Lizzo’s “Pink” was a highly anticipated track that wasn’t shared as a single, along with songs by Sam Smith and Tame Impala. It has her typically buoyant, extravagant ambiance and her confident vocals: “In pink, goes with everything / Beautiful from head to toe / I’m read’ to go, you know, you know,” she sings. “It’s pink, good enough to drink / We like other colors / But pink just looks so good on us.”
Last month, Lizzo spoke about how Beyoncé has influenced her. “Today was one of those days where I was very angry, very angry at the world,” she said. “Saw a lot of mean sh*t about me on the internet, and I wanted to give up. There are days where the hate outweighs the love so badly that I want to quit music and just disappear. I definitely have enough money to go and buy a farm and just never f*ck with anybody ever again, because f*ck everybody. Then, I reminded myself to get up, get out, and get some sun, and I put on Renaissance.”
Listen to “Pink” above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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 – I would take a bullet for this man
The Righteous Gemstones has an embarrassment of riches on its hand. The cast is just stacked. Look at Walton Goggins chomp up scenery in the best way possible as Baby Billy Freeman. Watch Edi Patterson stomp around like the biggest grown brat you’ve ever seen as Judy Gemstone. See the weariness in John Goodman’s eyes as he plays Gemstone patriarch Eli and sighs so deeply the ground underneath him rumbles a bit. Sluggers straight through the lineup. Borderline unfair to other shows.
My favorite character on the show right now is BJ, though, Judy’s sweet and simple husband who does not swear or drink and is so pure straight down to his core that he’s practically translucent. I could type more words here to try to describe BJ’s aura, but I think this GIF of him at the dinner table swirling and sniffing a glass of milk like it’s an expensive Cabernet will do the job much better.
HBO
He’s a lovely man.
This got weird for him this week, though. For reasons that I will dance around a little bit in case you aren’t all caught up on this season (COME ON), BJ ended up in a nasty little street fight with a fully nude man that ended with screaming and nut-twisting and things really just getting as silly and dark as anything I’ve ever seen on television. It was honestly incredible. I don’t remember a single scene of television this year that made me laugh harder. Please go watch it. Or watch it again.
(I would love to drop in a screencap or a GIF here to drive it all home, but every good one I found featured full-frontal male nudity. Which is not a problem I had ever encountered before. First time for everything. I recommend reading the extensive breakdowns of the scene at Vulture and GQ for further research.)
The best part is that this isn’t even the first time BJ has been in a violent altercation of some kind. He also got tangled up with the cycle ninjas — fun phrase to type — last season and ended up with a throwing star in his head.
HBO
It’s just a really nice piece of character work all around, from the writing to the performance by Tim Baltz. Taking someone this sweet and dropping him into the Gemstone viper pit makes for consistent comedy. It’s honestly become my favorite aspect of the show, or at worst second behind “every single thing Baby Billy does and says, especially the thing where he tosses an unnecessary ‘now’ at the end of about 70 percent of his sentence,” which is pretty hard to top.
I want to know so much more about BJ. I want to know everything. Give me a full-on flashback episode about his youth. Show me the first date where he took Judy out. Let Tim Baltz play the teenage version of BJ and never explain why or how a 40-year-old man is strolling around a high school. We need — we deserve — the origin story of BJ using rollerblading to blow off steam, which he did this week before his big fight…
HBOHBO
… but also did last season, too.
HBO
The man fascinates me. I hope he ends up taking over the whole church somehow. I hope he becomes president. But mostly, I just want him to be happy with his street skates and his glass of milk. That would be nice.
ITEM NUMBER TWO – No
I am very happy for people who enjoy Comic-Con. I am also very happy for people who enjoy cruises. Life is very short and nothing is guaranteed so you should do things you enjoy as often as possible. If these are your things, again, god bless. Both seem like miserable experiences to me, for reasons ranging from crowds to overexcited fantasy enthusiasts to being stranded out in the middle of the unforgiving ocean on a floating Petri dish filled with sweaty tourists and human waste. No thank you to either, in my book.
Especially no thank you to… oh dear god… both. At once. That’s right, people. There’s a Comic-Con cruise now.
San Diego Comic Convention, the parent company of the international comic convention, and Entertainment Cruise Productions — which has previously produced a Star Trek cruise experience — are teaming to launch Comic-Con: The Cruise. The full-ship charter will take fans from Tampa to the Mexican island Cozumel onboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas, with its first voyage set for Feb. 5-9, 2025.
