Category: Viral

Billie Eilish famously posed for some uncharacteristically revealing lingerie photos for Vogue recently, to go along with an accompanying feature story. In the piece, Eilish anticipated some backlash to the shoot and insisted that she didn’t care about being perceived as a hypocrite for going with a new clothing style. Now she has clapped back at haters by co-signing a viral post in support of her.

In a recent Instagram Story (as NME notes), Eilish shared an Instagram post from writer Emily Clarkson, which has over 650,000 likes as of this post. In it, Clarkson posted a screenshot of a Daily Mail article that was titled, “‘Proof that money can make you change your values and sell out’: Billie Eilish shocks fans by swapping baggy clothes for lingerie in Vogue – despite years of vowing to ‘hide her body’.” However, Clarkson crossed out “Proof that money can make you change your values and sell out” and added, “proof that women can change their minds and reclaim autonomy over their own bodies. She also crossed out “bowing to ‘hide her body’” and replaced it with, “of being an actual child.”

In her lengthy caption, she decried the article and threw her full support behind Eilish, writing:

“oop, fixed it for ya xxxx

honestly where do you start on this?? We collectively GASPED at the strength emanating from Billie in those vogue images. Full f*cking POWER a woman standing up with total body autonomy and showing herself to the world in the way that SHE wanted to.

She hid her body for years because she didn’t want to be sexualised. She made this decision when she was a CHILD. Because she knew what grownups can be like. These decisions are ones we have all made – “‘chool skirts mustnt be too short or else they’ll distract the boys!!’ She went to those lengths because she had to. But this society – this perverted, f*cked up place, couldn’t let that be and they hounded her until they got photos of her body which they published without her consent. Those photos BLEW UP! The news was everywhere. Woman has body!!! It was like she asked us not to sexualise her and they took it as a challenge.

and now she’s a legal adult and she’s made another decision because that is what grownups are allowed to do (!!!!) and all of a sudden she’s a hypocrite going back on herself (note use of the word VOW, implying she’s committing some mortal sin and letting her fans down). An EXTRAORDINARY accusation when you really think about the fact she is literally 19. I didn’t wanna be sexualised in my school uniform (it happened anyway) but because of that I’m not allowed to ever claim any autonomy over my own body or embrace any sort of femininity?? What an extraordinary way to manipulate quite a reasonable request. This society is nuts. Keep an eye on it x”

Check out Clarkson’s post below.

John Oliver largely took a break from politics and lambasting the likes of Tucker Carlson on Sunday night. Actually, he did so after some breezy introductory coverage on voter suppression bills, and then he veered in a sharply different direction for his deep-dive segment on Black hair.

Of course, the Last Week Tonight host knows that he’s not the right person to explain Black hair. He knows that he can lay out the facts about how Black people have been (historically) subject to discrimination and punitive actions regarding their natural hair. This is the case even after the 1970s and the embrace of the natural hair movement, during which “Black hair’s natural texture and culturally significant styles had become a radical act of self-acceptance and political power.” However and as Oliver notes, “White people’s discomfort and ignorance around Black hair has very much remained.” So, Oliver enlisted some experts at the end of the deep dive (around the 22:00 mark).

First, the host included panels and audio recordings (including calls to hair salons, in which white stylists professed their utter ignorance on working with Black hair). To further compound matters, Oliver highlighted how some stores place products for Black hair within protective cases alongside the freely grabbable products for white hair. However, Oliver noted that The CROWN Act, which has been passed in a handful of states, prohibits discrimination based upon race-based hairstyles. That would include braids, locs, dreadlocks, yet furthermore, as Oliver emphasizes, “Black hair shouldn’t be viewed or corralled by white people. White people really don’t need to have an opinion on it and our laws should reflect that.”

In the end, Oliver kept with his stance that he shouldn’t be the one delivering the final word on Black hair. As such, he brought on a few guests (Leslie Jones, Craig Robinson, and Uzo Aduba) to tell white viewers where they can learn about Black hair:

“F*cking Google it.”

That’s straight-up. “It can be f*cking Bing, YouTube, Wikipedia. I don’t give a sh*t,” Jones elaborated. A few short moments prior, Robinson and Aduba had explained that there are questions that can, in fact, be answered by Google, like “what does a do-rag do?” and “how often do you have to wash black hair?” Jones further added, “Once you get the information, you can appreciate all the beauty and hard work it takes to keeping my hair laid and looking good.”

Don’t want to Google it? Jones delivers an alternative course of action: “F*cking off is always an option.” Enough said.

