---

View Entire Post ›

It’s been months since any TV show or movie has been able to feature more than one actor together in the same shot (unless they’re married or quarantining together). And yet the world needs content, and doing what SNL, late night TV, and daytime talk shows have done — have everyone perched in front of their webcams — probably isn’t a long-term solution. But it turns out there is a solution for one aspect of entertainment: If you need to shoot a love scene, you can take a page from the Ryan Gosling movie Lars and the Real Girl and have one partner be a blow-up doll.

That’s what The Bold and the Beautiful is doing. Forbes spoke to Bradley Bell, head writer and executive on the longtime CBS soap, which resumed shooting on June 15, and learned that while actors will be sharing the same sets, they’ll have to keep at least eight feet apart. Alas, social distancing and soap operas are, if you will, strange bedfellows.

“We were cutting all of the kisses, and the shows weren’t the same,” said head writer and executive Bradley Bell. And so they thought way outside the box and came back, and came back with an unusual solution to keep the passion alive even when the actors can’t come close to touching: each simulated sex scene will technically be solo acts.

“We have some life-like blow-up dolls that have been sitting around here for the past 15 years, that we’ve used for various other stories — like when people were presumed dead,” Bell said. “We’re dusting off the dolls and putting new wigs and make-up on them and they’ll be featured in love scenes.”

It’s not just love scenes that will require some movie (or TV) magic: Stand-ins will also be used on certain scenes, with actors recruiting their spouses to double for their onscreen paramours. Kisses, meanwhile, will be faked using editing, which…well, which sounds like it will be awkward to shoot and also to watch, though Bell is confident that won’t be so.

“They’ll look like they’re nose to nose, in the throes of passion,” Bell said. “But they’ll be shooting scenes all by themselves.”

The Bold and the Beautiful, which films in Los Angeles, halted production on March 13, a week before Governor Gavin Newsom issued stay-at-home orders statewide. By the end of the month, and for the first time since it premiered in 1987, the show was airing re-runs, having burned through fresh episodes.

The soap isn’t the only production that’s resumed filming, despite the fact that the pandemic still rages. The Avatar sequels resumed filming this week as well, and though they’re working in miraculously COVID-free New Zealand, perhaps James Cameron will take note and start investing in giant blue blow-up dolls.

(Via Forbes)

Over two-and-a-half years after Netflix fired Danny Masterson from The Ranch over the sexual assault allegations against him (following the legal cases stalling out in the court system), the actor has been formally charged with three counts of rape by force or fear by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. As Variety reports, he faces up to 45 years behind bars if convicted, and he awaits arraignment on September 18.

KTLA reports some specifics on the cases that led to these charges:

Masterson allegedly raped a 23-year-old woman between January and December 2001, according to a criminal complained filed against him. He is also accused of raping a 28-year-old woman in April 2003. Sometime between October and December of that year, he allegedly raped a 23-year-old woman who he invited to his home.

Variety notes that the DA declined to pursue charges in two other cases, one of which faced a statute of limitations expiration and the other due to a lack of sufficient evidence.

The Huffington Post’s Yashar Ali tweeted a statement from Masterson’s attorney, Tom Mesereau:

“Mr. Masterson is innocent, and we’re confident that he will be exonerated when all the evidence finally comes to light and witnesses have the opportunity to testify.

“Obviously, Mr. Masterson and his wife are in complete shock considering that these nearly 20-year-old allegations are suddenly resulting in charges being filed, but they and their family are confored knowing that ultimately the truth will come out. The people who know Mr. Masterson know his character and now the allegations to be false.”

(Via Variety, KTLA & Huffington Post)

Finding the best single malt scotch is a lifelong endeavor. There are a lot of bottles out there from distilleries big and small, with a massive amount of variation between them. Remember, each region — Speyside, Lowland, Highland, Campbeltown, and Islay — is known for a specific flavor profile and a certain level of peatiness. A true aficionado can taste the regional variations and identify them with ease.

