Category: Viral

It’s hard to keep track of all the Yellowstone spin-offs. There’s the one with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren; the one without Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren; Lawmen: Bass Reeves, which is actually its own thing even though it’s created by Taylor Sheridan. There’s a few more in there, too, including 2024, which was originally going to star Matthew McCoughney, but he’s reportedly since left the project, which has been retitled to The Madison.

TVLine reports that Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, and Patrick J. Adams are “nearing deals” to star in The Madison, which is “rumored to follow wealthy matriarch Stacy Clyburn and her family as they leave New York City and head to Montana in the wake of her husband and brother-in-law’s tragic deaths in a plane crash.” Yup, sounds like a Taylor Sheridan show.

Here’s more:

Last fall, Paramount Network ordered to series the then-titled 2024, a Yellowstone sequel that was to star Matthew McConaughey and possibly feature Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser, and Luke Grimes reprising their roles of Beth Dutton, Rip Wheeler, and Kayce Dutton, respectively. It’s unclear whether Russell will be assuming the role that McConaughey was supposed to play or taking on a new character entirely.

It was only last year that McCoughney referred to starring in a Yellowstone spinoff as “an awesome vacation,” but it sounds like things might have gone sour between the Oscar winner and Sheridan. “Matthew doesn’t particularly like behind-the-scenes drama,” an insider said. Another possible explanation is that McCoughney wanted too much money.

Will we ever know? Maybe not. But hey, Kurt Russell!

(Via TVLine)

In every relationship we’ll ever have, there’s going to be a final conversation. Before the digital age, these interactions were usually face-to-face or over the telephone and could only be recorded in our memories. But now, just about every relationship leaves a paper trail of text messages, social media interactions, and voice messages. Sometimes the final communication is a heated breakup, and other times, it’s a casual interaction shortly before a person’s death.

Now, there’s a blog that collects these haunting final messages. The Last Message Received contains submissions of the last messages people received from ex-friends or ex-significant others as well as from deceased friends and relatives. Here are some of the blog’s most haunting posts.

“My good friend’s dad died around Thanksgiving. Two weeks later he drank himself to death.”

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“This is the last text I got from my mom before she died of Stage IV brain cancer at the age of 53. It left her completely paralyzed on the left side of her body, hence the typos in the texts. What she was saying was, ‘You’re missing music therapy.’ Almost as good as Good Friday church giggles.’ A few years prior to this, we went to the Good Friday service at our church. The choir was absolutely horrendous and couldn’t sing whatsoever. She and I sat there, in the most serious, somber church service of all, laughing hysterically, unable to stop for the life of us. She sent me this text while she was in hospice and I was at school.”

“This happened a few months back. He was my best friend and my boyfriend of 7 years. He stuck with me when I fell pregnant at 16 after I was raped. He became an actual dad to my son. He was my everything. A few months before this message, things started to change, we drifted apart and he was telling my 5 year old son to lie to me about his whereabouts. One night he beat me, I ended up in hospital for a few days. He begged for forgiveness, I stayed. It happened again a few days later, he was at work when I text him. I took my son and left. This is the last text I received from him. I heard last week that he’s just been sent to prison for crimes involving violence and drugs. I hope he gets the help he needs.”

“My dad died 6 weeks later flying the plane in this picture.”

“The last text he sent me. The next day I got a call from his daughter that he was still very much with his wife and I wasn’t the only one he was cheating on her with.”

“She had sent me a message earlier asking me not to contact her anymore. I woke up to one last message. We’d dated for 3.5 years and when I came out as trans, the relationship fell apart. I still think about and miss her every day.”

“I sent this to my grandpa on thanksgiving. Two days later he unexpectedly had a heart attack and passed. He was my favorite person in the world and nothing has been the same since. I refuse to delete this message.”

“I would have fallen in love with her if distance and timing hadn’t gotten in the way. I’m ignoring her because I need to let her move on.”

