Category: Worldwide

The Green Bay Packers are 60 minutes away from sending Aaron Rodgers to the Super Bowl for only the second time in his Hall of Fame career. The team standing in the way in the NFC Championship Game is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and in a fun bit of fate, the guy on the other side of the field is one of the few signal callers who gets mentioned before Rodgers in the greatest of all time conversation, Tom Brady.

For years, people wanted to see Brady and Rodgers go head-to-head in the postseason, and while this won’t happen in the Super Bowl, there will still be huge stakes involved in this matchup. One of them, in the eyes of many who opine on the game, does not particularly matter to Packers receiver Davante Adams.

During a press availability on Wednesday, Adams discussed how he isn’t a fan of Super Bowl wins being viewed as a de facto quarterback stat, because in his eyes, Rodgers is the GOAT regardless of how many more rings a guy like Brady has on his finger. Still, he hears all of that, and wants to win Rodgers a ring with the hopes of quieting that all down.

He is correct that a player as good as Rodgers should be judged on more than how many Super Bowls he has won — ultimately, winning a championship takes a special team, not just an excellent quarterback. Having said that, athletes of Rodgers’ class are always going to be judged on how many championships they end up lifting in their career, especially when their career is happening at the same time as a guy like Brady, who has the record for the most championships for any player in league history. The good news for Rodgers and Adams is that there is a pretty straightforward way for the conversation surrounding the former to change up the narrative around his career, and winning this Sunday would be a major step in making that happen.

Fans of still-unbelievably-fun ’90s songs received some tremendous news a couple of days ago when it was revealed that New Radicals would be playing together for the first time in 22 years. The occasion is today’s post-inauguration Virtual Parade Across America, and the song, of course, is “You Get What You Give.” Well, the time has come, as Gregg Alexander and company have finally performed the song again.

One aspect of the song apparently didn’t survive the band’s breakup: the iconic bridge that called out a number of MTV stars of the time, including Beck, Courtney Love, and Hanson. But maybe it’s for the better.

Even shortly after the song was originally released, the band didn’t get to play it all that much and relish in its success in front of a live audience. Its parent album, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too, dropped in October 1998 and the song was released as a single the next month. Then, in July 1999, Alexander announced the disbandment of the group.

Joe Biden explained the significance of the single in his 2017 autobiography Promise Me, Dad, in which he wrote, “During breakfast, Beau would often make me listen to what I thought was his theme song, ‘You Get What You Give’ by the New Radicals. Even though Beau never stopped fighting and his will to live was stronger than most — I think he knew that this day might come. The words to the song are: ‘This whole damn world can fall apart. You’ll be OK, follow your heart.’”

Ahead of the performance, the band’s Gregg Alexander said, “If there’s one thing on Earth that would possibly make us get the band together if only for a day, it is the hope that our song could be even the tiniest beacon of light in such a dark time. America knows in its heart that things will get bright again with a new administration and a real plan for vaccines on the way. That’s the message of the song… this world is gonna pull through. […] Performing the song again after such a long time is a huge honor because we all have deep respect for Beau’s military service and such high hopes for the unity and normalcy Joe and Kamala will bring our country again in this time of crisis.”

For the first time in a long time, watch New Radicals perform “You Get What You Give” above.

Al Roker‘s colleagues are absolutely loving that the beloved anchorman scored a fist bump from Joe Biden on the parade route to the presidential inauguration. In a video shared by The TODAY Show, you can see Biden surprising his wife Dr. Jill Biden and everyone walking alongside him as he spots Roker in the crowd and immediately breaks away to deliver a fist bump to his old pal. You can actually hear Biden say in the clip, “We gotta keep doing this,” and the viral moment has been blowing up on social media.

Besides the fact that not everyone gets chance to share a fist bump with the President of the United States, what makes this moment particularly special is that Roker pulled off a similar feat during Barack Obama’s second inauguration (a thumbs-up from Obama and a handshake from Biden) in 2013. Here’s Roker explaining the history behind his epic fist bump skills below:

Knowing how much the moment means to Roker, who’s been battling prostate cancer since November, his colleagues in the media heaped praise on the beloved TV personality for pulling this off again. Plus, it’s just damn cool.

