Category: Viral

Ridley Scott’s legacy in the making went hard last year in theaters with Alien: Romulus (directed by horror revival king Fede Álvarez with input from Ridley) and Gladiator 2, the decades-later sequel directed by Scott himself. The arena-based blockbuster edged past the original box office gross after two months with a $455 million global taking. And after weeks on VOD, the time will soon come for Paul Mescal’s sandals to stream as part of package.

When Will Gladiator 2 Stream On Paramount+?

January 21.

Get ready to be “entertained” when Mescal steps onscreen as Lucius after the trailer proved to be oddly controversial.

This sequel also launches what Scott referred to as “probably the biggest action sequence I’ve ever done. Probably bigger than anything in Napoleon.” Even larger than Ellen Ripley launching a Xenomorph out of a space-trucker ship, too. That’s only to be expected when you toss a rhino and naval battles into the arena back in Ancient Rome.

In addition to Mescal, Gladiator 2 stars Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington, Djimon Hounsou, Pedro Pascal, May Callaway, Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn. And will there be a Gladiator 3? Scott has declared, “There’s already an idea,” and he is taking inspiration from The Godfather saga. Hold that thought.

The best kind of television episodes aren’t the ones where you remember where you were when you watched them. They’re the ones where you remember how you felt watching them. I remember feeling horrified, mesmerized, and overwhelmed the first time I saw episode 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return, which turned out to be David Lynch’s final major work as a filmmaker.

But most of all, I — along with the other 246,000 viewers who tuned into Showtime on June 25, 2017 — was thrilled by what I was witnessing. Never more so than when “The” Nine Inch Nails took the stage at The Roadhouse.

Nearly every episode of Twin Peaks: The Return ended with a band or artist performing over the credits. Sharon Van Etten, Chromatics, Eddie Vedder introduced by his birth name (Edward Louis Severson), etc. But episode 8 — also known as “Gotta Light?” — shook things up by, well, it shook things up in a lot of ways (this is where I beg you to watch Twin Peaks: The Return), including having the musical guest show up around the 12-minute mark.

But before we get there, some context for the episode: it begins with Monroe, a scumbag criminal (who we later find out was an FBI informant), and Dale Cooper’s doppelgänger, a brutal version of our beloved Agent Dale Cooper with a much worse hairstyle, driving down a long, dark road lit only by the car headlights. There’s not much dialogue spoken between the two men, until the unease is broken by Monroe pulling over to take a leak. It’s part of his plan to get the drop on Evil Cooper, who he shoots multiple times. But before he can follow through on the death blow, mysterious, ethereal woodsmen begin to tear at his body, removing an orb containing Killer BOB’s sadistic face. This is all accomplished with muffled audio and barely present “ominous atmospheric music” (as the closed captioning on Paramount Plus reads).

Then after a quick check-in with a panicked Monroe driving away from the horror he’s just witnessed — BAM — it’s Nine Inch Nails time.

The build-up to the performance matters. Episode 8 lulls you into an eerie sense of foreboding before “The” Nine Inch Nails (which is how they’re introduced by the Roadhouse MC) come in like a jump scare. The group is clad in leather and moodily lit by a home projector. They sound sadistic performing “She’s Gone Away” from the then-new Not The Actual Events EP. Nine Inch Nails initially planned on doing another song for Twin Peaks: The Return, but according to frontman Trent Reznor, Lynch told them, “How about something less Twin Peaks-y sounding, and more aggressive and ugly.” (Try reading that in a David Lynch voice. It’s fun.) Atticus Ross recalls him adding, “Make my hair stand on end.”

They succeeded: “She’s Gone Away” is violent and lurching; as someone on the Nine Inch Nails subreddit put it, “This song [is] on a playlist of mine called ‘songs that make me shit myself in fear.’” It’s not the kind of song you typically hear on TV, but neither was the dreamy Twin Peaks theme song, composed by the brilliant Angelo Badalamenti, or “Sycamore Trees” performed by Jimmy Scott in the Red Room. Lynch was thoughtfully offbeat in his music choices, and a talented musician in his own right. But it’s episode 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return that crossed my mind first after hearing about his death.

Lynch was America’s preeminent chronicler of the rot underneath our shared White Picket Fence fantasy (he literally depicts the origin of evil in the scene following NIN’s performance, in fact) but that’s because he believed we could be so much better. “This world is supposed to be beautiful,” he said to People not long before his death. “We’re supposed to love each other as a family.” In another interview, Lynch told BBC Radio 3’s Sound of Cinema, “Even in the so-called dark things, there’s a beauty.”

