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Over the past few months, there are many things “Paint The Town Red” rapper Doja Cat has altered. From her now signature haircut to her countless tattoos (that have sent users online into a frenzy), the Grammy Award winner isn’t afraid to make changes spontaneous changes. However, fans were vocal about their annoyance with Doja’s indecisiveness behind her latest album’s title.

Yesterday (October 12), during her appearance on Hot Ones, she addressed the thought process behind the creative call. So, here’s why Doja Cat changed her album title from Hellmouth to Scarlet.

When asked by host Sean Evans to elaborate on what goes into selecting an album title, Doja replied, “I don’t care about the meaning being so deep, as much as the word being a cool word. I just like good words. I thought Hellmouth was cool… it’s like the gates of hell. But that felt so aggressive to me after a while, and I don’t know if I even like it anymore. I change my mind constantly. And Scarlet felt like the right thing to do.”

She continued, “It’s kind of an ode to Hot Pink. I did the name of a color, but it’s not really; you think of Scarlet as someone’s first name and not as a color. That was kind of the twist to it. And also red is just a passionate shade.”

Watch the full interview above.

Scarlet is out now via Kemosabe and RCA Records. Find more information here.

Chevy Chase has been making headlines after he crawled out of the woodwork and took a swing at the cast of Community during an interview with Marc Maron last month. The actor infamously left the show in Season 4 and the cast has been adamant that he won’t be returning for the upcoming Community movie.

Even after a decade, the tension is still palpable between Chase and his old cast mates, so here’s a brief timeline to bring you up to speed on why the National Lampoon actor is persona non grata with the cast and crew of the beloved sitcom.

March 2012: The Season 3 Wrap Party Blow-Up

The tension between Chase and the Community creative team reached a boiling point during the end of Season 3. According to Deadline, Chase had already walked off set during the filming of the season finale after having issues with the script. However, the actor still attended the wrap party with his wife and daughter where he was roasted by Harmon who not only played the voice mail message, but encouraged the crew to join him in saying “F*ck you, Chevy.” The actor later called Harmon and left a profanity-laced voicemail, which Harmon leaked to the press. Harmon was already on thin ice with NBC and was fired from the show.

September 2012: The Huffington Post UK Interview

A few months after the wrap party incident, Chase did an interview The Huffington Post UK where he surprisingly dropped compliments on the cast and crew of Community, but then admitted that he hates working on a sitcom and only did it for the money.

“It was a big mistake!” Chase said about joining the show. “I saw this pilot script, thought that it was funny, and I went into the room where they were casting and said, ‘I would love to play this guy.’ Then they mulled it over. Then they hired me and I just sort of hung around because I have three daughters and a wife, and I figured out I might as well make some bread, every week, so I can take care of them in the way they want.”

“The hours are hideous, and it’s still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television,” Chase added. “That’s my feeling about it. I think the reason I have stuck around is because I love these kids, the cast – they are very good. It’s not like I am working with the great innovators of all time, but at the same time, they are my friends.”

However, Chase’s relationship with the cast was not as rosy as he claimed.

October 2012: The N-Word Incident

Reports started coming in that Chase snapped and used the N-word towards Donald Glover, which has now been further documented, and Yvette Nicole Brown, which has gotten lost in the mix. Chase reportedly used the word in a tirade about his character’s racism and reports at the time claimed he did apologize afterwards. However, the damage was already done.

November 2012: Chase Exits The Show

It’s still unclear whether Chase quit the show or was fired from NBC, but he exited the show just a few episodes into Season 4. Given his public feud with Harmon and reports of Chase repeatedly arguing with Community directors Joe and Anthony Russo, his departure was not a huge surprise.

February 2022: Chase Responds To Claims About His On-Set Behavior

After remaining mostly silent about numerous reports of his on-set clashes with Community cast and crew over the years, Chase finally told CBS News that he doesn’t care what’s being said about him.

“I don’t give a crap,” Chase said. “I am who I am. And I like where— who I am. I don’t care. And it’s part of me that I don’t care. And I’ve thought about that a lot. And I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”

September 2023: The Marc Maron Interview

Seemingly out of nowhere, Chase appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast where he took a surprise swing at Community.

