Category: News

Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow solo movie arrives on July 9, both in theaters and in streaming format via Disney+ Premier Access. In the movie, Natasha Romanoff’s in post Captain America: Civil War mode, which means that she’s still sporting red locks even though she’s technically in fugitive mode. There’s time to clear up all those pesky details later, right? What matters here is that Scarlett’s reflecting upon Natasha’s different looks over the years, which began with a catsuit tour in Iron Man 2 before the character spun through several hairstyles, including rocking those i-can’t-be-bothered-with-nice-hair-post-apocalypse red roots after the snap.

Beginning in The Avengers, Black Widow’s look became increasingly practical, and by the time that Captain America: The Winter Soldier rolled around, Natasha was allowed to sport comfier clothing. That included a brown leather jacket over a black tank and pants, as well as a movement-friendlier catsuit. That wasn’t always the total plan, however, and Scarlett has now opened up about how the below scene — in which Natasha drives up to Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson and cracks a joke about looking for a “fossil” — could have rolled very differently.

As Scarlett describes things to Fatherly, the writers initially wanted Natasha to pull up in the sports car while wearing (presumably) short-skirted tennis outfit with a blonde wig. That idea swiftly got axed, and Scarlett attributes the idea as being down to “a lot of male writers,” which makes this all the more amusing:

When we were doing Captain America: The Winter Soldier — this is a really funny thing — the look is fantastic and utilitarian. She first drives up in this beautiful car and picks up Cap, and initially in the script, it was like, she arrives in her tennis whites, with a blonde wig. It was very quickly killed.

You work with a lot of male writers. Things were shifting. You have to be a part of the change. Audiences are also demanding stuff and there’s a cultural shift and it feeds everything into a more progressive direction. It’s been a process, it’s been a process.

Scarlett also explains that Marvel initially wanted Black Widow to be “a shape-shifter,” but even if that had turned out to be the case, an all-legs tennis outfit would have been bizarre. That’s especially the case because Steve Rogers couldn’t even handle profanity at the time. The dude got used to it, but he probably would have turned bright red to see Natasha in a blonde wig at that point, which may have meant a larger CGI budget, and so on. Alright, now I’m being the silly one, but seriously, thank goodness for an absence of Tennis Natasha in the MCU.

(Via Fatherly)

Britney Spears’ legal battles have been making headlines for well over a year. The public’s interest in Spears’ situation has apparently led to her current conservator receiving death threats. As a result, the conservator has reportedly asked Spears’ estate to front the cost of a 24-hour security team. But she didn’t receive any sympathy from Spears’ team, as they’re apparently used to taking the brunt of public criticism.

According to a report from TMZ, Spears’ court-appointed conservator Jodi Montgomery filed court documents requesting the singer’s estate to pay an estimated $50,000 a month for around-the-clock security, citing a “flood of death threats” following Spears’ public statements about her conservatorship. Spears’ father Jamie reportedly filed an objection to the request, stating that he’s “been getting death threats for years,” as has Spears’ former attorney Sam Ingham.

Jamie didn’t deny Montgomery’s request completely, according to TMZ’s report. He said that the court should evaluate the cost of a reasonable amount of security to ensure Montgomery remains safe. But if he was expected to shell out $50,000 a month for Montgomery, Jamie anticipates that multiple others would come forward with the same request.

News of Montgomery’s security plea arrives shortly after Jamie blamed her for Spears’ frustrations about her restricted personal freedoms. In her public statement about her conservatorship, Spears claimed the situation was “abusive” and that she has been denied the right to remove her birth control.

On Wednesday was the Balenciaga 50th Couture Collection show for Paris Fashion Week. Aside from the inherent noteworthiness of the brand itself, also drawing attention to the festivities were high-profile attendees like Kanye West (and his elaborate face mask), NBA star James Harden, and Lil Baby. The latter two spent time together outside of the show, and there was one moment that has left the rapper trending today.

A clip shows Harden and Baby seemingly caught off-guard by some paparazzi photographers. Some of them shouted his name, but instead of Lil Baby, they seemed to have put a French spin on it by calling him “Le Baby.”

The rapper seemed a little amused by either the nickname or the attention in general, as he offered a polite smile and a wave. Following that run-in, both “Lil Baby” and “Le Baby” were trending on Twitter, with some users suspecting that Lil Baby was low-key into the new moniker.

Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Lil Baby was one of streaming music’s top songwriters of 2020, according to a report. He also recently was crowned the ASCAP songwriter of the year and performed at the BET Awards alongside Kirk Franklin.

Check out some more reactions below.

Last night, Japanese Breakfast offered a performance for the ages on Jimmy Kimmel Live, playing Jubilee single “Paprika” from the Sellersville Theater in Pennsylvania.

Backed by horns and banging a gong, band leader Michelle Zauner wore a billowing white dress with her hair tied back into two slick braids. The rest of the band were in formal attire as well, rocking full tuxes and playing all manner of instruments: strings, keys, percussion, the aforementioned horns. The pale spotlight onstage also created a gauzy, sepia-toned look for the camera, which complimented “Paprika”‘s lighthearted melody. Check out the performance above, introduced by guest host Wanda Sykes.

