Category: Viral

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah took San Francisco mayor London Breed to task on Tuesday night after Breed was caught on video without a mask inside a crowded bar where ’90s group Tony! Toni! Toné! was playing. When confronted by the media, Breed provided one of those moments that are an absolute field day for late night comedians like Trevor Noah.

During a news clip, a defiant Breed is shown saying that that it’s a shame that more people aren’t recognizing the “monumental” importance of all of the original members of Tony! Toni! Toné! performing together for the first time in 20 years. To Breed, it’s regrettable their reunion is being lost in all of the coverage of her not wearing a mask. As for why she wasn’t wearing one at the show, Breed says she was eating and drinking with friends, and she was not going to “sip, put my mask on, sip, put my mask on” especially when she’s there to give a good time seeing Tony! Toni! Toné! back together. She couldn’t have teed up The Daily Show host better.

“COVID truly is a mystery virus,” Noah said. “It kills your sense of smell, can make you sick for years, but you can’t catch it when ’90s R&B is playing. Something tells me this thing was made in a lab. Seems too specific.”

“Oh, and as for the mayor,” he continued. “I feel like she’s using some pretty interesting reason there, right? She’s like, ‘I know I said people have to wear masks indoors, but Tony! Toni! Toné! was playing for the first time in 20 years, and I wanted us to kill them.’”

The power of positive thinking is real, Sexy Beasts is returning to Netflix. We did it all with our mind power and our collective want to watch fit people inexplicably and fascinatingly conceal their looks with fantastical character makeup. Something that, frankly, unlocks a best-left-unexplored thirst for what is, essentially, sexy Calico Critters. And right on time for Halloween!

Details are sparse, but the official press release promises six new episodes that will drop on Netflix on October 7. And then it’s just a lot of pictures of new contestants in full costume. Which, if you ask me, sort of blows the lead if you’re coming to the show for its visual wow and not to see the paper-thin reasons people reach for to reject a match. Here are some of those pictures, though, as I am a cog in the great machine, giving people what they want instead of the mystery that they need. These images include a lion cub with a Rachel haircut and a heartbroken rabbit. Enjoy!

One big unanswered question is whether Rob Delaney will return to offer play-by-play. Another: how the show and concept have evolved following a debut season that cobbled together a collection of curious lookie-loos, hate watchers, and ardent fans. Personally, I think you gotta make it so everyone around the couples is also in full makeup and create a whole fairytale forest vibe with where they go on dates. Titillate my sense of fantasy, Netflix. To paraphrase Justin Timberlake, here’s how they should bring sexy (beasts) back: “A million dollars spent on production isn’t cool. You know what is? A billion dollars spent on production.”

Also, let’s up the stakes and keep the losing contestants in their costumes for six months and show them trying to navigate real life as a nymph-y beaver or an armadillo club kid.

Alright, that’s all the free help I can give. Here are a couple more pics for you from season 2.

Once again, Netflix’s Sexy Beasts season 2 debuts on October 7.

St. Vincent and Carrie Brownstein’s new movie The Nowhere Inn has been out for a few days now, and so too has its accompanying soundtrack album. Ahead of both of those releases, St. Vincent shared a title track, which serves as the de facto theme song for the film, and now she has brought the track to Jimmy Kimmel Live! for its debut late-night performance.

In some ways, the performance was similar to the song’s recently released video. In that visual, St. Vincent sings the song and comes face to face with a faceless copy of herself. That’s not quite how the Kimmel performance went, but the band that joined her in playing the song did all wear black St. Vincent-style wigs, presumably to mirror the video in a way that made sense for live television.

St. Vincent recently said of the movie, “I’m so amazed and thrilled that somebody let us… gave us money to make a crazy film about me, sure, but also just about identity and the pitfalls when someone starts to believe in their mythology and floats off into outer space, or becomes craven in an attempt to hold onto their little idea of things.”

Watch St. Vincent perform “The Nowhere Inn” above.

