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Lil Nas X Saves Himself With Some Tough Love In His First ‘Dreamboy’ Trailer

In the first trailer for his upcoming album, Dreamboy, Lil Nas X introduces his alter ego via a cheeky and borderline profane short story. In the trailer, Nas plays a castaway, floating in the middle of the ocean on a makeshift raft. A flash of light races across the sky, and Nas encounters the titular Dreamboy, a Power Rangers-esque being who introduces himself as a version of Lil Nas X who tells him, “I’m gonna help you save yourself. It’s time to remember who you are — who you really are.” However, Nas’ response is less than satisfactory, and Dreamboy shows himself a little tough love to get him started on the journey as the album’s first single, “Light Again,” kicks in.

Nas had previously teased the upcoming album on social media, writing, “I just want to release music, but expectations are just like… insane. Like, I can’t even have fun. I just want to f*ckin’ have fun with this sh*t. I don’t even give a f*ck about all the other sh*t. Of course, I want to, like, be No. 1 all the time, I want every song to go up, and I want you to go crazy. But it’s like, at the same time, I want to f*ckin’ have fun. I want to go and live life, I just want to make music.” Incidentally, he had already given glimpses of the Dreamboy uniform at the MTV VMAs.

As far as pressure goes, even he knows he has little to worry about; after queer culture’s resident megahater Azealia Banks said he “fell off,” he reminded her (and the world at large) “i could never make a hit song again and you would still never in ur bussy soap selling chicken sacrificing botched body hating ass miserable life reach a 10th of my success.”

Check out the first Dreamboy trailer above.

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Why Isn’t Mark Darcy In The ‘Bridget Jones 4’ Movie?

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(SPOILERS from the fourth Bridget Jones novel will be found below.)

Romcoms have been having a moment lately due to Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Blake Lively, and Justin Baldoni, no doubt about it. So it might be a fantastic time for a 1990s romcom institution, Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones, to make her post-Mark Darcy comeback with Renee Zellweger reprising the lead role. Heck, The Times once reckoned that “Bridget Jones could be described as the first rom com anti-heroine,” which could bode well for a fourth movie when escapism is sorely needed amid current events. (Seriously, try and watch this fight scene without cracking a smile. Not possible.)

The fourth movie, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, is indeed on the way, mostly without Mark Darcy as confirmed a new trailer and with Bridget as a single mum of their two children for the past four years (in movie time). What happened to Mr. Darcy (2.0 for Austenites)?

The corresponding 2013 book revealed that Mark, a human rights lawyer, met his end in a landmine explosion. According to author Helen Fielding, Firth was rather upset to hear of his character’s death, and although Firth does make a trailer cameo, there will be a Mark Darcy-sized void in London.

No wonder Hugh Grant recently called the fourth film “very, very sad” in addition to being “extremely funny.” He also added that Daniel Cleaver’s appearance in the movie makes little sense, yet “they wanted to cram me in.” Fortunately, the trailer does not suggest that Bridget wants to hook up with Daniel again, but she does move onto the dating app world at the urging of her friends (including the gloriously profane Shazzer). And the trailer makes it pretty clear that the 50-something Bridget gets busy with a 29-year-old man portrayed by Leo Woodall, who is also having a moment in real life.

A synopsis fills in a few blanks:

Pressured by her Urban Family – Shazzer, Jude and Tom, her work colleague Miranda, her mother, and her gynecologist Dr. Rawlings — to forge a new path toward life and love, Bridget goes back to work and even tries out the dating apps, where she’s soon pursued by a dreamy and enthusiastic younger man. Now juggling work, home and romance, Bridget grapples with the judgment of the perfect mums at school, worries about Billy as he struggles with the absence of his father, and engages in a series of awkward interactions with her son’s rational-to-a-fault science teacher.

The movie will not only see the return of Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant but also the “urban family” portrayed by Sally Phillips (as Shazzer), James Calls (as Tom), and Shirley Henderson (as Jude). Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones will also be back as Bridget’s parents. New cast additions include not only Leo Woodall but Emma Thompson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Isla Fisher.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy will stream via Peacock on Feb. 13, 2025.