One of my all-time favorite Highland distilleries in Scotland is Oban. My love of this relatively tiny distillery in the small town of Oban on the Scottish coast has been cultivated over the course of a lifelong journey through whisky. Last year I finally got to go to Scotland and tour the Oban Distillery, which sealed my love for the stuff. The small operation has only two antique copper pot stills and the entire company is run by only seven people, many of whom live at the distillery in apartments above the offices.

I’ve been lucky enough to sit at a few Oban tastings over the years. I’ve also ran my own tasting recently, with five signature bottles. Those are the bottles we’re going to talk about today. While these expressions are on the higher-end price-wise, they’re truly stand-out single malts that’ll wow even the most passive scotch lover.

The bottles themselves are well-designed yet simple. The juice inside is, in my opinion, whisky that’ll help you fall in love with Scotch single malts once and for all. Plus, they make great gifts and are all available for delivery right now.

OBAN BAY RESERVE — THE NIGHT’S WATCH GAME OF THRONES EDITION

ABV: 43%
Average Price: $80

The Whisky:

This expression is a reissue of Oban’s Bay Reserve, which is a no-age-statement whisky. The bottle was branded with the Night’s Watch oath to commemorate the final season of Game Of Thrones. Oban was chosen for this due to the huge rock wall behind the distillery that conjures visions of “The Wall” on the show.

Tasting Notes:

Mild notes of spice and wood with a bit of malt greets you. There’s a real sense of mild spice followed by bitter orange zest and hint of tart fruit. A drop of water reveals creamy texture and more of that spice, wood, orange zest, and cherry on the palate. There’s a whisper of smoke on the end with a hint of brine.

OBAN 14

ABV: 43%
Average Price: $85

The Whisky:

This is a great gateway scotch to have on hand. The juice is classically made and then matured in the Oban storehouses for 14 long years. The end result is a thoroughly accessible single malt that bridges being a great sipper with offering a superb cocktail base.

Tasting Notes:

Citrus, salt, and a billow of peat smoke open this one up in classic fashion. That citrus carries on as a foundation for mild spices, a note of honey, hints of pears, and plummy dried fruits mingle on the tongue. The oak spice and peaty smoke meet on the end with a slight malty sweetness as the sip fades.

OBAN DISTILLER’S EDITION

ABV: 43%
Average Price: $104

The Whisky:

This expression is a bit of a love letter to the town of Oban and the community that was built around the distillery in the center of the town. The whisky is the distiller’s creation — harnessing double-aged whiskies finished in Montilla Fino sherry casks. The end result is a fine scotch that celebrates the wonders of Oban.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a vinous edge alongside a clear sense of the briny sea, notes of orange zest, and a wisp of smoke. The sweet malts have a toffee feel as the apple and grape fruitiness counter the sea salt depths. The sip fades quickly as a note of vinous sherry, oak, and brine pull away like a receding wave.

OBAN LITTLE BAY

ABV: 43%
Average Price: $80

The Whisky:

Oban is Gaelic for “Little Bay.” So this is a bit like saying Little Bay Little Bay. The juice in the is expression is aged in both old American and old European oak before being transferred into finishing barrels for a little extra depth.

Tasting Notes:

Fruit dominates up front. Apple, malts, mild butterscotch, orange zest, and a clear hit of cloves dance across the palate. A drop of water moves the sip towards a note of fresh mint sprigs alongside the apple and clove, giving an almost spiced apple cake feel to the sip as it quickly fades away.

OBAN AGED 21 YEARS

ABV: 57.9%
Average Price: $495

The Whisky:

This is a monster bottle (at a very prohibitive price-point). This limited-release from 2018 is bottled from whisky mellowed for 21 years in a second-fill European oak barrel. It’s devilishly simple yet deeply provocative and well-worth the investment if you’re craving something truly special.

