Category: News

There are a few things you need to know before reading this interview with the Cullen Hoback, the filmmaker who completely dove into the world of QAnon to make a six-part series, Q: Into the Storm (produced by Adam McKay) that debuted on HBO on Sunday night. Only because getting to the bottom of who Q actually is – and by the end, Hoback does name someone – but it’s a somewhat complicated mishmash of the message boards where Q posts and the people who own those message boards. (If you don’t know what QAnon is at all, first, aren’t you lucky. But, in a nutshell, it’s an anonymous person on the internet who claims to know top secret information, that now millions of people actually believe – or at least did – and contributed to what we saw January 6th at the Capitol. It also involves democrats eating babies.)

The first thing you need to know is that in 2018, the person, or people, who posted as Q changed. Q used to post on a South African man named Paul Ferber’s board. In 2018 Q stopped posting on Ferber’s board and instead started posting on 8chan. Q now had an identifying tripcode and Q’s writing style completely changed. 8chan was then owned by Ron Watkins and his father, Jim Watkins (pictured above). And in the film Hoback spends an enormous amount of time with these two people who both seem to know a lot about Q and have a lot of the same opinions as Q, but swear they don’t pay much attention to Q, even though Q drives most of the traffic to their website.

The other name you need to know is Fred Brennan. Brennan used to own 8chan prior to Q coming along but sold it to Jim and Ron Watkins. Brennan used to be friendly with the Watkinses, but had a falling out and then, after the 8chan message board was used as a platform by the Christchurch mosque shooter, became vocal that 8chan should shut down. This created a lot of strife between Brennan and Ron and Jim Watkins.

By the end of the series, Hoback is convinced that the Q since 2018 is Ron Watkins. (The Q before this is complicated, as Hoback explains ahead.) There’s even an interview in the final episode where Ron Watkins, let’s say, messes up and inadvertently lays out his entire hand. Ahead, Hoback explains what it was like getting to that moment and how he got to a place where he could say, confidently, “Yes, this is Q.” Also he speculates where things go from here and how the average QAnon follower will react to this revelation.

In this film you basically say, “Yes, here’s the guy who’s Q.” You have all the evidence, and then that final video where he pretty much says, “Oops, yeah, it’s me.”

The Rick Perry “oops” moment?

Right. I felt like this would be a huge story, and it’s getting some attention, but not as much as I thought. Why is that?

I think it’s because we have requested that outlets not report on it. That they not reveal the ending, but that seal was broken Wednesday (when news outlets began reporting how the show ends). So, since then, I’ve seen it picking up in the news some.

Are you expecting a big surge of attention over the next few weeks?

Well, it’s hard to say. I think that unmasking Q has a lot of power to it. That’s why I put so much of my focus on that. It really is the driving question of the series: Masks have an incredible amount of power and someone who’s hiding behind a mask doesn’t have any of the baggage that comes with a messy human.

I’ve read about Ron and Jim Watkins before I saw your series, because there are pieces out there that are basically, “this is who Q most likely is.” Did you go into this focusing on them? Obviously entertaining other people, but focusing on them?

Absolutely not.

Oh really?

So you have to know that, when I started this back in 2018, no one knew who Jim Watkins or Ron Watkins even were. They weren’t suspects, really in anyone’s book. And Ron, CodeMonkey, he was the only person out of the three people behind 8chan, Ron, Fred and Jim. But no one was really pointing the finger in their direction. And the reason that I hopped over and started filming with all of those guys was simply because they were closest to the stories. You could chase any number of leads, but the factual leads, the technical forensic data, was all in their hands. So they knew. If anybody knew, it would be them. So that’s where I jumped in. And then of course I’ve been filming behind the scenes for years, tracking all of this stuff. Moving between all sides of the story, the sides that generally hate each other. Having to keep everybody’s secrets in that process, to some extent. Enacting a minimize-harm policy so that I could effectively document this. But it really wasn’t until the last six to eight months or so, I think, that people really started looking in the direction of the Watkinses. And I think you see in the series that a lot of that was eventually being spearheaded by Fred.

