A new women’s basketball league that is designed to give WNBA players a domestic option to continue playing in the offseason is on the horizon. In an interview with Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx standout Napheesa Collier announced that they’re behind Unrivaled, a collection of 30 players split between six teams playing 3-on-3 and 1-on-1. The league also announced its launch on Twitter in a pair of posts.
Stewart mentioned that the league, which would play its games in Miami, is in part a way to address the WNBA’s prioritization rules, which require that players come back from their overseas teams in time to participate in training camp. Players frequently go overseas in the offseason as a way to continue making money while playing basketball, but the W’s 2020 collective bargaining agreement made that trickier, with Stewart telling ESPN that “It is a rule that takes away our choices, which should never be a thing, especially as women, but it is still a rule.” The full prioritization rules go into effect this offseason.
Stewart explained that she discussed the idea with Collier and Collier’s husband, Alex Bazzell, with Bazzell having the idea for a “3-on-3, one-on-one, queen-of-the-court type thing where you hold bragging rights, but also make a salary that’s kind of set in stone but also can always grow bigger.” Collier went on to lay out the idea behind the league in a thread on her Twitter account, where she announced that Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray will be part of things — Gray, additionally, spoke to Shelburne about joining.
Among the things Collier laid out in her thread were an ownership structure where initial players have a stake in the league with salaries that are “competitive to the WNBA” and a plan to eventually hold events in cities other than Miami. According to Shelburne’s story, the plan is to launch the league next January.
(You gotta realize that Mayans M.C. spoilers will be found below.)
Elgin James has been riding solo in the Mayans M.C. showrunner seat for years, and Kurt Sutter hasn’t been involved with the day-to-day operations of the Sons Of Anarchy spinoff since he (in his words) “ruffled a few mouse ears.” Still, one can expect any final season in this universe to go down with several gut-wrenching, ultra-jarring deaths.
Fans already lost Coco (in a scene that people compared to the death of Opie) last season, but man, this season has been merciless. In the past few episodes alone, fans have bid farewell to not only Creeper but also Luisa, a.k.a., “Adelita,” and that second death was particularly upsetting because she was killed by her mentee, Mini, immediately after Luisa had passed the Adelita mantle. And this week, we lost Hope.
By that, I mean that the character Hope met her demise, but “hope” also pretty much vanished from this show, too. Hope (Vanessa Giselle) decided to take herself out in order to set Letty (Emily Tosta) free, since they would always be chased together, no matter where they ran. This was endlessly heartbreaking because Letty had saved Hope from falling back into addiction after Coco’s death, and their newfound sisterhood was one of the sweetest bonds of the series. And in taking herself out, Hope kind-of pulled a Jax Teller by stepping in front of a truck.
I mean, hell. They could have had El Padrino take out power-hungry EZ (and I suppose this is still possible), but nope, they did this instead. Oh no.
In the harsh light of day, Vanessa Giselle apparently woke up with her sense of humor intact. “For some reason, I woke up feeling like I got hit by a truck last night,” she tweeted. “Hope you’re all having a good day though!”
For some reason, I woke up feeling like I got hit by a truck last night Hope you’re all having a good day though#mayansfx#mayansmc@MayansFX
Threads has barely been online for 24 hours, and already, the new social media platform from Meta that aims to compete with Twitter is allegedly flagging Donald Trump Jr. as a source of misinformation. According to screencaps shared by the former president’s son, Threads users are warned not to follow Don Jr. on Mark Zuckerberg’s fledgling micro-blogging app.
“Are you sure you want to follow donaldtrumpjr?” the alleged warning reads. “This account has repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or went against our Community Guidelines.”
Naturally, Don Jr. slammed the alleged content warning, but not before making a strange reference to skimpy bikinis. Good luck trying to follow what Junior is saying, which is particularly ironic given that he also touts his superior sentence-making skills.
Threads not exactly off to a great start. Hey Instagram, threads is verbal, so the whole skimpy bikini thing is not going to work so well if your influencers can’t actually formulate a sentence… IMHO you may want to rethink cutting off those who can. pic.twitter.com/vBKIOjg8Z8
“Threads not exactly off to a great start,” Junior tweeted. “Hey Instagram, threads is verbal, so the whole skimpy bikini thing is not going to work so well if your influencers can’t actually formulate a sentence… IMHO you may want to rethink cutting off those who can.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was recently booted from the House Freedom Caucus for calling Lauren Boebert a “little b*tch,” also rushed to Junior’s defense and vowed to stick with Twitter.
