Category: Worldwide

The New Orleans Pelicans are in the process of finding a trade for Jrue Holiday. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the team is in the midst of discussing deals for the veteran guard with a collection of teams, and unsurprisingly, there are a handful of contenders interested in acquiring his services.

Holiday’s name has been brought up in trade talks in New Orleans for some time, as the 30-year-old guard’s skill set on both ends of the floor is coveted by teams that need some help in the backcourt. While he does help the Pelicans, too, Holiday is a bit older than the members of their core, and playing him would mean taking the ball out of the hands of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Zion Williamson. Plus, depending on what he could command on the trade market — particularly if a bidding war ensues between teams desperate for a guard — New Orleans could potentially get a ton back.

This season, Holiday is set to make approximately $25.4 million and has a player option for a little more than $26.2 million during the 2021-22 campaign. A two-time All-Defense selection, Holiday averaged 19.1 points, 6.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.6 steals in 34.7 minutes per game for the Pelicans last season.

Following the HBO Max release of its remake of The Witches, Warner Bros. became the target of intense criticism from the disability community, which took issue with the way the film starring Anne Hathaway depicted limb deformities. Disability advocates and organizations like the Paralympic Games called out the studio and director Robert Zemeckis for stigmatizing ectrodactyly, a limb abnormality more commonly known as “split hands.” In the film, when Hathaway’s character’s true witch form is revealed, she only has three fingers, and the disability community did not appreciate this aesthetic choice being used to signify evil.

European Paralympic swimmer Amy Marren is one of the more vocal critics who called out Warner Bros. studio for the offensive depiction. Via Twitter:

It’s not unusual for surgeons to try and build hands like this for children/adults with certain limb differences and it’s upsetting something that makes a person different being represented as something scary. Yes, I am fully aware that this is a film, and these are Witches. But Witches are essentially monsters. My fear is that children will watch this film, unaware that it massively exaggerates the Roald Dahl oriiginal and that limbs differences begin to be feared.

You can see Marren’s tweet below along with criticism from disability advocate Melissa Johns:

In response to the backlash, a Warner Bros. spokesperson told Deadline that the studio is “deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in The Witches could upset people with disabilities.” The spokesperson also clarified that “It was never the intention for viewers to feel that the fantastical, non-human creatures were meant to represent them.”

(Via Deadline)

Demi Lovato has been as big a critic of Donald Trump as anybody in music, going as far as to release a song addressed at him directly, “Commander In Chief.” Like many others, she watched in disbelief yesterday as Joe Biden and Trump essentially matched each other in electoral college votes, to the point where it’s still not clear who will be president in 2021. Now that Election Day has come and gone and there are still votes left to be counted, Lovato is in shock at how the election has unfolded.

Lovato wrote in a pair of tweets this morning, “Kind of terribly sad how close this election was. After this year and especially this summer it should’ve been a landslide. I don’t get it. Truly. I’m not losing hope. My faith is strong. Just very disappointed at how close this is. Like…. really y’all?”

She also previously said of “Commander In Chief,” “It’s very important for me that I get to use my platform for something much bigger than just singing. There’s been so many times where I wanted to write the president a letter or sit down with him and ask him these questions. And then I thought, I don’t really actually want to do that, and I think one way that I could do that is writing a song and releasing it for the whole world to hear, and then he has to answer those questions to everybody and not just me.”

Election night did not go as planned for either Republicans or Democrats. As a tight race became increasingly clear, Jake Tapper warned CNN viewers not to “get high on your own supply” since a Joe Biden landslide was not in the cards. Over on Comedy Central, The Daily Show kicked off proceedings with Trevor Noah from his “fallout shelter” that was ready to go for a long haul, including a very visible supply of toilet paper. And thank goodness for preparation because around the 5:00 minute mark above, Noah declared “I’ve already thrown up on myself, and I’ve had time to clean it up.”

He was not alone in his sentiments — a whole lot of pukiness was afoot across the U.S. on Tuesday night. And there’s nothing like the bluntest of humor to get through things, so the host later declared that he’d need “heroin gummies” to get through another Trump term, should it happen. Seriously though, it’s such a close race that no one (not even Donald Trump with his false claims of victory) can call it yet, and like the 2000 election, we might not know who won the presidential race until week’s end.

Noah was later joined by The Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr., who had booze in tow, as well as Don Cheadle, who sees positive continuing signs from this year’s massive voter turnout. Senior correspondent Michael Kosta later popped into the show (all the way from Biden headquarters) to declare that this week’s long wait will give him time to pursue an elusive dream: writer of erotic fan-fiction about the U.S. election.

