretend basic is a bad thing, but let’s face it, basic on vacation is just sort of like “having a regular day somewhere else,” which, whatever, is pretty nice.

Rating: Fries before reply guys telling you to add a three point shot, right Maxi?

Boban Marjanović

I really can’t wait until more American players decide to finally take Boban, Jokic, Bogdanovic, and more up on their probably long-extended offers to come spend a couple weeks in Serbia for the summer, where everyone is always chilling in the sun, on a pristine and less-traveled lake, eating some nice food, hanging out in the country, or being treated very nicely by extended family and friends.

Rating: Let’s make this a global vacation league, too.

Dewayne Dedmon

Dedmon went to Niagara Falls (American side) with his family and had a nice time.

Rating: That’s it! Close your eyes and I promise you can feel the mist on your face off the strength and wholesomeness of this photo alone.

Reggie Bullock

Reggie looked entirely at ease on the back of a boat that seems to just be RIPPING, and that’s why they pay him the big and meaningful bucks. Cool composure no matter the velocity.

Rating: He doesn’t even have a sporty string for his sunglasses!

The Olympics!

The U.S. men’s basketball team has appeared to have gotten itself together after a shaky start, and maybe it’s due to JaVale McGee finally figuring out what kind of fruit he’s being served, or this powerful Olympian vegan diet of Rice Krispies and avocado toast. Other Olympic highlights included a really excited Rudy Gobert in the tunnel with other French athletes, waiting to burst forth in the opening ceremonies, and Patty Mills’ cute set-up in his room.

Paul Pierce’s Place

If you’re new, you’re probably wondering why there’s a section dedicated to Paul Pierce, and if you’re a return reader, you’re also probably still wondering that. Well, I won’t try to convince you, only continue to share without shame the summer exploits of a legend, that really look the same as his year-round activities. That’s the Truth and I hope you can handle it.

The premise of John And The Hole (out now in theaters and on VOD) sounded deliciously disturbing — a cross between a Saw movie and Home Alone — with a 13-year-old living on his own after deciding to hold his family captive in a hole that he finds in the woods. I expected madness, I expected violence, and to come away disturbed. And when I saw the kid (Charlie Shotwell) looking like Baby Buffalo Bill while staring down at his family in the eponymous hole, it seemed like the film was going to meet those expectations. It did not.

In the film, an official Cannes 2020 selection, Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Ehle, and Taissa Farmiga do good work with what they’re given as John’s offending parents and older sibling, but the nature of their offense is intentionally hazy. Mom and Dad are seemingly stuck in a cycle of exhaustion and routine, not inattentive but also not the kind to push too deeply when their son is clearly dazed at the dinner table. Big Sis is living her own life while still pulling focus. And then there’s John, navigating the wilderness (literally and figuratively) with a lot of questions about what comes next for him with adulthood and the kind of under the surface sociopathic tendencies that make it clear why the family doesn’t have any pets.

When John goes off to play with his new top-of-the-line drone and discovers the eponymous hole, his first thought is to talk it over with the fam, but they condescend. His second thought is to drug them and put them in the hole — an act of unlikely physical strength that isn’t explained. This is a pattern, with Oscar-winner Nicolás Giacobone (co-writer of Birdman) writing himself out of rough spots with no real concern for the reality of the situation. Like when cops come to the door and then seemingly shrug their shoulders and give up on a report of a teenager living alone and acting suspiciously. The tension feels manufactured and John seems to be untouchable, which contributes to everything feeling childproofed.

Speaking of manufactured, there’s an out-of-left-field side story here involving an entirely different set of characters that briefly pop up in a couple of places to make you question what you’re seeing with John and his family. It’s worthless art film bedazzlement that’s supposed to impress but it just feels like something they forgot to cut. I’m all for leaving threads untied, but they should contribute something to the finished product besides confusion.

John And The Hole, which is helmed by visual artist and first-time director Pascual Sisto, is at its best when its sights and sounds are pushed to the forefront. Some of the story shortfalls are covered by moody, dark visuals that represent the forest at night, a synth-laden score, the muted colors of John’s antiseptic upper-class life, and jarring sound effects (a tennis ball machine, a leaf blower) that shatter the mundanity. Some.