Tasting Notes:

Notes of salted cream mingle with a subtle sense of whisky malts and oak. The sip leans into touches of bitter cacao and toasted coconut with a hazelnut underpinning, creating a fatty feel with the cacao. Adding water brings about a counterpoint of fresh mint with the cacao and coconut like a luscious yet light salty-sweet dessert. The end is fascinatingly short, making you want to pour another dram immediately.

Check out our LIVE tasting of each bottle below with food and travel writer Megan Murphy and UPROXX Life Deputy Editor Zach Johnston!

He’s known by his first name because so few can pronounce his last. First, a trepidation, then a laziness, then a shorthand. Only LeBron has the same first-name basis with every sports fan. How Giannis has been made familiar, outside his performance, his crushingly natural athletic inclinations, is by an irony known to any successful newcomer.

For his first eighteen years he was stateless. His parents left Lagos for Athens and Giannis was born three years later. Greek nationality law follows jus sanguinis, right of blood, citizenship determined via nationality or ethnicity of one or both parents. His parents were Nigerian, but without returning to Nigera couldn’t confer their status onto their son. On his own, the path was close to impossible. Until 2015, there were no citizenship provisions in place for second or even third-generation migrants, and the legislation that came that year was bound up in prerequisites of education, a pathway not always available to a country’s most precarious. His blood would never change, but basketball could be its accelerant.

He entered the 2013 NBA Draft as Greek because it would raise fewer flags for entering the United States than as Nigerian. The American Dream was his, like it could be for so many, if they only placed in it the full weight of their trust, the leverage of their labor.

When Giannis Antetokounmpo returns to Greece now, the people in his old neighborhood who used to sneer at his selling CDs, sunglasses, who didn’t want Africans as neighbors, open their arms wide to welcome him home. His portrait is painted gigantic across the court he used to play on. And he’s Giannis, good natured, watchful as they come, so he agrees. They have no trouble with his last name, not anymore. They always knew how it fit between their teeth, it was the boy it was attached to they couldn’t stomach.

Ever since he declared himself eligible for the Draft, this theme of inversion has exploded. There is not one team, one GM who doesn’t eye their current roster and indulge in the secret exercise of playing favorites, then offering those favorites up when imaginarily pressed. It is hardly an exercise because, when they ask themselves who they would be willing to lose to gain him, there is not one name that slips suddenly out of reach. And once initiation into that fantasy starts, one toe dipped in forbidden waters where the ripples find everything, there is no way to see their teams as they were, without a 6’11 shadow cast across their best laid plans.

The ease of Antetokounmpo is just that — amicable and fluid, not inclined to throw his weight around beyond the direction that he’s moving in, but still with a ferocity that comes to bear on court as if it were a pointed, deliberate act of revenge. When he moves against someone it is with the propulsion needed to go through them, but not in a way where he’s calculated and added extra energy, more as if they were never there in the first place. His basketball is erasure.

His face changes. Not the cocky mask of James Harden or Russell Westbrook’s flippant ease, Giannis betrays a slight, near imperceptible flicker and then he’s gone, shifted inside himself. Aside from his physical strength, the most frightening thing about him on court is that when he locks eyes with the competition, they find zero recognition there. Off the court, he is the farthest thing from cruel, but out there under the lights, the speed and precision that he can shear personality from player, ability from the threat it poses to him, with the most glancing of reads, is undoing. You might get a bounce on the spot as his body ricochets up from the force of him landing post-block, post-dunk, post-backing a guy all the way to the basket, crowd keening as he makes two fists and cuts a quick bodybuilder pose, face snarling. But by the time that steam valve release of a celebration is done, soul freshly abdicated from the body of the other guy, he’s back gliding silent down the court, a flicker of shadow beside you out in deep water that you never want to see.