Nine Inch Nails at the Roadhouse is dark, but the connection Lynch had with Reznor — who also produced the soundtrack for 1997’s Lost Highway — and the other musicians he worked with was beautiful. “Music,” he once said, “is a magic.” I genuinely believe he meant that. There was nothing ironic about David Lynch; he was as sincere and earnest as they come in Hollywood.

That’s what made the Nine Inch Nails performance so thrilling. It was raw. It was real. In other words, it was David Lynch.

There’s a common perception that Dua Lipa is constantly on vacation, or as she joked on Saturday Night Live, on “holiday.” Sometimes, perception is reality. It seems like every time the “Houdini” singer posts on Instagram, she’s in a different luxurious location (and occasionally enjoying a pickle soda). In her latest post, she leaned into the bit.

“you know an airport hates to see me coming,” Dua Lipa captioned the post, along with a photo dump including one where she’s wearing a shirt that says “Mother F*cker.”

Last year, Dua Lipa responded to her being dubbed the “vacanza queen” for her seemingly never-ending getaways.

“I think people are quick to forget. I was on tour up until the end of December. I felt like I missed out on so much time with my family and friends. It shows how short our attention span is, which is why music comes out so much faster,” she told Rolling Stone. “Of course, I was going to f*cking holiday and chill the year that I was just going in the studio and had some time off. As long as I’m doing my job, hitting my deadlines, and getting my sh*t done, then I will find a way to relax, too. It’s really work hard and play hard. Why not?”

Why not, indeed. If you make a song as good as “Physical” and interview Nobel Prize winners, you can take as many vacations as you want.

The cost of the recent Los Angeles County wildfires has yet to be totaled, but the city has received some help in the form of a big donation from The Weeknd, who gave $1 million to several funds dedicated to wildfire relief. In partnership with World Food Program USA and The Weeknd’s own XO Humanitarian Fund, the “Blinding Lights” singer has committed the donations to the LAFD Foundation, GoFundMe’s Wildfire Relief Fund, and LA Regional Food Bank. The announcement came after word that he’d delayed the release of his album, as well as his Rose Bowl concert to celebrate its release, in response to the devastating (un)natural disaster.

Despite being from Toronto, The Weeknd has spent a considerable amount of his time in Los Angeles, which he’s called home for the past decade. He counts among his neighbors actor Jim Carrey, who appeared in his “Out Of Time” video after hanging out with the singer on his 30th birthday and was even part of the rollout for his album, Dawn FM.

The Weeknd recently held his Spotify Billions Club Live concert at Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Airport, where he pledged “all new everything” in 2025, including a new album, tour, film, and possibly even a new stage name, which he’s been teasing for a while. Suffice to say, he loves LA, and joins those grieving the region’s recent climate catastrophe.

After years of fun choreography, challenges, catchy sayings, viral sagas, and of course boosted music, TikTok is officially dead–in the US at least. According to The Washington Post, the TikTok ban has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

While users are mourning the app’s untimely demise, Kesha decided to inject some humor in the otherwise somber moment. In a video (viewable here, courtesy of Pop Crave), Kesha hilariously eulogized the beloved app, writing: “Tiktok may be temporary but ‘TiK ToK‘ is forever.”

With her 2010 hit playing in the clip’s background, supporters of the singer co-signed the post.

“She ain’t wrong,” wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).

“LOL, this is actually kinda clever,” chimed another.

“A fun reminder of her enduring impact on pop culture,” penned another.

It has longed been theorized that Kesha’s song influenced the platform’s name. However, that has yet to be confirmed. Still, it is only fitting in her fan’s eyes that she addressed the app’s downfall.

On the other hand, many content creators, whose financial future, is now in question did not find anything humorous about Kesha’s post. But with Kesha’s song “Tik Tok” continuously growing in streams, there’s some validity in her snarky message.

30 years ago today, The Roots released their second studio album, Do You Want More?!!!??!, kickstarting their long-lasting ascent and changing the sound of so-called “jazz rap” forever. In honor of the 30th anniversary, the band has announced a six-show residency at the legendary jazz club, Blue Note in New York City. They plan to perform two shows per night from March 13 through March 15, and you can purchase tickets now on Blue Note’s website (good luck, though).

Questlove announced the shows in his usual way — via Instagram — alongside his fellow founder Black Thought, with a nostalgic clip of the video for “Proceed,” one of the group’s first-ever music videos (look at Tariq’s nose stud!). Quest explains how, as their first major label album, Do You Want More?!!!??! was “where it all began” and while he manages expectations, advising, “We’re not doing the whole album,” he promises, “What we will do is have fun with it.”

