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For nine seasons, Josh Radnor was not only one of the stars of How I Met Your Mother; he was the “I” of the title. Should Radnor’s future potential children ever ask how he met their mother, he’ll have a pretty good answer: Shortly after meeting her they fell for each other while both were high on drugs.

Per The New York Times, Radnor and his now-wife Dr. Jordana Jacobs, a clinical psychologist, met two years back at a sound meditation retreat in upstate New York. The day before they both took mushrooms as part of a group practice, they had met and even chatted for a half-hour. What’s more, they were both recovering from a break-up.

While each lying on the floor, tripping on recreational pharmaceuticals, masks over their eyes, listening to singing bowls and chimes, they both hallucinated that voiced were telling them to date:

“That’s her,” Mr. Radnor, now 49, said a voice told him. “That’s your woman.”

Across the room and the psilocybin-infused metaverse, Dr. Jacobs, 36, was having a conversation with her heart.

“What do you have to tell me?” she asked it.

“You know that man over there across the room, Josh?” it replied. “You’re drawn to him.”

Later Jacobs made the first move, telling Radnor she liked him.

“I had this experience in ceremony of listening to my heart,” she told him, “and my heart is drawn to you.”

At first Randor was hesitant, telling her, “You came up for me in ceremony as well, but I’m not ready to talk about it.”

But soon after leaving the retreat, Randor texted her. Nearly two years later, on Jan. 6, 2024, they wed.

Is this a better “how I met your mother” story than the one in How I Met Your Mother? Even if it isn’t, it’s at least further proof that life can be stranger than fiction.

(Via NYT)

Recently original scripted programming has taken a hit. Several series have either been canceled or put on ice. One of TV’s most anticipated series, Euphoria, won’t hit airwaves until 2025.

So far, we know Barbie Ferreira won’t be returning for Season 3, and following a sit-down with Variety, it appears “Think Fast” singer Dominic Fike isn’t quite sure he will either. On January 19, Fike caught up with the outlet during the Sundance Film Festival. When asked about his time on the show, Fike spoke about his struggles with sobriety and feeling that the sober coach provided by the series failed him.

“I’ve done that before, like acted like a drug addict,” he said. “I actually am a pretty big drug addict myself, believe it or not. When I was on ‘Euphoria,’ they kind of just gave me a coach who would just talk to me. It was just some random lady… A random lady that I’d never relate to. We had nothing in common. We didn’t come from the same places or the same problems. It was hard to take advice from someone like that or give a sh*t.”

The show’s co-creator Sam Levinson spoke about working to help the late Angus Cloud in his sobriety journey while filming. Sadly, Cloud’s July 2023 death was reportedly a result of his addiction.

When asked if he would be open to returning to the show Fike reportedly seemed unsure but said it “would be dope.”

What if Ed O’Neill never got into acting? Would Married…with Children have been the same with a different Al Bundy? What if Craig T. Nelson had actually played Jay Pritchett on Modern Family, as he almost did? As it happens, there’s an alternate timeline in which the actor never became an actor. In this one, he instead gets involved in…organized crime.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, O’Neill recently appeared on fellow Modern Family alum Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast Dinner on Me, where he reflected on his younger days. Back in 1969, when he was in his 20s, O’Neill was struggling to find work in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. One day a friend offered him a job, of sorts.

“We’re driving and he said, ‘How you doing? You know, you, you got cut, you got no money,” O’Neill recalled. “I said, ‘No, I’m broke. You know, I don’t know what I’m going to do.’”

This friend, named Jim, then took O’Neill to a bar, where O’Neill watched him do some shady business:

“He started talking to the bartender,” O’Neill said of Jim. “He says, ‘I’m looking for this kid, his name is whatever, Demko, his name is Jimmy Demko, do you know him?’ And the guy says, ‘No, it doesn’t ring a bell.’ So he gives him $20, and he says, ‘Look, he’s an old friend of mine, I haven’t seen him in years, you know, I’m looking to reconnect, but I’d like to surprise him. So if he comes in again, you can call this number, you can reach me.”

The exchange eventually turned into a job offer once O’Neill and his friend left the bar. “We left and he said, ‘You can do this kind of stuff for me, you know, I’ll protect you. I’ll give you easy stuff. Just you collect here. You do that. You run, you drop something off here and there. You know you may have to lean on a guy. You’re good at that. You can make some good money.’”

