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When the Sex and the City sequel …And Just Like That appeared in late 2021, it did so with one glaring omission: There was nary a sight of Samantha Jones. Turns out Kim Cattrall had zero interest in returning as the publicist who’s the randiest of the main foursome. But with Season 2, she changed her mind, sort of. As per The Hollywood Reporting, Samantha will make an incredibly brief return appearance, but don’t expect it to find the old gang back together.

According to THR, Cattrall made good on a report from last year and filmed in the flesh in one scene in the Season 2 closer. Cattrall did her scene in New York City in secret — so secret that she did her work with a limited crew and no interaction with former co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis.

Samantha made a cameo in AJLT Season 1, too, kind of: A scene in the final episode found Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw texting with her AWOL pal, who had conveniently relocated to London. The pair made plans to meet up in person and talk out their apparent beef. Perhaps that will still happen: Through the magic of editing, the filmmakers could simply stitch together a conversation between Parker and Cattrall that evidently never happened. Or maybe Samantha will just be seen avoiding her former brunch confidants.

In real life, Parker and Cattrall really are estranged. The two had a falling out after the latter declined to do a third SATC film. The rift was such that Parker revealed last year that they didn’t even ask her to join AJLT:

“We did not ask her to be part of this because she made it clear that that wasn’t something she wanted to pursue, and it no longer felt comfortable for us, and so it didn’t occur to us … That’s not ‘slamming’ her, it’s just learning. You’ve got to listen to somebody, and if they’re publicly talking about something and it doesn’t suggest it’s someplace they want to be, or a person they want to play, or an environment in which they want to be, you get to an age where you’re like, ‘Well, we hear that.’”

In other news, Cattrall will star in Netflix’s show Glamorous, which — intentionally or not — has the same release date as the first episode of AJLT’s second season.

(Via THR)

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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The now-deleted comment, which read, “Who’s gonna tell her?” followed by a laughing emoji, showed in the background as Gabriel tearfully explained why the purse meant so much to her as someone who grew up without a lot of money.

@zohtaco Replying to @cressy ♬ original sound – zoe 🦋

“We couldn’t buy new things as simple as bread from BreadTalk,” she said, referencing a popular Singaporean bakery. “That kind of thing was a luxury to us…Every time we passed by a store, my parents would just say next time, but next time would never come.”

With this context, Gabriel shared why the shameful comment was so inconsiderate.

“To you, an $80 bag may not be a luxury. For me and my family, it is a lot, and I’m so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

Gabriel’s video quickly went viral, even making its way to the actual founders of the Charles & Keith brand, Charles and Keith Wong. According to The Straits Times, the brothers were so “impressed” with Gabriel that they invited her and her father to have lunch and an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour at the company’s headquarters.

See on Instagram

But they didn’t stop there.

The brand later posted a photo on its Instagram page showing Gabriel modeling a lilac-colored Charles & Keith bag for International Women’s Day, even announcing her as a new brand ambassador.

See on Instagram

You’d think it would go without saying to just let people enjoy things, but we know that on the internet simple courtesy sometimes goes out the window. However, this is a heartwarming reminder that for every ignorant remark, there are also those who want to lift others up.

Gabriel might have been ridiculed, but she has since seemed to come out on top, posting videos of herself wining and dining and dancing and traveling and basically having the time of her life. Sounds like the ultimate luxury to me.

This article originally appeared on 3.21.23

On every basketball superteam, one star player is tasked with having to sacrifice the most for the good of the collective. Through four games, it’s clear that on the overnight juggernaut New York Liberty, that player will be Sabrina Ionescu. While Ionescu was the first piece of New York’s super roster, the way she plays and her lack of experience compared with her MVP-caliber veteran teammates make her the player who will have to change most for the Liberty to rise.

The team added Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot during the offseason. It was clear that, as a result, when and how Ionescu got the ball would be quite different than at any point in her basketball life. The returns have been up and down through four games to start the season amid the team’s feeling out process, although Ionescu was ultra-productive in Stewart’s return to Seattle on Tuesday night.

Ionescu made six of 10 threes, showing awareness off-ball and a growing understanding of where and how she will need to operate around her new star teammates after spending most of her career as the focal point in New York. Plays like this illustrated a comfort using her shooting as the ultimate back-breaker for the Liberty offense:

With a quick flick release and tons of confidence, Ionescu is more than capable of being a lights-out floor-spacer. As a former No. 1 overall pick who led the Liberty to the playoffs the past two seasons, she is overqualified for such a rudimentary role. While she’s aced that assignment so far and is among the best shooters in the WNBA to start the season, Ionescu is nonetheless adapting to her role on one of the most talented teams ever assembled.

