Category: Worldwide

Seven years since it left the air on NBC, The Office continues to be one of the most popular television series on the planet, as it still regularly appears among the top shows on Netflix, week after week (it will move over to The Peacock in 2021, where a spin-off is possible, though unlikely). Viewers never seem to tire of the series, its brilliant cold opens, new revelations about the series (like how Creed was nearly written out), gossip about its stars (like the only time famous nice guy Steve Carell lost his temper), and news about what could have been (like, how close we were to The Office starring Bob Odenkirk as Michael Scott).

We have not, however, heard that much from Leslie David Baker, who played Stanley on the long-running hit sitcom. Recall that, at the end of The Office, Leslie David Baker’s character, Stanley, retired from Dunder Mifflin and moved to Florida, where presumably he has been living grumpily ever after.

Until now.

This week, Leslie David Baker launched a Kickstarter campaign in an effort to bring his character back to the screen in a spin-off project called Uncle Stan: Coming Out of Retirement. “After several years of enjoying a relatively uneventful retirement lifestyle,” Baker’s announcement reads, “Uncle Stan receives an urgent call for help from his favorite nephew, Lucky: a recent widower with two small children and a motorcycle repair/flower shop in Los Angeles. Soon Uncle Stan finds himself dishing out all the support and guidance he has to offer in his new California home.”

Baker is attempting to raise $300,000 to get the project going, although it is unclear if he’s even received permission to use the character in another project, which would otherwise have very little to do with the original The Office. It would not, however, be the first for a project of this ilk. Recently, the Coen Brothers gave John Turturro permission to spin-off his The Big Lebowski character into a stand-alone film, Jesus Rolls, which came out earlier this year.

Meanwhile, here’s Baker, in character as Stan, giving his pitch for the spin-off:

(Via Kickstarter)

The first weekend of The Basketball Tournament in their Columbus, Ohio bubble was, by all accounts, a success as they offer something of a test case for a bubble basketball league.

The first round of play (the Round of 24) saw some exciting finishes as the bottom 16 seeds played their way into the “Super 16” for this week’s play. One of those teams was 12th seeded Brotherly Love, which took down the Stillwater Stars in a fairly dominant 87-71 performance to set up a matchup with fifth-seeded Eberlein Drive. However, that matchup will not take place as Eberlein Drive had a player test positive for COVID-19 during their quarantine period after arriving in Columbus.

As is TBT’s policy, a positive player test means the team is removed from the tournament and their opponent moves on to the next round. In the release, TBT offered the testing stats, noting that as the quarantine period has gone on their positive percentage has dropped precipitously.

It’s unfortunate for Eberlein Drive, but also shows how seriously TBT is taking the situation and trying to keep the rest of the teams safe. While the NBA won’t be taking as aggressive steps towards positive tests, the Tournament’s decline in cases since reaching their bubble offers some hope that the league will see a similar trend once players are at Disney.

We’re living in the strangest timeline, so it probably didn’t seem too weird when, on July 4, Kanye West announced he was running for president, against the very man who made the MAGA hat he used to wear everywhere. It was still an announcement worth mocking. That’s what Tiffany Haddish did. As caught by Entertainment Weekly, the comic and actress took to Twitter to troll the musician but good.

Haddish’s tweet borrowed from West’s verbiage, writing, “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I too am running for president of the United States.” There followed a hashtage: #2020Vision. She followed that up by announcing her running mate, Dave Chappelle.

Haddish wasn’t the only celebrity who chimed in with similar jokes. Paris Hilton did one:

And so did Toni Braxton.

Hilary Duff did so, too, burying the big message at the bottom of a lengthy July 4 family post.

Bob Saget also announced his faux-run.

Saget later doubled down, even announcing his own running mate: longtime fellow Full/er House cast member John Stamos.

So which of these celebrities, all of whom have as much government experience as our current president did when he ran for president, would make a better president than our current one? Our vote’s for the one who deservedly won several awards for Girls Trip.

(Via EW)

While the NBA is preparing to head to Orlando for its restart at Disney, The Basketball Tournament has already begun in Columbus, Ohio, as the 24-team tournament tipped off this weekend as a first glimpse at what bubble basketball will look like.

With the return of TBT brought us the return of the Elam Ending, last seen in this year’s All-Star Game, in which once they reach the first stoppage inside four minutes to play in the game, the game clock is turned off and it becomes a race to eight more points than the leading team has. On Sunday, the 22-seed Sideline Cancer took down 11-seed Team Hines in a thriller, in which Marcus Keene had a big game, including hitting the game-winner to give Sideline Cancer a 93-91 win in the race to 92.

What makes the Elam Ending work is how the stakes of each possession late in the game are heightened not by a dwindling clock but instead by a need to reach a certain score first. In blowouts, it can allow things to come to an end quickly, while in close games it allows runs and creates an intensity on both ends. In this instance, Keene comes off a (very) high pick and roll and is able to get the big that steps out on him off balance to clear space for a pull-up jumper to win it.

That shot moves Sideline Cancer on to the “Super 16” to face off with the 8-seed, Challenge ALS, later this week.

It’s been nearly a month since J.K. Rowling went from beloved author to despised transgender critic, and though many have turned against her — including Harry Potter fansites, which no longer acknowledge her existence — she continues to stand her ground. On Sunday the now controversial writer took to Twitter and tripled — or is it quadrupled? — down on beliefs that look as though they may permanently tarnish her legacy.

This round was instigated when someone pointed out that Rowling had liked a tweet that was critical of hormone prescriptions, calling them “the new antidepressants,” and that while “they are sometimes necessary and lifesaving,” they “should be a last resort – not the first option.” The tweet concluded by saying it’s “Pure laziness for those who would rather medicate than put in the time and effort to heal people’s minds.”
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The person who caught the like wrote, “oh cool so it’s not just trans people getting to benefit from JK’s reactionary anti-healthcare activism. she’ll no doubt be helpfully helping people with depression overcome their ‘pure laziness’ too!”

That caused yet another backlash against Rowling, eventually causing her to join in and make things even worse. “I’ve ignored fake tweets attributed to me and RTed widely. I’ve ignored porn tweeted at children on a thread about their art. I’ve ignored death and rape threats. I’m not going to ignore this,” Rowling wrote at the outset of what turned out to be a lengthy thread. (Although why she was ignoring those nasty uses of social media but not this is telling.)

Rowling then tried to redirect the conversation to her own history with mental illness, while trying to make herself out to be less despised by that she feels “nothing but admiration and solidarity” for “this trans woman.” She then tried to argue that young people who transition are merely “being shunted towards hormones and surgery,” which she feels is, somehow, a “new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people.”

As Rowling caused yet another uproar — and since Rowling ended her thread by saying “I can’t pretend to care much about your bad opinion of me,” at least she’ll be okay with it — the person who posted the original tweet decided to make their own clarification.

“I take hormones. I take antidepressants. I would never shame their use. Once again extremists leave no space for nuanced conversations. One size does not fit all, and patients are failed every day by doctors who take the easy way out,” they posted. “We have many tools, some more proven than others, to address mental health. My point was talk and behavioral therapy should not be skipped over. Experimenting with brain and body chemistry should not be the first avenue we explore. That is all I meant.”

In the meantime, if you’d like to donate to a charity for LGBTQ+ youth, we recommend The Trevor Project, as well as GLSEN.

(Via The A.V. Club)

Lil Baby’s streak atop the Billboard albums chart continues, with his sophomore album My Turn coming in at No. 1 for the fourth consecutive week (and its fifth week overall, having initially hit the top spot when it dropped in February). Throw in the success of his “The Bigger Picture” single, and Lil Baby has had a pretty great 2020 .

For the week ending on July 2, My Turn sold 70,000 equivalent album units, meaning it’s spent more weeks at No. 1 than any album this year. It also spent the most weeks at No. 1 since Post Malone’s 2019 album Hollywood’s Bleeding. On top of that, My Turn also ties Boyz II Men’s II for the most weeks at No. 1 for a Motown album in the last four decades.

As for the rest of the top 5, Lil Durk’s Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 jumps from No. 56 to its new peak of No. 2, with 43,000 units sold. The leap comes after Durk delivered the deluxe version of Just Cause Y’all Waited 2. DaBaby’s Blame It on Baby can be found at No. 3, with 40,000 units sold. Rounding out the top 5 is Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding at No. 4 and The Weekend’s After Hours at No 5.

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

[via Billboard]

Joining the long list of shows forced to change their normal routines as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular opted for a livestream in order to ensure the show went on without crowds. The spectacular was hosted by Today Show anchor Craig Melvin and meteorologist Dylan Dreyer and featured at-home performances from Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Lady A, Brad Paisley, and more. The Killers’ also joined the show for a performance of their own and they used the opportunity to honor the late George Floyd.

Floyd was killed by police officers on May 25 in Minnesota after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. Performing “Land Of The Free,” The Killer used their opportunity on national television to honor him by changing the song’s lyrics as they performed the track from their Prairie Sun Recording Studio in Sonoma, California.

Speaking about Floyd’s death, band frontman Brandon Flowers performed the song, changing its lyrics to read: “When I go out in my car/ I don’t think twice/ But if you’re the wrong color skin/ You grow up lookin’ over both your shoulders/ In the land of the free/ And how many killings must one man watch in his home/ Till he sees the price on the tab/ Eight measured minutes and 46 seconds/ Another boy in the bag/ Another stain on the flag.”

The Killers’ performance arrived after the group honored Jimmy Buffet last month with a cover of his song “A Pirate Looks At 40” for iHeart Radio’s Living Room Concert Series. Press play on the video above and fast-forward to the 27-minute mark to hear The Killer’s “Land Of The Free” performance.

D Smoke’s 2020 has been a well-deserved step up following his Season 1 win on Netflix’s Rhythm & Flow. The west coast rapper began the year with his phenomenal album Black Habits and followed it up with a pair of videos as well as appearances on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and the 2020 BET Awards. Pushing onward, D Smoke joined Rapsody and PJ Morton for a new take on a standout effort off Rapsody’s 2019 album Eve.

