Category: Trending

(Spoilers from The Boys will be found below.)

Amazon’s The Boys has put several iconic scenes to the screen thus far, but one would be hard pressed to find a more “hell yeah” moment than when Queen Maeve made this face ^^^^ while doing battle against Homelander. That physical clash had been a long time coming and probably sourced back way before Maeve had to witness him sending a plane full of civilians to their deaths. And Maeve was thrilled to finally push back at the baddest Supe of all, which also led to a wonderful outcome (aside from losing an eye) for her.

Well, in the eyes of the public, Maeve died after saving everyone from an exploding Soldier Boy, but this did allow her to finally retire from the Supe life that she hated so much. Even the greater Vought International entity didn’t know that she was still alive because Ashley (in a rare display of humanity) erased the footage that would prove that Maeve survived. So, Maeve got to head into private life with her partner. Fast forward to this years’s Oscars, and an unaware Vought International decided to pay tribute to the Dawn of the Seven and Her Majesty star on Twitter.

In response, The Boys‘ Twitter account honored Maeve by taking the p*ss, like the account is so great at doing on most occasions: “Loved when she said ‘It’s Maeven Time!’ and Maeved all over those guys.”

Maeve probably would have loved to see this, but hopefully, she wasn’t watching the Supie Awards.

The Boys‘ Season 3 finale is currently streaming on Amazon, and hopefully, we’ll see a Season 4 release date soon.

While it’s not that strange for actors to lend their voices to video games, it’s less common for a video game voice actor to reprise their role for an on-screen adaptation.

In 2013, Ashley Johnson voiced Ellie in The Last Of Us, which went on to become a cultural phenomenon. Of course, when the time came to adapt the hit game into a series a decade later, Johnson was not in the running for playing teenage Ellie on the HBO series, as she was well into her thirties. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be involved at all!

Johnson ended up guest starring in the season finale of The Last Of Us this week, portraying Ellie’s mom Anna in a flashback, who is forced to give birth while living in the terrifying Cordyceps–infected wasteland.

While there is talk of Ellie’s mother Anna in the game, this is the first time the fans are given some back story and context. Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter that she was shocked but delighted to be a part of the monumental series (after a quick cry):

I got a text from Neil and he said, “Hey, Craig and I were talking and would you like to play Ellie’s mother?” And I just burst into tears. Of course I would love to. It’s a shock because when video game adaptations move to film or TV generally, the voice actors or motion capture actors aren’t usually brought along to be part of that project. So I was just shocked, it’s not the norm. Being able to still be a part of this story and this world and to also be the first character that fights for this character to live means the world.

While Johnson admitted that it was “strange” to see her familiar characters played by new actors, she applauded Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s performances. “I feel like with Bella and Pedro [Pascal], I feel like they’ve elevated the characters. They’ve brought their own imprint and I’m so glad that they’ve had the space to make it their own and play the characters how they see them. I’m so blown away by Bella, I think she’s absolutely incredible. I think this would have been hard if it was someone that was not great.”

Johnson wasn’t the only original voice actor to join the show– Joel’s original voice actor Tory Baker also stopped by for a cameo this season, though his cameo involved some good old-fashion cannibalism.

We certainly have not seen the last of The Last Of Us, which was renewed for another season earlier this year, so Johnson could very well come back for another flashback or side plot. Maybe one where she isn’t in constant danger would be nice!

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Last year, Drake surprised fans with not just one, but two albums. The second, Her Loss, was a joint album released alongside 21 Savage and instantly became a fan favorite. As the new dynamic duo rolled out singles like “Spin Bout U” and generated memes thanks to “Rich Flex,” fans couldn’t help but wonder whether they’d eventually announce a tour for the project.

Those fans got their wish today as Drake and 21 announced their It’s All A Blur Tour, which kicks off in New Orleans in June and circles the US and Canada, leading to a final show in Glendale, Arizona in September. However, even though a press release said that more dates will be announced in the future, fans overseas might not get the opportunity to see the two perform together anytime soon.

Will Drake & 21 Savage Tour In The UK And Europe?

Unfortunately, that might not be a possibility this year. 21 Savage is still locked into a longstanding grievance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which could prevent him from being able to travel outside the US. You may remember that he was arrested in February 2019 due to an expired visa; he immigrated to the US from the UK with his mom as a young teen and did not realize that his visa had expired. The case was still in limbo as of last April. While there are a few Canadian dates on the lineup, a UK tour might be riskier.

Savage’s fellow Brit MF DOOM faced a similar situation when he went on an international tour in 2010, discovering that he could not reenter the country afterward despite living and working here for most of his adult life. Unless 21’s immigration case can get sorted by the time the North American frame of the tour ends, it wouldn’t be a great idea for him to travel outside the US, lest he get stuck on the outside looking in.

The NFL opened its “legal tampering” window on Monday — which is a ridiculous phrase since, by definition, tampering can’t be legal — where teams and players can negotiate free agent contracts.

