Category: Trending

On the eve of the release of his new movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, his first as a feature film director, Jeff Rowe seems really happy. He has reason to be: his movie is getting overwhelmingly positive reviews, which isn’t really something that’s normal for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. And he, along with producers Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg, are all already on board for a sequel. And yes, that has to be quite the confidence boost before a first movie is even released. (To the point Rowe described himself as a pitcher throwing a no-hitter, then immediately regretted it because he doesn’t understand sports metaphors and didn’t quite realize what exactly he was saying there and didn’t want to come off too confident.)

Ahead, Rowe takes us through what he felt he needed to do to make this Ninja Turtles movie different than the rest. Which sounds like a lot of, as he says, pouring over every line to make sure everything worked – first and foremost to make a good movie, as opposed to a good Turtles movie. And even though his personal favorite Turtle is Michelangelo, he did feel it was important to finally give Leonardo his due. So, as Rowe says ahead, “Leo’s fans, unite. This is your film.”

I assume you knew you had a good movie, but the critical reception has been overwhelmingly positive and you’ve already been asked to make the sequel…

You hope… I think making a film like this, I think part of what makes it successful and what people are responding to is, we worked so hard for so long and we cared about every scene and every line of dialogue and every shot. And everything in the film is really considered and poured over. And I think audiences can feel that when you put that much work into something. You can tell the people making it are having fun and care about what they’re doing, but you do that for years. You put all this work in and you hope people will like it. And it’s validating.

To that point, the first movie that came out in 1990 is actually pretty interesting. But the rest of the films, I don’t feel like every line was poured over and considered. With this one, it does feel people who actually know these characters are in charge now.

I mean, that’s really what we were going for. And I think, also, the team was brave enough to not stick too much to what had been done before. The goal was to make a great film, not a great Ninja Turtles film. The fact that it’s the Ninja Turtles and it’s about these characters and this lore and this world is secondary to the objective of just making something that’s, I think hopefully, moving and entertaining and artistically daring. And that was kind of the goal. And I think you only get to the end result that we have by being willing to break away from the source material when it’s appropriate and when it makes sense.

When did it make sense to break away from the source material?

Backstory stuff. Sometimes a lot of our early conversations were like, “How do we make this world make sense?” Because there was a logic in the comic and then it shifted a little bit in the TV series and then it was completely different in the live-action movie. And what’s explained in the first episode of the animated TV series, which I watched religiously as a child, is if you touch ooze, you mutate into whatever the last animal was that you touched. The logic is so twisted and weird. And there were things like that we’re like, Okay, we have to just make this make sense and make it feel like these characters exist in the real world that has something believable within physics that we know or movie logic that we’re familiar with. Hopefully to create a foundation that would let audiences relate to the characters and connect with them.

You mentioned “artistically daring.” When the comic first came out it felt weird and cool and kind of violent. This movie has that aspect.

I mean, it’s like the Ninja Turtles have always been kind of anarchic. They’ve always been a little bit more punk rock than the other comics.

Well, especially at first. I feel some of the other movies diluted that a bit, but this movie kind of recaptures that vibe.

Well, I think there’s kind of a shift. It was almost pushing Ninja Turtles to be more like Batman or something, or to be more like other superhero stories and be very self-serious.

Yes.

And part of what I loved about the franchise as a kid is that they were funny. They were teenagers! They disrespected adults! My parents were confused about why I liked it and that made me like it more as a kid because it felt something special. It felt like something that I owned and had a special relationship with. And I think you only get that through a reverence and wackiness, and this kind of gonzo, grotesque, inventive art style. And when we were sitting down to do this and we’re like, “Well, Spider-Verse looks really cool. It’s really slick and polished.”

And you just worked with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on Mitchells and the Machines.

Yeah, yeah. It’s like I kind of knew what those technological tools were and how you can make something look like that. And we’re like, “Well, that’s not these characters and that’s not the vibe that we’re going for.” And making something that was slick and polished wouldn’t tell the story as effectively as making something chaotic and surprising. And we just tried to have the visual style echo that as much as possible, because that’s also what it feels like to be a teenager. It’s kind of an esoteric thing to say, but it’s a confusing time. Your thoughts change a lot rapidly. You’re heavily influenced by the opinions of others. You can be mercurial when you’re a teenager.

Oh, we can all still be mercurial.

Yeah, no, but I feel like that’s when you start becoming that. You’re like, “Wait, maybe I don’t want to be happy all the time.” You’re able to label more complex emotions. And it’s messy. It’s a messy time. And it felt like it deserved a messy art style.

