Category: News

We’re still 10 days away from seeing that long-threatened “Snyder Cut” of Justice League — the one that’s supposed to salvage a damaged film, and which will run longer than all but a couple Martin Scorsese epics. But some HBO Max subscribers got a taste of it a little earlier than expected. On Monday multiple people posted videos and images of them trying to watch the new Tom & Jerry movie…only to be instead rewarded with the first hour of the DCEU’s forthcoming Mulligan.

The mistake was caught by one Doug Bass, a realtor and digital marketing analyst based in Charleston, North Carolina. He told Variety he was “just looking for some background TV while I worked, and when I clicked on ‘Tom and Jerry,’ [the] Snyder Cut started playing.” Bass said after an hour the image quality began to erode, followed soon thereafter by an error code. The film was then unavailable.

Variety was able to confirm that the version Bass was indeed the much-hyped “Snyder cut” before the mistake was corrected. (Those who want to watch the Tom + Jerry movie can do so once again.) Others found the same problem.

It’s not clear what happened, and as of this writing Warners has not released a public statement on the matter.

Those who were able to watch the first hour of Justice League 2.0 were kind enough not to flood social media with spoilers, sticking only to vague freeze frames and brief snippets of video from the opening credits. Some even had nice things to say. “ The CGI finally rivals that of Marvel and you’re gonna love it. That’s all im saying. No spoilers,” Bass wrote on Twitter.

The rest of you, you’ll have to wait for March 18, when a large chunk of your waking hours will be devoted to watching a second stab at a movie that was once about half its running time.

(Via Variety)

Like millions of others, I tuned in last night to watch Oprah Winfrey’s interview with (former) Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Although watching “The Crown” has admittedly piqued my curiosity about the Royal Family, I’ve never had any particular interest in following the drama in real life. As inconsequential as the un-royaling of Harry and Meghan is to me personally, it’s a historically and socially significant development.

The story touches so many hot buttons at once—power, wealth, tradition, sexism, racism, colonialism, family drama, freedom, security, and the media. But as I sat and watched the first hour of just Oprah and Meghan Markle talking, I was struck by the simple significance of what I was seeing.

Here were two Black women, one who had battled sexism and racism in her industry and broke countless barriers to create her own empire, and one who has battled racism and sexism to protect her babies, whose royal lineage can be traced back through 1,200 years of rule over the British Empire. And the conversation these women were having had the power to take down—or at least do real damage to—one of the longest-standing monarchies in the world.

Whoa.

It’s not that I have some desire to take down the Queen—both Harry and Meghan were very clear that Queen Elizabeth has been good to them—but the institution of the monarchy and the various branches of that institution are steeped in colonialism, racism, and sexism that has long been glossed over in the name of reverence and respect for royalty. What force could possibly make a dent in such an institution?

Apparently, Meghan Markle. But she’s not doing it alone.

As Oprah asked her about the things we’re all curious about, I thought with awe about the generations of Black women who had fought and endured in order for these two women to be sitting there, alone in front of the cameras, with the wrapt attention of millions. That history was palpable throughout the interview.

When Harry joined in, backing up what Meghan said and sharing his own perspective as a lifelong member of the Royal Family, another woman entered the picture. One thing that came through most clearly in the joint interview was that Harry is so his mother’s son.

Princess Diana rocked the royal boat by not conforming to what the palace wanted her to be when she was married to Prince Charles. She stood up for herself, and though much of the world loved her for it, the hounding of the paparazzi and the lack of support from the Royal Family was incredibly difficult.

“I think every strong woman in history has had to walk down a similar path,” Diana said. “And I think it’s the strength that causes the confusion and the fear. Why is she strong? Where does she get it from? Where is she taking it? Where is she going to use it?”

Diana’s butler has pointed out how similar Meghan is to Diana in personality, going so far as to say he thinks the two would have clashed if Diana were still alive because they are both strong, independent women. He said that similarity is what drew Harry to Meghan. And now Harry has given Meghan the support and defense that his mother never got from the Royal Family.

Diana set the stage for that. She left money for each of her sons in her will—despite the fact that they were royals and would financially always be taken care of—which Harry says enabled the couple to pay for security for their family after the Royal Family cut off security following their stepping back from senior Royal Family member duties.

