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Lil Dicky Came Up With A Fantastic Idea For A Stephen A. Smith ‘Dave’ Episode Off The Top Of His Head On ‘First Take’

The Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers are nearing the end of their NBA Playoffs battle at the moment, with Game 6 of the series coming up tonight (May 11). Before that, though, Pennsylvania native Lil Dicky (aka Dave Burd) hopped on ESPN’s First Take today and showed just how quickly his brain can work.

During the chat, Molly Qerim asked Dicky what a Dave scene involving co-host Stephen A. Smith might look like. The rapper/actor didn’t need much time to think about it before replying:

“Off the top of my head, I don’t know… I’m thinking about the Sixers and the Celtics, I’m just imagining: What if I got into a little bit of a gambling situation with the wrong bookie, and I need the Sixers to win or my life could end? And I find myself knocking on Stephen A.’s door at like 3 a.m. and telling him that tomorrow on First Take, he’s gotta do something that really eviscerates Jayson Tatum, to the point where it’s a distraction for the team. Something like… kind of a modern day Celtic Pride.”

Smith then came up with his own idea involving Dicky kidnapping a red-hot Tatum before Smith comes to the rescue.

Elsewhere, Dicky gave a pep talk to the Sixers ahead of tonight’s game, so check out the segment above.

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WWE’s Return To Puerto Rico Was Pro Wrestling At Its Best

Professional wrestling is at its very best when the audience feels an emotional connection. That connection between fans in Puerto Rico and the WWE has remained intact over the last 18 years since their last live event, and you could feel Backlash was going to be something special from the moment WWE announced its return to the island.

Puerto Rico is a slice of paradise, from the colorful buildings that line the streets of Old San Juan to the numerous restaurants and coffee shops that serve up local delicacies. But the weekend was built around Backlash at Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, which turned out to be one of my most surreal WWE experiences to-date.

I’ve been to some of WWE’s big showcase events like WrestleMania and Royal Rumble. I’ve attended mad scenes like NXT TakeOver: Dallas and a few Raw after WrestleMania shows that involved offbeat chants and the occasional beach ball toss. But those experiences didn’t have quite the same energy Puerto Rico brought this past Saturday night. Maybe that’s recency bias, but a rewatch of the event on my flight home seems to back up this claim that it was, in fact, a night no one will forget.

What’s unquestionable is how proud Puerto Rico is of its heritage, and WWE built a card that allowed that to shine through. The island’s own Bad Bunny was the clear standout star of the show. Despite performing roughly midway through Backlash, it was appropriately billed as part of the double main event. Without his presence, the event still would have been incredible, but the energy for his entrance in San Juan is something WWE couldn’t recreate if it tried anywhere else.

This wasn’t a show that relied on being labeled as one of the traditional big events of the year — at best Backlash has historically reset rivalries that took center stage at WrestleMania. Instead, it had the energy of an old ECW show, unexpected crowd reactions like Raw after ‘Mania (it was lovely to see Iyo Sky get her flowers, unfortunately at the expense of the supremely talented Bianca Belair), and we even had a few nostalgia acts typically reserved for moments at WrestleMania.

Sky and Belair set the tone for the night with an absolute banger of a match. It felt WrestleMania-worthy both in quality and in reaction, with the locals living and dying on every false finish.

Stars like Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes, and Sami Zayn got the reaction consistent with what we’ve seen in recent months. But the love Puerto Ricans showed for their own was unmatched. Zelina Vega previously described the reaction she expected as “a big welcome hug from everyone” before she battled Rhea Ripley in what was ultimately an unsuccessful bid for the WWE Smackdown Women’s championship.

Of Puerto Rican descent, Vega indeed received a hero’s welcome, with her family front and center for such a significant opportunity.

“I take that with such pride because it’s representation, not just for Latinos, but for the women as well to have somebody to look up to, somebody that relates to us in so many different ways,” Zelina Vega tells Uproxx Sports. “It’s cool to have those moments where you have people saying you’re an inspiration, because I just want to be what Rey Mysterio was for me growing up.”

The emotions, electricity, and energy from Vega’s match carried over to Bad Bunny’s showdown with Damian Priest, which pitted two Puerto Rican stars against each other in a perfect encapsulation of what the area is as a destination: a beautiful blend of past with the present.

