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First Take is ostensibly a sports television show, one that needs to fill hours and hours of airtime with takes every single week, even when there might not be all that many take-worthy things out there.

This is where the decision to bring in Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, who is a professional Person Who Gets Riled Up About Things, pays off in a big way. You see, Russo’s been on New York sports talk radio since Reagan was president, meaning he knows how to go from 0 to 60 on literally any subject better than basically anyone else on earth. We got a very good glimpse of this on Wednesday morning during one of his cameos as Stephen A. Smith’s primary foil on First Take, as Russo — in his segment What Are You Mad About? — got the chance to scream on television about Lionel Richie canceling and rescheduling a concert at Madison Square Garden on Saturday due to inclement weather.

From what I can tell about this (i.e., what I learned by looking at his Twitter account), Richie claims he got caught in some nasty weather and rescheduled his show with Earth, Wind & Fire — the show would happen two nights later in the exact same building. Waiting until 8:30 p.m. to announce this when people were in the building stinks, sure, but it seems very plausible that Richie wanted to exhaust all options until he had to cancel the show, or wanted to make sure things were all buttoned up for a performance on Monday.

But Mad Dog does not exist in a world where people get the benefit of the doubt, where any sort of gray area can be acknowledged. A thing is either good or it is bad, there is no in between, and Lionel Richie rescheduling a show is bad. To be fair to Mad Dog here, I would probably be upset about this, as well, especially if (as he claims) the weather was very nice in New York and therefore made it hard for him to accept Richie’s excuse. The real genius in this is that Mad Dog, at no point, indicated if he was in attendance, which would have made a lot more sense. He might have just been hollering about all of this because he saw it while reading the New York Post or something and it made him upset.

Anyway, this is compelling television.

It’s been just a few weeks after Keke Palmer’s then-boyfriend, Darius Jackson, criticized her online for what she wore to an Usher concert in Las Vegas.

“It’s the outfit tho,” he tweeted at the time. “You a mom.” After getting hate from the internet and Palmer’s fans, he quickly deleted his account.

However, Palmer has not backed down from throwing some jabs his way, with her new appearance in Usher’s video for his song, fittingly titled “Boyfriend,” dropping today.

In the video, she is in bed and takes a call. “Dammit, I missed the show! Shit, I’m so tired…” Palmer says before winking at the camera. “I’m a mother after all.”

“Somebody said that your boyfriend’s looking for me / Oh that’s cool,” Usher also points out in the song.

Because of this, many might have wondered if the two were still together.

As for Jackson, he has “moved on” according to People Magazine. He also apparently wants to become an actor. The two are still working on raising their child, Leodis, who was born in February — but with new methods.

“You don’t have to be in the same household to be good parents,” the source also told the publication about how Palmer and Jackson are co-parenting.

Check out Keke Palmer in Usher’s “Boyfriend” music video above.

https://x.com/popcrave/status/1691824010286506461?s=46&t=0B7rjHID1V3nNPkYMB-koA

Today (August 16), Beyoncé fans have something fun to enjoy, as Amazon Music dropped the third capsule from their exclusive Renaissance Tour online merch collection. Throughout the star’s North American leg of the tour, there will be four total installments of the merch drops — with one more on the way.

This third release includes five special items:

1. An “On Air Icon Tee” for $35 that is a black t-shirt with a photo of Beyoncé’s face on the front and symbols tied to the tour printed on the back.
2. An “On Air” baseball cap for $30 that has the red logo on the front and “RWT2023” on the back by the hat’s buckle.
3. A Renaissance Tour “On Air” black tote bag for $30 that has “Renaissance World Tour” on one side and the same tour symbols on the other.
4. A gray Renaissance Tour hoodie with the same design followed as the tote bag. This costs $65.
5. A black “On Air” hoodie that is also $65 and includes the various city stops on the back.

Fans can also still purchase items from the past merch capsules, including clothes tied to various Beyoncé songs like “Virgo’s Groove,” “Heated,” and “Alien Superstar.”

For more information and to check out the new Renaissance Tour drop, visit here.

Following this week’s release of the first teaser trailer for Maestro, which stars Bradley Cooper as renowned composer Leonard Bernstein, a social media backlash quickly formed over Cooper’s use of a prosthetic nose to transform himself into the music legend. The actor, who also directed the upcoming Netflix film, was hit with accusations of “Jewface” as well as questions about why Cooper even needed to use the fake nose when he already bears a close resemblance to Bernstein.