I really must stress once again that I am thrilled for you if you saw all the words in that paragraph and got excited about it. But I must also really stress that this sounds like the type of thing an instructor at a culinary school would use as a threat to whip slacker aspiring chefs into shape. (“If you keep burning the cream sauce, Trevor, you’ll be flipping omelets on a Comic-Con cruise that sets sail from Tampa.”) I would pay you money not to go on it. I’ll give you $100 today if you promise I’ll never end up on it even by accident someday. Tell me who to make the check out to.
But again, happy for you.
Fans will be immersed in a one-of-a-kind experience dedicated to comics and popular arts. Fans will have the chance to interact with actors, creators, authors and more as part of a lineup of special events and activities, including talent-hosted tastings, trivia sessions and live demonstrations. There will also be theme night parties and cosplay events featuring party bands and DJs, competitive video and tabletop gaming, vendors, group panels and Q&A sessions, meet and greets, as well as autograph and photograph sessions.
I swear I am a nice person. I swear I am friendly and warm and good to animals. But if, maybe, when this sucker hits the ocean, things go sideways and we end up with phrases like “Comic-Con Poop Cruise” in headlines around the world, I need you all to know in no uncertain terms that I will laugh a little bit.
ITEM NUMBER THREE – It is almost Harley Quinn time
We’ve talked about the Harley Quinn animated series before. Kind of a lot, actually. Most recently in February when the show put out a fully deranged Valentine’s Day special that I loved very much. It’s a good show, a perfect little mix of funny and sweet and foul and stupid. I started watching it during the early stages of the COVID lockdown in 2020 and ripped through all the available episodes about three times through. It comes with my highest recommendation, which I hope carries extra weight after I just kind of wished a bobbing fecal hellscape on the Comic-Con cruise.
That’s why I’m so excited that the new season drops next week. There’s a trailer for it up there, one that also gives you a little refresher on the events that led up to this season. That’s useful. There really are a lot of shows. It’s okay if you don’t remember all of them. Lord knows I do not.
I’m looking forward to seeing what everybody gets up to this time around, from Harley working with the Bat Dorks to Poison Ivy working with the Legion of Doom, but I’m mostly looking forward to seeing what the show’s big dumb sweet version of Bane does. I love that guy. They took one of the most self-serious and monosyllabic characters out there and turned him into a lovable goof. Yes, this is where I — once again — post the GIF of a supersized and super-horny Bane crumbling Gotham’s skyscrapers with pelvic thrusts.
HBO MAX
Again, it’s a good show. Just unbelievably silly. You deserve one of those every now and then.
“We are so excited to re-introduce Dogstar with our new single ‘Everything Turns Around,’” said the band in a statement. “It feels like a fun summer song to us. It has an uplifting message and a positive vibe that hopefully makes your day a little bit lighter. It’s one of our favorite songs to play live and can’t wait to share it on our upcoming tour.”
You remember Dogstar, yes? The rock band that John Wick star Keanu Reeves plays bass guitar for? The one with an objectively cool name? (Dogstar!) Well, either way, here they are. Back again. With a new single and a new album and a new tour. It’s all happening.
And it’s… cool. It’s pretty cool! People busted on Keanu for it when the band first started bouncing around a million years ago, but I don’t know if that’s fair. I think it kind of rules that one of our biggest movie stars of the last quarter century just plays bass in a rock band sometimes. He doesn’t even sing lead. This isn’t some sad passion project where an actor wants to prove they’re also a singer-songwriter. Keanu just wants to stand off to the side and jam with his dudes. Again, that’s pretty cool!
In addition to their upcoming album, which will mark their first since 2000, the band will also be hitting the road for a special tour.
DUDES
GUYS
BUDDIES
LET’S GO SEE DOGSTAR
I’M BARELY KIDDING
GOOD FOR KEANU
ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Frank Fartzone
HBO
Two things are worth noting here:
I, as regular readers of this column know, love a good fake name, anything from, like, to choose two of my favorite examples, Percy Billions to Brenda Sacramento to anything else silly enough to make me chuckle
I am, at heart, 11 years old
This is why I’ve gotten such joy out of a new-ish Twitter account — or at least new-ish to me — called Actual Names that scours the database of census reports to pluck out the funniest and most juvenile names throughout history. It’s also why I have been giggling about this one for almost a full week now.
I don’t think I will ever get over this one. I’ve sung it to the tune of the AutoZone jingle. Sometimes I add an “-ie” to the first name to make it Frankie Fartzone. That’s really fun. It sounds like something someone would call a buddy who is suffering from digestive issues after a gassy meal. (“OH, FRANKIE FARTZONE OVER HERE.”) I’m laughing out loud as I type this right now.
