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Kevin Spacey is currently in the midst of a sexual assault trial in the UK, and Elton John popped in to testify for Spacey’s defense.

Per The Associated Press, one of Spacey’s alleged victims is accusing the actor of aggressively grabbing his crotch while driving with him at John’s annual White Tie And Tiara ball in 2004 or 2005. However, David Furnish, John’s husband, previously testified that Spacey only attended one of the balls, and Spacey said he only attended the 2001 event. Furnish said that after looking at photographs, it appeared Spacey indeed was only at the 2001 event.

In his 20-minute testimony, John, appearing in court remotely from Monaco, said Spacey attended the 2001 gala and he does not recall the actor’s presence at the event during any other year.

Spacey currently faces 12 counts of sexual assault via accusations by four men. He has pleaded not guilty to all 12 charges.

John, meanwhile, recently concluded his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, but suggested he’s not necessarily done with live performances altogether, saying, “I’m not going to tour again. There may be the odd show, but I’m not touring. Touring is exhausting for me now, and it takes me away from my family and my children.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been known to play with language. That’s putting it diplomatically, but maybe she’s simply confused when she talks about a “peach tree dish” and “gazpacho police.” Then there’s the geographical confusion that she falls into at times, along with a statistical flub that may have been more than a typo. Also, there’s the self-professed “wokeness” of Chris Stapleton that got Greene all worked up, but now, she’s moved onto “socialist” ills like Medicare.

Greene was on hand Turning Point Action Conference (along with noted cocaine opponent Don Jr.) over the weekend, and she dropped this confusing little ditty. Greene began by comparing Joe Biden to Lyndon B. Johnson while declaring that they were both “Democrat socialists.” She then pointed out that Johnson was once a VP (to JFK), whereas (as everyone knows), Biden was VP to Obama. And then her history lesson really went off the rails:

“His big socialist programs were the Great Society… his Great Society were big government programs to address [in sarcastic voice] education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and welfare….”

Clearly, Greene doesn’t believe that “education” should be publicly funded, and I’m not sure what she has against “transportation,” although “Medicare” is truly a head-scratching inclusion. Plenty of Republicans use Medicare after they contributed parts of their paychecks to the program for decades (and the same can be said for Social Security). Medicare also generally kicks in due to age, although disability can prompt to go into effect earlier. And although Republicans have fiddled around with age limits, it seems unlikely that they’d ever really want to rile up their voting base by eliminating it altogether.

It’s unclear whether Greene believes that Medicare is the same as Medicaid, or if this is another “peach tree dish” thing. A mystery for the ages!

Bebe Rexha shared some alleged texts from her boyfriend, Keyan Safyari, that have many speculating their possible breakup. The pop star posted screenshots of the conversation to her Instagram Story, where he appears to criticize her for gaining weight.

“Hey. I never said you weren’t beautiful and I never said I didn’t love you,” Safyari allegedly wrote. “In fact I said how beautiful you are and how much I loved you. But I always said I would be honest with you and your face was changing so I told you it was.”

“Because I care, would you rather I lied to you? You gained 35 pounds obviously you gained weight and your face changes? Should I just pretend it didn’t happen and that it’s ok?” the text adds.

Safyari reportedly goes on to then claim that Rexha has poked at his weight in the past, too — but this would be her reason for breaking up with him.

“Come on I gain 3 pounds and you called me chubbs and fat,” it continues. “Doesn’t mean you don’t love me. If you’re trying to find reasons to break up this makes sense… but it’s not the real reason. If you’re unhappy with me/yourself/with life and don’t see a future with us then that’s ok and that’s the reason. Don’t use something like that to weaponize your anger or anxiety or any insecurity you may have. You know I always found you to be beautiful and loved you no matter what.”

Since the upload, fans are rallying behind Rexha — especially in the wake of having objects hit her on stage and crying during recent performances. Check out some reactions below.

Bebe Rexha is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Billie Eilish with a gut punch of a Barbie movie song and Post Malone continue his singer-songwriter era. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Billie Eilish — “What Was I Made For?”

While the upcoming Barbie movie appears to be full of colorful cheer, the advance trailers so far have indicated there’s some emotional depth at play, too. It appears part of that will come from Eilish’s song for the movie, a tender piano ballad that’ll tug on your plastic heartstrings.