Through four games, Ionescu’s usage and assist rates are way down while her three-point rate is a career-high. She is shooting 45 percent in the restricted area and 29 percent from 2-point range. She has seven total free throw attempts in 132 minutes.

Ionescu missed some shots she’d normally make to start the year, which I believe comes down to getting used to the demands of an off-ball role. Playing next to Vandersloot — who is third in WNBA history in assists — Ionescu is starting more possessions as a floor-spacer or flying off screens in head coach Sandy Brondello’s motion offense. Still, in Ionescu’s fourth season, she knows how to create space for her pull-up jumper or floater, and her trademark power driving game makes her tough to corral. Some of the shots she’s gotten as a result of all this have just not fallen, which is a thing that sometimes happens over a sample size of four games.

Ionescu is operating more like Diana Taurasi did for nearly a decade in Brondello’s system in Phoenix than the Trae Young-like role she was in to start her career. More structure should benefit Ionescu as the season goes on, but until Tuesday, her timing and touch had been just a little off.

The bigger adjustment will come in attacking closeouts and getting to the basket, something Ionescu has not routinely done as a basketball player until this season. While Ionescu got comfortable taking spot-up threes next to Betnijah Laney and Natasha Howard in recent years, in the biggest moments, she returned to a traditional high pick-and-roll or transition drag screen game, getting downhill with the threat of her passing and pull-up three creating space for her in the halfcourt.

Next to a superior scorer in Stewart and a superior table-setter in Vandersloot, Ionescu will act as a more straightforward off-ball player. There are tons of things that are just different enough about that role — the physics, the footwork, the need to stay locked in even as your team gets away from you for stretches. Ionescu has front-rimmed many of her misses, as good a sign as any that her misses are down to discomfort.

Ionescu is shooting 46 percent from three, so defenses still must respect her as a major threat even as she finds her way in a new role. Her best moments inside the arc early in the season have come when she takes advantage of that space, shifting and cutting into space without the ball and canning wide-open looks.

By staggering her and Vandersloot, the Liberty can still retain much of what makes Ionescu special. She is dynamite handling the ball in transition, and remains a matchup problem because of her size as a guard. When she gets hot from deep or gets the opponent into foul trouble, Ionescu can pile up points with the WNBA’s best. When she gets to handle the ball, Ionescu is still a killer in transition when the defense is on its heels and she has more time to process.

And when everyone is on the floor, opponents are already being faced with the fact that they cannot afford to leave Ionescu to guard the primary action Brondello calls. Ionescu is a high IQ player who is already learning to maneuver within her new confines and challenge the defense even more aggressively.

For the Liberty to reach their ceiling, one key ingredient will be Ionescu settling into the best version of herself alongside the other stars. New York’s starting lineup is outscoring opponents by just 3.4 points per 100 possessions this season, whereas the other superteam in Las Vegas has seen its starters post a net rating of plus-31. Of course, plenty of things need to be sorted out in the early days of New York’s grand experiment, which is always the case when there’s such a major injection of talent. It’s unclear if the Liberty have enough defense in their starting lineup overall, and while Stewart and Jones have excelled overseas playing together, they both are used to scoring and defending as centers. Even Brondello and Vandersloot, as envious of a problem as it is, face a challenge in keeping everyone engaged and involved on offense.

The history of basketball is littered with players on ultra-talented teams — Klay Thompson, James Harden, even Candace Parker on this year’s Aces squad — who needed to sacrifice to make everything around them work. Though she is still early in her professional career, Ionescu has a pathway toward doing what she’s great at and still driving winning at the highest levels. If she can polish her role over the next 36 games, Ionescu’s adaptation should be one of the biggest reasons why New York is able to compete for a WNBA championship this fall.

There are many legal woes on Donald Trump’s docket, and he’s already been indicted on criminal charges and found guilty of defamation and sexual misconduct. But possibly the most damaging to him could be the one involving his hanging onto classified government documents. Surely it won’t help his case that there’s audio of him admitting to taking one such record — and admitting that he knew it wasn’t declassified.

As per CNN, sources have discussed hearing a recording made in the summer of 2021 of a meeting Trump held at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. (That’s the one where his ex-wife Ivana is buried.) During the chat — which was with two people working on the autobiography of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was not present — Trump admitted that he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran.

