Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker closed out the “Skywalker Saga” not with a whimper but not with a bang either, grossing almost $300 million less than its predecessor globally and earning this latest trilogy’s worst reviews. Throughout it all, one of its stars, Daisy Ridley, kept mum, even as some fans took umbrage with some of its twists, especially those related to the return of Emperor Palpatine. But now, as per Entertainment Weekly, she’s finally opened up: Appearing on the DragCast podcast, she spoke about dealing with the reactions to each film.

“It’s changed film by film honestly, like 98% it’s so amazing, this last film it was really tricky,” Ridley said. “January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like, ‘Where’s the love gone?’”

Ridley also remarked on how social media has changed the way movies are received. “I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen,” she said, “but honestly trying to scroll through my newsfeed in January and trying to not see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and be like ‘Oh my god this is so upsetting,’” she added. “So it’s been tricky, but then it’s having that thing of I feel really proud of it, and I’m so thrilled to be part of it.”

Meanwhile, while Disney is still developing a number of Star Wars films — including one by MCU honcho Kevin Feige that may or may not happen — are no specific films in the franchise have been announced.

(Via EW)

The NFL Draft is just over a week away and when next Thursday night’s first round commences, future stars will learn where they’ll be playing and teams will hope they’ve found a franchise difference maker that can lead them into playoff and title contention.

This year’s draft is stacked with talent, most notably at wide receiver and offensive tackle, but for those in need of defensive help there’s plenty of playmakers on that side as well. Right now with social distancing in place, it’s tough for those players to get any group work in or participate in any tackling drills, but when they come back they’ll need to fine tune their skills once again and make sure they get back to the fundamentals.

When that happens, I’d like to offer up some spectacular teaching tape that emerged over the weekend, courtesy of a dog and an oblivious child at an Easter egg hunt. As the child trots from one family member to the other, BARKevious Mingo here recognizes he’s got the angle and can keep this kid from reaching paydirt and delivers one of the most brutal, yet clean hits we’ll see all year.

The reverse angle really proves just how clean this hit is. The dog gets its body in front of the ball-carrier, turns the head and delivers a clean shoulder-to-shoulder strike. I mean, just look at this impact.

For every defender that can’t seem to figure out how to deliver a hard hit over the middle of the field without leading with their helmet, take note from Bobby WAGner in this video. I’ve got a strong second round grade on him.

We know that many families are taking a huge economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic, but images from the San Antonio Food Bank from last week illustrate that fact in a stark way.

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In a recent interview with The Breakfast Club Boosie added another wrinkle to the February controversy that saw him drawing ire from multiple quarters after his comments condemning NBA star Dwyane Wade’s support of Wade’s transgender daughter Zaya. During the interview, Boosie claimed that Jay-Z wanted to get involved, acting as an intermediary between Boosie and the Wade family, but Boosie claims he turned the meeting down.

“They were trying to hook up some shit with a meeting with Jay-Z,” he told the hosts. “They say Jay-Z was gonna get him on the phone and all that sh*t, I need to apologize to save this, and save that.” However, Boosie felt that he was justified in his comments, saying, “‘Hey, tell Jay-Z I don’t wanna talk.’ I’m not apologizing for sh*t. I don’t give a f*ck if Jesus calling to get me to apologize. I said what I said, man. I felt that was right.”

Boosie was censured by many observers after he commented on Dwyane Wade’s social media post supporting Zaya for coming out, saying, “That is a male. A 12-year-old. At 12, they don’t even know what they next meal is gonna be. They don’t have sh*t figured out yet. He might meet a woman, anything, at 16 and fall in love with her. But his d*ck be gone—how he gon’—like, bruh, you going too far, dawg.” However, after receiving the backlash, Boosie refused to apologize, posting several more videos doubling down on his position.

Watch Boosie’s interview with The Breakfast Club above.

The XFL has failed to make it more than one year, as the second iteration of Vince McMahon’s spring football league ends similarly to the first.

McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment, which was created to start and manage the second edition of the XFL, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Monday, officially ending the football league that had recently let go of most all employees and dropped down to a skeleton crew.

It’s hard not to be cynical about the move, as it keeps McMahon, who as Eric Fisher notes owned most all of the stock in the league, to avoid having to pay money still owed by filing for bankruptcy. It’s also why a separate entity was created in Alpha Entertainment, rather than launching the league under an established business like WWE, as it afforded them the opportunity to pull the rip cord if things went south rather than suffering total losses.

The saddest part is that the XFL was far more successful as a football league in its second iteration than the first. It wasn’t as gimmicky and has already seen a few players ink NFL contracts based on their performance. The rule changes they instituted were received positively and many hoped to see the NFL take from the XFL — not to mention a broadcast that was truly revolutionary. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak all but assured the league would end despite those successes, with the season being canceled and revenue no longer coming in fa crucial first season.

The summer movie calendar has been in a wild state of flux thanks to COVID-19, with just about every movie planned for the first month or so formally bumped to later in the year, or even to early 2021. One holdout has finally budged: As per The Hollywood Reporter, Pixar’s next movie, Soul, once due June 19, will now open on Nov. 20. (That also means what was originally Disney’s Thanksgiving offering, Raya and the Last Dragon, has been bumped to March 12, 2021.)