It’s probably safe to say that Zauner is exceedingly close to becoming a massive pop cultural triple-threat right now, what with the glowing reviews for Jubilee, plus her New York Times bestselling memoir Crying In H Mart, which is going to be adapted into a film, for which Japanese Breakfast will provide the soundtrack. As if that wasn’t enough, Zauner is behind the soundtrack of the anticipated new game Sable, coming September 23. So yes, 2021 is a pretty good year to be Michelle Zauner.

Check out our interview with Zauner about her new album here, as well as our more recent interview about her video game endeavors here.

Jubilee is out now on Dead Oceans. Get it here.

Face/Off is a lot of things: an extremely mid-1990s action-thriller; John Woo’s second highest-grossing movie after Mission: Impossible 2; a showcase for John Travolta and Nicolas Cage to not chew but devour the scenery. But one thing it’s not is “sexy.”

Tiffany Haddish may disagree.

The Tuca and Bertie star will soon appear in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, where Cage plays a fictionalized version of himself. “I don’t know Nicolas Cage, and he seems to be like the kind of guy that’s like, all right, so now we’re going to do this scene, and this is how it goes,” she said on NPR’s It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders about meeting the Oscar winner. “And, all right, here we go. Nice to meet you. I’m like, I’ve been watching you my whole life, and I have to tell you this, like, thing.” That thing?

“So basically, I was at the movie theater seeing Face/Off. I was about 17 years old, on a date with this guy. And nobody else was in the theater, really. It was just us in the back of the theater. And we started to make out. We started making out and stuff. And then it was my first time being fiddled with. I will say it like that, OK? As I was achieving a momentous moment that I had never experienced in my life, I opened my eyes, and the eyes of Nicolas Cage are looking into my eyes super big, right?… That was my first big O.”

Haddish was initially hesitant to tell Cage this story (“I don’t want him to hit me with the sexual harassment”), and when she did, “all I [could] think about is the guy that I went to the movies with and how we were like, you know, and we were making out and then that feeling and then how weird I feel in remembering this in front of him. And then there [Cage] is looking at me.” Lucky for Haddish, Cage “laughed super hard” at her confession. He was probably relieved that her “first big O” wasn’t during Leaving Las Vegas. Now that would be weird.

You can watch the NPR interview below (the Cage story is at the 10:30 mark).

With Loki coming to an end in less than a week, Marvel has dropped the latest trailer for its next Disney+ outing, What If…? The animated series explores various alternate realities in the MCU where small changes have huge impacts on the heroes (and villains) fans have come to love. Right out of the gate, the latest trailer recreates the opening of the first Iron Man movie, but with a critical twist: Black Panther‘s Killmonger shows up and saves Tony Stark before he’s hit by missile shrapnel and helped captive in an underground lab where he invents his Iron Man suit. It also marks the first return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. (Don’t get too attached though. The role has always been touted as a “brief” appearance.)

In a similar vein, the trailer also goes heavy on the new twist on Star-Lord. In What If…?, Yondu doesn’t come to Earth to acquire Peter Quill. Instead, he takes Wakanda’s Prince T’Challa, who becomes this alternate reality’s version of Star-Lord. Adding gravitas to this multiverse twist is the voice work of the late Chadwick Boseman, who recorded his lines shortly before his tragic passing.

The trailer also offers brief flashes of Doctor Strange having a multiverse crisis of his own, and the real showstopper is Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter who, in this reality, takes the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. Of course, the larger question is whether or not What If…? ties into the MCU. Currently, the cinematic universe is being torn apart in Loki, and the next Spider-Man and Doctor Strange films are expected to delve even deeper into the Multiverse. Will the animated series be a part of that reality-bending fun, or is it simply a creative exercise to prep casual audiences for the unlimited flexibility of the Marvel characters? Fortunately, we don’t have to wait long for an answer.

Marvel’s What If…? starts streaming August 11 on Disney+.

Last fall, Omar Apollo shared his third project in as many years with Apolonio. The album presents nine songs that displayed the singer’s growth as an artist along with some outside contributions from Ruel and Kali Uchis. Fast-forward nine months and Apollo is back to show off his improved artistry with his latest single, “Go Away.”

The breezy effort finds him dreading the moment he has to once again say goodbye to a loved one. It comes with a visual that captures the singer enjoying the many elements of nature. From the greens of a bustling garden and the glow of a warm fire to the relaxing feeling of a lake, Apollo experiences it all in the new video.

The track arrives Apollo announced last month that he will be hitting the road later this month on the Desvelado Tour. It kicks off on July 27 in Chicago, and continues for about four months before coming to an end on November 10 in Boston. Apollo will also be accompanied by Deb Never, Maye, Sofia Valdes, and Niko Rubio on select dates while making solo festival stops at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, and Music Midtown.

You can press play on the video for “Go Away” above and check out the full dates for the Desvelado Tour below. Tickets for it can also be purchased here.

