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There is one question at the center of everything in Philadelphia as the James Harden trade saga rolls on: What does Joel Embiid think about all of this? Embiid opened the door for a potential departure from the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this offseason, as the reigning league MVP stressed that his goal is to win championships before saying “I don’t know where that’s gonna be, whether it’s in Philly or anywhere else, I just want to have a chance to accomplish that.”

With rumors circulating in the past that teams — most notably the New York Knicks — are keeping an eye on Embiid as a potential trade candidate, it’s fair to wonder if he might start looking around based on how things go with Harden. But in a new piece by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Sixers fans got a bit of good news on that front, as Embiid (along with standout young guard Tyrese Maxey) have apparently told the team they’re fine with riding out this storm.

Thus far, Embiid has given the franchise assurances he is OK riding out the current drama with Harden, sources said. How long he gives them to resolve the matter remains to be seen.

Maxey has done the same, even waiting on a contract extension this summer so the franchise can preserve its ability to operate under the salary cap and improve the team in the future.

Of course, it is very easy for Embiid to be fine with riding this out for now, but it’s certainly better than nothing for him to let the team know he’s not itching for a move. He has made very clear that he’d like Harden to reconsider his stance, and Shelburne noted that the pair still have a good relationship and have kept in contact despite his trade request.

Usually when Chris Evans recruits somebody, it’s to save the world from huge Grimace-looking aliens with magic murder gloves. In the new teaser for Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Evans trades in his Captain America tights for a business suit, and let’s just say his motivations for teaming up with Emily Blunt are the opposite of heroic.

Based on the book of the same name, Pain Hustlers follows Blunt’s character as she gets roped into the highly shady world of a pharmaceutical startup thanks to Evans and Andy Garcia, who’s also along for the ride. While her new job quickly becomes highly lucrative and affords her a lavish lifestyle she’s never known, the reality of pushing a potentially dangerous drug onto unsuspecting patients begins to come crashing down on her.

According to director David Yates, Blunt relished the opportunity to tackle a less morally virtuous role.

“She said, ‘You know what, David? I’m so sick of seeing leading female characters who have to be so honorable and straightforward,” Yates told Entertainment Weekly. “What she loved about Liza is she’s sometimes a little bit shady to get the deal done and fulfill her ambition, and she gets taken up by the whole rollercoaster of it. And I think what we both love about that character is the fact that Liza is fallible, ultimately, and she sort of loses her way a little bit in the moral maze of it all.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

Dreaming of a better life for her and her young daughter, Liza (Emily Blunt) lands a job from Pete (Chris Evans) at a failing pharma start-up, where Liza’s charm, drive, and guts catapult her into the high life and the company into the center of a criminal conspiracy with dire consequences.

Pain Hustlers starts streaming October 27 on Netflix.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Flo Milli really deserves more credit for the consistency of her project titles. After bursting into the limelight with Ho, Why Is You Here?, the Mobile, Alabama native followed up with You Still Here, Ho? last year, announcing her second album, Fine Ho, Stay earlier this year.

For most folks, that’d be the end of the gag, but Flo Milli is truly committed to the bit. Today, she announced her upcoming headlining tour titled, fittingly, the Thanks for Coming Here, Ho tour. Like I said, you really have to appreciate the commitment to the bit. Flo will be joined by Brooklyn’s Maiya The Don (with whom Flo’s collaborated on two songs, the “Conceited” remix and “Anything Flows“), with tickets going on sale Friday, September 8 at 10 am local time. There’ll be Spotify and fan presales as well; you can get more information on Flo’s official website. See below for the full schedule.

10/21 — San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom
10/22 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
10/25 — Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
10/27 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore
10/28 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
10/29 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
10/30 — Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
11/01 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues
11/02 — Silverspring, MD @ The Fillmore
11/03 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
11/06 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
11/08 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
11/09 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
11/11 — Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
11/12 — Austin, TX @ Emo’s
11/13 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Music Hall

In a Season 5 episode of Black Mirror called “Rachel, Jack, And Ashley Too” (warning: spoilers ahead), a pop star named Ashley O (Miley Cyrus) is hospitalized after a drugging. While in a coma, her guardian and her team try to find a way to recreate her likeness to continue to profit from her work. Though the episode took place before conversations of AI and deepfakes began frightening the industry, this particular episode later proved triggering for Cyrus for other reasons.

In a TikTok interview video series inspired by Cyrus’ new single “Used To Be Young,” Cyrus revealed that the house she shared with her then-husband Liam Hemsworth burnt down while she was on set.