The duo tore down the house, with Bad Bunny making headlines due to his commitment to perfecting his wrestling technique, taking bumps, and putting on a show. Priest was a perfect dance partner who kept the crowd restless and on its toes. Priest’s fellow Judgement Day members, Dominik Mysterio and Finn Bálor, hit the ring, and it didn’t feel like it could get much louder than when Rey Mysterio and the LWO made the save.

But when Carlito, a former WWE superstar and the son of legendary Puerto Rican wrestler and promoter Carlos Colón, made a surprise return in support of Rey, it felt like the roof was going to come off of the building.

Savio Vega’s cameo offered just the right touch of nostalgia to pop the crowd once more. And the image of the LWO, Carlito, and Savio Vega carrying Bad Bunny on their shoulders after his win while holding the Puerto Rican flag as the audience lost its collective mind should be one that makes WWE highlight reels for years to come.

“Puerto Ricans are so passionate, especially for their own. The response has been massive,” Zelina Vega said. “The Rock always said, (WWE has) the most electrifying fans in sports entertainment, but I never really understood what he meant fully until I experienced it while I was in the ring and felt that electricity from the fans. This is what he meant.”

That passion is what has solidified professional wrestling as an integral part of the island experience over the last 50 years. The event became WWE’s highest-grossing and most-viewed Backlash in history, with back-to-back sellouts for both Friday night Smackdown and Saturday’s premier live event. And for Puerto Rico, Backlash was another showcase that there’s more to the island than just the beaches and food, as its people can bring the energy to make for an unforgettable event.

Uproxx was invited on a hosted trip to Puerto Rico by Discover Puerto Rico for reporting on this piece. You can find out more about our policy on press trips/hostings here.

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Steven Spielberg once played an epic prank on ‘Goonies’ director during his vacation from set

“The Goonies” is a classic ‘80s film about energetic, fast-talking kids searching for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure. It’s fun for two hours, but the day-in and day-out grind of working with the young cast was a bit much for director Richard Donner.

“Everyone we cast was high energy, and after a while, it kind of started working on Dick. It’d tear him apart a little bit, a piece [at a] time,” the film’s writer-producer Steven Spielberg later recalled in “Reunited Apart with Josh Gad.

“And so by the end of the movie, in the last two weeks, Richard just kept saying, ‘Oh, my God, I got two weeks to go, and I can’t wait to finish, and I’m going to go to my house in Hawaii, and I’m gonna get away from all of this noise. It’s extraordinary, and I love ’em to pieces, but I can’t stand it anymore,’” Spielberg continued.

Donner’s exhaustion inspired Spielberg to pull an epic prank. He flew the cast of kids out to Donner’s house in Hawaii, including Sean Astin (Mikey), Josh Brolin (Brand), Jeff Cohen (Chunk) and Martha Plimpton (Stef). He also sent the actors who played the obnoxious Fratellis, Anne Ramsey (Mama), Robert Davi (Jake) and Joe Pantoliano (Francis).

Video of the prank recently surfaced on Twitter, where Cohen can be seen telling him, “We’re gonna stay with you the whole time we’re here.” Astin adds: “We’re gonna do a sequel to the movie.”

At the end of the clip, Donner laughs as he flips the middle finger to someone off-camera, presumably Spielberg, saying: “I’ll get you.”

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Ruthless Disney Honcho Bob Iger Suggests That He Could Screw Florida Out Of Billions By Tanking Planned Future Investments (Thanks, Meatball Ron!)

Disney CEO Bob Iger fired a considerable warning shot towards Ron DeSantis during a recent earnings call. Iger has been steps ahead of DeSantis after the Florida governor waged a losing war on Disney following the company’s public pushback on the state’s highly controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Disney is currently suing the state for taking “retaliatory” action against its protected speech by attempting to take control of the special district where Disneyland resides and/or devalue it by placing a prison near the theme park. Iger denounced the tactic and revealed that the House of Mouse was set to invest over $17 billion into the state over the next 10 years, but not if DeSantis is willing to throw away a lucrative 50-year-old relationship for his culture war.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Disney paid over $1.1 billion in taxes to Florida last year — making the company the state’s largest tax payer, according to Iger, who stressed that Disney pays more real estate taxes as a result of the special district and employs tens of thousands of residents at wages above minimum wage.

If the goal is to level the playing field, he said there needs to be “uniform application” of how special districts are established. “There was no concreted effort to dismantle Reedy Creek until we spoke out on legislation,” he said. “This is plainly a matter of retaliation.”