However, Cooper’s portrayal of Bernstein has received the blessing of the late composer’s children, who came to the actor/director’s defense. According to a statement from Bernstein’s family, Cooper involved them in “every step” of the film’s production, and their father would’ve been “perfectly fine” with the use of a prosthetic nose. The Bernstein children also had strong words for the people trying to “bring a successful person down a notch.”

You can read the full statement below:

Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father. We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration. It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts. It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well. Any strident complaints around this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch — a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father.

At all times during the making of this film, we could feel the profound respect and yes, the love that Bradley brought to his portrait of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, our mother Felicia. We feel so fortunate to have had this experience with Bradley, and we can’t wait for the world to see his creation.

– Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein

Maestro premieres September 3 on Netflix.

(Via Leonard Bernstein on Twitter)

Do you have superhero fatigue? The thing is, I might, though I’m not sure. My immediate answer would be, “Yes, I do,” but then again, when I watch a superhero movie that I like, I don’t feel like I have the fatigue everyone is talking about. But, more times than not, these days, I feel the fatigue, “Boy, I sure could use a break from these movies and, now, streaming television shows.” But then I remembered we just had a pretty long break not that long ago. Maybe it’s more that I have mediocre movie fatigue. And, let’s be honest, a lot (not all) of the superhero stuff we’ve seen lately falls into this category. What’s weird about Blue Beetle is that, for a good portion of the movie, it felt like something at least somewhat fresh and unique. My interest was piqued! But then, by the end, I felt the dreaded fatigue. Blue Beetle kind of encapsulates what is good and stale about these movies right now all in one package.

One of the problems with Blue Beetle, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, is it kind of assumes you know a lot about the history of Blue Beetle. Anecdotally, from people I ask, they do not. I happen to know a little from reading a few issues of the ’80s run of comics when Blue Beetle was a guy named Ted Kord who was basically a low-rent Batman. Now, the first Blue Beetle premiered back in 1939, he was a guy named Dan Garrett. There are some different iterations of his powers but, eventually, he finds a magic scarab in Egypt that gives him the powers of Blue Beetle. The aforementioned Ted Kord can’t use the scarab – Ted Kord was created by Steve Ditko and he wanted a superhero with no actual powers – so this version battles crime basically with gadgets created by his company, Kord Industries. This brings us to Jaime Reyes.

Blue Beetle does a good enough job explaining Jaime (Xolo Maridueña) and how he gets his powers, but the Kord family is still such an integral part of this movie and if you don’t know that history, it’s a little confusing. In the film, Jaime returns from college to his hometown of Palmera City – a fictional city, replacing Jamie’s hometown of El Paso in the comics. (If I’m from El Paso I’m probably not thrilled about this.) Jamie’s parents explain they are losing their house because their rent was raised, so Jamie goes out in search of a job. This is where the Kord family comes in.

Kord industries is run by the ruthless Victoria Kord, the sister of Ted Kord, who, like in the comics, is dead. (In the comics he’s killed by Maxwell Lord, played by Pedro Pascal in Wonder Woman 1984. Here his death is a lot more vague.) Victoria has the scarab and is mining its resources to make weapons of war. Ted’s daughter, Jenny (Bruna Marquezine) doesn’t like that this is happening and steals the scarab, then, in a moment of desperation, giving it to Jaime for safe keeping who was at Kord Industries that day by happenstance for a job interview. Jamie is instructed not to open the box but, back home, surrounded by his family, curiosity takes over and the scarab attaches itself to Jaime and he becomes Blue Beetle. (Luckily the Blue Beetle suit that forms around Jamie comes with a built-in Siri-type voice that explains everything to him.)

Jenny, returning for the scarab, explains the only way to use the scarab is the scarab itself has to choose the person. Unfortunately, there’s no way to remove it once it’s bonded with someone without killing them. And Victora Kord wants it back, sending her technologically upgraded henchmen to retrieve it. At one point everyone is hiding out at Ted Kord’s old Blue Beetle lair. We even see his 1980’s 1980s-style Blue Beetle costume standing there, but no real explanation that he didn’t have powers like Jamie now does. It’s like the movie just assumes we know all this and even I had to refresh my memory after.

The thing that does makes Blue Beetle unique is Jamie’s relationship with his family. It’s obvious Ángel Manuel Soto wanted to get everything about this aspect of the film, the family and the culture, as authentic as possible. And it pays off, as this becomes the most interesting thing about the movie. George Lopez, in particular, as Jamie’s uncle, Rudy, does everything within his powers to steal this movie and just may have well done that. And the great thing is the family is involved in the entire adventure.