“I think she saw it coming.” Harry said. “I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process.”

So we have a strong woman who isn’t willing to put up with the constant attacks from the British press, who bravely asked for help when she became suicidal, and who walked away from the bullshit when it became clear that a long-standing institution wasn’t going to change.

We have a strong woman who built her own platform and offered this couple the opportunity to share their story on the world stage.

We have a strong woman who raised a son to celebrate strong women and who had the wisdom to prepare him for something she sensed but couldn’t exactly foresee.

What I saw in that interview was the power of three women calling one of the most powerful institutions in the world to account, and the entire world listening to them. That’s exactly the disruption of the status quo that such institutions have always feared. That’s the threat that strong women actually pose. And it’s a glorious thing to witness.

The whole interview is worth watching. If you missed it, you can watch the whole thing for free on the CBS website here.

For more than a year, the big question for the Dallas Cowboys was whether they would be willing to work out a long-term contract with quarterback Dak Prescott. After Prescott begrudgingly signed his franchise tender a year ago, there was plenty of wonder about his future, particularly coming off of a devastating ankle injury that ended his season early last year.

However, rather than having to once again franchise tag Prescott to the tune of over $37 million, the team announced on Monday evening that they had worked out a longterm deal with the Mississippi State product to keep him in Dallas for years to come.

It didn’t take too long for the contract details to get reported once the Cowboys announced the deal, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter bringing word that his deal was a four-year, $160 million contract with a record-setting $126 million in guaranteed money coming his way. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network added that his deal includes a no-trade clause, meaning the Dallas signal-caller will be there at least until he decides he wants out.

It’s big money for Dak, who gets the financial security he has wanted as well as being paid with the best in the league. Dallas is obviously confident in Prescott as the man who can help lead them to a return to prominence, but now the question turns to whether they have the roster around him to make that jump.

You won’t be seeing the QAnon Shaman strolling around in public wearning nothing but slacks and a horn headpiece anytime soon. As per CNN, a federal judge has ruled that Jacob Chansley, whose many aliases also include Jake Angeli, is too dangerous to release from prison, despite his assurances that he’s a peaceful person who prefers his prison food to be vegan. And that’s not all the judge said: He also chastised him for doing his splashy 60 Minutes Plus interview without getting permission first.

According to CNN, Judge Royce Lamberth has not been moved by Chansley’s attempts to reform his tattered reputation, which he sullied by being the most vocal and most eye-catching of the MAGA mob that violently stormed the Capitol on January 6. Lamberth found that he exhibited a “detachment from reality,” in part because he claimed his actions — which involved carrying a spear through the government building and howling from the balcony — was “not an attack on this country.”

“Defendant characterizes himself as a peaceful person who was welcomed into the Capitol building on January 6th by police officers. The Court finds none of his many attempts to manipulate the evidence and minimize the seriousness of his actions persuasive.”

Lamberth also effectively used his 60 Minutes Plus testimony against him, taking his words and using them to hang him. “The statements defendant has made to the public from jail show that defendant does not fully appreciate the severity of the allegations against him,” wrote Lamberth. “To the contrary, he believes that he — not the American people or members of Congress — was the victim on January 6th.”

Chansley’s lawyer, Albert Watkins, tried to argue that the spear he carried through the Capitol was just a flag pole, but Lamberth wasn’t having that either. “A six-foot pole with a metal spearhead fixed to the top is, undoubtably, a dangerous weapon,” Lamberth wrote.

As for Chansley’s 60 Minutes Plus appearance — his first public interview since his arrest on January 9 — Lamberth questioned whether he got the required clearance from the U.S. Marshals Service, the detention facility or the judge, according to The Washington Post. He did the interview from Watkins’ office, and Watkins had assumed that was fine.

Though Chansley has not been charged with assaulting anyone, he was charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct. Watkins has tried to paint his client as an innocent man misled by others, among them former president Donald J. Trump. “I am not belittling my client . . . but my client was wearing horns,” Watkins said. “He had tattoos around his nipples. He wasn’t leading anywhere. He was a follower.”

(Via CNN and The Post)

Last week, St. Vincent returned to officially announce her highly-anticipated album, Daddy’s Home, with the shimmering track “Pay Your Way In Pain.” Everything about the album, including its cover art, is heavily inspired by early ’70s music. But that wasn’t always St. Vincent’s plan. In fact, the musician had originally wanted to craft an album that sounds like metal/progressive rock band Tool.