After setting the record straight on how special districts work across the state, and that the Disney isn’t the only entity with one, Iger put the situation into blunt terms for DeSantis: “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes or not?”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Cillian Murphy Feels Like He Is ‘Underwhelming’ To Fans Because Of ‘The Tommy Shelby Thing’

There are some people who are destined to be actors but not celebrities. A few examples include Robert Pattinson, who notoriously messes with people because he’s bored, and maybe sometimes Hugh Grant, who doesn’t feel the need to do any sort of successful promo anymore. And there are people like Cillian Murphy, who has appeared in several of the biggest movies over the last decade, but doesn’t seem to ever appear in public, which begs the question: what’s his deal?

As it turns out, Murphy is just like the rest of us: he doesn’t leave his house nor does he want people talking to him. That’s not abnormal, though it’s a little hard when he carefully chooses buzzy roles, like Shivering Soldier #1 in Dunkirk.

Murphy was recently asked by Rolling Stone UK how he feels about being in the spotlight, to which he implied that he has opted out of that life. “I don’t really partake. I don’t go out. I’m just at home mostly, or with my friends, unless I have a film to promote,” he explained. This must be why he only appeared out of thin air every few years like a little Irish cicada. “I don’t like being photographed by people. I find that offensive,” he added.

Not only does he keep it lowkey, but he also has problems with fan interactions and feels that people find him “underwhelming” compared to his Peaky Blinders character. “I think it’s the Tommy Shelby thing. People expect this mysterious, swaggering… it’s just a character. I do feel people are a little bit underwhelmed. That’s fine, it means I’m doing my job,” he admitted.

It’s true that being employed as an actor doesn’t mean that you should always be open and available to people, as evident by the massive amount of attention Pedro Pascal has been getting. But this is what Murphy finds frustrating. He added, “It can ruin experiences, because it fetishises everything: You can be walking down the street and someone takes a picture…but that’s part and parcel of it.”

Next time you see Cillian on the street, consider not doing or saying anything but just admiring him from afar. Or try to get Christoper Nolan’s attention instead, since they are always paling around together in the most depressing way possible.

(Via CNN)

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Thunder Coach Mark Daigneault Hit An All-Time Bad Tee Shot At A Golf Pro-Am

It’s been a pretty good month or so for the Oklahoma City Thunder. While the team was narrowly unable to make it out of the Play-In Tournament, Oklahoma City established itself as a tough, fun, up-and-coming team in the Western Conference. Their star guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, earned All-NBA First Team honors, while first-year wing Jalen Williams nearly received a unanimous All-Rookie First Team nod.

All of this, mixed with a number of other fun youngsters and the impending return of 2022 first-round pick Chet Holmgren, gives the Thunder an ultra-bright future. One reason for optimism is head coach Mark Daigneault, who is one of the best Xs and Os coaches in the NBA. Daigneault is also apparently a golfer, and on Thursday, he got the chance to participate in a Pro-Am in Tulsa alongside Phil Mickelson. His first tee shot was, well, it could have gone better!

Here’s his tee shot from another angle, where you can see that Daigneault looked like he found the whole thing pretty funny.

In fairness to Mark Daigneault, this is a shockingly good impression of me whenever I try to hit a golf ball off of a tee, so I am choosing to take this as the highest form of flattery.

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100 Gecs Commit So Many Crimes In The Hectic ‘Most Wanted Person In The United States’ Video

In March, 100 Gecs unleashed their new album 10,000 Gecs, the follow-up to their massive debut 1000 Gecs which later got remixes with A. G. Cook, Rico Nasty, and more.

Today (May 11), the eccentric duo is back with a video for their track “Most Wanted Person In The United States.” Predictably, they commit crimes to go along with the volatile lyrics: “I turned on the news, and it said that I was / The number one most wanted person in the United States.” It takes a comedic angle on surveillance culture as they steal packages in front of Ring doorbells as well as wreak havoc in aisles of convenience stores on camera.

These chaotic antics are nothing quite new; they were pyromaniacs in the video for “Hollywood Baby.” They also smashed a guitar in the video for “Dumbest Girl Alive.”

100 Gecs are currently finishing up their spring tour alongside Machine Girl. The remaining dates are in Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and California. After that, they’re set to trek to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan over the summer for some performances.

Watch the video for “Most Wanted Person In The United States” above.

100 Gecs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Lizzo Has A Theory That She’s Been ‘Officially Shadow Banned’ On TikTok For Some Reason

Lizzo had to cancel some recent concerts due to health issues, but that situation appears to have sorted itself out as she returned to the stage in Baltimore, Maryland on May 9. Now she has a different problem to deal with, though: Possibly being shadow banned on TikTok.