Fearlessness is a prerequisite for basketball, but it comes from practice. To better in a league of the very best, anything that looks like reluctance has to be counter conditioned. Nerves become speed, a bad shot is a good second chance. Stacked on top of one another, season after season, these deficits turn into experience and players hone their courage. That’s not so for Antetokounmpo. His fearlessness comes hauled out of a deep well inside, drawn from the same stratum as the fundamentals of his character. It isn’t a decision to be courageous on court for him as much as it is the absence of fear to begin with. The symmetry of his euro step coming downhill onto a defender, the careening blocks he’s already airborne for just as the unsuspecting guy he’s gaining on is going up for their layup, these actions are so deeply intuitive to him. You watch and understand his thought process has never hinged on when or if. Instead, it’s based on picking the best moment around the flinch of possible failure, it has only ever been I will.

In the playoffs last year, when the Bucks were hobbled by the Raptors for four games straight and fell out of the Eastern Conference Finals, it was not tempering this innate lack of fear with discretion, watchfulness, and the necessary regrouping beat a shrewdly placed pause can gift that gave him and Milwaukee trouble. To win in the every night scrap that is a playoff series, Antetokounmpo has to counter condition his deepest natural impulse, he has to learn a little fear — if only for its useful side effects. Watching him this season, as winter eased up its grip everywhere but Milwaukee, he was gaining on it. His reads were sharper, he showed up to help in the throng of the paint where he could lend his smothering length and physicality to dig out a swamped offense. If he was hounded and shut down early, he would flip the ball away, faking and shaking his defenders only to pop up where his guys needed him and swat the ball in at the end of an alley-oop. He was watchful and it was getting terrifying.

A lot is made of the personal milestones in players’ lives, some of it relevant, or else just lining up with a much-needed narrative. Antetokounmpo becoming a father this season did seem to shift the scope of his work. Four days before All-Star weekend, the bacchanalian pause that propels the last quarter of the season, he held the tiniest person imaginable with his two giant hands and let the full weight of his son settle. Antetokounmpo is already the farthest thing from a mercurial superstar. The icy, imperturbable mantle he slips into during games is easily shed by the scorer’s table when he steps off court. He’s friendly with media, responsive to fans, demonstrative with his teammates, and accessible to coaches. His affability isn’t naiveté, he’s never seemed surprised to be where he is, and after the storied road he’s taken, generational in its journey, how could he be? Before he set foot in the lifestyle of a professional athlete he had been honing an approachability necessary to seem less like the other in a world where his skin was seen first, personality and skills last, if ever.

Players who come up through the linear path of high school-college-declare for the draft have understood that remaining open on request is a part of getting there. That Antetokounmpo’s instruction was initially in survival hasn’t altered the tenderness of him, what seems a wide and smiling approach to life, competition, and now beginning a family. There is suddenly a lot more on the line and that’s including the entirety of what was there before. He has raised his own stakes and multiplied his joy, the two fundamental things that have driven him in tandem throughout his career.

A large focus of the 2019-2020 season, initially, was on getting through it in order to see if the greatest force in the league would make it to 2021 free agency. His decision this offseason, signing a supermax extension in Milwaukee or not, will determine the fury with which teams gear up for a run at the MVP a year later. There are at least three teams who have factored his choice into what the future of their franchises look like — Milwaukee, Miami, and Toronto — and a handful of others whose intentions seem more sincere than the Knicks’ anarchic strategy of declaring for everybody, all of the time. More might take serious looks at their rosters after this season spent in strange oblivion and once the staggered start of the next one gets underway to see if they have something worth risking it all for. And even the teams that are realistic enough to know they don’t have a shot, or have already secured the players they wanted or needed in recent summers and are smartly walking away, will still cast covetous glances back on what Antetokounmpo will decide to do because he is one of the rare few who shapes the landscape of the league for seasons to come with nothing more than a fresh signature.

Jus sanguinis, right of blood, applied in the microcosm of the league and there is nothing that his name does not inherit him. Whether he goes by first or last or lets the stillness cleaved in the trail of his footfalls on court speak for him, he is his own lineage and we are all just waiting for history.