Post Malone — “Overdrive”

Post Malone’s new album, Austin, is set to release before the end of the month, and so far, he’s made it clear that it’s more about pop/rock than hip-hop this go around. He further proves that with “Overdrive,” an introspective number on which he sings, “I spend my nights on overdrive / I live my life so uninspired / There ain’t no angels in this world / So I live my life on overdrive.”

PinkPantheress and Destroy Lonely — “Turn Your Phone Off”

PinkPantheress has added Destroy Lonely to her expansive roster of collaborators for a new joint effort. “Turn Your Phone Off” is a rapid and jittery number, a love song through a modern lens: “I turned my phone off but your calls still came through / I reply when they do ’cause I want to chat to you,” PinkPantheress sings.

JT — “No Bars”

JT got clever on the new solo single “No Bars,” which sees her addressing both her time in prison and criticism over her lyrical abilities. This is far from the end of City Girls, which JT ensures by rapping, “It’s City Girl sh*t / Even when you think it ain’t City Girl sh*t / I’m a City Girl, b*tch.”

Quavo and Future — “Turn Yo Clic Up”

ICYMI, there’s some beef between Future and Russell Wilson, which he reignited on the Quavo collaboration “Turn You Clic Up.” There’s no mistaking that Future is going after the NFL star when he says, “Big dawg status, bill hopper / I ball in his mall for my brothers / Goyard bag, tote the cutter / I got it out the field, f*ck Russell.”

Jung Kook — “Seven” Feat. Latto

It’s been mostly about the solo material for BTS members lately, with the latest output on that front being Jung Kook’s “Seven.” It’s not exactly a solo track, through, as he links up with Latto, who he called the “perfect fit” for the track.

Karol G — “S91”

Karol G just dropped her new album, Mañana Será Bonito, a few months ago, but that’s not stopping her from a quick return with fresh material. Last week, she dropped “S91,” which alludes to the Psalms 91 verse of the Bible and sees her strongly coming back from heartbreak.

Troye Sivan — “Rush”

Troye Sivan launched the promotional cycle for a new album, Something To Give Each Other, last week. He exploded out of the gate with “Rush,” a club-ready summer anthem that’s causing a bit of a stir online.

Jamila Woods — “Tiny Garden”

Woods had a critical hit on her hands with 2019’s Legacy! Legacy!, and four years later, she’s coming back with another new album, Water Made Us. She previewed it last week with “Tiny Garden,” which she called “a song about the way my heart works, the slow and steady way I love.”

Coco Jones and Justin Timberlake — “ICU (Remix)”

With references to crying, rivers, Disney, and boy bands, Coco Jones made it pretty clear who she was teasing as a collaborative partner. Indeed, it was Justin Timberlake who hopped on last week’s remix of Jones’ breakout 2022 hit, “ICU,” contributing a new verse to the heartbroken song.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race with the largest campaign staff in the Republican field, nearly double the amount of the Trump campaign, and that strategy is already starting to backfire.

Despite out-raising Trump earlier in the year, the DeSantis campaign has reportedly burned through its coffers paying 92 staffers. With polling numbers in the toilet as the Florida governor fails to energize voters outside of his state, staffers are being let go. On top of that, DeSantis might be in the market for a new campaign manager as insiders turn on Gerrera Peck for the over-staffing blunder.

Via NBC News:

A Republican source familiar with the campaign’s thought process said: “They never should have brought so many people on. The burn rate was way too high. People warned the campaign manager, but she wanted to hear none of it.”

The donor said: “DeSantis stock isn’t rising. Twenty percent is not what people signed up for.”

The campaign firings arrive on the heels of a strained relationship with DeSantis and his donors who coughed up big checks at the start of his run. As he began to flail in the polls, DeSantis reportedly sent out a secret memo to assure his backers that he has everything under control and is focusing on early states like New Hampshire to build momentum.

However, those same backers are rapidly losing confidence. According to a recent report, DeSantis donors are not thrilled with his “petty” culture war stunts.

“People want to support Ron but don’t like this kind of stupid stuff,” a fundraiser told CNN. “There are people on his team who are trying to win petty wars that make Ron look stupid. If they get that taken care of and just let Ron and Casey be Ron and Casey, then they’ll be much better off.”