Were you surprised the Ron and Jim Watkins even agreed to be interviewed? And not just be interviewed, but really give you a lot of time? Do you think their strategy was they could spend a ton of time with you and that would convince you they weren’t behind Q?

I’ve wondered that myself. First off, for trolls, or for people who enjoy messing with others on the chans, I think they take great delight in trying to fool people into thinking things that are false. A journalist is the gold standard on the Chans. And these guys, Jim and Ron in particular, but also Fred to some extent, they kind of embody the sites that they run. In a way, Jim and Ron are like real life shitposts and it’s hard to know how seriously to take them because, to some extent, that’s the whole idea of a shitpost is to trigger a reaction. And so when I’m chronicling them, I’m trying to walk that line and show that intention, rather than playing into that hand.

But to answer your question, why did they end up giving me so much time? Well, I may have just been the first one there. The first one willing to travel to the Philippines, the first one who was willing to get on a plane. It was also before all the shootings had happened, so they weren’t household names at that time, not by any stretch of the imagination. There were a few weird videos of Jim doing yoga on YouTube. Ron, I think I found one picture of. And Fred was the most public-facing, so he was the one I reached out to first and he was the one who ushered me into the world of 8chan.

So are you under the impression that someone else was running the Q account before an incident happened in 2018 where Q switched boards and had a very noticeable style change?

Yes.

So who do you think that was?

I have a lot of very strong theories on exactly who was working with whom in those earliest days and how that all went down. We paint a case for Cicada’s involvement [Note: this would take forever to explain, but here’s the Wikipedia page], some of these ex-military camps to get involved. It’s hard to pin down exactly what their level of involvement was. It’s very possible that someone like Paul Ferber (a South African man whose board used to host the Q posts, whoever Q was in 2018 and before, before moving to Ron Watkins’ board) was a part of Cicada. It would make a lot of sense, certainly, that the person who created the tripcode would have taken that account to a board of their own design, right? The question of why does Q choose Paul Ferber’s board is a pretty good question?

Right. And then Ron and Jim Watkins are thinking, “Why are we letting him be on that board?” And then they just take it.

Right. Well, I’d say the one thing that really differs between Paul, and particularly the Watkinses, is that Paul’s story never changed. I interviewed him up and down, hours and hours, both on Skype before traveling to Johannesburg and then in person for days and his story never changed. It’s possible he’s lying. And it’s possible that he was in control of the account at that time.

So who’s your best guess? Or is it still somewhat of a mystery?

Well, the first Q was born partially out of a collective imagination. So the original 128 drops did not have a tripcode, so anyone could have jumped in and role-played as Q during that time. And, in fact, that’s largely how it started. So, while it was on 4chan, anyone could try to write in Q’s style. And if you were steeped in 4chan culture, particularly the culture of /pol/ – politically incorrect board on 4chan – you would have known the theories that were already favored by the anons. In order to be Q, you just needed to really know what people already believed and then know how to role play that and bounce it back to them in the form of questions.

I think I do make a pretty strong, compelling case in the series for the network of individuals that were involved with that and I think it connects back to the overarching theory that’s presented at the end of the series. I don’t point the finger 100 percent because I have mountains of evidence that ties to that early network, but in some ways what matters most is who’s been running the account the whole time. We know there’s a style shift, right? So we know there is at least one change of hands that takes place.

So you’re saying if it’s multiple people before Ron takes it over for good, they’re all trying their best to write like that?

That’s correct. So you can go back and look through those boards. And there are some QDrops that, for whatever reason, didn’t end up in the Q narrative or the Q canon. They just got omitted, or where board owners would delete them. There are ones which are debated as to whether or not they actually were Q. So they went back and kind of constructed who they thought were Q, simply based on style.

