Category: Trending

According to Deadline, showrunner Peter Morgan has announced that The Crown will take a brief pause from filming to show respect for Queen Elizabeth II following her death.

“The Crown is a love letter to her and I’ve nothing to add for now, just silence and respect. I expect we will stop filming out of respect too,” Morgan said. Series originator Stephen Daldry had previously stated that the show would do just that if they were in the middle of production when she died.

With a fifth season set for November, the Netflix series has chronicled Queen Elizabeth’s life since she was Princess Elizabeth through the Thatcher years (so far). Over the years, the monarch has been portrayed by Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, but Imelda Staunton has taken over the role for the upcoming seasons. They’ve already revealed plans to cover Prince William’s courtship of Kate Middleton in season 6, but since Morgan had announced the fifth as their last before a surprising continuation, it’s unclear where they will end their story of Queen Elizabeth’s life. Without a 7th season, they may end in the mid-2010s, or, easy to imagine, they may speed up the timeline in the latter half of the final season to cover some of the final chapters. For now, they’ll take a break out of respect.

(via Deadline)

The Buffalo Bills enter the 2022 NFL season as the favorites to win the Super Bowl for the first time since 1992, and started their quest for the franchise’s first NFL championship with a visit to the reigning champs on Thursday night in Los Angeles.

The biggest reason for optimism in Buffalo is their star quarterback Josh Allen, who has gone from a wild card to an MVP frontrunner in his time in the league, making an astronomical leap from his rookie season to now. As Allen enters his fifth season under center in Buffalo, he has a new offensive coordinator in Ken Dorsey (who was elevated from QB coach after Brian Daboll took the Giants job), but little is changing for Allen in what he’s being asked to do.

That continuity despite a big departure like Daboll was on display in L.A. as the Bills marched down the field on their opening drive for an impressive touchdown to take an early lead. The Rams would tie things up at the half though at 10-10 after three turnovers by the Bills — two on Allen interceptions although one was certainly not his fault. As such, the Bills needed a response out of halftime and did so in decisive fashion, forcing a three-and-out and driving for another touchdown.

On that drive, the Bills faced a third and long just across midfield and when the Rams blanketed the Bills receivers, Allen tucked the ball and showed off his running ability, discarding a Rams defender in the process as he galloped for a first down.

That’s a Derrick Henry quality stiff arm, not one you’d expect to see from a quarterback. That said, Allen isn’t like most quarterbacks as his physicality in the run game is part of what sets him apart. He’s become more selective in when he throws that weight around, trying to take fewer hits, but picking up a key third down in a tie game met that criteria and the Bills paid it off with a touchdown a few plays later.

“Set in the future when technology has subtly altered society, a woman discovers a secret connection to an alternate reality as well as a dark future of her own.”

That’s the official synopsis for Prime Video’s The Peripheral, which is a little like saying that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are “a corn puff snack.”

The series stars Chloe Grace Moretz as Flynne Fisher, a young woman grinding out her days at a server farm in a dystopian-tinged United States whose Marine brother (Jack Reynor) lets her use a headset that connects the user to what seems like cyberspace. Obviously, it goes a lot deeper than that. The novel was a return to sci-fi futurecasting by William Gibson, and it’s great to see a real production budget behind this adaptation. It’s even more exciting to see that Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are lending their tech-and-philosophy-warping Westworld prestige to the proceedings.

It’s also great to see Moretz return to sci-fi after the gremlin-fighting Shadow in the Cloud and the only-watchable-because-of-her-performance Mother/Android. It’s high time she put those action star bonafides back to the test, and if some brain cells get warped in the process, then all the better. Hopefully, she doesn’t have to fight a weird Mark Zuckerberg pixel puppet.

The Peripheral hits Prime Video October 21st.

On Tuesday evening, the Las Vegas Aces punched a ticket to the 2022 WNBA Finals with a Game 4 victory over the Seattle Storm. Earlier that night, the Connecticut Sun evened a semifinal series against the Chicago Sky with a Game 4 win of their own, setting up a winner-take-all scenario on Thursday in Chicago. With both teams winning road games already in the series, anything could seemingly happen in Game 5, and it was a back-and-forth contest. In the end, it was the Sun using a massive fourth-quarter run to emerge with the 72-63 victory and a berth in the finals.

Near the outset, the Sun used a 12-4 run to take control. That push featured an explosion from Natisha Hiedeman, who scored eight of the first 16 points, and Connecticut appeared comfortable.