But an annoying trope over the course of the film is Jamie refuses to kill anyone. Which, hey, from a moral standpoint is a good principal to have. But we arr talking very dangerous people here who repeatedly threaten the lives of his family. There are multiple times Jamie could have just wrapped this whole thing up but refuses to do so, so the main henchman keeps coming back and coming back and coming back.

This leads up to the fatigue, because by the end of the movie, as you can probably guess, Blue Beetle devolves into a very long, very repetitive CGI aerial fight, at night, between the hero and the villain who have very similar powers. It’s the kind of thing we’ve all seen way too many times before and felt extra disappointing here because there’s a lot in this movie that does feel unique, but then it feels squandered.

I have no idea what the future of Blue Beetle will be going forward in the revamped DC. James Gunn has said he will carry over to the new DC, but I also suspect things can change if the movie doesn’t do well – as the prior strategy of, “none of this will matter soon,” has kind of been bad for the box office. (Don’t forget there’s still a prior regime Aquaman sequel coming.) Or be tweaked, with any changes explained away as, “This is a different universe.” I hope this character does continue though, because there’s more than enough here for some interesting stories going forward. But we have to get away from these last acts we’ve seen over and over. And the film ends very much setting up future adventures … which will probably make sense if you’ve read this very piece you’re reading (and if you just read that, then you have read it), but maybe not if you haven’t.

‘Blue Beetle’ opens in theaters this week. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Over the past few weeks, Doja Cat has proven to be a polarizing figure in music. She has not minced words about her frustrations with the industry, and even the fandoms that come with being a pop star.

Still, she is looking forward to sharing her upcoming fourth studio album, Scarlet, and going on tour with Ice Spice and Doechii. But perhaps once the impending Scarlet era comes to a close, Doja will explore some new avenues.

In a newly published interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Doja said she would like to give acting a spin.

“I would love to do movies that I believe in,” said Doja. “I would have to stop the music for a minute. But I would be down to immerse myself in acting for a certain period of time. I love comedies and action films. I want to learn martial arts and be in a film like John Wick.”

In addition to acting, Doja said she would like to “make clothing” and “dabble in makeup.”

Ahead of Scarlet, Doja has shared two singles — the downtempo, rap-focused “Attention” and the upbeat, rhythmic “Paint The Town Red.” If this is any indication of what her new album will sound like, the Scarlet era seems to be promising.

After 2020’s hit Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar – honestly, considering our situation that year, this has to be on some list of “movies that most people have seen” – Josh Greenbaum looked for something as equally unusual and eclectic. He succeeded with Strays. As I say to him during this interview: I can’t believe this movie exists. Like, seriously. It’s a movie about talking dogs embarking on a mission to bite a man’s penis off. Also, it probably sets the record for most expletives in a movie this year. If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is not a movie for kids. (But I also suspect the kids who sneak in to see it will love it.) But it’s also surprisingly sweet, at times sad, and definitely very funny. Again, I am shocked someone said “yes” to making this.

Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) has a terrible owner, Doug (Will Forte). Doug blames Reggie for his breakup (some undergarments belonging to the woman Doug was cheating with are involved) and abandons Reggie in the city. Reggie thinks it’s a game at first and tries to make his way back to Doug. But then Reggie meets fellow dogs Bug (Jamie Foxx), Maggie (Isla Fisher), and Hunter (Randall Park). Those four explain to Reggie it’s not a game and now he’s a stray and they teach him the ways of being a stray. Eventually, the anger builds up enough inside of Reggie that he wants revenge on Doug. And the ultimate revenge would be to take away Doug’s favorite thing on this earth, his penis.

Ahead, Greenbaum explains why, he, too, is surprised Strays exists. Also, he explains why Dennis Quaid is in this movie playing himself as a bird watcher. But first, speaking of Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar, Greenbaum’s daughters wanted to use “Edgar’s Prayer” during a school recital, which Greenbaum was all for and was very excited about. But the director of the school recital had his own vision told the director of motion pictures, “No.” (If you need a refresher on “Edgar’s Prayer,” it’s still terrific.)

Last time I spoke to you for Barb and Star, I don’t miss that time period, but I had so much time stuck at home I wrote an oral history of “Edgar’s Prayer.”

I recall this and absolutely love it.

I still listen to that song all the time. It’s so catchy.

I do, too. And funny enough, my daughters, who now just turned 11, were in a school musical last year where you got to play any song you wanted and they wanted to play “Edgar’s Prayer” at their school show. But, unfortunately, the guy in charge didn’t go for it.

Wait, what?

I was like, ah, come on.

Why not?

It didn’t fit the theme.

His vision?