Speaking to Bryce Segall on his Radio.com’s New Arrivals show, St. Vincent discussed her musical inspirations and how she started making a heavy-sounding LP before scrapping it for Daddy’s Home:

“The crazy thing about music is, you can plan and plan and think you’re gonna go one way, and then you start writing and the music just takes you wherever the music takes you. That was certainly the experience with this. I was dead set in my mind that after Masseduction I was just gonna make this like, heavy record. Like just heavy the whole time — like, ‘hey kids, you like TOOL? Well, you’ll love the St. Vincent record,’ you know? I got sort of down a road with that, but I kept finding that I didn’t have anything to say there. It didn’t feel anything, to go more angular and harder after Masseduction, but where it did feel like something, and felt free and fun and fresh and a lot of other ‘f’ words, was to just go back to the music I’ve listened to more than anything else, which is stuff made in New York from ’71 to ’76 — post flower child, pre-disco, pre-punk — and just sit in that space for a bit. And that’s where the music ended up taking me.”

Listen to St. Vincent’s interview on Radio.com’s New Arrivals show with Bryce Segall above.

Daddy’s Home is out 5/14 via Loma Vista Recordings. Pre-order it here.

After falling out of the headlines following an unprecedented surge coordinated by Reddit traders, GameStop stocks came roaring back on Monday as the price hit its highest point since February 1. However, this time around, there’s actually an easier explanation that doesn’t involve diving into the intricacies of short selling, and so far, there are no signs of another Congressional hearing. While the attention of Reddit traders continues to be a factor even a month later, the video game retailer is handing over the reins of its e-commerce business to Chewy Inc. founder and activist investor Ryan Cohen, which apparently caused Monday’s stock price to rocket.

Via Yahoo! Finance:

GameStop’s market value jumped to $13.6 billion as retail investors praised Cohen’s move on social media sites like Twitter and Reddit. The swing in the retailer’s size is still a far cry from the $33.7 billion value it hit on on Jan. 28 when it briefly became the largest company in the Russell 2000 Index.

GameStop’s rally marked a fourth day of gains, which has resulted in a 65% climb for the retailer compared to the broader market’s roughly 1.3% decline. Monday’s jump came as trading volume roared back. With more than 62 million shares changing hands, volume was almost double what had been seen in the past week.

While this latest development might not be as exciting as the initial surge that’s currently spawned nine film projects and counting, watching GameStop stocks continue to subvert expectations will never get old on social media where people are always ready to bust out a meme or just straight marvel at the fact that the seemingly doomed for extinction retailer is still the talk of the financial world.

(Via Yahoo! Finance)

It looks like we’ve seen the last of Pepé Le Pew. Following news that the cartoon skunk was cut from the Space Jam sequel, the controversial character appears to be shelved for the time being. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pepé is not featured in any current Warner Bros. TV projects, like the recent Looney Tunes revival, and there are no plans for him to return. However, much like his removal from Space Jam: A New Legacy, the decision was made well before Pepé was the subject of an op-ed in the New York Times that argued the character “added to rape culture.” THR reports that the call to leave Pepé out of future cartoons was made “more than a year ago.”

Of course, it should be noted that classic Looney Tunes shorts featuring Pepé Le Pew are still available on HBO Max. But while there isn’t a concerted effort to actually cancel Mr. Le Pew, it does seem like he is being retired. Naturally, this has turned the grabby French cartoon character into yet another political football for the type of people who have been on a recent tear about “cancel culture” run amok after incidences involving The Muppets, Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss, and Star Wars.

However, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who actually was “canceled” (albeit brielfy), has come out in defense of those who think having a discussion about Pepé Le Pew and rape culture is worth having. He even went so far as to agree that Pepé is “offensive because of the way he treats that cat.”

“Stop calling everything ‘cancel culture’ because you’re too dim to have a nuanced opinion,” Gunn tweeted. “People can be offended by something, or think something sucks, and that’s not ‘cancel culture’ – it’s free speech.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Just after the release of her debut solo album Petal For Armor, Hayley Williams was stuck in quarantine and unable to play any of her new songs live. To suffice, Williams began periodically sharing acoustic covers of songs to social media, some of which landed on her Petal For Armor: Self-Serenades EP. Now, following the release of yet another solo album, Williams continues her Self-Serenades sessions.

While Williams has played renditions of songs by Björk, Radiohead, and Massive Attack in the past, the singer threw it back to the late ’90s for her latest cover. This time, she took on Failure’s track “The Nurse Who Loved Me,” which originally arrived on their 1996 effort Fantastic Planet. “the sun is out, the laundry is drying so… one of my favorite songs of all time on one of my favorite albums of ever,” she wrote alongside the cover.

Williams chose to keep things casual with her “The Nurse Who Loved Me” cover. She was accompanied by just her acoustic guitar, turning the crashing, muddy track into a lighter anthem. Her version is also slightly abbreviated, clocking in at under two minutes while the original one is well over four.

https://www.instagram.com/yelyahwilliams/

Watch Williams cover Failure’s “The Nurse Who Loved Me” above.

Flowers For Vases / Descansos is out now via Atlantic. Get it here.

Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There are thousands of Star Wars memes, but there’s only one that makes Mark Hamill want to crawl into a sarlacc pit every time he sees it.

It’s a photo from A New Hope, shortly after Luke Skywalker is handed his father’s lightsaber by Obi-Wan Kenobi. “Handed the most dangerous weapon in the galaxy — Immediately points at face,” the text reads. It’s funny for the same reason that “I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home” and Tosche Station are funny — it’s peak whiny and naive Luke. After a Twitter follower wrote that Luke nearly pulling a Christmas Story “makes me laugh every time I see it,” Hamill shared his thoughts on the meme.

“This makes me cringe every time I see it,” he tweeted. “I don’t remember doing this in the movie. I think it’s just an on-set production still, otherwise Obi-Wan wouldn’t look so remarkably unconcerned.” Hamill probably doesn’t remember doing it, because it’s not in the movie. You can see for yourself… as can Luke, because he didn’t lightsaber his eye out.

Hamill also recently recalled the behind-the-story of this birthday cake photo. “While shooting on location for the original #StarWars in Tunisia-North Africa, [producer] Gary Kurtz, [writer and director] George Lucas & I raised a styrofoam cup half-filled with warm champagne to toast Alec Guinness on his 62nd birthday. That was on Friday, April 2nd 1976. (I Googled it),” he wrote. No wonder Guinness did not enjoying making Star Wars. I wouldn’t want to drink warm champagne in the desert, either.

On this week’s episode of People’s Party, Talib Kweli and his co-host-with-the-most Jasmin Leigh sat down with legendary DJ, producer, designer, and sneaker extraordinaire Clark Kent for a lengthy discussion that covers Kent’s Superman DJ Crew, hip-hop’s greatest emcees, and, of course, sneakers. If you haven’t caught the episode, it’s definitely worth a full watch and offers some deep insight into hip-hop’s earliest moments as a culture-dominating force.

Prior to the interview, we linked up with “God’s favorite DJ” for a chat about the famous trendsetter’s favorite sneakers of all time. It shouldn’t surprise anybody that the AF-1 ranks at the top — Nike famously commissioned Kent for an iteration of the shoe for 2010’s “Five Boroughs” project. In fact, of the eight sneakers designed by DJ Clark Kent currently available on StockX, half of them are AF-1s, each doper than the next. The dude knows shoes, so let’s jump in and find out DJ Clark Kent’s four other favorites, his all-time favorite sneaker drop, and who he thinks is killing it in the sneaker game right now.

Watch the full DJ Clark Kent interview on People’s Party above.

What is your favorite sneaker silhouette or pair of shoes, ever?

Well, my favorite silhouette is Air Force 1s because they are the cleanest, simplest, most easy-to-wear silhouette. I think they look perfect, and my favorite pair of sneakers of all time is white on white, Air Force 1s.

What are the craziest lengths you’ve ever gone to get a pair of shoes?