This article originally appeared on 05.25.19

The hottest ticket in Paris on Thursday was the women’s gymnastics all-around competition, as everyone wanted to see Simone Biles return to the Olympics all-around after withdrawing in Tokyo. Biles delivered for the sold-out crowd, earning gold after huge scores on vault, beam, and floor mitigated a brief bobble on the uneven bars. She beat out Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who authored an incredible performance of her own to win a second straight Olympic silver in the all-around, with 2021 gold medalist Suni Lee taking bronze.

Among the many stars and celebrities in attendance on Thursday at the gymnastics arena were members of the USA men’s basketball team, who took advantage of their day off in Paris to watch the GOAT in action.

Like everyone who watches Biles, they were blown away by the power and athleticism of her routines, with Kevin Durant coming away with the belief that Biles could absolutely finish an alley-oop lob with her bounce.

Biles routinely gets 12 feet off the ground during her floor exercise, which is aided by the springy floor, but her power in getting off the ground is truly remarkable. Whether she could get to the rim 10 feet off the ground jumping off a basketball court instead of a gymnastics floor, well, we’d have to see her try it, but I wouldn’t put anything past the GOAT.

For the past day, it sure has looked like Charli XCX and Billie Eilish are linking up on a collaboration. Specifically, Charli teased a remix of her Brat song “Guess,” and while the featured artist wasn’t revealed, the clues pointed to Eilish. Now we know for sure, as Charli made the Eilish reveal in a new teaser video shared today (August 1).

In the 12-second video, Charli says, “Hey Billie, you there?” Then there’s a clip of Charli striking poses in a disheveled, dimly lit room before the video ends on a shot of Charli and Eilish falling onto a bed of bras. The song is set to premiere tonight at 6 p.m. ET.

As an Eilish fan account on X (formerly Twitter) points out, Eilish and Finneas seemingly spoke about the “Guess” remix in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in May. Eilish said, “I did a session with another artist for the first time in six years […] a couple weeks ago. And it was really fun, and I was really nervous ’cause I haven’t worked with anyone but Finneas in six years. And I hated it back in the day. I really, really hated it. I hated studios, I hated collaborating. I’ve never done a feature.”

Finneas also offered more details about how the meet-up came to be, saying, “This was, to me, such a fun part of being in the music business. Billie was sitting and telling me why she loved this one artist. We were watching their music videos together, and I know them, and I was texting them, and I was like, ‘We’re sitting here watching your stuff. It’s so good.’ They were like, ‘I’m in LA.’ I was like, ‘Do you want to do a day?’” Finneas then added through laughter, “Billie tried to get out of it like three times.”

Check out the teaser above.

Tinashe’s “Nasty” became an Uproxx “Song Of The Summer” candidate, and now, she’s coming for Album Of The Summer.

Quantum Baby is due out on August 16. When Tinashe dropped “Getting No Sleep” in late June, she described the album as “exploring who I am as a person and who I am as an artist. I’ve never been one to be put into a box, so the name Quantum Baby encompasses all the different parts that make up who I am as a creative.”

On Thursday, August 1, Tinashe revealed the album’s tracklist, as seen below.

1. “Tina.Sh3 / No Simulation”
2. “Getting No Sleep”
3. “Thirsty”
4. “Red Flags”
5. “Cross That Line”
6. “When I Get You Alone”
7. “No Broke Boys”
8. “Nasty”

Quantum Baby will arrive just short of a year since Tinashe released BB/ANG3L, her sixth studio album. This spring, Tinashe told Paper that “BB/ANG3L was always intended to be a trilogy, with Quantum Baby serving as the part two.

“I wanted to release it in three parts just to give people a real sense of what every section meant and really allow them all to marinate,” she told the publication. “Sometimes, you create music, and it just gets consumed so quickly. You spend years working on this art. And so, I wanted to pace myself in how I was releasing and drop it in three parts. I think, initially, people were kind of confused as to why the first part of the project was seven songs and didn’t understand that there was more coming. So I’m excited to release part two coming up.”