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Linkin Park Appears To Be Teasing An International Tour In 2025

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Linkin Park‘s website currently lists only two live shows in 2025: one in Las Vegas at Sick New World Festival, and another in Columbus, Ohio, for the Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival. That might be changing very soon.

A number of venues across the globe, including London’s Wembley Stadium and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, have been sharing images on social media with banners reading “Counting To Zero” being changed to “Counting From Zero.” There’s also a cryptic tease for something being announced at 7 a.m. ET on November 14. The most popular theory is that the reformed Linkin Park will announce a tour behind their new album, From Zero, on that date.

The “Counting From Zero” tease also popped up for Moody Center in Austin, Texas; CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland; United Center in Chicago, Illinois; Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado; Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan; Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee; T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri; Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey; BOK Center in Tulsa; and Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California, among many others. There’s also international venues in Germany, Italy, and France.

Linkin Park had been on hiatus since 2017 following the death of lead singer Chester Bennington, but the group reformed earlier this year with a new vocalist, Emily Armstrong.

From Zero is out 11/15 via Warner Records.

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Gunna Gives Back And Hits The Links In His Growth-Focused ‘Him All Along’ Video

It looks like Gunna is branching out in his video for “Him All Along.” The single, which has been out for a few weeks, focuses on Gunna’s pursuit of his goals. In the new clip, which dropped earlier today, Gunna details just what that looks like. Rather than simply flexing and flossing his way through another showcase of his material wealth, “Him All Along” finds Gunna indulging in new experiences, from hitting the links to work on his golf stroke to taking in a display of equestrian excellence. The video ends with Gunna putting on a community day for the kids of Atlanta, complete with carnival games and a supersized inflatable slide.

“Him All Along” continues Gunna standout run since leaving jail in late 2022, which has included the Bittersweet Tour, his new album, One Of Wun, and an initiative to guarantee income to two dozen families in Fulton County. Meanwhile, he recently wrapped up another slate of tour dates ahead of his upcoming Amazon Music Live performance in Los Angeles and appears to be rebuilding his status in hip-hop, even as some hackers try to downplay the olive branch extended to him by Young Thug on his last day in court.

You can watch Gunna’s “Him All Along” video above.

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Caitlin Clark Got So Many Friendship Bracelets At The Eras Tour She Was Losing Circulation

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Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” has been the biggest show in the world for the past few years, as the tour has had millions of fans pass through the gates at stadiums around the globe. After finishing her international leg of the tour, Swift added another run of U.S. tour dates, which included recently playing three nights in Indianapolis at the start of November.

In attendance for those shows was the biggest sports star in the city at present, as Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark wasn’t about to miss a chance to see her favorite artist play shows in her new home city. The only problem for Caitlin at the Eras Tour was that she’s too popular in Indianapolis, which meant she was being constantly given friendship bracelets from other Swifties. That’s a very nice problem to have, but in her effort to wear every one she was given, it started to create an issue, as she explained at the Women’s Leadership Summit.

“Taylor Swift, I just went two nights in a row in Indianapolis. I’ve been three times,” Clark said. “I had a ton [of bracelets], all the way up the arms. I had to take them off, my circulation was getting cut off! Everyone was just chucking their bracelets at me. I’ve seen her three times, and every time the show has just gotten better.”

She showed off her collection on Instagram during one of the shows and it was a lot of bracelets.

Instagram

Clark has spent the last year or two learning the ups and downs of life as a superstar, but this is certainly a very unique pitfall of fame, being so popular you get too many friendship bracelets and start to lose feeling in your arm.

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Roddy Ricch Is Celebrating Five Years Of ‘Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial’ With An ‘Anniversary Experience’

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Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial was a career-making moment for Roddy Ricch, as his debut album went No. 1 and spawned the chart-topping single “The Box.” The 2019 album turns five years old next month, so Ricch is celebrating: Today (November 12), he announced a “5 year anniversary experience” set for December 6 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

As for tickets, there’s an artist pre-sale starting on November 13 at 10 a.m. PT and ending on November 14 at 10 p.m. PT. The password to access that is “NAVYERA.” That will be followed by the general on-sale, which starts on November 15 at 10 a.m. PT. There are some additional pre-sales as well, and more information can be found here.