Who was your Turtle?

Michelangelo.

Okay.

I was a Donatello as a kid who just so desperately wanted to be a Michelangelo because he was the funniest one.

Everyone loves Michelangelo and everyone loves Raphael. And I feel Donatello is kind of the George Harrison of the group, where it’s cool to like him. I’m the weirdo who always loved Leonardo. And there’s never been a good Leonardo movie until this one. You finally made one.

Well, that was the thing, because leader characters are hard and usually the most boring character. Like the Red Power Ranger sucks. He is the least interesting of the Power Rangers. Leo is generally the least interesting Turtle. And anytime you have a character that’s like, “Hey guys, let’s follow the rules,” you as an audience member hate that character.

But you cracked it. Leonardo is still a teen and he’s conflicted between Splinter and what the other Turtles want. And this one, he has a love interest. So he’s got all this stuff going on.

We wanted to do right by him as a character and we wanted him to feel like he tries really hard and he really cares. And if he’s the one who’s most loyal to Splinter’s dogma – him being pulled away; being equally and oppositely pulled away into the world of humans is interesting and gives him complex choices to make. And also just feels like real people that I have known in my life, where you’re all about this one thing. And then all of a sudden something else comes along, and you’re like, “All right, I don’t believe in what my family does anymore. I’m into this now.”

I tweeted that this is a good Leo movie and the very few of us seemed excited.

Leo’s fans, unite. This is your film.

When did you find out they wanted you for the sequel? Because that’s got to be quite a confidence boost before this movie even comes out.

I mean, I think Paramount, in rebooting a franchise this big, the hope is that it goes well enough that you can turn this into a whole decade’s worth of films and TV and products. That’s the business model, but you never know. It could take off, or it could flop. And I think halfway through making the film, we had done enough internal screenings that they’re like, “Okay, this is good. This could be good, this could be a hit.” And then I think within the last year, they started to get serious about it and it was kind of just like, if the pitcher is throwing a no-hitter, don’t take him out of the game. You’re not going to find someone other than Seth and Evan to produce it.

You felt like you were throwing a no-hitter?

I shouldn’t say that! I shouldn’t say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s the wrong analogy…

“I am so on my game right now. Of course, I’ll be back.”

I don’t pay attention to sports, so I can’t make sports metaphors, but it was going good. The team was delivering in a way and we were all getting along with each other and still are. I think they’re like, “Okay. If this team is producing this, let’s make another one and let’s try to keep it the same team.” Me and a lot of the artists were open to that. Seth and Evan were open to it. Actually, is this a spoiler interview, or a non-spoiler interview?

[So, for now, we are keeping this a non-spoiler interview, but we’ll have what Rowe says about the end of Mutant Mayhem and what’s in store for the sequel after the film hits theaters.]

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

While Elon Musk is making jokes for 12 years olds on the website formerly known as Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg is preparing for their billionaire brawl (assuming it ever happens). The recently ripped Meta founder is eating 4,000 calories a day as part of his fitness regime, which involves “three to four jiu-jitsu and MMA sessions per week, as well as strength and conditioning work topped off with mobility training,” according to Insider.

In response to a Threads post from McDonald’s asking if “y’all want anything,” Zuckerberg wrote, “20 nuggets, a quarter pounder, large fries, Oreo McFlurry, apple pie, and maybe some side cheeseburgers for later?” He was called out by UFC fighter Mike Davis (“You’re in camp! No Mcdonald’s”) before explaining why he needed so much food. “Not cutting weight so I need ~4000 calories a day to offset all the activity. And it’s so delicious…” Zuckerberg wrote.

Zuckerberg is 39 years old. The Food and Drug Administration recommends that someone his age devour anywhere from 2,400 (for a sedentary lifestyle) to 2,800 (for an active lifestyle) a day. Zuckerberg isn’t consuming as much as The Rock or Michael Phelps when they’re in training mode, but he’s eating the equivalent of two bonus Big Macs over the suggested need.

No wonder McDonald’s fan Donald Trump returned to Facebook, not Twitter.

(Via Insider)

Earlier this spring, Blaiden Kirk posed a question on Twitter that completely derailed our day in the Uproxx Sports Slack room as we debated how many 5-year-olds it would take to tackle Derrick Henry.