Supplying his talents for “Afeni,” D Smoke appears in the second half of the song, sliding through with a verse focused on the impact he as a father can have on the daughter he raises. Alluding to the turbulent summer the world has experienced, he raps, “Envision him planning summer trips, take her to raging waters / Challenges of July made this father afraid of August.” To conclude his verse he honors the women in his life saying he received his name and his game from them and, as a result, he will do whatever is needed to protect them.

Keeping her verse the same, the new version of Rapsody arrives after they performed on the 2020 BET Awards alongside Nas, The Roots, and Public Enemy, for a remixed performance of “Fight The Power.” She also recently joined Femme It Forward’s Revolutionary Reads book club with Meg Thee Stallion.

Press play on the video above to hear the remix.

Next Saturday’s UFC 251 main event was supposed to be a welterweight title showdown between champ Kamaru Usman and No. 1 contender Gilbert Burns on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi, but after Burns was removed from the card after tweeting he wasn’t feeling well prior to UFC’s charter flight, the main event suddenly fell into question.

Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal, the Nos. 2 and 3 ranked contenders respectively, both indicated their interest in taking the fight on short notice, and it appears the BMF champ is the one getting the call. Masvidal and Usman are both reportedly headed to Las Vegas, where they will be tested for COVID-19, and if both are negative will take a flight to Abu Dhabi, per ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.

The initial co-main event between Alex Volkanovski and Max Holloway for the featherweight title will be bumped into the main event spot, per Helwani, but given there was tremendous anticipation and hope for a showdown between Usman and Masvidal after Gamebred took down Nate Diaz last November. An announcement of the fight will likely wait until both fighters have tested negative and are on a plane for Abu Dhabi, as UFC will not want to create buzz for a fight before they at least have them on the way. Still, it’s quite the replacement fight and given Masvidal’s sudden rise to being one of the sport’s most popular fighters, will only increase interest in the card.

Bill Gates, billionaire and founder of Microsoft, is pointing the finger at social media companies like Facebook and Twitter for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.

In an interview with Fast Company, Gates said: “Can the social media companies be more helpful on these issues? What creativity do we have?” Sadly, the digital tools probably have been a net contributor to spreading what I consider to be crazy ideas.”

According to Gates, crazy ideas aren’t just limited to the internet. They are going beyond that. He doesn’t see the logic behind not protecting yourself and others from coronavirus.”Not wearing masks is hard to understand, because it is not that bothersome,” he explained. “It is not expensive and yet some people feel it is a sign of freedom or something, despite risk of infecting people.”

Facebook responded in an email to Fox News saying: “Since January, we’ve worked closely with health organizations, like the CDC, to connect people to accurate information about COVID-19 and we will continue to do more. We’ve directed over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities and just today launched an alert at the top of Facebook and Instagram reminding everyone to wear face coverings to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. We’re also aggressively going after misinformation and have applied warning labels to millions of pieces of misinformation and have removed content that could lead to imminent harm.”

In this case, the phrase “freedom isn’t free” may be relevant in a different way than people traditionally think of the saying. Throughout our country’s history, American soldiers have put their lives on the line to ensure our safety. With COVID-19 cases spiking all over the country, it is up to us to stop the spread of the virus. If that involves staying at home, wearing a mask whenever we go outside and taking precautions until we get the pandemic under control—that’s our duty. Eventually that will allow us to walk our streets freely, eat at our local restaurants and bask in the sun on our favorite beaches. It is a small price to pay compared to the American heroes who have gone to war for us.

The coronavirus isn’t as concerned with our freedom. It infects and kills people all over the world. The medical community knows this, but it isn’t the news people want to hear. They keep searching until they get the answer they want. But when they don’t get it, they point fingers at people like Bill Gates. He’s become the main target.

Conspiracy theorists have placed Gates at the center of blame regarding COVID-19 largely because of his 2015 TED Talk when he warned about global pandemics. People either blame him for the outbreak or accuse him of profiting from it. His prediction five years ago has some hoaxers believing he was the architect behind the spread of the virus, questioning his large investments in vaccine development.

He dismissed the accusations and outlandish theories, telling CCTV back in April, “We are in a crazy situation so there are going to be crazy rumors. We need to make a vaccine without just focusing on one country. We need to make it for the entire world, including countries that don’t have the resources to pay vaccine research or vaccine factories.”

Let’s be real. Bill Gates isn’t hurting for money, and based on the billions of dollars he has dedicated to charity, this doesn’t seem to be a cash grab scheme. In a press call in June, Gates responded to the conspiracies about him related to the donations he made to to develop and produce a vaccine for the illness. “The misinformation thing is just so weird,” he said. “Most of the people I talk to aren’t the ones who are subject to that, so I don’t have any direct connection to it to understand it.”

It seems like a better solution to have Bill Gates donating his time, efforts and money in developing a vaccine then laying around on the couch, downing bags of potato chips and playing video games like Fortnite all day. But hey, that’s just me.