---

View Entire Post ›

Over the past 24 hours, Chris D’Elia has been accused of sexual harassment by several women when they were underage, many of whom included screenshots of their communications. The comedian has since denied the claims of sexual misconduct, telling TMZ that he’s “never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point.”

“I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point,” D’Elia said. “That being said, I really am truly sorry. I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it. I’ve been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better.”

The allegations began piling up this week after one alleged victim claimed that the Netflix series You actor once asked her for nude pictures, knowing that she was underaged. She included snapshots of the emails allegedly from D’Elia. Other alleged victims who accused D’Elia of grooming also shared snapshots of conversations they claimed were with the comic in which he sexually harassed them.

This is currently D’Elia’s pinned tweet:

As TMZ notes, no police reports have been filed yet.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Doom Patrol (HBO Max) — Look, we’re all hyped for another season of The Umbrella Academy and we should be. But if weird, wild, inventive takes on the superhero genre is your brand, you need to catch up on this DC property. It’s got a terrific cast — like Matt Bomer, Alan Tudyk, Brendan Fraser, Diane Guerrero terrific — and it follows another group of superpowered misfits reluctantly saving the world. Season two is set to drop next week so now’s the time to binge all of the WTF goodness of season one.

Search Party (HBO Max) — Speaking of really great shows that are hoping to reach a larger audience on HBO Max, this former TBS mystery-comedy series starring Alia Shawkat is also prepping to deliver its long-awaited third season. The show started out as a darkly comedic missing person’s case, with Shawkat’s Dory overly-concerned about the disappearance of a young woman she went to school with. She roped her group of self-absorbed, hopelessly out-of-touch friends in on the hunt and together, they’ve committed all kinds of crimes — think murder, hiding a body, another murder, and crashing a Kelly Clarkson-themed vigil. Maybe that last one’s not a crime, but it should be. In season three, Dory and her friends are put on trial for all their misbehaving and, if it’s possible, the show looks like it’s ramped up the funny and it’s leaning into its bizarre tone. Catch up with it before season two drops.

The 100 (CW, 8:00 p.m.) — Octavia gets a not-so-warm-welcome to Bardo while Hope, Echo, and Gabriel carry out their rescue mission and Indra tries to manage rising tensions in Sanctum.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, 10:00 p.m.) — The show gives us a genre-bending look inside Phil Coulson’s head as he tries to put a plan in motion to end the chronicoms for good.

Hip-hop fans logging into Twitter or Instagram today likely found themselves gobsmacked as they unwittingly entered a whirlwind of debate. For some, it seemed as though “haters” were trying to “cancel” J. Cole for “tone-policing” Chicago rapper Noname with his new song “Snow On Tha Bluff.” For others, it looked like Cole was being fairly castigated for trying to silence Black women — another instance in a long history of them.

And for the rest, it was just a confusing mess, as major players in hip-hop from Chance The Rapper to Chika to Earl Sweatshirt to Talib Kweli got involved and argued their points. Uproxx’s Andre Gee weighed in with his take here on the site, but if you’re still not up-to-speed, here’s an explainer to catch you up.

Noname Calls Out Rappers’ Silence On George Floyd Protests

At the end of May, as protests against police brutality in the wake of police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor heated up, the outspoken Noname called rappers to task on Twitter, writing: “Poor black folks all over the country are putting their bodies on the line in protest for our collective safety and y’all favorite top selling rappers not even willing to put a tweet up. N****s whole discographies be about black plight and they no where to be found.” She has since deleted the tweet but it’s been credited as the spark that ignited the entire firestorm of controversy to follow.

J. Cole Releases “Snow On Tha Bluff”

Last night, J. Cole finally offered his take on the ongoing protests after peers such as Denzel Curry, Lil Baby, and YG each released songs calling out the police. However, Cole’s song turned out to be more of a personal reflection, with Jermaine questioning his role in speaking out on behalf of oppressed Black Americans: “Damn, why I feel faker than Snow on Tha Bluff?” he wonders. “Well, maybe ’cause deep down I know I ain’t doing enough.” However, on the way to that salient, relatable point, Cole also makes mention of a smart young woman on Twitter who spends time addressing the same issues.