So especially after the final episode airs and it really gets out there in this film is saying, “Hey, here’s Ron Watkins. This is your leader. It’s this guy.” How is the average Q follower going to react to this?

Well, I’m still in touch with a lot of people who believe in Q, or the characters who are in the film and I’ve talked to all of them since the announcement. And interestingly, Craig, who’s in the film, right. He’s sort of the main QTuber that we follow…

Right, but those people have the financial interest. I’m talking about just the average person.

I think you’d be interested in hearing what he has to say, because he has maybe 100,000 people who believe in Q and are following him. So he knows what they want and what they’re thinking. It’s interesting because he described it to me like this, he said, “Half of the people who are following me right now think that it was a PSYOP. We all got tricked. There was no plan. And the other half believe that they need to double down, triple down. They’re bending over backwards in order to explain why none of the things that happened, why everything in reality seems to contradict the story that they’ve been telling themselves.”

And his position was, “Look, it’s like a basketball game where, at the end, your team lost, you’re down by five points, but for some reason your team is still running around the court shooting hoops, trying to score points. But the game is over. If there was a plan, it failed.” That was his view. So I think it’s really mixed, but to answer your bigger question about how the Q community is going to react to this?

Right, that it wasn’t some “insider.” It’s just this guy.

You’ll sometimes hear this idea that those who believe in Q or follow Q don’t care who Q is. That it doesn’t matter who Q is. That it was all about the research, and it’s a little bit of a refashioning of history But also something I’ve found along the way is that, when pressed, of course everyone who follows and believes in QAnon does, deep down, really want to know the truth. And I think, especially now, when reality is contradicting the story that they’ve come to believe, there’s more desire than ever to know what was really happening behind the scenes.

And, yes, Ron is a linchpin in a lot of this, but you do see that there were political operatives and other power players who were making this a reality. So the story that they told themselves wasn’t completely false in that sense: the idea that there were people in DC who were actively trying to make Q become real. But at the end of the day, if there was one person behind the curtain, who was it? And I think we make a pretty strong case in the series for who that was and I think they’re going to want to know that.

Well, you’re done with the film. You can sit back and see what happens, I guess.

[Laughs] Yeah. It’s hard to say, and part of me almost wishes that we had just let the series play and everyone kind of figure it out along the way because now there’s a lot of anticipation, right? Because, right now, a lot of people are like, “Oh, you point to this individual?” And, well, there’s a lot of context and a complex case that’s painted here. You should watch the series to see if you see what all those details are and decide for yourself.

That’s true. By the time you say, “this is the guy,” it’s so well laid out, yes, of course it is.

Right, yeah. We’re spending all of this time with these characters, not only to understand their motives and why they would keep a site like this up and running, but it’s a cat and mouse game to figure out what their level of involvement is.

I’m very curious how people react to this.

Me, too.

‘Q: Into the Storm’ airs Sunday night on HBO and streams via HBO Max. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Roddy Ricch may be best known for his music thanks to his low-profile approach to fame, but he certainly has an interesting philosophy about music as his legacy. That’s thanks to his meeting with Kanye West in Calabasas, according to Roddy himself in a new profile in Complex. Revealing his pick for greatest album of all time, he grants that distinction to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and recounts the wisdom Kanye shared when they finally got to meet.

“The main thing I learned from Kanye was expansion,” Roddy says.

“I pulled up on him in Calabasas. He showed me there’s more to life than just music. He taught me [about] really building empires. The empire you build with music, you could build it in other areas, like fashion, too. You’ve got clothes, or you’ve got a drink, or you’ve got this or that, and it’s all attached to you. He was building things that don’t got nothing to do with music, with different rooms having different ideas. Even building up a community or a civilization that can start and become something else. That’s a crazy thing to do. Just growing your own produce, and all these different things… It opened my mind.”

Roddy also reveals the best thing that’s happened to him in the two years since he blew up thanks to his Grammy-nominated hits “Racks In The Middle” and “The Box”: Becoming a father. “Having my son,” he tells Complex. “That was the most important.”

