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Today’s GOP sure offers countless profiles in courage. Ron DeSantis, who’s currently in a distant second for the Republican presidential ticket, recently dodged a teen’s question about Donald Trump preventing a peaceful transition of power after losing in 2020. The Speaker of the House isn’t much better. The other day he dared say he wasn’t sure if the former president was the party’s best hope. And it didn’t take long for him to apologize.

On Tuesday morning McCarthy went on CNBC, where he was asked if Trump could get back into the White House. “Can he win that election? Yeah, he can,” McCarthy replied. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer.”

McCarthy didn’t even say Trump was the best person for the job. And yet his response got him dragged by MAGA world, who tolerate no dissent. Later that day McCarthy rang up Trump to offer a fulsome mea culpa:

McCarthy explained to Trump that he misspoke on CNBC, and also claimed that some reporters took some of his comments out of context, the sources said. Allies were pleased with McCarthy’s apology, though several Trump advisers told CNN they were still wary of the speaker.

That wasn’t all. McCarthy gave an exclusive interview with no less than Breitbart, where he went on to praise, no question, him. He even claimed the guy currently under multiple criminal investigations and whose brain is even mushier than it’s been in the past was “stronger today than he was in 2016.”

So McCarthy might not be exactly strong, but perhaps he’s not dumb. He knows he’s hanging onto his job by a thread, and that a large faction that’s taken over his party does not tolerate any bad-mouthing of the guy who reportedly muses about having sex with one of his daughters.

(Via CNN)

Levitation organizers must have the same taste as Daniel Caesar, as two of the opening acts on Caesar’s Superpowers World Tour will be BadBadNotGood and Flying Lotus. Both artists are also scheduled to headline the festival’s 2023 lineup.

The lineup’s first wave was announced on Wednesday, June 28, and single-show tickets as well as four-day passes are available for purchase here.

Levitation will return to Austin, Texas from October 26-29, and an accompanying press release revealed an updated venue layout:

“In 2023, Levitation expands the sonic spectrum and scope of the event with an eclectic lineup and the addition of two of Austin’s newest independent venues: electronic music destination Concourse Project, and South Austin’s outdoor, multi-stage event center The Far Out Lounge, where Austin Psych Fest was held in April. These new locations are in addition to Levitation’s traditional Red River and East Side venues, including the festival’s downtown main stage Stubb’s, and Red River and Eastside staples Mohawk, Empire, Hotel Vegas, Elysium, Parish, Antone’s and 13th Floor. The multi-venue format encourages fans to choose their own adventure through the weekend.”

Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label will enjoy a 15-year anniversary celebration. Similarly, indie label Numero Group will be showcased for its 20th anniversary, featuring Unwound, Codeine, Karate, and Chisel. Other festival headliners include OneOhTrix Point Never, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and The Black Angels.

Levitation teased that “final additions (including entire shows that haven’t been announced yet), light show, and video artists plus DJ sets are still on the way.”

See the full first-wave lineup below, and find more Levitation information here.

Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek is crafting a world all his own. The Texas-bred artist announced Haunted Mountain, his forthcoming solo album, by dropping its earnest, folksy title track last month.

On Wednesday, June 28, Meek released “Paradise,” an equally introspective single that advances Meek’s unique perspective on love.

“Sometimes when you half-hear something spoken, something unspoken inside the words is revealed,” Meek said in a statement. “Your mind fills in the blank, finishes the sentence, infers deep meaning — though you still can’t fully explain it. Jolie Holland sent me some of the lyrics for this song, about feeling in awe of the vastness within a loved one, and I wrote it thinking about how love often feels too big to comprehend, like death, or life after death, or space.”

Meek had expressed a similar sentiment upon announcing Haunted Mountain, saying the album is “about love and… something other. Something bigger than love, something that doesn’t challenge love exactly but stands in contrast to it.”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes, and Meek takes that literally in “Paradise.” Atop delicate acoustics, he sings, “Tell me how you got heaven in your eyes / Heaven in your eyes / ‘I fell into a black hole with the hot flux of hazel.’”

Haunted Mountain will be Meek’s first album since signing with 4AD and his third sol0 album overall, following his 2018 self-titled debut and 2021’s Two Saviors.

Listen to “Paradise” above.

Haunted Mountain is out 8/25 via 4AD. Find more information here.

Earl Sweatshirt most recently released Sick! at the top of 2022, an album that Joe Budden didn’t particularly like. But given its No. 80 debut on the Billboard 200, it looks like most everyone else did.

