The NBA appears to be inching closer and closer to a return. The league has been on an extended hiatus ever since Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, and apparently, those who take the floor on a nightly basis are itching to play basketball again in the not-too-distant future.

Reports from over the last day indicated that some of the league’s most prominent players are coming together to try and figure out a plan with the league, with a collection of superstars in agreement on a “united front” that supports returning to play. But that sense isn’t just shared by the those at the very top, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

In an appearance on Get Up, Wojnarowski explained that players, “for the most part,” want to get back onto the floor. As he explained to Mike Greenberg, there are some who are hesitant to play, but the majority of players want game to tip off again soon. And interestingly enough, this sentiment applies to more than just players on squads that have aspirations of winning a ring.

“And I have found, in my conversations with all those constituencies, that has transferred, not just among the playoff teams and the teams who’d like to come back and think they’re competing for a championship or to advance deep in the playoffs, but even among the lottery teams who don’t have a lot to play for,” Wojnarowski said. “Remember, Greeny, there are a lot of economic issues at play here, and players stand to lose money in the short-term and long-term by not playing, and that has been an increasingly motivating factor in all of this, too.”

It is an interesting nugget, because one of the presumed ways that the league could restart its campaign while further reducing risk is to simply jump right into the playoffs, as that would be 14 teams worth of players, coaches, and assorted staffers would not be in whatever sort of environment the NBA would attempt to put together. With the league working to figure out a plan in the next 2-4 weeks, this will certainly be something to monitor as conversations begin to play out.

Long before Neil deGrasse Tyson boarded his Ship of the Imagination, Carl Sagan wowed the universe as the orignal host of “Cosmos” in the ’70s and ’80s. Here he gives a beautiful explanation of the power of books that shouldn’t be forgotten:

What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Carl Sagan describing books.

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Although WWE is still running shows during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some superstars are unwilling to risk their health and the health of their family by coming to work. The most prominent has been Roman Reigns, who dropped out of WrestleMania and hasn’t appeared on WWE TV since. We initially thought he made that choice because of his history with Leukemia, but he has since said it’s actually because of his newborn twins.

WWE has repeatedly said that nobody who chooses not to come to work during the pandemic will face negative consequences, although someone claiming to be an employee said otherwise in a complaint to local officials, and of course they’ve just been ignoring the existence of Roman Reigns.

Then there’s Sami Zayn. Zayn has long been something of a black sheep in WWE for frankly discussing his progressive political views, and he has also declined to come to work since WrestleMania, because of the pandemic. At Mania he defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the Intercontinental Championship, which he’d won in early March, but now WWE has taken the title off him in absentia.

On last night’s WWE Backstage, it was announced that the IC Title has been vacated because Zayn is “currently unable to defend it.” A new Intercontinental Champion will be crowned in a tournament that begins this Friday on Smackdown. No further details have been revealed about the structure of that tournament, but we’ll know soon enough.

As for Sami Zayn, we don’t know when he’ll be back, but hopefully he’ll at least get a shot against the new IC Title holder to regain the belt that was taken from him.

In January of this year, Future got the ball rolling on his new album when he and Drake dressed up as nine-to-fivers in the video for their collaboration “Life Is Good.” While fans got excited thinking that meant the duo would link up for a follow-up to their joint mixtape, What A Time To Be Alive, they weren’t exactly disappointed to learn that it was actually the first single from Future’s upcoming eighth studio album. Yesterday, Future revealed the title and release date of the album, High Off Life, and today, he’s shared the thematically appropriate cover art.

While the artwork for Future’s previous albums has involved high-concept approaches like hiding his face in clouds of smoke or dressing him up as a bandaged beast, this time around he takes a more stripped-down direction, with a simple black-and-white candid photo. Future’s arms are outstretched and blurred, suggesting he’s in the middle of some emphatic gestures, enjoying the moment. In other words, he’s high off life — rather than the usual array of pharmaceuticals he famously gave up. We’ll see if that results in a more personal, energetic album this Friday.

