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Airplane!, the beloved parody of disaster movies, is basically a perfect movie. But what if instead of starring Robert Hays as the pilot with a fear of flying, it starred a pre-late night host David Letterman? Would that have made it even better? Or actually worse? According to Letterman himself, probably the latter.

As per Entertainment Weekly, a new book about the blockbuster, Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True History of Airplane!, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the directorial debuts of David Zucker, Jim Abraham, and future Ghost director Jerry Zucker, collectively known as ZAZ. They reveal that Letterman — back when he was a sardonic Tonight Show regular but not yet the star of Late Night with David Letterman — did a screen test for the role of Ted Striker. He struck out.

“I get out there, and they had set up a cockpit for the aircraft with chairs,” Letterman recalled. “I had a chair, and there was another chair where the copilot would be. We did the scene once, and then they came in and gave me some notes, and then we did it maybe two more times. And I kept saying all along, ‘I can’t act, I can’t act, I can’t act,’ and then one of them came to me after the audition and said, ‘You’re right: you can’t act!’”

Letterman had acted before. He was a cast member on The Mary Tyler Moore Hour and appeared on an episode of Mork & Mindy. But save his stint as a toy monkey salesman in Cabin Boy (and voicing a roadie in Beavis and Butt-head Do America, albeit under a pseudonym), all his “acting” roles in movies and shows has been as himself.

As it happens, mere days before Airplane! was released in the summer of 1980, NBC debuted The David Letterman Show, their first show with the future late night star. That program, however, was a morning show, and despite winning two Emmys, it was cancelled after only three months. But, well, you know, he did pretty okay for himself.

(Via EW)

Last month, Sun June announced Bad Dream Jaguar, their follow-up to 2022’s sprawling Somewhere. The group shared the dreamy lead single “Get Enough,” as well as “Easy Violence” and “John Prine.” Now they’re back with another taste of the highly anticipated record.

“Mixed Bag” is an endearing, cinematic ballad inspired by Tom Petty. Read the band’s statement about it:

“In some ways this song allowed us to reflect and become more aware of how dumb our arguments are. ‘You were searching for a reason to be mad,’ and ‘I know every single fight we’ve ever had,’ are accusations and boasts that made us laugh. Each chorus expands on the last, as we acknowledge the ways we’re repeating the past but try to keep score regardless.

We recorded Mixed Bag both in Texas and North Carolina — Dan Duszynski, Alli Rogers, Danny Reisch, Max Lorenson, and Chad Doriocourt all had a hand in trying to shape this into a dusty Petty-esque song. The song is about struggling to stay hopeful about the future, but we hope the bop outweighs the sadness.

For the video, we asked Vanessa Pla to help capture some of the rural outskirts of Austin on Super 8 film. We took inspiration from some old 1940s PSAs and Texas corporate films. She and her crew found themselves in the middle of cow pastures off of brand new highways, face to face with some friendly longhorns.”

Listen to “Mixed Bag” above.

Bad Dream Jaguar is out 10/20 via Run For Cover. Find more information here.

Julian Lennon, son of Beatle John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia, had a candid, two-hour conversation with Bill Maher on a recent episode of his “Club Random” podcast. During their intimate talk, Julian discussed his complicated feelings about being the subject of one of The Beatles’ most famous songs, “Hey Jude.”

“Hey Jude” was written by Paul McCartney while driving to the Lennons’ house to comfort them after John Lennon left Cynthia for Yoko Ono in 1968. The song is credited to the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, which by ‘68 mainly had splintered.

The song was initially called “Hey Jules,” but McCartney changed the name to Jude because he thought it was “a bit less specific.”

When asked about being the subject of such a popular song, Julian Lennon had his reservations.

“I’m thankful for the song without question. The other real thing is that people don’t really understand that that’s a stark and dark reminder of actually what happened with the fact that dad walked out, walked away, left mum and I,” Lennon told Maher.

“You know, that was a point of complete change and complete disruption and complete darkness and sadness. I mean, I was only 3, but I recognized something was up, you know,” Lennon continued. “Yeah, it was heartbreaking, heartbreaking. So, it’s a reminder of that time and that place. So, I get both sides of it, but a lot of people don’t necessarily understand there’s a dark, you know, the yin and the yang of that song.”