It’s a question that can only be answered once a number of other questions are asked, such as: Does Derrick Henry have a conscience about possibly killing 5-year-olds by stomping them and/or stiff-arming them straight to hell? Are these just average 5-year-olds picked at random or are we hand-picking the biggest, strongest 5-year-olds who already have the motor skills to play sports? What is the amount of space Henry has to operate and thus the ground these 5-year-olds have to cover?

This week at Titans training camp, someone set out to get the answer straight from the people who know Henry best, and learned that head coach Mike Vrabel likewise has a lot of these same questions he needs answered before he can put a number on it beyond “a shit ton.”

Ultimately, Vrabel lands on 35 children being able to bring down Henry provided it’s a 10 yard box Henry has to stay in. He does note some may die in the process. Offensive lineman Aaron Brewer thinks the number should be closer to 200, while saying when he was 5 he absolutely would’ve been interested in trying and would’ve been gunning for Henry’s ankles.

I think Brewer’s answer is closer to correct if Henry has a full football field to operate, and honestly, is probably shy of the actual number because he’s going to outrun them and children are easily duped by simply changing direction and reversing the field because they are five and thus have no football IQ like understanding the concepts of tackling angles or weakside contain. Vrabel’s 10-yard box is a provocative thought exercise because it’s basically asking how many it’d take to bring Henry down in an Oklahoma drill, and 35 might be right just simply because he’ll at some point trip over one in a confined space. We will probably never know, although Vrabel does seem open to setting this up at practice provided the guy asking the question has to participate and get trucked by Henry too.

FX’s Justified: City Primeval is firing on all swaggery cylinders with Timothy Olyphant back in the hat that he was born to wear and Boyd Holbrook and his tighty whiteys antagonizing the hell out of our favorite lawman. Clement Mansell manages to get under Raylan’s skin, and he is shook. My feelings about this are similar to what our own Brian Grubb recently declared about Willa Givens’ (played by Vivian Olyphant) unimpressed attitude towards her dad: “Raylan deserves this.”

Detroit is giving Raylan hell, but I gotta quote Grubb some more: “Years of tormenting various authority figures in his own life by bending or ignoring the rules, years of wisecracks and smirks, all coming back to him in the form of a teenage girl who is not impressed at all by his badge and hat.”

That, to me, is one of the more enjoyable things about this season. And I have a ridiculous soft spot for Raylan Givens, but I can also enjoy that he’s being pushed toward growth here, and the show is having a good time with his (highly amusing) discomfort in this process. This is not something that he’s used to dealing with, but Raylan has met his match in three ways. Not only is Willa giving Raylan grief, but Clement Mansell wasn’t impressed when he showed off his badge in that restaurant. Nor has Raylan managed to bowl over Clement’s attorney, Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor).

Here’s where I feel the need to dwell upon a line that Carolyn delivers to Raylan — and it is a line that he definitely deserves — in Episode 3, “Backstabbers.” It’s also a line that will sound very familiar. During the course of Carolyn following up on how Raylan beat the snot out of her client, she tells him that she understands why he’s angry (Clement crossing the line of messing with Raylan’s daughter), and Carolyn admits that she would “be angry, too,” however: “Everybody doesn’t get to be angry like you do.”

And the obligatory reaction shot:

What are we to make of this Raylan face? He’s flummoxed and silenced, and it seems to hit him hard (although he doesn’t show it nearly as transparently as when Willa floors him, leading him to promise to “do better” as a dad). This Carolyn-Raylan moment is worth attention, and we can assume that Justified showrunners and co-writers Dave Andron and Michael Dinner agreed. FX further saw fit to use that moment as a sneak peek:

She nailed him. That’s certainly a direct callback to the end of the Justified pilot when Raylan admitted that he’s “never thought of myself as an angry man.” To which an amused Winona responded, “Oh, Raylan. Well, you do a good job of hiding it, and I suppose most folks don’t see it, but honestly, you are the angriest man I have ever known.”

Winona’s take arrived after her divorce from Raylan, so there was obviously a lot of history there, but Carolyn has only known Raylan for a few hot minutes. Like I said in my season review, she reads him like an Elmore Leonard novel.

Even funnier: Winona’s “angriest man” line actually never appeared in Elmore Leonard’s Raylan books (Pronto, Riding The Rap, Fire In The Hole) that were published before Justified‘s first season. In fact, Leonard told New York that the “angriest man” moment actually “surprised him” and that “Justified‘s Raylan has more sides to him than the way I wrote him.”