Now I’m definitely sure Threads will be the same Marxist style social media experience that Zuckerberg usually offers.
All social experimentation serving Big Pharma, the Intelligence Community, and DEI Initiatives to strengthen corporate stocks supporting garbage DEI issues and… https://t.co/NmzmrYD1Xp
— Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) July 6, 2023
“Now I’m definitely sure Threads will be the same Marxist style social media experience that Zuckerberg usually offers,” Greene tweeted. “All social experimentation serving Big Pharma, the Intelligence Community, and DEI Initiatives to strengthen corporate stocks supporting garbage DEI issues and steal elections. No thank you!”
Draymond Green, very famously, can name every player that was drafted before him in the 2012 NBA Draft — all 34 of them. He has used that as fuel for the last decade-plus, morphing into a Hall of Famer with the Warriors who has been the defensive anchor for their four championship teams.
This week, he joined Paul George for an episode of Podcast P, and George offered up a question many have wanted to know: which of those 34 players picked in front of him does Draymond think is “the most ridiculous one.” That led to Draymond Green insisting he didn’t want to throw salt on anyone before burying Andrew Nicholson for a full minute in an incredible clip.
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) July 5, 2023
“The most ridiculous? Which one? I mean shit. Listen not to throw salt at anybody but Andrew Nicholson was drafted over me at No. 19. Like you don’t even know how to pronounce his school [St. Bonaventure]. At the time you all are comparing us as big men who can play back to the basket and face up. And I’m like, No. 1, he don’t even look like a basketball player. I always tell people when it comes to winning, half the battle is looking like a basketball player. When you’re on a team and you look at the other side of the floor and you see guys that don’t look like basketball players you automatically lose respect for those guys. So I’m like this guy doesn’t even really look like a basketball player. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t really have the body of Adonis but I just don’t see that. That was one that really, really, really, really pissed me off! There are several others that went before me but that was the one.”
Andrew Nicholson is probably wondering why this is happening to him 11 years after he was drafted 19th overall by the Orlando Magic. Nicholson only lasted five seasons in the NBA, playing for Orlando, Washington, and Brooklyn before going overseas where he still plays for the Bay Area Dragons in Hong Kong. Green starting with “not to throw salt at anybody” but then destroying Nicholson, including doing a weird voice, is incredible stuff, with George even trying to stop him at one point but being unable to because he was laughing.
The first night of Drake’s It’s All A Blur Tour with 21 Savage turned out to be every bit as eventful as we’ve all come to expect from the pop culture lightning rod. In addition to stoking a (possibly tongue-in-cheek) feud with Childish Gambino over “This Is America,” Drake also joined the growing list of artists to have stuff thrown at him while performing, and rapped alongside what appeared to be a hologram of his younger self.
Meanwhile, his set dressing also got plenty of attention, from a statue of the late Virgil Abloh to a giant, flying sperm cell overhead. Yes, you read that right: Drake’s tour includes an extended sequence involving a flying swimmer (and a bunch more projected on the stage around him), which I can only presume gives him an excuse to talk at length about all the draconian abortion laws going into place around the nation — although it does work to set up some admittedly good “Drake’s tour design is nuts” jokes, too.
All this talk about black women’s respectability policies and Drake in here with a damn floating sperm pic.twitter.com/ygi9kXChUb
While there’s certain to be an out-there explanation for this, at its core, it’s doing one thing extremely well — just like all of Drake’s off-the-wall stunts, it’s got people talking, which is just doing free promo for the rest of the tour. You can see the remaining tour dates here and the massive, career-spanning setlist here.
After making a twerking robot doll the biggest viral sensation of 2022, someone must have bet Akela Cooper that she couldn’t make magazines scary. The result? She made magazines scary.
Directed by Michael Chaves (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) from Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing and Cooper’s screenplay, The Nun II looks like a solid blend of atmospheric tension and jump-scare freakouts. Taissa Farmiga returns as Sister Irene, drawn back into battle against Valak (Bonnie Aarons) after the murder of a priest in 1956 France. Luckily, this time she’s at a school with a bunch of young girls being harassed by the demon nun.