You can read the full profile here.

The Brooklyn Nets have been in cruise control for some time, as they just continue piling up wins even in the absence of Kevin Durant. While they wait for their star forward to return to the lineup, their star guards have carried the load as James Harden is once again putting up MVP numbers and Kyrie Irving has embraced his role of being the team’s scoring guard.

However, on their upcoming three game road trip starting on the west coast, where they’ll face Portland, Utah, and Detroit, Irving will not be with the team as he attends to a family matter, as the team announced on Monday.

It will be the second time this season Irving has taken some time away from the Nets to deal with a personal, family matter and it seems the Nets are more than willing to accommodate those needs and give him time when he requests it. Hopefully all is well with Irving and his family and he’ll be able to return to the court once the Nets return from their road trip, but the organization will surely give him whatever time he needs to handle whatever is going on off the floor. Last time Irving took time away, he returned at an All-Star level and the Nets’ concerns as a team are with having everyone right for the playoffs, not the regular season, and that sometimes requires some time away, either for physical or mental health, and the organization seems to understand those needs.

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro had a bit of a meltdown on her show, Justice With Judge Jeanine, over the weekend when a guest made the big mistake of … wait for it … complimenting the job President Joe Biden has been doing since he took office.

Pirro, a staunch Trump supporter and vocal conservative pundit, invited respected immigration lawyer David Leopold on to her show Saturday to discuss the ongoing crisis at the border. In February, a reported 100,000 migrants tried to cross into the country, prompting Republicans to blame Biden for the surge in immigration numbers. In reality, most of the policies put in place by the Trump administration remain intact, with Biden’s team facing a complicated path through the courts to change some of the more inhumane regulations enacted under Trump. In fact, despite Pirro claiming on her show that February’s number was a “record” in terms of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, that new threshold actually belongs to Trump — in May 2019, some 150,000 people crossed the southern border.

But really, what are facts and context to Pirro? Leopold, who battled with her over her unsupported immigration claims for most of his guest spot, had the gall to suggest that Biden was “making America great again,” a tongue-in-cheek compliment that threw Pirro over the edge.

“David, I’m stopping you right there,” Pirro interrupted after Leopold pointed out the success of Biden’s vaccination plan. “I don’t tolerate lies on my show! He is bringing Covid into this country. He’s bringing in a whole pandemic, during a pandemic.”

Pirro then completely shut down Leopold, telling her guest, “Thanks for being here, and thanks for nothing.”

So … yeah, at least we know now what sets Jeanine Pirro off. Facts.

After the pandemonium over Bernie Sanders’ inaugural mittens wore off, the senator from Vermont got back to his usual progressive business. This includes reigniting his feud with the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company. Last year, Sanders pointed out that Elon Musk benefited greatly from government subsidies, which actually fuel his wealth (“Oh, Elon just l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else”). That round went down after Musk suggested a sarcastic drinking game revolving around government programs. The beef never died, and Sanders is here for more. Last week, he came for Elon’s massive wealth accumulation while suggesting that he should pay more taxes.

“We are in a moment in American history where two guys — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — own more wealth than the bottom 40% of people in this country,” the Bern tweeted. “That level of greed and inequality is not only immoral. It is unsustainable.”

The subject got picked up by CleanTechnica, a pro-Tesla site that defended Musk against the “greed” accusation while arguing that Elon “passionately strives for gigantic goals with the companies he creates,” and “the inspiration there is the goals themselves, not making money.” Elon piled onto the defense of himself with a spacey addition and one of the strangest tweets ever tweeted: “I am accumulating resources to help make life multiplanetary & extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”

Dude sounds like he was having a pretty fantastic late-night Twitter session, but Sanders was in no mood to party.

