Category: Viral

In the wake of Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous press conference on Thursday, followed by the announcement that Donald Trump invited Michigan GOP officials to the White House in an effort to overturn the state’s election results, Edward Norton posted an early morning Twitter thread on Friday that attempts to explain the president’s desperate behavior, and why it will fail.

According to Norton, Trump’s actions aren’t to make his base happy or lay the groundwork for Trump TV. Instead, the Fight Club actor theorizes that Trump is delaying a peaceful transition for two reasons: to suppress evidence and to create enough chaos and anxiety that he can “cut a Nixon-style deal” to prevent “irreparable damage to the system.” However, Norton says America needs to stay strong and call Trump’s bluff:

His bluff after ‘the flop’ has been called in court… His ‘turn card’ bluff will be an escalation & his ‘River card’ bluff could be really ugly. But they have to be called. We cannot let this mobster bully the USA into a deal to save his ass by threatening our democracy. THAT is his play. But he’s got junk in his hand. So call him.

Norton ends his thread with the belief that America can survive Trump’s assault if we hold strong. “Faith in the strength of our sacred institutions & founding principles is severely stretched… but they will hold,” he writes. “They will. He’s leaving, gracelessly & in infamy. But if we trade for it, give him some brokered settlement, we’ll be vulnerable to his return. We can’t flinch.”

You can read the whole thread below:

Norton’s words were also a big hit on Twitter, where people were surprised at the nuanced political analysis from The Incredible Hulk star:

(Via Edward Norton on Twitter)

Yesterday, Sia premiered the trailer for her upcoming film, Music, and in it, Maddie Ziegler portrays a character named Music who appears to be on the autism spectrum. This led to a large wave of backlash against the film and Sia, but she isn’t backing down from her casting choice. Furthermore, she appears to be frustrated with the criticisms, as she says she put in an effort to include people on the autism spectrum in the film.

One person on Twitter responded to the trailer, “This is totally unacceptable and there are no excuses, you should know better than to allow able bodied & neurotypical to represent the disabled community. It’s incredibly offensive as is the infantalisation of the character. Sickened. And not even captioned. Don’t release this.”

Sia replied by insisting that Ziegler wasn’t actually her first choice for the role, as she initially cast an actor who was on the autism spectrum, but it didn’t work out. She wrote, “I actually tried working with a a beautiful young girl non verbal on the spectrum and she found it unpleasant and stressful. So that’s why I cast Maddie.” She wrote in another tweet that she actually tried casting multiple other actors before Ziegler: “My character was pretty low functioning and after attempting a few actors on the spectrum they suggested I use Maddie.”

Somebody else criticized Sia for not hiring more “disabled” people, and Sia replied, “I hired plenty of special abilities kids. I’m willing to be misunderstood because I think this movie does more good than harm.” She added in a response to another tweet, “I’ve never referred to music as disabled. Special abilities is what I’ve always said, and casting someone at her level of functioning was cruel, not kind, so I made the executive decision that we would do our best to lovingly represent the community.” Sia also tweeted elsewhere, “I cast thirteen neuroatypical people, three trans folk, and not as f*cking prostitutes or drug addicts but s as doctors, nurses and singers. F*cking sad nobody’s even seen the dang movie. My heart has always been in the right place.”

Furthermore, Sia also received some criticism for involving the organization Autism Speaks, which has been accused of not properly representing or working for people with autism. Sia wrote in response to that backlash, “Autism speaks came on board long after the film was finished, four years in fact. I had no idea it was such a polarizing group!”

Ultimately, Sia appears to be extremely frustrated by the situation, as she tweeted, “Grrrrrrrrrr. F*ckity f*ck why don’t you watch my film before you judge it? FURY.” In response to a tweet asking if she did any research about autism while making the movie, she replied, “Duh. I spent three f*cking years researching, I think that’s why I’m so f*cking bummed.”

Find more of Sia’s tweets about the situation here.