“I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained,” Chase told Maron. “Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good. It just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”

And then he slammed the cast.

“I didn’t mind the character. I just felt that it was… I felt happier being alone,” he said. “I just didn’t want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people. It was too much.”

October 2023: Joel McHale Fires Back

After being asked to respond to Chase’s remarks on Maron’s podcast, Community star Joel McHale did not hold back.

“He stopped hurting my feelings in 2009,” McHale told PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘Hey, no one was keeping you there.’ I mean, we weren’t sentenced to that show. It was like, ‘All right, you could have left if you really wanted that.’ But yeah, you know Chevy. That’s Chevy being Chevy. I wrote about this in my book, but I was like, ‘Hey, the feeling’s mutual, bud.’”

Community is available for streaming on Netflix.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE – Listen to me

Comedy is weird. There are so many different ways to do it and so many people find so many different things funny. This is especially true of stand-up comedy. There’s such a range there, from the “What’s the deal with…?” style that Jerry Seinfeld turned into a billion dollars to Chris Rock kind of yelling at the audience to Amy Schumer getting a little raunchy up there. John Mulaney is a mix of weird and classic. Jerrod Carmichael dumps his whole brain onto the stage. It’s cool how there are million ways to make it work.

This is a lot of words to get me to the thing I wanted to tell you, which is also pretty cool. One of my favorite comedians, Joe Pera, just made his first-ever full-length special and then he went and released it for free on YouTube. Here, look. I can just post the whole thing between paragraphs.

That’s kind of awesome. I’ve actually talked about Joe Pera before, back when I was obsessed with his little Adult Swim show. His style is so… I want to say “odd” but that makes it sound bad or intentionally off-putting. He moves so slowly and peacefully and it’s all very lovely. The jokes would read terribly on paper but his delivery makes them work. He talked a little about all of this in an interview back when his show was on.

Some of the episodes come fully formed. Some are like the episode where I hear [The Who’s] “Baba O’Riley” for the first time. That was just the simple premise: What if somebody heard this song for the first time in their late 20s, early 30s? And the whole episode is just the execution of that joke, and elevation of it. So, that was an easy episode.

Other stuff is what I’m interested in. Like, we did a lighthouse episode, and then beans. I love the research aspect, so I wanted to read about beans and lighthouses, and also, we were making the show in winter, so it’s a lot of just what I want to spend time with. If I want to think about beans for a few months, or almost the entire year that we take to make the show, it’s like I could think about beans for a year, and find interesting things, and just be relaxed, same as the sleep episode.

Two things I need you to know here. One, yes, he really did do a whole episode on his show on beans, and I have these two screencaps right here to prove it.

And two, yes, he also did do a whole episode about his character just discovering the very famous song “Baba O’Riley” deep into his 30s. It is also just a lovely piece of television.

I can respect if this doesn’t work for you. That’s why I led with that paragraph about how comedy is so subjective. But I’ll tell you what, buddy: It sure does work for me. A lot. This new special is easily one of the best hours of anything I’ve watched this entire year. The bit about the squirrel and the pita chip had me rolling. All of his crowd work, really, just because it’s so different from the way a comedian usually interacts with the crowd. The whole thing is kind of another Reservation Dogs situation, where I like to think that people who dig my work will dig this, too. It’s okay if you don’t. But it’s definitely cool if you do.

I have not been to my freezer a single time since I watched this without saying “cubes for my boys” out loud to myself.

ITEM NUMBER TWO – Hey, speaking of cool and/or weird stuff

This is the trailer for a new series called The Curse. It looks very strange in a way that I think I like. Look at the official description and then smash play on the trailer.

Co-created and executive produced by Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder, THE CURSE is a genre-bending series that explores how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring in their new home-improvement show. The series stars Emma Stone (La LaLand, The Favourite), Fielder (The Rehearsal) and Safdie (Oppenheimer).