“Space travel is an exciting idea, but right now we need to focus on Earth and create a progressive tax system so that children don’t go hungry, people are not homeless and all Americans have healthcare,” Sanders responded. “The level of inequality in America is obscene and a threat to our democracy.”

Musk has yet to respond to Sander’s latest blow, but it could very well happen with a “far out, man” type of vibe.

Aaron Gordon trade rumors have been swirling for what feels like years, as Orlando’s swingman has been in an awkward fit with the Magic’s frontcourt-heavy roster for some time. Still, there he remains, but it finally seems like this is the trade deadline that he is moved.

Part of that comes from the fact that he is on a team-friendly deal for next year, as his descending contract makes it so he’s making just over $18 million this year and will be on the books for just $16 million in 2021-22. That makes matching the money much easier, but on top of that, he has finally had enough of his time with the Magic. According to Sam Amick and Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Gordon requested a trade back in February and the Magic have been actively shopping him, but keeping their asking price high heading into this week’s trade deadline.

The Magic have been listening to offers for Gordon going back to last season, maintaining an asking price of multiple first-round picks or a pick with a good young player, per sources. But with Gordon having made it clear last month that he’s ready to move on, and interested teams well aware that he’s eager for a new start in a competitive environment where he can play a pivotal role, it still remains to be seen if a Gordon deal will go down.

Boston, Portland, Houston, Minnesota, and Denver are all noted in the piece as teams who have expressed interest, but the Rockets and Timberwolves certainly don’t fit his hopes of a “competitive environment” at the moment. As such, we’ll focus on the other three landing spots and what those teams can offer, along with some potential darkhorse teams that might get in the mix.

Boston Celtics

Celtics Get: Aaron Gordon
Magic Get: Tristan Thompson, Aaron Nesmith, 2023 lottery-protected 1st

Thompson is the contract that makes this deal work, although it’s possible they could just send picks and prospects and use the Gordon Hayward TPE to absorb Gordon — however, as The Athletic notes, that would ensure they have a massive tax bill for next year. Gordon going to Boston gets him onto the playoff contender he wants to be on, slotting into the power forward spot after years of being misplayed as a three. The Celtics desperately need some more size, but also playmaking ability and Gordon brings that.

For Orlando, they’re in the unenviable position of feeling pressure to move a star after a trade request which always makes it difficult to assess what the value for that player will be on the market. Thompson gives them some depth behind Vucevic for this year with Isaac out, but really this is about acquiring a young wing in Aaron Nesmith who can hopefully provide some spacing and under Steve Clifford continue developing as a defender. A 2023 protected first plus Nesmith gives them their two first rounders, effectively, and allows them to move on from Gordon with an eye towards the future with Isaac and Fultz.

Portland Trail Blazers

Blazers Get: Aaron Gordon
Magic Get: Rodney Hood, Nassir Little, Harry Giles, CJ Elleby, 2024 lottery-protected 1st

If this offer and the Celtics offer are both on the table, it’d be a fascinating question for Orlando, because they are basically the same deal. Rodney Hood exists in this deal mostly to make the money work at $10 million for this year and next, while Little serves as the young player with upside and a lottery protected future first ties everything up with a nice bow. Really, this would come down to whether the Magic see more value in Little or Nesmith, and which fits their longterm needs, but each provide just about the same offer. It’s hard for the Blazers to sweeten this too much, as they dealt this year’s first for Robert Covington and can’t afford to deal away Anfernee Simons, who would be much more attractive to Orlando and would likely allow them to keep their 2024 pick, but is their only real backup point guard at the moment. That leaves them in the position of just having to ship out Giles and Elleby as well to make financials work.

Portland finally gets Gordon, a player I feel has been attached to them in rumors forever, and the fit is snug. A secondary playmaker from the wing/frontcourt would make a ton of sense, and Gordon’s three-point shooting this year has been more than solid. Gordon gets to be with a contender and truly get that fresh start he seeks, so this would make a ton of sense if Little and a pick piques the Magic’s interest.

