Category: News

In a surprising move for the DC Comics film world, The Young and the Restless actress Sarah Calle has been cast as Supergirl, and she’ll be making her first appearance in the solo The Flash movie when it arrives next year. Citing her “toughness and vulnerability,” Calle was reportedly chosen by The Flash director Andy Muschietti and DC Films head Walter Hamada after the two sifted through a mountain of Zoom additions thanks to COVID. Calle will be the first ever Latina Supergirl, and she’s already scheduled to join production on The Flash, which is currently prepping in London. Via Deadline:

“I saw more than four hundred auditions. The talent pool was truly amazing and it was very hard to make a decision, but we finally found an actress who was destined to play this role,” said Muschietti, who has a keen eye for discovering talent, in particular all the young actors from the first It movie.

Muschietti also shared a video on Instagram of Calle learning she scored the Supergirl part, which you can see below:

The addition of Calle’s Supergirl adds an interesting twist to The Flash movie, which will reportedly see both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton reprise their respective Batman roles alongside Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. The film is rumored to “reset” the DCEU timeline through it’s multiverse-based shenanigans that will help future DC Comics films avoid continuity issues now that Affleck has left the Batman role, and will provide new story opportunities that are no longer anchored to previous films like Batman V Superman and Justice League.

(Via Deadline)

Tucker Carlson isn’t the only one on Fox News who loves to bluster about cancel culture.

The Chicago Tribune reported that 41 statues in Chicago are under review as part of “a racial healing and historical reckoning project,” including five of Abraham Lincoln, as well as monuments to Presidents George Washington and William McKinley and “murderer, tyrant, and scoundrel” Christopher Columbus. Naturally, Fox News is not a fan of the initiative. Carley Shimkus called it “wrong,” “violent,” and “illegal” that statues were ripped down last year, but “equally troubling would be to have a group of professional people go through this months-long process, look at the history of these men and what they represent to our country, and still decide to take these statues down.”

She continued, “You have to wonder, are we in a transition period in our country right now where our grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren might not think of these people the way we do? They might not be taught in the same way we know them now,” as if our views aren’t constantly evolving and should stay fixed in time. Shimkus wants “more statues, not less, not fewer. More opinions, more ideas, not less.”

After Shimkus brought up that Lincoln was “a part of every aspect” of Lincoln, Illinois, where she used to work, and there was “even a sandwich named after” the 16th president, co-anchor Bill Hemmer chimed in, “If they start canceling American presidents, they’ll come after Bible characters next. Mark my words, right?” Outside of noticing how Hemmer referred to Jesus and Mary as “characters,” people on Twitter are wondering what, say, the burning bush or the VeggieTales getting canceled looks like.

(Via Mediaite)

Sometimes the best R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the the best new R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

Mahalia — “Jealous” Feat. Rico Nasty

Mahalia and Rico Nasty teamed up for the UK singer’s latest video release for “Jealous.” Directed by Melody Maker and taking inspiration from the ’90s hood classic Belly, Mahalia re-enacts the iconic scene between Tommy, played by DMX, and his girl Keisha when she caught him cheating, but instead Mahalia shows what it would like if Keisha actually got revenge. “Jealous” is her first single that is expected to live on her follow-up to 2020’s Love & Compromise.

Bryson Tiller — “Sorrows”

Bryson Tiller‘s “Sorrows” off Anniversary now has a visual that sees Tiller lost in the vortex of desert mirages and reminiscing about his relationships. Bryson recently revealed that fans can expect another project from him, titled Serenity, real soon.

Chris Brown & Young Thug — “Go Crazy Remix” Feat. Mulatto, Future and Lil Durk

Chris Brown and Young Thug’s beloved summer bop “Go Crazy” has been enhanced with a remix featuring Mulatto, Future, and Lil Durk. The chart-topping hit lives on Breezy and Thugger’s collaborative mixtape from last year, Slime & B and steadily remains in the top 10 of the Billboard charts.