“She mad at my n****s, she mad at our ignorance, she wear her heart on her sleeve,” he describes. “She mad at the celebrities — lowkey, I be thinkin’ she talkin’ ’bout me.” It’s this description that made some fans speculate that the woman he refers to is Noname and it’s what he says next that draws fire.

Fan Backlash

After the release of “Snow On Tha Bluff,” as fans began to connect the dots to the anonymous young woman they identify as Noname, they began to also draw parallels to a long-running debate in the movement for Black liberation. “Now I ain’t no dummy to think I’m above criticism,” Cole admits, before committing to the sticking point, “So when I see something that’s valid, I listen / But sh*t, it’s something about the queen tone that’s botherin’ me.” This is where the accusations of “tone-policing” come in — where an observer addresses the perceived emotion behind the message rather than the message itself, demanding softer, more permissive language.

Fans were quick to call Cole out on this discrepancy as well as his question, “How you gon’ lead, when you attackin’ the very same n****s that really do need the shit that you sayin’?” Noname herself chimed in with an all-caps “QUEEN TONE!!” tweet. That tweet was eventually deleted as well.

Cole’s Response

In the morning, seeing the backlash, Cole tweeted a thread asserting that “I stand behind every word of the song that dropped last night.” He also called on fans to follow Noname, calling her “a leader in these times,” and downplaying his own leadership role as “I haven’t done a lot of reading.” He also doubled down on his assertion that “We may not agree with each other but we gotta be gentle with each other,” which only sparked another round of invective between the two “sides” of the ongoing debate.

Cole’s response also drew reactions from peers like Chance The Rapper, who called it “yet another L for men masking patriarchy and gaslighting as contructive criticism.” Meanwhile, Earl Sweatshirt deemed both the song and Cole’s response to the backlash against it “corny,” while even Cole’s own artist Ari Lennox obtusely checked him by showing support for Noname in an Instagram post.

Noname has spent the day on radio silence, perhaps preferring to let other voices speak in her defense for the time being. So, what’s next? Hopefully, the two rappers can hash out their differences in a forum where they can come to a mutual understanding. Meanwhile, their fans — and those observers who wondered what all the fuss was about — may be able to find some lessons. Perhaps the hubbub will draw attention to Noname’s book club, through which she shares vital resources for learning about and reforming the institutions that oppress everyone. And maybe, just maybe, we can all get back to focusing on finding solutions to the problems that plague us using empathy, understanding, and unity.

June is Pride Month and musicians are celebrating in a variety of ways. Halsey self-leaked an unreleased song to celebrate self-expression while Hayley Kiyoko put her own spin on a classic from The Killers to ring in celebrations. Sonos Radio is also celebrating the occasion by launching an entire radio station dedicated to LGBTQ+ musicians and features hour-long interviews with artists like Brandi Carlile and Laura Jane Grace.

Sonos Radio unveiled Full Spectrum, a station curated by their staff that spotlights LGBTQ+ artists, allies, and icons. The fully programmed station also features a segment, titled Pride Hours, which boasts commentary and exclusive interviews hosted by Rita Houston, Program Director at WFUV in New York. To celebrate the station’s launch, Brandi Carlile will air live on June 22 to share an hour of her music, as well as discuss what Pride means to her.

“While the LGBTQ+ movement has made increasing strides in the past decade, for many in the community, the workplace is still a challenging place to be their most open, authentic selves,” Sonos shared in a statement. “With that in mind, a small group of employees at Sonos joined together in early 2018 to establish an employee resource group (ERG) to help the entire company work towards creating a more welcoming, supportive atmosphere for all LGBTQ+ employees.”

Listen to Full Spectrum here.