The recording — which has not been made public but has been described by multiple sources — was discovered as part of the Justice Department investigation into Trump concerning his mishandling of government records. It has been described as an “important” piece of evidence, and it doesn’t sound so hot for the former president:

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

At the time, multiple people were making recordings of Trump’s meetings and conversations with journalists and biographers. Evidently on this recording, the sound of paper rustling, though it’s not clear if Trump was waving around the classified document in question.

Trump has repeatedly claimed, falsely, that as president he could simply declassify documents with his mind, instead of following official processes. That the recording allegedly features him admitting said document wasn’t yet declassified undercuts that argument.

Anyway, add this recording to the tall pile featuring him incriminating himself along with the call about Ukraine and the Access Hollywood one that failed to end his political career. Given that people were recording his meetings two years back, there may be more en route.

(Via CNN)

For years, rap fans have maintained that Drake’s greatest foe and rival is not Kanye West or Pusha T, but Kendrick Lamar. While neither rapper has released any overtly disrespectful material mentioning the other by name, fans are convinced that Drake and Kendrick have been subtly shading each other for nearly a decade despite Drake giving Kendrick a leg-up on his 2011 album Take Care and even going to his concerts.

Baby Keem and Kendrick’s new song “The Hillbillies” has added fuel to the flame, with fans noting Kendrick using a similar flow to Drake and wondering whether it’s yet another subtle jab at the Canadian star. As one fan noted, “Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem used Drake’s Sticky flow and this is how it came out.” Another noted the similarity between Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind track “Sticky” and Kendrick and Keem’s use of Jersey club drums and similar cadences, writing, “Now give Drake his credit for predicting dance music was the new wave cause Hillbillies is just Kendrick’s version of Sticky.”

However, some fans have interpreted the use of the so-called “Sticky flow” a sneaky dig at Drake, with one comparing their lyrics and asserting that “kendrick is not jacking drake he’s CLOWNING HIM.” Others are using the wording of Keem’s own tweet promoting the track as evidence it’s meant to be a parody or spoof of Drake’s, noting that Keem himself called it “Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar – The Hillbillies (Sticky Dub).”

There is, of course, the third option: that it’s a homage, made out of respect for Drake’s efforts in pushing the boundaries of hip-hop. After all, the use of “dub” is a nod to the Jamaican dancehall practice of “dubbing” popular hits with remixes and covers. In fact, the soundclash battles upon which hip-hop was founded stem from DJs competing to find or mix the rarest dubs in order to draw bigger crowds and responses with their respective sound systems.

Now, whether it’s a diss, a dub, or a case of follow-the-leader, it’s still pushing forward the genre and the culture — and goes to show how both Drake and Kendrick aren’t just fixtures of rap, but pioneers in guiding it to its future.

Nearly three years ago, That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson was charged with rape in Los Angeles. That development happened two-and-a-half years after Netflix fired him from The Ranch due to the mounting sexual assault allegations against him. And that development went down after several years of these cases stalling out in the LA county court system, so it’s safe to say that this has been quite an ordeal for the plaintiffs in these cases.

Along the way as well, a jury deadlock led to retrial on three counts of rape by force or fear while the DA’s office declined to charge him in two other cases, due to statute of limitations and insufficient evidence issues, respectively. Variety now reports that on Wednesday, two of the three counts of rape led to convictions with the jury deadlocking on the third. For the two convictions, he could serve 30 years behind bars:

Masterson was accused of raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. The jury convicted him of raping two women in 2003, but could not reach a verdict pertaining to an allegation from November 2001 involving a former girlfriend.

Throughout this case, the Church of Scientology has arisen in discussion, given that Masterson is a prominent celebrity member of the L. Ron Hubbard-founded organization, and four accusers previously sued both Masterson and Scientology while alleging that they were stalked and harassed by church affiliates after they accused Masterson of sexual assault. Back in 2017, Leah Remini (an ex-second-generation Scientologist) interviewed Masterson’s accusers to spread awareness of the cases. When the previous jury deadlocked in 2022, Remini vowed to never stop fighting against the church.

Masterson will return to court at a later date for formal sentencing.

(Via Variety)

The owner of the townhouse in Greenwich Village Taylor Swift once rented and sang about on her album Lover is putting the property up for sale, according to the New York Post. Only the richest Swifties will be able to afford it, though, as the owner has listed it today with an asking price of a whopping $17.9 million. It was originally listed for rent in November at $45,000/month, but now, it looks like the owner — who once said he had no clue who Taylor Swift even is — is looking for buyers too.