Granted, Biden and Roker have an ongoing bromance that would make Leslie Knope jealous, the newsman reportedly had a trick up his sleeve in case he was having trouble luring Biden over once again. That trick? Snacks. And not just any snacks, but snacks from Wawa, an eastern PA staple that should be tempting to a scrappy Scranton native like Biden.

(Via TODAY on Twitter)

Wannabe dictator Donald Trump has officially vacated the White House and among the varied reactions, one of his most outspoken critics volunteered to help out. “I’m just here to help,” Rihanna tweeted, offering a photo from an old fashion shoot that saw her carrying black plastic garbage bags in couture. “#wediditJoe.”

When it came to Trump’s divisive policies and rhetoric, Rihanna was never one to mince words. She called him out over his (now deleted, along with the rest of his account) tweets about a mass shooting in El Paso in 2019 after putting him through the wringer over his immigration policy earlier that year. She also trolled him post-election as he waffled between wanting polls to “stop the count” and/or “count every vote” in his efforts to manipulate the outcome of the election in his favor. Of course, those efforts were unfruitful and he was replaced by Joe Biden, even after inciting a disorganized, disastrous insurrection at the Capitol building on January 6.

The outspoken star was just one of many who reacted to the Biden-Harris inauguration by trolling Trump. As he slunk off in a helicopter to hopefully hide out for the rest of his days at Mar-A-Lago, Macklemore bid good riddance with his “Trump’s Over Freestyle,” while Becky G, Lady Gaga, Moby, Wale, and more celebrated the end of his terrible tenure in the Oval Office.

Celebrating America (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC, Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, and NewsNOW from Fox, 8:30pm) — Tom Hanks celebrates a fresh chapter in U.S. History following the daytime inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th U.S. president. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will make remarks, and they’ll be joined by musical guests including Jon Bon Jovi, Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, and Ant Clemons.

C.B. Strike (HBO, 10:00pm) — This limited series is adapted from the novels of Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) and follows a London-based private detective who investigates the most complex cases with the help of his military training. In the debut episode, Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott find themselves at odds while finding themselves confronted by a frightening new case.

Daughter from Another Mother (Netflix series) — Two women discover that their babies were inadvertently switched at birth, so they do what they have to do: develop a plan to unite as a single, very strange family.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Peter CottonTale, Chance The Rapper, Cynthia Erivo, and Chicago Children’s Choir

Jimmy Kimmel Live! — John Oliver

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Martin Scorsese, Fran Lebowitz, Hunter Schafer, Playboi Carti

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Dakota Johnson, musical performance by AJR

In case you missed these picks from last Wednesday:

Everyone Is Doing Great (Hulu/Endeavor Series) — A little lightness will come in handy right about now, so this series from One Tree Hill alums James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti could hit the spot. Lafferty and Colletti star as former TV A-listers, who happened to play vampires on an enormously popular series called Eternals. Five years later, things are pretty damn awkward in their careers and lives, so it’s time for a late coming-of-age spin. The show found popularity with two episodes on the 2018 festival circuit, so the duo crowdfunded the rest of the season.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (Netflix limited series) — This spellbinding docuseries dives deep into the investigation of brutal serial killer Richard Ramirez, who terrorized Los Angeles in the mid 1980s. Law enforcement found themselves puzzled by Ramirez’s apparent lack of rhyme or reason, given that his series of murders and sexual assaults at first appeared to be disconnected. After round-the-clock work by the members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, breaks in the case eventually arrived, and this series seeks to paint a portrait of how citizens feared becoming the next victim in this real-life horror story.

When Donald Trump pardoned Lil Wayne and Kodak Black on his final day in office, some believed it was the result of a deal between the two wherein Wayne exchanged his endorsement for a pardon on the pending gun charges against him. Today, in an interview with the New York Times, Wayne’s lawyer Bradford Cohen explained how the meeting between the rapper and the hotel mogul took place, denying that Wayne endorsed Trump in exchange for a pardon. Instead, he credits a connection between the two for the move.