In a video shared yesterday (May 10), Lizzo stitched her previous video, a clip from the Baltimore gig, and said, “I’m officially shadow banned, because how did I post this on Instagram and it already has 135 thousand views [in less than 30 minutes]?” She captioned the post, “deleting this but this app getting wack [tomato emoji].”

@lizzo

#stitch with @lizzo deleting this but this app getting wack 🍅

♬ original sound – lizzo

To Lizzo’s point, the TikTok upload currently has 162,000 views while the same video on Instagram has 1.2 million views, despite Lizzo having substantially more followers on TikTok (26.9 million) than she does on Instagram (13.4 million).

Meanwhile, in a video today, she responded to a compliment from a fan, with a video in which she says, “Thank you, Catherine. I’m not posting tour footage on this app no more ’cause it’s under-appreciated, but I will respond to your comment. Thank you!”

@lizzo

Replying to @Catherine the tiktok algorithm 👎🏾

♬ original sound – lizzo

As for why she might be shadow banned, Lizzo hasn’t yet shared a theory. In an unrelated video, though, she also shared her excitement about Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour:

@lizzo

FLAWS AND ALL⁉ DANGEROUSLY IN LOVE DC3 LIVE IN ATLANTA VERSION ⁉IM LEVITATING

♬ original sound – lizzo

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

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Myke Towers And J Balvin’s ‘Celos’ Video Ironically Elicits Jealousy Through New York City Adventure

Myke Towers is still riding the high from La Vidas Es Una, his album that released in March, and he detailed to Uproxx how J Balvin came to be featured on the track “Celos.”

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for Balvin. He’s a guy that’s super humble. For example, if you write to him in a DM on Instagram, he will respond to you right away. That’s something that you don’t expect from him at the level of fame that he’s at,” Towers said. “I’m always like a little boy asking many questions with people like him because I like to learn. We had a great time when we shot the music video together. The other day we went to an Afrobeats concert together. Balvin is a leader. He has my respect.”

The “Celos” video finally arrived Wednesday, May 10, and Towers’ comfortable rapport with Balvin shines throughout the nearly three-minute visual directed by Andy Hines and produced by Anca Productions.

They take turns acknowledging their jealous and expressing confusion over why they feel it. From Spanish to English, the hook translates to, “I don’t understand why I’m jealous if you’re not mine.”

The video (ironically) could easily facilitate jealousy, as Balvin and Towers explore hidden gems of New York City. It elicits nostalgia when they post up in front of an empty soccer field, littered by autumn leaves. As soon as night falls, they playfully climb atop a yellow taxi before attending an elite, luxurious party.

Later in the video, a group of women dressed in all-black walk by Balvin and Towers, also donning all-black wardrobe, outside the soccer field. They stop and presumably flirt, revealing Balvin has the Batman logo dyed in his otherwise platinum blond hair. By the end, they walk into the night together.

Watch the “Celos” video above.

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Paul Walker’s Daughter Is ‘Blessed’ To Honor Her Dad’s Legacy By Making A Cameo In ‘Fast X’

Vin Diesel didn’t cast his friends in Fast X. He cast his family — Paul Walker’s family, specifically.

Meadow Walker Thornton-Allan, the daughter of late Fast and Furious star Paul Walker, revealed today that she’s in the 10th film in the franchise. “A preview of my cameo in Fast X,” she wrote on Instagram, along with a photo where it looks like she’s in Britney Spears’ “Toxic” music video. “The first fast was released when I was one year old! I grew up on set watching my father, Vin, Jordana, Michelle, Chris and more on the monitors. Thanks to my dad, I was born into the fast family. I can’t believe now I get to be up there too. With those who have been around to see me grow up.”

Walker Thornton-Allan thanked director Louis Leterrier for his “kindness, patience and support. It feels like you’ve been part of the family since we started, I’m happy it’s just the beginning.” She also gave a shout out to Brandon Birtell, her dad’s producing partner, who “this wouldn’t have been possible without.” Walker Thornton-Allan ended the caption, “I am so blessed to be able to honor my father’s legacy and share this with him forever.”

Fast X, which also stars Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jason Momoa, Nathalie Emmanuel, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron, Jordana Brewster, John Cena, Jason Statham, and Sung Kang, among many, many others, opens on May 19th.

(Via Variety)