EP Graham Yost followed up on Elmore’s admission by explaining that Raylan became more multidimensional on TV because “[I]n a series you do need some place to go. He seems like this cool character, but still waters run deep.” And in City Primeval, Raylan is receiving the opportunity to embrace growth. Whether or not he does so, viewers will have to wait and see, but in the meantime, we get to see the fallout after Raylan loses his “cool” by shoving Clement into a glass door before knocking him silly against a car. Because yeah, Clement deserves it, but Raylan also deserves to be criticized for not realizing that everyone cannot react the way he’s been allowed to do. Even if it is fun watching him rough up unredeemable baddies.

Look, I am obviously a fan of Raylan’s mythical ways. I love how he (unconsciously or not) constructed his Wild West persona, perhaps as a way of distancing himself from Arlo. The elder Givens’ anger manifested as downright meanness, which is much worse than Raylan popping off like we see here. Still, that doesn’t exempt Raylan from needing to get his sh*t together at a certain point, and that time appears to have come. It’s coming down not only from Carolyn (as an echo of Winona’s words) but also his daughter. As for Clement, he is a chaotic SOB, but he also purposefully provoked Raylan, knowing it might not work out well for his face. Raylan fell right into it.

Consider also that Willa, who wasn’t at all shaken during the attempted carjacking that began this limited series, was brought to tears after seeing her dad “in the red zone.” Raylan had lost control, as opposed to how typically relaxed he was during that highway scene. He responded to Clement’s manipulation by flying into an incandescent rage. And he was further unsettled when Mansell f*cked with him by launching into another White Stripes song, “We’re Going To Be Friends,” during an interrogation scene.

Hey, Raylan could use this challenge as an opportunity to look inside himself, for how he reacts. It keeps things interesting. It’s been a long time coming, too, since that scene where Rachel tries on Raylan’s hat and it doesn’t fit, reinforcing her point that only Raylan can behave how he does, thumbing his nose at authority and extravagantly wearing a cowboy hat, and get away with it. Sure, Art occasionally dressed down Raylan, but it’s much more gratifying to watch it happen in Detroit because Raylan is being dragged by Clement, Willa, and Carolyn all at the same time.

Also, I seriously doubt that Clement Mansell would be coaxed into submission with, say, fried chicken, like that trick worked for Raylan in the good old days. Yes, I do wonder if those chicken fingers were meant to be a callback right before Raylan blew his stack on Clement. I’m reading a lot into that crispy meat, but Detroit is proving to be a place where Raylan is forced to examine a lot about himself and his general operating mode.

Unavoidably as well, it is now a different time for law enforcement and Justified: City Primeval is letting us know — without getting political about it — that Raylan can’t necessarily pull his extralegal style in 2023. He also didn’t get away with stuffing those would-be car jackers into his trunk, either. Imagine that. In a day when cop shows cannot be what they used to be, Raylan is getting called out for not going by the book. In the past, his use of excessive force never punched down, but nonetheless, he can’t do whatever he wants these days. Perhaps his greatest punishment, however, is being called out for being “angry” in almost the same way that Winona did it.

Is Raylan angry? Well, obviously. It’s not a malignant form of anger, but he nonetheless is being required to check himself, hopefully for the eventual sake of his daughter, who really is turning into a chip off the old block. The writing is so good that it’s a pleasure to watch it all go down, too. City Primeval is doing this in such a way that none of the action has been toned down, but the show is still having a damn blast calling their leading man out.

Raylan can handle this. He’ll be fine. Just give him some ice cream later.

FX’s ‘Justified: City Primeval’ airs on Tuesday nights and streams next day on Hulu.

This weekend, the annual Head In The Clouds festival is kicking off in Los Angeles. With lots of major acts spread across the two days, there is something for all the fans attending. Here is what to know about the 2023 set times.

On Saturday, doors open at 12 p.m. and performances kick off at the same time with DJ Triple XL on the Honda Double Happiness stage. Warren Hue starts on the 88rising stage at 1:35 p.m. and B will be at the Eternal Energy Dance Tent at 1:45. Then, later in the afternoon, Rina Sawayama is on from 4:45-5:30 p.m. (88 Rising stage), then Akini Jing holds the other Honda stage at 5:30-6 p.m.

As the night goes on, others not to miss include Phum Viphurit (Honda) and Autograf (Eternal Energy) at 7, Zedd (88 Rising) at 7:30, Tokimonsta (Eternal Energy) at 8:35, Rich Brian (88) at 8:45, Keith Ape (Honda) at 9:25, and finally, Jackson Wang closing out the main stage at 10:05 p.m..