Also on December 6, Ricch is set to release his third album, The Navy Album.

In his 2022 Uproxx cover story, Ricch talked about what he learned from his early career, saying, “A lot of times, you may get distracted by trying to rekindle relationships with different things. I feel like just what I learned is just sometimes, even if it’s broke, sometimes it’s just better not to deal with certain things or don’t let certain things bother you — everything’s not going to be perfect. Sometimes when you sit down and think about a lot of sh*t, you try to make everything perfect, and I feel like the thing I learned is it’s okay to not be perfect. There’s perfect in imperfection.”

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The ‘Terrible’ ‘SNL’ Host Who Made The Cast Cry Responded By Calling The Show ‘Unfunny’

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NBC

Elon Musk has responded to the comments that he was the “terrible” and “rude” SNL host who made the cast of the sketch show cry.

It all began over the summer when Bowen Yang was asked on Watch What Happens Live to name the “worst SNL host behavior” he’s seen during his time on the show. “This man who — this person, this host — made multiple cast members cry on Wednesday before the table read because he hated the ideas,” he said, adding that he was “terrible.” Yang didn’t call out the host by name, but Chloe Fineman did on Monday in a since-deleted TikTok video.

“OK, I just saw some news article about Elon Musk being like butt-hurt over SNL and his impression, but I’m like you’re clearly watching the show, like what are you talking about?” she said. “And I’m like, you know what? I’m gonna come out and say at long last that I’m the cast member that he made cry. And he’s the host that made someone cry.”

Fineman continued, “You made I, Chloe Fineman burst into tears because I stayed up late writing a sketch. I was so excited, I came in, I asked if you had any questions and you stared at me like you were firing me from Tesla and were like, ‘It’s not funny.’”

Musk replied on (where else?) X. “Frankly, it was only on the Thursday before the Saturday that ANY of the sketches generated laughs. I was worried,” he wrote. “I was like damn my SNL appearance is going to be so f*cking unfunny that it will make a crackhead sober!! But then it worked out in the end.”

Did it, though? Of the 977 episodes of SNL with user ratings on IMDb, Musk’s 2021 episode (with musical guest Miley Cyrus) is ranked 967th, with a 4.7. The host of the lowest-ranked episode? Donald Trump.

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Björk Was Inspired By Extinct Animal Sounds For Her Latest Experimental Work, ‘Nature Manifesto’

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Björk

Most of what Björk does requires an explanation, as the experimental Icelandic artist is seemingly always trying something new and innovative. Take, for example, “Nature Manifesto,” which she just announced.

The sound installation, described as an “immersive sound piece,” runs for 3 minutes and 40 seconds, and Björk created it alongside fellow Icelandic artist Aleph. It will be presented as part of the forum “Biodiversity: Which culture for which future?” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from November 20 to December 9.

Björk and Aleph explain in a statement:

“We would like to share our ‘Nature Manifesto,‘ a sound installation at the Centre Pompidou @centrepompidou, Paris. Produced in collaboration with the IRCAM using AI software, this immersive sound piece gives endangered and extinct animals a voice by merging their sounds with our words. We wanted to share their presence in an architecture representing the industrial age, far away from nature. In the veins of the escalator of the museum, known as the ‘caterpillar,‘ we wanted to remind citizens of the raw vitality of endangered creatures. Even though you are restlessly traveling between floors whilst listening to this soundpiece, the tone of animals’ voices hopefully builds a sonic bridge towards the listeners. And in the spirit of these animals, in the magic of how they are sensually aligned with their environment, they become our teachers! Their ghosts remind us of improving our primordial mindfulness. But we didn’t only want to talk the talk but walk the walk, so together with young environmentalists in France and Iceland, we have set up a campaign. It will launch later.”

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Will There Be A ‘The Penguin’ Season 2 After All?

