Category: Worldwide

Queen Elizabeth II passed away today at the age of 86, after a monumental 70-year reign.

The Queen’s coronation in 1952 became the first televised coronation in British history. Obviously, she had lived through various historical moments that have been chronicled in various television shows and movies, such as The Crown, Spencer, and The Queen. The Queen has been portrayed by various high-profile actresses over the years, including Dame Helen Mirren and Dame Emma Thompson.

Many took to the internet to share thoughts, memories, and various chaotic responses to her death. Britain’s favorite bear Paddington even honored the Queen, as the two shared marmalade sandwiches earlier this year to celebrate the Queen’s platinum Jubilee, a ceremony that commemorated her record-breaking 70 years on the throne.

Her last public statement was from the event this past spring: “It is a day that, even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father, King George VI, as for the start of my reign.” She will be succeeded by her son, Prince Charles.

Various celebrities and British icons have taken to Twitter to pay tribute to the Queen and her legacy:

Other people on social media were, surprisingly, less delicate about the situation.

There’s a reason people call him Sir Paul McCartney: On March 11, 1997, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, which is of course internationally recognized as a significant honor. Meanwhile, today (September 8) brings the sad news that the Queen died at 96 years old. Just recently, ahead of Elizabeth’s passing, McCartney reminisced about the day she knighted him.

On June 2, CBS aired Her Majesty The Queen: A Gayle King Special, and during it, King spoke with McCartney. She asked what it meant to him to have “Sir” prepended to his name and he said, “You know what it’s like? It’s an honor. And you think of things like what your mother or father, my mom and midwife, and my dad, just a cotton salesman, how proud they would have been, you know.”

Then, in 2018, McCartney was made a Companion Of Honour, which gov.uk notes “is awarded for having a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time.” Of that, McCartney told King, “So I was feeling pretty cheeky by now. I’m thinking, you know, I’m getting quite at home here, so I said to her — she shook my hand — I said, ‘We’ve got to stop meeting like this!’ And she went, ‘What?’”

Check out a clip from the special and revisit McCartney getting knighted above.

For his first film since 2018’s First Man (also his best movie), director Damien Chazelle reunited Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt for a different kind of Hollywood story. Babylon is “a big, epic, multi-character movie,” Chazelle told Vanity Fair, “set in these early days of Los Angeles and Hollywood, when both of these things were coming into what we now think of them as.”

Chazelle wanted to make Babylon for years, even before Best Picture winner (kind of) La La Land, but it was “too massive.” The film has a reported $110 million budget, a nine-digit rarity in an era when only movies with superheroes, dinosaurs, or Tom Cruise get that kind of dough. A good chunk of the budget presumably went to Robbie and Pitt.

As for who the two mega-stars are playing:

Pitt’s character, Jack Conrad, is a hard-partying “über-movie star,” as Chazelle puts it, inspired by the likes of John Gilbert, Clark Gable, and Douglas Fairbanks: “He’s reaching a point in his life in his career where he’s starting to look back and starting to wonder what’s ahead.” As for Robbie, she’s playing Nellie LaRoy, a scrappy aspiring actress who’s an amalgam of early stars like Clara Bow, Jeanne Eagels, Joan Crawford, and Alma Rubens. Nellie is a new Hollywood transplant who’s suddenly in the spotlight, an experience that the Wolf of Wall Street’s breakout could relate to.

There’s no trailer for Babylon, but Paramount did release the first photos from the film:

Babylon, which also stars Jean Smart, Tobey Maguire, Samara Weaving, Li Jun Li, Katherine Waterston, Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze, Lukas Haas, Diego Calva, and Flea (sure, why not), opens on December 25.

In a creative decision that’s already proving its point, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 4 brought back Wong for a second cameo after he made a brief appearance last week to help Emil Blonsky (a.k.a. Abomination) not get screwed at his parole hearing. This time around, Wong had a much larger role as he hired She-Hulk to help him sue stage magician Donny Blaze (Rhys Coiro) who’s been recklessly experimenting with actual sorcery. However, Blaze’s tomfoolery introduced a character who’s already going over huge with Marvel fans: the drunken Madisynn (Patty Guggenheim).