One place presented with less visual flex than you would think happens to be the most important one: the hole. Rather than maximize the claustrophobia of the situation, each of the three characters seems to have just enough space to avoid being literally piled on top of each other with many scenes happening during daylight. Listen, I don’t want to spend a weekend there. They adequately sell it as a frightening place to be, but it just doesn’t feel as extreme, uncomfortable, and nightmarish as it could have. As a result, while the stir-craziness, anger, and degradation of the situation are explored lightly, it’s not enough to make you feel anything beyond baseline empathy for these characters as they bicker and blame when they should be ceaselessly screaming their heads off and viciously turning on each other. Or maybe that’s just me reflecting my own experience with loved ones during a pandemic lockdown that has felt, at times, like being trapped in a bunker. Har har, ugh.

I get it! The point is to make this hit under the breastplate by making John seem like a normal, quiet kid whose family doesn’t seem like a cabal of abusive monsters that would obviously inspire his malicious and troubling actions. That means it could happen to anyone (within close proximity to ground holes), which would be more off-putting if you were led to feel a tug of relatability or recognition with this family.

Even John skips away without you feeling much for him — he doesn’t intimidate or fascinate. Like everything else here, he just is. Shotwell isn’t to blame, he’s a clearly talented young actor. It’s just that, like everyone else, he isn’t given enough of a meal. Shouldn’t a kid in this situation show a more diverse palette of emotions? Some joy when literally joy-riding? A splurge beyond a bigger TV with access to his parents’ near million dollar bank account? The strict adherence to schedule and John’s limited imagination when it comes to playing an adult make this feel like a slow burn whose fire goes out in the middle. Which means the dish is undercooked. And then everyone feels sick. Metaphors.

I know I’m breaking a rule reviewing the movie that this isn’t as much as I’m reviewing the one that it is, but it’s hard to not get mad at this for wasting a pretty cool mishmash of ideas to instead present as a not-so-thrilling thriller and subtle social satire without much to clearly say. And when it gets to its end, it’s hard to not be mad for a perceived waste of time.

Mike White’s White Lotus is a show that takes a different route in its effort to call out the evils of opulence and the dissociative head traps that the rich can fall into, but it was on my mind when I watched this. To be honest, the first few episodes White Lotus bored the hell out of me, but when you realize in the middle where it’s going and what it’s trying to say about the subtly monstrous acts that selfishness and a lack of self-awareness can spark (and how it’s its own epidemic), its existence is justified and more fully enjoyed.

In a totally different way, Ilana Glazer and John Lee’s False Positive is another social satire with something to say; something it’s screaming throughout before adding a prodigious, disturbing, surprising exclamation point at the end. Each of those distinct projects makes it a point to make you remember them, at least. But John And The Hole just doesn’t, preferring to go up to the edge of being thought of as provocative before settling for the quickly fading legacy of something stylized but ultimately hollow.

‘John And The Hole’ is out in theaters and on VOD

Just in case the all-star cast, powerhouse director, and entirely new subject matter didn’t put Marvel’s Eternals at the top of your to watch list this winter, director Chloe Zhao says the film — and actress Gemma Chan’s character in particular — will make you “rethink what it means to be heroic.” In an interview with Vogue UK, both Zhao and Chan spoke about the upcoming film and their respective visions for it. According to the pair, Chan’s character Sersi is “not your typical superhero,” which Chan then went on to explain:

“She’s not necessarily the best fighter, she doesn’t have the most obviously impressive powers. The main thing is she’s an empath. She has a connection with humans, and with the world and the earth. That is her strength, so I leant into that.”

In addition to Chan, Zhao also shared her intentions for the upcoming film and character, as well as praised Chan’s portrayal of her. According to Zhao:

“It has always been a passion for me to create a nuanced female superhero that is rarely seen in this genre. Gemma was very interested in this idea as well and took on the challenge. She is a great actress. Very intelligent and brave. She brought a beautiful sense of gentleness, compassion and vulnerability to Sersi that I believe will invite viewers to rethink what it means to be heroic.”