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Before HBO and Matt Reeves’ The Penguin series arrived, word surfaced that it would bridge the gap between The Batman movies. That promise appears to have been fulfilled (although we won’t really be able to judge connective success until the next Battinson movie surfaces), and a demonstrative thread exists between Sofia Falcone and her half-sister (in this universe), Selena Kyle.

The Penguin viewership has also proven the Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti-starring series to be “the most-watched current HBO or Max title debut season globally behind only ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘The Last of Us.’” So, questions of a second season have been swirling after Oz Cobblepot positioned himself on top of Gotham’s underworld.

The difficulty with a renewal, however, is that Colin Farrell spent the lead-up to this finale talking about how he never wanted to sit through the makeup-and-prosthetics process again. To be fair, it sounds like a lot to endure, and as he recently told Games Radar about a second season, “I don’t know, man.” He then added, “Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was b*tching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f*cking wanted it to be finished… I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’”

After the finale, how does Farrell feel in light of the show’s growing ratings and following positive reception? He sounded much more open in retrospect while talking to Hollywood Reporter:

“If there’s a great idea [for season two], and the writing was really muscular and as strong or stronger on the page than it was the first season, of course I would do it.”

Farrell then added that the initial critical response to the series was of course nice, but “I’ve been around long enough [to know] that it’s the audience who are really the most important critics.” In other words, being “back by popular demand” could actually happen. Maybe he’ll be able to avoid reliving that crotch prosthetic if the show continues? As a compromise.

With that said, HBO has not yet announced a second The Penguin season, but surely, that remains an option.

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The 2024 Emirates NBA Cup Groups And Format, Explained

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The NBA’s efforts to add a little excitement to the doldrums of its regular season will return on Tuesday evening. For the second straight year, the league will hold its new cup competition, now known as the Emirates NBA Cup. The first year was fun, with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the whole thing by knocking off the Indiana Pacers in Las Vegas, and now, the NBA will continue its efforts to turn this nascent event into a crucial part of its calendar.

What does this all mean? Well, we tried to answer that today by explaining what’s new this year, how the whole thing will work, and why we’re excited to watch this as it tries to become a tentpole event on the NBA calendar.

So is this just the In-Season Tournament but with a new name?

It is! While the NBA has never explicitly said this, my assumption is that they spent the first year calling it the In-Season Tournament so fans would get a sense of what it is before calling it what they always wanted to call it: The NBA Cup, or more specifically, the Emirates NBA Cup. Or maybe they just couldn’t find a sponsor in the first year.

What’s that Emirates thing? I’ve seen its logo on courts but never actually looked into what it is.

It’s an airline based out of the United Arab Emirates that sponsors a lot of stuff. They’re sponsoring this event, which is the second-best thing that the NBA does, and fortunately, Emirates has plenty of experience sponsoring the second-best thing, as they are the shirt sponsor for Arsenal.

What?

Just let me cook.

Ok, so, any major differences from last year other than the name?

A big one are the courts. Last year, they came under criticism from players (who kept slipping on them) and fans (who thought some were huge eyesores, particularly because of the weird, cumbersome stripe they had going down the middle of the courts). They’re not nearly as bad this year, as they replaced the stripe with rings in the center of the floor and got rid of some of the more abrasive designs that just do not work on television. I’m sure not everyone will love them, but I think they are a huge improvement on last year — we just have to see if players struggle with their footing on them, or else the aesthetic changes do not matter at all.

What about point differential? I know some players disliked that.

Well, that’s still sticking around as a potential tiebreaker for which teams do and do not advance. Frankly, I think it’s fine and we saw last year that some of the European players were trying to egg their teammates on — Domantas Sabonis was the main one I remember — but it’ll still take a bit of a shift for everyone to get on board with it.

Remind me how determining how teams advance will work again?

Sure! Right from the league:

Via NBA.com

So the easiest way to move on is to just win your group and not worry about any tiebreakers.

That is correct.

Well then, what do the groups look like?

