Category: News

Last week, Simone Biles withdrew from the US women’s gymnastics team due to mental health issues. She later revealed that she suffered from the “twisties,” a condition that leads to “not having your mind and body in sync.” (She later returned to the team and won a Bronze.) Despite her honesty towards an absolutely reasonable excuse, she faced criticism from the likes of Piers Morgan and Michael Che while receiving support from names like Justin Bieber, Kevin Love, and now Taylor Swift.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/142269233749966029

“Throughout the last week, her voice has been as significant as her talents,” the singer said in a video with NBC. “Her honesty as beautiful as the perfection that had long been her signature. But don’t you see? It still is. She is perfectly human. And that’s what makes it so easy to call her a hero. Simone Biles, back on the beam, in Tokyo.”

Biles caught wind of the video and hopped on Twitter to thank Swift for her words. “I’m crying how special. I love you @taylorswift13,” the gymnast wrote. Swift replied, “I cried watching YOU. I feel so lucky to have gotten to watch you all these years, but this week was a lesson in emotional intelligence and resilience. We all learned from you. Thank you.”

Since air travel has sort of gone back to normal, there’s been a massive uptick in complaints of unruly passengers. Sometimes they push back against mask rules. Sometimes they’re just jerks. In the case of one passenger who was taped to his chair after groping two flight attendants and punching a third, his behavior came about in part because he was drunk.

As per The New York Times, a flight on Frontier Airlines over the weekend from Philadelphia to Miami was loudly interrupted by one Maxwell Berry, a 22-year-old from Norwalk, Ohio who graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in May. According to the criminal complaint filed against him, Berry started acting up after he ordered his third alcoholic drink. While requesting another beverage, he allegedly rubbed the empty cup of the preceding one against a flight attendant’s backside, prompting her to tell him, “Don’t touch me.”

Berry soon stepped things up:

Mr. Berry, who had been sitting in seat 28D, then emerged from the bathroom shirtless after spilling his drink, prompting a flight attendant to tell him that he needed to be fully dressed, the complaint said. The flight attendant helped him get a shirt out of his carry-on luggage, and Mr. Berry walked around the cabin for about 15 minutes.

That’s when he groped the breasts of another flight attendant, who told him not to touch her and to sit down, the authorities said. In the criminal complaint, officers wrote that Mr. Berry later put his arms around the same two flight attendants and groped their breasts.

When a male flight attendant approached and asked him several times to calm down, officers said, Mr. Berry punched him in the face with a closed fist.

It was then that several passengers helped pin Berry down. A male member of the crew then used what appeared to be packing tape to secure him to a seat, where he remained for the rest of the two-hour-and-change flight.

Initially, Frontier punished their employees, saying the flight attendants had been “relieved of flying.” The move was widely criticized, considering three of them had been assaulted. Later in the day the airline released a statement, saying they have “the utmost value, respect, concern and support for all of our flight attendants, including those who were assaulted on this flight.” They did not say whether or not the suspensions had been rescinded.

As for Berry, he may wind up the latest unruly passenger fined for large sums of money. The F.A.A. has already issued fines for tens of thousands of dollars for passengers clashing with airline crew. Assaulting a flight attendant carries fines up to $35,000 and possible jail time.

One other note about Berry, from NYT:

Mr. Berry graduated in May from Ohio Wesleyan University, where he received a values in action award from the Greek life community for being a “perfect role model” and for leading “the fight to dismantle fraternity stereotypes.”

(Via NYT)

We’re starting to get more info on Halo Infinite as the game’s release date is quickly approaching. Recently, 343 Industries hosted a select number of players to experience a tech demo of the game. Players were able to dive in, experience some of the multiplayer, and really get a feel for how Infinite is going to play.

So far, reviews have been really good. Players have said it has the potential to help Halo reclaim its spot as one of the best multiplayer shooters out there and they were even allowed to capture some footage of their demos. It’s been awesome to see people getting to experience the future of Halo, but we’ve also seen them pushing the engine to its limits. One example of this is a clip from streamer “MintzBlitz,” who found that if you throw a grenade at just the right point, you can launch a gun into the air and grapple it into your hands. What resulted is a highlight that looks straight out of an action movie.

Is this going to stay in the actual game? It seems unlikely because there are a lot of ways that grenading a gun into the air can be broken, but that’s why developers have demos like this. The only way a game can ever be put to the test is by putting it in the hands of players that are going to find a way to exploit every single potential flaw.

