Category: Worldwide

Netflix’s Squid Game has been causing internet mayhem to the degree that the streamer got sued over the surge in traffic created by the frenzy to stream this show. The “world domination” jokes are actually no joke, given that it’s headed toward being the streamer’s most-watched show ever, and so many people want to watch the deadly (fictional) survival game (which skewers capitalism) that it’s topping the charts in 90 countries. Given the optimal timing, too, Squid Game shall surely be 2021’s most popular Halloween costume, and Netflix is here to assist with that as well.

Their merch shop (which contains The Witcher and Lupin offerings, and you can visit them here) is already pumping out Squid Game-themed apparel, including T-shirts and a hot-pink hoodie, which is part of a guard uniform with a show logo. That item can be customized with different shapes, so that one can pick their guard rank. So fancy! However, an actual contestant track-suit costume isn’t available as of yet.

Ominously enough, the apparel is offered up with this greeting: “Accept the invitation at your own risk. If you’re like us and love ‘Squid Game,’ you’ve come to the right place — and the stakes aren’t as high.”

Hmm… I wonder if Jeff Bezos is placing his order as we speak? The Amazon founder fired off a gracious congratulatory tweet over the weekend while writing that Netflix co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos “get it right so often” with their content game. He also added, “Their internationalization strategy isn’t easy, and they’re making it work. Impressive and inspiring.” Bezos admitted that he hadn’t watched the show yet, and he might not be as big of a fan once he realizes that it’s a critique on capitalism, but hey, Halloween is for jokers anyway.

Taylor Swift has gotten involved in politics in recent years, far more so in years prior, as she has made her voice heard on topics like voter registration and has voiced support for specific candidates. Politicians are making note of her influence and using it to their advantage, as Swift’s name and her journey with her masters have found their way into the Virginia gubernatorial race.

Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has launched a series of ads — which appear on Facebook, Instagram, and Google search — that connect Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin to Scooter Braun’s 2019 purchase of Swift’s master recordings. One ad states (as Billboard notes), “Did you know that Republican candidate for Governor, Glenn Youngkin, helped buy Taylor Swift’s masters out from under her when he was co-CEO of Carlyle Group?”

The Carlyle Group provided funding for Braun’s purchase of Swift’s masters.

Youngkin’s camp has responded to the ads and the claims they make, with Renzo Olivari, McAuliffe’s press secretary, saying (via Axios), “In 2019, McAuliffe was as a passive investor at Carlyle, and did not have any investments associated with Taylor Swift’s masters.” Youngkin spokesperson Christian Martinez also told the publication, “Terry McAuliffe has reached the stage of desperation in his campaign where he’s rolling out the most baseless attacks to see what sticks. It’s a pathetic fall that could only be achieved by a 43-year political hack.”

In a 2019 message to fans, Swift specifically addressed Carlyle Group, writing, “This is WRONG. Neither of these men [Braun and Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta] had a hand in the writing of those songs. They did nothing to create the relationship I have with my fans. So this is where I’m asking for your help. Please let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how you feel about this. Scooter also manages several artists who I really believe care about other artists and their work. Please ask them for help with this — I’m hoping that maybe they can talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music she wrote. I’m especially asking for help from The Carlyle Group, who put up money for the sale of my music to these two men. I just want to be able to perform MY OWN music. That’s it. I’ve tried to work this out privately through my team but have not been able to resolve anything.”

Before he won four Emmys for his performance as Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage was in a punk band. “We got together, and we just drank too much and played the old CBGB’s,” he said about his time in Whizzy (a terrible and terribly ’90s band name). “We had a following, but our following was, like, progressive rock. It was all guys. For some reason, just dudes came to our shows. I felt a little bit, like, what’s the point of being in a rock band if there’s no ladies?” Something tells me there will be more ladies in attendance when he shows off his musical chops in Cyrano.