Denver Nuggets

Nuggets Get: Aaron Gordon
Magic Get: Gary Harris

This is the alternative to the [salary filler/young player/future lotto protected 1st] model of the first two, which the Nuggets can certainly do with Paul Millsap and RJ Hampton, but I wanted to present a different option. Gordon and Harris make nearly identical money and each have two years remaining on their deals. Harris is currently injured, missing much of this season with a thigh strain, but when healthy he’s among the league’s best perimeter defenders. That’s something Denver needs, but if they feel they can’t rely on him to be there right now, they might take a swing on Gordon, moving Millsap to a reserve role and being less dependent on Michael Porter Jr. for extra creation beyond Jokic and Murray. MPJ is still very much a hot and cold player, and Gordon would bring an upgrade in terms of a steadying presence to Millsap.

As for Orlando, if Harris can get healthy and perform in a more leading role in Orlando to start next season, he might very well be more valuable to a contender as an expiring at next year’s trade deadline than Gordon is now, and they can re-enter the market, dangling a premier defender and might be able to bring more in the way of assets back next season.

Phoenix Suns

Suns Get: Aaron Gordon
Magic Get: Dario Saric, Jevon Carter, 2024 lottery-protected first

The Suns were reportedly in on Gordon last year and couldn’t get it done with a deal centered on Kelly Oubre Jr — which worked out for them in being able to get Chris Paul — but if the Suns think this would be an upgrade and make them an even bigger threat in the West, they should be in the mood to go all-in right now. Saric has been good for them, but isn’t as dynamic as Gordon, and Carter, for as much as Monty Williams loves his grit, has slipped to the back of the pack in the point guard rotation. Gordon would, same as the Blazers and Celtics, provide some secondary creation along with some spacing and positional versatility, particularly on the defensive end.

Orlando gets a quality power forward on a deal that’s not too expensive, as well as some point guard help that Clifford will surely love as Carter is a defense first player. I’m honestly not sure about the pick going back to Orlando, although they’d surely be asking for this, while Phoenix might push for it to just be a second rounder, but either way this is an interesting option.

The Fast and Furious films might seem like they’re about cars jumping off buildings, muscle-bound fights, and Corona product placement, but every diehard fan of the high-octane series (Read: Christopher Nolan) knows what the movies are truly about: Family. While the franchise has pounded that message home in its first eight films, the latest installment, F9, is keeping it real by bringing Vin Diesel‘s real-life son Vincent Sinclair into the mix. According to TMZ, the now 10-year-old Sinclair will be making his acting debut as a younger version of his dad’s iconic Fast and Furious character Dom Toretto:

It’s unclear how much screen time Vin’s boy will get, but his minor’s contract says he got paid a daily rate of $1,005. Not bad take-home for a kid who, let’s be honest, probably woulda done it for a pack of gum.

Fast and Furious fans have been waiting a while for F9 to hit due to the pandemic, which has delayed the film over a year. However, whenever F9 revs its way into theaters, there’s a very good chance that it could take the franchise to an insane place that fans have been hoping for for years: Space. Franchise stars Michelle Rodriguez and Ludacris have both played coy during separate interviews with SiriusXM’s Jess Cagle and Julia Cunningham when asked if the new film will make the leap into the cosmos. While neither star officially confirmed that Fast and Furious fans will finally see muscle cars in orbit, they didn’t exactly deny the long-simmering fan theory either.

(Via TMZ)

Rashida Jones is a multihyphenate — a class of entertainers growing increasingly common in Hollywood. She can act. She directs. She’s produced a handful of great TV shows.

And, she writes comic books in her spare time.

It’s that last notch on her ever-expanding resume that might seem most surprising, at least to casual fans. The daughter of actress Peggy Lipton and legendary music producer Quincy Jones, the former Parks and Rec star was more than likely destined to carve out her own space in the entertainment industry, but it’s not an impressive lineage that has propelled Jones to her current status as one of Hollywood’s most prolific creators — it’s her irrepressible drive to constantly reinvent herself and push her own artistic limits.