After volunteering to come onstage for Blaze’s act, Madisynn is accidentally sent to a demon realm before crashing into Wong’s living room where he’s trying to get down with The Sopranos. While it’s bad enough that Blaze is messing around inter-dimensional portals, Madisynn spoils Wong’s Sopranos episode, and a line has to be drawn somewhere. After enlisting She-Hulk’s help, Wong is able to put a stop to Blaze using mystical arts in his act. In the process, he ends up bonding with Madisynn, who becomes Wong’s new binge-watching buddy.

Within hours of She-Hulk Episode 4 hitting Disney+, Wong and Madisynn immediately started trending on Twitter, which is particularly hilarious because of a gag at the top of the episode. In one of the now-regular fourth-wall breaking moments, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters cracks a joke that everyone loves Wong and bringing him back is like “giving the show Twitter armor for a week.” The writers couldn’t have been more accurate, as sure enough, Wong reactions started pouring in early Thursday and haven’t showed any signs of slowing down as of this writing.

You can see some of the reactions below:

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law streams new episodes every Thursday on Disney+.

Good job, Larry, indeed. Larry June, whose legend has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past couple of years is seeing his biggest breakouts in 2022 thanks to his new album Spaceships On The Blade and an increased presence as a coveted feature artist for artists like Jay Worthy, Joey Badass, P-Lo, and Westside Gunn.

The San Francisco native’s California breeze-cool style has proven appealing to hip-hop fans who appreciate the laid-back luxury of his plainspoken, easygoing rhymes, and today, he brings those attributes to his appearance on the ever-popular A COLORS Show, performing Spaceships cuts “Corte Madera, CA” and “Another Day, Pt.2” in front of a sunny yellow background with a Cali streetwear cool guy uniform of a crewneck sweatshirt, baggy khakis, and a Polo bucket hat. He completes the look with a styrofoam cup of tea, shouting out his hosts with his signature ad-lib: “Good job, Colors!”

As further proof of June’s meteoric rise this year, not only has he prominently featured on festival lineups like Rolling Loud, Broccoli City, and Outside Lands, but he’s also soon to feature in the upcoming Red Bull SoundClash across from Babyface Ray in events in both artists’ hometowns. In October, Larry will travel to Ray’s native Detroit, then, in November, he’ll host Ray in his own San Francisco.

Watch Larry June’s A COLORS Show performance above.

Before Don’t Worry Darling debuted at the Venice Film Festival, Olivia Wilde’s directorial followup to Booksmart already found itself embroiled in drama. The so-called “Spitgate” didn’t help the matter of people taking this film seriously, but to be fair, the film was already on the path of being a PR disaster long before critics watched it. For the time being, the consensus appears to be that, while Florence Pugh is still a powerhouse, the film isn’t nearly as compelling as the sea of controversy surrounding it. There was an overarching Shia LaBeouf casting mess, which grew worse when his version of events went down differently than how Olivia described. And Flo hasn’t heavily promoted this film, which muddies waters, too.

Then there are the rumors that have been bubbling for several months: That the timeline of Olivia’s breakup with Jason Sudeikis (with whom she shares two children) could look fuzzy when held up against her relationship with Harry Styles, who replaced Shia in the movie. Part of the issue arose when Jason spoke with GQ and declared that he and Olivia broke up in November 2020, which was only a few months before she and Harry were photographed on a boat while kissing and spotted together at a wedding while holding hands. This apparently quick turnaround let to rumors upon rumors, and in a new Vanity Fair profile, Olivia attempts to calm down that chatter, which is one of many distractions from Don’t Worry Darling as a film.

Olivia also talked up Flo and Harry in the course of this Vanity Fair interview, but here’s how she shot down any rumors of relationship overlap:

“The complete horsesh*t idea that I left Jason for Harry is completely inaccurate. Our relationship was over long before I met Harry. Like any relationship that ends, it doesn’t end overnight. Unfortunately, Jason and I had a very bumpy road, and we officially dissolved the relationship towards the beginning of the pandemic. We were raising two kids during lockdown, so we co-parented through that time. Once it became clear that cohabitating was no longer beneficial for the children, it became the responsible thing to not, because we could be better parents as friends who live in different houses.

Olivia added that she’s not a fan of “the need to create false narratives and drama around this kind of stuff” while also asking, “[H]aven’t the kids been through enough?”