(Via NBC News)

Does every animated series have a banned episode? It seems like it. Disney+ would rather you forget that season three of The Simpsons begins with “Stark Raving Dad,” which isn’t available on the streaming service because of its guest star, while the abortion-themed season episode of Family Guy, “Partial Terms of Endearment,” is nowhere to be found on Hulu (but “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein” is on there). Even SpongeBob SquarePants has a banned episode, but there is an overly complicated way to finally watch it.

As noticed by Jason the Cartoon Fan on Twitter, “Mid-Life Crustacean,” the season three SpongeBob episode attached to “The Great Snail Race,” is on Paramount+, but only “if you’re accessing it through Prime Video and not its own separate app.” If you only have Paramount+, you still can’t watch the episode. It has to be done through Paramount+ by way of Amazon Prime Video — or instead of trying to figure all that out, you can go to the source here.

“Mid-Life Crustacean” premiered in January 2003 and was banned 15 years later “following a standards review in which we determined some story elements were not kid-appropriate,” Nickelodeon spokesperson David Bittler told the New York Times. The episode is about Mr. Krabs feeling old, so he joins SpongeBob and Patrick for a wild night out, including a panty raid.

It’s not a great SpongeBob episode, especially compared to season three all-timers “Chocolate with Nuts” or “Ugh,” but it’s good that the season can once again be watched in its entirety. Or you can buy the season three DVD and own a physical copy, which is good advice for all shows these days.

(Via Jason the Cartoon Fan/Twitter)

Over the weekend, both Maggie Rogers and Mumford & Sons headlined at Canada’s Sommo Festival. Because Rogers played on Friday night, she was free to also join the band on Saturday — as she popped up at the set as a surprise guest.

Rogers and Marcus Mumford performed quite a few songs together, including the band’s “Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)” and “Timshel” — with Allison Russell, according to NME. Izzy Heltai also joined as an additional surprise guest to cover The New Basement Tapes’ “Kansas City” with Rogers and Mumford.

Yet, the far and away favorite of the night was when Mumford and Rogers covered Taylor Swift’s “Cowboy Like Me.” For casual listeners, Mumford performs backing vocals on Swift’s track, which appeared on her 2020 album, Evermore.

Because of this, Mumford previously joined Swift as a special guest during The Eras Tour stop in Las Vegas, where they performed it together during the surprise song section of the show. He has also performed it during solo concerts.

As for Rogers and Mumford, the duo aren’t strangers to performing together either. The publication notes that just a few years ago in 2018, she joined Mumford & Sons to perform “Beloved” at the band’s Birmingham concert. She was also their opening act throughout the group’s UK tour that year.

Check out Rogers and Mumford performing “Cowboy Like Me” here.

While the NBA waits for the latest superstar trade request to get sorted out with Damian Lillard’s effort to leave Portland for Miami, there is pressure mounting in other cities to try and avoid a similar fate with their star players.

It is the reality of the modern NBA that once a player reaches their prime, if they aren’t in a situation where they feel they can compete for a title, there’s a very real chance they look to apply pressure for a trade — no matter how close to a contract extension they are. The Philadelphia 76ers are currently dealing with a trade request from James Harden, which is complicated by the fact he only has one year left on his deal and can’t sign an extension with a new team. That limits his value and makes it nearly impossible to get enough in return to keep the Sixers as one of the East’s very best teams.

Taking a step back next year isn’t just a frustrating thing to face from a team-building sense, but it also would waste another year of Joel Embiid’s prime as he comes off an MVP season rather desperate for a playoff breakthrough. Having never made it past the second round of the playoffs, most recently losing back-to-back games with a chance to make the conference finals against the Celtics, Embiid is starting to feel the heat a bit regarding his ability to lead a winner. It’s not dissimilar to what Giannis Antetokounmpo faced prior to his title run in 2021, coming off MVP seasons but playoff disappointment, but that summer the Bucks loaded up, trading for Jrue Holiday, rather than taking a step back.

In case Daryl Morey wasn’t already keenly aware of what allowing another trade request to drag on and derail a season (like Ben Simmons’) would do to his star, Embiid made some eyebrow raising comments at an event recently while speaking on stage with Maverick Carter about his desire to win championships, but noting he didn’t know “where that’s gonna be.”

“I just want to win a championship,” Embiid says. “Whatever it takes. 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. I wanna see what it feels like to win that first one and then think about the next one. It’s not easy, but it takes more than one, two, three guys. You gotta have good people around you.”