Connecticut led by a 24-16 margin after the first quarter, and the Sun shot 53 percent from the floor with eight assists. On the other side, the Sky scuffled to 5-of-14 shooting with four turnovers, allowing the visitors to operate with the lead.

In the second quarter, Chicago found its stride with an extended push. The Sky outscored the Sun by a 16-6 margin over approximately six minutes, taking the lead at 38-36 and imposing their will on defense.

By the halftime break, it was a new game with a 40-40 score, but the Sky seemingly had more juice. Connecticut shot 50 percent and assisted on 15 of 16 field goals in the first half, but the Sun committed ten turnovers, including six in the second quarter alone. Chicago’s offense picked up a bit with the help of transition, and Kahleah Copper scored 14 points before halftime.

The start of the second half was more of the same for Chicago, with the Sky using an 8-2 run to open the third period. Connecticut didn’t score for almost three minutes, and Chicago continued to create effective havoc.

The Sky led by a ten-point margin as the fourth quarter arrived, and Chicago held Connecticut to only eight points in the third quarter. Chicago shot only 7-of-21 from the floor in the period, but the Sky took care of the ball and made a trio of three-pointers, while the Sun committed eight turnovers in the ten-minute period and shot just 3-of-12 from the floor.

Connecticut began to chip away in the closing period, and the team’s biggest push was coming. The Sun scored a whopping 18 consecutive points, turning a nine-point deficit into a nine-point win at the final buzzer. All told, Chicago failed to score for more than four minutes of clock time, and that scoring drought cost the Sky in a season-ending way.

After the way the middle of the game went, the fourth quarter swing was wild in favor of the Sun, and that was reflected on the stat sheet. Broadly, Connecticut outscored Chicago by a 24-5 margin in the ten-minute period, which speaks for itself. Taking things a step further, the Sky shot just 2-of-15 from the floor with four turnovers in the fourth quarter, and Connecticut’s balanced offense (all five starters in double figures) and timely defense keyed the victory. The 18-0 closing run also set a new record for the WNBA Playoffs.

With the Game 5 win, the Sun clinched their fourth all-time berth in the WNBA Finals, though Connecticut will be looking for its first title. The Sun will visit the Las Vegas Aces for Game 1 on Sunday afternoon at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, with the eyes of the basketball world on what should be a fun series.

Queen Elizabeth II’s death was announced early on Thursday (September 8) and social media responded to it in a multitude of ways. Many laughed, celebrated, and trolled the 96-year-old. In one of the most humorous acts, the queen’s Wikipedia page was given a unique edit.

In a tweet shared on Thursday afternoon, a user said “Someone already griefed the Queen Elizabeth II Wikipedia page lmaooo.” The tweet is accompanied by a screenshot of Queen Elizabeth II’s Wikipedia page with the “Article” tab highlighted. What is found on the page is the cover art for Chief Keef’s 2012 album Finally Rich and “RIP Bozo” in all caps, in reference to the infamous Instagram post where a man attended his enemy’s funeral just to ensure he was dead.

A unique detail found on the Finally Rich cover art is Chief Keef blowing smoke out of his mouth, a reference to the popular colloquial phrase where someone’s “pack is in the air.” The phrase is used when someone that many people dislike either passes away or takes a bad loss publicly. While many native to Queen Elizabeth II’s home country may be mourning, those within the United States are clearly amused by her demise.

Check out a screenshot of Queen Elizabeth II’s edited Wikipedia page above.

Football season is kicking off with a bang. At tonight’s NFL season opener, where the Buffalo Bills are taking on the Los Angeles Rams, Halle Bailey and Tinashe graced the stage to open with powerful musical performances.

Up first was Bailey, who performed a breathtaking rendition of “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”

Shortly after, Tinashe followed, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Both Tinashe and Bailey have been making moves in music for about 10 years, though with their new endeavors, they both feel like they’re just getting started.

“Now that I’m independent and I’ve been in the game for a decade, I’m really big on saying yes to a lot, and not overthinking things,” Tinashe said in a recent interview with W. “I’m just trying to get back to that original mindset of, we make art for fun. This is a privilege to be able to make any type of art. In my 30s, I want to have fun being a creative and a mogul. But I’m far from done with my music era. I feel like that’s still on the come up.”

Next year, Bailey is set to star in a live-action version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, as well as a remake of The Color Purple. She is also in the studio working on music with her sister, Chloe. In an interview with Essence, Bailey revealed that while she’s looking forward to her upcoming feature films, music will always take priority in her heart.

Check out Halle Bailey and Tinashe’s performances above.

