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R. Kelly may be going to prison for a very, very long time, but that doesn’t mean the saga of his mistreatment of women is over yet. According to TMZ, one of his alleged victims, Joycelyn Savage, wrote to the judge in his New York case ahead of his sentencing to ask for a more lenient sentence. In her letter, she introduces herself as “Robert Kelly’s fiancee,” suggesting that at some point in the past nine years — Savage is currently 26 years old and met Kelly when she was 17 — the pair became engaged.

She also asserts that “I’m not the victim that the government has portrayed me to be,” writing that the relationship between the two is “amazing” despite the near-30-year difference in age (Kelly is 55) and the disturbing circumstances under which they met. However, Savage’s parents, Timothy and Jonjelyn, are not convinced. They told TMZ through their attorney that Joycelyn never made any engagement known to the family, and wonder why she put it in a letter to the judge rather than mentioning it in court while under oath.

In 2017, Savage told TMZ in an interview that she was “not being brainwashed or anything like that,” insisting that she was staying with Kelly of her own free will shortly after it was reported that Kelly was keeping multiple young women in a “sex cult.” Obviously, it has been since revealed that his activities went much further than that, with a jury convicting Kelly of racketeering and sex trafficking; he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The fourth edition of Brandi Carlile’s Girl Just Wanna Weekend festival was announced today and in a most unusual, but highly welcome twist, Carlile welcomed fan input when putting together the lineup. The festival itself takes place in Mexico’s Riviera Maya from January 9th to the 13th and Carlile is of course the headliner (and playing multiple sets.) But there’s a star-studded cast of all female-fronted acts joining her on the tropical getaway music festival’s bill.

Maren Morris, Sara Bareilles, Wynonna, Lucius, and Yola are all slated to perform. As well as Allison Russell, Joy Oladokun, Ruby Amanfu, Natalie Hemby, Brandy Clark, and Brittney Spencer. The all-inclusive “concert vacation” is held at the Hard Rock Hotel, with lodging offered at the swank Barceló Maya Riviera resort as well.

“This LINEUP!!!!!….We asked you what artists you wanted to see on the Girls Just Wanna Weekend stage and we listened!” Carlile tweeted. “This will be the party to beat all parties. Ladies Of The ’80s brings on the apocalypse! See you in the hot tub misfits, the island awaits you!”

There are a number of ticketing and room packages that are going on sale this week. Check out the Girls Just Wanna Weekend 4 website for full details on purchase options.

On Sunday afternoon, Kelsey Plum stole the show in Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles’ final appearance in the WNBA All-Star Game, tying the all-time record with a 30-point performance to lead Team Wilson to a 22-point win in Chicago and earned All-Star MVP honors.

While it was a well-deserved honor, many fans couldn’t help but notice how hysterically small the WNBA MVP trophy was when she was presented it at midcourt by commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

The tiny trophy was so funny that even Plum’s Aces teammates had to crack jokes about it, with Theresa Plaisance and Dearica Hamby putting on a reenactment of the ceremony in Las Vegas’ team hotel to the delight of Plum and everyone else by using a squeezable apple juice in lieu of the very small trophy while everyone cracked up.

The real trophy really is preposterous, like they realized on Saturday they didn’t have an actual trophy and just drove out to a local shop in Chicago that supplies little league team trophies. In any case, Plum’s performance was sensational and deserving of the MVP honor, but probably a more substantial trophy. Hopefully next year they can get figure out something that looks better but at least everyone got some laughs about it this year.

Thanks to a hidden “cubcam,” the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) gave the world some truly adorable—and super rare—footage of a mama tiger giving birth to triplets.

The video shows Gaysha, a 10-year-old Sumatran tiger, carefully tending to her three little newborns in a cozy den filled with straw by the ZSL zookeepers. Even Asim, proud tiger dad, makes an appearance as he pops in to welcome each cub. At one point, the entire tiger family can be seen sleeping together peacefully. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that. Aside from nothing being cuter than baby animals, there’s something else that makes this footage particularly special. Sumatran tigers are not only the smallest of their species (a male Sumatran tiger maxes out at about 310 pounds, compared to a Siberian tiger, which can weigh up to 660), they are also the rarest. With fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers remaining, the World Wildlife Fund has deemed this subspecies critically endangered.

The good news is, each new birth brings in a little more hope for all Sumatran tigers. And according to a statement on the ZSL website, the zoo has added a total of eight cubs to its Tiger Territory since its launch in 2013. Before her summertime triplets, Gaysha had previously delivered a tiger cub near Christmas time in 2021. Now with triple the babies, we have triple the reasons to celebrate.

London Zoo Head of Predators Kathyrn Sanders shared that since their early morning arrival on June 27, the tiger babies have already reached a “key milestone”—feeding and taking small steps almost immediately. Pretty soon they will be ready to open their eyes, receive vaccinations and be named. Until then, the zookeeper will be observing from afar, “taking care not to disturb the family so that they can continue to bond together.”