This is how the modern NBA works. There is so much pressure on guys to win a title to cement their legacy as a star that regular season dominance grows stale after awhile if you aren’t at least knocking on the door of a championship with Finals appearances. For Embiid, having never gotten out of the second round is starting to stain his (still being built) legacy, fairly or not, and he is very aware of that. As such, he’s not looking for the team to take any steps back, and these comments only further add to the front office’s burden to figure out how to keep them in the contender tier.

Embiid has made it clear publicly that he wants Harden back, and the team is privately trying to mend those fences. However, to this point, they haven’t changed Harden’s mind and they’ll have to continue working on what the best possible Plan B can be to give them a chance to contend again next season without him in order to keep the big fella happy.

Elon Musk’s Twitter activity routinely confounds and he left people scratching their heads again this weekend: On July 15, Musk tweeted an image of Kanye West’s cover art for his 2018 album Ye. Musk provided no additional comments, either in the tweet itself or in any subsequent tweets, just the image.

It’s not clear what Musk meant by this. Maybe it’s a commentary on mental health, given that the art reads, “I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome.” Maybe the music is just what he was listening to at the time. Maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all.

Whatever the case, Musk and West certainly have a history. As Independent outlines, they first met when Musk gave West a tour of the SpaceX rocket factory in 2011. The two exchanged praise here and there over the following years, but there was a spat in 2022 when Musk banned West from Twitter. West (and Grimes) apparently consulted on Tesla’s reported secret “Project 42,” an all-glass house made for Musk.

Wherever Musk and West stand now, perhaps Musk tweeted out the Ye cover is an indication that their past beef is all water under the bridge. West, meanwhile, might be the inspiration behind a recently released archival Taylor Swift song.

There are few truly iconic characters and a lot of pretenders that get close but never quite capture the little things that add up to something mammoth. The swagger, the look, the specific words that cut to the center of a moment right through walls of bluster and piles of bullshit — a cool factor that is effortless and everlasting: Raylan Givens is one of those iconic characters. Created by writer Elmore Leonard for the page and brought to the screen by Graham Yost, a team of writers (including Dave Andron and Michael Dinner, the showrunners behind the latest edition), and actor Timothy Olyphant for what became Justified, a series that ran from 2010 to 2015 prior to the launch of the sequel series, Justified: City Primeval, which debuts Tuesday, July 18 on FX.

Harkening back to the TV and movie cowboy lawmen of another era but with a little more edge, wear, and shade, there’s a simplicity to Raylan’s brand of justice that isn’t always that simple. It’s something this sequel series attempts to wrestle with while also exploring big questions like “Is Raylan a good man?” and “Is he a bad father?”

When we spoke with Olyphant a few weeks ago about the return of this character in this new world (literally and figuratively as the show has moved from Kentucky to Detroit), he shot a few thoughts our way on those very questions. We also spoke with him about the needed break from the responsibilities of the original series, working with his daughter on the show, and the importance of Raylan’s very specific language (and the writers who craft it). Also art theft and Angela Lansbury. It’s a well-rounded and easy chat, is what I’m saying.

How much fun was this?

It was exactly that. I don’t want to speak for everybody, but I’m pretty sure all involved had a good time.

Does it come right back to you? Is it like an old pair of shoes or does it take some work to get back into that mode, into the voice, into the swagger?

You just put the shoes on and off you go. Put the shoes on. The hat still fits.

At the end of the original show, were you just done or were you still actively thinking, “Okay, well, if something comes along down the road, I’d be interested?” Did you have to be talked into it, I guess (is the question)?

My memory is, and I realize that’s not that reliable, but my memory is I said way back when that I’d be interested in coming back, getting the gang together again after some time. But that perhaps we needed some time just to free us up creatively.

I imagine it can be a mixed blessing to have something run so long and have the job be that chunk of your schedule, right?

It’s not just that. I think that the show is so much fun and creating these seasons back in the day, it’s a ridiculously difficult challenge for the writers and then at the same time just such a joy to do it. But in the end, I think that the nature of serial television is you feel beholden to things that creatively might not be what’s best. And just by taking a break, that alone just gives you some freedom to have some perspective to approach the work fresh. And in this case, since Graham (Yost) wasn’t going to come and write the show, the fact that (Dave) Andron and (Michael) Dinner took over, I think that break and that change to take the character to Detroit, it just took the shackles off. It just allowed them to make it their own. It gave them some freedom, and I think it made it exciting. Can we bring all these new characters in, do something totally different, and yet still have it feel like the show?