While most were focused on the quarterback market and, in particular, the future of Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and whether he would end up with the Jets who have been pursuing him this offseason, a big name at the running back position made the biggest early headline. Not long after free agency opened, word broke that Chargers star running back Austin Ekeler was seeking permission to find a trade after contract talks with L.A. stalled.

Over the last two seasons Ekeler has been one of the most productive backs in the NFL, with 38 rushing and receiving touchdowns (the most by any player in the league in that time frame, and has been one of the most consistent presences for the Chargers offense. Ekeler’s value is particularly elevated by his ability to catch passes out of the backfield (177 receptions over the last two years), which could make him an intriguing target for offenses looking to add some balance to their passing game. Fantasy owners will be particularly intrigued by where Ekeler goes, as he’s been a monster in fantasy for some time because of how he racks up TDs and, for those in PPR leagues, how many receptions he gets.

For the Chargers, losing Ekeler would be big, but might not be a complete disaster depending on who they could replace him with. As far as rushing the ball, Ekeler could be replaced, and while they won’t find anyone who can catch the ball like he can out of the backfield, that might not be the worst thing in the world. Justin Herbert is a wildly talented young quarterback who can be a bit too quick to check it down, in part because Ekeler is so good and reliable catching the ball out of the backfield. Forcing Herbert to throw the ball downfield more often by simply removing that safety valve may end up being good for the Chargers in the long run, even if there might be growing pains in Ekeler’s absence initially.

Shakira recently told Univision that her son, Milan, encouraged her to work with Bizarrap. And so, Shakira collaborated with Bizarrap on “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” a top-10 Billboard Hot 100 hit. Everybody won, right?

Nope!

“Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” takes aim at retired Barcelona and Spain soccer great Gerard Piqué, who dated Shakira for the better part of 11 years and shares two sons with her (Milan and Sasha). Bizarrap and Shakira performed the world’s most popular diss track on Friday’s (March 10) The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Adele was watching.

During Adele’s ongoing Weekends With Adele Las Vegas residency, she asked an audience member to name their “favorite band or artist.” The fan initially said Adele, which was not an acceptable answer, and eventually said, “I also like Shakira.”

Animated as ever, Adele responded, “Oh! I saw her performance last night on Jimmy Fallon! Her ex-husband’s in trouble!” (Piqué and Shakira were never married, but the point still stands.)

Piqué spoke for himself during a Twitch livestream in January. “Casio sent us wrist watches,” he said (as translated from Spanish to English by Marca). “We reached a sponsorship agreement with Casio.” In the song, Shakira says, “I’m worth two 22-year-olds / You traded in a Ferrari for a Twingo / You traded in a Rolex for a Casio.”

And then Casio handed Piqué another L by publicly denying any such deal.

Watch Bizarrap and Shakira’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” performance on Fallon above, or watch their sit-down interview with Fallon below.

During the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver went deep on Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, or TANF, a program that’s supposed to help lift families out of property. Instead, it routinely fails, and in the case of Brett Favre, it apparently enhanced the lives of the wealthy. The former NFL quarterback has been embroiled in a scandal in Mississippi where he allegedly helped to arrange for welfare funds from TANF to build a $5 million volleyball stadium at his daughter’s college. It was a gross misuse of public funds, and Oliver meticulously skewered Favre over the scandal.

“I’m a little surprised you even need a stadium to play volleyball in,” Oliver quipped. “I thought it was a sport mainly played outdoors by sexually frustrated men who aren’t wearing shirts and sporty dogs who unexpectedly are. But clearly, I was wrong about that.”

The late night host then went to town on text messages from Favre where he specifically asks, “Is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much?”

“Brett, I have some terrible news for you,” Oliver said. “The media did find out. That’s what’s happening right now.”

Oliver then highlighted how needy families rarely qualify for TANF benefits in Mississippi, which makes the Favre scandal all the more egregious.

“That’s pretty infuriating to hear,” he said. “And it gets even worse when you learn that in Mississippi last year of roughly 190,000 children living in poverty, just 2,600 were receiving money from TANF while, remember, of the roughly one Brett Favres in Mississippi, 100% of them managed to get $5 million for this f*cking volleyball stadium. It’s enough to make you want to see Brett Favre hit in the nuts with a football.”

Oliver then noted that, legally, Favre claims that he did nothing wrong and that the NFL star had no idea where the funds were coming from. He also returned $1.1 million that he was personally paid, but Oliver isn’t buying his excuse.

“It’s not clear exactly where he thought the money was coming from,” the Last Week Tonight host said. “Perhaps he thinks there’s some pot of taxpayer money that he can just dip his sausage fingers into whenever he needs something. I don’t know. He’s been hit in the head a lot. Not enough, but a lot.”

Even though The Last Of Us just wrapped up its first season, there is still plenty more apocalyptic content left to be told. It’s no surprise that the hit fungi-infested series was officially renewed for a second season, meaning there is a lot more beautifully heartbreaking apocalyptic nonsense to come. And that means more Pedro Pascal, which is the main draw here.

While it will probably be until at least next year that we get more Joel and Ellie, we know that the key cast will likely return: Bella Ramsey recently said there is “no limit” to how many seasons she would sign on for, so it seems pretty likely that we will get our lovably grumpy duo for another round.