Russ — “Misunderstood”

Russ pleased fans this week with his new track “Misunderstood.” It’s a slow jam aided by high-hats and an acoustic guitar that perfectly conveys his feelings after a relationship officially ends.

Justine Skye — “Intruded”

Over the pandemic, Justine Skye and Timbaland have been locked in. This week Justine debuts her first single with the Grammy Award-winning producer titled “Intruded,” and it arrives with an accompanying short-film music video. This seems to be the beginning of a new era for Skye as she leaves the past behind with her second studio album Bare With Me: The Album and sets the tone for a promising future.

Kelly Rowland — K

Kelly Rowland just hit us with her six-song release, K. The project includes the previously released, tracks “Hitman” and “Black Magic.” Today, she delivered a new music video for the track “Flowers.” K is a rich project and feels like that perfect collection of songs that we need.

Siena Liggins — “Dirty Girl” feat. Yung Baby Tate

Siena Liggins is here with her new song “Dirty Girl” and she taps in with Yung Baby Tate to share the track with her. This is the lead single from Siena’s upcoming debut album, Ms. Out Tonight, which is expected to be released in April.

Elhae — “Separated”

Elhae has blessed us with his new gem “Separated” and its music video directed by Loris Russier with creative direction from Siwoo Lee. “The song is really emotional, and I just wanted to pair that with something just as emotional visually,” Elhae said of the song in a statement. “I love how everything came out and excited to work on more projects with Loris in the future.”

Pxrry — “Got 2”

Singer-songwriter Pxrry is the cadence of releasing a series of fresh singles leading up to his debut album and the infectious “Got 2” is one of them. This week, the R&B newcomer shares the song’s visual.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead has been an absolute powerhouse since its debut on AMC, but now, it’s time for Kirkman’s other massive comic book series to shine. Premiering in March on Amazon Prime, Invincible is an all-new animated series that will adapt the fan-favorite Image comic that ran for 14 years from 2003 to 2017. The story will focus on teenager Mark Grayson, the son of a Superman-like hero. As Mark’s powers emerge, he’s hurl into a world of epic battles and brutal losses as the weight of the universe comes crashing down on him. Plus, he likes a super-powered girl, so there’s that, too.

Here’s the official synopsis:

From The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, and based on the Skybound/Image comic of the same name by Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, Invincible is an hour-long, adult animated superhero show that revolves around seventeen-year-old Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), who’s just like every other guy his age — except that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers that his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems.

And just check out the rest of this fully stacked voice cast for Invincible: Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Seth Rogen (This is the End), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Andrew Rannells (Black Monday, Girls), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Mark Hamill (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Walton Goggins (Justified), Jason Mantzoukas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), Melise (The Flash), Kevin Michael Richardson (The Simpsons), Grey Griffin (Avengers Assemble), Khary Payton (The Walking Dead) and more.

The first three episodes of Invincible premiere March 26 on Amazon Prime Video with new episodes dropping weekly until a climactic season finale on April 30.

Over the past year, Bad Bunny has been absolutely stacking his resume. He’s set to act with Brad Pitt, he recently made chart history, and he’s a WWE champion. On top of all that, he has the distinct honor of being the musical guest on this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live. Traditionally, the musical guest usually joins the week’s host and a cast member to film some promotional clips for the show. So now, Bad Bunny’s promo has emerged and it’s focused on his name.

Bridgerton‘s Regé-Jean Page introduces the clip before Melissa Villaseñor references Bad Bunny’s name by saying, “I think I’m gonna go by ‘Bad Melissa’ now.” Page makes a similar declaration, declaring his new nickname to be Regé-Jean Bunny. He then asks Bunny if he wants a new nickname, but he sticks to his guns, replying, “‘Bad Bunny’ is already cool, so I’m gonna keep it,” a conclusion with which both Page and Villaseñor agree.

All of this comes after Bunny had a COVID-19 scare. He tested positive in November, but in a December appearance on The Late Late Show, he told James Corden, “I feel great, thank God. I already tested negative, so I’m so happy. I feel great. I feel perfect.”