Whatever his thing was…

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I was going to have a Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo cameo for them, but yeah.

Okay, let me get this straight, the director of a school project went against the advice from a person who’s directed feature films?

Yes, correct. He had a vision for the show, Mike, and “Edgar’s Prayer” did not fit the vision and I said, totally fair. Totally fair.

What did they use instead of “Edgar’s Prayer”?

I don’t know. I forget what it was. Old movies or maybe it was like Disney movies. It was a theme that, in his defense, was like, yeah, “Edgar’s Prayer” didn’t fit. But I was like, who cares? It’s the kids’ dad’s movie! Just let them do it! But it didn’t happen. Anyway.

I watched this, by myself, after I got home late last night from a flight back from Kansas City. So I started not in a great mood and I still laughed out loud by myself at least six times.

Oh, that’s amazing. I love to hear that.

The one that really got me is Reggie humping the gnome. Where he’s told to say “I’m your daddy.” But instead says, “Hello, I’m your father.”

Introducing himself, “I’m your father.” It’s so good. That’s Will Ferrell at his best. I don’t like to rank my jokes in my movies because I love them all, but that’s definitely in the top five for me.

Yeah, I can see why you don’t want to rank your own jokes.

Well, They’re not mine. I don’t want to claim. Just from my film. I think that was a combination of Dan Perrault, our writer, pitching Jamie Foxx to say, “Tell that gnome you’re his daddy,” and then Will Ferrell running with that concept and being like, okay, I’ll introduce myself to my son.

I don’t understand how this movie exists.

That’s good!

I’m happy it does, but I can’t believe people said yes to this idea.

Same. It’s such a huge kudos to Universal, to all of the producers involved – Phil Lord and Chris Miller, my whole team. But yeah, that’s exciting to me when you’re like, I can’t believe something exists. That was part of the huge appeal to me was certainly coming off of Barb and Star and figuring out what do I want to do next? I’m always just attracted to something that feels like, the projects that you’re on set being like, “Are we really making this?” Because I had that experience a thousand times on Barb and Star. And then I had it again a thousand times on this movie where it’s like waiting for somebody to come on set and be like, “Just kidding, we didn’t really mean to go make an R-rated talking dog movie.”

Here’s what I’m looking forward to. I’m imagining some kid in fourth or fifth grade telling all his classmates, “I learned the plot to Strays.”

By the way, it’s already happened because my daughters are 11. They’ve been watching me edit this film sometimes remotely. I’m doing VFX reviews, so they know generally what it’s about. I told them it’s about Reggie being a mean owner and he wants to bite his owner “in the butt.”

Right, “the butt”…

And that’s simple enough and they get it. But they do have friends now. They’ve just started middle school today and they have friends who are on social media. My kids are not, and one of their best friends has been liking all of my posts of the trailer and clips. I don’t even think he’s 11, I think he’s 10. And I told them, I was like, do not talk to Owen. Tell Owen to stop watching all of the material for Strays. It is not for him. So yeah, I’m sure some kids are going to sneak into this theater. It is not supposed to be for them.

I’m looking forward to the unsuspecting parent that isn’t quite paying attention and is like, “I don’t know, it’s some talking dogs. When I was a kid I saw Temple of Doom. Let’s see what happens here.”

Temple of Doom! I also hope it doesn’t happen, but it may. I definitely have friends, even this morning, I had a friend post on my social media saying, “I can’t wait to take my kids to see this.” I was like, “Watch the trailer!”

They’re going to yell at you.

No, I wrote them back and said, “Do not take your kids to this.” But yeah, it’s interesting when, again, that’s part of the fun of doing something brand new. It’s like rewiring people’s brains to say, wait a minute. Because there are definitely people that are like, “You can’t do that.” It’s like, why not? Says who? Even the Spider-Verse, why does animation only have to be this style and for children? It became artistic and creative.

This is definitely the kind of movie when I was in fifth or sixth grade I would see on HBO. I remember stumbling on an animated movie by Ralph Bakshi called Hey Good Lookin’ and the cartoons were cussing and it blew my mind.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you’re talking about.

There’s going to be some kid, this will be that for them.

Yes, absolutely. For sure. And then hopefully for all adults and all ages and the kid in all of us. I had a blast making it, and I think that maybe the thing we’re not marketing, which I’m totally fine not marketing at this point, is that it’s quite sweet.

Oh, it is. I have to know this, how did Dennis Quaid wind up in this movie?

