Category: News

On one of this week’s episodes of Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Zach Braff and Donald Faison invited their old friend and former Scrubs cast mate, Ken Jenkins, onto the show. Jenkins played Dr. Kelso on the series, and he proved to be an unexpected delight on the episode, nothing like the more villainous Dr. Kelso of the first season of the sitcom, and everything like the more sweet-hearted version of Dr. Kelso, who kissed Laverne on the forehead on her deathbed, and who had his doctors backs’ when needed.

However, the more interesting part of the episode came when a fan was invited on to ask a couple of questions. Both were directed at Faison. In the first, Faison was asked who he thinks could have played Dr. Turk had he not landed the role, and if timing wasn’t an issue. Unsurprisingly, Faison said Dulé Hill — the West Wing star who had a similar Zach and J.D. dynamic with James Roday on the long-running Psych — but the other two possibilities were a little more surprising: Jaleel White (Urkel from Family Matters) “would have crushed that role,” as would have Damon Wayans, Jr., if he were older back then, Faison said. (Braff’s answer for who could play J.D., for the record, was Ben Platt).

However, the even more interesting part was when Faison spilled a little tea about playing basketball with longtime best friends, Leo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. As Faison tells it, he was in Miami when “Leo and Tobey invited me” to play basketball. “This was one of the biggest moments of my life,” Faison says on the podcast, because “as a young actor, to me, Leonardo DiCaprio is the best actor in the world … I don’t think that anyone is better than him when it comes to my peers, people my age.”

In Miami, the three play on the same team, “and we play against some Floridians in a 3-on-3 game, and we win. And I remember thinking, ‘I have arrived. I played ball with Leo. I played ball with Tobey. We were on the same team. It’s happening! I’m going to be in the next Spider-Man. I can feel it!”

“I was wrong,” Faison said, deflated.

Subsequent to their game in Miami, Leo and Tobey invited Faison out to play again at someone’s house, and this time, when Faison arrived, Maguire said, “I don’t want to be on his team. I won’t have any fun on his team.” It is worth noting, too, that Tobey Maguire has a reputation for being both very competitive and sometimes cruel, if one believes Molly Blooms’ book, Molly’s Game, about a regular celebrity poker game Molly Bloom created and that Tobey Maguire ultimately had a hand in destroying, but not before Maguire humiliated Bloom in front of Ben Affleck and others. (Bloom’s book was subsequently turned into a movie written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, where Michael Cera played the Maguire role).

Hearing that “I won’t have any fun on his team” naturally upset Faison, who had had such a good experience in Miami with him and DiCaprio. “I took offense to it … and I was like, ‘OK, fine.’ And I proceeded bust their ass on their court!”

“Aaaaaaand,” Faison added, “I never got invited back.”

“Yeah, you got to be not too good. That’s the trick to playing with fancy celebrities,” Braff said.

“Right,” Faison agreed. “You got to make it feel that they can compete on their level. You have to bring them up to your level. You have to be the LeBron James. You have to score buckets, but you have to make them feel like they’re doing their thing.”

And that was Faison’s brief flirtation at a friendship with the biggest A-list stars of the time.

Meanwhile, Faison did concede that he has been outplayed by a number of other celebrities on the basketball court, as well. When asked to name the best celebrities he’s played against, Faison name checks Michael B. Jordon, Brian McKnight, Jesse Williams, and James Lesure, the Good Girls star Faison believes may be the best he’s every played.

Source: Fake Doctors, Real Friends

Netflix drops a prestige drama and a new twist on the action-comic-book genre this week. Charlize Theron stars in a different kind of superhero story with The Old Guard, a movie that follows a supernatural group of mercenaries as they take on a dangerous new threat. And Cate Blanchett plays a cult leader in Stateless, which might be one of the better drama offerings from the streamer in recent years.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of July 10.

The Old Guard (Netflix film streaming 7/10)

Charlize Theron heads up this inventive action flick based on a best-selling graphic novel. Theron plays Andy, the leader of a covert group of immortal mercenaries who’ve lived centuries in the shadows, fighting off the worst of humankind. When they’re group is exposed, and their abilities come to light, Theron and her team face a new threat, one hoping to weaponize their powers for their own gain.