Quantum Baby is out 8/16 via Nice Life. Find more information here.

Keanu Reeves is a spiritual man. Despite his roles in very violent movies and his rock and roll lifestyle, the actor always finds time to quietly offer some grounding wisdom and knowledge. So a play about the existence of God and the afterlife is actually right up his alley! Add in his buddy Alex Winter, and we finally have Bill and Ted’s Existentialist Adventure.

The Bill and Ted co-stars are set to reunite for next year’s Broadway adaption of Waiting for Godot, based on Samuel Beckett’s 1953 play which follows two men engaging in discussions and reflections on life while waiting for the titular Godot. Reeves will play Estragon and Winter will play Vladimir in this play, which is set to open at an ATG theater in fall 2025. This will be Reeves’ Broadway debut, while Winter has been on the stage numerous times over the years.

“We’re incredibly excited to be on stage together and work with the great Jamie Lloyd in one of our favorite plays,” the two Bill and Ted stars said in a statement. Reeves and Winter last teamed up in 2020 for Bill & Ted Face The Music, the third installment in the Bill & Ted universe.

Jamie Lloyd also released a statement: “It is a real honor to be collaborating with the brilliant Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter on Samuel Beckett’s sublime masterpiece — one of the greatest plays of all time.” Further details, including the dates, are set to be announced soon.

The good news about Waiting for Godot is that there are no potentially violent stunts, so Keanu should be safe from any potential injuries.

(Via Variety)

A group of 105 homeless people gathered at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Each of them was given a disposable camera and told to take pictures that represent “my London.”

The photos were entered in an annual contest run by London-based nonprofit Cafe Art, which gives homeless artists the chance to have their work displayed around the city and, for some of the photographers who participate in the yearly challenge, in a print calendar.

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“Some people have had experience, and others have never picked up a camera before,” said Paul Ryan, co-director of Cafe Art.

The program, Ryan explained, includes mentorship and training from professional volunteers at the Royal Photographic Society, including winners of the contest from previous years, many of whom are ultimately inducted into the society.

The goal of the challenge is to help participants gain the confidence to get back on the job market, search for housing, re-engage with their social circles, or even activate dormant skills.

“I really enjoyed it. And I started to get involved in my art again, which I’d left for years,” a 2015 participant said in a video for the organization’s Kickstarter campaign.

These are 11 of the top vote-getters from this year’s contest:

1. Ella Sullivan — “Heart Bike Rack”

2. Alana Del Valle — “London Bus with Sculpture”

3. Beatrice — “Out of the Blue”

4. Laz Ozerden — “What Now?”

5. Leo Shaul — “The Coffee Roaster”

6. Christopher McTavish — “St. Paul’s in Reflection”

7. Hugh Gary — “London Calling”

8. Keith Norris — “Watching Mannequin”

9. Siliana — “After the Rain”

10. Saffron Saidi — “Graffiti Area”

11. Jackie Cook — “Underground Exit”

Ryan, who has been developing the program for seven years, said that while there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for individuals who are homeless, for some who are too used to being “knocked back,” the experience of seeing their work on display or in print — and of success — can be invaluable.

“Everyone is helped in a different way, to get up to the next step in whatever way they need to.”

This article originally appeared on 08.17.16

A breastfeeding mother’s experience at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo is touching people’s hearts—but not without a fair amount of controversy.

Gemma Copeland shared her story on Facebook, which was then picked up by the Facebook page Boobie Babies. Photos show the mom breastfeeding her baby next to the window of the zoo’s orangutan habitat, with a female orangutan sitting close to the glass, gazing at them.

“Today I got feeding support from the most unlikely of places, the most surreal moment of my life that had me in tears,” Copeland wrote.