Space Jam: A New Legacy might have Daffy and Porky Pig, but it’s another movie coming out in 2021 that’s the true spiritual successor to the Looney Tunes. The teaser trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage begins with Venom preparing breakfast for Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy. It’s pure slapstick nonsense, something you might see in a cartoon with Bugs and Yosemite Sam, which is to say, it’s great. It’s the most overtly comedic moment in the trailer — outside of Eddie convincing Venom that, no, he shouldn’t eat the store clerk — but the rest of the footage looks great, too.

We’re introduced to serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), who’s been thinking about Eddie. “Because you and I are the same. Every decision we ever make, who do we leave behind? And how do we leave them?” Cletus enters the Ravencroft Institute (it’s to the Spider-Man as Arkham Asylum is to Batman), but he leaves as Carnage, Venom’s archenemy. “Welcome back, Eddie Brock. It’s been a long time,” Cletus says. “Missed you so much.” Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Tom Hardy returns to the big screen as the lethal protector Venom, one of MARVEL’s greatest and most complex characters. Directed by Andy Serkis, the film also stars Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, and Woody Harrelson, in the role of Cletus Kasady/Carnage.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens on September 24. Watch the first trailer above.

Event organizers are confident that the pandemic is finally starting to see itself out, as they’ve been planning concerts and festivals, mostly for towards the end of 2021. Now Slowthai has decided to get into the festival game, as he is launching his own, Happyland.

The event, presented with Goldenvoice (the folks behind big events like Coachella), will take place on September 25 at County Cricket Club in Northhampton, UK. Alongside Slowthai, the inaugural lineup also features Beabadoobee, Idles, Easy Life, Ethan P. Flynn, Greentea Peng, Izzie Gibbs, Pa Salieu, and Shygirl.

A statement accompanying the announcement reads, “Happyland with happy folk. The place where we can laugh and joke. The place you can be yourself without judgment, expectations and impressions of someone else. The space from the shackles of the everyday. The mountain where we climb to runaway. Imagine what you’ve never had when you come to Happyland… you will never be sad.”

He also wrote while sharing the news, “starting my own festival in my hometown!!! NN to the world… this has been a dream of mine forever. i’ll see you at the happyland.”

When it comes time for the festival, the rapper could have some new music out, as he said earlier this year he was making great progress on his next album.

Happyland tickets go on sale on May 14, so learn more about the festival here.

I have watched every single episode in The Walking Dead universe. In ten years, we have seen an episode that ended with multiple heads found on spikes. We have seen a man beat two beloved characters to death with a baseball bat, and then we saw that same man have sex with a woman while the two wore nothing but faces sliced off of corpses. We have seen a son kill his mother after she gave birth to his sister. We have seen some super messed up things over the last decade, and while this week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead may not have been as brutal as some of those episodes, it was definitely one of the darkest. It may have also been the most gut-punchiest — it was one of those episodes where it looked like they were going to slug you in the face, but as soon as you dodged the blow, Fear kicked you in the stomach and then kneed you in the nose when you fell to the ground.

Much of “In Dreams” is a dream sequence that unfolds in the mind of Grace. Like most people, I rolled my eyes when I realized the episode was a long dream, which is basically the moment the episode begins and Grace is saved by Athena, who we quickly learn is the teenage version of the baby to whom Grace is about to give birth. In the real world, Grace has been hurt — a car bomb orchestrated by the Mole People blew up near her — and she’s unconscious but in labor.

In her dream vision of the future, however, Grace not only meets her daughter (who saves her life several times) but also sees a white-haired Morgan and sees that his community has not only survived but thrived. Sherry and Dwight reunited and have two kids. June is the local doctor. Daniel and Strand are close friends. Grace also learns in this vision of the future that she dies in childbirth — she sees her own gravestone — but that everyone rallies around her daughter, Athena, and that solidarity is what allows the community to flourish.

Over the course of this vision, Grace understands that her death in childbirth, though tragic, will ultimately serve the greater good. Her daughter Athena (played spectacularly by Sahana Srinivasan) will be an inspirational figure for the community. By the end of the episode, we (the audience) have come to terms with Grace’s death knowing that — at least in her vision of the future — everything turns out well. Losing actress Karen David, however, will be a hard pill to swallow for fans of the series, but before the end of the episode, we make peace with it.

That’s when Fear pulls the rug out from under us. While Grace is unconscious and in labor, Morgan in the present reality is trying to revive her while also fending off Riley and the Mole people, who want the key to the submarine that Morgan has around his neck. Morgan is trapped inside of a barn with Grace, whose subconscious finally convinces her near the end of the episode to wake up and deliver the baby because that baby is going to grow up to be Athena and save Morgan’s community.