You can watch the video below. Enjoy all the stripy goodness.

Sports moments tend to live on forever, thanks to highlight reels and the emotions they can evoke in their fans. Recently, a video has been making the rounds that reminds people of some of those moments. In December 1999, sports channel ESPN compiled some of the greatest sports moments of the 20th century to air on New Year’s Eve.

With a new millennium approaching, the network wanted to remind sports fans (die-hard and casual alike) of just how far most sports had come in the 1900s. Football helmets used to be leather! Jackie Robinson integrating Major League Baseball! Babe Ruth! Even by 1999, a lot of those moments were being forgotten by younger generations. The video is a beautiful mash-up of the awesome wins and moments that made people hold their breath, mostly set to the song “Dream On” by Aerosmith.

Arguably one of the best basketball players of the 20th century (and beyond), Michael Jordan gets a lot of face time. He had an absolute chokehold on 1990s culture; from his partnership with Nike to his McDonald’s commercials, everyone wanted to be “like Mike.”

Muhammad Ali also gets a lot of attention, given that he was a formidable figure in the boxing world for 20+ years. From his early days as Cassius Clay to the moment he lit the Olympic torch in 1996 (his hands shaking due to Parkinson’s), it’s impossible to talk about great sports moments of the 20th century without highlighting his contribution.

There are some moments that you may not remember if you’re a certain age. The Chicago Bears performing the “Superbowl Shuffle” is one of them, but it is iconic.

Noticeably missing was Kerri Strug’s winning vault in 1996 after she had severely injured her ankle. If you were a young woman in the ’90s, that is one of the sports moments that would stick out to you vividly. But they do show gymnasts Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comăneci. We also get flashes of track and field star Florence Griffith Joyner, aka FloJo, tennis star Martina Navratilova, and the iconic moment soccer star Brandi Chastain ripped her shirt off after scoring the World Cup winning penalty kick. We also see Nancy Kerrigan holding her knee after being ambushed at the ’94 Olympics.

Comments on the video are full of nostalgia, many people remembering watching the clip for the first time.

“Remember exactly where I was when I first saw this back on December 31st, 1999…with my late father getting ready to start celebrating New Year’s Eve. He watched the whole thing without comment and then just said, “Wow”. We both had chills…maybe ESPN’s finest moment.”

“I’m not even a sports fan, but damn if this video doesn’t give you a sense of the achievement and dedication that these athletes have. Such an epic video.”

“Arguably the Greatest Sports Journalism Montage Ever Produced… PERIOD. I saw it live in 1999 and it brought tears to my eyes then. It’s now 2020 and we just celebrated Kobe yesterday. It STILL brings me to tears 20 years later! Bravo ESPN and Thank You!”

Watch the video below:

Ever look at your parents’ high school yearbooks and think people looked so much older back then? All of the teenagers look like they’re in their mid-30s and the teachers who are 50 look like they’re 80.

When we watch older movies, even those from the 1980s, the teenagers appear to be a lot older as well.

Why is it that they looked so much older? Was life harder? Did people act more mature? Did they spend more time outdoors and less time playing video games? Is it their sense of fashion? Were they all smokers?

Educator Michael Stevens, who runs the super-popular Vsauce YouTube channel, explains the phenomenon in a new video called, “Did people used to look older?” In the video, he explains that people in the past appear a lot older due to a phenomenon known as retrospective aging.

When we see people in the past, they are wearing outdated styles that we associate with older people; therefore, we think they have aged rapidly. For example, a teenager in the 1950s may have been in fashion while wearing thick Buddy Holly-style glasses.

But as people age, they tend to cling to the fashion of their youth. So many people of that generation continued to wear the Buddy Holly-style glasses into their 50s. So when younger people see those glasses they see them as old people’s glasses and not a hip kid from the ’50s.

So in the photo from the ’50s, the teen appears to look a lot older because our perspective has been tainted by time.

But it isn’t all just an illusion. Stevens also points out that people did age faster back in the day due to differences in nutrition, lifestyle and medicine.

Few are as prolific in their creative weirdness than Rudy Giuliani. When he’s not farting on fellow Trump lawyers, he’s accidentally incriminating himself or claiming, unconvincingly, that he wasn’t hammered on Election Night 2020. Now here’s another strange confession: He says he waited three weeks to check up on heart issues after checking in with the Nazarene.

The very former America’s Mayor went on War Room, Steve Bannon’s semi-seditious podcast, and when asked about his health, he had one hell of an answer. Giuliani said he’d been having breathing problems, which he predictably blamed on the guy who lightly slapped him on the back in a Staten Island supermarket. He admitted he didn’t get it checked out for three whole weeks, which prompted Bannon to ask why on earth he would do that, especially at his age.