I found out that there were these linen Air Force 1s. Clean linen color with pink swooshes, coming out on a weekend only in Japan, but I wouldn’t be until Japan the week after, because I had to DJ there. I had the promoter change my flight to go a week early, actually a week and two days early. The first thing he said was “I’m not paying for a hotel.” I said, “It’s all good, I’ll pay for the hotel.” I need to be there like a day or two before the shoes come out. He doesn’t understand why I want to come. I don’t explain it that way, but that’s my mentality. The shoes come out on Saturday. I got to be there early just to prepare. So he switched the flight. I got the hotel, the same hotel that I was supposed to stay in.

I was staying at The Civilian. I’ve always stayed at the Civilian. That saturday morning I went to 11 sneaker stores and bought every pair of size 11 and a half of AF-1 linen that I could find. I brought back home 11 pairs to the United States after I did my show the week after. So basically, I went and sat in Japan for a week with a bunch of shoes, just to make sure I had them.

When I came back to New York, everybody made jokes about the fact that I was wearing sneakers with pink swooshes. Then, a couple of stores imported them, and all of a sudden it was a thing — “Oh my God, the pink Air Force 1’s, linen Air Force 1s!” and I’m looking at everybody like, three months ago, y’all thought I was funny!

It was just crazy.

Japan always has the best colorways!

Japan and London! They’ve come close in London or in Europe with JP sports. They always had incredible colorways, but in Japan, they do get some really incredible colorways.

Could you walk us through your five favorite sneaker collaborations? They could all be AF-1s if you want them to be, or shoes you own or wish you owned.

It’s really hard to say what my five favorites are. I think it might be easier to just say, what are my five favorite silhouettes. I would really have to sit here and jog my memory of all of the craziness that I’ve come across or stuff I went looking for that I missed. That would, seriously, probably take about a month — because I’ve been doing this since I was nine. I’d have to go back to 1975, and those were great shoes I was getting when I was a kid.

But favorite Silhouette is Air Force 1. The second favorite is the Air Max 1. Third… there’s a tie between Jordan III and a Jordan XI

The fourth would probably be the Adidas Grand Prix, and then the fifth would be — I like so many sneakers, man. I think it might be the Valley Competition.

Is there a pair that you’ve always wanted, but never have been able to get your hands on?

Yeah, there is plenty of shoes I wanted but couldn’t get my hands on, but the reason I missed them was that they didn’t make my size or something. It’s not because I don’t know how to find them, or I don’t know how to make the call to get it.

Now, there are shoes that are made that might only come up to a size 12, and I’m just like, “Come on guys,” “Well, this colorway is made for women, so the biggest size would be a men’s 11 and a half.” My God! There’s plenty I haven’t gotten.

I would be going crazy if I had to give you a full list but there are enough that have come out that I couldn’t get, and contrary to what most people think — I don’t get everything. But what I do get is what I want. Do you know what I mean?

But like I said, if I want it and don’t have it, the shoes probably just didn’t come in my size. So even though I might have wanted them, I didn’t get them, but you know, I don’t trip off of that. Always remember one thing to be very, very true. There is always next Saturday.

Who, in your opinion right now, is killing it in the sneaker game? Brand, designer, a celebrity with great taste —

Salehe Bembury is doing very well. Joe Fresh Goods, he’s doing great collabs, I’m still doing great collabs! It’s so many, so many brands that can get it right. Do you know what I’m saying? Like, Bodega, when they do their New Balance Collide, always amazing concepts, there are just way too many to say who’s the one.

I don’t miss on Air Force One’s and Conflict doesn’t miss on New Balance. Joe Bodega doesn’t miss on New Balance. Right now, Virgil isn’t missing on Off-White. Supreme doesn’t miss. Do you know what I’m saying? Even when you think they miss, it’s not a miss. They could sell you a brick —

They have!

That’s when you know you are not missing. They sold you a brick, you’re not missing if you can do that.

Sneakersnstuff. The things that they do, they don’t miss. I think we need to give these outside collaborators the ability to do something with a big brand. When that happens, special things can happen. When you work at a plant and you are confined to this season, or this color is what’s happening this season, or this is the materials we’re trying to use this season that has to do with this initiative we’re pushing this season. When you are confined to those rules, the people who work in the brand are stifled. So with that stifling, the guys from outside look like they’re killing it. But they have guys who are sitting in those brands that are amazing. And they just aren’t getting to be as amazing as they could.

Travis is kind of killing me too. Who’s going to say that Kanye West wasn’t killing it on sneakers? There are honestly too many people out there.