Check out the cover for Future’s forthcoming album, High Off Life, above.

High Off Life is due 5/15 on Epic Records.

The 1975 are gearing up to release their new album, Notes On A Conditional Form, in just a couple weeks now. They still have some previewing to do, though, as today, they shared their latest single, “Guys.”

On the song, Healy expresses his appreciation for his The 1975 bandmates, singing, “I was missing the guys / In my rented apartment / You would think I’d have realized / But I didn’t for quite sometime / Started wetting my eyes / ‘Cause I’m soft in that department / Right then I realized / You’re the love of my life.” He continues in the chorus, “The moment that we started a band / Was the best thing that ever happened / And I wish that we could do it again.”

Matty Healy discussed the song with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1, and he said the tune is about cutting through irony and allowing himself to be sentimental in a real way:

“I really love this song. […] It came quite late in the record and it was just quite easy because in its simplicity, it was easily executable, and [there is] quite an obvious emotional quality to it. […] I think I just wanted to write a love letter to friendship, as opposed to every love song being about our romantic relationships. I think that our friendships are obviously our most formative relationships. So, shout out to the homies.

It’s that whole thing of sincerity is scary that I’ve been going on a prolonged time. I think that it’s very, very easy to be sardonic or ironic in the face of things that are really sentimental or that make us feel exposed or potentially make us feel embarrassed, [but] to be naive and to be soppy and sentimental is to be really human. […] I think that there is a lot of jokes and winks and this and that on my records. And I think that this song was a bit of an antidote for all of that. It’s just nice to have one moment of pure, genuine, soppy, naive sentimentality. That is a massive ingredient in being a person.”

Listen to “Guys” above.

Notes On A Conditional Form is out 5/22 via Dirty Hit/Polydor Records. Pre-order it here.

HBO Max will launch on May 27. If you’ve got questions about pricing and whether your existing HBO subscription will fold you into the access club, we’ve got answers for you. As far as programming goes, though, what we can mostly advise is to prepare for an avalanche of wonderful-sounding Max Originals content that hits many demographics. We already knew that, in addition to a massive library of 10,000+ preexisting movies and TV shows, that the launch would include these series:

– Love Life: A romantic comedy series starring Anna Kendrick and Scoot McNairy
– Legendary: A reality competition series showcasing the underground ballroom community (expect plenty of vogue-ing) with a judging panel that includes Megan Thee Stallion
– On The Record: The documentary film that explores allegations of sexual abuse and harassment made against hip hop mogul Russell Simmons
– Craftopia, a youth-friendly crafting competition show that takes things to extremes
– Kid-geared programs including fresh New Looney Tunes offerings and The Not Too Late Show with Elmo

Mountains of other titles were pinpointed to arrive in 2020 and beyond, and we’re now seeing some dates for the second wave of HBO Max programming. Surprisingly, we’re going to get a recently announced movie that sounded like it would be far off on the schedule, but but silly rabbit, HBO Max acquired the picture from Sony and will have it ready to roll this summer. That would be the Seth Rogen-starring movie (the third in his unofficial “food trilogy“) called An American Pickle, in which he’s taking on dueling roles: (1) A 1920s laborer who awakens 100 years later in Brooklyn; (2) The immigrant’s grandson, a computer coder, who baffles his grandpa.

Here are the rest of the second-wave dates as unveiled by HBO Max:

June 25th: The second-season premiere of DC Universe’s Doom Patrol; a third season of the comedy-thriller Search Party, the first (of four) Adventure Time specials; and a second season of Esme & Roy from Sesame Workshop

July 9th: The premiere of the Expecting Amy docuseries about Amy Schumer’s very pregnant life on the stand-up comedy circuit; and an adult animated comedy called Close Enough that sounds like a roommate adventure from J.G. Quintel

July 16th: A docusoap called The House Of Ho, which will chronicle the multi-generational adventures of a family

July 23rd: An animated children’s series called Tig n’ Seek from Cartoon Network Studios

July 30th: A scripted comedy, Frayed, about a wealthy Londoner who goes back home to Australia; and an unscripted animal rescue series called The Dog House

August 6: An American Pickle will world premiere (in your living rooms) as the first HBO Max original film on the platform under the Warner Max label

HBO Max will arrive on May 27, and more details on the service can be found here.

Drake, Lady Gaga, and The Weeknd are possibly facing a massive breach of their personal information: A law firm that represents the artists, as well as other major musicians, was reportedly hacked this week. The hackers are requesting a large sum of money and threatening to release artists’ personal information.

Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks was recently hacked, according to a report from Page Six. The firm’s website is down and hackers are alleged to hold over 756 gigabytes of data from its artists including contracts, endorsement deals, personal emails, and other personal details. The information is reportedly being held at ransom for a whopping $21 million as they threaten to publicize “personal details” pertaining to Gaga, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, and more.

As a report from Complex states, a firm’s representative confirmed the hacking and has called upon “experts” for help: “We can confirm that we’ve been victimized by a cyberattack. We have notified our clients and our staff. We have hired the world’s experts who specialize in this area, and we are working around the clock to address these matters.” Those experts include the FBI, who have reportedly identified the hackers as REvil or Sodinokibi.

The law firm also noted that they were not the only ones to be victimized by the same hackers. A representative stated that HBO, Zoom, and the Texas court system have all been hit with a very similar data breach, calling it a “global extortion scheme.”

Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt polished off its fourth season last year but couldn’t resist returning for an interactive special following Black Mirror‘s Bandersnatch. Thank goodness, because co-creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s effusive brainchild couldn’t be more welcome in 2020. Seriously, no one on earth would be opposed to traveling back in time toward Unbreakable or Bandersnatch-land right about now.

So, welcome some much-needed happiness from co-stars Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski, Jon Hamm, and more. They’re doing the choose-your-own-adventure thing, and it’s a sheer pleasure to freely select whether Kimmy Schmidt should make out with her fiancé, played by Daniel Radcliffe, or dig into a mystery. (There’s even a good final season of Game of Thrones burn.) Yes, the show’s still as silly as always, but Kimmy’s on a mission to locate more missing girls, and it’s up to her friends to help make it happen. Jane, who plays spoiled-trophy-wife-turned-talent-agent Jacqueline (my pick for the character who grew the hell up), was gracious enough to sit down with us to hash out this special. Yes, Jane’s got the relentlessly catchy theme song stuck in her head too, but she’s loving all of it.

We could use some sunshine in the world these days, so it’s a good time for more Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

[Laughs] The timing clearly was not planned, but when I actually tried out the technology of this special for the first time, I did feel that. This colorful candyland of escapism — it feels lovely to revisit these characters, and what a time. We can either spend an hour or up to three hours with these folks and lots of great jokes.

I’ve gone through this special twice. It took me about 90 minutes both times, does that sound about right to you?

I think that’s if you’re doing it as maximum as you can. Did you get different routes and scenes, though, with the options?

Yes, I very much enjoyed Titus’ different naps and how Jacqueline needed to clean up that Titus-mess on his film set.

Yes, yes. I haven’t yet seen it in the path that I’ve gone down, but I need to go down the path of the writer because I love that course. I’m so glad [Zak Orth] was able to work with us on that. He did one of the most impressive scenes that I’ve seen, saying a list of different movie plots. Somewhere, there’s the whole list of 30 things with nothing to help in memorizing it, they were just one-off thoughts. He happened to also be on a Broadway show, so at night, he was doing the Hillary and Clinton play, and he would film all day long with us, and he did the entire list of nonsensical titles in one take without making a mistake, and literally, the entire crew applauded. Sometimes they write stuff for us to see if we can do it, if it’s even possible, but he did it, and it was amazing. Robert Carlock told me that it was somewhere in there in a bonus scene where you can do it uncut, and Zak deserves that. I wanna find it without Jacqueline interrupting it.