“I think they had a very strong connection,” Cohen said. “He’s in the entertainment world. He’s got a style that’s similar in terms of the way that he carries himself, and a lot of rappers and people in the industry relate to that.” In this respect, his sentiments echo those of Barack Obama, who also posited that some rappers gravitated to Trump because of his personality and the trappings of wealth and fame he uses to surround himself.

Wayne was one of those rappers who drew criticism in the waning days of the Trump reelection campaign for endorsing him despite his controversial policies and rhetoric. Ice Cube, Lil Pump, and others were censured by their fans for praising Trump’s so-called “Platinum Plan,” which many believed was a pandering attempt to court the Black vote.

To call The Naked Gun movies “stupid” is not an insult. From the Files of Police Squad!, The Smell of Fear, and The Final Insult are funny, because they’re stupid. It’s a compliment. The scene where Jane Spencer tells Frank Drebin that she practices safe sex and he replies “so do I” before they both put on full-body condoms? To me, you are perfect. It’s hard to imagine a Naked Gun movie without quintessential straight man Leslie Nielsen, who died in 2010, but according to Liam Neeson, he’s been “approached” for a reboot. And because everyone loved the first time they worked together, the person doing the approaching was Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Neeson said that he’s probably done making action movies after this year. “I’m 68 and a half, 69 this year. There’s a couple more I’m going to do this year — hopefully, COVID allowing us — there’s a couple in the pipeline and then I think that will probably be it,” he revealed. “Well, unless I’m on a Zimmer frame or something.” He’s not done with acting, however. “I’ve been approached by Seth McFarlane and Paramount Studios to maybe resurrect the Naked Gun films,” he said, adding, “It’ll either finish my career or bring it in another direction. I honestly don’t know.”

No one tell O.J. about this. There’s nothing to see here, Nordberg.

(Via People)

Melania Trump had already signaled her readiness to leave the White House long before her husband finally (sort-of) conceded the election to Joe Biden. During one of her final FLOTUS acts, she made her delayed response to the failed MAGA coup of the U.S. Capitol all about herself, and she must be thrilled to never have to hang Christmas decorations again. So, it wasn’t too surprising to see her flash a rare public smile while literally leaving the building on Biden’s Inauguration Day. She wore all black, as if she was attending a funeral, but she did look happier than usual.

Then Donald and Melania took their last trip on Air Force One while heading to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. Oh boy, she made quite the outfit change.

The New York Post took note of the blazingly bright dress with a whole lot of orange going on. The garment hails from Gucci and costs $3700, but it’s an attention grabber. It really feels like she might be trolling with this selection. One Twitter user joked that this is “the traditional Slovenian divorce dress,” and Melania has come full circle from what could be an acceptable funeral outfit to a straight-up vacation dress. She’s clocking out!

Even more tellingly, though, Melania didn’t even pause after exiting the airplane to pose for photos with her husband. She sauntered away, like she gave no f*cks, and she was totally done giving any f*cks at all.

Really though, will someone think about the poor shower curtains?

With COVID lockdowns becoming our new reality for the past year or so, it was probably inevitable that they’d eventually become our movie reality too. Which means that Doug Liman’s new film for HBO Max, Locked Down, set in a contemporary locked-down London, is probably just the first of its kind. Torn from our living rooms!

Sure, you’ve been trapped inside small drab rooms yammering into Zoom windows for the past year, but what if Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor were the ones trapped inside the small drab rooms, and the Zoom windows contained a rotating cast of celebrities, like Ben Stiller and Ben Kingsley and Mindy Kaling and Stephen Merchant? Wouldn’t that be worth watching?

Sadly, not really. Locked Down is a “heist movie” with no heist. In the place of things happening, it has people talking about things happening. Rather than feeling cathartic, it’s merely banal, yet another unwelcome reminder of our own isolation. Please can we just get two hours of good-looking, well-dressed people with fresh haircuts hanging out together in a crowded bar? That would be a welcome kind of escapism.

Anyway, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway play Paxton and Linda, a partnered but unmarried couple of 10 years, who had made the decision to uncouple just before the lockdown order came down and now, unhappily cohabitating, are stuck in a row house driving each other a bit nuts.