“Even though he’s grown up, though, there remains an element of inscrutability in his music, a chip on his shoulder that has been reduced in size but is no less embedded in the fabric of his being,” Uproxx‘s Aaron Williams wrote in his Sick! review, later noting, “You won’t be hearing many requests for Earl’s new music at any clubs or parties anytime soon (none you’d want to go to, anyway). But what feels more important is that Earl is in a good place, mentally and emotionally, and that’s translated to art that is proportionately more enjoyable.”

You can hear Earl’s music at The Novo in Los Angeles soon enough, however. He announced on Wednesday, June 28, that he will be performing a one-off 10-year anniversary show at the venue on August 19 to commemorate the August 20, 2013 release of Doris.

“He’ll perform Doris in full for the first time ever,” Stereogum relayed. “Domo Genesis is also on the bill, and it would not be a surprise if some of the album’s other featured guests made appearances as well.”

Doris‘ other featured artists were Casey Veggies, Frank Ocean, the late Mac Miller, RZA, SK Laflare, Tyler The Creator, and Vince Staples.

Donald Trump has famously avoided the wrath of Johnny Law his entire life, but his luck may soon run out. The former president is in deep doo-doo over his alleged mishandling of classified government documents. There might even be a Smoking Gun: Audio tape was recently made public that shows him boasting about showing off such files, with him admitting he knows they’re classified. After much rage-posting on Truth Social, he came up with a most curious defense: He was just lying. But that itself may be a lie.

On Wednesday, reporter Robert Mackey posted an excerpt from The Chief’s Chief, the non-bestselling memoir by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. In the audio clip, Trump is talking to not only staffers but also that tome’s ghostwriter — who seems to have mentioned the exchange in the book’s intro:

The president recalls a four-page report typed up by Mark Milley himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.

That aligns with what is being discussed in the now-public audio clip, in which Trump talks about a plan from General Milley to attack Iran.

In his bizarre defense, Trump claimed he wasn’t showing classified documents but “magazines, newspapers, plans of buildings. I have plans of buildings, you know, plans. I had plans of a golf course.” He argued he was a liar, not a thief, who fibbed out of “bravado.” The passage in the Meadows book strongly suggests otherwise.

Whatever the case, maybe Republican voters should find another presidential nominee — though maybe not the guy who bullies students.

(Via Mediaite)

On Wednesday, one day before its Season 3 finale was set to air, The Other Two got the axe. In a statement, creators Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider said the acclaimed Max comedy, about millennial siblings (Hélene Yorke and Drew Tarver) grappling with the overnight success of their 13-year-old brother (and which gave Molly Shannon one of her meatiest roles), was always supposed to end after 30 episodes.

“It is bittersweet to say goodbye to the Dubek family after three seasons, but we always knew, both creatively and personally, that this was where we wanted to end [the characters’] stories,” Kelly and Schneider said.

However, as per The Hollywood Reporter, there may be a darker reason it came to a close:

Multiple sources involved with The Other Two confirm Kelly and Schneider were the subject of complaints to human resources over behavior on set and in the writers room. These include allegations that Kelly verbally abused writers and overworked crew and claims that Schneider enabled his behavior.

According to sources, the production conducted a formal investigation into the behavior, during which Kelly and Schneider were not permitted on set for a period. Kelly and Schneider were formally cleared of wrongdoing and allowed to return.

That said, several insiders said there was no connection between the complaints and the show’s sudden ending.

Rumors of behind-the-scenes tension on The Other Two were allegedly an open secret. Tina Fey even directly referenced the alleged strife in March while speaking at the PEN America Literary Awards, while getting in a dig at her old SNL and 30 Rock teammate Lorne Michaels, who also executive produced The Other Two.

“Nobody indulges writers like Lorne Michaels,” she told the crowd. “Lorne, you have unleashed an army of monsters into the world. You know it, I know it, and the crew of The Other Two knows it — oh I was supposed to change that. I was supposed to change that. That’s inappropriate. Oh well, it’s not livestreaming.”

Whatever the case, the Other Two episode that hits Max on June 29 will be its last.

(Via THR)

Rudy Giuliani has been through a lot. By joining up with Donald Trump to try and keep him in the White House, the former “America’s mayor” torched whatever was left of his reputation. Not only that, he embarrassed himself in many creative ways. Trump returned the favor by not helping out with his mounting legal bills. But there may be a happy ending to all this, now that we know the poor guy might be finally plotting his revenge.

As per The New York Times, the architect of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle “voluntarily” met with Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating two Trump cases: the one about classified documents and the one about his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Giuliani was interviewed about the latter, about which he knows a lot:

Prosecutors working for Mr. Smith asked Mr. Giuliani about a plan to create fake slates of pro-Trump electors in key swing states that were actually won by Mr. Biden, one person familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation. They focused specifically on the role played in that effort by John Eastman, another lawyer who advised Mr. Trump about ways to stay in office after his defeat.