Interestingly enough, for a while it seemed pretty unlikely Chan would be able to bring her talents to Sersi, as she was already cast — and killed off — in a previous Marvel movie: Captain Marvel. Back in 2018, Chan played Minn-Erva in the Brie Larson-led film and ultimately died, leading Chan to believe “there was no chance that [she] would really be coming back,” a thought she was “a bit bummed” about. Luckily for Chan (and us), Zhao cast her in a much bigger role in Eternals and we’re apparently in for a treat.

Eternals hits theaters and Disney+ on November 5, nearly a year after its originally intended release date. Until then, you can catch Marvel’s What If..? over on Disney+ starting August 11, and the upcoming phase-four film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on September 3.

While speaking at a Republican event in Alabama this week, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene earned cheers from the crowd after saying that it might be “one of the most unvaccinated states” in America. Considering the drastic spike in COVID cases that’s been ravaging southern states like Alabama and particularly Florida, you would think that label would be a bad thing, but welcome to the intense partisan divide when it comes to the COVID vaccine.

You can hear the Alabama crowd proudly cheer its unvaccinated status in the opening of the video below, which is loaded with controversial remarks by Greene:

Right after touting Alabama’s prominent refusal to get the COVID vaccine, Greene suggested a dangerous solution to door-to-door initiatives proposed by President Biden as the White House takes an active roll in stemming the increase in cases from the Delta variant. Via Mediaite:

Rep. Taylor Greene similarly mongered fear, saying, “well, Joe Biden wants to talk to you guys. He’s going to be sending one of his police state friends to your front door, to knock on the door” and ask for private information, including whether you’ve taken the vaccine or not. “What they don’t know is in the South, we all love our Second Amendment rights. And we’re not really big on strangers showing up at our door, are we? They might not like the welcome they get.”

Just to be clear, President Biden simply proposed an awareness campaign to let Americans know how and where they can get vaccinated, nothing more, nothing less, and Marjorie Taylor Greene heavily implied that those attempts should be met with gunfire. Apparently, the virus isn’t killing enough people, so we need to add gunplay to the mix. Great advice, Marj.

(Via David Pakman on Twitter)

Since he’s just off the release of a new album, Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler The Creator has been on something of a press tour of late. Which has been great, because there are few artists in the game who can speak with the kind of nuance and understanding that he’s developed over the last decade. In a wide-reaching conversation on Hot 97’s ‘Ebro In The Morning,’ with Ebro Darden, Peter Rosenberg, and Laura Stylez, Tyler reflected on his past with Odd Future and where he’s headed now. One topic the group discussed is the ever-present threat of being “canceled,” something Tyler experienced earlier than most. Several years ago, circa 2014-2015, there was a period where Tyler was banned from Australia, the UK, and New Zealand for his lyrics that were deemed to be promoting violence and homophobia.

Around the 22 minute mark, Peter Rosenberg asks, “Would Odd Future have made it in 2021?” to which Tyler responds “Oh, f*ck no! We came at the right time, where you could still be crazy. You could still be a kid and f*ck up. You could still have satire, you could still allow people to have a conversation even if you disagreed. Right now is crazy. I was just thinking about the idea, I’ve done so much ill sh*t in this ten year span…. what if they got me out of here in 2011? And wouldn’t allow me to get right here?”

He goes on to discuss the undertones of when and how people are canceled, especially for past behavior, when they’ve clearly changed. “People just go back to stuff and go ‘look what he used to do,’” he said. “And it’s like yeah, but I’m not on that no more. So what’s your end goal? When people go back and dig up old stuff from someone who’s here now, it’s like hey, what’s your end goal? Accountable… what does that mean? Is the goal, you shouldn’t do that, you should change and be a better person? Not even me, but to whoever they’re saying it to… I’ve been a better person for the last nine years. That was ten years ago. But I think people like doing that to make themselves feel better about themselves.”

Check out the full interview above.

