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Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson is not only a man of many (2) names, but also a man of many talents. We all can recognize his acting abilities, his impressive singing voice and his violent punches. The Rock, Dave Bautista, and John Cena should really team up for a buddy comedy.

What maybe you didn’t know about The Rock, however, is that he’s the co-owner of the United Football League. But Larry David did. He knows all.

While on The Tonight Show, The Rock reenacted a phone call between himself and David in which the Curb Your Enthusiasm actor requested some rule changes to the UFL. “Larry David calls me, first of all, Larry’s f*cking crazy,” the Moana star said. “Larry, if you guys don’t know, he is so kicker-[averse]. He hates this idea that they’ll play a game and the players will leave it all out on the field and it can, at times, come down to the kicker. He hates that idea.” Because David hated the idea, he called up The Rock to change it.

Johnson then gave his best Larry David impression to reenact the scene. Even though he’s an actor, Johnson is not good at doing another person’s voice. “He goes, ‘Y-You’re going to launch the new league, right? … What can we do about the kickers? Do we need the kickers?’” he said as the Curb Your Enthusiasm creator, adding, “I do a terrible Larry David impression. We had this spirited conversation.” Johnson then confirmed that they did “tweak” some of the rules, but kickers are still necessary to the game. “We need the kickers, by the way, because kickers are an amazing component of football,” he said.

Johnson didn’t mind the call out, especially coming from someone who has very public beef with a puppet. The Rock has had his fair share of conflict with said puppet, so the two are more alike than he thinks. He added, “Dude, it was the greatest phone call to get. We’d never spoken before and he’s awesome, he’s brilliant. It felt like [it was] the final episode of Curb.” Cue the theme song.

You can watch his “impression” at around the 1:45 mark below:

Luckily, there are two sides to every story! David gave his own take on the ordeal, though he doesn’t attempt an impression of The Rock. That would probably get him punched. He doesn’t quite feel like he has been heard, though. Check out his complaints below:

(Via EW)

Beyoncé dropped her new album Cowboy Carter a few days ago. On it, she put her own spin on The Beatles’ 1968 track “Blackbird.”

Now, Paul McCartney, who approved her to use the original backing track in her cover, posted a sweet message about Bey to Instagram.

“I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird,’” he wrote. “I think she does a magnificent version of it, and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place. I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!”

Later in the caption, McCartney also provided some insight into the discussions he had with Beyoncé about covering the song he wrote decades ago.

“I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it,” he added. “I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song. When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.”

Check out McCartney’s post about Beyoncé, along with her cover “Blackbiird,” above.

With Monkey Man set to arrive in theaters this week, writer/director/star Dev Patel has opened about up the numerous injuries he suffered while filming the brutal action film. Although, it appears his suffering has not been without reward. The film is already racking up rave reviews and positive reactions for everything from Patel’s performance to his work behind the camera.

While attending the Los Angeles premiere of Monkey Man, Patel revealed that the pain literally started right out of the gate.

Via Variety:

“I broke my hand in the first big action scene, broke some toes, tore a shoulder, eye infections, bruises,” Patel said.

Eye infections?

“I was crawling on a bathroom floor and it’s flooding. We were shooting this scene for three days,” Patel explained. “All the crew were coming in with their dirty shoes and I’m drinking this water literally. It was grimy stuff.”

Despite his injuries, Patel soldiered through the four-month shoot in Indonesia even as his co-stars became concerned about inflicting any more damage on him during Monkey Man‘s ultra-violent fight scenes.

“I was like, ‘Man, this is too much because you don’t want to hurt the guy anymore. It’s enough,’” Sikandar Kher, who plays the villainous Rana, told Variety. “But he mustered through it.”

Monkey Man slams into theaters on April 5.

(Via Variety)

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to “browse” the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is “worth” in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of “smoothing” into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

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The map may not subvert one’s intuitive assumptions, but it nonetheless quantities and presents the cost of living by geography in a brilliantly simple way. For instance, if you’re looking for a beach lifestyle but don’t want to pay California prices, try Florida, which is about as close to “average” — in terms of purchasing power, anyway — as any state in the Union. If you happen to find yourself in a “Brewster’s Millions”-type situation, head to Hawaii, D.C., or New York. You’ll burn through your money in no time.

If you’re quite fond of your cash and would prefer to keep it, get to Mississippi, which boasts a 16.1% premium on your cash from the national average.