Thing is, O’Neill actually considered it. He told Jim he’d “think about it.” He even talked about with his father. His father was blunt, asking him, “Can you do time?” O’Neill realized he couldn’t.

So instead of getting into organized crime, O’Neill kept pursuing the acting thing. Eventually it paid off, and then some. But try to imagine a timeline in which instead of, say, playing an undercover cop on one of the first episodes of Miami Vice — to say nothing of starring in the early aughts revival of Dragnet — O’Neill spent time in the slammer.

(Via THR)

In 2023, millennials everywhere into a spiral when “Cry Me A River” singer Justin Timberlake reunited with his NSYNC bandmates. As of today (Jannuary 20), it appears that the former chart-topping boy band’s return only amounted to a one-off single, “Better Place,” for the Trolls Band Together soundtrack. Contrarily, Timberlake has fully realized plans for his solo ventures.

Following his homecoming concert on January 19, Timberlake took to his official social media platforms to announce, Everything I Thought I Was, his first album in nearly 6 years. With the help of Sicario actor Benicio Del Toro‘s award-winning skillset, the video trailer for the forthcoming project provided viewers a peek into Timberlake’s new era in music.

In the clip, by hand, Timberlake guides a replica luxury car along a road as it arrives at a rural gas station. The setup intended to mirror Timberlake’s Southern roots is a metaphor for his return to his life before the glitz and glam. Based on his song “Selfish,” which was previewed during his Memphis concert, the trailer’s reflective theme will show up in the project’s lyrical content not sound.

Timberlake’s 2018 explorative departure from his signature pop and R&B sound (Man Of The Woods) was not received well by fans. So many are hoping Everything I Thought I Was isn’t a repeat of that. Timberlake has not confirmed when the project will be released but a pre-save link for the single “Selfish” is now live on his official website.

Watch Justin Timberlake’s full album announcement above.

Justin Timberlake’s single “Selfish” is due out soon. Find more information here.

Breath is considered by many cultures to be the key to life, and there’s no argument that it is one of the requirements. The human body takes somewhere around 20,000 breaths per day, so we’re pretty lucky that this particular mechanism comes to us instinctually. But one of the detriments of having our lungs working on autopilot is that we are often unaware of how effectively, or ineffectively, we are taking in oxygen.

Because this function is usually taken for granted, many people go days, weeks, months, maybe years, without taking a single conscious breath. Perhaps that sounds like you. Perhaps you have had other areas of self-improvement that you have prioritized. But instead of judging yourself, or counting it as a negative, take this as an opportunity to see significant improvements in your everyday health with a minimal effort.

One of the quickest ways to find appreciation for your breath is to go without it, for any amount of time. We’re talking about “breath holds.” The difficulty here is breathing is so instinctual that it can take a lot of effort to really deprive your body of oxygen. So the trick is finding a reoccurring opportunity for you to regularly test your lung capacity. Once you get in a regular habit you will be shocked at the extra level of performance that it unlocks.

Uproxx sat with Don Tran, a former Marine Raider and cofounder of Deepend Fitness, to discuss the power of breathwork, how to start the practice, and how incorporating underwater holds can help you develop a stronger practice.

READING AND BREATHING

Breathing has been around for as long as the human experiment has. So naturally there has been plenty of great insight into it, and many great books written on the subject. For those hoping to begin the journey in the right way, with all the information at hand, here are a few great books that Tran stands by. For additional progress, try to follow your breath as you read, maybe take a conscious breath before every page turn.

• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
• The Art of Breath by Brian Mackenzie
• Breathing for Warriors by Dr. Belisa Vranich

FIND YOUR INTENTION

Don’t confuse intention with over-complication. This is about taking the natural organic behavior and bringing consciousness into the equation. First, before you begin your training, ask yourself why you are starting this practice. Do you want to be less stressed? Do you want to perform better at work presentations? Do you want to develop a deeper connection with your body? Finding an intention or goal will make the practice stick stronger.

For Tran, breathwork was a way to calm himself and better process the high-stress situations he was put in overseas during combat. “My family was asking me what it was like overseas and I realized that I couldn’t really remember anything,” says Tran. “I spent so much of that time afraid. But when I started working on my breath during our underwater exercises, I found that it was an incredible tool for finding calm. I could find peace in moments that I used to spend filled with fear.”

