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The first major move to occur in the aftermath of the Philadelphia 76ers‘ loss in the playoffs came on Tuesday morning. The team opted to part ways with head coach Doc Rivers, marking the end of a three-year stint in the City of Brotherly Love that saw plenty of wins in the regular season but an inability to make it past the conference semis, which has been an issue for the franchise in recent years.

Stephen A. Smith reported that Joel Embiid wasn’t happy with the decision to fire Rivers, and on Wednesday, Sixers executive Daryl Morey confirmed that the league MVP was caught off guard by the move.

“They had a strong relationship,” Morey said. “I have to make tough calls all the time with trades. Joel was disappointed in … some of it was he didn’t know the player we were getting in the trade, it ended up helping us. But he was disappointed in the players who went out. I think it’s natural to be very close with the people in the locker room, he was very close with coach Rivers. And yeah, he was shocked about the change and it’s my job to help convince him that the new coach is someone that he’ll have a great relationship with, as well.”

In the aftermath of the team’s Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics earlier this week, Embiid was asked about Rivers coming back next season, and made clear that he was in his coach’s corner.

“I thought he’s done a fantastic job,” Embiid said, per SI. “He came in, I think we’ve gotten better over the years. I thought he’s done a great job. I don’t make the decisions. I think he should be fine. We got a great relationship, and you look at the way he handled the whole situation that we had a year or two ago. I thought he kept the team afloat. He’s been a great leader for all of us. A great motivator.”

A recent poll shows that 61 percent of GOP primary voters want Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee in 2024. Only one other potential candidate — Florida’s Disney-feuding governor Ron DeSantis, who still hasn’t announced if he’s running — is above 10 percent, while four others are polling higher than two percent. Of that Connor Roy-like quartet, Mike Pence is doing the “best” with six percent. Someone is ready to reclaim the White House!

But first, the regular human former vice president took a trip to Dunkin.

There’s a lot to take in here. Pence is alone in the photo, for instance; there’s not a Dunkin employee handing him a surprisingly good breakfast sandwich, or even a line. As someone who grew up in the northeast, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Dunkin this empty. Also, read the tweet closely: “I heard New Hampshire and America run on @dunkindonuts, had to check it out for myself.”

Is this Pence’s first time at a Dunkin???

There are over 9,000 Dunkin locations in the United States, including dozens in Pence’s home state of Indiana, but he didn’t feel compelled to “check it out” until now. It’s amazing he made it out of New Hampshire alive after asking for “one Dunkin, please.” My working theory: he’s too busy praying with Mother in the morning to make a coffee run. Whatever the explanation, Pence’s staged attempt at being One Of The Guys is not convincing anyone.

Vin Diesel recently teased that Fast X is actually the first installment in a three-part finale for the Fast and Furious films, and that bit of news might start to feel like more than a threat than a reward.

As the first reviews for Fast X start racing in, it’s becoming clear that critics aren’t entirely blown away with the tenth film in a series that surprisingly pivoted from street racers stealing DVD players to Marvel-esque blockbusters rife with international espionage and bombastic CGI action sequences. While that formula has worked pretty great so far, it’s apparently starting to run out of gas in Fast X, even with the addition of Jason Momoa’s Dante.

Momoa is frequently cited as the highlight of Fast X, but the mileage varies on just how much his performance can carry a franchise that’s starting to move more like a “clunker” than a high-octane machine.

You can see what the critics are saying below:

Mike Ryan, Uproxx:

One of the biggest problems with Fast X is it feels like Fast 9 just came out. If you recall, it was finished before the pandemic, but delayed until theaters were consistently open again. (I remember being at the 2020 Super Bowl in Miami and Fast 9 had a big presence there promoting the movie. It wouldn’t actually come out until June of 2021.) But the thing about Fast 9, it did kind of feel like the first big movie to be released after the pandemic started. I couldn’t help but enjoy myself. Now it’s less than two years later and here we are again. These movies are like eating a very rich dessert. They kind of need to be properly spaced out or you start not feeling too great.

