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The Writers Guild of America have been on strike since for nearly three weeks now, and it’s likely it won’t end any time soon. At heart of the matter are major studios’ unwillingness to meet a slew of guild members’ demands, among them fairer pay and better regulation of AI technology. Amidst all this, Boston University announced that one of the big studio heads, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, would be giving the commencement speech this weekend. The college didn’t cancel the appearance, so when Zaslav showed up, he was in for a bit of a surprise.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, as soon as Zaslav’s name was mentioned, the crowd of students and family members erupted into loud boos. Certain phrases could reportedly be heard amongst the din, among them “We don’t want you here!”, “Pay You Writers!”, “Shut Up Zaslav,” and “F*ck you, you piece of sh*t.”

The boos didn’t stop when Zaslav took to the lectern. When he joked about giving students life advice, they erupted again. It happened again when he talked about “making good money” as a lawyer before pivoting to Hollywood.

It wasn’t just students who gave Zaslav a hard time. WGA members picketed outside the commencement building.

There was also a plane that circled, carrying the message “David Zaslav — Pay Your Writers.”

It’s likely that the WGA strike wasn’t the only reason Zaslav was jeered. Since taking over Warner Bros. Discovery, he’s been a controversial figure. Among his polarizing moves is cancelling movies that were close to completion, messing with the perfectly cromulent HBO Max (soon to be simply Max, confusingly), and taking CNN in new and alarming directions. Indeed, him facing public opprobrium comes on the same day CNN revealed they want to cover “both sides” of divisive issues rather than investigate whether or not one is closer to the truth.

(Via THR)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Fast X.

If you saw Fast X this weekend, you were in for not one but two big surprises. The first: Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs reunited with Vin Diesel’s Dom during the end credits. The second: Gal Gadot’s Gisele was also there. They’re surprising for two different reasons. For Johnson, it’s because of his long-time (and allegedly now over) feud with Diesel. For Gadot, it’s because Gisele ate it in Furious 6. The cameos are so surprising that when Michelle Rodriguez, who’s long played Letty, first learned about them, she had an appropriate reaction.

“I was laughing my butt off. I was like, ‘Ha, ha, you try getting away with something like that in your franchise!’” Rodriguez told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s crazy what we get away with.”

Rodriguez sad she wasn’t that shocked by the Gadot cameo. “The whole Gal storyline had been in the works for a while, a couple of movies in, and there’s even footage shot already so it didn’t surprise me as much as Dwayne coming back,” she said. “That was like really cool,”

The Fast and Furious films long ago departed from the constraints of reality, though it’s up for debate when it officially jumped the shark. With F9 they even started bringing characters back from the dead, namely Sung Kang’s Han, who was was also offed in Furious 6.

THR also spoke with Diesel. He didn’t outright say that he and Johnson, who once called him a “candy ass,” had fully patched things up. He even intimated that they agreed to a truce for the fans.

“The conversations are what makes the best movie? What feels right for a franchise? How do you make as many people happy in this world? And both of them clearly make people happy,” Diesel said. “Underscore that with this running theme of unity that prevails in the Fast and Furious saga, and it’s a match made in heaven.”

(Via THR)

If organizers for the Cruel World Festival hoped there was some truth to the line that it never rains in Southern California, they were unfortunately proven wrong. On Saturday, May 20, the Pasadena Fire Department demanded that the festival be shut down due to severe weather conditions. In a post uploaded to the festival’s official Twitter page, organizers urged attendees to make their way to the closest exit after authorities shut down the closing sets.

Ticket holders were left heartbroken. Siouxsie Sioux and Iggy Pop were set to close out the event due to severe weather conditions. For the former, the performance would have been her first performance in the United States in over 15 years, as noted by organizers.

Shortly after in a statement uploaded to Instagram, the festival shared that both Sioux and Iggy Pop would be returning to the festival Sunday night, May 21, to make up for their canceled performances. It’s not yet clear if another scheduled band, The Human League, will also take the stage tonight.

The festival is set to resume today, with doors opening at 5 p.m. pacific. As a special thank you to festival goers, the organizers also revealed that there wouldn’t be a fee to park today.

Professional wrestling is filled with fake feuds to beef up the melodrama, but some beefs are all too real. That, sadly, is the case with the one between John Cena and Dwayne Johnson in the early aughts. Back in 2012 and 2013, the two got real angry with each other, to the point that it became uncomfortable, not entertaining. The two eventually patched things up and now, a decade later, Cena is taking the blame for it.