Nightmare Alley is Guillermo del Toro’s first movie since The Shape of Water, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Production Design. This is a big deal because the director starts a lot of movies that don’t get made for one reason or another. He has an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to “unrealized projects” — it’s separated by decade, which is helpful for differentiating that he tried to make a CGI The Wind in the Willows in the 2000s and an “untitled Van Helsing project” in the 2010s.

Del Toro was recently tagged in a tweet along with James Gunn and Edgar Wright about how many screenplays they’ve written that never got made. “By my count I have written or co-written around 33 screenplay features. 2-3 made by others, 11 made by me (Pinocchio in progress) so- about 20 screenplays not filmed,” he responded. “Each takes 6-10 months of work, so, roughly 16 years gone. Just experience and skill improvement.” He’s spent nearly Olivia Rodrigo’s whole life on “unrealized projects.”

We were robbed of a third Hellboy movie. Via Wikipedia:

On July 10, 2008, del Toro expressed his interest in directing a third Hellboy film, saying that he would work on the film after finishing The Hobbit. In 2010, during the production of the unmade At the Mountain of Madness, del Toro mentioned that he would direct Hellboy III after his next project, even though the script was not yet written. However, on July 8, 2013, del Toro said that the film was unlikely to be released, and suggested the possibility of telling its story in comic book form. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola refused to accept the idea.

At least we have Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which both rule.

(Via Guillermo Del Toro on Twitter)

If you want to talk to Bill Gates about megabytes versus gigabytes or Linux’s vulnerabilities, the Microsoft co-founder will be happy to engage. But if you want to see what happens when a human being freezes in the same your sh*tty old PC is always doing, just ask him a question about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

On Tuesday night, PBS News Hour’s Judy Woodruff sat down with the Microsoft co-founder, who is in New York City this week as part of the United Nations General Assembly to address global threats including climate change, COVID-19, and racism. But when the topic turned to Epstein, well, things got painfully cringey—both for Gates and viewers alike.

After more than 10 minutes of niceties, Woodruff turned the topic to Gates’ relationship with Epstein, as Mediaite notes. Here’s how that conversation went:

Woodruff: You had a number of meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, who—when you met him 10 years ago—he was convicted of soliciting prostitution from minors. What did you know about him when you were meeting with him, as you’ve said yourself, in the hopes of raising money?

Gates: You know, I had dinners with him. I regret doing that. He had relationships with people he said would give to global health, which is an interest I have. Not nearly enough philanthropy goes in that direction. Those meetings were a mistake. They didn’t result in what he purported, and I cut them off. You know, that goes back a long time ago now. So there’s nothing new on that.

Woodruff seemed to question that version of events, noting: “It was reported that you continued to meet with him over several years, and [that there were] a number of meetings. What did you do when you found out about his background?

Gates’ response?

Then he just basically repeated himself: “You know, I’ve said I regretted having those dinners, and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing new on that.”

Then came the real kicker:

Woodruff: Is there a lesson? For you—for anyone else looking at this?

Gates: Well, he’s dead, so… Ahhhh… In general, you always have to be careful. Uhhhh…

It’s hard to argue with that: Epstein is dead.

You can watch the super awkward exchange beginning around the 10:50 mark above.

(Via Mediaite)

Earlier this week, BTS popped up at the 76th United Nations General Assembly to perform “Permission To Dance” and discuss vaccines. They are, after all, the “special presidential envoy for future generations and culture,” a formal diplomatic designation bestowed upon them by South Korea president Moon Jae-in. Naturally, the group’s visit was the topic of much discussion, and now James Corden finds himself on the receiving end of some backlash over comments he made on The Late Late Show.

During a monologue after the BTS UN appearance, he cracked some jokes, most of which were innocent, like noting that BTS — who have been on The Late Late Show on numerous occasions — has one of the largest armies (their fan base is known as the BTS Army) in the world. Where he ruffled some feathers, though, was when he said, “Historic moment: It actually marks the first time 15-year-old girls everywhere found themselves withing that they were Secretary-General António Guterres.”