Sunday’s schedule follows a similar format for doors and starting performances. Performances on the 88 Rising stage include Løren at 1:25, Zion.T at 4:40, XG at 5:50, Yoasobi at 6:55, Niki at 8:05, and the festival finale with Tiger JK, Yoonmirae, Masiwei, KnowKnow, and more.

On the Honda stage in the evening, Lyn Lapid starts at 5:20, followed by GrentPerez at 6:25, and Eyedress from 7:30-8:05 p.m..

Check out the complete Head In The Clouds set times for 2023 above.

Because of the writer’s strike, we’re not getting nearly enough political satire via our normal sources, like the Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, etc. Normally, MyPillow czar Mike Lindell would fill that gap. His inane rants and live-streamed aneurysms aren’t comedy, per se, but we can usually find something to laugh at while waiting for his (fake?) mustache to fall off. But his latest tirade against Planned Parenthood is just the right amount of dumb and dangerous to be more concerning than comical.

At an event on Sunday, Lindell made the roundabout argument that abortion providers like Planned Parenthood aren’t just “killing” children — they’re killing parents as well. If the mental gymnastics of that theory has left you dizzy, we’ll try to explain.

After another panelist at the predominantly Christian event blamed abortion for not just “destroying a child” but “destroying God’s image,” Lindell interrupted with his own story about the time he led an anti-abortion demonstration on the steps of the Supreme Court. During that public protest, Lindell claimed he told the crowd of half a million supporters that Planned Parenthood was “killing parents.”

How? In the words of Aaron Burr, we’ll let him tell it.

“I go, hello, I said, remember that song, ‘Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys?’” he asked. “Planned Parenthood doesn’t let their babies grow up to be parents.”

Sure Grandpa, let’s get you to bed.

(Via RawStory)

Rappers’ fixation on quick album turnarounds continues with Rick Ross. First, Drake bragged that he didn’t need several years in between projects to return with another chart-topping hit. Now, Ross is following suit: During an interview with Amazon Music’s correspondent Rob Markman the “Diced Pineapples” rapper boasted that if it came down to it, he could bust out an album in just a couple days.

When asked about two of his fan-beloved projects, Rich Forever and Albert Anastasia, he said, “Albert Anastasia most definitely had a significant purpose because that’s when dudes was just really understanding how I could play with my words and, more importantly, how easy it was for me. You know, I’m one of them dudes – I could go in there and put an album together in 48 hours if need be. If that’s the play, we could do that.”

While Ross isn’t putting out a new album every two hours, he has been consistent with his release schedule in recent years, dropping new LPs in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021.

Following the sit-down, Ross hit the stage as part of the City Sessions: 50 & Forever show held at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City, a celebration to commemorate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. To watch the performance clips from his performances as well as that of the other featured act Clipse, click here.

Louisville’s Old Forester is one the longest continually operating whiskey distilleries in the United States. Not even Prohibition could shut it down (it was one of the few distilleries that stayed open as a “medicinal” distillery during that era). That history has led to a lot of great bourbons and ryes, which have helped define multiple eras of whiskey and cocktail culture since 1870.

So when OF releases a special edition of their whiskey, people pay attention. President’s Choice and Birthday Bourbon are the classic impossible-to-actually-get Old Forester bourbons. And The 117 Series has quickly become the newest addition to that group.

The latter is why I’m here today. Old Forester just released a brand-new The 117 Series bourbon and I’ve been lucky enough to try it a few times and form an opinion. Below, I’m going to break down what’s in the bottle, how it tastes, and how to actually find this elusive bottle.

Spoiler alert, it’s worth the effort to track down and at least try. Okay, that’s enough preamble, let’s dive right in!

• The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys From Kentucky, Ranked
• The Absolute Best Bottle Of Whiskey From Each Of The 50 States
• Our Head Drinks Critic Reveals The Expensive Bourbons He *Won’t* Pay Above Retail For
• The 100 Best Bourbons That *Aren’t* From Kentucky, Ranked
• The 100 Best Bourbons Under $100 Right Now, Ranked

Old Forester The 117 Series Bottled in Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $59

The Whiskey:

This new edition of the much sought-after The 117 Series is a throwback to old-school bottled-in-bond bottlings. The whiskey in the bottle was distilled in Louisville back in the spring of 2014 and filled into new oak in the same distilling season — as per bottled-in-bond law. That whiskey spent nine years mellowing before select barrels were chosen, batched, and proofed down with local water.