As a massive Beatles fan, Maher failed to realize the song’s impact on Lennon’s life. “I feel stupid not seeing that before you had to explain it to me, but I get it,” Maher said.

Republicans sure don’t like American cities these days. Conservative commentators have been trying to paint the nation’s metropolises as postapocalyptic hellscapes that have relapsed to 1970s conditions. They usually go after New York City, despite it being probably the safest it’s ever been in its 400-year history. On Monday, Fox News took on Seattle, but instead of finding a frightened populace desperate to escape soaring crime rates, they found…well, the opposite.

In a segment flagged by dedicated Media Matters far right watchdog Kat Abu (and caught by The Daily Beast), The Five aired what they hoped would be a scintillating man-on-the-street segment about Washington State’s biggest city, which easily riled-up co-host Jeanine Pirro called a “progressive hellscape.” But Pirro was gobsmacked that residents told reporter Johnny Belisario that, no, it’s pretty nice there.

One man Belisario found informed him he’s “never seen any crime in Seattle.” Instead he’s seen “fun and laughter and laughter and fun.”

One woman said she straight-up didn’t believe the crime statistics Belisario had fed her. When Belisario tried to convince her that people were getting carjacked and robbed left and right, she said she’s “never heard of anyone getting robbed.” She added that “people don’t just come up and try to rob you.”

When Belisario claimed he saw people “shooting up on the way down here,” the woman replied, “Oh, did you? Okay. And they were bothering you?” When he said he was in a car, she mocked him: “Oh no, you were in a car! They were hurting you so bad!”

While this woman spoke, the chyron tried to gin up outrage with the words “residents in blue cities are embracing the decay” — the decay which they tell them isn’t happening.

Another tried to explain how they could right the societal ills they claim are destroying Seattle and other cities: “Crime is a social issue that could be solved by giving people their basic needs.”

After the segment, the Five talking heads weighed in. Pirro was especially appalled.

“The arrogance and the ignorance of Seattle residents that Johnny interviewed is shocking. I mean, how could they be clueless?”

Jesse Watters claimed they were simply in “denial” that their place of residence had fallen on hard times. “And if you look at the demographics of the city, it’s understandable. It’s a very highly educated city—very white, very LGBTQ, very secular. And they all believe in the same thing, which is [that] criminalizing crime is racist.”

Per data published by the Seattle Police Department, violent and property crime did rise 4% in 2022 from the previous year, with violent crime at a 15-year high. But according to residents, it’s not the end-of-the-world situation Fox News hosts claim it is.

In other news, Republicans have a new reason to have the Big Apple: A New York judge ruled Monday that Trump and his Trump Organization cronies, including his two eldest sons, were guilty of fraud, which means the former president’s days doing business in his hometown are probably finito.

(Via Kat Abu and The Daily Beast)

Last year, Cordae excited fans by sharing his album From A Bird’s Eye View. Since then, he’s unveiled collaborations with Anderson .Paak, Juice WRLD, and more, as well as shared the spicy solo song “Make Up Your Mind,” for which he now has a video.

The track navigates a complicated relationship whose rules are unclear: “I said she love me / She love me not / But she don’t got no damn clue about what she want,” he sings in the chorus. The video captures this confusion, depicting Cordae and a woman going back in forth in arguments, struggling to resolve issues even as they sit at dinner at a restaurant. Despite this, the music is lively, with an infectious bassline.

“I just wanted to make a timeless song that makes people feel good,” Cordae said in a statement.

The video is directed by Loris Russier. “Make Up Your Mind” is produced by Dr. Luke, who fans are pointing out was a poor choice considering the rape allegations from pop star Kesha that ended with a defamation lawsuit that dragged on for years.

Watch the video for “Make Up Your Mind” above.

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

Google and smart phones have been around so long that Gen Z doesn’t know a time before those things existed. They may have Googled what a card catalog was used for but plenty of them don’t know the pressure we all felt having to learn the dewy decimal system while walking around the library with a card with numbers scribbled on it.