The reaction to Corden’s comments got him trending on Twitter, and one BTS fan summarized the tone of and/or the reason behind the reactions well, writing, “James Corden, as a teenage girl myself I just want to take a moment to say leave us alone. I’m not brainless for liking a boy band, and neither does me liking a boy band invalidate their achievements. Stop using my gender and age as a way of mocking other people and what they do.”

Others took exception with Corden referring to BTS’ appearance as “unusual.” One user pushed back on that characterization, noting that BTS has “dropped millions on donations, voice their views on climate change, and have spoken up about equality of gender, age, and sexual identity.”

Check out some other reactions below.

The death of The Rolling Stones’ legendary drummer Charlie Watts was a difficult blow for the band, their fans, and those close to the musician. Although he already wasn’t slated to head out on tour with the band on their upcoming tour due to health concerns, it still makes the band’s latest stint on the road a very bittersweet one. Perhaps it’s for the best, then, that the band got to try their luck at performing without him during an unofficial private gig tonight.

According to Variety the show was thrown by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and was just a small concert held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. During the set, Mick addressed the fact that it was the band’s first performance in close to sixty years without Charlie keeping time for them. “This is the first show of our 2021 tour, this is it, this is the tryout,” he began. “I must say though, at this point it’s a bit of a poignant night for us: This is our first tour in 59 years that we’ve done without our lovely Charlie Watts. And we all miss Charlie so much.” From there, the band went on to dedicate the entire show to their fallen friend and bandmate. Check out Mick’s speech below.

The Stones tour officially kicks off on September 26 at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Golden State Warriors keep popping up as a potential trade destination for Ben Simmons despite the fact that the team seems adamant that it does not want to make a deal happen. The logic for including them in these conversations is sound: they like stars, Simmons is a star, and as their core is aging, he can serve as a bridge and a featured member of whatever the team looks like in the post-Steph Curry/Klay Thompson/Draymond Green era.

The issue is that the Warriors aren’t especially keen on doing this. While it had been reported in the past, owner Joe Lacob confirmed the team has major reservations about a Simmons deal in an interview with Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle. While he did not specifically name Simmons — he said a “Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Philadelphia” — it’s not hard to read between the lines.

“In some ways, it doesn’t really fit what we’re doing. He makes a lot of money. And, can he finish games? I don’t know,” Lacob said, per ClutchPoints. “He’s very talented. The problem is: We have Draymond. Draymond and him are very similar in the sense that neither one really shoots and they do a lot of the playmaking. That’s one issue. The salary structure is another.”

The fit with Green has been a reason folks bring up while expressing reservations about a Simmons-to-Golden State trade, because while Curry is Curry and Thompson was a flamethrower prior to his back-to-back serious injuries that have kept him out since 2019, two non-shooters negate the advantage that comes here. And while there are avenues for the Warriors to make this trade happen financially, it would be largely dependent on Philly being willing to take Andrew Wiggins back in a deal along with whatever number of young players they’d want.

This trade is a fun hypothetical, and it would certainly not be the first time an executive used the media as a smokescreen before doing the exact thing they said wouldn’t happen if the Warriors choose to go down that route. Having said that, it appears Lacob is steadfast in saying that the team isn’t in the Simmons market right now, and they might not ever end up there.

This year’s Emmys did a bit better in the ratings than the one before. Perhaps that had to do with it mostly being an in-person affair again, with only a few (like The Crown winner Olivia Colman) beaming in from elsewhere. (And no one accepted an award in their basement in a kimono this time.) But it didn’t all go off swimmingly. One of the breakout moments came early on, when presenter Seth Rogen ranted against the show for being indoors, in a “hermetically sealed tent” with a roof.

Now we know two things: a) Rogen went off-script, and b) the show’s producers were pissed. Ian Stewart and Reginald Hudlin gave an exit interview with Variety, and they went off about the ad-libbed screed.