Kevin Durant is going to be a busy man over the next day or so. On Friday evening, Durant and Team USA will take the floor against France in the gold medal game at the Tokyo Olympics. Once that’s over, his attention will turn to Brooklyn, where Durant plans on getting his future all sorted out with a lucrative contract extension.

Durant’s media outlet Boardroom brought word that the former NBA Finals MVP will preemptively decline the player option that he has in his current contract for the 2022-23 campaign. Instead, he’ll put pen to paper on Saturday on a new four-year extension that will pay him $198 million.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN noted that Durant will become eligible to do this on Saturday, while Bobby Marks of ESPN laid out the financials of the deal, which include Durant spending two years where his salary will eclipse $50 million.

Durant joined the Nets as part of a sign-and-trade with the Golden State Warriors in 2019 on a four-year deal worth $164 million. He missed the entirety of his first season in Brooklyn as he recovered from an achilles injury he suffered in his final game with the Warriors, but last season, Durant showed that he was able to come back from that injury in a big way. He was crucial to the shorthanded Nets nearly making the Eastern Conference Finals and averaged 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in 33.1 minutes per game.

The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max) — David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad confined itself to a PG-13 rating, but no one expected James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad to stay with PG-13, and in fact, this R-rated (and quite good) extravaganza is releasing simultaneously on streaming and in theaters. Enjoy the “horribly beautiful” assortment of supervillains as they undertake their latest Task Force X mission, and the cast is an enormous, eclectic, and electric. Not only do we have the returning Margot Robbie (as Harley Quinn), Joel Kinnaman (as Rick Flag), Viola Davis (as Amanda Waller), and Jai Courtney (as Boomerang), but John Cena, Idris Elba, Pete Davidson, and more joined the cast. Also: Sylvester Stallone as King Shark. Sold!

The White Lotus (Sunday, HBO 9:00pm) — Mike White’s new series skewers the ultra-wealthy in what turns out to be a brilliant satire on how obscene wealth rots everything that it touches. It’s like The Love Boat or Fantasy Island had a lovechild with Agatha Christie. This week, Armond’s working overtime at damage control while Paula’s disillusionment grows, and Rachel’s frustration reaches new heights.

Here’s some more regularly scheduled programming:

UFO (Sunday, Showtime 9:00pm) — Timing might not be everything, but it sure means a lot. Earlier this summer, the U.S. government’s so-called comprehensive report on Unidentified Flying Objects revealed, uh, nothing. Enter J.J. Abrams with this four-part docuseries that examines the cultural touchpoints of alien sightings and promises to examine possible motives on those parties who might be “shielding the truth,” and since this is coming from Abrams (Cloverfield, Super 8), it’s difficult to know whether to expect a levelheaded tone in a series that (most likely) aims to make Fox Mulder proud.

Wellington Paranormal (Sunday, CW 9:00pm) — What We Do In The Shadows fans rejoice because you’re receiving a spinoff mockumentary series with the same comedy-horror tone from creators and executive producers Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. This week, zombies are afoot after the terrifying clowns wreaked havoc.

100 Foot Wave (Sunday, HBO 10:00pm) — This six-part sports-documentary series follows the decade-long journey of Garrett McNamara, the pioneering and iconic surfer who dreamed of conquering (as the title indicates) a 100-foot wave, which did more than push his sport to literally higher heights while also elevating a small fishing village.

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (Sunday, HBO 11:00pm) — John Oliver… does Adam Driver?

Rick and Morty (Sunday, Adult Swim 11:00pm) — The episode title’s “Rickternal Friendshine Of The Spotless Mort,” so meet me in Montauk.

Here are more streaming picks for the weekend:

Mr. Corman: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series) — Joseph Gordon-Levitt has proven himself to choose his roles carefully after stepping away from blockbuster-land, and that makes his choice, in general, worth watching. In this series, he plays a public-school high school teaser who’s in the midst of an existential crisis. Granted, the word “existential” might make some eyes glaze over with assumptions that this show will contain a lot of naval gazing. However, Gordon-Levitt’s character is fueled by “a sinking suspicion that he sucks as a person.” That’s not only darkly funny but shows that there’s plenty of juice to mine from seemingly mundane life concerns and the fear, which many of us share, that we’ll all feel like impostors while pretending to grow up.