It all started when Cena called out Johnson during an interview, accusing him of caring more about acting in big movies than wrestling. Johnson didn’t enjoy that line. Then things got ugly before they got better. During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused webcast, it was Cena who was attacking himself from ten or so years ago.

“I got selfish and me — living WWE at the point and not having any concept of growth or someone else’s perspective — I took Dwayne’s comments as not genuine,” Cena said. “My view was if you love something, be there everyday. Like, what a hypocrite I am, because I still love WWE and I can’t go all the time. And I just didn’t see that. I was so selfish.”

Cena says he should have reached out to him to settle the matter privately.
“Instead of going like, ‘Hey man, I’d like to try to do this thing to hook you back in and maybe we can collaborate and really make it big,’ I was just like, ‘Eff this, I’m calling this dude out. This is a moment. You gave me an opening. I’m going to kick the door in,’” Cena recalled. “And I was diligent and I understand why he got upset.”

Cena admitted that he didn’t get what wrestler like Johnson and Dave Bautista were doing by expanding into film and TV.

These guys are breaking down barriers, shattering ceilings, and on top of that, just transcending the art form,” Cena said. “I just got selfish and wanted a main event marquee match because it would better what I thought was the business. That was short-sighted and selfish. It worked! But it worked at the cost of two people who communicated and almost put it in jeopardy. There was a moment where there was a lot of bad vibes between us and rightfully so.”

Of course, Cena himself would go on to his own successful acting career, even playing the baddie in a Fast and Furious movie — which didn’t feature Johnson, in part because Johnson was involved in his own real-life feud with someone else. Luckily, that one has reached a truce, too.

(Via Deadline)

Janelle Monae is in their self-renaissance era and no clothing is required. After a clip of them dancing on the top of a bar following the 2023 Met Gala and another of her flashing fans during a performance, the “” singer has been the talk of the town. As they prepare for the release of their forthcoming album, The Age Of Pleasure, TDE’s Reason has a special marketing request for them.

Taking to Instagram, Reason sent a voice note to Monae to ask to “borrow” their boobs for his upcoming music rollout. In an audio clip uploaded to Instagram, the “Barely Miss” rapper says, “Hey Queen. Um, I just wanted to ask respectfully, in the most endearing respectful way, I want to know if I can borrow ya titties for my rollout. I know this is asking a lot, but I’ve seen what your titties did for your rollout and I’m in need.”

He continued, “I’m in need of help for content every single day, Tik Tok, the algorithm is changing, the label wants me to go viral and I saw, it’s a very nice pair of titties also by the way, I saw what those titties did for you, but I was just wondering if you had a daily fee for your titties for my rollout. Um, let me know. I hope you don’t take this any type of way. Just a business transaction. All love. Respect to you queen.”

Reason’s message has not yet garnered a response from Monae. So, in a follow-up post, Reason opened up the offer to anyone willing to partake.

Monae has made it clear that their body and how they use their body to express themselves for social liberation not for the male gaze.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Jaws series isn’t exactly realistic. Sharks don’t tend to gobble humans up near beaches. Don’t even get us started on the fourth one, in which it’s implied an offspring of the original tiger shark followed the heroes down to the Bahamas. Or maybe, considering a recent spate of whale attacks, it’s more lifelike than one thought.

As per The Washington Post, the last few years have seen a spate of orca attacks on boats off the Iberian coast, near Spain and Portugal. Three have ended with the vessels sinking. That includes an incident this month, in which a killer whale took out a yacht.

These attacks may be simply nature taking its course. One report argues that the orcas are just expressing “natural curiosity.”

But the leading theory is that a female orca suffered a “critical moment of agony” involving a boat. Not only did she start attacking boats, but she taught the aggressive behavior to other adult orcas. Meanwhile, her children may simply be imitating her behavior. It’s not far-fetched: Orcas are extremely intelligent and can instruct others on certain behaviors.

That orcas are also endangered in the region, which could have caused friction between them and humans.

(Via The Washington Post)

There are people who hate Donald Trump and then there’s Robert De Niro. The legendary actor has never held back about what he thinks of the repeatedly failed businessman-turned-TV-star-turned-U.S. president. Remember that time he called him a “dog” and a “pig”? The guy’s been out of the White House for over two years now, but he’s improbably surging in the polls for a third presidential run. So De Niro’s back to torching him in public.

As per Variety, De Niro attended a press conference on Saturday for Killers of the Flower Moon, his 10th film with longtime pal Martin Scorsese. He plays William Hale, a cattleman who in the 1920s ordered the killings of Native Americans to gain control of their oil reserves. De Niro has played his share of monsters over the years, but with Hale he had trouble finding a connection.