Once again, the NBA broke things up into three groups of five teams in each conference — this will, hopefully, look a lot cleaner when expansion happens, we get up to 32 teams, and they can do groups of four in each conference where each team plays group games home and away. The group games will happen on Tuesdays and Fridays starting tonight and running through Dec. 3.

Here’s how it all looks:

West Group A: Minnesota, LA Clippers, Sacramento, Houston, Portland

West Group B: Oklahoma City, Phoenix, LA Lakers, Utah, San Antonio

West Group C: Denver, Dallas, New Orleans, Golden State, Memphis

East Group A: New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Charlotte

East Group B: Milwaukee, Indiana, Miami, Toronto, Detroit

East Group C: Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington

How do these teams qualify for the knockouts?

Same as last year — win your group and you get a spot. Both conferences then get one remaining spot for a wild card team, which goes to the best remaining team that did not automatically qualify by winning its group. This is probably where those aforementioned tiebreakers would come in, but you never know.

And will the knockouts work like last year, too?

Yup! Single-elimination basketball games, with the quarterfinals happening on-site at home arenas and the semifinals and final happening in Las Vegas. The quarters are on Dec. 10 and 11, the semis are on Dec. 14, and the final is on Dec. 17.

And are these games all considered regular season games, too?

For the most part they are — group games, the quarters, and the semis will all count towards regular season records again, while the championship game will not.

So it looks a lot like last year, then.

That’s right, the league has, essentially, decided to keep a lot of things the same other than the name and the courts. Oh, also, as a programming note: home teams will wear their Statement Edition uniforms, while road teams wear their Association edition uniforms, according to the league.

Huh, well then, ok.

You don’t seem enthused about all of this, dear reader.

Yeah, I mean, I am still unsure why I should care about this.

Well that’s easy: You don’t have to! You’re an adult with agency and the ability to care about whatever you want, times are tough, maybe you don’t want to get super personally invested in a new thing the NBA is doing, that’s fine.

But you seem to like this.

I do!

Why?

I think a big split I have noticed here is “fans who like soccer” and “fans who do not,” with the former being more open to the idea of a midseason cup competition — Adam Silver has compared the NBA Cup to the FA Cup in English football, but basically every domestic league has a secondary cup competition.

The thing is that these competitions are universally considered not as important as winning the league, but they are still important because it’s an opportunity to win something historic and provide some validation for a team’s season. The NBA Cup is only in its second year, so clearly, it has a way to go before it gets taken that seriously — the whole saga with the Lakers debating putting up a little banner is an example of this.

But the FA Cup, for example, is not considered cool because everyone farts around and then Manchester City wins it at the end. It’s considered cool because teams from several levels of English football have a chance to win it, and sometimes, you get magical runs to the very end. We got a glimpse of what that could look like last year when the Indiana Pacers nearly won the whole thing. Hell, if not for the fact that they’re the Lakers, it’d probably be viewed as proof of concept that the final was between a Play-In team and an upstart young squad trying to win something for the first time. That is, to steal a phrase from the English, the magic of the cup.

So acknowledging that this isn’t as important as winning the NBA Finals is fine?

One-hundred percent. The longer the NBA sticks with this — and, let’s face it, Silver is essentially staking his legacy as a commissioner on this becoming a big deal — the more likely it is that it’ll settle into a spot where fans/franchises like that it is a thing that they can win, all while understanding that the big prize is still waiting for them in June. It helps, of course, that there’s a financial incentive to do well.

Remind me what that is.

Sure! Players whose teams make the quarterfinals make $50,000, players whose teams make the semifinals make $100,000, players on the runners-up make $200,000, and players on the team that wins the whole thing makes $500,000.

Nice.

I agree.

Anyway, this sounds like, bare minimum, a thing I can have on my television on Tuesdays and Fridays.

It is, and really, if that’s all that comes from this for the next year or two, that’s totally fine. Something like this will only become a big deal the more it happens and the more it becomes ingrained as part of the sport’s culture, and as long as this year is a step towards doing that, I’m sure it’ll all work out in the long-run.

Nice. Well, I suppose I can tune in.

That you can, and if you want to know what games are on, when they’re on, and which networks they’ll be on, you can click right here.