Ted Lasso: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series) — First thing’s first: Everyone who’s caught a glimpse of this Bill Lawrence co-created and developed series loves it. That’s a notable feat, considering that star Jason Sudeikis first portrayed the title character way back in 2013 for NBC Sports’ promos for Premier League coverage. Fast forward to the fresh hell that was 2020, and the show surfaced as one of the year’s lone bright spots. Ted Lasso is somehow both relentlessly and charmingly cheery, although the last season finale showed the team losing against Manchester City, which spelled bad news, since the team can no longer hang in English Premier League games. We’ll see how they can turn themselves around, and while considering that possibility, it’s best to remember that Ted Lasso (and Walt Whitman) once said, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

Val (A24 movie on Amazon Prime) — Yep, a Val Kilmer documentary surfaced from the indie studio behind Uncut Gems, Midsommar, Ladybird, and The VVitch. That’s news in and of itself, but now, the atypical doc has arrived to celebrate the Top Gun and Batman actor. The mercurial man’s life and craft will take center stage, since he recorded hours of home-footage (like Soleil Moon Frye did, only with more aviator sunglasses) while filming his most iconic roles and being, you know, Val.

The Last Mercenary (Netflix film) — Jean-Claude Van Damme gets flexible again while starring as an ex-secret service agent (in France) who turns into, well, a mercenary. There are mob hijinks and a reckless youngster and bureaucrats and an errant son and yeah, this sounds like 1980s movie that landed three decades too late, but hey, we could all use some silly action on our screens to make us forget about the effects of gravity.

The Walking Dead: Origins (AMC+ limited series) — This batch of episodes will bridge the gap between zombie-apocalypse-laden seasons with the origin stories of Daryl, Carol, Maggie, and Negan. Expect a lot of interwoven clips (along with cast interviews and narration) to remind everyone of these characters’ most pivotal moments as their stories head into the final season.

Vivo (Netflix film) — Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation paired up with a dream-team of filmmakers for a musical adventure that would be amiss if it didn’t star and feature new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda. He portrays a one-of-kind kinkajou (a “honey bear” of the rainforest), who dreams of delivering a heart-shattering song to the long-lost love of his owner. Oscar nominee Kirk DeMicco (The Croods) is in the director’s seat with a co-directing assist from Brandon Jeffords (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2). The film also features the voices of Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Brian Tyree Henry, Nicole Byer, and more. Ultimately, it’s a story about the universal languages of love and music and finding family in unexpected places.

Cooking With Paris: Season 1 (Netflix series) — If you wanted to watch a cooking show with not-so-wonderful cooking, then you’re in luck. Paris Hilton can’t cook too well, and she doesn’t pretend otherwise, but she has friends who can cook, so she’s aiming to brave the kitchen to screw everything up. Also, she’ll go grocery shopping, so hmm.

Michael Keaton’s TV roles since becoming a movie star with 1983’s Mr. Mom have been few and far between. There’s been the occasional voice acting role (The Simpsons, King of the Hill) and he’s not above a comedic cameo (30 Rock, Documentary Now, Last Week Tonight), but the Oscar-nominated actor has mainly stuck to the big screen. That’s what makes his lead role in the Hulu eight-episode series Dopesick so intriguing.

Created by Danny Strong (Empire) Dopesick “examines how one company triggered the worst drug epidemic in American history,” according to the official plot summary. “The series takes viewers to the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Big Pharma to a distressed Virginia mining community to the hallways of the DEA. Defying all the odds, heroes will emerge in an intense and thrilling ride to take down the craven corporate forces behind this national crisis and their allies.” It’s based on the Beth Macy book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America, and also stars Uproxx favorites Kaitlyn Dever and Michael Stuhlbarg. It’s surprising that he hasn’t already played her supportive dad in a movie.

Dopesick, which also stars Peter Sarsgaard, Will Poulter, John Hoogenakker, and Rosario Dawson, premieres on Wednesday, October 13.