Thus, The Conjuringverse continues to expand, leaping forward into the dark to increase over a billion dollars in revenue secured by making people wet themselves in public spaces (you can also pee yourself at home). Who knew that a ghost story would one day become a plucky franchise featuring haunted dolls and a devil in a horrifying habit.
The Nun II also features Jonas Bloquet reprising his role as Frenchie, Storm Reid (The Last of Us), and Anna Popplewell (The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy). Of course, Aarons is the one that really makes it work, looking like Art The Clown in a penguin costume with all the fierceness of a demon scorned.
Billie Eilish shared some big news today (July 6): She made a new song for the Barbie movie soundtrack, dubbed “What Was I Made For.” (Eilish actually teased her soundtrack appearance on July 3: A photo gallery on Instagram ended with a photo of benches with Barbie movie advertisements on them.) After that news had time to breathe, Eilish took to her Instagram Stories to show off her long history with the world of Barbie.
She started with a couple photos, perhaps from Christmas years ago, of her getting a big Barbie play set as a present (Finneas, meanwhile, was gifted a copy of Guitar Hero: World Tour). Some of the other photos show off a Barbie birthday cake she had one year, a clever design that basically just stuck a Barbie doll into a cake shaped like the bottom of a dress. One photo shows her fast asleep in a pink dress and another is of her awake in what appears to be the same dress, holding a bunch of dolls.
— Billie Eilish Tours (@billieeilishtrs) July 6, 2023
Eilish wrote in her Instagram announcement of the song, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! [teddy bear, pink bow, ballet slipper, pink heart emojis] ‘What Was I Made For?’ COMING OUT JULY 13TH AT 7AM PT. !!!!!!!! [see-no-evil monkey, smiling with hearts emojis]. WE MADE THIS SONG FOR BARBIE AND IT MEANS THE ABSOLUTE WORRRRLLLD TO ME. THIS MOVIE IS GONNA CHANGE UR LIVES AND HOPEFULLY THE SONG WILL TOO. GET READY TO SOB @FINNEAS.”
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
From the outside, you may think that you know where this series is going, but the show promises to be even more chaotic than you expect. Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen play old friends who reunite after people grow apart (as they do), and it soon grows apparent that he shakes up her little world. Fortunately, she does appear to be happily married, and her husband approves of (and, in fact, encourages) this rekindled friendship — at least, until the horse tranquilizers come into play. It happens.
Succession’s Sarah Snook is back on our screens in what looks like an ultra-tense psychological thriller/horror film complete with a creepy kid, creepier paper masks, and even creepier crayon drawings. Also, there’s a rabbit. Which is VERY CREEPY. We don’t know if this is going to be the rare scarer that hits with audiences, but we know Snook always delivers a powerhouse performance that’s worth the price of admission… and this is Netflix, so there is not really a price of admission. So… win-win?
Hijack asks a question that has been on all of our minds for over a decade now: What if we took 24, with its real-time running clock playing out over the course of a full season, but instead it was seven hours and with Idris Elba and on an airplane? Okay, maybe you weren’t asking that exact question for the last 10 years. But you probably are now. Which is okay, seeing as that’s basically what Hijack is. Look at us, solving little problems we didn’t even know existed. It’s not as dramatic as, say, thwarting terrorists in the skies, to choose an example at random, but still. Not too shabby.
The last time we checked in with Boots Riley, he was taking us on a deeply wild ride with Sorry to Bother You. Well, he’s back, and deeply wild again, this time with a new series about a 13-foot-tall man named Cootie who has a bunch of interesting experiences out in the world, delving into everything from love to friendship to… actually, you should just watch this one to find out. Our words can’t do it justice. Especially not for the thing where Walton Goggins shows up as a character named The Hero. This is a weird one, to be sure but it’s a weird one in the best way possible.
All hail the never-ending franchise’s new spinoffs, which begin with Manhattan-bound misadventure to reinforce what a bad idea it is to head into cities with zombies afoot. Fortunately, this is a thrilling throwback, in which Maggie pretty much forces Negan to help her rescue Hershel Rhees, son of Glenn and Maggie, obviously. Hey, Negan owes her one, so let the walker variants roll
Nick Fury is having a not-so-great time with the “one last job” trope as he heads back into MCU hijinks for what might be his “one last fight.” We do live in unusual Hollywood times, and with Captain Marvel, the Skrulls somehow became the good guys, so we’ll see how Talos fares in this standalone series. Not only are Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn onboard, but Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman also formally enter the MCU with this show, and we will apparently see some Rhodey on this “crossover event series,” too. Only enough, there’s some eye-patch-less Fury in the mix, so I hope we get some more Goose to add even more context.