Check out the SNL promo above.

As the COVID vaccine continues to roll out, the country moves ever so closer to something resembling normalcy. But, to be certain, it’s a slow and deliberate process, and it could be significant time before we can go back to attending gatherings of multiple people safely.

Despite the continued precaution required, the NBA has remained adamant about holding its annual All-Star Game in Atlanta next month. Multiple star players have publicly expressed concerns over health and safety, especially considering the number of games that have already been postponed this season, combine with time lost from players who have been held out because of contact tracing.

As the league has pressed forward, commissioner Adam Silver has stuck to his belief that the sort of mini-bubble that would be created in Atlanta for the game would actually be safer than players using their time off during the mid-season break to travel to different locales across the country. On Thursday, he took that sentiment a step further during an appearance on The Jump:

“There were obviously those who thought we shouldn’t play without fans, thought we shouldn’t play in the bubble, thought we shouldn’t be playing in a very serious way because of the social justice issues roiling this country,” Silver said. “So I certainly hear the other side of this issue here.

“And I’ll lastly say it seems like no decisions during this pandemic come without uncertainty and come without risk. This is yet another one of them, and yet it’s my job to balance all those interests, and ultimately, it feels like the right thing to do to go forward.”

Silver has faced significant criticism for his stance, and that’s not likely to go away between now and then. The league has certainly been in a difficult position since the pandemic started, and continuing play has come with many challenges. Though the All-Star Game seems very low on the list of priorities, it’s also a huge revenue stream, a reality that obviously has factored into this decision.

Until the world finally gets back to normal, the league will continue to face tough decisions about how to move forward while trying to balance the safety of its players.

Zoe Dupree is not like any other celebrity stylist. He styles with intention and thrives on innovative fashion aesthetics that get the people talking. Perhaps that’s what Young Thug’s fiancee Jerrika Karlae felt when they first met at New York Fashion Week. The connection eventually led to Dupree becoming the man behind Young Thug‘s most iconic fashion look — the cover of his 2016 mixtape Jeffery.

Donned in a flowy lavender dress contained by ruffles, the look Thug so confidently wore created quite some commotion and viral memes. A man in a dress delivering some of the best music of 2016 gave the internet a lot to talk about. The discourse reached students sitting in lectures at top-notch colleges such as NYU where the discussion of femininity and masculinity in hip-hop was led by Dupree himself.

Make people talk. That was always the plan, Dupree expressed to Uproxx on his styling career. Helping rising acts such as Lil Keed, Asian Da Brat, and Renni Rucci get in the position to make fashion headlines by paying it forward to up-and-coming Black fashion designers also seems to be part of his plan. There are not that many Black people in the fashion industry as it is, and Zoe Dupree is doing his part to help adjust that.

How did you end up linking up with YSL?

Jerrika Karlae, Thug’s fiancee who is now a rapper, she’s also a designer. Me and her cousin were cool and he was like, “Oh my God, you have to work for my cousin. You have to do her PR.” I do PR on the side as well. He was like, “You’ve got to connect with them. They want to be in New York for fashion week, set some things up for her. I’ll make sure she’s there.” I set up an interview for Jerrika at Fader and that was my first time meeting her but we would see each other out during fashion week. That whole week I saw her at Rihanna’s show, her and Thug, her mom and so it was like, “You’ve got to come to Atlanta. We’ll get some stuff going.” Three weeks later I went to Atlanta to work and she was like, “You know what? You need to just move here.” I remember just packing a suitcase and her and Thug lived in this beautiful townhouse downtown. She was like, “We got extra bedrooms.” They gave me a room on the third floor of the townhouse. I lived with them and then I wound up moving with them to their mansion in Buckhead.

I worked for Thug and Karlae for about maybe three and a half years. About a year and a half ago, I just started focusing on just one artist and I started working with Lil Keed when he got signed. I started doing his styling and just helping him move around day to day.

That’s dope. I always hear about Thug and how he always wants to help out others.

Thug will give you the shirt off his back. He’s a good person. He wants everybody to get whatever you can get out of the situation and make it great for you. I learned a lot of things by just working with him because Thug is a fashionable guy, so for him to even let me come in and just create looks… I got a lot of iconic moments under Thug.

Tell me about those iconic looks.

The thing that I’m most known for is the album cover Jeffery, the dress. I did all the tours. I got to travel on tour with Drake and Thug when we did the London tour. I’ve done festivals, I’ve done music videos, Adidas commercials. I’ve done Vibe, Source, and just different things with Thug. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be able to have those moments and then be able to help create new moments for the new artists.

What was the name of the designer for that dress?

Alessandro Trincone. I met him at New York fashion week. He’s always showing me his new collections.

How did you end up getting that dress for the cover?

I was setting up some PR stuff for Jerrika and Thug just happened to be with her. He was doing an interview so we were all there and we wind up seeing this dress, just randomly out. Thug had already shot the Jeffrey cover. It was just a simple cover but he was like, “Oh my God, got to redo it.”

They wind up sending the dress out and sending it back overseas to Atlanta. I remember this big box coming to the house and he’s like, “All right y’all, we are shooting the cover today.” I remember like it was yesterday. That was a cool moment and it was controversial, too. I was nervous when it came out because I got a lot of hate mail and then I got a lot of like, “Oh my God, this is amazing. This is breaking barriers.” Off that alone, I remember getting a lot of speaking engagements at colleges because some of the professors would do courses around this album cover where they talked about masculinity versus femininity in music. NYU had a big course, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University. Everybody had small little lecture groups surrounding this album cover.

What colleges did you speak at?

I talked at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta.

Now you’re dressing Keed and you’ve created some known looks for him, too. You put him in a jacket from Lady Gaga’s Fame Tour in the “Here” video. What did he say when you guys told him that this was the Lady Gaga jacket?

He was excited. He was like, “What the f*ck?” I just remember him walking and he had this arrogance. He was like, “Man, this jacket is like… Man.” I remember him walking back on set and just giving it his all.

What’s been your experience as a Black stylist?

My overall experience as a Black stylist, it’s been… it’s a lot of fun. Just coming from Philadelphia — growing up there, it’s kind of like a black cloud. I’m able to meet people. I’m able to network, I’m able to make money. I’m able to make people look good. It’s just a really, really good feeling being a Black stylist.

How are you using fashion to get the artists that you’re working with messaging and personality across?

One thing I always do working with a new client is study them and look at past pictures versus stuff that I do with them now. I’m a big researcher. I love the mainstream brands and I use them in and out with my styling. The thing that separates me is that I use up-and-coming Black designers. It could be a mom-and-pop shop, it could be just something fresh off Instagram. I’m always giving different Black designers opportunities. So I always like to take those small brands and mix it in with my artists to for one, to give them a look that nobody has done or, having involved in pieces that no one’s used before. It makes them trend and it helps the brand as well.

Can you give me an example of a time you’ve done that and the artist was very interested in the designers look?

My friend, Jeff Spicoli, has a brand called Dare To Be Different and he has these flannel pants. He had this like crisscross cage on them and they were double-sided. I remember him contacting me on Instagram about working together. He had these pants and I remember getting them on Thug. Thug put the outfit on and the next day, it was on Vogue. Also with those pants, I was on a tour with Thug and Jaden Smith. I actually gave Jaden a pair of pants on behalf of Thug. The next thing you know, I walk out to watch the show, and I see Jaden with the pants on.

I’m pretty sure that was life-changing for your friend, Jeff.

It really was.

How does that make you feel to be able to help out your friends in that way?

Naturally, I just like to help. I feel like my gift is to help people look good, help people connect the dots and help people get what they need.

How do you use styling to help a new artist breakthrough?