Stateless (Netflix original streaming 7/8)

Cate Blanchett plays a cult leader in this prestige drama from Netflix. Based on a true story, the show follows the story of a white woman named Sofie (The Handmaid’s Tale star Yvonne Strahovski), who finds herself drawn to a group of fanatics, betrayed, and then tossed in an Australian immigration detention center. The story of how she escapes touches on everything from mental health to anti-immigrant sentiment and the plight of refugees, and it’s a thrilling watch.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 7/5
ONLY

Avail. 7/6
A Kid From Coney Island

Avail. 7/7
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax

Avail. 7/8
The Long Dumb Road
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (Netflix Documentary)
Stateless: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
What Is Love? (Netflix Original)
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Season 1

Avail. 7/9
Japan Sinks: 2020 *Netflix Anime
The Protector: Season 4 *Netflix Original

Avail. 7/10
The Claudia Kishi Club (Netflix Documentary)
Down to Earth with Zac Efron (Netflix Original)
The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants in Space (Netflix Family)
Dating Around: Brazil (Netflix Original)
The Old Guard (Netflix Film)
The Twelve (Netflix Original)

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 7/11
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III
The Adderall Diaries
Enemy
Ginger & Rosa
Locke
The Spectacular Now
Under the Skin

Leaving 7/12
Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain

Leaving 7/15
Forks Over Knives

Dua Lipa’s 2020 has been propelled by fans and critics praising her sophomore album Future Nostalgia. The album arrive nearly three years after her self-titled debut album and landed on numerous 2020 mid-year best-of lists. Unfortunately, following the success of the album, Lipa was unable to tour as the world was under quarantine following the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

In lieu of performing, Lipa has now unleashed a new single from her hit album, “Hallucinate.” The animated video, styled after early cartoons from a century ago, begins with Lipa performing in a mostly black-and-white club. After smelling a flower, though, the proceedings get colorful and more psychedelic.

Lipa recently revealed in an interview on the UK radio show Official Big Top 40 Sunday that the quarantine could push her closer to her third album, saying, “I probably will start thinking about my new album sooner rather than later. Just because I’ll probably have a bit of time to maybe go to the studio at some point and, kind of, get back in.”

Lipa also recently joined over 1,500 artists to call on the UK government to help save live music. Writing to Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the artists insisted that “government support will be crucial to prevent mass insolvencies, and the end of this great world-leading industry.”

Watch the “Hallucinate” video above.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Texas whiskey scene is one of the most fun whiskey microcosms outside of Kentucky and Tennessee. The warmer climates allow the juice to age (and take on oak notes) a bit more quickly than they would in cooler environments and the local agriculture adds a unique dimension to the various whiskey expressions. One of the shining examples of Texas’s whiskey output is found in Waco, at Balcones Distilling.

Full disclosure, I ride for Balcones pretty hard. I found them when I was searching for blue corn whiskeys. As a food writer covering (and cooking) Indigenous food, I find that blue corn tortillas and cornbread have a much richer flavor than standard yellow or white corn varieties. So I figured whiskey made with blue corn must also be intrinsically better. That’s how I stumbled upon Balcones and the outstanding work head distiller Jared Himstedt is doing with the cereal grain.

After years of testing their various expressions, I traveled from my home in Berlin to the Balcones headquarters in Waco. It was a dream trip — with lots of roadside barbecue, a fair number of Dr. Peppers, and some excellent drams of Lone Star State whiskey. My love of the brand only deepened on that (pre-quarantine) adventure, so I was only too happy to run a taste-through of their core line last week, along with food writer and influencer Caitlin Sakdalan.

Check out our tasting notes below!

Baby Blue Blue Corn Whisky

ABV: 46%
Average Price: $45

The Whisky:

This is a great intro bottle to the distillery. The juice is made with 100 percent Hopi Blue Corn that’s grown sustainably in western Texas, along the New Mexico border. The mash is twice distilled and then aged in small-format, five-gallon oak barrels in Balcones’ rickhouse. Finally, mineral water from Texas’ Hill Country is used to cut the whisky down to a manageable 46 percent ABV.

Tasting Notes:

Clear notes of browned butter mingle with a sense of cinnamon spice, toffee, and vanilla. More butter mixes with a wave of bright fruits (carrying a sweet edge). Brown sugar, worn leather, and a hint of dark chocolate pop with the addition of a little water. The finish is short and full of spice, fruit, leather, and buttery goodness.