That’s a fair point about the children, but no one can deny that the timing — of production and the breakup and the new relationship and Jason’s legal server handing custody papers to Olivia while she was onstage at CinemaCon to promote Don’t Worry Darling — was bound to get tongues wagging. Still, no one knows what actually happens inside any relationship, so outside perceptions can’t really be counted on for any semblance of accuracy. What we do know, though, is that Don’t Worry Darling arrives in theaters on September 23. Will the film put butts in seats aside from all the drama? We’ll soon found out.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Asheville, North Carolina-native band Wednesday released one of the best records of 2021 with the spellbinding Twin Plagues, an indie masterpiece that amazingly melded together heavy shoegaze with a vulnerable twang to form a perfectly off-kilter sound. Today, they’re back with a haunting 8-minute ripper called “Bull Believer,” as well as the announcement that they’ve signed to the Bloomington, Indiana-based label Dead Oceans.

“Bull Believer” sticks to Wednesday’s signature sound; it’s drenched in reverb and bandleader Karly Hartzman’s vocals are hypnotic, somehow simultaneously fragile and strong. Despite its length, it doesn’t drag on or lose the listener’s attention for even a second. It ends with Hartzman’s bone-chilling screams, which have even more willpower than Phoebe Bridgers’ in “I Know The End” or Alex G’s in “Runner” (not that it’s a competition).

“This song is an excuse for me to scream on stage, an outlet for the anger and sadness that has been collected by the current and past versions of myself,” said Hartzman in a statement. “An offering to myself of a brief moment of release from being tolerant of the cruelty of life: feels like cutting my hair to let go of the history it holds.”

Watch the video for “Bull Believer” above.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the show that just won’t die, as it’s enjoyed multiple distinct runs since it debuted way back in 2000. A new movie, which would later be titled Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm, was announced earlier this year and now there’s a new trailer for the film. Furthermore, there’s something for music fans to sink their teeth into as well, as Run The Jewels have created a new theme song for the movie. Some of it can be heard in a new trailer that premiered today.

Killer Mike and El-P are an unsurprising pick to do a new Aqua Teen theme song, as they’ve long enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Adult Swim. A couple years ago, they performed the network’s first live concert, dubbed “Holy Calamavote.” They also teamed up with Rick And Morty for some exclusive merch in 2016, they’ve shared new music as part of the Adult Swim Singles series, and they just performed at the Adult Swim Festival Block Party earlier this month.

It’s currently unclear if the movie will get a theatrical release, although it is set to be available in digital formats and on Blu-ray on November 8.

Check out the Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm trailer above.

The singles from Alex G’s forthcoming album God Save The Animals have been some of his best material yet. “Blessing” was an idiosyncratic earworm with an unforgettable finale of sputtering synths; “Runner” was a simple ballad with a sticky melody that made for a memorable chorus; “Cross The Sea” was an eccentric track that soared with an array of mesmerizing sounds.

It’s only a couple of weeks until the LP is finally unveiled, and the singer is back with what will presumably be the final pre-album single, “Miracles.” It dives headfirst into his knack for storytelling, focusing on the religious aspect that the record’s title refers to. It ends with his repeating of the line “Miracles and crosses,” almost like an incantation.

God Save The Animals follows the release of his soundtrack for We’re All Going To The World’s Fair that came out earlier this year after he was tapped by director Jane Scoenbrun to score the film. “Whenever it rains at night I put on Alex’s score and listen to how the rain on my roof sounds mixed with Alex’s beautiful, lonely music,” Scoenbrun had said in a statement.

Listen to “Miracles” above.

God Save The Animals is out 9/23 via Domino Recordings. Pre-save it here.

Atlanta has already made waves this year after it returned for its long-awaited third season. Season two of the acclaimed series dropped in 2018, so there was a lot of catching up to do with our favorite Atlanta residents.

The third season brought some new hurdles for the crew. Fans got to see their favorite characters globe-trotting as Paper Boi embarked on a European tour, with Earn, Darius, and Vanessa tagging along for the ride. They have a few loose ends to tie up in the fourth and final season: will Vanessa and Earn get back together to raise their daughter? Will Paper Boi make it big? What happened to that stale baguette?!

Even though the third season ended this past spring, Donald Glover confirmed last year that the show was filming seasons three and four back to back and that four would be the final season of the instant cult classic show. So, even though the series is coming to its conclusion, it’s sooner than you might think!

The final 10 episodes will begin airing on September 15th on FX and streaming the next day on Hulu. The fourth season will feature the core crew making their way back to Atlanta, where things are “normal” but not normal normal, you know? Fans can expect some callbacks to the past three seasons, plus (hopefully!) a satisfying conclusion to the series.