After all, Jones could’ve remained content to deliver her own brand of funny-woman in front of the camera. She spent years reimagining the role of the “chill girlfriend” on shows like The Office and the unfailingly supportive best friend on NBC’s other aforementioned hit workplace comedy. She was the remarkably understanding fiance to Paul Rudd’s friendless man-child in I Love You, Man, a no-nonsense detective surrounded by all kind of nonsense on the criminally underrated comedy series, Angie Tribeca, and, most recently, Bill Murray’s estranged daughter in the delightfully fun On The Rocks.

But telling stories rather than just interpreting them seems to be something Jones was drawn to early in her career. It’s why she penned the awkwardly funny Andy Samberg-starring rom-com Celeste & Jesse. It’s why she decided to produce a documentary spotlighting the young women drawn to the porn industry in this new internet age with Hot Girls Wanted. And it’s why she ventured into the comic book space, crafting a decidedly feminist graphic novel that feels revolutionary — even a decade after its first issue dropped.

Jones, along with Christina Weir, Nunzio DeFilippis, and comic artist Jeff Wamester introduced her version of a kick-ass action hero in 2010 with Frenemy of the State. Centered around a young heiress named Arianna Von Holmberg, the series imagines a socialite exhausted by the vapid demands of her wealthy lifestyle and plagued by a succession of bad decisions, one of which leads her to a mutually-beneficial gig as a CIA operative. Because what better cover than that of a globe-trotting celebrity with time to kill?

According to Jezebel, which referenced a Vanity Fair interview Jones had given during that year’s awards circuit, the premise for her comic debut came thanks to Paris Hilton. More specifically, our culture’s obsession with women like Hilton — debutantes forced to live their lives in the public eye.

“I had this funny notion that she’s actually some crazy genius who knew exactly what she was doing, and she was just conducting this elaborate anthropological study on the world,” Jones told Vanity Fair at the time. “I imagined that she was going home every night and whispering into her mini-recorder: ‘Day three hundred and twenty-seven. I continue to have them all fooled.’ That was sort of where the idea for this comic started.”

Over the course of five graphic novels, Arianna defuses nuclear warheads and contends with tabloid fodder takedowns; narrowly escapes hostage situations and attends high-society masquerades. Far from a superhero imbued with mystic powers or a street-smart teenager bitten by a radioactive spider, Arianna felt like an entry point for young girls who hadn’t seen enough representation in comics up to that point … and like a stand-in for every female celebrity who had the misfortune of ending up on Perez Hilton’s gossip blog.

The comic infused wit and a cheeky kind of social commentary in its overarching story about a privileged elite struggling to find her purpose — and some semblance of privacy — in her complex and unforgiving world. Jones poked fun at the tabloids and gossip blogs we so venerated back then, while also portraying her heroine as flawed, prone to making frustrating mistakes, and sometimes intolerably entitled.

“When I was writing ten years ago, I took what is typically considered a male character and would give it to the woman. I’d get feedback saying, ‘She’s not likable,’” Jones told Net-A-Porter in a 2018 interview. “I would think, ‘So f***ing what. Every guy isn’t likable until he is.’ Women are taught to be nice. Men are taught to be powerful. I want to find a way to tell stories from a woman’s perspective that doesn’t feel like it’s been put in the mouth of a woman by a guy.”

With Frenemy of the State, Jones was living out that desire to bring another layer to the two-dimensional female characters she’d encountered throughout her career, and she was doing it within a medium that has historically failed the target audiences Jones was hoping to connect with — young women who wanted to see themselves, or a more kick-ass version of themselves, between the pages of a comic book.