Value Per Dollar %: $45 may feel high, but this is a well-crafted with a sustainable and unique cereal grain base. 100%

True Blue 100 Proof Blue Corn Whisky

ABV: 50%
Average Price: $57

The Whisky:

This is the same juice as the Baby Blue. The difference is simply that less of that mineral-heavy Texas Hill Country water is added, leaving a higher ABV.

Tasting Notes:

The fruit is more front-and-center on the nose but is still supported by a bit of spice and sugar. There’s a real leatheriness and a serious sense of oak char next to hints of salted caramel and bitter black tea. Dark berries and chocolate whisper in the background as the sip slowly fades away.

Value Per Dollar %: Again, this seems reasonably priced for a high-ABV expression of something truly unique. 100%

True Blue Cask Strength Straight Corn Whisky

ABV: 65.7%
Average Price: $65

The Whisky:

This, again, is the same juice as the Baby Blue and 100 Proof but is from barrels that hit just the right spot to be bottled directly.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a lot going on here — from notes of pecans to buttered crusty toast to grapefruit. The sip leans into a maple syrup sweetness with a dried fruit underbelly. A little water helps the more fragrant florals release. The dram takes its time on the senses and fades through those florals, sweet notes, and ends on a clear sense of barrel warmth and bitterness.

Value Per Dollar %: One dollar per ABV feels like a fair price to drink something made from blue corn. 100%

Texas Single Malt Classic Edition

ABV: 53%
Average Price: $75

The Whisky:

Jared Himstedt has one of the best collections of Scotch single malts I’ve seen outside of Scotland. This expression is his salute to the classic style. The juice is made from 100 percent malted barley in copper pot stills before aging in variously sized barrels before getting finished in a single, large barrel. The final product is a single malt unlike any other that’ll help you fall in love with the style.

Tasting Notes:

Hints of pears and bananas greet you with a sense of rose water and citrus. The sip shines with a feel of rich, sweet, and bitter marmalade with a base of sourdough toast dripping with rich, creamy butter. This sip is like a warm hug that you didn’t know you needed.

The dram fades slowly through the senses as burnt sugar, cedar, and honey notes linger on the palate.

Value Per Dollar %: Single malts are not cheap. $75 is the price of a decent one from Scotland. Still, this could easily be a $100 bottle. 125%

Brimstone A Smoked Whisky

ABV: 53%
Average Price: $57

The Whisky:

This is the perfect backyard BBQ summer sipper. The juice is the same as Baby Blue. But, before the juice goes into the barrel, it’s smoked with Texas Scrub Oak. So, instead of smoking the corn before mashing, they’re actually smoking the liquid before aging. That process makes for one hell of a unique and delicious dram.

Tasting Notes:

Graham crackers pop upfront with hints of peaches. There’s a sense of an old smoker that’s held a lot of fatty smoked meats. More smoked meat and even smoky butter (fat really) with a clear note of dry tobacco leaves and a hint of dried chili peppers mingle on the palate. There’s a wisp of orange underneath the smokiness and the most fleeting whisper of fresh mint.

Value Per Dollar %: Again, the uniqueness of this juice and the extra steps in the process make this very affordable at the $50 mark. 150%

Check out the whole tasting below:

Aiming for another quick turnaround following his fourth album, 4Real 4 Real, YG has been hard at work on his upcoming fifth album which he has already revealed to be titled Laugh Now Kry Later!. In addition to its title track, YG has also shared two other singles, “Konclusions” with Kehlani, which served as an ode to love, and “FTP,” an unfiltered protest towards police brutality. While there is no word on when exactly YG’s fifth album will touch down, the Compton rapper returns with another single to ease the wait.

Confident as always, YG returns with his braggadocios demeanor for his latest single, “Swag.” Dressed in all black for the majority of the video, the bouncy track finds him confidently dancing beside a few ladies and a black Maybach with a red-painted hood. As the video continues, he continues the fun alongside some friends and a few kids while flaunting some 4Hunnid merch.