Two additional notes in closing:
No one tell me if this is fake because I do not care
I have a law degree
Thank you.
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 Paul:
[Brian Grubb voice] TWO THINGS:
— Nice work on the Mission Impossible rankings. I think they’re pretty close to the way my own line up, maybe with Fallout down a few spots and Mission Impossible III up closer to the top half. As long as we can agree Ghost Protes is at the top, we can make this work
— Which Muppet would fit the most seamlessly into Ethan Hunt’s team?
— So the answer to your question is Fozzie Bear (long history of being a useful sidekick, comic relief, etc.) but please also note that Animal would be a delightful Mission: Impossible villain, if only for the chaos of it all. Close your eyes right now and picture him flying a helicopter over… let’s say Mount Rushmore. I’m suddenly mad I can’t have this in real life.
A group of young men stole an entire tray of crumb cake from Colonial Bakery in Lavallette. The incident happened after midnight Sunday.
CAKE HEIST
The owners told News 12 New Jersey the thieves were identified within a few hours. Within a day, the owners say they were in contact with the people who pulled off the theft and made a deal with them. The owners want the thieves to pay the cost of the cake and post an apology video. The owners say if the thieves do this, they won’t press charges.
Well, this is pretty neat. Cake shop owners filing it under the Writ of Boys Will Be Boys and chalking it up as a lesson learned. I can dig it. It would be really funny if the owners demanded the apology video be in the form of a song or something, with choreography, just to add a little embarrassment to it to deter future pastry thieves, but maybe that’s a bit much. I’m not sure where the Constitution comes down on karaoke as a punishment for a crime. The Founding Fathers were suspiciously silent on that one.
The bakery also posted a poll to its page asking folks what to do with the thieves. More than 600 people voted on options from filing a police report to making them eat a whole pan of cake each in one setting.
This is just a wonderful little piece of business. And I suspect it’s getting them enough free publicity to offset the losses in pilfered pastries. I like this story a lot.
The owners told News 12 that they tried to make light of the situation but at the same time also settle this between the thieves and themselves without having police involved. They also want to show the thieves that to small businesses, this is no joke.
This is another reason to try to be cool about stuff. Things often work themselves out when you do. Good lesson to file away.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has floated a conspiracy theory (or seven) since descending upon Capitol Hill. However, she ended up inadvertently giving her critics fuel to mockingly concoct their own sort-of conspiracy theory about her, and that’s exactly what happened with Joe Scarborough and the Morning Joe gang on MSNBC.
The fun actually began on this subject last weekend when Greene (who is known for selective inclusion of details to try and achieve the context that she desires) tried to drag President Biden by comparing him to Lyndon B. Johnson, and her history lesson got away from her, so the intended insults actually painted Biden in an accidentally complimentary light.
Surely, she didn’t mean to do so, right? Whatever her reasoning, this led to Team Biden using her words for a campaign video, which surely irritated the heck out of Greene, but the Morning Joe crew had an absolute ball with the “flattering” results.
Via Raw Story, the amusement was universal among Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist. Mika wondered, “Was it [really] inadvertent? She meant everything she said.” Scarborough pointed out that Greene attacked Medicare and “great advances in infrastructure, great advances in health care, great advances in all of these things,” which he sees as “a hell of an ad.”
Willie Geist brought it home, though. “I said the other morning she sounded like a DNC sleeper agent. The more I hear that, I wonder if she’s up to something else because it is so flattering of President Biden.” He also wondered if Greene’s flub was a result of her spending “too much time in the narrow social media podcast world, in that bubble.” And that might only be part of the issue, but at least we’re receiving some laughs on a Friday. Can’t complain about that.
Starting today (July 21), Rolling Loud Miami 2023 is taking over the Hard Rock Stadium. The multi-day festival will run for the entirety of the weekend with headliners Playboi Carti (Friday, July 21), Travis Scott (Saturday, July 22), and ASAP Rocky (Sunday, July 23).
Rolling Loud Miami has become a culture staple in hip-hop. To pay homage to that, ahead of his headlining set, Travis Scott shared his new single “KPop” featuring Bad Bunny and The Weeknd off of his forthcoming album, Utopia.
Across the festival stages (GoPuff, Sprite, Culture Kings, and Demesmin & Dover), several notable artists will perform, including Key Glock, Ice Spice, Babyface Ray, Offset, Latto, Fousheé, Lil Uzi Vert, and more. With the whispers that the event will be live-streamed, continue reading for a rundown of the most anticipated sets.