Giuliani also reportedly spoke about Sidney Powell, the lawyer and Diet Dr. Pepper fanatic who introduced Trump to some of the more wackadoodle election conspiracy theories, as well as a notorious meeting between Trump cronies shortly before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

None of this is surely good for Trump, but what’s worse is that the interview was a “proffer agreement,” in which subjects, as per NYT, “agree to provide useful information to the government, sometimes to tell their side of events, to stave off potential charges or to avoid testifying under subpoena before a grand jury.”

Such chats sometimes precede formal cooperation deals. That suggests Giuliani may be warming up to the idea of ratting on Trump to save his hide, much as folks like Mark Meadows have reportedly been doing. In other words, Rudy might be able to save part of his rep after all.

Coincidentally, former Giuliani pal Lev Parnas tweeted this the other day…

Seems relevant!

(Via NYT)

“How does someone get away with something like that?”

Based on the book Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green, the new HBO documentary Last Call profiles an era of queer people finding solace in bars before having that safety ripped away by a killer and a system that didn’t care they were being killed. The trailer promises a stunning, detail-oriented project that expands beyond the killings to examine systemic marginalization at a time when a significant portion of the country didn’t care much about AIDS because of who it was killing.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“In the early 1990s, with homophobia and hate crimes on the rise as the AIDS crisis worsens, a serial killer preys upon gay men in New York City, infiltrating queer nightlife to find his victims. A gripping, investigative crime story, Last Call: When A Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York also dives deeply into the prejudices and attitudes of the times, when deep-rooted biases in the criminal justice system and the media’s distorted public perception of the victims undermined the investigation and enabled a brutal killer to prey on a marginalized populace. The complexities of the closet combined with a long-standing mistrust of law enforcement further complicated the case. It also highlights the heroic efforts of activists, including the NYC Anti-Violence Project, to force law enforcement to recognize and protect the queer community.”

Directed by Anthony Caronna (Pride) and executive produced by Howard Gertler (How To Survive A Plague), the docuseries debuts July 9th on HBO and Max.

Barbie is only a few weeks from hitting theaters, and yet not much is known about the plot. From trailers, know that Margot Robbie’s heroine is hit with some good old fashioned existential dread. We know that she enters the real world, where Will Ferrell is running Mattel. We also know that a lot of talented actors loved the script by director Greta Gerwig and her real-life partner Noah Baumbach, which sounds uncommonly, perhaps unnecessarily good for a movie based on a doll brand. As it turns out, at least one part of it was so edgy that it freaked out Mattel top brass.

A new Time profile of the film (in a bit teased out by Variety) reveals that Richard Dickson, COO and president of Mattel, was so alarmed by an “off-brand” scene that he got on a dang airplane to London to argue with Gerwig ant Robbie. It’s not clear with scene so riled up Dickson, but Gerwig and Robbie were able to assuage his fears by acting the scene out for him.

“When you look on the page, the nuance isn’t there, the delivery isn’t there,” Robbie explained.

Mattel top dogs were reportedly not initially copasetic with some of Gerwig and Baumbach’s ambitions, which includes questioning the feminist bona fides of a doll that has long been criticized for representing impossible beauty standards. (Or for being, until 1980, when the first Black Barbie debuted, exclusively white.) But Gerwig, with the help of Robbie, was able to earn their trust.

The Time piece also features some more newly publicized details about the movie, including that it opens with some narration by Helen Mirren, who informs viewers that in Barbie Land “all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved.” It also reveals our protagonist also starts aging:

Those arched feet go flat. Cellulite appears on her thigh. To combat these changes, she must venture into the real world with Ken, who has been feeling like a mere accessory in Barbie’s dream life. The real world is, well, real. Men in suits at Mattel—led by Will Ferrell’s CEO—make disingenuous speeches about female empowerment; preteens dress Barbie down for wreaking havoc on their self-esteem. Both Barbie and Ken go on quests of self-discovery, and that’s when things get really interesting. (I won’t give away Ken’s story, but Gosling nearly steals the show.)

There’s also “surprisingly balletic musical number that appears to be inspired by Grease and Singin’ in the Rain; a car-chase sequence; a mysterious woman in a kitchen; and a running gag about Sylvester Stallone’s penchant for mink coats.”

Barbie hits theaters on July 21, and Tom Cruise thinks you should see on a double with Oppenheimer.

(Via Time and Variety)