“We have worked for months and months to make that a safe space,” Stewart said. “We’ve worked with all the health authorities. We were signed off by LA County, we came up with a plan with them. Those tables were distanced. Everyone was vaccinated. Everyone was negative tested in that audience. And also he had rehearsed. So he knew exactly what it was. So, I just felt it was an unfortunate misdirect from him. Because it wasn’t just our decision. This is the health authorities’ decision as well, to say that it’s a completely safe environment if you do all those things.”

They tried to put out the fire by asking host Cedric the Entertainer and DJ Reggie Watts to point out all the safety protocols they put in place. But the damage was already done.

“It made three months of very hard work and many, many discussions to get it absolutely right feel a little bit wasted, really,” Stewart says. “And then we just sort of played catch up. Because we wanted the audience to know how safe it was in there. We work in this industry, we’re desperately aware of COVID. I’ve done 50 productions nearly in COVID and no have people get sick. So, it’s deeply frustrating.”

Rogen wasn’t the only one who enraged Stewart and Hudlin. The Queen’s Gambit writer/director/co-creator Scott Frank’s four-minute-plus speech also drew their ire. As Stewart put it:

“It’s a simple equation. These people are professionals. They understand what’s going on, it’s their industry. It’s not a sports awards. So they know what they are doing and the simple fact is, they know there’s only a finite amount of time. I’d love them to be able to speak for half an hour if they wanted to. But we don’t have that time. So it’s a simple equation. If you think that you have to speak for four or five minutes, that means somebody else can’t. It’s just incredibly disrespectful to your fellow nominees.”

One smaller headache: The show ran so long — almost three-and-a-half hours — that they wound up cutting a pre-taped bit that included Bernie Sanders. But there were lots of things that, to them, went well. They had nothing but praise for Conan O’Brien randomly heckling TV Academy CEO Frank Scherma as he tried to give a speech, though they did struggle to get a shot of the late night legend as he loudly shouted. “I love those moments, that’s what we love as producers,” Stewart said. “When those things happen that you didn’t know was going to happen. And you know he was only doing it in good humor.”

Oh, and Rita Wilson rapping, which puzzled a lot of viewers? That was Hudlin’s idea.

(Via Variety)

When all else fails, sue. That’s long been Donald Trump’s philosophy. Last year, after he lost re-election by several million votes, he clogged the courts with lawsuits, most (if not all) of them frivolous, most (if not all) of them laughed out of the room. (Meanwhile, he and many of his associates are facing genuine legal peril.) So when he filed lawsuits against his niece (and frequent critic), Mary Trump, as well as The New York Times, all the former could do was laugh.

Donald’s case, as reported by The Daily Beast? It alleges that Mary, who wrote a bestselling takedown of her uncle, was coerced by the paper to “smuggle records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to The Times.” The findings were made public in the 2018 story that revealed how little he’d paid in federal income taxes, which he’d previously refused to disclose. Mary’s actions, the suit alleges, is in violation of confidentiality agreement she signed in 2001. Trump is seeking “an amount to be determined at trial, but believed to be no less than One Hundred Million Dollars” from both parties.

It’s not the first time Mary Trump has been sued for saying or doing mean things against her uncle. A suit filed on behalf of the former president last year tried to stop her book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. That did not work, as per the Beast:

Judge Hal Greenwald ruled in that case that the 2001 confidentiality agreement had been too vaguely defined to stop her from writing about the sitting president and noted that her publisher had not been a signatory to that agreement. Robert Trump died in August 2020.

But Mary doesn’t appear to be worried. “I think he is a f*cking loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can,” Mary told the Beast about her uncle’s new suit. “It’s desperation. The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that will stick. As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”

In the meantime, guess who’s already in the midst of suing Donald Trump? Mary Trump. Shortly after Too Much and Never Enough was published, she filed a lawsuit against him; his sister, retired federal appeals court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry; as well as the executor of his brother Robert Trump’s estate. She accused them of fraud, claiming they’d stolen millions from her after death of her father, Frederick Trump Jr., in 1981. One guess on which lawsuit will likely hold water.

(Via The Daily Beast)