The Tax Foundation notes that if you’re using this map for a practical purpose, bear in mind that incomes also tend to rise in similar fashion, so one could safely assume that wages in these states are roughly inverse to the purchasing power $100 represents.

This article originally appeared on 08.17.17

I recently spent some time with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. He’s known not only for breaking down stereotypes about what kinds of people go into science, but he has actively stood up and spoken against those who would close its doors, especially to young women.

So when Neil was asked this question by a little girl during a public speech, he gave one of the best answers I’ve ever heard. It may drive some parents crazy, but it also might just help change the world.

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This article originally appeared on 01.14.15

The Women’s Final Four will take center stage on Friday night in Cleveland, where undefeated South Carolina will take on NC State and Iowa will face UConn with a berth in the national title game on the line.

The game between the Hawkeyes and Huskies figures to draw a ton of eyeballs, as two of the biggest stars in the sport will square off. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has been the lead story in college basketball (men’s or women’s) this year, and was a big reason the Iowa-LSU rematch in the Elite 8 drew the biggest TV audience of any women’s college game in history. On the other side, UConn’s Paige Bueckers is finally back healthy and looks the part of the superstar so many projected her as coming into the college game, taking over down the stretch against USC to push the Huskies into the Final Four.

While Clark is headed to the WNBA in two weeks, Bueckers will be back for another season in Storrs next fall, and figures to draw plenty of attention. However, as she explained when asked about stepping into the spotlight next year with Clark gone, Bueckers doesn’t want there to be a singular star in women’s college basketball, pointing out that the sport would be much better off if media coverage spread the love to all the incredible players and teams across the country.

Bueckers has always had an incredible amount of perspective for someone her age on these kinds of topics — she used her ESPY’s speech after her freshman year to call out how Black players in women’s basketball aren’t covered or lauded in the same way. In this case, she wants to widen the spotlight and use the fact that she will, undoubtedly, get a ton of attention to push that to others and ensure that the game as a whole gets the shine it deserves, not just her. That’s not something a lot of players would be willing to do, and hopefully we as the media can heed her advice and broaden the coverage of the women’s game beyond just a name or two.

Coachella is coming right up, with the first weekend running from April 12 to 14 and the second from April 19 to 21. There’s a strong lineup this year, too, featuring Tyler The Creator, Doja Cat, Lana Del Rey, No Doubt, Peso Pluma, Lil Uzi Vert, Sabrina Carpenter, Tyla, Ice Spice, J Balvin, Victoria Monét, Reneé Rapp, Lil Yachty, and Khruangbin.

If you haven’t had tickets for months or don’t plan on trying to snag any last-minute, the good news is that you can still check out the festivities thanks to the festival livestream. For more on how that’s going to work for 2024, keep scrolling.

How To Watch The 2024 Coachella Livestream

The free livestream kicks off on April 12 at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) via the Coachella YouTube channel. The second weekend’s livestream will start on April 19, also at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT).

Aside from the performances themselves, the stream will also feature “special editorial content from the artists on the ground.” Furthermore, each day’s livestream lineup will be aired on repeat until the livestream returns the following day. The Coachella YouTube channel will also feature on-demand performance highlights. This year’s livestream will introduce a multiview experience for TV screens that will allow viewers to watch up to four of the six livestream feeds at once.

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

Between Kevin Costner, Jon Hamm and maybe Matthew McConaughey, it seems like everyone is trying to get into Westerns these days. Just think of it as Beyonce’s never-ending sphere of influence. The next wave of Western-inspired programming includes Kurt Sutter’s upcoming Netflix series The Abandons, which is rounding out its impressive cast.

Ryan Hurst and his giant beard has joined the cast of The Abandons. He’s best known for playing Opie in Sons of Anarchy, created by Sutter (aww SAMCRO reunion), but he also had a stint on The Walking Dead as Beta, the scary-looking dude who wore walker skin on his face. It’s hard to forget about him.

The Abandons tells the story of a collection of families who live on the outskirts of society in 1800s Oregon. According to Netflix, “These lost souls band together to fight corrupt forces and do anything they can to save their land. The Western series will explore the jagged line between survival and law, the consequences of violence, and the corrosive power of secrets as this makeshift family battles to keep what’s theirs.”

The cast also includes Gillian Anderson, Lena Hadley, Michael Greyeyes, Toby Hemingway, Dana Silvers, Nick Robinson, Lucas Till, and Patton Oswalt.