There is a lot happening in those two sentences. We are bending genres and there are curses and people are fixing houses and trying to have a baby. Any one of those things could have been a show. I know this because there was literally a show called Home Improvement once upon a time. This show will probably not be very much like that show. Which is… good.

Anyway, my drive-by take on all of this is that everyone involved here kind of rules and my general position is to support all ambitious and borderline crazy projects by people who have ruled in the past, so let’s all go ahead and get a little excited about this bonkers television series until presented with any reason to feel otherwise.

In conclusion, more shows should feature Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone wearing hard hats. I have been saying this for many years.

ITEM NUMBER THREE – Keanu rules

Two things I like to highlight in this column whenever I can:

• People acting or being cool when they do not necessarily have to act or behave that way
• Keanu Reeves

Which, conveniently, brings us to this story out of Houston from earlier this week.

Actor and musician Keanu Reeves was in town recently for a concert with his band, and he took a few minutes to throw a football with 9-year-old Elijah.

Elijah’s grandmother Annette Cruz likes to be where the celebrities are.

“I like to fish, for me it’s like fishing,” Cruz said.

This is… cool. It’s just cool. In a lot of ways. Starting, of course, with the thing where some kid was like “Hey, do you wanna whip a football around for a little?” and world-famous movie star Keanu Reeves was like “I do,” and then just moving right on to that quote from the kid’s grandmother, whose two major pleasure activities are (1) fishing and (2) meeting celebrities. Good for you, Annette.

I’m sure some of you are reading this right now with your Cynical Reading The Internet Face on thinking “But, Brian, doesn’t this sound kind of fishy to you? Like, maybe this nana just shoved her grandson in front of Keanu Reeves for her own personal enjoyment? Do 9-year-olds even know who Keanu Reeves is? And why did he even have a football anyway?”

To which I say, uhhhhh I don’t know. And shut up! Elijah got a cool story out of it! And he had fun! Look!

“And when I got his signature and my brother got his signature, I asked him if he could play catch with me,” Elijah said. “I asked him the first time and he kind of mumbled something. But I didn’t hear him so I asked him again and he said ‘yeah come on lets go.’”

For the next 30 seconds, Elijah threw a football with “The Replacements” quarterback.

You’re just going to have to let me have this one. I refuse to let you ruin “Keanu Reeves and a child hucking a football around” for me on a Friday.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR – I love to see my favorite supporting actors thrive

A cool thing about watching as much television as I do is that sometimes you get to see people make the leap from “scene-stealing supporting player” to “the star of the whole damn thing.” Think, like, Ellie Kemper going from Erin on The Office to the titular star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. That was fun. It made me happy for Ellie. I still need Anthony Carrigan to get a big leading role after killing it as NoHo Hank on Barry. That’s important to me, too. But this next thing helps.

Megan Stalter, who has destroyed pretty much from the second she was introduced as Kaylee on Hacks, has a new movie coming out next year. It’s called Cora Bora and it sounds like a real wild ride.

The film, directed by Hannah Pearl Utt (“Before You Know It”) and written by Rhianon Jones, will be released in theaters sometime in February 2024. It follows a struggling musician named Cora, whose open relationship is on the rocks. So she goes home to Portland to win back her girlfriend and salvage her love life.

Which, like, good. Great, even. But it’s even cooler if you take a second to Google Stalter and read some interviews with her and profiles of her and learn how she got to this point. Take, for example, this one last year from The Hollywood Reporter:

The actress entered the collective consciousness of the Internet during the early days of COVID-19 with her army of the unhinged, putting out regular front-facing character videos on social media and hopping on Instagram Live to do longform improv. She racked up millions of views and became one of the faces of quarantine comedy, with stars like Amy Schumer and Kathy Najimy popping up in the online chats of her shows. Seemingly overnight — as if by magic or the incredible foresight of an HBO Max casting executive — Stalter moved from phone screens to television in a supporting role on Hacks.

That’s what I’m talking about. She was struggling in Hollywood and working through a pandemic and basically created a whole-ass career by pointing her phone at herself. It’s a good lesson for everyone, man. We’re living in the future. You can take these things into your own hands if you have the talent and ambition and the coordination to not drop your phone on the ground when you’re whipping it around with the camera on.