The focus was to take a one-time look at Old Forester bourbon that shines the brightest when proofed to bottled-in-bond levels.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Blackberry hand pies iced in powdered sugar dance with a sense of vanilla buttercream, nutmeg-heavy eggnog, apricot brandy-infused marzipan, and a slight sense of an old cellar floor deep in the background.

Palate: The palate leans toward stewed pear and rich marmalade with a dark sense of cherry fruit leather, old dates, and figs before a rush of winter spice barks dipped in caramelized apple cider leads to sticky spearmint syrup-soaked tobacco.

Finish: That vanilla buttercream creates a luscious end with vibrant notes of stewed apricot, more marmalade, blackberry pie, and this whisper of mint tea cut with piney honey.

Bottom Line:

This is a delicious whiskey. It’s fruity — like many Old Forester bourbons — but goes so much deeper. This is a great sipper that feels almost summer thanks to all the berries. It also feels a bit like a dessert whiskey. It’s versatile and delicious, is what I’m getting at.

Ranking:

91/100 — There might be a few better 10-year-old bottled-in-bond bourbons (the closest analogs to this, really) but there aren’t many.

Where To Buy:

Here’s the rub. This is highly allocated. And unless you were in the right retailers in Kentucky in July, there’s exactly zero chance of getting this at MSRP. But as with all these highly allocated Old Foresters bourbons (The 117 Series, President’s Choice, and Birthday Bourbon), you will see these at select high-end bars, at auction, and on the secondary market for much-inflated prices.

The last edition of The 117 Series is available for around $400. Take that as an indicator of what you’re going to have to pay to get this one too.

Earlier this summer, ESPN went through a second round of layoffs, this time targeting some of its highest priced on-air talent. Included in those layoffs were a number of longtime employees like Suzy Kolber as well as two pillars of the network’s NBA coverage in Jalen Rose and Jeff Van Gundy.

With the news that Van Gundy was being let go, many wondered if Mark Jackson’s future with the network was in question, particularly with rumblings Doc Rivers and Doris Burke would be taking the seats alongside Mike Breen in the lead broadcast booth. Sure enough on Monday, Jackson confirmed he had likewise been let go by ESPN, ending a tenure of more than a decade with the network. While NBA fans have long been split on Van Gundy and Jackson as a pair, it’s a massive shift for ESPN and those who worked with them for so long, most notably Breen.

On Tuesday, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post spoke with Breen, who noted his surprise and sadness at having his longtime broadcast team broken up so suddenly, while calling them “dream partners” and lifelong friends.

“They were the dream partners,” Breen said. “All the accomplishments were because of what we did together. I really do feel personally any success I had was because I had those two guys next to me. They just provided everything you would want in analysts. They’re smart. They’re funny. They’re knowledgeable about their sport. They’re opinionated. They love their sport, but are not afraid to criticize. They just had a little bit of everything.

“And we came off a Finals that we were so proud of. It was another Finals together and it was really a great story of Denver winning for the first time and we were on a high after it was all done so to come to grips with that was our final telecast is hard.

Breen declined to speak about the reported pair of Burke and Rivers joining him next year, understandably not wanting to heap any praise on new partners while the focus is on his two friends who have been ousted by the network. It is the difficult part of the business, and Breen notes in the interview that he knows how rare it is to have had that partnership with Van Gundy and Jackson for as long as they did. Still, it doesn’t change the shock of a decision Breen certainly didn’t foresee coming, and next year’s NBA on ESPN broadcasts will sound significantly different.

Following one of Drake’s recent shows, a girl named Veronica Correia has gone viral after she threw her 36G bra onstage and the rapper took notice. Since then, the 21-year-old got a reported offer from Playboy and is buzzing in the news.

Now, in a new interview with the Club Ambition podcast, she is sharing her side of the story — and some reveals about her DMs with Drake after it happened.

“He slid up on a story and just laughed at one,” Correia said. “I took a day or two to respond. You know, ’cause I just didn’t know what to say, so I just liked it. And then I wrote out this paragraph basically just thanking him for the experience, like an awesome show. And then I told him that I own the coffee shop in Cumberland and asked him just if he liked coffee and how he likes it.”

As she pointed out, Drake revealed that he takes his coffee “iced and sweet” and continued to laugh at all of her messages. The rapper also commented on the fact that she’s really “sought after” right now.

“He said just to live your amazing life like people are faceless and they would never really say the negative comments to you,” she continued. “So, that was like, ‘Awww!’”

Check out the interview clip above.