With the special, there’s a difference in the usual Unbreakable pace and also your pace from 30 Rock, where you’d have to talk really fast to cram all your jokes in. With this interactive format, you have to pause to let viewers make a choice.

Oh yes, it’s different.

It’s almost like a Dora The Explorer thing, where they ask questions and then stare at the audience. Is that really awkward to film?

Initially, I didn’t really understand it (the stall time), because I’d not done this technology before filming it. The first one thing that we ever filmed for this special was when I’m drinking a soda for a really long time. Two days later, they brought it to me and showed me how it would work, like where the choices are, and then it became my favorite part of filming this experience. Those were the parts that were left unwritten, and you could do anything that you wanted in these empty times, and for an awkward amount of time, which made it more fun and more enjoyable. Those moments, because they were singular to this filming process, became my favorite part. We would go further and further to see what we could get away with in the stall time.

This interactive special was announced after Netflix’s success with the Black Mirror episode, “Bandersnatch.” Did you try that one out?

I didn’t, and in hindsight, I probably should have. When I watched the Unbreakable special for the first time, I watched it with my son because he knew how to use the remote and technology, which was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and he had done it with Bear Grylls [in You vs. Wild, also on Netflix]. He turned it on and just started doing it. I was thankful that I had a nine-year-old in the apartment to help me figure this out. I have heard that [Bandersnatch] is very different in tone. I would be curious to know what they did in the stall time.

It was awkward, for sure, but it was also so bleak, so there’s a contrast with the Unbreakable special because it’s so lighthearted, even though, obviously, the show was born from dark subject matter (women getting kidnapped).

Yeah, to me, I’ve always actually really loved the episodes where they lean into that, sort-of the darker side because the show is so light and funny and colorful, in actual color and spirit. I remember when people [questioned that] this was going to be a comedy when they explained what the plot was. And really, only from the minds of Robert and Tina could they come up with such a show where it would be so positive, coming from such a bleak base. I actually was taken by surprise near the end [of the special] when Kimmy does find other women, and I’m laughing along, because, right, that’s the whole thing. Those women always take me by surprise and move me because it gives the characters and the story such weight.

Even Jacqueline goes through terrible things, like right after she married David Cross’ character.

Oh, right, he got smooshed! [Laughs]

She managed to grow despite all of that darkness, which happens with this show, so it’s good to have it back, if only for an episode.

It’s so nice that you feel that way. The series was completed, and we were hopeful that this sort-of thing would come along, and when it did, it was a great joy for us all to get back together. I very much enjoy putting Jacqueline’s amazing wardrobe and 1% beliefs back on and having more fun with these characters. It was also a major get for us to get Daniel Radcliffe to come to this special. I had been a fan of his, obviously from his movies and seeing him on Broadway, and I’ve always wanted to know this guy. He really goes for it and tries so many different things, and he’s interested, and I like that about him. In the scenes that I got to film with him, he’s so professional and hilarious. After the first read-through, some of us thought, “Whoa, he’s so funny, we’ve got to get our act together.” We could have done already while filming, but it was nice to have somebody of his stature come in and raise our game.

His energy probably also helped to freshen things up.

For sure, and it helped with Kimmy’s story and how she’s developed. It worked on so many levels, and he’s an absolute delight. I really like that guy.

Daniel Radcliffe’s a perk of the job, but if we’re talking about occupational hazards, I have to ask: do you ever get the theme song stuck in your head?

Whenever I hear it, yes!

That’s a relief because it’s in my head as we speak.

Jeff Richmond is very good at making an earworm. He has added so much to 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt through his theme songs, through his songs that have gone viral, even the scoring. His scoring brings so much to the talent of these shows and the jokes. Even his 30-second samples of theme songs are amazing.

With your long-running, larger-than-life characters, like Elaine from Ally McBeal, Jenna from 30 Rock, and Jacqueline, they’re all beloved in different ways. Was it more difficult to say goodbye to any of them in particular?