“The answer is my son was running,” Giuliani replied, referring to his son’s failed gubernatorial campaign. “I made a calculated decision. Really, I had a conversation with Jesus about it. Seriously! I made a calculated decision. I said, ‘Give me three more weeks.’ And thank God he did.”

So thanks to the son of God, Rudy Giuliani was able to stick around to watch his son embarrass himself further, so clearly, it was all worth it. Jesus really is just alright.

(Via Raw Story)

The inaugural edition of the Palomino Festival went down this past weekend at Pasadena’s Brookside at the Rose Bowl venue. Headlined by Kacey Musgraves, we’ve touted the new music festival as one that’s “pushing wonderful boundaries of what can be considered country music.” And while Musgraves presented a pop and country crossover name at the top of the bill, acts like Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit, Orville Peck, Valerie June, and a set from the great Willie Nelson & Family were also there for the one-day affair.

So as Musgraves took the stage for her headlining performance, she didn’t waste the opportunity to bring up the red-headed stranger midway through her set. Nelson emerged from the side of the stage with a cowboy hat on his head and clipped his acoustic to the most ornate guitar strap you’ve ever seen. As the drum beat to “On The Road Again” played, Musgraves said to the audience, “So my actual grandpa is here in the audience tonight from Texas. And my other Grandpa is here tonight from Texas!”

The crowd roared and Nelson opened up his classic tune before being joined by Musgraves for a delightful “On The Road Again” duet. As the song ended, Musgraves and Nelson blew each other a kiss, then Nelson took a bow as Musgraves seemed genuinely dumbstruck at what just happened. “That was it, show’s over,” she joked. Her set pressed on and included a “9 to 5” Dolly Parton cover, “Rainbow,” and the set closing “Slow Burn.”

Watch Kacey Musgraves and Willie Nelson perform “On The Road Again” at Palomino festival above.

Earlier today, it was reported that Meek Mill had parted ways with Roc Nation Management, which has handled his career since 2012. The report prompted speculation about Meek’s relationships with Roc Nation founder Jay-Z and his MMG label boss Rick Ross, moving Meek to address the rumors on Twitter.

“All I seen today was meek and roc part ways,” he wrote. “I’m personally handling my own business so I can take risk and grow ..we came to that agreement together.” He also noted that his other business dealings with Roc Nation remain intact. “I have a label deal with roc for my artist and I got reform super tied with them and many other investments wit jigga.”

Perhaps concerned about any future speculation getting out of hand, he also clarified that he’s in a good place with his business partners, who he credited with turning his life around. “roc nation is my family,” he buzzed. “Don’t mix my post aimed at Atlantic mixed up with roc or MMG …they ain’t stop nothing I’m doing. We made about a 100m together. Des, Mike, and Hov saved my life b4 And put a lot of energy into it. I’m not behind on my favors in life wit my people. I’m good.”

And when one fan tried to find an angle to turn Meek’s pro-Jay-Z posts into a wedge between Meek and Ross, the Philly rapper nipped the impending drama in the bud. “This wasn’t really a convo for MMG,’ he clarified. “I just wanted to add that in there because Ross put me in the game also! It was for the controlled media base vibes.”

So there you have it. Meek will manage his career in-house (at least for the time being) so he can grow as a businessman while keeping his other arrangements in place to benefit the artists he’s working with.

Johnny Depp‘s lawyers have responded to new allegations from Amber Heard that one of the jurors in their sensationalized court case may not have been the person who was summoned. Heard’s legal team, who is also appealing, wants the verdict thrown out entirely due to the wrong juror somehow making it onto the jury.

However, Depp’s attorneys are arguing that even if the wrong person made it onto the jury, it wouldn’t have affected the outcome. Depp’s team also argues that Heard “waived her right to object by not raising the issue sooner.” Via Variety:

“Unsurprisingly, Ms. Heard cites to no case law to support her argument that the service of Juror 15 if he is not the same individual that the Court assigned as Juror 15 somehow compromised her due process and would warrant the drastic remedy of ‘setting aside the verdict and ordering a new trial,’” Depp’s lawyers wrote. “Ms. Heard makes no showing of any prejudice, and accordingly her speculative arguments fail.”

As for how the juror mixup even happened, a summons was reportedly sent to an address where both the correct juror and the one who showed up to court reside. (The nature of their relationship has not made been public.) According to Variety, the situation could’ve prevented Heard’s lawyers from properly scrutinizing the juror. If the wrong person showed up, her legal team would have no idea about this erroneous juror’s potential biases because they’d be looking into the background and social media posts for someone else.

It’s a pretty wild twist for one of the biggest trials in recent history. We’re talking O.J. numbers, people.

(Via Variety)