Sia is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Something we can all agree upon is that it’s been far too long since we’ve heard live music in person. In 2020, recordings of live shows feel more relevant than ever, with the roar of a crowd imbuing nostalgia for a simpler time. This is the central focus of the new episode of Indiecast, which finds Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen digging in to the swath of live albums that are on the docket for the remainder of the year, including forthcoming releases from The War On Drugs, Arctic Monkeys, and The Postal Service.

2020 has forced artists to get creative in how they connect with fans, and are utilizing live streams and live albums to remind music lovers of why shows are such a vital part of their lives. Sometimes, these live albums offers listeners a glimpse at exciting alternate versions of the songs they know and love, with improvised sections, different arrangements, and elongated instrumental sections. Other times, they just feel like relics of a lost art.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen is endorsing Summer Sleeping, the new EP from Indiana quartet Thunder Dreamer. Hyden is advocating for the new Ganser album, Just Look At That Sky, which he believes is being slept on by most.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 17 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Scream 5 not being titled Scream 5 or, ideally, 5cream — it’s simply Scream — still doesn’t make a ton of sense. The rationale is that it’s a new direction for the franchise, one without director and franchise-leader Wes Craven (he passed away in 2014), but the film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and Dave Arquette, so it can’t be that new. But whatever, Scream 4 was good and the “relaunch” worked for 2018’s Halloween, so why not? At least we know Jack Quaid has our “it should be called 5cream” side.

The Boys star and actress Melissa Barrera are two new additions to the slasher series, and on the final day of shooting, they presented the crew with a gift. “To those disappointed that the new Scream isn’t called 5CREAM, this was @MelissaBarreraM and I’s wrap gift to the cast & crew. 5 Cream lives on in our [hearts]! Art by the amazingly talented @martweetsy! #Scream #5Cream,” he tweeted, along with photos of the shirt.

If Paramount doesn’t start selling these immediately, they’re fools.

Speaking to CinemaBlend, Scream co-director Tyler Gillett confirmed that the film is a sequel, not a straight-up reboot. “It felt like the only way to do this right was to create connectivity,” he said. “And a lot of it is also just what the Scream movies are, right? They’re about lineage. They’re about the evolution of pop culture and the evolution of the genre. And you can’t have something new without also giving a nod to what came before it. And paying respect, and giving a bow to what followed.”

Scream comes out on January 14, 2022.

(Via CinemaBlend)

Rudy Giuliani’s most recent press conference about “election fraud” spiraled into complete disaster. That’s not entirely shocking, considering the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle, but no one anticipated that Rudy would quote My Cousin Vinny while hair dye slid down his face in a literal meltdown, leading to members of Trump’s social media team mocking him in a live video that got yanked from YouTube.

Where does one go to discuss “the issues” after such a spectacle? Sean Hannity’s Fox News program welcomed Rudy, who proceeded to air his latest conspiracy theory — which has already been debunked by Snopes — involving a baseless claim about U.S. election fraud being orchestrated in Germany. It’s completely bonkers-sounding, of course, but the far-right is attempting to convince people that the U.S. army seized a software server that engineered the Biden win, or changed Trump votes, or something, and it’s all Hillary’s fault. As Rudy ranted, even Hannity seemed to be slightly taken aback, but he had to know that Rudy wasn’t exactly going to behave in a rational manner while appearing on the show.

Rudy gesticulated wildly while exclaiming, “Biden! Biden! Biden! Biden!” At the end of his missive, he declared, “Somebody’s got to cut the head off.” That’s when the throat-cutting gesture happened, presumably in reference to the Democratic party or perhaps even Hillary Clinton herself, given that he groused about how “the Democrat party was hijacked by Clinton and since then it’s gone more corrupt, and more corrupt, and more corrupt.” Yikes.

A couple days ago, Megan Thee Stallion launched her new clothing line with Fashion Nova, a 106-piece collection that ranges in price from $24.99 to $199.99 and is heavy on denim. It turns out the fans scooped up pieces in droves, as the line had a ginormous first day of sales: TMZ reports, citing “sources connected to the retail company,” that the line had $1.2 million in sales in just the first 24 hours.