Oh, there’s another cool thing about this movie I should mention, while I’m on the subject of secondary players who steal scenes and who I love very much. One of Stalter’s co-stars in Cora Bora is Manny Jacinto. Who was on The Good Place. As Jason Mendoza. The Jacksonville native who loved to whip Molotov cocktails at things while shouting the name of the then-quarterback of his beloved Jaguars, Blake Bortles.

Yes, I do have those GIFs handy. Thank you for asking. Here is number one…

… and here is number two.

It still cracks me up that the dorks doing subtitles in that second one went with “[indistinct yells]” because they had no idea there is a human named Blake Bortles who played professional football. This is all just very wonderful. I need whoever was responsible for casting this movie to email their address so I can send them a gift certificate to the upscale chain restaurant of their choosing.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Please take five minutes and really think about this one

Okay, here’s what we got going on:

• There’s a new biography about Madonna coming out soon
• There’s a story in there about a young Madonna meeting Al Pacino
• Apparently, during this meeting, Madonna stuck her tongue in Al Pacino’s ear

Via Page Six, of course:

In the biography “Madonna: A Rebel Life”, which hit bookstores Tuesday, Hill shared that her dad, Ed Setrakian, had introduced the “Godfather” star to Madonna at dinner in New York City.

After Setrakian drove everyone home, Pacino and B allegedly said, “That friend of your daughter’s stuck her tongue in my ear. When we were driving home, she leaned over and stuck her tongue in my ear!”

Okay, here’s what I need you to do…

First, think about younger Pacino — Godfather Pacino — telling this story about an as-yet-not-world-famous Madonna, just a fun story about a fun night out with a fun young lady, with his quieter and more reserved demeanor.

Okay, got that image? Great.

Now, picture, like, mid-1990s Scent of a Woman/Heat Pacino, full-on “HOO-AH” Pacino, the guy in this screencap…

… telling the same story about the now megastar Madonna over drinks at, oh, let’s say the Golden Globes.

Do you see? Do you see why this has been bringing so much joy this week? Because of the two versions of this story that are now inside your head, too? And also because of — on a lesser level, but still — this line from the end of the Page Six story.

Page Six has reached out to reps for Madonna and Pacino for comment.

Two more notes in conclusion:

• Imagine being the representative for Madonna or Pacino and getting this email in 2023
• Journalism is alive and well

I’m sorry and you are welcome.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From AJ

I know you’re a fan of Hot Ones, and have suggested some good guests for the show (Winkler would be excellent). I have my own list, and wanted to see where you’d rank these options:

1. Nardwuar- he’s the perfect match for Sean Evans, and I’ve seen this recommended numerous times on Reddit. The best suggestion I saw was a two-parter, filmed at one time, including bringing out a second slab of wings and switching interviewer/interviewee. The Hot Ones team seems to be on it, if this FB video they made is any indication.

2. Walton Goggins- This GQ Interview made me long for him doing a deeper dive while giving hilarious reactions to hot sauces. Bonus points if he does it in costume/character as Baby Billy. (Also, I’d be happy with just about any Gemstones cast member doing the show. Ideally it’d be a full panel with all of them.)

3. Samoa Joe- this one probably just comes from my love of pro wrestling and recency bias following his delightful appearance on Doughboys.

Thoughts on these candidates? Any other dream guests you haven’t mentioned yet?

So, here’s the problem, AJ. You wrote this very thoughtful and thought-out email and asked for my equally thoughtful and thought-our examples, and I tried, but all my brain can think of right now is how much fun it would be to watch some notoriously cranky celebrity — let’s say… Tommy Lee Jones — eating progressively hotter wings and fielding fun and well-researched questions from Sean Evans and just hating every single second of it. Go ahead, try it yourself. Picture Tommy Lee Jones as the guest on Hot Ones. See if you can keep a straight face. If you’re like me, you’ve got about 8-10 seconds in you before you crack.