Oh, simple answer, we asked him and he didn’t get offended. Because I was like, he might be like, “Are they making fun of my other movies?” I was like, no, we love those movies and I love Dennis Quaid and everything he does. But no, we wrote a bird watcher into the script and this idea of this eagle sequence – thought about who would be great to be a bird watcher, thought about the dog movie genre. We have a couple of other cameos, like Josh Gad is the narrator dog, which is from A Dog’s Journey and A Dog’s Purpose…

Oh, and I caught the Stand By Me reference, too.

Yeah, Stand By Me, which was a huge creative reference for me. And by the way, the other creative reference to a film I love is Breaking Away.

I just watched that somewhat recently.

How good is it?

It’s really great.

Isn’t that a great film? So I’m on a cliff with Dennis Quaid shooting the scene for Strays talking about Breaking Away and how it was one of the creative inspirations for this film.

You need to get him on a bike.

Oh, I know. Pedaling like a madman.

Okay, I’m out of time…

I’m excited to see what your new “Edgar’s Prayer” breakdown for this movie is. You have to figure out something to do, like the definitive breakdown for the sequence.

The oral history of why Dennis Quaid is in Strays.

All right!

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

It’s no shocker that rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert is unhappy about every one of MAGA King Donald Trump’s indictments. He has thus far collected four of those dubious milestones, and this time, he’s pulled over a dozen other alleged co-conspirators, including ex-“America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani and Rudy’s fart sniffer, “Live Laugh Love” dreamer Jenna Ellis, into the fray.

Boebert, strangely enough, also found herself doing a Rico, Colorado photo op on the day of Trump’s RICO-themed indictment. She didn’t mention the coincidence, but she did make sure and slam Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney who brought the newest round of criminal charges against 44. Naturally, she has an opinion: “In a sane country, Fanni Willis wouldn’t have a job after the indictment she just released. But, we are not living in a fair country. We’re living in a banana republic.”

Granted, there are questions about why a list of charges materialized on a court website prior to the official indictment surfacing with proper procedure, but that appears to have nothing to do with Fani Willis’ own process.

It also remains unclear whether Boebert has read the entire 98-page indictment (she has previously lobbied for more time to read legislation before voting on it), but nonetheless, she tweeted. Boebert has brought up her own GED while trashing the intellectual prowess of other politicians, and that’s probably one reason why people consider the subject fair game.

Additionally, Boebert’s misspelling of Fani’s first name did not go unnoticed, and people wonder whether Boebert has read up on the actual meaning of “banana republic.”

When fans got upset with Doja Cat for joking that she “tricked” them with her last few albums, she apparently decided to really lean into the tension between art and commerce. The result: She ended July having lost 250,000 Instagram followers and watched swarms (heh) of Doja Cat fan accounts deactivated in protest. To hear her tell it, though, she’s just fine with that outcome, addressing the dip in followers on Instagram.

“Seeing all these people unfollow me makes me feel like I’ve defeated a large beast that’s been holding me down for so long,” she wrote, “And it feels like I can reconnect with the people who really matter and love me for who I am and not for who I was. I feel free.”

Doja, who has transformed many times over the course of her career, certainly seems fed up with at least some of the trappings of pop stardom — namely, being put on a pedestal by overly enthusiastic fans who feel entitled to her attention. She has said that her new album, which she recently confirmed is called Scarlet, will be different from the “palatable, marketable” releases of her past — which also, presumably, suits her just fine.

Doja also recently announced The Scarlet Tour with another iconoclastic rabblerouser in Doechii, so it wouldn’t shock me to find that more artists start moving in the same direction — a cultural shift, if you will.

The Hulu comic mystery series Only Murders In The Building is back for its third season, and this time, its creators have pulled out all the stops. The victim is none other than Paul Rudd as an obnoxious actor, while one of the suspects is freaking Meryl Streep, who plays a long-aspiring Broadway actress who has only just acquired the role of her lifetime. That role includes singing an original lullaby (penned in real life by Sara Bareilles, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul) in the in-show musical alongside co-star Ashley Park (seriously, the casting director was like, “Blow the budget,” this season).

And, just like with last season’s jokey track “Angel In Flip-Flops” — sung hilariously by Steve Martin — “Look For The Light” is also receiving an official release on streaming. Hulu shared Streep’s performance from the show, which takes place during the rehearsals for the doomed musical, which you can watch above. It’s kind of funny; the only one who hasn’t sung on the show yet is Selena Gomez.

In a press release, Bareilles said of the song, “It’s always nice when you know who you’re writing for because you can sort of tailor something to play to someone’s strengths.There was so much tenderness in her vulnerability. She let that speak through her singing.”

You can stream “Look For The Light” on the DSP of your choice.