MIND-BODY CONNECTION

Getting a better breath isn’t just about having more time to breathe. There are several physical elements that should be considered and perfected to get a great breath. “One of the first things that I look for is what the rib cage is doing,” says Tran. Specifically, what the rib cage and the intercostal muscles are doing. “I want to see a stretch in those muscles, and I want to see that the lungs are filling up.”

One great way to improve on these biomechanics is to look in a mirror in the beginning. Do this to make sure that your posture is good and that you are allowing your lungs to fill. This is also a way to observe how you are breathing, and that you are inhaling through the nose or mouth, depending on what you are practicing. Be sure that you are taking deep breaths versus shallow and short ones.

BREAK THE MENTAL BARRIERS

Since breath is so essential to life, there are mental triggers activated when we aren’t able to breathe and they alarm way before we are ever actually in danger. “For most people, they are starting to get contractions to their diaphragm at their 50 percent mark,” says Tran. “So it can be a very eye-opening experience when people are able to push through that first impulse.”

Deepend Fitness helps people build up their breathing musculature by having people do quick bodyweight workouts poolside before doing short, focused swims. The goal is to force your body to be depleted of oxygen, taken to a limit, and then introduce the water, where you really test your capacity. The more you practice the more aware you will become of your actual limits and the more confident you will become within that space.

BASIC BREATH EXERCISES:

There are a lot of breath patterns to explore in different situations, and it’s important to find the right one for your purpose. Here are just a few different patterns and regulations that you can use to start your journey.

For Meditation: Box Breathing

Breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, hold again for four seconds, and then repeat. The name box breathing comes from the idea that you can visualize a box while you are doing this pattern, with each side being represented by four seconds.

For Stress: Exponential Breathing

Breathe in for three seconds, hold for two seconds, exhale out for three seconds, breathe in for three seconds, hold for two seconds, and exhale for five seconds. Continue like that, increasing your exhale time by two seconds until you reach a calmer state, with the goal being within 24 seconds.

For Mind-body: Pranayama

Sit crossed-legged on the ground with your arms forward on your legs. Exhale completely. Bring your right hand up to your nose and close your right nostril, breathe in through your left nostril for five seconds, close both nostrils and hold for five seconds, open your right nostril and exhale for five seconds, close both nostrils and hold for five seconds. Repeat doing the opposite order for the nose.

GO DEEPER WITH THE PRACTICE

Bringing underwater work into the situation keeps you from compromising in your practice. Because breath is so imperative finding a way to push the limit is difficult. Not everyone has a pool, but you can accomplish similar results using a plunge or bath. It is important to start on dry land though, and Tran makes sure that his students work on their breath sufficiently before going into the water.

These kind of exercises are also a great way to learn about what breaths are useful in a recreational scenario like free-diving on vacation. “There’s a lot of research that suggests that diving from a cold start is better than taking a big gasp before going underwater,” says Tran. Little adjustments and tools can help you get the most out of your underwater experiences.

Plunges are a great way to add another level to your breathwork practice, in addition to the other health benefits cold water immersion can have on the body. Because entering freezing water is a stressor, your breathing will naturally quicken on introduction. Being able to bring your breath back down after that initial experience is a great way to practice calming yourself in stressful scenarios.

Stay with this practice, and you’ll be shocked at the performance levels you’ll unlock.

Nothing really ends in TV and movies anymore. Revivals are all the rage, even when they prove inferior to the original. (That’s why Ray Romano won’t be returning to Everybody Loves Raymond.) Succession ended last year, with an inevitable bang. At first creator Jesse Armstrong flirted with the idea of not doing a sequel but rather one of them spinoffs. Could we get more Cousin Greg? A prequel about Logan? Maybe that’ll happen one day, but for now Armstrong is no longer into any of that.

Per Deadline, the TV maven went on BBC Radio’s Today, where he poured cold water on any future dalliances with the Roy family. Contrary to what he said last year, Armstrong said that more Succession business “doesn’t feel like the most interesting thing to me.” What’s more, he said he and his team had “written [the characters] enough now.”