But thank you anyway, AJ. And I’m sorry my stupid brain could not be more helpful. Let’s just go with everyone on my list of potential guest stars for Only Murders in the Building. A list Tommy Lee Jones is also on. Maybe he can go on Hot Ones to promote his role on that show. Look at me, trying to speak things into existence again. To be fair, I do really wanna see both now.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Colorado!

A multi-day crime spree in Aurora has come to an end after officials tracked down the culprit — a 400-pound pig named Fred.

Three notes here:

• I am actually kind of angry because this story broke last Friday about 20 minutes after I submitted last week’s edition of The Rundown and I knew I’d have to wait an entire week to write about it
• Fred is innocent
• FRED

Moving on.

“It took a look a lot of puzzle pieces getting put together before we could finally solve the problem,” said Augusta Allen, field supervisor for Aurora Animal Services.

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Aurora Animal Services and the Aurora Police Department received several calls over the past two weeks about traffic disturbances and damage done to properties.

“We responded out a few times,” said Allen. “The first couple of times, we were unable to find what was causing the problems.”

FRED

After a few days, officials were able to capture the pig, which they named Fred, and put an end to his crime spree.

“We finally found him and got him,” said Allen. “Took about eight people to capture him.”

FRED

Fred has been at the Aurora Animal Shelter since Sept. 27. His owner has not come forward.

“He’s very sweet, very loving, loves the attention,” said Allen.

Three more notes in conclusion:

• I love my sweet large rascal son
• I need Fred to find a happy home and would gladly adopt him if my apartment building did not have the kind of pet policy that prohibits things like “400-pound pigs who may or may not have committed numerous felonies”
• FRED

We must protect him.

In the words of rap legend Snoop Dogg, it’s ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none. For “Un Preview” reggaeton star Bad Bunny on his long-awaited album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana, that was the motto. Shortly after faking out fans by saying that he wouldn’t be dropping anything new until next year via his WhatsApp community, a week later, the 22-track project hit streaming platforms.

Instead of using the body of work to shine the light on himself solely, the musician brought in several collaborations to spread the love. According to Genius, here is the updated tracklist with the identified features on Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana album:

1.” Nadie Sabe”
2. “Monaco”
3. “Fina” Feat. Young Miko
4. “Hibiki” Feat. Mora
5. “Mr. October”
6. “Cybertruck”
7. “Vou 787”
8. “Seda” Feat. Bryant Myers
9. “Gracias Por Nada”
10. “Telefono Nuevo” Feat. Luar La L
11. “Baby Nueva”
12. “Mercedes Carota” Feat. Yovngchimi
13. “Los Pits”
14. “Vuelve Candy B”
15. “Baticano”
16. “No Me Quiero Casar”
17. “Where She Goes”
18. “Thunder Y Lighnting” Feat. Eladio Carrión
19. “Perro Negro” Feat. Feid
20. “Europa :(”
21. “Acho PR” Feat. Arcángel, De La Ghetto & Ñengo Flow
22. “Un Preview”

On his official Instagram page, Bad Bunny shared a note before the album’s release. “Those who love me, I love you so much. To my haters, I love you the most,” read the roughly translated message.

Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana is out now via Rimas Entertainment. Find out more information here.

Based on “Anxiety” rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s latest social media posts, she could be entering into a new era. In this new cycle, the H-Town hottie could be wiping the slate clean in all areas of her life, including her professional partnerships. Yesterday (October 12), during a live stream on Instagram, Megan dropped a major bombshell on her fans.

“I have no label right now. And we’re doing everything funded straight out of Megan Thee Stallion’s pockets,” confessed the musician. This unexpected revelation has made fans ask, is Megan still signed to Roc Nation? According to the current roster page on their official website, the answer is yes.

But it is important to note that when Megan inked a deal with Roc Nation in 2019, the reported terms of their agreement were solely to handle her management needs. The press notes also reflected this for Megan’s extended partnership with the Flamin’ Hot brand. So, her alleged claims that she’s a free agent might only apply to the record contract side of her business dealings.

It is unclear if a final legal decision has been made in the ongoing trial of Megan and her former record label, 1501 Entertainment. During yesterday’s broadcast, Megan confessed that she is excited to be an independent artist again for the first time in years.

With a little over a month to go before it stomps onto Apple TV+, Legendary just dropped the biggest look yet at its anticipated new series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

Starring Kurt Russell, the series takes place in the burgeoning Monsterverse, and focuses on the shadowy agency known as Monarch that’s been lurking in the background of films like Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Godzilla vs. Kong. However, Monarch’s secrets about to be exposed as Russell teams up with Godzilla to get some answers and defend humanity from the monsters that threaten to reclaim the planet.

You can see key art for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco, and the shocking revelation that monsters are real, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” tracks two siblings following in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch. Clues lead them into the world of monsters and ultimately down the rabbit hole to Army officer Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell), taking place in the 1950s and half a century later where Monarch is threatened by what Shaw knows. The dramatic saga – spanning three generations – reveals buried secrets and the ways that epic, earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will smash onto Apple TV+ with a two-episode premiere on November 17 followed by weekly releases every Friday.

The Brooklyn Nets come into the 2023-24 season looking for a bit of a fresh start after finally scuttling their superteam attempt at the deadline last year, sending Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant out in trades. In return, the Nets got a number of useful players but are now lacking in star power, which isn’t necessarily the worst thing for them.

As they move forward, they will continue wanting to be competitive as they don’t have access to most of their own draft picks due to their previous trades to acquire stars, but they will certainly be in evaluation mode with regards to who fits into what role as they try to pinpoint what their core should be going forward. They face an uphill battle remaining in the East’s top-6 after holding on to the 6-seed a year ago, and most project them as a Play-In contender. If they are to be a surprising team in the playoff hunt, there are a few things that have to happen.

Biggest Question: How Does Mikal Bridges Fare As A No. 1?

The Nets have built this current team around the idea that Bridges is going to be their No. 1 guy, which is a considerable step up from the role he played in Phoenix. He has shown flashes of having the skillset to do that, but being consistently impactful at the level a top star needs to be for their team to be good in the NBA is a very difficult hurdle to clear. Bridges has steadily evolved from a 3-and-D wing early in his Phoenix career to being a three-level scoring threat with an improved handle. The next step is running a team and keeping the offense rolling by keeping everyone else involved and engaged. Last year, Bridges averaged just 2.7 assists per game in his 27 games in Brooklyn, despite boasting a usage rate of over 30 percent. To be the main offensive hub on a good offense, his playmaking for others is going to have to get better and he will have to open up his court vision and be able to make the right reads even quicker. That is a skill that only comes with reps, and the good news is he should get a ton of opportunity to grow into that as the year goes on. Still, it’s not just as easy as flipping a switch and there will probably be some continued growing pains when teams apply considerable pressure to Bridges as he will be at the top of the scouting report each night.

X-Factor: Ben Simmons

For a team that needs a great facilitator, Simmons is the player that seemingly holds the key to unlocking this roster. Simmons was a decent rotation player a year ago in his 42 appearances, but just did not have the same juice as he previously had and was not nearly as aggressive attacking the rim. He’s shown some flashes of that explosiveness in the preseason and if he can be 90 percent of the guy he was in Philadelphia (which is a very big if), that would raise the ceiling considerably on this Brooklyn team.

Banking on Simmons to stay healthy enough to do that is not something most folks are willing to do, and there is a understandable “believe it when we see it” thing with regards to him regaining something close to the form that made him an All-Star. That said, his skillset would be incredibly useful on this roster on both ends of the floor.While Spencer Dinwiddie averaged 9.1 assists per game in his 26 appearances with the Nets, he has never averaged more than 6.5 per game over a full season in his career. Adding a proven facilitator with the passing acumen of Simmons would give this offense a dynamic they simply won’t have otherwise.

They have some good floor-spacers with Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges (and potentially Dorian Finney-Smith if he can find his form again) and a good pick-and-roll big man in Nic Claxton. As such, Simmons should have space to operate and attack the rim, and could focus on distributing more than trying to score, which is the area he’s always been hesitant to try and dominate. He and Claxton could do some fun stuff in the pick-and-roll with shooters around them, and there is a world where this offense looks pretty dynamic. Defensively, the combination of Simmons, Bridges, and Claxton provides a lot of length and versatility and could create a lot of turnovers and cause a lot of problems for opposing offenses.