2025 is shaping up to be another wildly busy year for the two bandmates, as Quest teased their first album in over a decade, along with Quest’s increasing film docket, which as of now includes an SNL 50-year documentary; a documentary about legendary funk band leader Sly Stone; and oh yeah, a remake of Disney’s jazz-centric animated classic The Arisocats, which is still happening, to the best of my knowledge. All that while continuing to show up as the house band for The Tonight Show. Yeesh.

When these guys sleep, I will never know. Get your tickets for their residency now (if you can).

Taylor Sheridan’s devoted audience is currently in a rare lull between shows. Paramount+ recently streamed Landman‘s first season finale, but 1923 is waiting in the wings for a February return. The Madison is currently filming a debut season, and Tulsa King will almost certainly be back for a third round. No word has surfaced on more Lioness, but Landman was so well popular and well-received that it’s hard to imagine Sheridan walking away from more.

Will There Be A Season 2 Of Landman?

Nothing has been made official yet. However, Sheridan appears to have set the stage for future storytelling with Tommy Norton taking over Monty Miller’s place as head honcho of M-Tex Oil.

Billy Bob Thornton also told Entertainment Weekly that, if there’s a renewal, he understands that filming will start soon, meaning, “sometime around February, March, somewhere in there,” but he added, “I mean, we’ll see. It just depends on how the chips may fall, you never know in this business.”

As for the fate of Monty Miller, Jon Hamm recently spoke with Hollywood Reporter after series co-creator Christian Wallace confirmed Monty’s death. Hamm elaborated on Tommy Norton’s difficult new direction, should there be a renewal:

“That’s going to be Billy Bob’s thing [ahead] – heavy is the head that wears the crown, so to speak. That stuff is true and I think his journey through not only the time on the show but the rest of his life is: careful what you wish for. I think he’s definitely found that with his relationship with Angela [his reconciled ex-wife played by Ali Larter], and I think his relationship with his son [Cooper, played by Jacob Lofland] and daughter [Aynsley, played by Michelle Randolph] are really going to be burdens for him to manage as well.”

Additionally, the season finale opened up a greater piece of the acting pie for Monty’s wife, Cami, portrayed by Demi Moore. It was a role that sadly felt ornamental throughout this past season, so fingers crossed for much more Moore and official Landman second season news coming soon.

Timothée Chalamet is one of Hollywood’s hottest rising stars thanks to his ability to commit to the bit. Case in point, he’s apparently still really in character after playing a certain singer to whom he shares more than a passing resemblance.

No, not Bob Dylan — although the incident in question occurred at the Paris red carpet premiere of his Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. During the event, a fan approached Chalamet for an autograph, handing him a vinyl copy of pop star Troye Sivan’s 2023 Something To Give Each Other to sign — which he did, scrawling the words “Troye Sivan” across the cover, to the amusement of both the fan and onlookers.

Chalamet, of course, played Sivan in a sketch on Saturday Night Live in November 2023, duplicating the singer’s “Get Me Started” music video look. In the sketch, he described himself/Sivan as “an Australian YouTube twink turned indie pop star and model turned HBO actor… being played by an American actor who can’t do an Australian accent.”

This isn’t the first time Timmy’s been reminded of the sketch in public. At the Wonka premiere the month after the sketch aired, a fan asked him to sign the same album. “That’s basically you,” the fan explained. “In some universe…” the actor replied. Part of his recent success is clearly due to his charm and being a good sport (as well as some sports knowledge that has endeared him to bros as much as ladies). And here’s some good news: he’s returning to SNL next week, which could result in a new bit for him to commit to.

Los Angeles County residents’ efforts are currently focused on the area’s devastating wildfires. Fortunately for Kid Cudi, he was able to safely evacuate. However, his home wasn’t exactly unoccupied.

According to TMZ, the “Rager Boyz” rapper’s home was broken into while he was away.

Supposed footage from Kid Cudi’s Los Angeles-area home alerted him to a break-in. On the alleged video, a man is seen intruding on the property. After trespassing, the individual enjoyed a meal before relaxing for a period of time. The unnamed person also went on to relieve themselves in Kid Cudi’s bathroom. Finally, the person used the shower.

Eventually, authorities were contacted. Once Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, the perpetrator was taken into custody. A source closed to the matter told the outlet that the unnamed man was formally booked and charged with felony burglary and theft of utilities. This person is now being held on $150,000 bail.