They’ve never experienced the frustration of having an out of date Encyclopedia collection from the thrift store that was missing books “D” and “X-Z” when you had a research assignment due. Oh, sweet tech savvy – we not me generation, doesn’t understand that riding shot gun on a road trip meant you were suddenly a pirate with an Atlas map bigger than the dashboard.

Even as someone that was alive when having a rotary phone was the norm, I sometimes forget what life was like before all of the technological luxuries. It’s not surprising that Gen Z is confused on how we survived back then without knowledge at our fingertips, so when one of them asked, Gen X, Xennials and elder Millennials entered the chat.

Sarah Adelman posted a video to TikTok with the caption, “pls help I was born in 1997.” In the video she says she has a genuine question for older people and that’s when she asks, “what did you do before you could look something up?”

Adelman gives the example of something that isn’t in the dictionary or Encyclopedia. She wants to know what someone would do if there was a celebrity whose name you couldn’t remember or other trivial things like that.

“Would you go to the library? Like gen..and like okay, without Google Maps, like I know that there was MapQuest but before that like genuinely what would you do? Would you just accept not knowing,” the Gen Zer asks before saying she doesn’t think she would be able to survive without knowing.

Unfortunately for Adelman, the older generations informed her that this is exactly what we did back in the 1900s. We simply wondered about things that popped into our heads. In fact, since we knew there was no way of knowing the name of the actor that played on “Matlock” for one episode, we didn’t bother attempting to look it up. You’d either see them again in a rerun or it would come to you randomly while trying to locate a payphone.

“The name of an actor would come up to you 3 weeks later while you were eating a bowl of cereal,” one person writes.

“You would just be forever annoyed by it, keep it bookmarked in the back of your mind, then realize one day that dude’s name is Ray Liotta or something,” another commenter says.

“Ummm. I love how you reference Mapquest. We used maps. Just maps. Good ole paper maps,” someone writes.

“We just lived in blissful ignorance and then in the middle of a conversation about pretzels a week later we would just yell out the answer,” one person reveals.

To no one’s surprise Adelman did not like these answers. She replied to someone explaining that we simply wondered with, “I could never.” The official Google account even chimed in saying, “however it worked, sounds bad.”

Ehh, it wasn’t so bad. We didn’t know any different, but in a way Adelman had that good old fashioned pre-Google experience when she posed this question. You can watch the perplexed girl’s video below:

@sarah_adelman

Pls help i was born in 1997 #90s #genz #90skids #iphone #rant #question #funny

The oldest published version of the melody to the “Alphabet Song” was in 1761. However, because it’s the same melody as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” it’s hard to trace it to its original composer.

The “Alphabet Song” is so deeply entrenched in American culture that it almost seems sacrilegious to change a piece of music that’s one of the first most of us ever learned. But after all these years, some educators are altering the classic melody so that there is a variation when the letters L-M-N-O-P are sung.

This change shocked popular TikTokker Jessica Skube, who documents life raising 7 children with her 2.6 million followers. Nearly 10 million people have watched her video revealing the significant change, and it’s received over 56,000 comments since first being published in late 2020.

“You guys, I have huge, huge, huge, huge, huge news,” Skube told her followers. “I have a fifth grader, a fifth grader, a fourth grader, a third grader, a third grader, a first grader, and a preschooler and I just got news that the ‘Alphabet Song’ is changing.”

She then sang the updated version of the song.

@jesssfamofficial

Just to add to your 2020 🤯😱 because distance learning wasn’t enough!!! @ms_frazzled #abcsong #lmno #wtf #momsoftiktok

The big reason for the change is that people learning English, whether young kids or those who speak it as a second language, often get confused because L-M-N-O-P can sound like one letter, “elemenopee.” So, the new version breaks up that part of the alphabet, making the letters easier to understand. There has been a “surge” in the number of students learning English as a second language over the past decade, so it only makes sense to alter the song to help them learn the fundamentals of the language.

It’s believed that this new version of the song was first created by a website called Dream English in 2012.

Earlier this month, Slowdive returned with Everything Is Alive, their first album since their critically acclaimed self-titled one from 2017. The dreamy LP showcased their knack for creating a hypnotic wall of sound, and they’re bringing it to stages this fall and winter on a massive tour.