However, all of that only works if Simmons can move like he used to before the back issues on defense, and if he is willing to be aggressive in pressuring the rim, even if the goal is often to collapse the defense to facilitate for others. Those are very big ifs, but if there’s anyone on this team capable of unlocking another level for the group as a whole, it is probably Simmons.

John Mulaney hasn’t stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since January 2020, and it’s pretty obvious that a lot has gone down since then. The comedian went to rehab, had a child, and, perhaps the most interesting of all, he voiced Chip in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

But even though the two haven’t seen each other in years, Mulaney recently stopped by the late-night show to thank Colbert for his support. While speaking about his struggles and stint in rehab, Mulaney told Colbert, “You texted me sometime when I was going through a lot, and it meant a lot. your opinion means a lot to me and when you reached out it was extra special in a way.”

Mulaney’s recent special Baby J chronicles the comedian’s experience over the last three years, including his rehab and recovery. “I have trouble telling maybe three people something personal, but telling like MSG, 12,000 people, is very comfortable. And that might be a real sickness,” Mulaney joked. The two had a very introspective discussion about Mulaney’s recovery journey, where he opened up about his core beliefs and life in sobriety. “I am very lucky, I have a very good life. And I don’t want to be the reason that gets complicated.”

Of course, you can’t get two comedians together without talking about some almost too inappropriate topics. Mulaney then told an anecdote about watching an erotic film with his girlfriend’s mom, which is probably the scariest thing you can do after going to rehab. Mulaney, who has been dating Olivia Munn, says he hangs out with Munn’s mom, Mrs. Kim, “all day and all night.”

“When we had the baby she came and stayed with us for a while. We became like instant friends, and we watched 1-2 Korean period pieces every night,” he admitted. “One night, we’re on the couch together. And we find this Korean film called The Handmaiden. It’s set int he early 20th century, it’s about this book collector and this kept woman. We’re watching the film, it’s right up our alley. It becomes the most graphic, sexual, erotic [film]…this is truly what people mean by ‘erotic’” he explained, while struggling to get the words out there.

Mulaney continued, “We’re watching the scene and this woman….I can’t, on CBS, say. It’s an intense, erotic, historical, Korean moment. So I look over, me and Mrs. Kim are under the same blanket, and we’re just kinda [nodding]. And [she] looks over at me and says ‘I think they’re a little bit lesbian, what do you think?’” In order the break the tension of the awkward moment, Munn’s mom says, “Hormones, everybody got them, what do you think?” This is a great promo for Big Mouth season seven, streaming on Netflix this fall!

Baby J is now streaming on Netflix. The Handmaiden is currently streaming on Prime, if you’re into that.

Warning: Spoilers for ‘Gen V’ episode five are below.

Muppets, mind-wipes, and mindblowing betrayals. Gen V’s fifth episode, “Welcome to The Monster Club” turns the show on its head, making us question everything we thought we knew and how deep the conspiracy of The Woods really goes.

After waking up in a dirty frat house, buried under cans of beer and alcohol-fueled acts of embarrassment, the crew tries to detective their way out of a memory-sucking black hole. They’ve lost days, they can’t remember who Sam is and why Luke was so suspicious of Professor Brink, and they most definitely don’t understand why the school has placed tracking devices in their collarbones. As the threads unravel, they lead to an unlikely suspect who has been fracturing everyone’s psyche for a long, long time.

Here is where our f*cked up leaderboard sits after episode three.

The Human Vibrator

While not essential to the episode’s storyline in any way, it wouldn’t be a true ranking without mention of at least one depraved sex act. We’re not sure what’s more nauseating, watching a man, whose power seems to be transforming his hand into a vibrator, get a girl off whose vagina seems to be located on her spine … or the knowledge that the clear fluid oozing through the floorboards and onto Andre’s face is actually a byproduct of their extracurricular sex-tivities. How do Eric Kripke’s writers sleep at night?