Ejiofor’s character is, separately and simultaneously: a neurotic, a biker, an ex-con, a poet, a former heroin addict, sober for 10 years, and works as a delivery driver. Hathaway’s character, meanwhile, is: someone who used to date a heroin-loving biker, an ex-pagan, slightly bisexual, and the well-to-do, extremely put together current UK CEO of some kind of fashion company. If, on paper, it seems like all those quirks don’t really add up to coherent characters let alone explain compatibility, well, it’s also true in practice.

We discover all of these things gradually, through various arguments between the two and their separate Zoom calls with acquaintances and employers, as varied as Paxton’s boss at the delivery company, played by Ben Kingsley, and Anne Hathaway’s boss at her retail company, played by Ben Stiller. It seems as if writer Steven Knight (Allied, Eastern Promises) imagined the heist, and then worked backwards from there, building the kind of characters one might need to pull it off. Trouble is, Locked Down is a two-hour movie in which the “heist” doesn’t happen until about an hour 40, and so we spend most of the run time “exploring” these characters, who don’t seem like they were initially intended to be explored. They seem more like utilitarian combinations of quirks now shorn of their utility, like box trucks forced to race the Indy 500.

Mostly they spend the movie describing past action in expository dialogue. Hey, remember that thing that happened? Of course I do! But surely you must remember that other thing that also happened…

Hearing characters describe a story, naturally, isn’t nearly as compelling as seeing that story, and it creates in the present characters who don’t make much sense — Ejiofor the affable, ex-con neurotic biker poet, Anne Hathaway playing her character as a standard manic rom-com white professional lady, frequently exasperated with little provocation. It’s hard to enjoy them in the present with them constantly describing a past that doesn’t seem to connect.

Director Doug Liman, so brilliant at shooting people doing in movies like Edge of Tomorrow, American Made, Go, etc, seems to have painted himself into a very talky corner in Locked Down, and apparently put in a lot of work to do so. He was so convinced that people would be desperate to watch a movie about a pandemic lockdown that he brainstormed a movie in July, flew all the way to London on a prop plane to shoot Locked Down in September, and spent the next few months editing in time for release this week in January. It’s often said that art thrives on limitations, but Locked Down wears its rushed schedule and logistical difficulties on its sleeve. That so many characters are never in the same room feels more like a practical consideration than a narrative one. Which makes Locked Down understandable, just not… well… watchable.

That Doug Liman and Anne Hathaway and Stephen Merchant and the gang got to keep doing what they do during this whole thing is genuinely inspiring, but more in an abstract way than a must-see TV way. Locked Down is probably best appreciated as a sort of WPA make-work project for the crew and actors rather than something to watch. Hopefully, it’s remembered as an anomaly and not a harbinger of a new normal.

‘Locked Down’ is now available on HBO Max. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Ever since the pandemic began, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been on the forefront of using his star power and social media presence to encourage public safety measures. Whether it’s chomping on a cigar in his hot tub as he intimidates “unwise” spring breakers into going home, or melting hearts with his donkey and miniature pony, the Governator hasn’t been messing around when it comes to encouraging Americans to do the right thing during a public health crisis. And it’s exactly that kind of attitude that Schwarzenegger brought to his latest PSA where he implores eligible citizens to get the COVID vaccine as soon as they can. It also didn’t hurt that he dropped the perfect Terminator quote in the process.

“Today was a good day,” Schwarzenegger tweeted. “I have never been happier to wait in a line. If you’re eligible, join me and sign up to get your vaccine. Come with me if you want to live!”

Along with his Terminator-themed message, Schwarzenegger included video proof that he stopped by a drive-thru vaccination center to get his COVID-19 shot. You can watch it below:

While this latest PSA is definitely a necessary message (getting COVID vaccines into the arms of Americans becomes a crucial mission for the incoming Biden administration), nothing can compare to the 10-minute message where he rebuked Donald Trump for inciting the attack on the Capitol building. Not only does the video include Arnold revealing deeply personal details about growing up with an abusive father who served in the Nazi regime, but he busted out his Conan sword to make a rousing point about the strength of democracy. You just don’t mess with that.

(Via Arnold Schwarzenegger on Twitter)