Slowdive is hitting several continents on this run, beginning in North America and ending in Europe in 2024. The setlist is packed with new songs as well as hits like “Sugar for the Pill” from self-titled and “Alison” and “When the Sun Hits,” from their iconic 1993 record Souvlaki.

Check out their setlist from their performance at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto, Canada, according to setlist.fm.

1. “Shanty”
2. “Prayer Remembered”
3. “Star Roving”
4. “Catch the Breeze”
5. “Crazy for You”
6. “Souvlaki Space Station”
7. “Kisses”
8. “Sugar for the Pill”
9. “Alison”
10. “When the Sun Hits”
11. “Golden Hair” (Syd Barrett cover)
Encore:
12. “The Slab”
13. “Dagger”
14. “40 Days”

Find the tour dates below.

09/27/23 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
09/28/23 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
09/29/23 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
09/30/23 — Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
10/02/23 — Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy at Mahall’s
10/03/23 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
10/04/23 — Saint Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
10/06/23 — Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
10/07/23 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union
10/09/23 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
10/10/23 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
10/12/23 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
10/14/23 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether
10/30/23 — Glasgow, Scotland @ Queen Margaret Union
10/31/23 — Manchester, England @ Ritz
11/01/23 — Bristol, England @ SWX
11/03/23 — London, England @ Troxy
11/05/23 — Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Mandela Hall
11/06/23 — Dublin, Ireland @ National Stadium
11/25/23 — Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Primavera Sound
12/04/23 — Santiago, Chile @ Teatro Coliseo
12/07/23 — Asunción, Paraguay @ Primavera Sound
12/10/23 — Bogotá, Colombia @ Primavera Sound
02/16/24 — Brighton, England @ Brighton Dome
02/17/24 — London, England @ Eventim Apollo
02/18/24 — Birmingham, England @ O2 Institute Birmingham
02/19/24 — Norwich, England @ LCR UEA
02/21/24 — Liverpool, England @ O2 Academy Liverpool
02/22/24 — Newcastle upon Tyne, England @ NX
02/23/24 — Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland Ballroom
02/24/24 — Edinburgh, Scotland @ Liquid Rooms
02/26/24 — Cardiff, Wales @ Cardiff University Great Hall
02/27/24 — Manchester, England @ Manchester Academy

All the way back in May — summer hadn’t even started! — the Writers Guild of America went on strike. That meant movies and TV shows, including most talk shows, were put on hold. For nearly five months the studio heads repped by the AMPTP refused to meet their demands. On Sunday night they finally did, with both sides reaching a tentative agreement. But the new contract still required a vote from guild members to officially bring the strike to a close. Well, guess what?

Per The Hollywood Reporter, that vote was successful. After 148 days — the second-longest WGA strike, after the one in 1988, which lasted a mere five days longer — the guild will officially return to work, clocking in starting at 12:01am PT on Wednesday. That means all that comes with being a member of the WGA — pitching, selling scripts, taking meetings, responding to notes — will be back in action.

After nearly a month of standstill, the WGA and the AMPTP got back to the bargaining table on last Wednesday. It still took another five days, but they clearly made progress, according to THR:

With top leaders in the room, the studios made changes to their position on issues like minimum staffing in television writers’ rooms and rewarding writers for the success of projects on streaming. Regulations on artificial intelligence proved to be a lasting sticking point, but the two sides eventually came to a compromise by Sunday night. In its communication to members about the agreement on Sunday, the WGA called the resulting agreement “exceptional.”

After the tentative agreement was announced on Sunday, certain shows were quick to put the gears back in motion. SNL announced they were working on starting back up. Ditto The Drew Barrymore Show, which came under fire when they announced they were prematurely returning…only to renege on that mere days later after substantial backlash.

Not that Hollywood is back in action. After all, there’s still the SAG-AFTRA strike, which began in July and currently has no plans to meet back up with the AMPTP. But perhaps having one of the two strikes officially resolved may give that one a nudge.

In the meantime, the WGA will be technically back to work in a matter of hours, as of this writing. Of course, it will surely be a bit awkward for writers taking meetings with execs who threatened to let them starve and go homeless.