Directed by Pride and Prejudice‘s Joe Wright, the musical adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac (you probably read it in high school) stars Dinklage as the love-struck title character, along with Haley Bennett as Roxane, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian, and Ben Mendelsohn as Count de Guiche. Indie rock legends The National provide the soundtrack, and while Dinklage doesn’t sing in the trailer above, rest assured, he does in the “gonzo” musical of the “greatest love story ever told.”

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Award-winning director Joe Wright envelops moviegoers in a symphony of emotions with music, romance, and beauty in Cyrano, re-imagining the timeless tale of a heartbreaking love triangle. A man ahead of his time, Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) dazzles whether with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel. But, convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne (Haley Bennett), Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her — and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.).

Cyrano opens in select theaters on December 31.

If you remember a time when Corbin Bernsen was TV’s ultimate sex symbol, think of Harry Hamlin as more than just a recurring character on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, or get all hot and bothered when someone mentions “The Venus Butterfly,” we have great news: L.A. Law is coming back!

As Deadline reports, ABC has ordered a pilot for a sequel to the hit legal drama, which will see Blair Underwood reprise his role as attorney Jonathan Rollins, as well as serve as an executive producer. The series, according to Deadline, will center around “the venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman reinvent[ing] itself as a litigation firm specializing in only the most high-profile, boundary-pushing, and incendiary cases. Underwood’s Jonathan Rollins has gone from idealistic to more conservative as he clashes with millennial JJ Freeman to decide the best path forward for the firm to effect political and legal change.”

The Emmy-winning series, which ran for eight seasons between 1986 and 1994, was a precursor to the era of prestige television that got its start in the late 1990s. Co-created by über-producer Steven Bochco, the legal drama may seem tame by today’s standards, but it dared to address such topics as abortion, racism, homophobia, AIDS, and capital punishment at a time when no other TV show would even sniff around such taboo subject matter. It also provided some now-famous stars, including Bryan Cranston, Kathy Bates, Steve Buscemi, CCH Pounder, Don Cheadle, William H. Macy, and Stephen Root, with some of their earliest TV gigs. The series also helped to make Underwood a household name, when the acclaimed actor—who was then just 23 years old—joined McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak in L.A. Law’s second season.

The new series, which has been in development since December, will be partly overseen by the late Bochco’s son, director/producer Jesse Bochco, and his widow, Dayna Bochco, who will executive produce the show. Bochco the younger mentioned the project during a virtual TCA panel, noting that: “We are working with brilliant, brilliant people and I think we’re going to get it to the world.”

(Via Deadline)

One of Jake Gyllenhaal’s early breakout roles was in The Good Girl, the 2002 comedy-drama written by Mike White (The White Lotus) that also starred John C. Reilly, Tim Blake Nelson, Zooey Deschanel, and Jennifer Aniston. The film has a stacked cast, but the experience was “torture” for Gyllenhaal due to his crush on the Friends actress.

During a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Gyllenhaal was asked by Howard Stern what it was like to film a romantic scene with Aniston, with the host sarcastically suggesting that it must have been “torture” for him. “Oh yeah, it was torture, yes it was,” The Guilty star replied while laughing. “But it was also not torture. I mean, come on, it was like a mix of both.” He continued:

“Weirdly, love scenes are awkward, because there are maybe 30, 50 people watching it? That doesn’t turn me on,” Gyllenhaal, 40, said. “It’s oddly mechanical. And also it’s a dance, you’re choreographing for a camera. You can get in it but it’s like a fight scene, you have to choreograph those scenes.”

Gyllenhaal used the “pillow technique” for his sex scene with Aniston. “That was just preemptive and used generally always when actually in a horizontal place in that movie,” he said. “I think that was actually a Jennifer suggestion, she was very kind to suggest it before we began. She was like, ‘I’m putting a pillow here.’”

You can watch his The Howard Stern Show interview above.

(Via Yahoo!)