The townhouse reportedly maintains its original brick facade but has been modernized inside, with a garden-level pool, a roof deck, a gym, massive windows, and even a futuristic-looking bathroom. Swift rented the place in 2016 as she waited out renovations on her nearby home in Tribeca — just part of a property portfolio the Post puts at $80 million. In 2019, the “Cornelia Street” place’s owner, David Aldea, told Variety that when she met with him to rent it, he said he didn’t actually realize it was THEE Taylor Swift of “Blank Space” fame.

“I’m just not a pop-culture guy, and I even said to someone, ‘I’m meeting a person named Taylor Swift who wants to rent my home,’” he said. “Now, mind you, I knew her songs because I had them on my running playlist. I just didn’t match the name to the song. I know, it’s silly.”

Speaking of folks not knowing their Swiftie trivia, there were likely more than a few fans wringing their hands in frustration during last night’s episode of Jeopardy! The clue “Windermere, Thirlmere & Grasmere are 3 of the sites that helped give a 19th-century literary group this name” stumped all three contestants, but thanks to the singer’s track “The Lakes,” Swifties knew the answer (in the form of a question) was “what are the Lake Poets?” Better luck next time.

“A whole new dark age!” Stuck vocalist Greg Obis shouts in “The Punisher,” the opening track on the Chicago-based band’s latest album Freak Frequency. It sets a tone for the project as a whole, which, according to Obis, is about “the inverse relationship between the slowly declining US empire and the seemingly endless escalation of paranoia, fear, and violence within it.”

Freak Frequency is haunting and frenzied, but still manages to be upbeat despite the subject matter thanks to the songs’ quick tempos and angular riffs as heard on tracks like “Time Out” and “Make It Up.” To celebrate Freak Frequency‘s release, Obis sat down with Uproxx to talk Fugazi, eggnog, and sleeping at a strangers’ mom’s house in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Unhinged, Ornate, Political, Simmering. (Pat Flegel once said we sound “kooky”).

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

I do get a bit squeamish sometimes writing such explicitly political music! I fear it will be cemented in its time like Crisis of Conformity or something. It’s unavoidable that the music is going to be tied to this moment (but I guess all music is, really.) I guess I would hope that people will remember it as tackling the topics of the time with enough nuance and broadness to remain fresh after all of these years, and approached with a unique sense of humor and a novel synthesis of disparate musical influences.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

I mean, saying Chicago is definitely cheating because we live and play here all the time. But Chicago is genuinely a great city to play cause people are genuinely excited about music here, which is sadly not the case in every city. People show up and get excited here. I am not alone in this sentiment, I hear this from other bands all the time! Maybe they’re just being nice to me. Anyways, if I can’t choose Chicago, Winnipeg!

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Wow what a tough question! I do my best not to idolize people, and there are so many people who have been massively influential to me. But for the sake of argument, I’ll just say that Ian Mackaye of Fugazi was exceptionally formative to me in my youth. His very strong convictions, willingness to carve his own path, commitment to supporting other artists, powerful work ethic, and his ceaseless pursuit of new horizons for Fugazi’s music were really important to me growing up. I would say now that perhaps I’m a bit turned off by his punk dogmatism, as the world is a very grey and complicated place. But I would certainly not be the person I am today without him and his music.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Tough to say what has been the best in my life, but I’m going to go with the dinner I had at Giant in Chicago last year. Like, every single thing I ate was pretty mind blowing to me.

What album do you know every word to?

A Distant Fist Unclenching by Krill.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Hard to me to say what is the best I’ve ever attended, but I can say that seeing J.R.C.G. live at Empty Bottle last year was one of the most visceral aesthetic experiences I’ve had in quite a long time.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

I am in the process of trying to figure this out now! I like to wear things that are sort of loose fitting and breathable as I get pretty hot on stage and tend to move around a lot. I feel like DEVO got it right with the jump suits, however it’d be a bit on the nose for me to co-opt that at this point.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

John Vanderslice is my favorite poster on Instagram, honestly. I’m a very big fan of his engineering and his music, and love when he posts about that stuff, but mostly it’s him sharing deeply unhinged videos from TikTok. It’s been harder and harder for me to take enjoyment from Twitter lately but Dril is evergreen.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

“Revenge” by Smirk. We don’t really do a lot of ironic listening in the car of music we don’t like. I think going forward I want to play “Master Of Puppets” by Metallica more often.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Crisis of Conformity.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Songs From The Big Chair by Tears For Fears. You know what’s the problem with that album? Nothing.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

In another band, we did a hail mary “ask people at the show for a place to crash” because the show had only been booked a couple of days before after a different one had fallen through. This young man who played the show very kindly offered to let us crash at “his place,” which turned out to be his mom’s house. The three of us crammed into his childhood bedroom, and we heard his mom come out of her room and scold him for “bringing home strangers again.” We got up first thing and high tailed it out of there.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I’ve got none!