One can expect, though, that Noah will have plenty to say about Trump’s authoritarian-mode false victory claims. Those, of course, happened after he laid tweet-groundwork to pressure the Supreme Court into shutting down a Biden win. Now, Trump is baselessly and absurdly claiming that “surprise ballot dumps” in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other battleground states will end in a “stolen” election. In his false-claim of victory on Tuesday night, he complained: “Frankly, we did win this election… We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court… we want all voting to stop.” Well, the Biden team is ready to fight that legal battle, so settle in, everyone.

Basketball season may be over but Polo G still found a way to play on an outdoor court — just not quite the way you might expect. Instead of shooting jumpers and crossing over defenders, he and his team took over the Los Angeles court for their NPR Tiny Desk (At Home) Concert. Playing up the theme, they carted out a ball rack and shot clock, decked themselves out in Lakers jerseys, and even set up a scorer’s table with a custom ball bearing the up-and-coming Chicago rapper’s sobriquet.

After making an impressive debut last year with Die A Legend and his breakout single “Pop Out” featuring Lil Tjay, Polo doubled down on his impending stardom with The GOAT this May. The gamble paid off big, with Polo becoming a hot commodity for features on other rappers’ songs and landing a spot on the prestigious XXL Freshman Class of 2020.

So far, Polo’s been co-signed by Polo G, who put him on “3 Headed Goat” with Lil Baby, Murda Beatz, who tapped Polo for “Doors Unlocked” with Ty Dolla Sign, and by fellow Freshman Fivio Foreign, on the made-to-go-viral “Bop It.” Most recently, Polo appeared alongside Chika, Flawless Real Talk, Jack Harlow, and Rapsody for a fiery cypher at the 2020 BET Hip-Hop Awards.

Watch Polo G’s Tiny Desk Concert above.

Despite having an excellent 2020 so far, Travis Scott opened the 11th month with a minor L after his Batman Halloween costume flopped with fans online. When Travis deleted his Instagram to kick off November, some assumed it was a response to the ridicule he received over his awkward All Hallow’s look. However, according to Page Six and a source near to the Houstonian rapper, Travis actually deleted his account to focus on being a dad.

“Halloween had nothing to do with it,” reads a quote in the report. “He is focusing on his family and their well-being and wants to influence his fans to do the same instead of being so consumed with social media.” Travis does have one daughter, Stormi Webster, with Kylie Jenner.

Otherwise, Travis has been on an outstanding run throughout the year. Most recently, he narrated the launch trailer for the PlayStation 5 console and helped lift McDonald’s out of a pandemic sales slump thanks to his Quarter Pounder meal and its associated, wild merchandise. On the musical front, Scott racked up another two No. 1 hits as a result of collaborations with Young Thug (“Franchise“) and Kid Cudi (“The Scotts“). However, one rapper you won’t see him collab with anytime soon is Denzel Curry, who accused Scott of having a “funky” attitude during a Twitter Q&A with fans.

This year’s presidential election is a two-horse race, and it’s a real edge-of-your-seat affair, even after Election Day. Donald Trump and Joe Biden have remained within a handful of electoral college votes of each other since results started coming in, which was naturally made things stressful for people heavily invested in the outcome. That includes Cardi B, who found her own way to cope with the stress yesterday.

Last night, she shared a video of herself smoking not one, not two, but three cigarettes at the same time and wrote, “How these elections got me watching these states turn red.”

Cardi has been as outspoken against Donald Trump as anybody in pop culture. For example, in January, she called him a “terrorist.”

Back in October 2019, Cardi expressed her belief that Trump could end up getting re-elected, saying, “I really hate to say it, but sometimes I do believe that Trump will be winning (the election). Just because due to the fact that every single time I don’t see nobody saying that they love a Democratic candidate. There’s no candidate that people are saying we love, we want them to win.”

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

Just days before the election, Lil Wayne shared a photo of himself with Donald Trump and offered some glowing words about the president. That’s a great way to stir up backlash in 2020, and he got plenty of it. The situation has apparently had an impact on his love life as well, as it appears he has been broken up with over the endorsement.