Facebook has officially changed its relationship status with the world to ‘It’s Complicated.’ Over the past week, Frances Haugen—a former product manager for the social media behemoth—has become a household name since leaking documents about the harmful effects the company has to The Wall Street Journal, giving a scathing interview to 60 Minutes, and, on Tuesday, going scorched Earth on her former employer in front of Congress as she talked about how Facebook’s products “harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy.”

While Haugen isn’t really telling us something we didn’t already know, it’s one of the first times that someone with such intimate details of the company’s inner workings has spoken up to the government about the dangers that something as seemingly inconsequential as a Facebook status update or Instagram post could pose. And Facebook CEO/co-founder Mark Zuckerberg isn’t happy. Nor is he in agreement with Haugen’s take on the company or its values.

As The Verge reports, Zuckerberg posted a lengthy response to Haugen’s attacks on his public Facebook page, in which he noted that the accusations being made against the company don’t “reflect the company we know” and that Facebook “care[s] deeply about issues like safety, well-being, and mental health.” After stating that “many of the claims don’t make any sense,” and wondering why, if they wanted to ignore research data, they would “create an industry-leading research program to understand these important issues in the first place?,” Zuckerberg went on to write:

At the heart of these accusations is this idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being. That’s just not true. For example, one move that has been called into question is when we introduced the Meaningful Social Interactions change to News Feed. This change showed fewer viral videos and more content from friends and family—which we did knowing it would mean people spent less time on Facebook, but that research suggested it was the right thing for people’s well-being. Is that something a company focused on profits over people would do?

The argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical. We make money from ads, and advertisers consistently tell us they don’t want their ads next to harmful or angry content. And I don’t know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed. The moral, business, and product incentives all point in the opposite direction.

It’s Zuckerberg’s first public statement about the accusations Haugen is making, ever since her identity was revealed on 60 Minutes (though something tells us Zuck already knew who was making all the noise). While there’s nothing overly surprising in his more than 1,300-word response, it doesn’t read as particularly honest. Just last month, The Wall Street Journal shared some findings from the company’s own research team, including the fact (as was included on an internal presentation slide) that Instagram (one of Facebook’s products) “make[s] body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.” (You can read more from that WSJ report here.)

You can read Zuckerberg’s full statement here.

(Via The Verge)

Following R. Kelly being found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering, it is now a bit harder to find his songs and videos: YouTube has permanently suspended the RKellyTV and RKellyVevo channels, which hosted official uploads of Kelly’s videos and songs.

Nicole Alston, YouTube’s head of legal, told Bloomberg, “Egregious actions committed by R. Kelly warrant penalties beyond standard enforcement measures due to a potential to cause widespread harm. Ultimately we are taking this action to protect our users similar to other platforms.”

Alston also noted that Kelly will no longer be able to use, own, or create YouTube channels. A YouTube spokesperson also said in a statement, “We can confirm that we have terminated two channels linked to R. Kelly in accordance with our creator responsibility guidelines.”

That said, as it stands now, at least a portion of the videos that originally appeared on these channels are still accessible, but with caveats. Searching YouTube for “Ignition (Remix),” for example, shows an audio-only result (a video just featuring cover art) that appears to be from the RKellyTV channel. When clicking on the channel link, though, the channel is blank except for the message, “This account has been terminated for a violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service.”

When going to watch that actual “Ignition (Remix)” video, the page is accessible and the video is able to be played, but the page indicates the video is from the “R. Kelly – Topic” channel, instead of RKellyTV as indicated in the YouTube search results.

Meanwhile, the page for the RKellyVevo channel behaves differently than the RKellyTV channel. Instead of a message about the channel’s termination, it is as though the channel never existed at all, as the error page is the same one yielded when trying to access an invalid YouTube URL: “This page isn’t available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else.”