Hours before the song’s arrival, YG faced large criticism on Twitter due to the song’s artwork. On the cover, YG, dawning a replica red, white, and gold Colin Kaepernick No. 7 49ers jersey, is depicted alongside two cheerleaders who are also dressed the 49ers team colors. On the cover, the trio are depicted kneeling as a way to interestingly show support for the former quarterback who infamously kneeled during the national anthem during the 2016 NFL season. In many of the reactions, fans compared the initial cover of Pop Smoke’s Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon album, which was designed by Virgil Abloh.

Listen to “Swag” in the video above.

Compared to recent years, Kid Cudi has been quite active in 2020 in sharing new music and promoting his upcoming album. The year began with Cudi appearing alongside Selena Gomez for their “A Sweeter Place” collab off her Rare album. Cudi later made his official return with his “Leader Of The Delinquents,” a track was nearly a decade old at the time of its release as Cudi had teased it during numerous tour stops over the years. Delivering another song to fans, Cudi returns with an interesting collaboration for his latest single.

Flying through with Eminem, Cudi returns with “The Adventures Of Moon Man And Slim Shady.” The track arrives after Kid Cudi called for help from the “rap god” in a tweet back in May. It turns out the guest feature was the help Cudi was looking for with Eminem supplying a lengthy verse focusing on dismissing his rap critics and unworthy hip-hop peers while taking a second to honor George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and speak against police brutality on the laid-back track.

The song marks Cudi’s third release of the year as he and Travis Scott connected for “The Scotts,” which is the title of Cudi and Travis’ newly-formed duo that. They both revealed that a joint project would arrive in the near future following the single. Cudi, along with Kanye West, also recently shared a teaser for their upcoming Kids See Ghosts animated show.

Listen to “The Adventures Of Moon Man And Slim Shady” in the video above.

Kane Brown delivered his last album in 2018 with his sophomore effort, Experiment. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart, serving as his first chart-topping project. Experiment also helped him win an American Music Award for Favorite Country Male Artist in 2019 as well as several nominations across a number of award shows. In the years since the album, the Tennesse native has stayed relatively low while appearing on only a handful of singles. Preparing his third EP for a release in the near future, Kane Brown returns with a new single.

Calling on Swae Lee and Khalid, the three artists join forces for “Be Like That.” The track, which is driven by a lightly strummed electric guitar and heavy bass kicks, finds Kane, Swae, and Khalid detailing the tug and pull struggles of their relationships. Beginning by shrugging off the bad parts of the relationship, the three artists find their balance by glancing over to the good that’s occurred in their love lives. The song also marks Kane Brown and Khalid’s second collaboration as they previously worked together on a remix of Khalid’s “Saturday Nights.”

“Be Like That” arrives as Kane Brown continues work on his third EP, following 2015’s Closer and 2016’s Chapter 1. His latest release also follows April’s “Cool Again.” Speaking on the EP in an interview with Taste Of Country, he revealed that there is no timetable for its release but that it is nearly complete.

As for Swae Lee and Khalid, the track follows Swae Lee’s “Reality Check” release and Khalid’s “Experience” record with Victoria Monet and SG Lewis.

Listen to “Be Like That” above.

When film director Joel Schumacher died in late June, there was a reappraisal of a number of his sometimes contentious films. Chief among those were his two goes with the Batman franchise in the mid-’90s. At the time — and especially coming off of Tim Burton’s more brooding entries starring Michael Keaton — both Batman Forever and Batman and Robin were considered a bit too campy, even if the first, at least, proved a monster hit. But since their helmsman’s death, both have inspired renewed (or at least long-concealed) appreciation, with some making the case for them worthy of recognition, especially as queer texts made by an openly gay filmmaker.

But it turns out at least Batman Forever wasn’t always supposed to be pure neon-drenched silliness. Variety confirmed through Warner Bros. that there was once a much longer, and fairly different version of the 1995 blockbuster, which ran 170 minutes — that’s six minutes longer than the quite epic The Dark Knight Rises — and which was described by one source as a “much darker, more serious’ version of the film.”

What were some of the things lost to the cutting room floor? As per Variety:

This version opens with a sequence involving the villain Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) escaping from Arkham Asylum, and features extended scenes with the Riddler (Jim Carrey) when he invades the Batcave and uses his signature cane as a weapon. The bulk of this version’s runtime focuses on the emotional and psychological issues that led Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) to decide to become Batman, including a sequence of Wayne facing down a giant, human-sized bat.