There’s so much more that goes into saying goodbye to a character in a long-running series. The years that you’ve spent together, if you’re lucky enough to have those years. Ally McBeal was my first big TV show, my first experience of being on a popular show, so that will always have a place in my heart — all of those guys and David Kelley and that experience — because that was a shift in the notoriety of my career, so that was a big life change. And then 30 Rock was this very special venture. What’s really interesting is that, because of streaming, younger people are telling me that they’re just watching the show for the first time, and it’s pretty great to see it live on and be asked to speak at graduations and stuff because of 30 Rock. They’re rediscovering it because they were too young to watch it the first time around. We were the show that didn’t get high ratings, and we were the underdog. We weren’t supposed to make it. That show will always be special to me because of the Little-Engine-That-Could quality, and I know it’s hard to say that after winning all those Emmys, but it did have that vibe and lived in that sort-of cult-y kind of place. I never saw it coming that I’d work with Tina Fey and Robert Carlock for 11 TV seasons in a row. That is the best fortune I could have in my life. I love playing flawed characters and bringing their flaws to humor. I don’t know if it’s my way of coping, but I like doing that for characters, and the characters that they’ve written for me have been extremely flawed, which have given them lots to heighten and comedy gold.

As we sign off here, do you have any advice for Jacqueline, for wherever she might be going, in the future?

Oh my goodness, what would it be? I’ve always had sympathy for Jacqueline. We’re talking about a bleak start, a woman who changed her appearance so much, starting with her Native American roots, to be blonde and get a rich husband in New York. I’ve always had sympathy for her because I never thought she really believed in herself. She has finally entered a time when she’s standing on her own and can choose her own path, and I hope she believes in herself now. That she is good at what she does with whatever skills and tools she has, however limited, she’s doing it, and she’s succeeding, and that makes me happy to think that she’s moving forward in the world.

‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend’ is currently streaming on Netflix.

There have been a number of disturbing storylines on The Walking Dead over the course of the ten-season series. There have been cannibals and baseball-bat bashings, along with people murdered in their sleep, a child shot in the head, more murdered children, and, of course, a series of spiked, decapitated heads that were used to create a property line. One storyline early on, however, was cut at the last minute, because it was too dark for the series at the time.

Recall Axel, the recurring character played by Lew Temple during the prison run in season three? Originally, Axel was meant to be a serial killer, as the actor who played him, Lew Temple, told Talk Dead to Me podcast: “I showed up with the idea that it was going to be serial killer and foreboding, and then, the day-of, got a note to switch that. ‘No, no, we’ve gotta lighten things up a little bit. We’ve been pretty dark.’”

Instead of being a killer, we find out that Axel was in prison for robbing a store with a toy gun, and he becomes a likable character who befriends Carol. However, even after they decided not to immediately turn Axel into a villain, the series kept the idea in their back pocket in case they needed it.

“There were some episodes that are written where I do take Beth out into the woods and slaughter her,” Temple said on the podcast. “We didn’t get to any of those. That was why I kept buttoned up. He was going to come undone, be totally Henry Rollins-tattooed. The whole thing about being a drug addict was all a big facade. The thing about the squirt gun and pistol is all bullsh*t. Carol, he beats the sh*t out of her. I mean, just these really dark things that the writers were talking about.”

Sadly, Axel would soon become The Governor’s first victim, unceremoniously shot in the head while having a conversation with Carol and otherwise minding his own business.

Instead of turning Axel into a serial killer, the writers on The Walking Dead ultimately decided that they wanted The Governor to the be show’s first major living villain. Axel had to be sacrificed, although Temple suggests they considered killing someone else off instead. In fact, he says, Andrew Lincoln tried to talk the producers into keeping Axel around. It was not to be.

Of course, 10 seasons later, a serial-killer storyline sounds fairly tame for The Walking Dead. However, the idea of anyone “beating the sh*t out of Carol” sounds very dark, if only for the way in which Carol would eventually get her revenge.

(Via Talk Dead to Me Podcast and HuffPo)