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“I visited Schoenbrunn zoo in Vienna whilst on a mini-break with my partner and son. We nipped in to see the orangutans at the end of our day who were happily playing in the enclosure, so I went to the window for a closer look and sat down by the window so my lb could see the orangutan who was roughly 5/6ft away. She then got up, carried a piece of cloth to the window and sat down with me. She looked directly into my eyes then placed her hand up as if to touch my son. I was in awe of this beautiful creature already.“

“My son wanted feeding and as it was quiet I fed him whilst I sat there. The way the orangutan reacted took my breath away she kept looking at me, then my son then back again,” she continued. “She sat with me for approximately half an hour, kept stroking the glass and lay down next to me as if to support and protect me.

I had to share this because my mind was blown. We may be a species apart but breastfeeding connected us today in a once in a lifetime moment that will stay with me forever. I’m also incredibly lucky that my partner caught all of this on video 💕”

The Facebook page added a story about a gorilla being taught to breastfeed by women from La Leche League, an organization dedicated to supporting breastfeeders:

“Did you know that women from La Leche League once taught a mother gorilla to breastfeed? The Mamma gorilla had been born and raised in captivity and didn’t know what to do with her firstborn, and her baby sadly died. When she next became pregnant, breastfeeding women volunteered to sit beside the gorilla’s enclosure and breastfeed their babies, showing the gorilla what to do. When the gorilla gave birth, a volunteer came over and breastfed her baby, showing Mamma gorilla what to do, step by step. Mamma gorilla watched, and then copied, and went on to successfully feed her baby “

The story has been shared more than 37,000 times, with many commenters stating how beautiful and moving it was. Others, while appreciating the beauty of the animal encounter, expressed sadness at seeing such a creature in captivity. As with practically every post about animals in zoos, debate broke out over whether or not zoos are helpful or harmful to the animals they house.

And like most debates, people’s opinions fall along a broad spectrum. Some feel that zoos are the best way for people to learn about animals first-hand, which leads them to care more about protecting them in the wild. Some acknowledge that captivity isn’t ideal, but that many animals die individually or go extinct as species without the work they do. Some feel that it’s always wrong to keep an animal in captivity, no matter what. Even animal experts don’t agree on this front.

And not all zoos are created equal. Many zoos have moved more toward a rehabilitation and conservation model, and there’s no question that many animals who have been raised in captivity would not survive if they were suddenly released into the wild. There’s also the issue of whether trying to limit natural breeding in captivity falls under the ethical treatment of animals, as breeding is a natural animal instinct. And what about the animals that have gone extinct in the wild and can only be found in zoos? There are a million questions with a million unclear answers when it comes to zoos.

However there is one thing most can agree on. Whether or not you think zoos are helpful or harmful, necessary or not, they largely exist today because of human activity mucking with nature. The same nature that compels this creature to connect with a human mother, despite her unnatural surroundings. The same nature that humans are destroying to get palm oil for our cookies and soaps, leading orangutans to the brink of extinction. The same nature that we are all responsible for protecting.

Whether we find this story sweet or sad or something in between, the reality for orangutans in the wild is worth our attention. Visit www.theorangutanproject.org/ to learn more about how to help.

This article originally appeared on 10.04.22

Warning: The following video contains disturbing imagery.

Security camera footage out of Thailand is a warning to people everywhere about the importance of making sure children are safe around pools. It’s also a wonderful story about a toddler being brave and looking out for her younger sister.

Kana Kanuengnit, 3, and 2-year-old Kaning were hanging around their family’s pool in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand on Friday, April 1 when the incident happened. Their father, 29-year-old Apisit, was watching the kids while their mother was inside the house.

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“I was sweeping near the pool and my wife was cooking in the kitchen behind the house,” he said according to Yahoo. “We weren’t planning for any pool activities so I didn’t notice what was happening. But after a moment of me sweeping with my back to the pool, my younger daughter fell into the pool.”

Kaning fell into the 4-foot-deep pool and immediately struggled to keep her head above water. Her older sister, Kana, realized she was in danger and immediately called out to her father, whose back was still turned while he swept near some patio furniture.

The girl screamed to her father that Kaning was in the pool and quickly sprang into action.