Season one brought the first game to life, and season two will pick up after the events of the first season, though The Last Of Us Part II, which was released in 2020, might get more than one season in order to properly finish off the story. “We will not say how many. But more than one is factually correct,” screenwriter Craig Mazin told UK GQ earlier this year.

Mazin confirmed to Deadline that the crew has been actively listening to fan feedback in order to craft even more seasons that the fans will enjoy. “We learned by watching the audience watch the show. I personally have noted how much they liked those encounters. And I think we have some really interesting things coming that will be satisfying without burying you.”

So what can we expect from season two? Maybe another staple tear-jerker episode? Some more giraffes? Only time will tell!

(Via Polygon)

As Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine drags well into its second year, the Russian president’s brutal reputation keeps heightening. This is the case even as Putin obsesses over cabbage while cutting off ammo from his private army of mercenaries as they suffer enormous loss off life alongside garden-variety Russian troops. The Kremlin has also been making Lex Luthor-type statements, yet since the war’s onset in early 2022, people cannot help but notice (on a more micro note) that Russian elites (with close ties to Putin) continue to die mysterious deaths after criticizing his bloodshed in Ukraine.

The Sun has assembled a staggering list of 39 such deaths so far, and that includes several deaths when elites seemingly wander out of high-story windows while taking smoke breaks and such. Others have been strangled and died from gunshot wounds in deaths that have been ruled “suicides,” and here’s a sampling of the more bizarre instances:

– Died of ‘drug induced heart attack’ during shamanic ritual in Moscow

– Shot dead in swimming pool in Leningrad

– Fell down a cliff to his death in Sochi

– Burned alive in his apartment in Moscow

– Dies in hospital of sepsis in Moscow

If you think that this montage sounds not unlike “Baptismal bloodbath” at the end of The Godfather, then you’re not alone. The Sun spoke to analysts who allege that Putin is a “mafia boss” figure, and these analysis also believe that contract killing could play a role here. A retired U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, Jon Sweet, declared, “Anyone seen as a potential threat seems to have an attraction to an open window.” Whereas Professor Anthony Glees declared that “two kinds of victim” exist, and those include actual high-profile critics (“frequently involved in big Russian corporations”) of the war, along with “those who Putin believes have double-crossed him.”

Of course, nothing conclusive has ever arisen from side-eyes toward Putin for his opponents dying in mysterious and seemingly unlikely ways. Speculation will continue to abound, though, and it’s worth noting that Putin has jailed his most vocal political opponent, Alexei Nalvalny, for years, and a documentary on his life won an Academy Award at Sunday night’s ceremony.

(Via The Sun)

Nick Cannon is no stranger to people joking about his productivity. Andy Cohen joked that he should get a vasectomy, the paternity experts at Maury shared some suggestions of their own, and fellow comedian Kevin Hart even sent him a vending machine full of condoms as a prank.

So, when Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Nick and his kids were at least partly responsible for the record-breaking box office scores of Avatar: The Way Of Water, the multi-hyphenate father of 11 took it in stride. “Avatar: The Way Of Water was the most expensive movie ever made,” Jimmy noted in his opening monologue.

“Disney spent 2 billion dollars to make this movie. Just to break even, all of Nick Cannon’s children had to see Avatar four times.”

According to TMZ, when he was asked how he felt about the joke, Nick said he was on-board with the jokes, as he and Kimmel are close. After all, Nick started out as a standup comic himself, so he can handle being the target of a good roast.

In fact, of all the cracks about his seeming drive to populate a small country, some of the best (and strangest) have come from Nick himself. Last week, he teamed up with Kevin Hart to shoot a (probably fake) promo for a game show about women competing to be his seventh baby mama. He also cracked a few jokes over the holidays about the added pressure having so many kids puts on him.

There are softball interviews, and then there’s Brian Kilmeade literally tossing a baseball softly with Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor indulged the Fox & Friends anchor by joining him on a baseball field in Dunedin where the two discussed DeSantis’ potential presidential run while playing catch (no fastballs included, literally).

Kilmeade, who’s been a frequent defender of DeSantis, even teed up the governor for a shot at Donald Trump because, again, the whole thing took the softball interview to a level of cringe that’s surprising even for Fox News. Kilmeade asked DeSantis what he thought about Trump testing out nicknames, and he worked in a little jab of his own.

Via Florida Politics:

“You have a record of achievement. People can call you a name, but that’s not going to trump the achievement. And so we built the astounding record of achievement. The best is yet to come. I’m defined by my accomplishments. I’m defined by leading the state, and I’m defined by having a state, which is the number one destination for Americans who are looking for a better way of life.”

While the softball interview might play well with Fox viewers, over on Twitter it’s getting ripped to shreds where users are dunking on everything from DeSantis’ height to the “divorced dad energy.” However, people also began theorizing that the whole production may be a deliberate attempt to troll Trump and the infamous photo of him attempting to play catch, but mostly it was meatball jokes.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter)