For months, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, once due July 17, was being held up as the movie that would welcome the masses back to movie theaters, which had been closed since mid-March due to the rampaging pandemic. When that was bumped to month’s end, the Mulan remake took its place. (Both have since moved to August.) But the actual film that was going to be the first major new movie to hit theaters was Unhinged, a Russell Crowe road rage drama due on July 12. Now, as per The Hollywood Reporter, that, too, has been delayed.
Mind you, it may still prove to be the first new major release in months. The film, in which a, well, unhinged, Crowe stalks a woman (Caren Pistorius) who enraged him on the road, is optimistically rescheduling only a few weeks, to July 31 — i.e., what was once Tenet’s second date before it bumped itself to August 12.
Will any of this happen? Who knows! COVID-19 cases have been on the rise in the last week, in California and in the South, particularly in places that had been loosening reopening rules and where denizens were so mad about wearing masks that many compared them to the zany residents of Parks and Recreation’s Pawnee. In other words, if you’d like to see Russell Crowe succumb to road rage, wear a mask.
While the NBA season is set to resume play next month in Orlando, the WNBA is likewise preparing to start its 2020 season in a similar bubble scenario with an abbreviated 22-game slate at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida at the end of July. The season was originally set to get underway on May 15, but the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold.
As with the NBA, several high-profile WNBA players are also opting against taking the court this summer, for a variety of reasons. Earlier this week, Mystics stars Natasha Cloud And LaToya Sanders announced that they were skipping the 2020 season. While Cloud said she made her decision so that she could continue the fight for social justice, Sanders cited health concerns as her reason for opting out.
On Friday, two more players added their names to the list of those not participating, with L.A. Sparks teammates Chiney Ogwumike and Kristi Toliver announcing that they plan to sit out the coming season, both pointing to health and safety as the primary factors in that decision.
“If you know me, you know that I have overcome some of the biggest challenges an athlete can face on the court,” Ogwumike said. “My previous injuries have given me strength and built character, but unfortunately they require me to be careful with my preparation leading up into a season,”
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“Though I want very much to compete with my team, to be a leader and show up for them, I am not comfortable with the risk to my physical health – short-term and long-term – given the many unknowns of COVID-19 and the risk of injury,” Toliver said. “For me, the right decision under the circumstances is to opt out for the year.”
Friday marked the league’s deadline to opt out of the coming season in Florida, with Ogwumike and Toliver being the latest names added to the list. Renee Montgomery of the Atlanta Dream was among the first to opt out, saying that she planned to use her time to focus on social justice reform, while Jonquel Jones is sitting out due to the ongoing pandemic.
The WNBA will play its compressed 22-game season over the course of two months and proceed with its normal postseason format after that, with the Finals estimated to conclude sometime in early October.
By the time the NBA resumes its season in Orlando at the end of July, it will have been more than four and a half months since its hiatus. During that time, the world has changed dramatically as the COVID-19 pandemic has tightened its grip on the country and the Black Lives Matter movement has taken front and center in the fight for social justice reform.
Despite the many logistical challenges involved, the league is pressing on with the bubble league that will feature 22 teams and hundreds of team and league personnel housed on the Disney campus under strict quarantine protocols for more than three months.
Those teams will play an eight-game slate designed to bring the regular season to a close and determine playoff seeding. On Friday, we finally gained some clarity on how it will all pan out after the league released the schedule for the eight seeding games for all 22 teams.
BOSTON CELTICS
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Fri. 7/31 MIL 6:30 PM
Sun. 8/2 POR 3:30 PM
Tue. 8/4 MIA 6:30 PM
Wed. 8/5 BKN 9:00 PM
Fri. 8/7 TOR 9:00 PM
Sun. 8/9 ORL 5:00 PM
Tue. 8/11 MEM 6:30 PM
Thu. 8/13 WAS TBD
There is some irony in scheduling the Utah Jazz as one of the opening games on July 30, as it was Rudy Gobert’s positive test that essentially shut the season down in mid-March and resulted in real antipathy among his teammates.
The season is resuming despite considerable trepidation among a certain segment of the players. Kyrie Irving recently led a Zoom call that was designed to offer rank-and-file players an opportunity to voice their apprehensions about the bubble scenario in Orlando, which include obvious safety questions amid the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns that the NBA’s return might distract from the Black Lives Matter movement that has gained so much traction since the murder of George Floyd.
Yet, only a small handful of players have announced that they won’t join their teams in Orlando, citing various reasons. Davis Bertans, who will be a free agent after this season, says the risk of injury is what’s keeping him at home, while Lakers guard Avery Bradley is skipping the games because of his daughter’s respiratory illness.
On Friday, the NBA announced that 16 players in all had tested positive for the virus during their initial round of pre-Orlando testing, though they did not release the names of those players. Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged that none of the options for the planned restart are risk-free, but remained adamant that the league must simply start adapting to this new reality.
Silver has said previously that new cases inside the bubble won’t immediately trigger another stoppage of play, although players who test positive will be forced to undergo another period of quarantine. Wednesday marked the unofficial deadline for players to opt out of the bubble league, and the final rosters for each team have to be submitted to the NBA front office no later than June 30.
If you’ve heard that Canada’s health system is an example of socialist failure, where wait times are outrageous and people swarm to the U.S. to get the healthcare they really need, you can probably thank Wendell Potter for that.
Potter spent two decades working in the health insurance industry, first for Humana, and then for Cigna. He was head of corporate communications for the latter when he had a crisis of conscience in 2008 and quit. Since then, he has been on a mission to revamp the healthcare system in the U.S. He has also served as a whistleblower, exposing behind-the-scenes corruption and manipulation in the health insurance industry.
Which brings us to Canada.
Potter posted a thread on Twitter this week explaining how he had personally been a part of the push to make Canada’s system look bad so that Americans would think our system was superior.
Canada’s doing much better than the U.S. when it comes to #COVID19 testing & treatment. On a per capita basis, more… https://t.co/OZ7y8qKHHl
“Amid America’s #COVID19 disaster, I must come clean about a lie I spread as a health insurance exec: We spent big $$ to push the idea that Canada’s single-payer system was awful & the U.S. system much better. It was a lie & the nations’ COVID responses prove it.
The truth: Canada’s doing much better than the U.S. when it comes to #COVID19 testing & treatment. On a per capita basis, more Canadians are being tested & fewer getting sick & dying. This may shock Americans who still believe the lies I told about the Canadian health care system.
Here’s the truth: Our industry PR & lobbying group, AHIP, supplied my colleagues & me with cherry-picked data & anecdotes to make people think Canadians wait endlessly for their care. It’s a lie & I’ll always regret the disservice I did to folks on both sides of the border.
In Canada, no one gets turned away from doctors due to lack of funds. In America, exorbitant bills are a defining feature of the system. What about quality of care? When it comes to #COVID19, there’s been ~ 21 deaths per 100,000 in Canada, versus 34 per 100,000 in the U.S.
Remember, in Canada there are no co-pays, deductibles or co-insurance ever. Care is free at the point of service. And those laid off in Canada don’t face the worry of losing their health insurance. In the U.S., millions are losing their jobs & coverage, and scared to death.
You learn a lot about a healthcare system when a global crisis hits & different nations have different results. Canada’s single-payer system is saving lives. The U.S. profit-driven corporate model is failing.
I’ll regret slandering Canada’s system for the rest of my life.”
Potter also added a video explaining a bit more about why Canada has the U.S. beat so badly in our concurrent fights against COVID-19.
Finally, for those interested in this gap between America and Canada on healthcare, I tried to spell it out a bit m… https://t.co/ghdEVxabC0
Canadians who have experience with both systems chimed in in the comments on Potter’s thread, sharing how baffled they were when they first heard how terrible their home country’s health system was supposed to be.
@LCDCAlabama @wendellpotter This. When I travel through USA it’s the first thing people ask me about when they fin… https://t.co/3UTzJpdReL
There are some things that the U.S. medical system does very well. But for the things most people need, our system sucks compared to most other developed nations.
While a few people pointed out that Canada does sometimes have wait times for non-emergency procedures, the truth is that the same thing happens sometimes in the U.S. as well. Depending on where you are and what specialists are available and what demand is, you can end up waiting months for a non-emergency surgery or other procedure here too.
@jpetrie_canada @wendellpotter You have to wait that long here in the States too. I get biannual MRIs, have gotten… https://t.co/MlpbAG2Dmy
And for those who say, “They pay out the nose in taxes!” well, no, not really. Comparing tax structures between countries is like comparing apples to sandwiches, but an analysis from Investopedia and another from CNBC show the difference in what most of us pay in taxes is really not that drastic. And what Canadians get for the taxes they pay results in a much higher quality of life and overall measure of happiness than what we live with in the U.S.
Seriously, it’s time. Show us how it’s done, Canada. We’re ready.
As the entertainment industry deals with a reckoning in the wake of new attention to diversity and hiring practices for various roles, especially in the field of animation. The latest example of this came Friday when word broke that Family Guy will recast the role of Cleveland Brown and The Simpsons would no longer have white voice actors voicing characters of color.
The two pieces joined a string of announcements about white voice actors stepping away from roles they’d voiced that were non-white, including Jenny Slate’s Missy on the Netflix animated show Big Mouth and Kristen Bell’s Molly, a bi-racial character, getting a new voice actor on Central Park. On Friday, actor Mike Henry announced on Twitter he will no longer voice Cleveland Brown, a Black character on Family Guy.
It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years. I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role. pic.twitter.com/FmKasWITKT
“It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years,” tweeted Henry, who has voiced the character since the show started in 1999. “I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role.”
Henry also voiced Brown in the spinoff The Cleveland Show, which ran from 2009 to 2013. But the note came as word broke via Variety that The Simpsons would also recast any characters of color who were previously voiced by white actors. That news came after months of stories and controversy about Hank Azaria’s voicing of Apu, a role he stepped away from earlier in 2020 and later publicly apologized for.
The producers behind the show issued a statement Friday saying that from now on, its characters of color will be voiced by actors of color only.
“Moving forward, ‘The Simpsons’ will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters,” the statement read.
As Variety noted, the show added voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson as a full-time cast member in recent seasons to voice the show’s various Black characters.
The NBA is going full steam ahead with its plan for a bubble league in Orlando. The league and the NBPA announced that they had finalized plans for the upcoming restart at Disney World, and despite 16 positive cases of COVID-19 from its first round of testing, things are falling into place for basketball to return at the end of July.
Following the announcement on Friday afternoon, a collection of individuals atop the league’s hierarchy held a press conference in which they addressed the media’s questions about the bubble league. While on the call, Adam Silver gave a sobering read on the entire situation: With the novel coronavirus being something that is not going away any time soon, he is of the belief that it is in the league’s best interest to “adapt.”
On conference call with reporters, Adam Silver says, “We are left with no choice but to learn to live with this virus. No options are risk-free right now.”
Adam Silver on a conference call just now, “We can’t sit on the sidelines indefinitely. We must adapt…We believe it will be safer on our campus than off it. But this is not business as usual.”
Silver on evaluating COVID data: “My conclusion is that we can’t outrun the virus and this is what we’re going to be living with for the foreseeable future.”
Silver also addressed a gigantic concern that, well, everyone has about the bubble league: what, exactly, happens if community spread of COVID-19 occurs in the friendly confines of Disney? As he explained it, this sort of scenario could lead to the league deciding to pull the plug on the bubble league experiment, but he made it a point to say that an exact plan has not been laid out.
Silver admits that an outbreak amongst the players could lead to a stoppage, but the format on that “hasn’t been exactly designed.”
Adam Silver says that any one positive test, no matter the player, won’t stop things from continuing. He says the league is discussing with health officials and the players what would happen in an instance of “significant spread” but that “that line hasn’t been set yet.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: “If we were to have significant spread of coronavirus through our community, that ultimately might lead us to stop it.” Says the line on when to pull plug “hasn’t been precisely designed.”
As for what is going on right now in Florida — which is viewed as one of the COVID-19 epicenters in the United States — Silver did say that the league is willing to reconsider at a certain point. For now, however, the league isn’t deterred as cases rise in the Sunshine State, and protocols will be in place for players who leave the bubble and non-NBA staffers who are inside of it.
Silver, when asked about rising cases in Florida and whether there’s a # that would cause NBA to reconsider: “We’re not saying `full steam ahead no matter what happens’…but we feel very comfortable right now with where we are.”
“The answer is yes, the level of concern has increased — not just because of the increased levels in Florida, but throughout the country,” Silver said, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “At least today, I believe, 29 of the 50 states have an increased number of cases. Of course, we designed our campus, in essence, to isolate ourselves from whatever the level of cases was in the surrounding community.
“But since we designed our initial protocol, we are continuing to work with Disney on the testing of at least a subset of their employees that could potentially be in the same room as our players, and anyone else who’s tested daily on our campus. So we are satisfied that, once we work through those additional measures with Disney, we will continue to have a safe setting for us to resume our season.”
Beyond basketball, there are questions about how the league will handle being back in the public eye during the current moment in the United States, when so much attention is on the fight against systemic inequality and police brutality. It was a major concern for a number of players, and Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum explained that while the NBA and WNBA are in positions to advocate for change due to the fact that they will be playing games, there is still work that needs to be done internally.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said: “The league needs to do a better job of hiring African-Americans at every level in the league.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says the G-League needs to use to develop African-American executives for the league. “The NBA can play a unique and broader role for a voice for a greater society. But at first, we have to do a better job at home,” Silver said.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league and the WNBA have a great opportunity to create change. “The world’s attention will be on us in Orlando,” Silver said.
“I am encouraged that the last three GMs that have been hired are African-Americans. But we have more work to do,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said. Tatum added that there is a need for more opportunities for women as well.
Chris Paul, the president of the NBPA, promised that players will make their voices heard on matters of racial justice during the bubble league, while executive director Michele Roberts mentioned the opportunity that the league has to champion these issues.
Thunder guard and NBPA president Chris Paul you will “continue to hear us” in Orlando in terms of fighting for social justice.
There is still plenty that needs to be made public about the league’s approach for Orlando, as its specific plan has not been revealed for public consumption. We will, however, learn about the schedule that will be played on Friday evening.
Films from the 1980s often get a bad reputation, culturally dominated as they were by family-friendly films (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Short Circuit), the rise of blockbuster franchises (Back to the Future, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) and lots of Reagan-era excess: Big hair, terrible fashion, and synthesizer music that’s done more to date good ’80s movies than telephone technology. It obviously wasn’t all bad, of course, or the 1980s wouldn’t be such a rich resource for remakes and reboots.
Below are 10 of the best ’80s movies on Netflix streaming to watch tonight. Some highlight the excesses of the decade. Others flaunt formula and subvert topes made famous by other 1980s films. Still, others are singular achievements that would stand out in any decade.
The Indiana Jones franchise has been housed on Amazon Prime for a while now but it’s finally making its way to Netflix with the streaming platform hosting all four feature films. Of course, nothing beats the original, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and as far as travel and adventure go, this movie has everything you could possibly want. A hero with a love for archeology and whips? Check. An adventure to recover a stolen artifact with destructive powers? Check check. Harrison Ford beating up Nazis while uttering sarcastic one-liners and with a twinkle in his eye? Did movies even exist before this?