“I didn’t know what to do, I forgot to think about my phone and things in my pocket. I threw it all and just jumped in the pool,” Apisit said. The father was fast on his feet and pulled his daughter out of the pool before she sank to the bottom. We’re pretty sure the father could care less about his phone knowing that his daughter is safe.

Apisit hopes that the harrowing video serves as a warning for parents everywhere. “I think this is a great example to remind people that you cannot take your eyes off even for a split second when there are children and water,” he said.

“I want to stress this to parents with small kids and a pool to put up a barrier around the pool if not, they should always be careful,” he added.

The story brings to mind one that Upworthy covered in the 2020. A 3-year-old boy named Henrique in Rio de Janeiro snuck away from his parents and was playing poolside with another child his age named Arthur.

In the video, Henrique is seen stretching to grab an inflatable toy and then falls into the pool. For 10 seconds Henqriue struggles to keep his head above water until Arthur bravely extends his hand and pulls the boy up. If Arthur didn’t have the strength, he could have fallen into the pool and both boys may have died.

Summer is coming up and kids will be playing in or around pools. Every year, around 400 children aged 15 and younger die in a pool or spa incident. Three-quarters of those deaths involve children younger than 5, and 83% of those occur in residential pools.

Three rules every parent should follow:

1. Never leave a child in or near water unattended.

2. Make sure there are barriers around your pool or spa to prevent unsupervised children from getting into the water.

3. Learn how to perform CPR on children and adults.

This story originally appeared on 04.08.22

The names we choose to give our children can significantly impact their lives. Multiple studies from across the globe have found that a person’s name can influence their employment, social and economic outcomes.

Unfortunately, humans make snap judgments about one another, and having an unusual name can lead people to make unflattering assumptions. “We’re hardwired to try to figure out in a heartbeat whether or not we want to trust somebody, whether we want to run from somebody,” Northwestern University researcher David Figlio said, according to Live Science.

However, an increasing number of parents are giving their children non-traditional names to help them stand out. “Parents are trying to be original, almost branding their kids in an era where names are viewed on the same level as Twitter handles or a website URL,” writer Sabrina Rogers-Anderson said.

Ruby, a mother on TikTok, took a hard stance on parents giving their children names that sound childish in a post that’s received over 11 million views. Ruby says she named her kids as “adults, not babies” hoping they would never “outgrow” their names.

@rubyyvillarreal

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“The whole concept when I was trying to look for a name and choose a name for her is I did not want her to outgrow her name,” she said in the viral video. “I wanted the name to fit her as a baby, as a toddler, as a child, and into adulthood. So, it’s like I really am happy with what I ended up with naming her and it just fits her so well.”

She captioned the video, “love having nicknames as they are younger and it doesn’t mean they will prefer it over their name as they get older. Just gives them options.”

People in the comments responded with modern names they think that kids will outgrow.

“My name is Koazy and I’m here for a job interview,” Stalker joked. “Hello sir, I am Bluey Mason Garrison! I was called in for a job interview last Tuesday,” Pastel Purr added.

“I can’t imagine knowing [a] 30-year-old named Emma or Posie,” Mikey wrote.

However, a lot of people commented that names that seem like they’ll be outgrown will sound fine in the future when those names are popular with the new generation. “Kids grow up with their generation having their own names on trend. They will be normal adult names when they are grown,” Kerry wrote.

“Names grow with the generation,” Lauren added. “The name Dennis sounded like a baby name once too. Names grow up just like generations.”

@rubyyvillarreal

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In a follow-up video, Ruby shared the names she gave her children. Her girl is named Karla Esmerelda and her boy is called Deluca.

“I just really liked how simple, how bold, and strong that the name by itself just really kind of is. Doing some research names with the letter K tend to be like very bold and powerful names, so I really wanted it with a K and not with a C,” she said.

She named her son Deluca, after a doctor on “Grey’s Anatomy.” She said she chose the name because there was nothing to connect it to, and it sounded “nice.”

This article originally appeared on 4.26.23