Peter Dubrege, Variety:

By now, this franchise is a well-oiled money machine, something between a feature-length car commercial (you’re gonna want to buy that electric DeLorean prototype) and a “don’t try this at home” public safety announcement. Still, calling it the first part of a finale feels like little more than a marketing gimmick. While Hollywood’s highest-octane franchise shows no signs of slowing, it was crazy reckless to give the green light to such a clunker.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter:

Momoa, it turns out, is one of the best things to ever happen to the franchise. He’s the best villain by far (not to mention that he does many of his own stunts) and thoroughly steals the film with his delightfully unhinged portrayal of Dante, who interrupts his nefarious activities to inform the ever-macho Dom that his “carpet matches the drapes.” Momoa is not exactly an actor associated with lightness, but here he practically dances the role as much as acts it, taking such frenetically gleeful delight in his character’s sadistic taunting that you practically root for him even when he threatens to destroy the Vatican. He gives the impression of having huffed nitrous oxide before every take. Dante makes the Joker look like a depressive, and he’s so damn entertaining that he lifts the series to new heights.

Scott Phillips, Forbes:

After reveling in the adrenaline rush of Top Gun: Maverick in May 2022, it’s hard to watch Fast X without laughing at the ineptitude filling the screen. The entire cast with the exception of Jason Momoa (Aquaman) sleepwalks through the film. The film sags every time he disappears from screen. Is everyone else bored? Or simply playing it far too earnest for a film this ridiculous?

Dan Jolin, Empire:

If we’re supposed to treat Fast X as Infinity War on wheels, Dante doesn’t convince as a muscle-car Thanos. He spends much of his time perched in a high place with an impossibly good view, remote-controlling vehicles while cackling like a chunky Joker, dressed in a style reminiscent of Everything Everywhere’s Jobu Tupaki and pulling off ballet poses. Momoa’s commitment to unhinged flamboyance almost works, but for the most part he’s just flummoxingly irksome.

Todd McCarthy, Deadline:

With its seemingly inexhaustible supply of madly amusing action, this high-octane extravaganza attempts, and not infrequently succeeds, in obliterating any resistance with its disarming, outrageous and self-aware injections of often-hilarious camp. It’s a sometimes jaw-dropping ride that circles the globe in its never-ending search for fresh locations and ways to up the cinematic ante; in the process, it’s able to break down and prevail over its fundamental ludicrousness. It cost a bloody a fortune (reportedly over $300 million) but will make an even bigger one.

Katie Rife, Polygon:

Fast X suffers from the same condition as latter-day MCU movies, where it’s so laden with internal mythology that it feels more like homework than popcorn entertainment. “The days when one man behind the wheel of a car can make a difference are done,” Aimes soberly informs Dom in the buildup to the film’s fiery, physics-defying action climax, which naturally involves one man behind the wheel of a car. Aimes is meant to be wrong in his prediction, and wrong-headed for even thinking it. But the days when a goofy, overstated line like that is enough to keep audiences coming back to this franchise may be waning, too.

Nick Schager, The Daily Beast:

Fast X features no flights to the stars, nor similar instances of heroes doing ridiculous things like redirecting fired rockets with their bare hands à la Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in The Fate of the Furious. Nonetheless, there’s plenty of preposterousness to be found in this sequel, which barely revs to life when indulging in automotive mayhem and outright stalls every time its human characters open their mouths. No matter which cliché you choose—the series is running out of gas/spinning its wheels/stuck in neutral—Dom and company’s latest exploits are perhaps their most exhaustingly “extreme” to date, not to mention their dimmest.

Fast X races into theaters on May 19.

James Harden can become an unrestricted free agent this summer if he declines the player option in his contract with the Philadelphia 76ers for 2023-24. It seems a foregone conclusion that this is going to happen, as the soon-to-be 34-year-old presumably has one more big payday left before Father Time fully catches up to him.

Harden has spoken a lot this year about the financial and basketball sacrifices he made to help facilitate this past year’s Sixers squad, and apparently, he’d like to get some of that stuff back in his next deal. According to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, Harden is going to try and get a long-term deal that will keep him under contract for four years. And there, there are other important things Harden wants.

The Houston Rockets have long been a rumored destination, but sources say Harden will only entertain suitors that present a competitive roster and the basketball freedom for the star to be himself, sources say.

A reunion with the Rockets has been mentioned as a possibility for months, and Harden has never explicitly shot them down. And while it stands to reason that he’d be given free rein to be himself with the team, Harden said after the Sixers were eliminated from the playoffs that he wants a chance to compete, and Houston has struggled to do that in recent years. The team also missed out on the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and wouldn’t be able to pair Harden with Victor Wembanyama, which would have really helped them compete sooner rather than later.