You can’t think of classic ’80s teen comedies and not include Matthew Broderick’s rebellious school comedy in those musings. Broderick brought Ferris Bueller, a smart-mouthed kid with a flair for the dramatic, to life in this beloved movie that also stars Alan Ruck and Jennifer Grey. Bueller goes to extreme lengths to skip school with his best friend and girlfriend, leading them on an adventure that includes a musical parade in the city and a brush with the law. Being bad never looked so fun.
Dustin Hoffman stars in this wildly funny ’80s romp while playing a difficult-to-work-with actor, who disguises himself as a woman to win a role. Hoffman’s Michael is a perfectionist and has earned a nasty reputation around town, which is why he’s forced to dress as a woman and audition for a small role on a soap opera to fund his next play. His time on the show ends up being a success, however, forcing Michael to keep up his charade and risk his relationships in the process.
This iconic ’80s comedy franchise might have wrongly-assumed we’d have flying cars, hoverboards, and self-tying shoes by now, but it got a lot of other tech predictions right. Still, that’s not what makes this film a classic. Christopher Lloyd playing a brilliant-but-eccentric scientist, Michael J. Fox playing a smart-mouthed teenager who can time-travel, and a brilliantly-funny script from director Robert Zemeckis. That’s what makes this comedy a classic.
Tom Holland’s ’80s horror flick managed to take a benign children’s toy and transform it into a waking nightmare. The film stars Catherine Hicks as Karen Barclay, a single mother who gifts her son Andy a doll he’s been wanting. Unfortunately for Andy, that doll is possessed by the soul of a serial killer and very quickly, Chucky then begins to wreak havoc on the family.
Eddie Murphy pivoted from his more sanitized skits on Saturday Night Live with this televised comedy special, his first, that touched on everything from ice cream trucks to Reaganomics, racism, and AIDS. Murphy got a lot of flak for his use of profanity during the set — he would later apologize for using homophobic slurs — but despite his filthier tirades, the comedian produced some of his best work here, giving us a stripped down version of his unique brand.
This Steven Spielberg sci-fi film is a bonafide classic. Entire childhoods were built around this thing. So there’s not much more we can add to persuade you to watch it if you haven’t already, but just in case, here’s the cliff notes: boy discovers alien lifeform, boy befriends alien lifeform, boy helps alien lifeform get back to his planet before the government can experiment on him.
A timeless Tom Hanks comedy classic, The Money Pit is a cautionary tale for every couple who is considering buying a fixer-upper and turning it into the home of their dreams. It’s more likely to become a nightmare, but Hanks and Shelly Long at least make a seriously funny and occasionally sweet nightmare. It also contains the best laugh scene in the history of comedy. Ahh, home crap home!
Before you tune into the Netflix revival, check out the original Spike Lee-directed drama about a young black woman exploring her sexuality and finding herself in the big city. Nola Darling is a carefree Brooklynite enjoying affairs with three different men before her suitors find out about each other and force her to choose between them. Nola confronts her own complicated feelings about monogamy and love but the film is less about relationship drama and more about female empowerment.
John Travolta stars in this Western romance, playing a country transplant named Bud. Bud comes from a small town, and he’s used to working on a farm, but when he gets a job in Houston, he’s introduced to a world that’s totally unfamiliar in a good way. Most of the draw here is in Bud’s relationship with a spirited young woman named Sissy, with whom he has an on-off-again relationship that forces him to live outside his traditionalist comfort zone.
6lack vents while socially distancing in his new video for “Know My Rights” with fellow ATLien Lil Baby from his new EP, 6pc Hot. The video, directed by JMP, subtly touches on current events with police cars cruising by and agents searching 6lack’s private jet on the tarmac — clear references to ongoing protests against police brutality and the recent death of Juice WRLD during a search of his own private jet last year.
Elsewhere in the video, 6lack performs to the camera in the studio while surrounded by his masked crew, as well as in a room with walls covered in newspaper as he smokes. Later, the crew takes over an empty plane hangar to whip their latest acquisitions — a fleet of pristine BMWs — as Lil Baby’s verse plays.