Wayne was dating model Denise Bidot, but yesterday, before deactivating her Instagram account, she shared a cryptic message, writing in an Instagram Story, “Sometimes love just isn’t enough…,” followed by a broken heart emoji. The pair also unfollowed each other on Instagram. Additionally, Vulture reports that according to gossip blogger Love B. Scott, one of Bidot’s friends said, “She broke up with Wayne. It wasn’t just his Trump support, but that was a big part. [Denise] was shocked when she saw Wayne come out with Trump. She’s so disappointed in him.”

Alongside the Trump photo Wayne shared, he wrote, “Just had a great meeting with @realdonaldtrump @potus besides what he’s done so far with criminal reform, the platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership. He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done.”

Last week, President Trump laid tweet-groundwork to pressure the Supreme Court into shutting down a Biden win. Now, he’s attempting to finish the job, even before all votes have been counted after Election Night turned out to be an indecisive event (so far). Votes still must be counted in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other battleground states, and we could be waiting for days on results. Whereas Joe Biden urged Americans to remain patient while those last ballots are tallied, Trump (unsurprisingly) isn’t content to sit around and wait. He stepped up with a misspelled tweet and with a speech that both falsely claimed victory: “Frankly, we did win this election… We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court… we want all voting to stop.”

Trump is arguing that the election’s being “stolen” from him, and yeah, he’s blowing steam as usual, but in a more harmful way. Tellingly, too, some of his most outspoken supporters are slamming his decision to behave like an authoritarian. There’s a rapid accumulation of Republican distancing from this Trump move. That includes Fox News (which may no longer be Trump’s favorite news outlet after they called Arizona for Biden), which is definitely not endorsing the false victory claim.

“This is an extremely flammable situation and the president just threw a match into it,” Chris Wallace declared. “He hasn’t won these states … the president doesn’t get to say he won states … there’s no question that all these states can continue to count votes.”

On ABC News, former U.S. attorney Chris Christie told it straight on the absurd “victory” claim. “There’s just no basis to make that argument tonight… There just isn’t… I disagree with what he did tonight.”

“All these votes have to be counted that are in now in Pennsylvania,” Christie explained. “The argument won’t even start in Pennsylvania until tomorrow or Thursday or Friday because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended for three days when you could accept ballots. I understand there could be an argument on that based on Pennsylvania law, but that argument is for later. Tonight, this was not the time to make this argument.”

Marco Rubio (who doesn’t know what a “blue wave” is) is also telling his boy to sit down: “The result of the presidential race will be known after every legally cast vote has been counted.”

Rick Santorum is “very distressed” that Trump’s tossing the word “fraud” around about, you know, the legitimate counting of votes.

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton called Trump’s words “the most irresponsible comments a president has ever made.”

Even Ben Shaprio seems embarrassed: “No, Trump has not already won the election, and it is deeply irresponsible for him to say he has.”

Lana Del Rey, like many of her musical peers, have been outspoken with her disdain for Donald Trump. That didn’t stop at least one fan from being convinced last night that Del Rey voted for Trump this year, an accusation that Del Rey didn’t take lying down.

Last night, Del Rey livestreamed some election coverage on Instagram Live, and somebody shared a snippet of her broadcast that made it look like Del Rey supported Trump. Del Rey replied to the post, “Choosing this misleading clip out of the entire livestream Isn’t going to get you more livestreams.”

Some people were convinced that Del Rey voted to re-elect Trump, though, with one fan tweeting, “I just KNOW Elizabeth voted for Trump, I wish I could look up her voting records. Something doesn’t sit right with me.” Del Rey responded succinctly, “Go. Fuxk. Yourself.” The fan then responded, “Lana telling me to go f*ck myself when I have her tattooed on my arm lmfaoooo alright then.” Lana replied, “Nah read what u wrote hoe.”

Del Rey has spoken out against Trump on multiple occasions over the years. She confirmed in 2017 that she tried to place a hex on Trump, saying, “Yeah, I did it. Why not? Look, I do a lot of sh*t. […] I’m in line with Yoko [Ono] and John [Lennon] and the belief that there’s a power to the vibration of a thought. Your thoughts are very powerful things and they become words, and words become actions, and actions lead to physical changes.”

The next year, after Kanye West declared his support for Trump, Del Rey (who performed at Kanye and Kim Kardashian’s wedding in 2014) expressed her disappointment, saying, “Trump becoming our president was a loss for the country but your support of him is a loss for the culture. I can only assume you relate to his personality on some level. Delusions of grandeur, extreme issues with narcissism. If you think it’s alright to support someone who believes it’s OK to grab a woman by the pussy just because he’s famous-then you need an intervention as much as he does.”