Morgan, meanwhile, is able to kill most of The Mole people, except for Riley (who Morgan shoots in the shoulder but for some reason allows to live), who returns and holds a gun to Grace’s head and demands the key. Because of the vision that Grace had of her daughter wearing the key and telling her, “It was the price of peace,” Grace tells Morgan to give up the key. She believes, based on her dream, that everything is going to be OK.

Everything will not be OK.

After Riley leaves, Grace gives birth to Athena, and we steel ourselves for Grace’s death, as predicted in her vision. But she doesn’t die. Are we going to get a miracle ending where Grace and the baby both survive? No. Instead, Grace gives birth to a stillborn baby, which Morgan delivers but cannot revive. Grace is inconsolably sad. Morgan is traumatized. Grace will survive because her baby, Athena, apparently absorbed all of the radiation in her body, which killed the baby before its first breath.

“I don’t understand,” Morgan mumbles while Grace sobs. “I don’t understand.”

“What I saw,” Grace says, “they weren’t my last moments. They were hers.

“I thought it was going to be different,” she continues. “But it was just a dream.”

In creative writing classes, they always say to never end a story with a character waking up and realizing it was all a nightmare. But this is different. This is a character waking up from a dream only to realize that reality is her worst nightmare. It’s a brutal ending.

The episode leaves us a lot to process, but Karen David (and Sahana Srinivasan) should be commended for their remarkable performances, and Andrew Chambliss, Ian Goldberg, and Nazrin Choudhury should be both commended and cursed for writing one of the best but most devastating episodes in the history of The Walking Dead universe. It’s also one more reason why the sixth season of Fear the Walking Dead may be one of the best if not the best season in all of The Walking Dead.

‘Fear The Walking Dead’ airs on Sunday nights at 9:00pm EST.

Tom Cruise has scaled the world’s tallest building, held his breathe underwater for six-and-a-half minutes, climbed a mountain, hung off the side of a plane, and piloted a helicopter during an aerial chase sequence, all for our entertainment. Thank you, Tom. But the next Mission: Impossible will have his “most dangerous” stunt yet.

That’s according to Empire magazine, which spoke to Cruise about the death-defying sequence in M:I 7 — it involves riding a motorcycle off of a cliff, as one does. “If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp. The helicopter [filming the stunt] was a problem, because I didn’t want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the bike,” he said. “I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that’s not going to end well.”

“If I do, that’s not going to end well” is true for most stunts, but especially this one.

Yes, that small dot (in the Getty photo) is Tom Cruise. It took “months” to train for the motorcycle cliff dive (good song title), but the actor was just happy to return to set following a delay due to the pandemic. “All those emotions were going through my mind,” he said (not a reference to his on-set tirade). “I was thinking about the people I work with, and my industry. And for the whole crew to know that we’d started rolling on a movie was just a huge relief. It was very emotional, I gotta tell you.”

Mission: Impossible 7 comes out May 27, 2022.

(Via Empire)

What’s even better than a cameo from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin on an episode of American Idol? A whole host of contestants singing Coldplay songs, too. Tonight’s episode of the long-standing singing competition show was devoted to the British group entirely, with all seven competitors selecting a song from the band’s massive catalogue to sing. Contestants chose some of the band’s best-known work, selecting tracks like “Paradise,” “Everglow,” “Magic,” “Fix You,” “Yellow,” “Violet Hill,” and “In My Place.”

The band’s frontman, Chris Martin, was also involved with mentoring for the episode, and a performance of his own, joining the whole band for the first television performance of their brand new single, “Higher Power.” The Max Martin-produced track was debuted late last week via a space station encounter with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. And despite its intergalactic debut, and American Idol inclusion, the song and its potential album follow-up have already irritated Lady Gaga fans, who think the fictional planet of “Kaotica” sounds a little too close to Chromatica.

Well, you can’t win ’em all right? Check out the band’s performance above and keep your ears out for more info on their not announced but not not announced new record. Odds that the album’s title will be announced as Kaotica are ever in our favor.

Fox News isn’t all bad. On one hand they let Tucker Carlson spew all manner of nonsense — racist conspiracy theories, lies about the 2020 election, defenses of the failed but fatal insurrection of Jan. 6. Then again, they do have Chris Wallace, one of their only employees who dares deviate from the Republican line. He stood up to Trump himself, so naturally he wasn’t afraid to let a lowly GOP congressman have it.