If the ability to launch guns into the air does make its way into the final game, then we can expect a lot more highlights like this — remember when the Modern Warfare games were really popular and everyone started trying to do 360 no scopes because it looked cool? We might see that, but with players trying to grapple rocket launchers out of the air instead. Then again, that sounds pretty cool, so maybe they should keep this in as a feature.

Last month, Normani blessed the world with her latest single, “Wild Side,” featuring Cardi B — her first lead release in almost two years. The song arrived with a music video that highlighted Normani’s excellent dance skills. The hope is that the song will lead to her debut album. Until then, Normani will continue to promote the song, as she did during a recent appearance on Ebro Darden’s radio show Apple Music 1.

Nomani spoke about “Wild Side” and how she felt about letting her parents hear the sultry track. “You have no idea. I was so terrified to play this song for my dad… terrified… oh my goodness… avoiding it,” she said. “He kept asking to hear the record because everyone else heard it but he didn’t hear it. And my dad is my biggest fan, like I tell you. … He works night shifts. He hustles for his family, and so to get through the night, sometimes he listens to all my records, and he was dying to listen to this one.”

Normani’s dad did eventually hear “Wild Side,” thanks to her mom. “I was just like ‘Dad, um… I’ll play it for you later.’ And eventually my mom ended up playing it for him, and he was like, ‘That sh*t is hard,’ he’s like, ‘That sh*t is fire,’” she said. “And he told me all the time, every single day, I kid you not: He’s like ‘Are you ready to take over the world? Are you ready to take over the world?’ He loves the song, he loves the record.”

You can watch Normani’s full Apple Music 1 interview here.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

DaBaby’s recent homophobic comments brought him a lot more trouble than he might have expected. His insensitive remarks earned him criticism from all over, as well as from fellow artists like Madonna, Dua Lipa, and Elton John. They also got him dropped from a number of festivals, the first being this past weekend’s Lollapalooza. However, according to Billboard, he was given a chance to save himself from being dropped from these festivals, and he failed.

The publication reports that representatives for DaBaby reached out to seven promoters for fall festivals and promised the rapper would share an apology video before he took the stage at Lollapalooza. They specifically said the rapper would share a “heartfelt apology to the LGBTQ+ community.” But he reportedly missed the deadline to share it with festival organizers C3 Presents and Live Nation, which resulted in his removal from Lollapalooza.

In addition to Lollapalooza, DaBaby has been stricken from a number of 2021 festivals, including Governors Ball, Parklife, Day N Vegas, Austin City Limits, and iHeartRadio Music. The new report comes days after the rapper apologized for his “hurtful and triggering comments.”

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Billie Eilish’s second album, Happier Than Ever has been received positive reviews by critics and fans. Now they get to enjoy a lovelorn performance from the singer, thanks to a partnership with Vevo.

The video finds Eilish in an elegant bedroom with her brother and frequent collaborator Finneas to perform “Male Fantasy,” which serves as the album’s closer. Eilish uses the song to dwell on a past heartbreak while highlighting the difference between love in the real world and the companionship that lives in her mind. It’s the second performance she’s done for Vevo, the first being “Your Power” last month. Two more are planned for a total of four.

Hours after Happier Than Ever was made available, Eilish shared an Instagram post that touched on the album’s process as well as her feelings now that it’s out in the world. “I grew so much in the process of making this album and experienced so much self realization and self reflection,” she wrote. “I wish i could go back and make this album all over again because it was some of the best nights in my life.”

You can watch the performance in the video above.

Happier Than Ever is out now via Interscope. Get it here.

Some have spent the pandemic watching things (or drinking), but others were actually productive, getting around to making their own King Lears. One of those people is Seth Rogen, who, during quarantine, added “pottery maker” to a CV that already included actor, screenwriter, film director, author, and weed advocate. And his ceramics are pretty good! In fact, it’s kind of all he tweets about this day, when he’s not owning Ted Cruz. And a recent viral TikTok jokingly asked about the whereabouts of the real Rogen.

The video finds someone nailing a “missing” sign with Rogen’s face attached to a tree, while singing. “Has anyone seen Seth Rogen lately?” the man croons. “I’ve seen a lot of photos of his vases. Haven’t seen a recent photo of his face yet. I have a crazy hypothesis. Seth was kidnapped by a shady ceramicist.”