All set times are ET and p.m.
Friday, July 21
GoPuff Stage
Destroy Lonely – 5:30
Ken Carson – 6:10
Key Glock – 6:55
Ice Spice – 7:40
Anuel AA – 8:15
Kodak Black – 9
Playboi Carti – 10:45
Sprite Stage
Homixide Gang – 5:05
Fridayy – 6
Sexyy Red – 6:30
Babyface Ray 7
Toosii – 7:35
Central Cee – 8:20
Polo G – 9
Lil Yachty 9:50
Rae Sremmurd 10:55
Demesmin & Dover Stage
Pap Chanel – 5:25
Harry Nach – 5:50
Big Boss Vette – 6:40
BabyxSosa – 7:05
Trapland Pat – 7:35
Sid Shyne – 8:05
Shordie Shordie – 8:35
Saturday, July 22
GoPuff Stage
Lola Brooke – 5:30
Glorilla – 6
City Girls – 7:10
Trippie Redd – 8
21 Savage – 9
Travis Scott – 10:45
Sprite Stage
Gloss Up – 5
Coi Leray – 7:40
Young Nudy – 8:15
Nav – 9
Ski Mash The Slump God – 10
Chief Keef – 11
Culture Kings Stage
Maiya The Don – 5:30
DD Osama – 8:25
No Cap – 8:55
Freddie Gibbs – 9:35
Lucki – 10:15
Demesmin & Dover Stage
King Kobi – 5
03 Greedo – 7:05
Ken The Man – 8:35
Rolling Loud Miami 2023’s set times are subject to change. To receive up-to-date notifications, be sure to download the official Rolling Loud app. Find more information here.
View the full lineup of performers and schedule below.
Rolling Loud
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Rapper turned podcaster Gillie Da Kid got the worst news today, as his son, who was also a rapper, was reportedly killed in a shooting in their native Philadelphia. According to Philly’s NBC affiliate, 25-year-old YNG Cheese was shot and killed in the Olney neighborhood at around 8:30 PM. He was shot once in the back, taken to the hospital by police, and pronounced dead just ten minutes later. Two other men — 28 and 31 — were also shot, and are reported in stable condition. Police are investigating but so far, no arrests have been made or weapons recovered.
Gillie Da Kid was a fixture on the city’s underground rap scene but rose to prominence over a feud with Lil Wayne in 2006 after claiming to have ghostwritten some of the New Orleans rapper’s songs. To this day, Lil Wayne and Cash Money Records deny his claims but the exposure was enough to help Gillie launch his rap career proper after years of independently releasing projects, both on his own and as a member of the Major Figgas crew.
Since the 2010s, he’s sporadically released new music or featured on other artists’ songs, but he recently gained more popularity as a host on theMillion Dollaz Worth Of Gamepodcast, which finds him interviewing other rappers and entertainers from the perspective of an industry insider. In the most recent episode on YouTube, he interviews North Carolina rapper DaBaby alongside footage of his experiences playing pro-am basketball.
The latest right-wing freakout — over Barbie, of all things — caused a Newsmax host to snap on camera and flat out admit that she’s tired of boycotting seemingly every single thing that makes her fellow conservatives mad. It’s too many things!
During Thursday night’s episode of Chris Plante’s The Right Squad, Mercedes Schlapp started to weigh in on the Barbiecontroversy, which has evolved from complaints that the film promotes communist propaganda to accusations of being anti-men. Right out of the gate, Schlapp tipped her hand that she’s always been open to Barbie being smarter than Ken, but when she tried to parrot Ginger Gaetz’s criticism of the film, Schlapp just couldn’t do it.
Newsmax guest: “I’m boycotting so many things, I’m running out of things to boycott” pic.twitter.com/8Mtz7odoC7
“I gotta say I have to laugh at the Ken scene because I always did, when I was a young girl, I thought that Barbie was a lot smarter than Ken. You know what I mean?” Schlapp said. “I’m gonna take a page from Ginger Gaetz, Matt Gaetz’s wife who’s basically says, ‘Don’t go watch the movie because– when I was growing up about Barbie was about feminine empowerment, it was about limitless opportunities.’”
However, that’s when Schlapp broke and flat-out admitted that, screw it, she’s taking her daughters to see Barbie.
“I will say, I think it seems like it’s gonna be a fun movie,” Schlapp said. “I think for my girls who don’t really play with Barbies. They really didn’t even when they were younger. If they want to go see it, why not?”