Succession recently scooped up yet another batch of Emmys, including Best Drama Series and trophies for Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, and Matthew Macfadyen. Armstrong himself nabbed a writing trophy for “Connor’s Wedding,” one of the highlights of the show’s swan song season.

The good news is that Succession is highly rewatchable and there are 39 top shelf episodes ready for anyone with an (HBO) Max subscription. May we all recommend some other Armstrong work? Peep Show, which he created with Sam Bain, is always a blast, ditto his work on the even swearier British government show The Thick of It. A fine TV guy, that Jesse Armstrong.

(Via Deadline)

In 2023, NSYNC made their epic return with the song “Better Place” for the soundtrack to Trolls Band Together. Although the group’s future is still in limbo, Justin Timberlake is already back to solo work.

On January 19, after teasing fans with billboards plastered around Memphis, Timberlake took the stage the city’s Orpheum Theatre. During the free show, concertgoers gleefully supported the hometown native as he performed past NSYNC songs as well as solo hits. While chatting with the packed theater, Timberlake confirmed that his next album, Everything I Thought I Was, would be out soon. As a treat, the audience was given a preview a song slated to appear on the project, which is entitled “Selfish.”

Based on the videos captured by attendees, the song’s creative direction seems to be a blend of Timberlake’s debut album, Justified, and his third outing, The 20/20 Experience. Both albums were hits and earned him high critical praise.

Earlier in the show, Timberlake hinted that NSYNC had new work ready to go.

No formal date has been given for the release of Timberlake’s next solo album or a NSYNC’s new song, so fans will just have to hold out a bit longer.

Is Donald Trump okay? The former president may be the frontunner for the Republican ticket, but his hands aren’t looking so hot these days. Does he have syphilis? And what about his brain? He’s been talking total nonsense for a while now; if Joe Biden ever rambled about how corn is “non-liquid gold,” the far right would have a field day. Sometimes he doesn’t know who’s president right now. Now he’s confusing two very different people whose first names begin with N.

Per Mediaite, Trump did one of his rallies in Concord, New Hampshire Friday, during which he rambled about that whole Capitol riot he helped incite. He got so worked up that rather than falsely blame the day’s security failures on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he put the onus on former employee-turned-rival Nikki Haley.

“You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they– do you know they destroyed all of the information and all of the evidence?” Trump declared. “Everything. Deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of, lots of things. Like, Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people.”

Quite apart from mixing people up, Trump was also again repeating the lie about how Pelosi (not Haley) rejecting an offer for 10,000 National Guard soldiers on Jan. 6. Pelosi was never in charge of the National Guard. But his supporters have no problem being fed nonsense from the magnets understander, whose brain is absolutely not mush.

(Via Mediaite)

Emily In Paris took producer Darren Star from being primetime TV soap opera king (Melrose Place, Beverly Hills, 90210, Sex and the City) to bubbly streaming TV royalty. This Lily Collins-starring show also arguably paved the way for TV’s current Hot Chef trend, and dammit, this series is addictive despite, well, everything. Emily would be considered obnoxious if she wasn’t also somehow charming, and various subplots are infuriatingly predictable while also being an irresistible confection.

In other words, Netflix viewers have either launched headfirst into this show from the beginning or begrudgingly admitted that they can’t resist Emily In Paris, and the streamer continues to answer the call with renewed seasons. What can we expect from Season 4?

Plot

Prepare for more “enchanté” as show’s namesake returns to her solidified Parisian life after initially only intending to be abroad for a year. Ahead of the fourth season, Emily determined to help the French leg of Savior find success as a new agency. This, of course, is much preferable to Emily In Chicago, where her increasingly ridiculous fashion sense would not go over well. Additionally, we can always use much more of French ad-exec colleagues Sylvie, Julian, and Luc (even though viewers were shook to recognize actor Bruno Gouery as an Evil Gay on The White Lotus).

On a personal note, Emily’s life is far more unsettled following that cliffhanger season finale. Gabriel cannot seem to decide who he wants to be with, so he’s been f*cking with Camille’s heart, and she appeared to finally have enough when they reached the altar, and she fled the scene. For a few moments, it appeared as though Emily and Gabriel would end the season by deciding to finally be a couple, but then he revealed that he had gotten Camille pregnant. Dude, Emily needs to tell Gabriel to shove off, but that’s not her style, and she seems to really love that dirty skillet of his. Ugh.