It goes without saying that being Black in the 1960s was not easy, and often led to fatal results for those who were outspoken. In a recently declassified FBI file on the late Aretha Franklin, it was revealed that she was extensively tracked by the bureau for her civil rights activism and close relationships with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Angela Davis.

The document, including over 270 pages of information, details that there were death threats against the late singer in addition to negative characterizations of her Southern Christian Leadership Conference performances in the 1960s. They were labeled “communist infiltration” events, and the memorial concert at the Atlanta Braves stadium was specifically cited as it “would provide emotional spark which could ignite racial disturbance.”

With regards to Angela Davis, she was noted as “facing murder-kidnapping charges in California” and a concert sponsored by the National United Committee with the goal of freeing Angela Davis was being held by “an organization founded by The Communist Party, United States of America.” Aretha Franklin had offered to post bail on Davis’s behalf, which was not reflected in the FBI file.

Franklin was deemed a potential performer at alleged threatening events, though the characterizations far exceed the number of events that she actually appeared at.

Check out the full declassified FBI file on Aretha Franklin here.

Queen Elizabeth II’s passing has shocked the world but no one is taking it harder than Piers Morgan.

The lifelong royalist has always sung the late monarch’s praises and today, he’s mourning the 96-year-old head of state with a tribute on his talk show.

“This is one of the saddest and most momentous turning points in the history of the United Kingdom,” Morgan began. “There’s nobody in this country or the world, who hasn’t lived the majority of their lives under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. For 70 years she served this country with astoundingly dedicated duty. I struggle to even imagine a Britain without this Queen. But … the moment we’ve all been dreading has finally come.”

Morgan went on to explain how her death was a blow to the country’s “psyche,” before explaining that people around the world who aren’t British subjects likely don’t understand the love the English have for the Queen. He described the monarchy as the “very essence” of being British, likening it to the relationship between American culture and Abraham Lincoln, or apple pie, and the Constitution.

“Nothing and nobody has symbolized being British like Queen Elizabeth,” Morgan continued. “She’s always been there. She had an aura of invincibility that sadly today has been shattered and now we have to learn as a country to live without her.”

He ended the three-minute monologue by saying his own personal goodbye to this “remarkable little lady.”

“She was our greatest export, our greatest leader. The greatest of Britains. When Her Majesty the Queen died this afternoon in Balmoral, a little piece of us all died with her.”

Watch the full video below:

The last time we saw a real live NFL football game that counted, the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals in a game that started with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson hyping up the crowd and introducing both teams on the field before kickoff.

Seven months later, the NFL is back and the Rams got the honor of kicking off the season in L.A. with their ring night festivities against this year’s Super Bowl favorites, the Buffalo Bills. Given how well it worked the last time, the Rams decided to see if The Rock could bring them good luck once again, as they paid him what was surely an upsetting amount of money to do a 19-second intro to get the crowd on their feet before kickoff.

The Rock’s cash per word rate here must be extraordinary, and it wasn’t lost on many fans that it was a bit funny seeing the owner of a different football league doing an intro for an NFL game — Johnson, of course, is the new owner of the XFL for when it launches for a third time in 2023.

Unfortunately for the Rams, this time around they were not able to get off to the same positive start after The Rock’s intro as they did in the Super Bowl, with the Bills marching to an impressive first drive touchdown from Josh Allen to Gabriel Davis to put the first points on the board of the 2022 NFL season.

As The Handmaid’s Tale heads into its fifth season on September 14th, shifting its gaze toward revenge instead of Canadian safety, fans can watch knowing that they’ll get one more season of the dystopian show. Hulu announced today that the Elisabeth Moss-starring nightmare will close out after a 6th season while showrunner Bruce Miller develops a future-set spin-off series called The Testaments.

“It has been a true honor to tell the story of Margaret Atwood’s groundbreaking novel and chillingly relevant world, and we are thrilled to bring viewers a sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale,” Miller said in a statement. “We are grateful to Hulu and MGM for allowing us to tell this story, which unfortunately has remained as relevant as ever throughout its run, and are in awe of our incredible fans for their unwavering support, and without whom we never would have gotten to this point.”

Even though it’s hard to say goodbye, this is great news. It allows the series, which has already evolved past its source material and past its original conceits, to close out purposefully. June has come an excruciatingly long way in her quest for freedom from subjugation, and it’s difficult to see just how much longer that quest could or should continue. The big question will be whether she topples Gilead for good. Maybe they can replace it with some kind of functioning democracy!