With the truth out in the open, a clearly exhausted Schlapp threw the whole right-wing outrage machine under the bus.
“I just think at this point I’m boycotting so many things, I’m running out of things to boycott,” she said.
With all due respect to Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuting into a moving train, the only movies anyone can talk about this week are Barbie and Oppenheimer. Maybe not everyone should, though.
Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, who voted against raising the minimum wage and has been accused of being more concerned with the perks of her job than the job itself, attempted to capitalize on “Barbenheimer” fever. “Get you a Senator who can do both,” she tweeted, along with one photo where she’s wearing a pink dress and another in black and white. Get it? Like the movies?
The tweet is getting a big thumbs down from the internet.
“I think it’s perfect that the senator’s idea of doing something boils down to wearing a color and/or applying a black and white filter,” @nycsouthpaw tweeted, while @RBReich noted, “By ‘both’ do you think she means letting rich hedge-fund managers get away with massive tax breaks while also pushing millions of children into poverty by blocking expansion of the Child Tax Credit?” Or as succinctly put by @the_transit_guy, “You and Barbie can both be bought, so it makes sense.”
“Do both” in the sense of “frivolously cultivate a glamorous appearance” and “engage in political machinations that will destroy countless lives” https://t.co/6L4r1TkZW5
Earlier this year, the Jonas Brothers showed love to Waffle House with their song named after the beloved breakfast chain: “No, don’t get stressed, it’s gon’ get figured out / Oh, deep conversations at thе Waffle House,” they sing.
Now, another pop act is showing love to Waffle House: the one and only Lana Del Rey. Clips have been circulating of the singer working at the joint and donning an employee name tag behind the counter. She took a photo with a fan as well. This took place in Alabama.
In an interview earlier this year, she surprised many fans by revealing she shops at TJ Maxx, though it’s because of her dad, Rob Grant. “He’s the only f*cking reason why we get stopped at TJ Maxx,” said Lana. “If I’m with you, then there is zero chance that we’re having a calm day at Marshalls.”
The “Born To Die” performer also made many headlines when she performed at Brazil’s MITA Festival, her first concert in three years, and was vocal about losing her vape on stage. “And also if you see my vape on stage, can you find my vape on stage?” she said. “You did? Where, though? Oh, all the way in the pit?”
Let’s say you are starting a record label. Money is no object, and every artist and band in the world is a free agent. Who would you pick? That’s the premise of this week’s episode. This wholly original idea involves selecting acts that fall into five categories: prestige (they don’t stream big but they get great reviews), popular (they don’t get great reviews but they stream big), solo artist under the age of 28 (an up-and-comer you can lock in for a long time), band with three or fewer albums (ditto), and sacred cow (an act you sign because you love them).
Before Steven and Ian get to the draft, they talk about this weekend’s Pitchfork Festival — Ian is going and Steven is not — and their favorite performances from previous festivals. They also address some non-indie rock topics: The terrible new Jason Aldean song and the history of reactionary country hits that crossover into the mainstream for culture war reasons, and the forthcoming “Summer Of ’99” cruise featuring a reunited Creed plus a head-scratching mix of post-grunge and radio-friendly pop rock from the late ’90s.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 147 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.
Stefani Germanotta went double method acting for Joker: Folie à Deux. The singer and actress, who you know better as Lady Gaga, made everyone call her “Lee” while filming the Joker sequel.
“I didn’t know Stefani at all. Strangely, I felt like I never even met her, even during the makeup/hair tests. Maybe it was my philosophy of not trying to get in their space,” Oscar-winning cinematographer Lawrence Sher told The Trenches Talk podcast, according to Variety. “I remember for a week being like, ‘God, I feel like we are disconnecting. Not even connecting. We are like on opposites.’ And I would say to my crew, ‘Jesus, I can’t crack it. She either hates me or we hate each other. There’s something weird going on here.’”
Sher barely said anything to “Lee,” other than minor things like, “Stefani, this is where your second team was.” Then, at one point, the assistant director told him, “Oh you know, Stef would like if you just called her Lee on set.” That’s when it clicked. “And I was like, 100 percent. The next thing I said was something ‘Lee,’ and it was like everything changed. From that point on, it was like she was… our whole connection changed. I was like, alright, cool,” he said.
“Lee” is presumably a reference to “Harley,” as in Harley Quinn. But if Lady Gaga doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for her performance in the movie, it’s because she didn’t make everyone call her Lady Haha.
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