I’m always edging the clients to just go big, go hard, and kind of step out the box. I’m always telling them “Oh let’s do this, some crazy sh*t that doesn’t make sense. Let’s just put some of those crazy looks together that you might not see day-to-day and let’s just go viral with it.” I feel like those kinds of moments right there get people talking because everybody’s not going to like what you put together. But as long as people are talking, it’s going to do what it needs to do. It’s not going to be a horrible look, but it’s going to be just some hard, out of this world kind of pieces. Crazy things that I have in my mind where I’m able to get through to the artists.

When’s a time that you convinced an artist to step out of the box and they just went crazy?

One time, Keed was going to the BET awards and he wanted to wear a suit. I remember getting this bright-ass lime green suit and it was kind of oversize with a jacket and very bell bottom-ish pants. He had red hair at the time and I remember his hair started bleeding on the blazer and it messed it up. So we took a piece of his date’s dress and cut it, put it over the spots and it was kind of like a handkerchief kind of thing. I remember we went outside and he took a picture, and everybody was talking about the outfit. It was good stuff and bad. It went viral and that was a crazy moment. That night, everybody was wearing lime green. I remember Ella Mai wore green and a bunch of different artists popped out with lime green suits that night.

2019 was definitely the year of lime green.

Everybody wanted to be slime and all that.

Who are some of your favorite Black designers and why?

I love LaQuan Smith. We’re actually cool friends. I met him through a colleague of mine. The first time meeting him, I had used this stuff on Thug. I went to a couple of his shows and his showroom and I was able to see his pieces. It’s just so good to see an African-American male dominating this industry. People think of fashion as a white-dominated industry. It’s always good to see Black people rising to the occasion. I’m really proud of him. I like him as a designer. I like Pyer Moss, he’s another designer. I actually got to work with him when Keed walked in their New York fashion week show. I got to see the pieces and how eclectic his style was. Everything was androgynous. They’re maybe two of my favorite Black designers.

What advice or encouragement would you have for aspiring Black creatives?

Be yourself. There’s nothing like just being authentic. Pray every night, keep God all in your business because he’ll basically help you to get where you need to be. Ask questions, educate yourself, read books, search the internet. Be around like-minded people. Everybody can’t go where you’re going in life. You probably can’t take your best friend. You probably can’t take your brother and your sister. Everybody’s not meant to be on your front row. You got to sometimes give people some balcony seats or maybe some seats outside the stadium on the lawn. You’ll learn it along the journey.

What’s next for you?

I do a virtual style school. It’s basically online. Whoever’s an aspiring stylist, they can come join the class. It’s a two- to three-hour course where I give them free game, like how I got started. Also, telling them the ins and outs. I’m going to do that once a month. Zoechella is my annual birthday party where all my celebrity clients come and perform. That’s going to be July 4th weekend. We’re also doing a versus fashion show. I’m battling another stylist. We’re using Black designers and it’s going to be a party on a boat ride.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

South Park‘s first pandemic special aired in October 2020 to high ratings, so Trey Parker and Matt Stone are here to make that magic happen again with a second installment that’s got a very telling title — “South ParQ The Vaccination Special” — so one can imagine that we’re not only going to see pandemic-related events again (and the show already tackled anti-vaxxers in 2019) but also some much-needed roasting of the QAnon conspiracy crowd.

Hopefully, we’ll hear some news soon on the return with a full season of half-hour episodes, but for now, it’s good enough news that we’re getting an hour-long special. There’s no telling whether this event will tackle the U.S. Capitol insurrection (it’s easy to imagine the show including the throngs of MAGA-flag waving crowds packing the complex’s outside staircases), but I do hope that we get to see South Park‘s version of the QAnon Shaman with all of his organic food whining torched for all to see.

The special’s description reads as follows: “The citizens of South ParQ are clamoring for the COVID-19 vaccine. A hilarious new militant group tries to stop the boys from getting their teacher vaccinated.” Expect to see the episode available not only on Comedy Central but also MTV2. “South ParQ The Vaccination Special” will air on March 10.