Insiders say Cudi was not specifically targeted. In fact, authorities believe the suspect was an unhoused person seeking temporary shelter.

Cudi has not released a statement regarding the matter, but he did confirm to concerned fans that he did seek refugee from the fires under the advice of local officials.

With Lonely Flowers (now streaming on Hulu), Roy Wood Jr.’s 4th hour long special, the former Daily Show correspondent solidifies his status as one of the top 3 or 4 stand-ups working today. That’s how good the special is, with Wood Jr. leveling up in terms of precision and comedic storytelling from the pretty close to perfect Imperfect Messenger, his last special, which dropped in 2022.

I am not new to the praising Roy Wood Jr. beat. Dude absolutely should have been named permanent host of The Daily Show, and his CNN comedy panel show (Have I Got News For You) helps to prove that every week (it got a season 2 pickup but is currently on hiatus) as he chops up the news with the help of Amber Ruffin, Michael Ian Black, and a broad mix of guests. The material in Lonely Flowers also makes that point with blaring clarity. This is not to say that you should go into the special expecting a full meal of political satire, though.

As Wood Jr. explains in this interview, a big focus for him going into the special was to not go political, reasoning that he has other creative avenues to speak on the news and newsmakers and that the world is bigger than (D) vs (R). With Lonely Flowers, his aim was for something grander, specifically keying in on the state of connection in these modern times while also getting even more personal than he did in Imperfect Messenger. It’s an evolution that is not finished, as we also discuss at length, but it is one that builds on his best in the game ability to deliver societal commentary that provides a simple road map for his audience: think/laugh/repeat.

I rewatched your Father Figure (2017) special before this, and you’ve got the bit where you’re talking about cashiers and it’s basically “just shut the fuck up and ring up my groceries!” Now you’ve gone from that to where you’re talking about feeling that lost sense of connection in those exchanges in a retail space dominated by self-checkouts.

Roy Wood Jr.: [Laughs] Yeah. It’s like I spoke too soon three specials ago. That’s a good fucking catch.

What I loved about the special, what I loved about Imperfect Messenger, and what I love about your comedy, in general, is, you make someone think and then before it gets too deep, you catch them with a laugh.

I feel like for me, man, I was trying to figure out a way, number one with this special, to not be political because it just felt like one, politics is going to change so fucking fast that I’m not going to be able to crack a joke at an October taping that would work in January, especially when you don’t know how the election’s going to go. And even after the election, you don’t know how the inauguration’s going to go. I think in that regard, it was an evolution of just figuring out, “Okay, how do I unify us?” I start the special, this one, by talking about we, as a collective, us, society, all of us. And in no way was I trying to make this a critique of… This special wasn’t about you all, it was about us. And so, I think once I say us, then I think it has given me the freedom. It gives me the freedom to not have to worry as much about pissing you off or stepping on a landmine because I’ve established that I’m in this with you too.

There’s a place for political humor, obviously. But also, it’s nice to not have to endure that in every special. It seems like a lot of comics, I think, are veering from that. Again, that’s not to say that it’s not important to talk about, but it’s also important to remember that it’s not everything.

Yes.

There’s other stuff going on in life and this special really touches on that. And the connection aspect of it is, like you were saying, a universal thing.

Yeah. This idea that what is happening in the world is happening to all of us, regardless of how you vote or what you feel politically. So there has to be a legitimate attempt at exploring how we got to this place and then the importance of connection or the lack of connection, and why you should seek connection, how you feel when you see people who are connected when you aren’t connected with anyone. That was all fun. It was very fun to really look and delve into that space. That was kind of the impetus for all of this.

I could be silly in some parts of the special, but I really am serious just about how the shift in retail really did change how we relate to one another. There was that and then there was a part of it that was very much nonsensical. But then you also can go on to me talking about being invited to a sex party. Well, okay, that’s still about connection.

Yeah, for sure.

And so who are we? What the fuck are we doing now with each other, to each other?

How challenging has the pursuit of connection been for you in your life? Especially over these last five years?

I have a handful of friends that I’m cool with. I don’t them see as often as I should. I think my biggest issue is the people I’m closest to, do not live in New York City, most of them. So I’m co-parenting my son. My son and I are close. You have a lot of industry friends. But I think even within that, even if you don’t have a number of friendships that have depth to them, then you still need to have something that makes you feel connected to people or society at large. You can’t just be a full-blown hermit.

I tell a story in the special about this photographer I hired just at random and it turned out he was pretty lonely. And he and I had a bit of a real moment. So even the idea of just taking the chance on people and doing something else with people, it was a good thing. It was a really good thing.