The Black Mirror episode was filmed in late 2018, around the same time The Woolsey Fire struck parts of Chatsworth and Malibu. At the time, Cyrus was filming the episode in South Africa (though, coincidentally, the episode took place in Malibu). As she was experiencing a traumatic event, while simulating another one, she admitted she still gets triggers and flashbacks from this time.

“Like probably two or three years later, after this happened, I didn’t understand, but I would have this anxiety attack with a vision attached – that I would be strapped down to a gurney,” Cyrus said. “So I would have these dreams any time I would go to perform. I thought that was just an anxious vision that made no sense, but actually, as my house was burning down, I was strapped to a gurney with my hands locked in handcuffs, strapped to a bed.”

Cyrus also seemingly alludes to this life-changing event in her hit single “Flowers,” as she sings “We were right ’til we weren’t /
Built a home and watched it burn,” on the song’s opening verse.

You can see a clip from the interview above.

Take the following news with a grain of salt. We may finally have an idea of when Drake’s new album For All The Dogs is scheduled to come out. While previously speculated dates turned out to be very wrong — and we were admonished that we should really know better by Lil Yachty, of all people — people just can’t help but try to predict Drake’s moves like whodunit fans trying to guess the murderer before the investigators figure it out.

This time, the clues come in the form of some fascinating hair decorations. Drake’s been sporting braids lately, and was seen backstage at his latest It’s All A Blur show with a collection of brightly colored number barrettes dangling from them. There’s a zero, a nine, and two twos, which fans have interpreted as “09/22” — i.e. September 22, the possible release date for Drake’s hotly anticipated eighth studio album.

If the project should drop on September 22 as conjectured by fans, that gives Drake a little over two weeks to drop a single or reveal the tracklist and features for it. So far, the only things we know for sure are that his son Adonis drew the cover art and his longtime friend Nicki Minaj is set to appear on it. It looks like we’ll see whether the album is really due on 9/22 sooner or later, but Drake’s fans may want to hold off on getting too excited until he explicitly states when the album is dropping.

Spotify announced recently that they’re considering putting one of the most-loved user features behind a paywall — making it so only Premium subscribers can access. According to Billboard, the streaming company confirmed that as a test, they will be hiding the lyrics to songs from users in some areas who are not subscribed.

“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests, some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning,” a company spokesperson told the publication. “In keeping with our standard practices, we’re currently testing this with a limited number of users in a pair of markets. We don’t have any further news to share at this time.”

Right now, the lyrics appear for most songs through the app, when users scroll up. Those in the free-with-advertisements tier were alerted of the potential paywall change coming, as people reportedly pointed it out on social media.

Even those subscribed to Premium don’t seem too pleased with the change. “Why would people have to pay for it when lyrics are frequently wrong, the sync is usually off by a line or two/not available, and many songs don’t even have lyrics shown,” one user asked.

Others jokingly pointed out that people can just google the lyrics to songs for free — defeating the point of trying to get more subscribers.

Continue scrolling for some more reactions to Spotify’s lyric paywall move.

Canada is on its way to the semifinal of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. In a highly-anticipated showdown of two teams with aspirations of winning the whole thing, the Canadians took on Slovenia on Wednesday and were able to register a 100-89 win behind a 31-point day from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a 24-point, 9-rebound outing from R.J. Barrett.

A pair of NBA players — one from each team — were not able to see the end of the game. Both Dillon Brooks and Luka Doncic received ejections in the fourth quarter, with Brooks heading to the locker room first after he was tossed for taunting Slovenian guard Klemen Prepelic.

Less than 30 seconds later, Doncic saw his evening come to a premature end. The Dallas Mavericks star attempted to back down Luguentz Dort, and while there was contact, it wasn’t enough to earn a foul call from the official. Doncic didn’t like that, which led to him going at the ref, picking up his second technical foul on the evening, and getting sent to the locker room. As he made his way out, he made sure to sarcastically express his discontent.

Brooks, unsurprisingly, was happy to see his teammates after the win, and greeted them with a pair of boxing gloves in the tunnel.

With the win, the Canadians will move on to play Serbia with a spot in the championship game on the line.

Jack Smith is reportedly making moves to rein in Donald Trump‘s non-stop ranting on social media. Despite repeated warnings from judges and presumably his own legal team, the former president has made it a habit of attacking the justice system while currently facing four indictments. The special counsel has had enough of it.