As for Philadelphia, the team has made clear its desire to bring him back. The team has already begun making major moves after it was knocked out of the Eastern Conference Semifinals by the Boston Celtics, as Doc Rivers was let go on Tuesday. In the aftermath of the team’s loss in Game 7, Harden was asked about his relationship with Rivers and said it was “ok.”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan has a lot going on these days. Not only is he about to appear again in AMC’s The Walking Dead: Dead City spinoff, but he will also appear in a smallish role on Season 4 of The Boys. Additionally, he must deal with all of the trappings of celebrity life, and that unfortunately includes recently being tailed by someone who began mouthing off to the guy who plays Negan. As such, Morgan described an incident that began to edge into road rage territory.

“To the asshat that was going 15 below speed limit, that recognized me after brake checking three times? Then chased me down just to film me, to let me know he was gonna ruin my career? ‘I work for HBO and make more money!’” the P.S. I Love You actor tweeted. “You baited me. Stuck a phone RIGHT in my face? Im here.”

Morgan then appeared to express some regret at how he handled the situation, although he did not provide specifics other than getting “riled.”

“Should have known I was being baited,” Morgan admitted. “Once the idiot chased me down. Who does that? It was over. Dude gave me my resume after I got riled. Started spouting names that I’d never heard of. But? One inch from my nose video. Ugly. Don’t be like me folks. Let the a**holes go.”

Again, no news stories have surfaced (yet) regarding this incident, but when people started thinking about road rage, they also thought about Beef, starring Morgan’s former The Walking Dead co-star, Steven Yeun. And then people thought about how Negan bashed Glenn’s head in with a baseball bat. And Lucille got some shoutouts, too. And the chaos began.

It’s amazing how many people were thinking of good ol’ Lucille. People will certainly be thinking about her when The Walking Dead: Dead City premieres on June 18.

On the heels of Grimes expressing her thoughts about AI recreations of her voice, she has now released the first collaboration with LA-based artist and producer Kito. Titled “Cold Touch,” it was created on Grimes’ newly-created generator platform, Elf.Tech. It’s the first officially released song that features “GrimesAI,” as Grimes’ AI voice is credited.

“I can’t feel the breeze / Baby I am a machine / I don’t know what love means / I can’t feel the breeze / Baby I am a machine / I don’t know what love means,” the Grimes AI voice sings on the hyper electronic track.

Last week, Grimes herself called the song a “masterpiece” after Kito dropped a teaser for it. It was co-written by Kito, Fred Ball, and Nina Nesbitt.

“‘Cold Touch’ is a song written from the perspective of an AI trying to understand love. I think our slightly weird and awkward relationship with using AI for creative expression is muddled because as things come out, we don’t actually know what involvement AI had, and we’re still figuring it out in real time,” Kito said about the track, via Line Of Best Fit.

While this marks the first official AI release on Grimes’ profile on the generator platform, there’s a high possibility that we’ll be seeing more collaborations in the future.

Check out Kito’s “Cold Touch” feat. GrimesAI above.

(WARNING: Spoilers for All American will be found below.)

Earlier this week, season five of All American came to a close and it ended on quite a shocking note. After nearing letting Olivia (played by Samantha Logan) fly to London without speaking his truth, Spencer (played by Daniel Ezra) rushed to the airport to catch her in just the nick of time. As we waited for them to do for pretty much all of season five, Olivia and Spencer finally re-confessed their love for each other, but their next step would have to wait as Olivia will spend the next three months in London.

Shortly, after viewers would see Patience (played by Chelsea Tavares) get stabbed by Miko (played by Courtney Bandeko) in what’s been a wild turn of events in their turbulent relationship. Altogether, this eventful conclusion to season five has fans wondering about season six, especially with all the questions surrounding CW’s shows and their futures. Luckily for fans, there’s an answer about season six of All American.

Will There Be An All American Season 6?

There will indeed be a sixth season of All American! The show was renewed for another round of episodes at the beginning of 2023, but at the moment, there is no schedule for its release as CW has yet to share its fall schedule. With the WGA strike still in progress and the plethora of changes in store for CW, it remains to be seen how things play out. However, fans can be assured that a sixth season of All American will arrive into their hands sooner than later.