The TikTok got a lot of views, including from Rogen himself. And Rogen decided to make sure people weren’t worried about him.

“This video is very funny and not at all true! I have not been kidnapped!” he wrote, adding, “This is not a kidnapper writing this from Seth’s account! I promise!”

What is true is that Rogen got really, really into pottery. He and his wife even built a studio in their garage, and when he posts his resulting pieces on social media, they get a lot of love. But anyone worrying that Rogen will neglect his other talents shouldn’t: He’s always been good at compartmentalizing his interests. Besides, it’s not like his pottery is going to ever almost start a war with North Korea.

(Via THR)

When Marvel’s Eternals drops in November, it will be the first major thing Kit Harington has done since Game of Thrones ended two years ago. (Unless you count Friends: The Reunion.) There’s a good reason why the actor has been a bit slow to find a follow-up role worthy of Jon Snow: He took a big break after the show finally wrapped up. He deserved a break, but according to a new interview, it was about more than that.

On a recent episode of Sirius XM’s The Jesse Cagle Show (as caught by The Hollywood Reporter), Harington opened up about how spending so long on a show filled with violence and emotional intensity wound up breaking him.

“I went through some mental health difficulties after Thrones, and during the end of Thrones, to be honest,” Harington admitted. “I think it was directly due to the nature of the show and what I had been doing for years.”

So when he was finally done with Snow, he made the decision not to hunt for more work. Instead he decided to “really concentrate on myself.” It turned out to be the smart move. “I’m really happy I did that.”

There was one catch, though. “Just when I was wanting to come back to work the pandemic hit,” he said. But he’s been able to get back to work. On top of Eternals, he filmed an episode of Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, for its second season. That was a nice change from dragons and bloodshed.

“You don’t have to live in that intense place all the time,” Harington told Cagle. “Why don’t you do something that takes the weight off? Why don’t you do something fun?”

You can watch Harington discuss his immediate post-Thrones life in the video above.

(Via THR)

Okay, okay, so there have been a few retellings of Cinderella over the years… that doesn’t mean we can’t get excited for the one Amazon is currently putting together, right? Right. And good thing too, because so far, it’s looking like a truly charming time. In the first trailer for the upcoming Amazon Prime Video original, we get a glimpse of aspiring dressmaker Ella (Camila Cabello) and her humdrum life before her world is turned upside down by her “Fab G” (Billy Porter) and a night on the town. With plenty of musical numbers and jokes sprinkled in, this retelling seems to feature modern comedy in a fantasy world and has some serious A Knight’s Tale vibes.

According to the YouTube description, Amazon’s Cinderella is “a musically-driven bold new take on the traditional story you grew up with,” that follows “an ambitious young woman whose dreams are bigger than the world will allow.” However, through her own perseverance — and with a little help from her Fabulous Godmother — she is able to “make her dreams come true.”

In addition to Cabello, Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, Nicholas Galitzine, James Corden, Billy Porter, and Pierce Brosnan will all star in the upcoming film. Kay Cannon of Pitch Perfect fame is serving as both the movie’s writer and director, with James Corden, Leo Pearlman, Jonathan Kadin, and Shannon McIntosh on board as producers. If all this has you excited to give it a watch, you’re in luck, as Cinderella hits Amazon Prime Video a month from today on September 3.

Last weekend saw a new HBO Max horse enter the race: FBoy Island, a new reality dating show with an admittedly not-terrible hook: Three women, hoping for romance, not hook-ups, are given a whopping 24 men with whom to flirt and, maybe, find true love. But half of them are actually nice guys, hoping for real commitment, while the other dozen…are not. How will they know which is which? It’s a question a lot of people wanted answered, at least according to HBO Max.

The streamer claimed that not only did a lot of people watch the first three episodes of FBoy Island, but that it had, they claimed, “the biggest premiere weekend for a Max Original reality series.” Hooray! If anyone’s more deserving of success, it’s FBoys.

A couple caveats, though. For one, this only applies to HBO Max Original reality series, which is a pretty specific record to hold, especially since the service is only a year-and-change old.

For another, this is only according to HBO Max. Like most streamers, they don’t offer any real numbers, and there is no independent organization, like the Nielsens, that can verify their claims. The streaming world is still a wild west in terms of stats, and so the only response to hearing a joint like HBO Max — or especially Netflix, which only reports on viewership when they have a big (alleged) hit — claim they had huge numbers is to say: If y’all say so.