Category: News

First Tucker Carlson spread lies on Fox News about George Floyd’s death, now this: According to The Los Angeles Times, the LAPD has opened an internal investigation into an offensive joke that was found being “passed around” amongst the department. The joke? A Valentine’s Day-styled image with a picture of Floyd with the words “You take my breath away.”

The LAPD’s Twitter account made the news public, revealing that they’re still looking into where the image originated, though it’s been alleged that it “was authored by a department employee.” They added, “The Department will have zero tolerance for this type of behavior.”

The joke referenced “I can’t breathe,” which Floyd uttered more than 20 times during the more than nine minutes he spent pinned to the ground, under the knee of then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Contrary to the fake news spread by Tucker Carlson, Floyd’s death was ruled a homicide in two separate autopsies.

Floyd’s murder led to months of protests across the nation and the globe. Los Angeles was among the many places that saw considerable protests, and LAPD Chief Michel Moore came under fire when he bizarrely put partial blame for Floyd’s death on “looters.” He later apologized, formally placing the blame on the officers involved in the killing.

(Via The Los Angeles Times)

Tom Brady made some memes of his own in the days following his latest Super Bowl win, and he certainly got enough attention in the process to make his way back to Saturday Night Live. The Tampa Bay quarterback celebrated his seventh Lombardi Trophy by tossing it from one boat to another during a drunken floating celebration party that left him trying to catch his sea legs when it was over.

Which is why SNL couldn’t resist bringing “Drunk Tom Brady” to Weekend Update to chat on Saturday. Played by Beck Bennett, who honestly doesn’t look much like Brady, the superstar quarterback brought an extremely busted version of the Lombardi Trophy to the set, then used it as a bottle opener to keep the party going.

The segment turned a bit dark at one point with Brady wondering why, despite all the success and winning he’s done, no one seems to like him.

“The problem is, nobody likes me,” Brady said. “I don’t know what I did so wrong. All I did was go out and win Super Bowls, I thought maybe if I win one more trophy and people are gonna like me.”

As it turns out, though, Drunk Tom Brady was just kidding: he doesn’t care what anyone thinks because he won. It’s actually the second time in recent weeks that “Brady” had appeared on SNL. Ahead of Super Bowl 55, Brady was played by John Krasinski in a sketch where it was concluded he was the last thing left in America that actually still “works.”

The Boston Celtics slipped back to 13-13 on the season with a rather dismal effort on Sunday afternoon in Washington, losing 104-91 to the now 7-17 Wizards in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated. Scoring just 91 points against the dreadful Washington defense represents a new low-point on the season for Boston, which has now lost four of its last five games to slip to fifth in the East.

The Celtics have been a team that has battled injuries and COVID protocol absences this season, but even when factoring all of that in the first third of the season has felt like a disappointment. It’s clear that the frustration internally is mounting, and after Sunday’s loss the Celtics didn’t have much in the way of answers for what’s ailing them at the moment. Not much is working right now, but they are especially struggling on offense as they have just the league’s 23rd best offensive rating in the last 10 games — 26th over the last five — and look painfully stuck in the mud on that end.

After the Wizards loss, Jaylen Brown was asked about the general lack of ball movement they seem to have right now as an offense and after a, no joke, seven-second pause, all he could muster was a “no comment.”

It’s clear that Brown gave thought to the question, but chose not to divulge much in the way of his true feelings on the matter, which was likely to avoid producing any kind of soundbite that could be seen as throwing teammates under the bus. That is wise, but it’s illustrative of how the Celtics are searching right now, and while they’re trying to handle issues internally, the results simply haven’t been there.

Kemba Walker was a bit more forthcoming with his thoughts on the team at the moment, noting that while many see the same core stars out there and expect cohesion, they’re dealing with new rotations and still working out how to piece all of this together.

Boston clearly misses the presence of Marcus Smart, who while best known for his defense is also a glue guy offensively who can help keep the ball moving and is an active cutter and mover off the ball. Right now, they lack that and someone on this team desperately needs to be the one to inject some life and energy into the squad and soon, because until then they’ll continue to be meandering through the wilderness.

Donald Trump may not have been convicted by the Senate during their impeachment hearing, but it was close. In fact, no other such trial had ever seen so many lawmakers vote against a president from their own party. (And it was still only seven senators — up six from the first time Trump was impeached.) And while many once die hard Trumpists have jumped ship, including Nicki Haley, there’s still one person on his side: Lindsey Graham.

The South Carolina senator went on Fox News Sunday morning, the day after the impeachment trial ended in a relatively narrow acquittal, and he proceeded to sing Trump’s praises as though he hadn’t nearly been convicted for inciting a failed insurrection that still resulted in five lost lives.

“Donald Trump is the most vibrant member of the Republican Party,” Graham told Chris Wallace in a noticeably low-energy appearance. “The Trump movement is alive and well … all I can say is that the most potent force in the Republican Party is President Trump.”

He even said Trump was feeling pretty good after narrowly avoiding conviction. “I spoke to him last night; he was grateful to his lawyers. He appreciated the help that all of us provided. You know, he’s ready to move on and rebuild the Republican Party,” Graham said. “He’s excited about 2022. And I’m going to go down to talk with him next week, play a little golf in Florida. And I said, ‘Mr. President this MAGA movement needs to continue, we need to unite the party.’ ”

Graham also suggested that, should the GOP take back the House in 2022, they’ll enact revenge not on Biden but his VP. “If you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House,” he said, “because she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open.”

It’s a marked shift from the Graham on display immediately following the failed MAGA coup, in which an army of Trump supporters, hopped up on baseless lies about nonexistent voter fraud, stormed the Capitol. After the Senate convened, a visibly shaked Graham seemed to disavow Trump, saying, “All I can say is enough is enough, count me out.” Whatever it was, it didn’t last long. Graham was back to spending time with Trump during his final days in office. Apparently enough wasn’t enough.

(Via Vox)

Back in November, Bad Bunny delivered his third project of 2020 with El Último Tour Del Mundo. Nearly three months after its arrival, the Latin superstar returns with Rosalía for their “La Noche De Anoche” video. Fitting perfectly with Sunday’s Valentine’s Day holiday, the new visual presents the two singers as passionate lovers lost in the world that they’ve created with their relationship. Bad Bunny and Rosalía flaunt their inseparable and romance-filled love in the surreal world that’s presented in the Stillz-directed video.

The new visual arrives hours after bad Bunny was locked in as the musical guest for the February 20 episode of Saturday Night Live. While it will be his first time performing on the show, it will not be his first appearance on the late-night series. Last spring, he appeared on the show for the “Big Papi Cooking Show” sketch with Kenan Thompson.

At the end of last month, Bad Bunny brought his talents to WWE’s Royal Rumble to perform “Booker T” with the wrestling legend the song is named after beside him. The two previously joined forces for the song’s video as well. His El Último Tour Del Mundo album, where “Booker T” and “La Noche De Anoche” can be found, also became the first all-Spanish-speaking album to debut at No. 1 on the Billbaord album charts.

Fresh off dominating the music circuit, Bad Bunny will soon embark into the film world as he’s slated to appear in Bullet Train with Brad Pitt and others as well as Pete Davidson’s American Sole film.

Watch the “La Noche De Anoche” video above.

Nicki Minaj’s father has tragically died according to a new report from TMZ. The publication says that Robert Maraj died after he was struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident. New York’s Nassau County Police says Robert was walking on the street between Roslyn Road and Raff Avenue on Friday evening when a vehicle heading northbound hit him. Officers added that the driver fled the scene and they were unable to get helpful descriptions from witnesses in the area. Maraj was quickly taken to an area hospital in critical condition, but unfortunately, he passed away from his injuries over the weekend.

Nicki has yet to speak about her father’s death. While the rapper did not share too much about her father, a major moment in which she did came a decade ago in a television interview. During a 2010 episode on The Wendy Williams Show show, Nicki spoke about one of her father’s abusive moments during her childhood.

“He did burn the house down. It wasn’t an attempt, he did! My mother was in the house and she had to run out at the last time,” she said. “She had a dream the night before that the house was going to be burned down so she had me and my brother sleep at a friend’s house.”

The incident and others pushed the rapper’s mother, Carol Maraj, to start The Carol Maraj Foundation with the goal of providing emotional and financial support to domestic violence victims.

(via TMZ)

It’s been a while since we’ve had a new movie from Cameron Crowe, the young Rolling Stone journo-turned-filmmaker, though it’s not like his legacy isn’t already secure. He’s responsible for a handful of stone cold modern day classics, such as Say Anything…, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous, to say nothing of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which he wrote. (And it seems people nowadays are much kinder towards Vanilla Sky than they were 20 years ago.) That said, if any exec in our reboot-loving present wants to hire him to make some sequels, then he already has some solid ideas.

In a recent interview with Collider (as caught by IndieWire), Crowe mentioned that he had an idea for a follow-up to Jerry Maguire, his 1996 Oscar-friendly rom-com, with Tom Cruise as a sports agent struggling with his newfound sense of ethics. Thing it, it wouldn’t be about Jerry Maguire.

“If there was ever going to be a continuing story about Jerry Maguire, I always thought it should be about the Tidwells,” Crowe said, referring to the quarterback and wife played by Cuba Gooding Jr. and Regina King. “I always thought it should be Marcee and Rod. From time to time, people have called up and said ‘We want to do a TV show of Jerry Maguire,’ and I’ll say, ‘You know, I think that story continues with the Tidwells,’ and they never call back. You don’t want to see Regina King do Marcee Tidwell? I’d do that in a second.”

Crowe also discussed continuing the story of Lloyd Dobbler, John Cusack’s young romantic from Say Anything…, and he even said he could see doing more Almost Famous, following the characters in the ’80s and ’90s. But he admitted he didn’t have specific ideas on how he would do either of those.

But Crowe’s Jerry Maguire idea seems promising, and if it ever happened, it would reunite him with Regina King. Her turn as Marcee Tidwell was a big breakthrough for her, and nowadays she’s once of the most acclaimed and accoladed thespians in the industry. As for Cuba Gooding Jr., he won an Oscar for his exuberant turn as Rod Tidwell, though bringing him back may be a bit difficult: In 2019 he was accused by over two dozen women of sexual misconduct and last year was accused of rape. He has denied all accusations.

(Via Collider and IndieWire)

Donald Trump’s impeachment acquittal was the talk of the Internet on Saturday, so it’s no surprise that it also dominated Saturday Night Live. The show imagined how Republicans may celebrate Trump not getting convicted on a second impeachment article and later on Weekend, Update Colin Jost and Michael Che took turns getting some shots in at Trump’s expense.

“This has to be the dumbest trial I’ve ever seen,” Jost said. “Here’s how dumb it is: the jurors who were deciding the case were the ones attacked by the defendant. The trial took place at the scene of the crime, and then right after the trial ended one of the jurors who voted to acquit Trump ran out and said ‘someone’s gotta prosecute this guy. He did it. This man belongs in jail.’”

Later in the sketch, Jost also roasts Ted Cruz’s haircut, which from one angle that went viral on Twitter certainly is worthy of conversation.

“I know there are probably bigger things happening in the world but can we talk about Ted Cruz’s hair for like an hour?” Jost said. “What happened here? It looks like he’s selling fireworks out of the back of an El Camino.”

Jost certainly made the most of the riff.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this guy handcuffed, crying on a curb on Cops,” Jost said. “I mean, what are you doing? You’re a senator, not the manager of a paintball range. At least the manager of a paintball range has some leadership skills.

Later in the segment, Gina Carano’s firing from The Mandalorian and a few other controversies of the week.

Yella Beezy’s Valentine’s Day weekend took an unexpected turn after the rapper was arrested in his hometown of Dallas on Saturday night. The rapper was reportedly driving through his old neighborhood in a bulletproof vest before he was arrested. A video shows Yella’s interaction with police officers, but at the time of the clip’s arrival, it was unknown what he was being detained for. According to TMZ, however, the rapper was arrested on a weapons charge, which Yella claims he was set up for.

According to the publication, Yella was pulled over after allegedly running stop signs. Officers then conducted a search of his car where they found the unlicensed weapon. Despite this, the rapper’s team said all the weapons that he owes are registered. His manager Adrian Low Brown told TMZ that Yella was driving through his old neighborhood to get flowers for his girlfriend just in time for Valentine’s Day when he was pulled over. Brown says the officers claimed they could smell marijuana from the rapper’s car, which he says was just an excuse to search the vehicle as Yella says he does not smoke.

No drugs were found in the vehicle, but they spotted the unlicensed weapon which he was charged for having in his possession. The rapper’s team is currently working to bail him out and they’ve noted that the arrest is a case of harassment by cops.

You can watch a video of his interaction with the officers above.

(via TMZ)

The first real trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League hit the internet on Sunday morning, with many small details included in the two minutes that preview what promises to be a much longer take on the 2017 DC film. But one moment fans latched onto in particular came with the reveal of Jared Leto’s new look for the Joker, which seems to pay a strong homage to Heath Ledger’s version of the character.

The biggest thing fans reacted to, though, was what Leto’s character said. The moment came at the end of the trailer, with Batman and Joker on the roof of a building at what appears to be sunset.

“We live in a society where honor is a distant memory,” a voice says as Batman turns to see a figure, revealed to be Leto’s new Joker, comes into focus. “Isn’t that right, Batman?”

“WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY” immediately started to trend on Twitter, in all-caps, as fans reacted to several different accounts tweeting out the video.

And Leto himself chimed in on Twitter, retweeting the trailer with that same phrase.

The reason fans are so exited about the line is that it’s pretty popular meme when it comes to the Joker, though he’s never said it in a movie or show before. There was even a petition to have Joaquin Phoenix say the line in the Joker movie, too. It’s basically a Joker-based meme that has many meanings to many different people. For some it encapsulates the hyperbole of praise for dark Joker movie portrayals, while others just think it would be funny if he said the line. And so when it popped up in the trailer, it seemed as many people were laughing at its inclusion as there were people excited it made the… cut.

Not everything new in Zack Snyder’s Justice League is getting high praise from fans, but the inclusion of an iconic line from Joker history certainly had fans talking on Sunday.