Meg told Teen Vogue of the line, “Whether it was because the leg length was too short or the booty area was too tight, there would always be clothes or styles I’d [want to] wear, but just couldn’t find that would fit a tall girl with shape. […] When everything hugs the right places and complements your natural figure, you can’t help but feel good. That’s what this whole collection is about. […] I really wanted to pay attention to length and stretch across the collection so everything looks tailored but is super comfortable. […] I want all the hotties to be able to wear this collection, so working with Fashion Nova who have all the hottest looks at affordable prices just felt organic in that sense.”

Meg is also of course fresh off the release of her new album Good News and a video for “Body.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It was all of yesterday when Geraldo Rivera was the voice of reason. Everyone knew that it wouldn’t last long. And it didn’t. Rivera appeared on Friday’s episode of Fox and Friends with a bold idea: to name the vaccine for COVID-19 after President Trump.

“I had an idea with the world so divided and everybody telling [Trump] he’s gotta give up and time to leave and time to transition and all the rest of it: why not name the vaccine The Trump? Make it, like, ‘Have you gotten your Trump yet?’ It would be a nice gesture to him.” If anyone should take credit for the vaccine, it should obviously be Trump, the “world’s biggest spreader of coronavirus misinformation” who is largely to blame for the government’s bungling response to the pandemic that has killed over 250,000 Americans. But sure, “The Trump.” Good idea, Geraldo. “And years from now,” he continued, “it would become a generic name [for vaccines]. ‘Have you gotten your Trump yet?’ ‘Yeah yeah, I got my Trump. I’m fine.’” There is nothing fine about any of this.

Brian Kilmeade seems thrilled by this pitch…

… while everyone on Twitter looked at Geraldo in confusion.

Pfizer and BioNTech are applying for “emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration” today for the COVID-19 vaccine, which needless to say, will not be named The Trump. If approved, it “will potentially be available for use in high-risk populations in the United States by the middle to end of December,” CNN reports.

Earlier this week, Nicki Minaj teased a celebration for the tenth anniversary of her classic debut album, Pink Friday. She ended up marking the occasion by releasing a deluxe edition of the album, and on top of that, she also took some time to share some trivia about the record during an impromptu Twitter Q&A with fans.

It began when Minaj shared the branded Twitter hashtags reserved for the album’s anniversary — #PinkFriday, #NickiMinaj, #PinkFriday10, #Barbz, and #PinkFridayAnniversary — and wrote, “I love this emoji Twitter gave us in honor of the big day. Use one or more of these tags with every tweet. What was your favorite song on #PinkFriday ?????”

After that, a fan suggested that Minaj host a Q&A about the album, and she obliged. For example, she revealed her three favorite songs from the album to perform: “Roman’s Revenge,” “Did It On’em,” and “Save Me.” She also noted there was only one artist she wanted to guest on the album who didn’t, and that was Lil Wayne, who couldn’t make an appearance because he was in jail at the time. She was diplomatic when it came to answering what her favorite collaboration is on the album, though, saying, “Omfg. Def can’t answer that. Still love all those artists for believing in me.”

Check out all of the tweets below or here.

“Chapter 12: The Siege” has a little something for everyone: Baby Yoda eating a blue space macaroon; Mando outmaneuvering TIE-Fighters; a lava explosion; a hungry red-eyed ferret; the return of Gina Carano’s Cara Dune (far-right Parler fanatics are thrilled), Carl Weathers’ Greef Karga (he also directed the episode), and Horatio Sanz’s Mythrol; Baby Yoda puking up the blue space macaroon; and the third appearance of Moff Gideon, the menacing possessor of the Darksaber played by Giancarlo Esposito. The Better Call Saul star has described his character as “a warden of the universe… You don’t know if he’s good or bad.” I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Moff Gideon is more “extremely evil” than “good,” based on what we see at the end of the episode.