That lawmaker was Indiana representative Jim Banks, one of the key figures in the House who’ve called for Liz Cheney’s ouster because she doesn’t buy Trump’s lies. On Matthews’ show on Sunday, Banks tried to defend his attempt to remove from her position of power, claiming her continued criticism of the disgraced former president had become “an unwelcome distraction,” and that she’s failed to unite the party in trying to take back Congress in 2022.

But Matthews wasn’t buying it . He decided to ask him something point-blank: Does he believe Joe Biden legitimately won the presidency? Like many in the GOP who believe what he does, Banks tried to dodge the question.

“Yes, Joe Biden was elected. He was inaugurated on January 20,” Banks replied, dancing around the question.

But Wallace kept pressing, asking him, “Do you still question whether or not Joe Biden won the election fair and square and got over 270 electoral votes, fair and square?”

“I stand by my vote to object on January 6 and stand by the Texas lawsuit. I have serious concerns about how the election in November was carried out,” Banks told Matthews. “That is where most Republicans in the GOP conference are unified around that single mission and goal and anything that distracts from it will hold us back from doing that.”

That wasn’t good enough for Wallace. “I’m just asking a question,” he told Banks. “Liz Cheney is saying it’s a big lie to say the election was stolen. Liz Cheney is saying that, in fact, Donald Trump contributed to the riot. I’m asking you for your opinion on those issues. Is it a lie that the election was stolen? Did he contribute to the insurrection on the Capitol?”

Banks then claimed he’d “never said the election was stolen,” but also tried to say he had “very serious concerns with how the election was conducted last November.”

Wallace tried one last time to get a straight answer. “When Liz Cheney says history’s watching and you upon can’t go forward until you resolve this question—the election was fair and square, Donald Trump played a negative role—you think she’s misguided making those points?” he asked.

Banks finally gave Matthews a (mostly) straight answer, saying he’s called on Cheney to “rejoin the Republican team and help us go out and win a majority in the midterm election.” He still never took a stance on whether he thought the election as legitimate — which a large number of Republicans, bolstered by others on the same network as Matthews, do not.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Last week, Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic admitted that he had been “complaining way too much” this year en route to pick up 15 technical fouls. Per NBA rules, if Doncic picks up one more technical foul, he’ll face a mandatory one game suspension.

On Sunday in a game against the Cavs, Doncic avoided getting a technical. Which is good, considering the Mavs are currently fifth in the Western Conference and not in the play-in tournament. What’s less good that Doncic got ejected, anyway, for tapping Cavs guard Collin Sexton below the belt.

Upon review, Doncic was hit with a Flagrant 2 and ejected. Here’s how he reacted:

In the locker room, Doncic apparently did the only thing to do in that situation: open up Twitter.

Ultimately, this is as harmless a Flagrant 2 as there is in the NBA. There’s no mandated suspension that comes with this and it’s debatable whether Doncic even deserved it or not. It also didn’t cost Dallas a win — the Mavericks were up 11 when he was ejected in the third quarter and went on to win by 27. The win also keeps them in the pole position for the No. 5 seed in the West, likely resulting in a first-round matchup with the Nuggets.

The Cavs are also sneaky winners here too. Cleveland is currently stumbling its way to the end of the season and Doncic exiting the game didn’t keep them from that. So, somehow, everyone wins here despite one of the league’s best players being ejected.

If you care about pop stars turned movie stars, Lady Gaga, or just internet memes, then the fact that Mother Monster was filming House Of Gucci in Italy was probably already on your radar. That first look photo of that circulated of Adam Driver and Stefani Germanotta decked out in their very ’90s costumes for the film ensured that plenty of people who aren’t fashionistas or Joanne super fans found out about the movie. But now, it looks like filming is wrapping up for the project, and at the end of the project Gaga has some heartfelt words for the support she felt from Italian fans during the filming.

“I wish to thank all of Italy for cheering me on while I film this movie—I hug & kiss you, tell you I believe in you,” she wrote on Twitter earlier today. “To my place of origin—a country built on the promise of hard work & family. I hope I made you proud. I’m proud to be Italian. Ti Amo. #HouseOfGucci.”

It’s no surprise she’s feeling a little emotional toward the end of this project, after all, it was right in the middle of all of this that her beloved dogs were stolen and her dog watcher was shot and seriously injured in the process. Luckily those dogs are safely home, and Gaga is about to return there, too. It might’ve been a rough start to 2021, but now she’s full of gratitude for fans, even leaving flowers for them and blowing a kiss:

Now, could we get a Chromatica tour on the books? Thanks Stef!