The version that hit theaters 25 years ago was a relatively more modest 129 minutes, and though it bares traces of some of these snipped sections — including some brief flashes of Wayne’s dreams and childhood — its tone could safely be described as non-serious, and not terribly dark.

Will you ever see this bleaker Batman Forever? Who knows! Warner says they’re not even sure if all the footage from this longer version exists, and even if so, Schumacher’s no longer around to patch it back together. (Some of the footage is available as deleted scenes.) As of now, there are no plans to release a patched-together director’s cut, but never say never. After all, the same studio recently made plans to cobble together than long-demanded “Snyder Cut” of Justice League.

(Via Variety)

Despite all the bleak news that’s befallen Quibi — chief among them its severe underperformance and its almost total lack of a cultural footprint beyond mockery and doomsday profiles — founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has remained optimistic. They’re still announcing future programs, most notably Kevin Hart’s Die Hart, and they’re reportedly economically solvent for a while at least. And yet there’s still grim news, such as this: According to a new report, 90% of those who signed up for a free trial are ditching the streamer once it’s up.

This comes from The Verge, which reported on a study from mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower. According to them, the bold, mobile-based streamer signed up about 910,000 subscribers in its first days, who elected for a free three-month trial. Once that elapsed, though, only 72,000 stuck around.

That may sounds grim to the layman, but according to The Verge, that’s “not too bad.” A previous Sensor Tower report claimed that the number of initial free-trial Disney+ subscribers was a mere 11%. Thing is, Disney+ managed to wrangle 9.5 million in their initial wave — a number not even comparable to Quibi’s less-than-a-million. Besides, they managed to add tens of millions more since their early days, and now have over 50 million subscribers enjoying things like Hamilton as well as 1966’s Dean Jones dog comedy The Ugly Dachshund.

Then again, Quibi’s total numbers have also allegedly gone up. Quibi reports that 5.6 million have downloaded the app since its April launch, though Sensor Tower claims that number is closer to 4.5 million. A Quibi spokesperson is sticking by their numbers, though, saying the streamer is “above mobile app benchmarks, and we are seeing excellent conversion to paid subscribers — both among our 90-day free trial sign-ups from April, as well as our 14-day free trial sign-ups from May and June.”

Wherever the truth lies, it can be said with confidence that Quibi is at least not off to a smooth start. Katzenberg has put blame on the pandemic quarantine, which did a number on a service offering “quick bite” content, each burst lasting no more than 10 minutes, for those on the go, arriving when no one was going much of anywhere. And since much of the country may either not be going anywhere any time soon or returning to their homes during a second wave of COVID-19, all that can be said is: perhaps Kevin Hart will save the day.

(Via The Verge)

In mid-June, images of a (much) skinner Nikola Jokic took the internet by storm but, in a more serious turn, the Denver Nuggets center tested positive for COVID-19 and saw his return to the United States delayed as a result. As the Nuggets and other teams arrived in Orlando this week, Jokic was not part of Denver’s traveling party as he remains in Serbia, but, according to a report from Chris Haynes of Yahoo, he will be arriving “in the next couple of days.”

More than anything, it is great news that Jokic has the ability to make the trip to Orlando, and Haynes notes that the All-Star center is “in good health” at this juncture. Since his positive test in June, Jokic has reportedly tested negative more than once, and he has clearance to arrive at Walt Disney World to join his Nuggets teammates.

From a basketball perspective, it will be interesting to see how Jokic performs at a lesser weight, especially given his ability to use his massive frame effectively on the offensive end of the floor. Beyond that, the Nuggets are heavily reliant on Jokic offensively, and Denver could face a substantial challenge as early as round one of the Western Conference Playoffs, even as the No. 3 seed at the outset, given that the Houston Rockets currently occupy the 6-seed.

The Nuggets will begin participating in practices and scrimmages in the near future, but the team doesn’t have a “seeding game” until Aug. 1 when they square off with the Miami Heat. Given the three-week timetable between now and that start, Jokic should have time to get acclimated to playing against NBA size with his slimmer frame and back up to speed, and the Nuggets will seemingly have their centerpiece on board in the very near future.