It’s the second Pixar film to be affected by the ongoing pandemic, but at least Soul will get to enjoy a long life in theaters (presumably!). Onward, their brother elf movie starring the voices of Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, had the misfortune to open on March 6, when audiences started avoiding multiplexes and not long before they shuttered nationwide. That movie only managed to gross $61 million domestically — by far the company’s lowest number — and it now lives on Disney+, where any subscriber can stream it.

Soul follows an aspiring jazz musician, voiced by Jamie Foxx, whose soul is separated from him after an accident and winds up in a world filled with other souls, including a depressed one voiced by Tina Fey. It’s also the first time Trent Reznor has co-written a score for an animated film owned by Disney.

(Via THR)

In response to an increase in demand for household supplies and cleaning products, Amazon had temporarily halted restocking all “non-essential” supplies. That meant all CD, vinyl, and merch sales were paused as the online outlet kept up with huge demands. But now, vinyl retailers and music lovers alike are in for good news: Amazon announced it will be resuming the sale of all music-related merchandise.

After less than a month, Amazon is finally ready to begin restocking all “non-essential” items that were placed on hold as the coronavirus pandemic worsened. According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon’s warehouses will begin seeing more items from third-party sellers like record labels and distributors. “Later this week, we will allow more products into our fulfillment centers,” an Amazon spokeswoman told the WSJ. “Products will be limited by quantity to enable us to continue prioritizing products and protecting employees, while also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities.”

Amazon’s announcement comes at an opportune time for the music industry. Nearly every summer concert tour and festival has been canceled or postponed and the annual audiophile event Record Store Day was rescheduled. Amazon restarting the sales of CDs and vinyl means music lovers can have access to physical copies of their favorite albums while stuck in quarantine. Though Amazon’s announcement means greater access to music, the best way to support a musician is still buying merch directly from their website.

For one week in Los Angeles, filmmaker Kevin Smith will be bringing his fictional Mooby’s fast-food restaurant to life for a charitable cause. In collaboration with Postmates, Smith will be offering delivery from the faux-franchise, which has been a staple of his View Askew cinematic universe. According to his announcement on Instagram, it also sounds like Smith has a plan for a Mooby’s pop-up experience once things settle down.

Our takeout Mooby Meals include “Mooby’s Messy Lasagna Sandwich” with a side of “Hater Totz” and “Chocolate Covered Pretzels” for dessert! And for your “toy surprise”, we include an autographed Reboot card from me, that will also entitle the bearer to front row slots when the pop-up is finally open to the public! And we’re donating the proceeds to @nouswithoutyou (providing meals to families in need effected by Covid 19).

As Deadline reports, the team behind the Saved by the Max and Good Burger pop-ups will help Smith bring Mooby’s to life, with proceeds going to No Us Without You, “a fundraiser that provides food for families of undocumented restaurant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The promotion will run from April 19 to April 25 between noon to 8 PM, but again, only in LA. For more details, you can read the full announcement from Smith below:

If you’re looking to have a Mooby’s movie marathon, the fictional fast food joint first appeared in Dogma and has practically become synonymous with the characters Jay and Silent Bob. The burger joint is prominently featured in Clerks: The Animated Series, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and the recent Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. Mooby’s is also the central setting for Clerks II where Dante and Randall have left behind their beloved Quick Stop for a life toiling in fast food service alongside Rosario Dawson.

(Via Deadline)

Disney+ is famously (or is it infamously) family-friendly; there is nothing harder on its coffers than a PG-13, and quite a lot of it is far softer than that. But they go a step further: They scrub clean anything that features extreme cursing or nudity. When it first launched in November, some noticed that the 1987 comedy Adventures in Babysitting was curiously missing its two well-deployed f-bombs. Another movie too hot for Disney+? The 1984 mermaid rom-com Splash. Even though it was rated PG, it does have a couple butt shots of co-star Daryl Hannah. As caught by ScreenCrush, one person noticed they censored that in a most curious fashion.

The scene comes towards the end of the film’s first act, in which our hero, an uptight wholesale fruit and vegetable business co-owner played by Tom Hanks, almost drowns but is rescued by a sexy mermaid, played by Neil Young’s current wife. She doesn’t speak English, and she doesn’t have any clothes, and after kissing him she runs, starkers, back into the ocean. (Don’t worry: She’ll emerge later, shocking tourists on NYC’s Liberty Island by traipsing about in her birthday suit, although with that scene Disney+ simply zoomed in, obscuring any naughty bits that could traumatize young eyes.)

How many tots are putting on a PG-13 rom-com about a man in love with she-fish? Possibly not many, but good to know Disney+ is prepared. As pointed out in the tweet, the CGI used to hide Hannah’s shame looks suspiciously like the “digital fur technology” that so tarnished last year’s notorious motion picture version of Cats. (You can watch the full, uncensored scene here, though warning: It has incredibly mild, PG-rated nudity, although for some reason the censored version of the movie has been re-rated PG-13.)

Will kids wind up asking their parents how Hannah’s long hair somehow manages to turn into what looks like a bathing suit bottom? In any case, it’s another reminder that Disney+, home to movies like 1971’s legendarily bad Million Dollar Duck, is the weirdest streamer on earth.

(Via ScreenCrush)