(Via THR)

This limited-time series for UPROXX’s Style Hotlist highlights world-renowned artists and their matchless wardrobes through quick chats and exclusive photos.

UK-born, L.A.-based singer, songwriter, and DJ Aluna has long been a rule-breaking innovator. Whether you’ve experienced Aluna’s performances via Livestream or in person, you can attest that her contagious energy and vibrant style pack an allure that keeps fans enthralled.

Born Aluna Francis, the dance music darling gained renown as half of the UK duo AlunaGeorge. Then, three years ago, Aluna went solo and released her debut album, Renaissance — highlighting dance music’s origins in communities of color through a daringly personal vision.

Since Renaissance, Aluna has gone on to garner international praise, award nominations, significant collaborations with artists such as Skrillex, Tchami, and Diplo. She’s embarked on massive tours. And this summer, she released her critically acclaimed sophomore album MYCELiUM.

We caught up with the British multi-hyphenate during her current string of tour dates in the U.S. to tap into what inspires her style, gain her definition of fashion, and learn about her dream shopping dates.

With you being a DJ and singer-songwriter, how do you feel your lifestyle influences your style?

I’ve been so lucky to have developed a theme for an album cycle. That theme will always start with highly crafted show pieces. Then – because I’m making stuff and building that wardrobe – there’ll be some things that work for my day-to-day lifestyle that start trickling down, so I’m almost wearing pieces inspired by my stage pieces. At home, my everyday outfits are mostly workout gear.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but did you have an Instagram poll asking if people would be interested in you starting a fashion line? Do you think that’s something you’d pursue?

I’m practical, and starting a line sounds like a complete and utter disaster. I am motivated to start a line because I can’t find what I want to wear. So, I’m putting all of this work into creating these pieces, and the pieces I create are often edits of someone else’s product. There’s a practical streetwear and wearability functionality to everything I wear. And I’m like, ‘People would really enjoy wearing this,’ but then there’s only ever one! So, I’ve done a giveaway to of some of my pieces to fans in a competition, but I’ve never sold any of my pieces to anyone.

What about partnering with a brand to create a capsule?

Oh yeah, I’ve thought of that. For my last album, I created these gift boxes for people. The boxes were all MYCELiUM-themed, and it was one of the most fun I’ve had in a little while. I mean, it wasn’t clothing. It was more like socks and shirts. I love the idea of collaborating. I think it would be someone who would have great ideas from my back catalog of themes or music. So,
we’ll see.

I’m always curious if artists shop together – is this the case with you? Who do you shop with? Maybe you’re a solo shopper.

I recently went shopping with Nao. That was so much fun because we were styling for a music video shoot for her. It was exactly how things go with me, like, ‘We don’t have time. The shoot’s tomorrow. We don’t have time to find a stylist.’ I was like, ‘Girl, have you been to Santee Alley?’ And she’s like, “What is this?” So, Santee Alley is in L.A. downtown. It’s sprawling and impossible to find the same shop twice. There’s so much to look through, and that’s my go-to fora quick style. Nao loved it.

Sounds like a dream! What artists would you love to shop with in the future?

Kelela because she plays with high fashion and really accentuates and celebrates her Blackness. Then, Erykah Badu because I love how she’s so maximalist and ethereal but also randomly comical. She’s not afraid to make you laugh out loud. And then, Takisha because she’s subversive, seductive, and with complete anarchy.

What do you live by when it comes to style?

Ask yourself how you want to feel at the destination. Then, when you’re trying on those clothes – to stay aware – you should ask, does this send you in that direction? Trying to find a style arbitrarily based on whether it “looks good” will never get you to a satisfied place because that’s not always the aim of every environment you’re in. You must make your clothes work for you like a wingman or bestie. You should not make up for your clothes with your energy because then your clothes won’t work.

What does fashion mean to you?

Fashion is a language, and you can make your own language, or you can learn the language that you really enjoy the sound of. Fashion communicates with the world and with your reflections. ‘What are you saying to yourself, and is that what you want to hear?’ So, that language is used to tell a story. It’s a linguistic tool that works in a very different way, in the same way that music tells stories.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.