February has been a tremendous month for Australia. Their COVID response has dropped the number of new cases per day to somewhere between one and five. They passed a new law that required sites like Google and Facebook to pay for news and Facebook responded by essentially up and leaving the continent completely. And, in what many — just me — consider the biggest story of all, the Land Down Under now has its own version of America’s finest television program, Holey Moley.

I have discussed Holey Moley many times on this website. There’s a simple reason for this: Holey Moley is perfect. It is, in theory, a mini-golf competition show. People putt the ball and keep putting it until it goes in a hole and the person who gets their ball into the hole in the fewest putts wins. Where it becomes special, though, is its addition of Jackass-level physical challenges that toe the line between unnecessary in every way and more necessary to my survival than water. People go flying everywhere. It’s a good show. You should watch it.

The Australian version makes a few small changes:

• Aussie legend Greg Norman has been replaced American legend Steph Curry as the show’s resident golf expert
• Joe Tessitore has been replaced by Australian television personality and former Olympic sprinter Matt Shirvington
• Rob Riggle is still the co-host, which is admittedly not a change but worth including because it is funny to me
• There is now a hole where a man dressed as an angry muscular chicken torments the golfers

We can work with this. The show premiered on February 1st and has aired two or three episodes a week and will already air its finale on the 22nd. This is so powerful. It’s one of the reasons I respect Australia very much. No other country would look at this bozo circus of a television show and say “let’s go ahead and air the full season in three weeks.” I’m so proud of them.

But why am I still typing? You don’t want to read words. You want to see people wiping out on aggressively dangerous obstacles. Buddy, do I and the Australian Holey Moley have you covered. Here’s the first hole of the first episode. It’s the same windmill fiasco as the American version but now, for reasons as unclear as they are delightful, the contestants wear little hats. The hats do not help.

Does this show also feature Hole Number Two, the one where contestants try to race past a row of portable toilets before people dressed in Halloween costumes fling the doors open into their sprinting bodies and send them flailing into a pool?

I am pleased to report that it does.

The hole where contestants cling to a rocket-powered zip line and then try to grasp a large pole they are speeding toward, never succeeding, and then spiraling to a splashdown finish?

Yup. That’s here, too.

But the best part of all of this is that most of the contestants are, like, extremely Australian. Just an incredible cross-section of humanity selected to compete on this show. And this is where I get the pleasure of introducing you to this guy, who appears in the second episode and — spoilers, whatever — wins. This is important. Look at this bearded king.

It gets better. At multiple times throughout the episode, he gets catapulted into a swimming pool after wiping out. And when he emerges from the pool, he does… well, this.

It’s majestic. It’s beautiful. It’s is the only logical conclusion to a blog post about Holey Moley coming to Australia and so it is where I will end. Just a marvelous job by everyone involved. I’m so happy.

Thank you to Paul for this wonderful tip

Just a few months removed from her debut mixtape, Wolf Pussy, her highest-profile feature song feature on Rico Nasty’s “Smack A Bitch” remix, and a fiery back-and-forth battle with Chicago rapper Cupcakke, Florida’s rising star Sukihana lends her raunchy raps and a revealing outfit to R&B singer Muni Long’s sensual “Thot Thoughts” video. Suki, who got her first taste of stardom as a Love & Hip-Hop cast member and later received a co-sign from Cardi B who gave her a cameo in the racy “WAP” video, unabashedly bares… a lot in the video, while rapping about her “ho tendencies” and twirling around a stripper pole.

Muni Long, who previously co-wrote such hits as Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It,” Pitbull and Kesha’s “Timber,” Rihanna’s “California King Bed,” and Selena Gomez’s “Who Says” (all credited under her real name, Priscilla Renea), released her debut EP under her new moniker in 2020. Titled Black Like This, the seven-song offering sees Muni dabbling in sensuous pop-R&B and scintillating hip-hop while collaborating with singer Jacob Lattimore and Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci. She told Vogue in October that she plans to release more music as Muni Long on her own label, Supergiant Records, viewing the EP as her “reintroduction” after over a decade in the music industry writing hits for others.

Watch Muni Long’s “Thot Thoughts” video featuring Sukihana above.