The world isn’t lacking for Supermen. Some people still can’t let go of Henry Cavil, we just saw his replacement get cast (David Corenswet), saw tributes to past Supers galore in The Flash (in addition to Sasha Calle co-starring as Supergirl) and there’s Superman And Lois on the CW with Tyler Hoechlin donning the red cape. Despite the familiarity, though, we’re pumped for a new animated adventure that promises to stand apart from the field by leaning into an anime style and focusing on the awkward phase of Superman’s (and Clark Kent’s) life when he was still finding himself as a hero and intern at the Daily Planet.
Here’s what we know about Extraction 2: It sees Chris Hemsworth returning to action as the left-for-dead mercenary-turned-hero Tyler Rake (still a terrific name) who’s tasked with saving more people in peril. Here’s what we don’t know about Extraction 2: How the hell this movie got made. The stunt list alone should’ve had insurance companies running for the hills. There’s talk that Hemsworth is lit on fire at one point. There are dizzying car chases filmed on a continuous loop. Just 20-minute-long car chases, people! Helicopters are out here landing on moving trains. Who let these men do this?
What we have here is a spinoff of one show (Star Trek: Discovery) that was itself a prequel to another show (the original Star Trek), now in its second season. We are deep into the lore here. But that’s okay. It’s a fun little ride, good for both diehard fans of the franchise and newbies trying to dip their toes in a little. You could use a little galactic escape sometimes. We all can.
Warrior is back for a third season, still starring Andrew Koji as Ah Sahm and still set in 19th century San Francisco and still based on the writings of Bruce Lee, but now it’s on Max, which was previously known as HBO Max, after originally debuting on Cinemax back in 2019. There’s a lot going on here, most of it involving some usage of the letters m-a-x, but the bottom line remains the same: it’s a good show that’s full of action and cool fights scenes and sometimes that’s exactly what you need when it starts getting hot outside.
Much like The Beastie Boys (only not like them at all), this duo began their journey as high school pals who decided, what the hell, let’s form a pop band. Soon enough, they became a global sensation, and this documentary promises to pluck a few heartstrings while looking back at George Michael (RIP) and Andrew Ridgeley’s personal trove of footage along with previously unrevealed discussions from both pop stars.
John Krasinski is back for another run as Jack Ryan, the Tom Clancy character who has been saving the world for the last 30 or 40 years, played by everyone from Harrison Ford to Chris Pine. Wendell Pierce is in there, too. It’s kind of wild to think about, really, this thing where Jim from The Office and Bunk from The Wire have been running around for a few seasons now saving the world on a show made by the same company that ships vitamins and kitchen utensils to your house in 48 hours. But it’s happening. The future is pretty weird!
It’s the 16th season of It’s Always Sunny and if you’re not already endlessly in love with this gang of moronic miscreants and their low-rent misadventures I don’t know that you can be saved. For those who have fallen off a little over the years, though, please allow us to reassure you that the show is as good, chaotic, vile, silly, and subtly smart as ever, trading international hijinks in Ireland during part of last season for a back to basics approach. In just the first two episodes we’ve seen Mac, Charlie, Dee, Dennis, and Frank giving us a cliffs notes understanding of inflation and crypto (as only Always Sunny can), revelations about Charlie and Frank’s cramped apartment, a crazy family road trip, and a whole lot of casual gunplay. And that’s just the first two episodes. We can’t wait to see the rest.
Hey, do you wanna spend like 90 minutes this weekend watching a movie that stars Adam Devine and Nina Dobrev as a young married couple and Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin as her parents who might also secretly be bank robbers? Before you answer, please remember that it is 8000 degrees outside and you probably have air conditioning in your room. And that any movie where Pierce Brosnan plays a maybe secret thief is a solid summer watch. Okay, now you can answer.
Can the bleak freaky award-winning anthology series and buzz machine from a few years ago still scare the piss out of audiences now that the world has been brought closer to some of its popular themes about metaverses, AI everywhere, neural implants, evaporating privacy protections, and the malignancy of loneliness and hollowness of digital interactions? We’re about to find out with five new star-studded episodes that beg for our attention while it’s still ours to control.
4. Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators (Netflix)
NETFLIX
American Gladiators exists at the intersection of cheesy ’80s and early ’90s WWF/WWE wrestling, pro football, and action films like Running Man, a former weekend TV staple and likely forgotten piece of pop culture ephemera trapped in a time capsule that just got busted open for a new Netflix docuseries. What’s inside? A whole lotta spandex and tales of pumping up, sex, drugs, and mayhem, feeding Where Are They Now fascinations around larger-than-life one-named stars like Gemini, Ice, and Blaze. Oh, and there’s a behind-the-scenes power player who dressed up like Elvis.
Henry Cavill has one foot out the door of this franchise, which is unfortunate, but we’ll see what Liam Hemsworth brings to the table in the future. Further, this season will apparently bring us (from the looks of the above teaser) plenty of banger-filled Jaskier with newfound eyeliner. Ideally, this means that the show will go ahead and declare Jaskier canonically bisexual because they’ve been dancing around the issue long enough. And god only knows that the Netflix franchise has tweaked Andrzej Sapkowski books and the video games enough over the years already, so what’s one more time?
The first season of The Bear was often chaotic and intense in the very best of ways. But while season two doesn’t move fully away from that formula, it all feels a little more slow-burn and structured as it seeks to tell a story about what happens when you dare to take a chance and change things up. How discombobulating it is and how the universe reacts. We thought last season was a main course, but it was apparently just an appetizer.
The super-rich mega-church proprietors are back and they’re ready to step into a new chapter that sees patriarch Eli Gemstone ceding control to his kids. Shades of Succession? In some surface ways, sure, but Gemstones is its own swirl of chaos and genius, and this new season goes all in on family feuds while adding monster trucks, romantic entanglements, backwoods survivalists doing that thing they do, and an all-new Baby Billy scheme.
Following Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s most recent showdown with Lauren Boebert on the House floor, reports started coming in that the House Freedom Caucus was looking to expel Greene for calling Boebert a “little b*tch.” Both congresswomen are part of the caucus, which frowns upon disparaging members, so Greene didn’t help the situation by doubling down on her remarks and referring to Boebert as a “nasty little b*tch.”
However, Greene’s status in the Freedom Caucus has been elusive. The conservative body had refused to release the results of a vote against Greene, but a member has now confirmed to The Daily Beast that Greene was removed. Although, in an interesting wrinkle, Boebert reportedly argued against expelling her former BFF:
During internal deliberations almost two weeks ago—which occurred after Greene confirmed to multiple publications she indeed did call Boebert “a little bitch”—Boebert agreed with another member who argued against removing Greene, out of respect for her right to “freedom of speech.”
“She was against having her removed,” a GOP lawmaker familiar with the HFC meeting told The Daily Beast. “She was actually against it.”
While Boebert reportedly defended Greene during arguments, the Colorado congresswoman refused to confirm which way she ultimately voted. Boebert gave a carefully worded statement to The Daily Beast when asked about Greene’s ejection.
“The comments that Marjorie and I shared with one another had absolutely no influence on my vote,” Boebert said.
Last week, creators Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi announced that the third season of Reservation Dogs would, sadly, be its last. Harjo noted that it was the best time for the ending he had in mind, and the trailer for this final season promises an epic emotional conclusion to one of the funniest shows on TV.
Most of the gang is returning by bus to the rez while Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) continues on to parts unknown with his spirit guide (Dallas Goldtooth) who is always so, so, so helpful. As much as the show has been about “being stuck,” the trailer hints at a season that will see the characters leaving home or finding purpose by staying.
It’s sad to see the show end, but in the search for a silver lining, it’ll be interesting to see what these creators and actors do next. Woon-A-Tai is in Finn Wolfhard’s (yes, from Stranger Things) horror comedy Hell of a Summer; Devery Jacobs is co-starring in the upcoming Marvel show Echo; Lane Factor was in The Fabelmans; Paulina Alexis was in Ghostbusters: Afterlife; and Harjo just wrote and executive produced Rez Ball, a sports drama about a team that loses its star player.
And, presumably, Waititi is doing whatever he wants.
The final season of Reservation Dogs lands on FX and Hulu on August 2nd.
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Here’s why…
(1/8) https://t.co/ujLZEmhbLc
(@alanabcardenas) 
(@Jaded_Chinx) 
Hope you’re all having a good day though
(@mtgreenee) 
(@A_GirlNamedBRI) 