Does the limited series model open you up in terms of like, “Well, maybe we’ll come back in a couple of years?” As opposed to, okay, next season, next year, the next season, the next year. You’re a little freer with time. Is that part of the appeal?

Yeah, that’s what I was referring to, that I recall saying that years ago. That if they were interested in that kind of model, I think that’d be fun for everybody involved. I mean, it’s what they’ve been doing with that Bond character for half a century.

I was going to reference the old Murder She Wrote movies that would come back around. Bond is a bit of a cooler comp than Angela Lansbury for you, so I guess we’ll go with that one.

I’m an Angela Lansbury fan. That woman was money, so I appreciate that (comp).

Father Dowling Mysteries too.

I appreciate that as well. I’ll take all the cool old TV. I think Tom Selleck did it (make a series of TV movies) for a while.

I can’t remember what the name of it was, but yeah.

I’m going to go with Quigley.

I don’t think it’s Quigley Down Under, I don’t think that’s what we got as a movie-of-the-week every year or so. We should have. (Laughs) Oh, you know what? Jesse Stone? That’s it.

Oh, Jesse Stone. Okay, well, yeah, that has appeal to me (the limited series model).

When the original show ended, you did an interview with Rolling Stone where you said you weren’t sure that Raylan is a great guy. I’m curious if that has changed for you and if he’s grown. Do you think he’s a better guy now?

I think he’s not without his flaws.

Who among us?

Right. And it wouldn’t be a good show if it was any other way.

Right, exactly. Just squeaky clean and super polite. Super responsive to authority. That’d be the best show. Everyone would love that.

(Laughs) Yeah.

Why does he still care after all these years?

About what in particular?

About right and wrong and his version of right and wrong and catching the bad guy, to put it in simple terms.

I imagine he had a good mother.

Does he think he’s a bad dad?

I think he knows he’s trying and it doesn’t come easy. And I think he knows that she’s got his number and she doesn’t see him the way everybody else sees him. And so the challenge is steep. It’s not an easy fix.

Having his number and not seeing him as everybody else sees him, does that resonate with you with having your daughter playing your daughter on the show?

Sadly, Jason, yes, it does.

(Laughs) She’s really great in it. What was the biggest surprise in working with her?

Well, the fact that we were working together was the biggest surprise. Honestly, that’s not something I saw coming. I don’t think most dads see that coming. And we were both aware that it was special and I was just really happy for her. As a parent, you just want your kids to be happy at the end of the day. And when you see your kid having so much fun, working so hard at something, I was really happy for her, felt like she was in the right place.

With your daughter, was there ever a thought to be like, “Oh no, don’t do that. Go do something, anything else but act”? Or was that choice celebrated?

No. I’ve never subscribed to that line of thinking. If any young person has ever asked me for advice, I’m a pursue your bliss guy. Even in failure, it feels like it’ll lead to something better than going after something because you think it’s the right thing to do or the smart thing to do. I think if the pandemic has taught us anything, the fact is life will throw you a curveball no matter what. So there is no safe choice. It’s just such a funny concept that people think that acting is not a job like any other job. It’s the same deal. The same rules apply. So yeah, I’ve never subscribed to that. And if my kids are interested in something, I encourage them to look further into it. And that’s why one of my kids is in prison now. He’s got to learn. You know what I mean?

(Laughs) He loved art so much he wanted to be an art thief. It was his bliss.

Exactly. I was busy and I didn’t hear the specifics. You know what I mean? So I just said, “Yeah, go for it.” And then… we all make mistakes.

Yeah. Well, I think honestly, just in looking through the case files, it was that he really chose poorly in the wheelman that he selected.

(Laughs) That’s right. That’s right. I appreciate you pointing that out, Jason.

It’s all about the people that you work with. It’s all about the collaborators. Speaking of which, and it’s a masterful segue here, the writing on the show has always been, and in this season as well, just so beautiful, such precise phrasing. Feel free to gush about the writers here.

The collaboration with the writers is the most special part of this job. It always has been, and it still is. I just can’t thank them enough for their willingness to dig deeper, to hear me out, to look for other possibilities, to listen to all the other actors. That collaboration, that very human experience, is one of the most special things about the show. And I could argue it’s that process that’s better than the result. And if that was taken away or if I was dealing with anything less than that experience, I wouldn’t be interested in the job.