(Via Variety)

Last week, Major League Baseball used former Uproxx cover star Ava Max’s “My Oh My” to soundtrack an Instagram Reel hyping up Opening Day. The Reel simultaneously built anticipation for “My Oh My,” which Max finally released today (April 4) alongside a dance-heavy video directed by Hunter Moreno.

“So proud to announce ‘My Oh My’ is out now,” Max wrote on Instagram. “I have been working on this record for the last 6 months and I couldn’t be more excited for it to finally be yours. The third era begins now.”

“I’m like, my oh my,” Max sings in the upbeat dance-pop song. “Baby, this my kind of night / Flashing lights up on my body Feels like ’90s paparazzi / I’m like, my oh my / Baby, this my kind of night / Strangers dancing all around me / Feels like straight out of a movie.”

Right on cue, several dancers appear all around Max for a 10-second group choreography. Then, Max casually applies more lip gloss while seemingly unbothered by relentless paparazzi, blinding camera flashes, and starstruck fans. Later, she’s dancing even more freely on a table in a dimly lit bar — clearly very aware of how her presence affects people and disinterested in dimming her star for anyone.

Diamonds & Dancefloors, Max’s sophomore studio album, was released in January 2023. She also contributed “Choose Your Fighter” to the Grammy-winning Barbie: The Album.

Last November, Max posted on X (formerly Twitter) that she was “cookin’ in the studio,” also noting, “I promise new music is being made and some is already done [shushing emoji] new chapter awaits.”

Watch the “My Oh My” video above.

Ava Max is a Warner Music artist and Barbie: The Album is a Warner Music release. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kara Coley, a bartender at Sipps in Gulfport, Mississippi, got an unusual phone call on the job last week.

“Good evening,” Coley answered. “Thank you for calling Sipps!”

A woman on the other end of the line asked, “Is this a gay bar?”

Sipps welcomes everyone, Coley explained to her, but indeed attracts a mostly LGBTQ crowd.

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“Can I ask you a question?” the caller followed up. “Are you gay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Coley said.

Then things got interesting.

“What was the one thing you wanted from your parents when you came out?” the woman continued.

Coley, who’s tended bar for about 17 years, was a little caught off guard. In all her years of experience fielding requests and helping others working in the service industry, she’d never received a question like that.

“My son just came out to me,” the woman continued on the other end of the line. “And I don’t want to say anything that may mess him up in the head.”

Coley thought for a moment. Then she asked the woman if she accepted her son for who he is.

The woman answered “yes.”

“You should definitely let him know that you love and accept him!” Coley said. “I think everything will be OK from there!”

The woman thanked Coley for her input and they parted ways.

Later that night, in the early hours of Jan. 19, Coley decided to post the entire interaction to her Facebook page, noting how “random” it all had been.

In the days following, her post went viral, amassing over 1,500 likes and hundreds of shares.

So I got the most random phone call at the bar tonight! 😀Me:Good evening Thankyou for calling Sipps!Lady on phone: Is…
Posted by Kara Coley on Friday, January 19, 2018

The post’s comment section soon filled with love and gratitude for Coley’s simple but endearing answer.

“My heart is truly touched by this,” one Facebook user wrote. “A parent wanting to support correctly, and a beautiful response. This is progress. This is love and acceptance in the rawest form.”

“Kara, this old granny lesbian is so grateful for you, and for a parent that thought outside the box to get advice!” another user chimed in. “Keep being you!”

“[The response] has been amazing,” Coley writes. She believes her post struck a chord with friends and strangers alike because people are looking for encouraging news: “Every day people wake up and there’s so much negativity in the world — people just need a breath of fresh air!”

For parents to an LGBTQ child, it’s still vital to understand the facts too, Coley noted: “Educate yourself [on LGBTQ issues] and do a little research.”

Ideally, parents should have access to better resources than their local gay bar when it comes to getting help with LGBTQ parenting. At the end of the day, though, the best thing you can do as a parent is make sure your kid understands you’re there through thick and thin.

“Just knowing you have someone in your corner takes a little weight off your shoulders,” Coley wrote.

Learn more about being a good ally as a parent of an LGBTQ child at PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). If you’re a young LGBTQ person who needs help, resources are available at The Trevor Project.

This article originally appeared on 1.24.18