6lack released 6pc Hot today in celebration of his birthday, accompanying the release with his own theme-appropriate brand of hot sauce, 600 Degrees. Lil Baby is the only feature on the seven-song EP, which precedes 6lack’s forthcoming follow-up to his fan-and-critic-favorite sophomore album, East Atlanta Love Letter. Other singles from the EP include “ATL Freestyle” and “Float.”
Watch 6lack’s “Know My Rights” video with Lil Baby above.
6pc Hot is out now on LVRN/Interscope. Get it here.
NBA Jam is beloved among basketball fans and gamers alike. As of this writing, you can even get an NBA Jam-inspired shirt with your favorite team’s two best players on it in the team store, if it’s open. Decades later, its details and lore are still such that NBA Jam is one of the most beloved sports games of all time.
Over the years we’ve learned a few small things about the game and its making that has created an even more charming and nostalgic look at the title that came out in 1993. The ball on the game’s iconic box art, for example, was real and sold for a ton of money.
Ars Technica put together a nice video featuring NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell, which has lots of details about the game’s creation and also takes place in front of a very cool NBA Jam arcade cabinet. And in a video clip that circulated on Friday we found official confirmation of a long-rumored reality: the game was biased against the Chicago Bulls in a very specific circumstance.
The creator of NBA Jam finally confirms the long standing conspiracy theory that the game was programmed so that if the @ChicagoBulls took a last second shot against the @DetroitPistons it would always miss.
“Being from Michigan originally I’m a big Detroit Pistons fan,” Turmell said. “Making this game in Chicago during the height of the Michael Jordan era there was a big rivalry with the Pistons and the Bulls. But the one way I could get back at the Bulls once they got over the hump was to affect their skills against the Pistons in NBA Jam.”
It wasn’t a game-breaking change, but it was very specific: If you were playing a game between the Pistons and Bulls, you were toast if you were Chicago and needed a buzzer-beater.
“So I put in special code if the Bulls taking the last-second shot against the Pistons they would miss those shots,” he said. “So if you’re ever playing the game, make sure you pick the Pistons over the Bulls.”
Again, the Bulls were plenty good in that game, so it’s not like something like this would discourage you from playing as them. But it’s a fun quirk of a beloved video game, and the official explanation confirms a theory some fans have held for a long time. It also follows a fairly common theme in a world where hyper-realism is of the upmost importance: sometimes making a game less realistic makes it a lot more fun.
The states of Texas and Florida will close bars, scale back restaurant capacities, and implement new safety measures due to recent COVID-19 surges in the two states. Both states adopted lax safety measures and were two of the earliest states to reopen their economies since the start of the pandemic in March.
NPRreports that following a record high 5,996 cases in a single day — and two days in a row of record-high new infections — Texas governor Greg Abbott announced that bars across the state would have to convert to take-out service only beginning at noon, on June 26th, and that restaurants would have to scale back their dine-in services operations to below 50% capacity beginning Monday.
“At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars. The actions in this executive order are essential to our mission to swiftly contain this virus and enhance public health,” Gov Abbott said in a statement announcing the new directives, which also includes a shutdown of river-rafting and tubing businesses and a new outdoor gathering limit of 100 people. All events exceeding that amount must seek approval from local officials. Governor Abbott has also stressed that Texans need to start regularly wearing face masks.
We need ALL Texans to follow the safety protocols from our team of medical experts including:
Staying home if you are sick or at risk Sanitizing your hands Social distancing Wearing face coverings or masks #COVID19@TexasDSHS
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis also ordered bars to be shut down after the state recorded a record 8,942 new cases in a single day, beating the state’s previous record of 5,508 set just two days earlier, according to NBC News. Restaurants in several Florida counties will now convert back to take-out only services, according to Florida Today.
The state of Florida currently has over 123,000 coronavirus cases, with 32,000 cases being confirmed in just the last week. Despite the climbing numbers, Gov. DeSantis has yet to respond to calls for a statewide mandate on masks, though several counties throughout Florida have implemented their own mask policies.
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Staying home if you are sick or at risk