“I don’t understand a lot about my character,” De Niro said. “People do things. He has to be charming. Why does he betray them all?”

De Niro also drew parallels between the true life episode depicted in the movie and the current day. “After George Floyd with systemic racism — that’s what it is — what happens there,” he said. He talked about them learning about the Tulsa Massacre, in which prosperous Black citizens in Oklahoma were slaughtered en masse around the same time as the events depicted in Killers, while making the film.

“It’s the banality of evil. It’s the things to we have to watch out for,” De Niro said. Then he tried not to name a certain name. “We see it today, we all know how I’m going to talk about — but that guy is stupid. Hale was smart in many ways, but it’s systemic.”

He added, “There are people who still think he can do a good job. Imagine how insane that is.”

So there’s a chance Trump could once again be the Republican candidate for president — unless he’s toppled by the guy who wipes his nose then touches supporters with his snotty hands.

(Via Variety)

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. High Desert (Apple TV+ series)

Patricia Arquette’s streaming TV career high continues in the wake of Severance and The Act. This time, she portrays an ex-drug dealer who somehow decides to be a private investigator. It’s not exactly Jessica Jones but rather an extremely odd show that showcases a series of odd performances, including those by Matt Dillon, Bernadette Peters, and Brad Garrett. Oh, and Rupert Friend plays a guru, just to make things stranger. The series does explore grief, given that Arquette’s character struggles through it, but don’t worry about this being too depressing at all.

TIE: 10. F9 (Universal Pictures film streaming on HBO Max)

Fast X recently careened into theaters, and even though it feels like Fast 9 only arrived yesterday, it’s still worth catching up again before moving onto the installment where Jason Momoa’s villain is the highlight within a 2+ hour extravaganza that keeps its foot on the pedal the whole time. Arguably, this new installment might be too much, but at least Momoa is having the most fun, and there will probably be too more films on the way. Let’s face it — this franchise will possibly never end, and audiences will keep showing up.

9. Silo (Apple TV+ series)

Rebecca Ferguson is riveting as the hard-as-nails engineer in this first season based upon Hugh Howey’s initial book of the Wool omnibus. As Juliette, she rises from the lower stories of the massive underground structure — which houses the last ten-thousand-or-so members of humanity after a vague apocalyptic event — to the position of sheriff. There, she begins to dig into a murder mystery while uncovering perhaps too much information about the silo’s true origins as Common’s leather jacket acts as the most sinister figure in the entire show. Justified showrunner Graham Yost has helming duties again here, and I dare say that Juliette has more than a few things in common with Raylan Givens. Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, Tim Robbins, and Harriet Walter co-star.

8. Evil Dead Rise (New Line Cinema film streaming on VOD and Amazon Prime)

Although this installment cannot possibly compare to the groovy gore of yesteryear (or even the Jane Levy film), the streaming audience seemingly cannot get enough of watching this movie at home. And that’s wild because horror was once thought to be optimally watched in a crowded theater while gripping the seat handles and streaming along with one’s surroundings. Hey, it works at home, too, so draw those curtains and pour all the butter on your popcorn before making sure that you cannot sleep tonight.

7. Ted Lasso (Apple TV+ series)

Our own Brian Grubb has been power ranking this season like mad, and Jason Sudeikis’ eternally chipper coach is not exactly scoring many points in that department, but the AFC Richmond chief is preparing to say his goodbye to the TV world, and Roy has been attempting to convince everyone that he doesn’t have a hairy ass. In a streaming realm full of overly complicated plot lines, the world is gonna miss these priorities.

6. To Catch A Killer (Vertical Entertainment film available PPV on Apple TV+)

Shades of Silence Of The Lambs surface in this series starring Shailene Woodley as a troubled cop, Eleanor Falco, who’s attempting to track down a serial sniper. Falco is also wrestling with her own demons while joining Ben Mendelsohn’s FBI investigator in the ultimate cat-and-mouse game with a killer whose tactics are anything but predictable. Still, Falco is a bit of a secret weapon due to her own past, and this will never be considered a prestige picture, yet it’s intriguing and digestible all the same.

5. Air (Amazon Prime Video movie)

Ben Affleck lands back in the director’s seat while also wearing a wig to play Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Jason Bateman is being lauded as the film’s secret weapon, and Matt Damon is also along for the shoe-deal ride. Those two portray Rob Strasser and Sonny Vaccaro, respectively. Viola Davis is on hand as Michael Jordan’s mother, and the man never appears on camera, but there still plenty of fuss while the Nike guys persist in signing him to a deal. The film also stars Chris Messina, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Gustaf Skarsgård, and Matthew Maher, and although the project didn’t do gangbusters in theaters, it’s been a hit on the streaming charts.

4. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix series)

This spinoff actually turned out to be better than the main Bridgerton series, so Season 3 will have a heck of a tough act to follow. Quite impressively, both India Amarteifio and Golda Rosheuvel portray different eras of the title character, whose origin story is more valuable than we could have ever guessed after the frivolous nature of how the monarch was initially portrayed. She’s been through some stuff, alright, and although Charlotte and King George’s story did turn tragic, it’s ultimately fulfilling to see how their bond developed despite despite the arranged nature of their marriage. Corey Mylchreest threads a careful needle in his portrayal of a deceptively difficult character to embody within the larger picture of Shondaland.

3. Barry (HBO series streaming on HBO Max)

Last week’s haunting Bill Hader performance also cements him as a master of atmosphere, so it will be a good time to see where he goes in the horror realm, which is apparently what he wants to do next. This is one of many shows heading into the sunset this year, but I suspect this will also be one of the most missed of the bunch. Hader has a true talent with giving us a bleak-as-hell story and also making it funny, and the world be waiting to see his humorous darkness emerge again in the future.

2. Mother (Netflix film)

The Mother’s Day weekend release plan hit just right for this Jennifer Lopez movie in which she finally gets to make her own version of John Wick, and even if the results aren’t technically stellar, this is exactly the type of movie that people cannot help but stream in the wake of a themed holiday. JLo stars as a military-trained assassin, who must save her daughter from horrible criminals who didn’t choose their target out of the blue. Joseph Fiennes and Gael García Bernal co-star, but this is JLo’s movie, for better or worse. It’s forgettable, but it’s still a fun ride. Get it, Mama.

1. Succession (HBO series streaming on HBO Max)

Shiv Shiv-y Shiv Shiv is perhaps failing the hardest out of all the Roy siblings, and boy, did she have to work hard to achieve that dubious goal. This week, Logan Roy is finally receiving a funeral (so he can turn in his grave accordingly), and from the looks of the previews, Roman plans to get theatrical. Last week’s episode stressed out the audience, and god only knows if cathartic vibes are on the way, but this show only has two more episodes left before we see whether that corrupt empire finally tumbles into oblivion.

Referees are usually pretty good at getting out of the way of things. A basketball court is only so big, and there are 10 pretty huge humans on it playing the sport at an ultra-high, ultra-focused level, so the refs have to figure out how to put themselves in a position to see everything while simultaneously being cognizant of the fact that players might not see them.

Guys running into referees isn’t especially common, although we got a pretty high-profile meeting of the minds on Saturday evening during Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. At one point, LeBron James tried to turn up court to spark a fastbreak, but he ran into a problem: Scott Foster. The referee was standing on the court, and when James turned and started sprinting, the two collided.

It turns out that this actually led to Foster bleeding a little bit, as James presumably collided with him while he had his whistle in his mouth which caused a cut.

Foster had to go get tended to for a second, but he was able to stay in the game and keep doing referee things. As for James, we assume that he got to live out an NBA player’s dream by crashing into Scott Foster and not getting in trouble.

Fast X opened this weekend, bringing moviegoers the penultimate entry in the main wing of a beloved franchise. How will it wrap up a series that began in a very different place than it is now? Will beloved characters tragically eat it? There’s only one film left, so maybe. Maybe even probably. In fact, the film’s director came up with a jokey way to decide who lives and who perishes.

In an interview with Collider, director Louis Leterrier — of Transporter 2 (with Fast X family member Jason Statham), The Incredible Hulk, the Clash of the Titans remake, and Now You See Me — talked about joining production at the last second. That meant he didn’t have much power to alter the script. But he did have access to future screenplays, which means he could choose everyone’s fate. But how did he do that?

“The actors had to write letters to beg me to keep their characters alive, and I deemed them worthy,” Leterrier joked. “No, spoiler-free obviously, but some were written in the script and then some– Let’s say that, you know, because I went deeper than this one movie, I saw further, and I was like, ‘Oh, I know what I want.’ And there’s some actions and hard, harsh decisions I had to make because I knew what was coming in the next movie.”

Sounds like someone or someones big does or do get shuffled off the fictional mortal coil. You’ll know when the as-yet-untitled final film bows in 2025.

(Via Collider)