‘All American’ season 5 will be available to stream on Netflix on May 23.

Conan O’Brien is coming back to television (I know, but if I say he’s coming back to “your device of choice” it sounds weird), visiting Bangkok, getting beat up by a child, sword fighting, and showing off his angelic voice in the tease for Conan O’Brien Must Go, a new show on Max (MAX MAX MAX – through repetition, we’ll surely all get used to saying that instead of HBO Max).

Conan going to Max isn’t a surprise. When he closed the book on his TBS show part of our emotional support infrastructure was the promise that something new was coming between Coco and the streamer… eventually. But then he became a podcast impresario and then Warner Discovery disassociated itself from a lot of projects in various states of being and we didn’t know what the hell was going on. Would it be a variety show (as had been speculated early on, conjuring images of a masturbating bear that also juggles while on a unicycle – no easy feat), a more low-fi chat show that borrowed from the concept of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast? Something else entirely? Nothing? But as it turns out, the actual new show sounds like exactly what we should have always assumed it would be — Conan’s hitting the road.

From the press release:

The four-episode series is currently in production and will feature O’Brien visiting new friends he’s met through his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan,” where he dives deep with listeners from across the country and the world.

Sending Conan to far-flung places is an idea that led to some truly classic moments in the early days of Conan’s run on NBC with Late Night. Now I’m going to share clips of some marvelous, evergreen comedy of Conan in Ireland, Toronto, and Houston (Texas isn’t exactly far-flung, but that trip is magic on a silver plate). This eventually evolved into Conan Without Borders one-offs with the TBS show where he visited Cuba, Italy, South Korea, Haiti, and other world spots.

As always, Conan’s curiosity, awkwardness, and ability/willingness to make fun of himself in pursuit of finding the stupid/smart sweet spot paid dividends and these specials became a kind of calling card. The teaser trailer above is a mere snapshot, of course, but it’s obvious that Conan is bringing a lot of the same energy to these new episodes while perhaps tapping into the magic of human connection that can sometimes feel absent from our lives and entertainment. That’s great news, plus, as with his globe-trotting adventures on his TBS show, he’s making a major media company pay for it all. Conan, you shrewd bastard!

Two of the three teams with the best odds to get Victor Wembanyama in the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery came from the state of Texas. Both the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets (along with the Detroit Pistons) had a 14 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick and the right to take the Frenchman considered one of the greatest prospects to ever enter the league.

ESPN went to break right before the top-4 teams were announced, and with the Pistons falling to No. 5, we learned Wembanyama would go to one of four franchises: The Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Rockets, or the Spurs. Ultimately, San Antonio got the No. 1 pick, but immediately after the break, we learned that Wembanyama would go somewhere other than Houston, which ended up picking fourth.

A video has been going around the internet on Wednesday morning of Wembanyama learning he would not end up as a member of the Rockets. It comes by way of NBA Extra, a show on the French network beIN Sports, and shows Wembanyama celebrating that he’s not going to Houston.

The clip caught the eye of Jabari Smith Jr., who made a note of how Wembanyama reacted to this.

It is worth mentioning that this doesn’t necessarily mean Wembanyama has anything against the Rockets — he’s close with Spurs great Tony Parker and said in the aftermath of the Draft Lottery that he believed all of France wanted him to end up in San Antonio, due to the ties that team has with a number of great French hoopers. Regardless, it seems like he had a preference among the Texas teams at the top of the Draft, and he ended up getting his way.

Just before Yeah Yeah Yeahs launched into their breakout song “Maps” at Just Like Heaven, Karen O took a moment to reflect. “Maps” is the band’s love song, she announced, and she dedicated it to all the women who had taken the stage earlier that day; Peaches, Ladytron, Fever Ray, and Azealia Banks, among others. She also dedicated the song to all the mothers in the crowd, of which there were many, because “there’s nothing more badass than being a mom.” “Maps” may be Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ version of a love song, but 2023’s Just Like Heaven Fest as a whole was a love letter to indie rock fans.