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

When “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel comes on MeTV FM, I lose my mind. They also played the entire X-Files theme song on air around halloween once, which also made me lose my mind.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

This is going way back, but when I was little my immediate older brother and I would take the CTA from Oak Park to the Belmont and Clark area to go to the alt-friendly shops like Chicago Comics, The Alley, Belmont Army Surplus, Hollywood Mirror. One time when we were coming home, the temperature dropped really rapidly in a way that I remember being kind of scary (I was probably like 10 or 11). Some guy on the train platform straight up gave us his fake leather bomber jacket off of his back so we could huddle under it. To this day it kind of blows my mind how anyone could do that.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Lifting weights isn’t for jocks, it’s fun and makes you feel good and being healthy is cool. Also, don’t start smoking.

What’s the last show you went to?

This past Friday I went to see Cola at Sleeping Village with support from my bandmate Ezra Saulnier in Red Tunic and Eli Winter. Great show!

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

I have been known to get sucked into a Marvel movie from time to time, most recently Guardians of the Galaxy.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

I make a mean aged eggnog. Melkbelly can attest to this.

Freak Frequency is out May 26 via Born Yesterday. Find more information here.

Ever since Miles Morales made his comic debut in 2011, fans have been hoping (and begging and waiting) for a live-action Spider-Man movie featuring him as the titular arachnid superhero. Peter Parker already has three separate sagas about him, so it’s only fair for Miles to step up. No offense to Tom Holland, though.

With the highly-anticipated premiere of the latest animated feature Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, it seems like producer Amy Pascal is ready for the world to see Miles in a movie of his own. When asked if a live-action movie would be in the works, Pascal told Variety, “You’ll see all of it. It’s all happening.” That’s the closest thing we will get to a “yes” at this point, but it works!

Not only will fans finally get a live-action Miles Morales movie that has been teased for so long, but Hailee Steinfeld is also ready to take on her own Gwen Stacy movie. “This is like my dream job, sign me up over and over again,” the actress told Variety. “I got to be comfortable! And it’s a dream to be in a space that feels so comfortable but also creative and free and just exciting to be a part of.” Now that Steinfeld is on board, producer Avi Arad said that a Spider-Woman film could be coming “sooner than you expect.”

As for the less-promising news, Pascal also confirmed that Holland’s Spider-Man will return for another round of superhero fun, but the production has been halted due to the WGA strike. “Are we going to make another movie? Of course, we are,” she confirmed. “We’re in the process, but the writers strike, nobody is working during the strike. We’re all being supporters and whenever they get themselves together, we’ll get started.”

Even though the next Holland-led film might be a ways away, fans can expect the next installment in the Spider-Verse saga to hit theaters next year, so there will be plenty of Spidey content to come. Sorry if you are arachnophobic.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse hits theaters on June 2nd.

(Via Variety)

As the Heat and Nuggets get set to meet in the 2023 NBA Finals, plenty of people have noted the two teams have not had a very friendly recent history.

A year ago, Nikola Jokic and Markieff Morris got into it after Morris aggressively fouled Jokic at midcourt during a blowout win by Denver, with Jokic retaliating by drilling Morris in the back, leading to an extended absence for the veteran forward.

While Morris was being tended to, Jimmy Butler was barking at the Nuggets sideline, apparently ready to fight someone, which many assumed to be Jokic for taking a cheap shot to Morris from behind.

Given Butler and Jokic are the two lead stars of the Finals, much has been made of that apparent beef this week, but on Wednesday at media day, Butler insisted that incident wasn’t in the minds of Miami and that his beef wasn’t with Jokic — noting the person he was mad at knows who they are.

It’s now fair to wonder if the person Jimmy was telling to “bring that shit to the back” is a member of this current Nuggets squad, and it’ll certainly be worth monitoring if (or really more likely, when) things start to get chippy in this series. That said, Butler seems to not want the focus coming into the series on anything between he and Jokic, so that should settle that and the two can go to work on the court to determine who hoists their first Larry O’Brien Trophy.