Videos for songs on which Kelly features, like Ja Rule’s “Wonderful” and Nick Cannon’s “Gigolo,” are still available on YouTube, as they were uploaded to different channels. As of now, Kelly’s music is still available on YouTube Music, as it is on other audio streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

Yung Bleu is currently on a US tour in support of his debut album, Moon Boy, but it hasn’t stopped him from showing how life is for him overseas. Fresh off a performance in New York, the Alabama native returns with a music video for “Unforgiving” with Davido and it finds both acts in Lagos, Nigeria for the visual. In it, Bleu grows up and falls in love with his childhood friend, and in order to show his appreciation for her, the singer decides to build a spaceship for her from scratch due to their mutual love for space.

Moon Boy arrived at the end of July complete with features from John Legend, HER, Kehlani, Moneybagg Yo, Big Sean, Drake, Jeezy, Gunna, 2 Chainz, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and more. The album’s release has also been supported by videos for “Ghetto Love Birds,” “You’re Still Mine,” “Baddest,” and “Way More Close (Stuck In A Box).”

It’s all been smooth sailing for Bleu since Drake helped boost his popularity by remixing “You’re Still Mine” last summer. The addition of the Toronto rapper to the song helped pushed it into the top 20 of the Billboard singles chart.

You can watch the video for “Unforgiving” with Davido above.

Moon Boy is out now via Vandross Music Group Inc/Empire. Get it here.

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

Rob McElhinney isn’t only the creator of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia; he’s also the one who puts his body in danger. For Season 7 — all the way back in 2011 — the show’s resident Mac had a shocking transformation: He gained 50 pounds and was often seen chowing down on unhealthy food. (He went got jacked for Season 8.) Now, in the first look at Season 15, he’s rocking a new look, one that’s not as over-the-top but still pretty eye-catching.

The image shows Charlie Day, McElhinney, and Glen Howerton (but not Kaitlin Olsen and Danny DeVito) standing outside Paddy’s, looking faux-serious. Day and McElhinney are even crossing their arms. But the latter goes even further: He has long hair, a horseshoe mustache, and two earrings, as well as an oversized windbreaker. Again, McElhinney’s gone way more extreme before, but it’s still a respectably dirtbag vibe.

There was no It’s Always Sunny last year, the first time it’s taken a year off since 2014, between Seasons 9 and 10. It’s not clear when Season 15 will bow, which may wind up not being until next year. But the show, which has been on since 2005, has been greenlit through Season 18, at which point it will be the longest-running live-action comedy in TV history. Not bad for a show set in a state that both helped create American democracy and, late last year, save it.

(Via The AV Club)

After taking a break in 2019, Florida’s Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival was one of the last festivals to fully run its course in 2020 before the pandemic shut down the music world for over a year. Okeechobee wound up skipping the 2021 festival season, but thankfully the Florida showcase will be back in 2022. On Tuesday, organizers revealed their full lineup.

Okeechobee will return to Sunshine Grove during the weekend of March 3-6, 2022 to celebrate the festival’s fifth anniversary. Tame Impala, Porter Robinson Megan Thee Stallion, Rezz, and Griz are among the bigger names. Others include Denzel Curry, Jungle, Gary Clark Jr., Ashinko, Flying Lotus, Troyboi, Jai Wolf, Four Tet, Caribou, The Glitch Mob, Clozee, Smino, Coi Leray, Mt. Joy, BIA, Sven Vath, Tobi Lou, Chiiild.

After announcing the festival’s 2022 dates back in June, Pasquale Rotella, the founder and CEO of Insomniac Events (one of the companies behind the festival), shared their excitement about their return. “After this long year, I couldn’t be more excited to return to Sunshine Grove and be back in nature with all my Okeechobee friends and fam,” Rotella said in a statement. “This festival is all about music, camping out, and making s’mores while dancing in a jungle, grass fields, and on a beautiful beach. It was the last festival I attended before the pandemic hit so I can’t wait to be back!”

You can check out the full lineup for Okeechobee’s 2022 showcase in the post above.