07/27 — Chicago, IL @ Metro
07/30 — Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
09/03 — Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
09/18 — Miami, FL @ Space Park
09/19 — Atlanta, GA @ Music Midtown
09/28 — Tucson, AZ @ Hotel Congress
09/29 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
09/30 — El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
10/02 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
10/03 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/05 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Tower
10/06 — Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
10/08 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Union Event Center
10/10 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/12 — San Francisco, CA @ Warfield Theatre
10/13 — Chico, CA @ Senator Theatre
10/15 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
10/16 — Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
10/17 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox
10/19 — Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
10/20 — Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
10/23 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Shrine
10/25 — Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
10/27 — Denver, CO @ The Ogden
10/29 — Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
10/30 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
11/02 — Detroit, MI @ The Majestic
11/03 — Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
11/04 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
11/06 — Philadelphia, PA @ TLA
11/09 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
11/10 — Boston, MA @ Big Night Live

Omar Apollo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The highly-anticipated third fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder has reportedly been thrown into a state of uncertainty. According to Mike Coppinger of ESPN, Fury, the reigning WBC and The Ring heavyweight champion, has seen an outbreak of COVID-19 in his camp 16 days before he’s expected to step into the ring.

While it is not clear if Fury himself has caught the novel coronavirus, but it has gotten to the point within his camp that a decision needs to be made whether or not things will go on as planned on July 24 or get moved to a later date.

Via ESPN:

No official determination has yet been made on whether the fight, set to be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and broadcast on ESPN+ PPV, will proceed as planned.

The fight is a joint pay-per-view with FOX, and that network has the Manny Pacquiao-Errol Spence Jr. PPV on Aug. 21, so it’s likely Fury-Wilder 3 would be moved to September, sources told ESPN.

Fury and Wilder have fought twice in the last three years. Back in 2018, the two went 12 rounds with Wilder’s WBC title on the line in a fight that was somewhat controversially deemed a draw. About 15 months later, they stepped back into the ring again and Fury put forth a championship-winning performance, earning a TKO in the seventh round.

While it looked like Fury was slated to get a heavyweight unification bout with Anthony Joshua in August, an arbiter determined that he was contractually obligated to fight Wilder a third time. Now, the question is whether that fight will happen in two weeks or a little bit later this year.

Last year, it looked like Vic Mensa, the genre-hopping Chicago rapper who had gone through the showbiz wringer since exploding onto the scene at the tail end of the blog era, was finally making his comeback and receiving his due with the I Tape EP. He’d returned to form, reunited with his longtime friend and collaborator Chance The Rapper, and regained the swagger that had made him an XXL Freshman in 2014. Then, the pandemic struck, effectively shutting down the momentum for Vic and pretty much every other rapper in the game.

However, he hasn’t let that setback stop him from completing his comeback. Instead, he kept working his and Chance’s collaboration, “Shelter,” performing on The Late Show and offering their own stripped-down live performance filmed at Chance’s house. Vic also continued releasing videos from the new project, including “Fr33dom,” and today, the video for the Just Blaze-produced “Victory.”

Equal parts celebratory and defiant, the track finds Vic slinging some of his slickest punchlines over a signature, triumphant-sounding Just Blaze beat, addressing the perception of his fall-off and expressing his love for the Windy City. The video, shot in black-and-white, is a simple affair in which Vic takes a literal victory lap around his city, then posts up in a parking lot to watch motorcycles burn rubber as he performs his witty, validating verses. With a C Tape no doubt in the works, it looks like Vic Mensa is back on track to retake the pole position in rap’s race for greatness.

Watch Vic Mensa’s “Victory” video above.

While the Los Angeles Lakers have a number of rotation players whose futures are up in the air this offseason, Kyle Kuzma is under contract for the next few years. Kuzma’s has something of a strange career in L.A., going from a bright spot during the team’s post-Kobe Bryant years to a role player during the current era of Lakers basketball who is asked to do different things on a given night.

Kuzma was rewarded for his efforts with a contract extension that kicks in next season is slated to pay him $13 million a year, but in a recent interview with Bleacher Report, the fourth-year forward explained that he believes he has the ability to be an All-Star.

“I definitely can,” Kuzma said on B/R’s Hanging With Kuz. “I definitely believe that, too. I don’t really care what nobody thinks or says. I know myself, and I know my ability. It’s hard to be consistent in an inconsistent role. I’m excited for a more consistent space next year.

“I’ve done a great job every offseason of trying to build something and add something to my game,” he continued. “I’ve turned myself into a great defender. My rookie year, I was a stop sign on defense. I didn’t really stop anybody. Now, whether it’s elite wings, 4 men, even point guards and shooting guards, I have the ability to guard four positions now and really affect the game on that end of the court.”

The usual disclaimer that no player will say they’re not deserving of being an All-Star goes here. Even if Kuzma never explicitly says this, it very much comes off like he thinks the only thing between him being a nice rotation player and an All-Star is having a clear, defined role 82 games a year, and while it’s fair to be skeptical, he seems confident he’ll get a chance to make that case on the floor next season.