Also, poor Alfie! He also appears to be done with being part of a four-sided love triangle, but of course, everyone seems to have tied themselves to Gabriel’s business ventures, so we’ll see whether Alfie returns for that. Also, Mindy’s musical career was taking off, although it remains to be seen how much we will see Ashley Park in the coming season (more on that below).

Darren Star spoke with Deadline about the Emily/Gabriel mess representing “star-crossed lovers” whose situation is a “more complicated place” (obviously, due to Camille being with child) going into the fourth season. Hmm:

“That’s a big question for us to think about in Season 4. I certainly have ideas, but I think they will. They are all involved in each other’s lives, they are friends, they work together. They’re all very much tied together. But I just think there were some big unforeseen complications here, especially for Emily. And perhaps Emily-Gabriel is not meant to be, at least in the immediate future.”

On a more speculative note, Glamour asked Star whether Kim Cattrall, who showed up at the Season 3 premiere, would ever cameo on the show, perhaps even as the newly European Samantha Jones. Star didn’t promise anything, but he also didn’t shut the possibility down:

“Under the right circumstances, definitely. But I’m not a big believer in just stunt casting for the purpose of stunt casting. And for Kim as well, a role that feels like it’s the right thing for her to do. But I definitely feel like she would bring some great energy into the series.”

Fingers crossed.

Cast

In addition to Collins, returning cast members include Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu (Sylvie), Lucas Bravo (Chef Gabriel), Bruno Gouery (Luc), Samuel Arnold (Julian), Camille Razat (Camille), and William Abadie (Antoine). There’s been no word on whether Lucien Laviscount will return to make Alfie walk around all sad-faced following his wedding walkout.

Then there’s Ashley Park as the beloved, musical Mindy Chen, who might not be able to make this round of episodes. Park recently revealed how a recent infection (tied to tonsillitis) spiraled into septic shock, which sent her to intensive care for weeks. The actress-singer is frankly lucky to be on the mend (“safely on the other side”), although recovery can be expected to be slow. Below, she opened up on the experience via Instagram.

Release Date

This show tends to love December release dates, and even though filming recently began afresh (see Lily Collins teasing a table read below), it’s entirely possible that this same pattern is achievable (there shall be no CGI to slow down the process, after all) in 2024.

Trailer

No trailer has materialized yet, but here’s a new NBC Olympics spot starring Emily, who ruins a sprinting competition with her uniform design for U.S. champ Noah Lyles.

In today’s franchise-driven film industry, Christopher Nolan is that rarest of birds: a popular filmmaker who mostly (with some major exceptions) avoids franchises. The Peloton enthusiast can do whatever he wants, and that doesn’t only mean making blockbusters about the father of the atomic bomb. He can also run unusual sets. A few years back a rumor spread that Nolan bans chairs. (He allegedly doesn’t, but he does ban cellphones and smoking.) Now we’re learning that while he doesn’t prohibit bathroom breaks, he does look upon them with disdain.

In a new group chat with Vanity Fair, Oppenheimer actors Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, and Robert Downey Jr. opened up about some of the more atypical aspects of working with the beloved filmmaker. They all agreed that he runs an efficient set.

“Human resources are scarce,” Downey seemed to joke (or not?). “And the idea is that this is a Spartan endeavor. And also, I think that Chris, from all the films that he’s done, he deplores waste. He is a conservationist of the highest order.”

“Everything is happening in front of the camera,” he added. “There is no budget for anything that’s not happening in front of the camera.”

Nolan is so efficient he doesn’t have time for when nature calls.

“He doesn’t even really like it when you go to the bathroom, but he understands you have to,” Downey said. “And I asked him, ‘Dude, when do you go?’ And he goes, ’11 a.m. and 6 p.m.’ And I was like, ‘Are you f*cking with me?’”

“And he drinks so much tea, how does he not go right through it?” Blunt pointed out.
“I know, but it’s not a diuretic tea,” Downey said. “He won’t ask anyone to do anything that he’s not 1000% willing to do himself, twice as hard.”

So if you’re lucky enough to work with Christopher Nolan, remember to go easy on food and liquids.

You can watch the Vanity Fair sit-down in the video below.