In a new court filing in Washington D.C. where Trump is facing charges for his 2020 election interference, including the January 6 attack, Smith warned Judge Tanya Chutkan that Trump’s incessant rants “threaten to taint a jury pool.” Smith made the filing on Tuesday, and yet it not deter Trump.

Via Associated Press:

The posts continued Tuesday both before and after the latest concern flared, with Trump earlier in the day circulating a New York Post story about Chutkan on his Truth Social platform and openly mocking the idea that she could be fair in his case. Later in the evening, he issued another post in which he attacked Smith as a “deranged” prosecutor with “unchecked and insane aggression.”

According to the AP, Trump’s refusal to heed the warnings of judges and prosecutors about his social media activity is “testing the patience” of court officials. The former president is reportedly at risk of facing sanctions from Judge Chutkan who has given Trump’s team until next week to respond to the latest filing about their client’s non-stop frothy posting.

(Via Associated Press)

The famously unreliable celebrity gossip account DeuxMoi recently received a tip that Jenna Ortega and Johnny Depp were spotted on a date together. If she was 20 years old older, or he was 20 years younger, or he didn’t “reek of weed and alcohol,” maybe I could see it. But the actress — who is starring in Beetlejuice 2, directed by long-time Depp collaborator Tim Burton — quickly shut down the rumors of any potential romantic involvement with Depp.

“This is so ridiculous I can’t even laugh,” Ortega wrote in an Instagram Story, according to Vanity Fair. “I have never met or worked with Johnny Depp in my life. Please stop spreading lies and leave us alone.”

Vast age difference aside, the Ortega/Depp dating rumor is particularly awkward when one considers the role Ortega plays in Beetlejuice 2: according to reports, she’s playing the daughter of Lydia Deetz, the role so iconically played by Winona Ryder in the original film. Ryder and Depp were engaged in a high-profile romance from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, even co-starring in the Burton-directed Edward Scissorhands.

Depp also denied being involved with Ortega.

“Mr. Depp has no personal or professional relationship with Ms. Ortega whatsoever,” he said through a representative. “He has never met her or spoken to her. He is not involved in any project with her, nor does he intend to be. He is appalled by these baseless and malicious rumors that are intended to harm his reputation and career.”

I’d argue Ortega dating Depp would be more harmful to her career, but sure.

(Via Vanity Fair)

“Sophie loves staying home, wearing sweatpants, and pouring shots for Joe during his Instagram Live DJ sets.” – Team Coco’s 2020 YouTube caption for the above video.

This week, Joe Jonas, age 34, filed for divorce from Sophie Turner, age 27, and TMZ broke the story with a “source with direct knowledge” telling the outlet an alleged reason for the decision: “She likes to party, he likes to stay at home. They have very different lifestyles.”

People do tend to publicly take sides during divorces, and it often feels more amplified during celebrity splits. However, it has not gone unnoticed that, only a few years ago, Sophie appeared on Conan O’Brien’s TBS show and revealed how Covid-19 quarantine suited her “introvert” ways. She was “loving it,” as Turner told O’Brien.

“I’m an introvert, I’m a homebody. If I could stay at home all day I would, so this is great for me,” Sophie gushed at the time. “I leave my house like once a day anyway to walk my dogs and then that’s it.” She then added, “I don’t understand how people are really struggling to practice social distancing.”

Conan, in response, asked how Sophie and Joe were doing with quarantine closeness, which was a relevant question at the time because rising divorce rates began to surface as some couples locked down and discovered that they were driving each other nuts. Well, Sophie didn’t feel that way.

“Joe and I, it’s actually kind of… everything seems to be working out in my favor here.” she admitted. “Because Joe is a real social butterfly and I struggle to lock him down and just spend time with me. It’s like a prison for him, but it’s great for me.”

NBC News reporter Kat Tenbarge hasn’t forgotten this interview, as mentioned on Twitter.

Sophie and Joe have now released a joint statement that makes mention of how “[t]here are many speculative narratives as to why” they are splitting, and the couple stressed, “[T]ruly this is a united decision and we sincerely hope that everyone can respect our wishes for privacy for us and our children.”

Prior to the divorce, Joe and Sophie were clearly not in quarantine solitude anymore due to their work schedules. Sophie has been filming a drama series, Joan, in England, and Joe has been on tour with his fellow Jonas Brothers. TMZ’s source previously claimed that Joe was shouldering the childcare duties: “We’re told over the last 3 months, Joe has been caring for their 2 young children ‘pretty much all of the time,’ even as his band was touring. We’re told Joe currently has both kids, as the group plays around the U.S.”

Divorce is never fun. Divorce in the public eye might be even worse.