Emma’s Big Secret

Emma’s been purging herself her entire life in order to please her controlling mother and earn some views on her Youtube channel but she’s finally embracing her Big Supe Energy and revealing some awful truths. Like how her mom called her a monster the first time she accidentally grew to the size of the giant Jack plagued with his beanstalk? Yeah, that’s the kind of childhood trauma that explains so much when it comes to why she rode that man’s penis like it was a Space X rocket in episode one.

The Human Period Tracker

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it interaction between Emma and Marie after the house party from hell gave us some pretty surprising insight into how her blood powers actually work. Not only could she sense the blood under Sam’s fingernails (and tell it wasn’t his) but she could also predict with shocking accuracy just when her bestie was going to be menstruating. If she could somehow channel this gift into app form, the woman would be a billionaire in six months or less.

The Purpose Of The Woods

We’ve known Dean Shetty and her band of human Dr. Frankensteins have been using troubled supe kids as lab rats for mysterious experiments but in episode five, we finally find out why. Dr. Cardoza believes he can create a virus that controls them — for what purpose we can only guess. Whether this Trojan Horse would work on heroes in The Boys or just hormonal young adults, we’re still not sure.

Marie’s Benefactor

While negotiating with Shetty on his terms of employment, Cardosa demands access to Marie, whose powers are practically limitless — though she doesn’t know that just yet. Shetty denies him, alluding to the fact that Marie has some mysterious benefactor who’s been protecting her at Godolkin. Is she talking about herself, or someone else? The mindf*ckery just won’t cease.

Sam’s Muppet Massacre

Speaking of f*cked up minds, Sam is on his own now that Emma and the group can’t remember who he is or why he matters to them. He holes up in some underground tunnel only to be discovered by Shetty’s paramilitary thugs, which turns out to be quite unlucky for them. For us though? Well, we’re treated to a montage of muppets being massacred as Sam’s brain tries to protect him from the carnage by turning his human hunters into doll-like commandos with blood that spurts out as confetti. The perspective switch really makes it easier to ignore the pleas of that one muppet man who sobbed that he was a father of two before Sam flattened his face like a pancake.

Cait’s Clean Slate

A fight scene translated through Sesame Street characters is a hard act to follow but somehow, the quiet reveal that Cait is the one who’s been toying with her friend’s minds over the past few days feels like the most outrageous storyline of the episode. Not only has she been working for Shetty for years — forcing Luke to forget he had a brother, which is what likely led him to commit suicide — but she tries to justify her actions by claiming they’re in service of protecting the people she cares about. It’s a terrible situation all around but we can’t see how Cait doesn’t come out of this as clean as the minds she’s wiped.

Amazon’s ‘Gen V’ streams new episodes on Fridays.

We know too much about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith‘s personal lives. Arguably too much (it’s giving Kelly and Mark). Remember when the Men in Black star said that he once wanted a “harem of girlfriends” before realizing it was a terrible idea? Or when he admitted that he was having so much sex that orgasming “would literally make me gag and sometimes even vomit”? I remember.

Lately, it’s been Jada’s turn to tell all. Earlier this week, the actress revealed that she and her husband have been separated for seven years. This led to some awkwardness during the 2022 Oscars when, as you might have heard, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock (who once asked her out while divorce rumors were raging) and told him to “keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth.”

“First of all, I’m really shocked, because mind you, I’m not there. We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” Pinkett Smith told Hoda Kotb during an upcoming NBC News primetime special, according to Variety. “I’m like, ‘What is going on right now? Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth?’ I’m really worried for Will because I don’t know what’s going on.”

The Girls Trip star also discussed her eye-rolling reaction to Rock’s G.I. Jane joke. “I did that eye roll not so much for me — and I think this is really important — but the fact that there could be a jab at alopecia,” she said. Also, a G.I. Jane joke in 2022 is more embarrassing than any actor-on-actor slap.

Pinkett Smith’s interview with Hoda Kotb airs tonight.

(Via Variety)