“It’s intended for a girl much younger than me, about age 20, an interesting age for girls as they make that scary jump to adulthood,” Jones told Variety after news broke that the comic series would be optioned as a movie. “She has lived a life of privilege, attended the best schools, and learned every language, but her obsession with spying on exes gets her into trouble and she is recruited to be a spy in exchange for not going to prison. There is a comic element to it, this girl who is so conscious of social standing and wearing the right shoes, suddenly becoming responsible for these dangerous, life-threatening missions.”

That film adaptation has stalled, but Frenemy isn’t the last comic-book-inspired project Jones would sign on for. In 2017 it was announced that the actress and Kerry Washington would work together to bring the popular Goldie Vance series to life on the big screen. And, just a few years prior, she launched an advice column with Glamour that was done entirely in the style of a graphic novel excerpt.

Side hustles are expected at this point, especially if you’re a talented A-lister in need of a creative outlet, but it’s empowering to see women like Jones pushing their artistic boundaries, not for money or more clout, but because they want to make space for other voices to exist in mediums that have fallen behind when it comes to diversity — because they want to tell fresh, inventive stories in ways we don’t expect them to.

So, the next time you think of multihyphenate Rashida Jones, just be sure to add “comic book author” to her list of credits.

The story of house music can’t be told without properly honoring the women who have helped shape the genre, and now a new book, The Lady Of The House by Laila McKenzie and Ian “Snowy” Snowball, will do just that.

The book is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, and the page describes the project:

“The Lady Of The House by Laila McKenzie and Ian ‘Snowy’ Snowball is a hardback coffee table style book. The book contains beautiful images and interviews with women who have contributed, and continue to contribute, to making the house music scene. […] The Lady Of The House is so much more than just women in house, it’s about women being creative and doing what they love to do. In a time where so much change has happened & so many inequalities have been brought to light over the last year we want to ensure the legacy of women’s power is passed down to future generations. The interviews are rich will stories of determination, empowerment, inspiration, challenges, passion, education, having goals and, simply [realizing] dreams.”

The book boasts “over 120 interviews/features” with and about names like Candi Staton, Barbara Tucker, Sam Divine, DJ Maxinne, Lynn Cosgrave, Rowetta, Ellen Allien, Nicky Trax, Janet Bell, Julie McKnight, Kathy Brown, Anja Schneider, Black Girl/White Girl, Ultra Naté, Jocelyn Brown, Arielle Free, Rochelle Fleming, DJ Paulette, Gladys Pizarro, Abigail Adams, Anne Savage, DJ Rap, Kym Sims, and Kym Mazelle. It also features a forward written by producer and DJ Carl Cox.

The campaign (which currently has 44 days remaining) has a goal of £25,000 (about $34,500), and as of this post, they’ve raised £5,630 (about $7,800). The money is being raised to help with printing and distribution costs. A copy of the book can be had for a pledge of £35 (about $48).

Learn more about the book here.

After releasing his new song on Friday Lil Tjay returns today with an irreverent video for the propulsive “Headshot” featuring fellow New Yorker Fivio Foreign and friend Polo G. The three drill influenced rappers play William Tell at an opulent mansion, firing old-fashioned pistols at a group of butlers with apples on their heads. All three display much better marksmanship than most rappers do in real life, turning their targets to applesauce and leaving the domestic help unscathed. Tjay also communes with a giraffe, while the fountain outside is filled with models lying on pool floats.

Tjay’s year got off to a bumpy start after getting a video shoot searched and eventually getting arrested shortly after Christmas last year. After being booked on possession of guns and marijuana, he was released on bond. Getting back to work on his upcoming follow-up to 2020’s State Of Emergency, he released his video for “Calling My Phone” featuring Atlanta singer 6lack before apparently hunkering down to complete his album.

Meanwhile, each of his “Headshot” co-stars have also kept busy. Polo G just released his “For My Fans (Freestyle)” video in which he raps to the instrumental tracks for “Beat Box,” “Whoopty,” and “No More Parties,” while Fivio Foreign is a few months removed from his “Trust” video with the late King Von.

Watch the “Headshot” video above.