With artists like The Walkmen, Hot Chip, STRFKR, The Bravery, and MGMT performing the entirety of their debut album Oracular Spectacular, the one-day Just Like Heaven could have easily taken place in the year 2007. But thankfully for the thousands of fans who flocked to Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on May 13th, it was very much happening in 2023 (and food vendors were accepting Apple Pay to prove it!). “These are all the songs I grew up listening to so this festival makes me super nostalgic,” a man in the crowd remarked to me while watching Hot Chip perform, who got the crowd jumping around to all their hits from their early LPs and 2022’s Freakout/Release. And judging by all the vintage band t-shirts I saw people wearing while walking back-and-forth between the two stages, the same sentiment was felt by the masses.

It was impossible not to feel especially nostalgic during MGMT’s set, which was designed to emphasize the feeling. Opening with “Time To Pretend,” the band performed their 2007 debut album front-to-back before closing with “Love Always Remains,” a song that appeared on their 2005 debut EP. Videos of the duo performing in their early days were projected on the screens behind them, intercut with trippy ai-generated clips of people smiling and dancing. Before launching into the fan-favorite track “Kids,” giant papier-mâché figures made to look like the band came out on stage for a skit reenacting when the song was written. The year was 2002 and they decided to skip out on a college freshman party to hole up in their dorm room and write music — that’s when the iconic riff from “Kids” was born. Andrew VanWyngarden, providing a voice-over for the skit, said it had always been a dream of theirs to perform in front of a crowd of thousands of people. That dream has now become a reality many times over, as well as the rockstar lifestyle the duo were imagining while cooking up “Time To Pretend” in their dorm room on a Friday night.

Like MGMT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs also ran through their early aughts hits like “Zero” and “Y Control” while also interspersing them with recent tracks off their Grammy Award-winning LP Cool It Down. Though their set clocked in at just over an hour, the band made the most of their allotted performance time: true rockstar Karen O had three outfit changes and Nick Zinner paused to photograph the crowd. Before the band closed out the night with back-to-back raucous renditions of “Heads Will Roll” and “Date With The Night,” which nearly every person at the festival was thrashing along to, Karen O led the crowd in a “Happy Birthday” sing-along to her husband Barney Clay who was present in the crowd.

While no one else had as many outfit changes as Karen O, several other artists got creative with their stage looks. STRFKR, who serenaded the early afternoon crowd with chilled-out tracks like “Rawnald Gregory Erickson The Second” and “Golden Light,” took the stage in matching NASA space suits. They then invited fans to the stage who were dressed up like astronauts (helmet included!) to dance alongside them as they performed. Fever Ray is known for their expert costuming (I mean, just look at their recent press photos), and they didn’t disappoint at Just Like Heaven. Bandleader Karin Dreijer’s look was complete with ghoulish makeup and an oversized suit while their fellow band members’ outfits included a golden jumpsuit with various zodiac symbols and a massive cloud hat paired with a green rain jacket.

For the most part, all the performances of the day went off without a hitch. The only exception was Azealia Banks, whose 40-minute set was delayed nearly half an hour for what seemed to be technical difficulties. What she lost in tardiness she made up for in energy, delivering pumped-up numbers like her latest single “New Bottega” and breakout “212.” Upon first thought, Azealia Banks’ inclusion in an indie rock festival lineup might be confusing, but as she put it on Instagram, it actually makes perfect sense. “Fun Fact: the very first song I ever wrote was over Ladytron’s ‘Seventeen.’ Junior year of high school. I posted it to MySpace and made my Fader debut two weeks later,” she wrote. “This line up is making my little indie rock heart sing,” she added. And I was inclined to agree.

For the majority of the crowd — people in their 30s and 40s — Just Like Heaven was an opportunity to re-live their youth. And thanks to the elder millennial demographic, Just Like Heaven was one of the more laid-back festivals I’ve attended. I even overheard a passerby note that it was the “least scary festival crowd” they had ever been in. Picnic blankets dotted the grounds with couples enjoying the music from afar (very few people were camping out at the crowd barrier all day) and there was even a sand pit with toys available for the many young children who tagged along to enjoy. Someone sitting next to me on the grass watching Fever Ray even whipped out their crotchet to work on while watching the set (they said they were making socks). Though the Southern California sun was harsh for most of the day, plenty of trees and boba tea stands provided much-appreciated respite from the heat. It was an ideal environment to bask in the collective nostalgia of early to mid-aughts indie rock, reminisce on the genre’s heyday, and (hopefully) inspire a new generation of indie music lovers.