With the last two specials, you’re saying something, especially with the closers. Why is that a priority for you to have that weight with those specific bits?

For me, it’s about having moments of real emotional honesty, and I don’t have all the solutions or all the answers. Imperfect Messenger was a bit of a precursor to this one stylistically and me wanting to look a little bit more inside of myself on why certain things are the way they are and why… And how do I fit into all of this? I’ve talked about people fighting fast food employees and being rude to employees who have to unlock deodorant at Walgreens, but let me tell you a story about me and what I’m dealing with because I think that underneath all of these laughs and everything that we’re trying to escape through entertainment, moments of real emotional connection and humility are still real and just as important and relatable as a punchline. So I enjoy that.

It’s great to see a comic just telling joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, and you’re laughing at that too. But it’s nice to see a speciaI where I can see your soul a little bit. I understand where you’re coming from a little bit more. That is a connection too.

I definitely want to be in a place of trying to connect with people through all of the different tools within the emotional Batman utility belt. We can have laughs, but we can also have some real relatability. I think that matters. I really do think that matters.

When did you reach the point where you started being more personal, more open emotionally on stage? Was it conscious?

There was a little more of, this is what I’m curious about. I knew I wanted to tell that story about the white photographer who was so thankful for me hiring him. And it was hard to tell that story without acknowledging his emotions and despair within the moment. And there’s no way to get a laugh in the middle of that. The other thing I’m very cognizant of with standup comedy audiences now, they are far more inclined to allow emotion to be part of your performance.

I think right now, nobody does it better than Ali Sadiq, if we’re talking about balancing real emotion. And Ali can juggle sorrow, pain, anger, despair, and then yo-yo you right back into a punchline. And Josh Johnson is that way too, because he talks about stuff while our feelings are still raw about it. There’s an immediacy to Josh Johnson that I think taps into emotion.
And so for me, I knew I wanted to tell the story about the veteran, but in that story, sitting in those emotions and feeling the pressure release on the backside of it from the audience laughing, I was like, “Oh, wow. Okay, so we can do that?” I can tell another story about me and something. Okay, well then let me tell you a story about my mom and how she guarantees that she won’t be lonely. Let me tell you a story about the time I felt lost romantically. That’s interesting. Also, that’s unchartered territory for me. I haven’t done any of that. I haven’t gone to any of those places.

I feel like you were on Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast and he was trying to encourage you to do more storytelling comedy. Am I remembering that right?

Yeah, you’re right. Yeah, Birbiglia.

This feels like, especially with the Bubble Man story… because it’s like a 15-minute bit and you hold it so well with jokes dropped in here and there while building to such a beautiful payoff. Is that the future for you: more one-man show and longform storytelling?

I think I’m down a road that will be creatively, definitively different than anything that I’ve done up until this point, career-wise. And I couldn’t be more excited. I’m headed into a book titled “The Man of Many Fathers,” and that’ll be the next big thing that I do. And there’s definitely some storytelling and one man show-esque type stuff that I would like to build around that. The book is essentially a compilation of stories that are basically lessons I’ve learned from men in my life after my father passed. And some are funny, some are poignant, and some are deep and sad.

It’s everything from times that I’ve had guns pulled on me, to times that I’ve learned that it’s okay to cry as a man, to the time that a coworker slapped me as a teenager and I learned to stop snitching. There are a million and one different stories that I could tell from that place. And I think when you look at the Bubble Man story, that pacing is where I want to get to a little more naturally. And it’s my hope that with this special, that this feels like me putting my toe in the water and the audience creatively going with me there, so that when I’m in full Mike Birbiglia, Neal Brennan, one-man show-ish kind of mode, it doesn’t throw people off. I think if I’d have went straight from politics to something completely and wholly self-reflective and introspective, it may have felt like when the rapper does the acoustic unplugged album.

Andre 3000’s flute album?

Yeah. That’s a great example where it’s like Andre 3000 started as one thing, and over the course of his career, we saw him evolve to the point where when he came out and said he is doing a flute album, people were not only not surprised, they were open and receptive to what it could be. But if he’d have dropped a flute album right after “Player’s Ball,” after Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, we’d be like, “What the fuck is that?” But there’s been enough of a gradual evolution, and it’s my hope, from Imperfect Messenger through Lonely Flowers, to whatever I do with Man of Many Fathers, that the audiences see and understand where I’m going. And in the meantime, if you want political jokes, you can go to my YouTube or you can watch me on CNN.

‘Lonely Flowers’ is streaming now on Hulu.