Following Mando, Cara, Greef, and Mythrol’s trip to an Imperial base, where they discover floating bodies that resemble Snoke in The Rise of Skywalker (there’s a whole fan theory about this, because of course there is) and a hologram from Dr. Pershing about the Child’s blood having a large “M-count” (Midichlorians), our hero and Baby Yoda leave for Corvus to find Ahsoka Tano in the repaired Razor Crest. But Greef’s mechanic is working for Moff Gideon. “The device has been planted, as you requested,” the alien tells an officer (a female officer, a rarity in Star Wars), who replies, “You’ll be well rewarded in the new era.” Could the “new era” be a reference to the First Order?

And another question: to paraphrase Tom Waits, what’s he building in there?

Those aren’t Cylons.

Because to me, those look like Dark Troopers or Shadow Troopers. It’s tough to know for sure (I’m willing to bet all my Beskar that they’re Dark Troopers, though), but it’s bad news for the galaxy either way. Dark Troopers, “advanced battle droids and infantry exoskeletons that featured heavy plating that resembled the armor of a Stormtrooper, powerful weapons, and jump packs for increased flexibility and tactical advantage,” were introduced in the 1995 video game, Star Wars: Dark Forces. One Dark Trooper could go head-to-head against Mando, let alone an entire fleet of them. Shadow Troopers are equally difficult to blast, as they wear “distinguishing black suits of experimental armor coupled with portable cloaking devices, rendering them almost completely invisible and highly suited for stealth missions.” Neither trooper is hitting their head on any doors.

Thinking ahead, there could be a possible connection between the floating bodies and the Troopers. Is Moff Gideon creating an army of Force-controlled, nearly-indestructible soldiers? It’s not as wild as it sounds (this is an episode where a little frog used an “energy field created by all living things” to steal a cookie from a child; nothing is too wild in Star Wars). But only Kyle Katarn (and hopefully Jon Favreau) knows for sure.

We haven’t even made it to Thanksgiving yet, but Netflix is already dropping some of its more star-studded Christmas recommendations. Vanessa Hudgens is back as a look-alike-baker masquerading as a princess and Dolly Parton plays a benevolent angel trying to save a small town from an evil Christine Baranski. Eat your damn heart out Hallmark!

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of November 20.

The Princess Switch: Switched Again (Netflix film streaming 11/19)

Vanessa Hudgens played a baker and princess in the first film. Her baker is doing well, being married to a prince and all, but her princess is having boy trouble so, of course, they’re going to It Takes Two-s it again. But they’re also adding another lookalike to the party. When will the madness end?

Add To Netflix Queue

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (Netflix film streaming 11/22)

A rich and nasty woman, Regina Fuller, returns to her small hometown after her father’s death to evict everyone and sell the land to a mall developer — right before Christmas. However, after listening to stories of the local townsfolk, reconnecting with an old love, and accepting the guidance of an actual angel, Regina starts to have a change of heart. That’s the official premise, but the only thing you should really care about is Dolly Parton.

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Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 11/15
A Very Country Christmas
America’s Next Top Model: Seasons 19 & 20
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
The Crown: Season 4
Hometown Holiday
Survivor: Seasons 20 & 28
V for Vendetta

Avail. 11/16
Loving
Whose Streets?

Avail. 11/17
The Boss Baby: Back in Business: Season 4
We Are the Champions

Avail. 11/18
El sabor de las margaritas / Bitter Daisies: Season 2
Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas

Avail. 11/19
The Princess Switch: Switched Again

Avail. 11/20
Alien Xmas
Flavorful Origins: Gansu Cuisine
If Anything Happens I Love You
Voices of Fire

Avail. 11/22
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square
Machete Kills

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 11/22
End of Watch

Leaving 11/23
Bushwick
Shot Caller

Leaving 11/26
The Lincoln Lawyer

Leaving 11/27
Jeopardy!: Champion Run I: Gilbert Collins
Jeopardy!: Champion Run II: Rachel Lindgren
Jeopardy!: Champion Run III: Ryan Fenster
Jeopardy!: Champion Run IV: Josh Hill
Jeopardy!: College Championship III
Jeopardy!: Producer’s Pick
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms