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Tucker Carlson has finally broken his silence after being abruptly fired from Fox News on Monday. While the veteran TV personality didn’t specifically address his departure, or the potentially many reasons for it, he did go on a bizarre rant about the state of the media as if he wasn’t just doing his normal ranting last Friday night.

“You notice when you take a little time off how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” Carlson said in the video that was shared just 48 hours after he was fired. “They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t even remember that we have them. Trust me as someone who’s participated.”

Carlson also seemed to be teasing his next venture.

“Where can you still find Americans saying true things?” he said. “There aren’t many places left, but there are some. And that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope.”

After posting the video on Twitter, Carlson was roundly mocked for having the nerve to call the media stupid after infamously airing segments on how M&Ms aren’t sexy anymore and testicle tanning. “Unbelievably stupid debates” is practically his middle name.

“Guy who made a documentary about testicle tanning has a lot of nerve complaining about ‘unbelievably stupid’ media stories, not to mention how hilarious it is to hear him complain about ‘liars,’” tweeted Sarah Rumpf.

“‘The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,’ says the guy who whined on primetime about how the Green M&M was no longer sexy,” Justin Baragona wrote.

You can see more reactions to Tucker Carlson’s video below:

(Via Tucker Carlson on Twitter)

The opportunity to permanently host The Daily Show has been a realistic possibility for Roy Wood Jr., Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic (this week’s host), and several other contenders since it was announced that the show would turn to a long list of guest hosts following the wrap of Trevor Noah’s impactful run last year. Recently, CEO and President of Paramount Media Networks Chris McCarthy indicated that he has a “running shortlist,” though it’s anyone’s guess who is on it. Honestly, it’s the kind of slow burn process that might break a brain if you were on the inside, but from our most recent conversation (and previous ones), Wood is clearly and calmly looking at the whole board.

After our lengthy talk over Zoom, while he built a remote set for some Daily Show web content, it’s clear that Wood proved something to himself when he hosted, even if it wasn’t the full measure of what Roy Wood’s Daily Show would be (an impossibility, due to the abbreviated timeline). He’s excited by the possibility of being what he calls a “news sommelier,” guiding the audience through the good and bad while adding useful and unique context. He says he couldn’t say no to the opportunity to tell stories through a Black perspective that’s missing from late-night (historically, but especially in a post-Desus & Mero, Ziwe, and Sam Jay landscape), and he’s down to explore and satirize how news is disseminated. Wood is aware of the success of the guest host experiment (his stint, with its Jon Stewart cameo and ex-president arraignment included) and somewhat intrigued by the idea of a world where correspondents might be asked to carry more creative weight on a show where the guest hosts to continue. But that’s not what he really wants. He wants to host The Daily Show, but, and this is me summarizing: he can’t wait forever.

In our conversation, we discuss Wood’s thought process around The Daily Show and when it’s time to walk away from the table, the guest hosting experiment, the responsibility of hosting the show, and late-night term limits. This before discussing his approach to his latest high-profile gig: hosting The White House Correspondents Dinner, an event where, as he says, he’s focused on trying to figure out what he wants to say about where we are as a society in addition to being funny. And also maybe not setting in motion events that’ll get him haunted by Mitch McConnell.

I’ve been watching all the guest host shows, but you’re the only one where I used the free trial on one of those streaming things on TV to see it live. I wasted one of my emails from my spreadsheet for you.

(Laughs) Oh, shit. You burned your fucking email doc.

There’s going to be a nationally broadcast Mets game in May that I’m going to miss because I was like, “No, I gotta use my free trial to watch Roy.” But it was a good week.

(Laughs) Man, that was fun, bro. That shit was fun. The Trump shit helped. But for sure, in terms of having nerves about doing the job and can I do this, I feel like I’ve at least answered that for myself. If not everyone else. I feel like a lot of it is out of my control in terms of who they choose. But if they don’t choose me, it won’t be because I can’t do the job. So I worry about the shit I can control, man. That’s really kind of where I laid my focus. But thanks, bro, because that shit was fun.

Is that an example of the show that you would do, or is it not the full idea of what your show would be if you had it just because of the abbreviated timeframe with everything and the Trump news breaking?

No, I don’t think anything that anyone is doing right now in the guest host capacity is the totality of what they would do creatively. I liken it to a basketball tryout or the NFL combine. We need to know the fundamentals. The fundamentals of the show are having some degree of humor, being able to be compassionate, and being able to come through the camera. Can you read the teleprompter? Basic stuff like that. Once you get past that, then I think you can get into answering the bigger questions about, creatively, what would you want to do? Because we can’t explore the different creative avenues that a host would want to do until you know they can do the basics. There’s no point in discussing what kind of offense you want to run until we know that you can dribble and pass.

Being a correspondent is such a different thing. God damn, that was the biggest thing I learned. It’s just how much different correspondents are from hosts. Like, you know it, but until you’re asked to play a different position on the team, that’s when you realize it. Because as a correspondent, I get to come in and just be silly, but as a host, I have to be funny. But you also have to be, I believe, touching or have a warmth to you. So I think that part of it, that was a new feeling, because I feel like I haven’t had to be like that since I did morning radio, bro. Even with morning radio, it was only on days when there was big news.

I was doing morning radio when the Trayvon Martin incident first happened in Orlando. So being on air and taking calls at what was such a visceral moment for society, where normally you’re supposed to just fucking be funny for four hours in morning radio, but then on this day, nah, you don’t get to be funny. You have to also have some emotion. So I’d say that’s probably the biggest difference between the two roles. When the Tennessee Three happened, we had already had the show kind of set. The jokes were about the possible expulsion, and then it turned into an actual expulsion. So now it’s like, “Oh, fuck. Okay. Maybe this isn’t funny yet. Maybe we have to wait to see how all the facts start happening.”

It probably goes without saying, but do you feel a greater sense of responsibility with that, and was that anticipated, or more than you expected?

You know there’s a responsibility, but you don’t realize until you actually sit down in the chair and go, “Oh, okay.” We’re also kind of guiding people through the news, and in some cases, it’s bad news. Sometimes it’s good news. I think the first night, I jokingly called myself Uncle Roy, just kind of on some, “That’s what your uncle does. Your uncle helps you, the good uncle. The good uncles help you through tragedies and problems and issues in the world.” It was a blessing to be able to do that.

Do you feel if you had that role permanently, that the weight of all of that would wear you down after a time?

I don’t think the job of Daily Show host is anything anyone should be doing more than, I don’t know, five to seven years, if that. It’s like the president. Two terms. There should be term limits on late-night hosts. I would argue that part of why John Oliver is so energetic is because he’s smart enough to take those times to rest and have a couple of months just away. There will be plenty of chaos when we return.

If they go with somebody else, do you envision yourself sticking around for a while, or are you starting to look for something else at that point?

I think it depends on who they choose to host. I think my staying at The Daily Show, if I’m not a host, starts and ends with whether or not that host wants me there as a correspondent. Then, secondly, I think I’ve earned the right to at least look at the market and see if there’s something else that I want to do above and beyond The Daily Show, because if I’m not serious about being a correspondent through the election, as a correspondent I have the responsibility to get out the way so that they can replace me as quickly as possible so that new correspondent can learn the ropes before 2024. To me, that’s the big thing.

It’s not fair to the new correspondent to be broken in the middle of a presidential primary. The audience needs time to warm up to these new faces and to the new tone of the show. I think that’s the thing that when I talk about honoring the show and what the show’s mission is, I think it’s that, and that’s not just about me going and hosting something somewhere else. This could be also scripted stuff. I was blessed enough last year. I sold two scripts. One, I was EP on, and the other I was attached to star. Neither one of them went the distance, but to even be in that space, that’s something worth considering.

I think that myself and the other correspondents, as late night starts this new metamorphosis… late night is no different than TV as a whole. It’s contracting, and when it comes back out of this cocoon and expands again, it has to expand into something different. It’s not going to be a repeat of what it has been. So where I fit in that as a co-star or a sidekick, that’s not completely for me to answer. There are constructs under which I would consider it (staying), but for lack of a lack of a better phrase, if I have an opportunity to drive a car, then it has to be the right situation if I still want to ride shotgun somewhere else. You know? We’ll look at that when the time comes, man, but everything’s on the table for me right now.

You have a really refreshing, really clear view of things when we talk about this stuff that I really appreciate. You’re doing what anybody would do. They would evaluate their options. It sounds like you’ve got a plan waiting for a plan at least to kind of reveal itself.

Yeah, or the writer’s strike could hit and it could change Paramount’s decision schedule. When they’re going to choose a host is as important as what happens if myself or some other correspondent gets an opportunity that comes before Paramount is ready to choose.

Have there been any indications about a timeline for that?

No. All they told us is that we’re doing guest hosting through June. That’s the only thing I’ve heard. There was an op-ed where they were hypothesizing guest hosts in a permanent sense and letting that be the new norm. So any and everything could be on the table. I just think that the way entertainment is going right now, if you have an opportunity to have a project that you can get off the ground and work that project at a time where everything is contracting, I think it is a very, very dangerous gamble to pass that up to wait on something else.

Yeah. And even if it’s the dream job, the dream job is the job that has security.

I’ve lost enough money at the casino to now know when it’s time to leave the table. I’ve been very blessed the last seven years, and whatever opportunity I get first that lets me leave the table, I’m leaving the table. I’m not splitting aces. I’m not doubling down. I’m not going to risk it all. “Let it ride! One more roll!” Nope. (Laughs) I got a kid to feed, man. I can’t sit here and wait around for corporate politics. Because that’s what a lot of this is, man. It’s not even creative. Our ratings are up. So yeah, it’s probably good to just keep having guest hosts.

It’s cheaper too, I imagine.

Yeah, I’m sure it’s way cheaper. And I have a lot of respect for the brother that wrote the op-ed, and I don’t say this in some challenging way, I just think that if The Daily Show is to parody the news, the news gives you the same faces every night because there is a trust that comes with that. I think that once people trust a host and know where the host is coming from, it gives the host so many new places to go with their humor. Honestly, I would’ve argued that every guest host should have gotten two weeks in the chair, just because you need a week to get used to it. The audience needs a week to get used to you. Then, let the second week be the money. That would’ve really been cool.

It would’ve really been cool to see how Wanda Sykes did, because D.L. Hughley’s first day was the day that the Tyree Nichols tape was released in Memphis. If we had done back-to-back weeks, that would’ve been a Wanda Sykes week. It would’ve been interesting to hear Wanda’s commentary and stuff like that. Even with the Trump arraignment, that came in after rehearsal on Thursday for John Leguizamo. As much as Leguizamo as a native New Yorker and a Latino, and as much as Trump’s well-documented, “Lock them up, kids in cages” strategies with immigrants, that would’ve been an interesting perspective to have as well. I think that, not just The Daily Show, I think that new political satire works best when the audience is getting it from someone they have a relationship with, and it takes time to build a relationship.

I’m team host. (Laughs) I get why doing the guest host thing could be cheaper in perpetuity, and could be better ratings in perpetuity, but sooner or later, you’re going to catch the wrong host during the wrong tragedy. And it’s going to be weird.

Switching gears, with the White House Correspondents Dinner, I know you’ve interviewed Obama. I know you interviewed Biden.

I got one question with Biden. That wasn’t a whole interview. I got half a question, but yes, I have talked to Biden.

Do you feel nerves there, or are you used to it at this point?

There’s nerves. I’m more trying to figure out exactly what it is I want to say to the bigger whole of where we are as a society. I’m more concerned with that than I am joke to joke. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like a joke I make. I’m indifferent on that. As a comedian, your job is to point out hypocrisy, and some people don’t like that pointed out, so there should be dissenters. Has there ever been a comedian that did the Correspondents Dinner that was like universally loved by all? I’d say maybe Cedric the Entertainer. Then, also, you could do it one way, and then after the fact, the perception of it changes.

Seth Myers was great until Trump got elected. Now, “Seth Myers is bad.” “Stephen Colbert was terrible.” Until you really look back at the Bush Administration’s record, and now you go, “Stephen Colbert, brilliant.” I don’t think, as a comedian, I can be attached to, “Did you do good or did you do bad? Did you bomb” or whatever. I just need jokes that call out the BS in this world, and just figure out a way to make it fun. Above all, my job is to be funny, and if you can sneak in a little bit of creative activism and stuff like that, then so be it.

The biggest issue with the Correspondents Dinner is that the news keeps changing. Every time I open my mouth, Clarence Thomas is taking another bribe or some other thing, there’s another shooting. Is Don Lemon back on the air again? [Edit note: the news cycle proved Roy’s point this week] I don’t know. It’s always something, bro.

I think you can definitely write the Clarence Thomas material in pen because he ain’t going anywhere. It’s not like he’s actually going to face consequences.

Yeah, exactly. There’ll be no consequences.

Of course not. I love people getting bent out of shape thinking that there will be. I want to live in the world that they envision, but yeah, no, unfortunately not.

We are in the land of no shame and no consequence. That’s the land we live in.

Do you have any specific places you don’t want to go to in terms of how far you push into certain people? The Biden stuff, obviously there’s Biden age jokes, and then there’s Biden dementia jokes that people make. How far do you go on something like that?

I don’t know. I don’t know. I think everything’s on the table except for Mitch McConnell because he’s in the hospital.

Is he still?

I need to double-check, but for now, Mitch McConnell is safe. If he gets out of the hospital, we’ll check his vitals before I go on stage. You don’t want to be the guy that does the joke that stresses out Mitch McConnell. It’s one thing to do a joke that gets Trump elected, but you don’t want the passing of Mitch McConnell because of stress created from a joke on your hands. That’s not a ghost I want visiting me. So Mitch McConnell’s off the table for now, but my humor has never been, as far as I’ve tried to make it, anti any group.

No. You’re not mean-spirited at all.

But I’m anti-politicians who impede political progress. For that reason, Democrats are on the chopping block too.

I was going to say, “Oh, that’s pretty much all of them.”

Yeah. That’s pretty much all of them. If you got Tim Scott proposing a police reform deal that Democrats filibuster, I need to know why. When y’all promised us some degree, but it’s a room full of people who all want credit instead of just wanting progress. Everybody wants credit.

‘The Daily Show’ airs Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The ‘White House Correspondents Dinner’ airs April 29 live on CSPAN.

Jerry Springer, who hosted the controversial Jerry Springer talk show from 1991 to 2018, died at his Chicago home on Thursday. TMZ reports that Springer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer “a few months ago, and this week he took a turn for the worse.” He was 79 years old.

We’re told his cancer battle got much worse about a month ago, and he finally had to stop working. He had been hosting a folk music show on a local radio station in Cincinnati. He’s survived by his daughter Katie Springer and his older sister Evelyn.

Springer, a former politician who ran for Congress in the 1970s before becoming the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, got his start on TV as a political commentator before he found his true calling: dodging chairs. The more Jerry Springer leaned into sensationalism, with episodes about kung-fu hillbillies, a guy who “cut off his own male organ,” and a woman who “broke the world’s sex record,” the bigger it got. At the show’s cultural peak, it was more popular than The Oprah Winfrey Show, drawing in 12 million viewers.

After ending Jerry Springer in 2018 (spinoff The Steve Wilkos Show is still on!), Springer debuted a courtroom show, Judge Jerry, that lasted for three seasons. He’s also appeared on The X-Files, The Simpsons, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and starred in Ringmaster, a movie loosely based on Jerry Springer. His final TV appearance was on The Masked Singer.

(Via TMZ)

TikTok is blaming Morgan Wallen’s last-minute cancellation of his second show at the University of Mississippi on alcohol, but according to his label’s CEO, that’s false. In the past, the “Last Night” singer has found himself in the eye of a racial controversy storm stating alcohol consumption as the cause. However, the musician did seek treatment back in 2021.

Following the news of the concert’s cancellation, the entertainer took to his Instagram Story to share that he “started to lose his voice” the night before and thought he could shake it off but could not. Quickly after, video footage from fans at the venue started to surface. One viral clip featuring a security guard who worked that show alleged that the singer was “too drunk” to perform and was carried away in an ambulance.

The company responsible for hiring the worker, BEST Crowd Management, issued a statement on Instagram denying the employee’s claim.

“A hired employee of BEST Crowd Management made false claims related to last night’s Morgan Wallen concert, and we do not stand by the detail in his statement.” wrote the company.

After the statement was posted, Seth England, the CEO of Wallen’s record label Big Loud Records, commented on the matter on his own. According to People, the executive to took his Instagram Story first to thank the company.

“Thank you, @bestcrowdmanagement, for correcting your employee, who made up an entire story that was nowhere close to true. Every detail was false,” adding, “Laughable what some people will just say for a reaction.”

Just yesterday (April 26), Halle Bailey shared her rendition of “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. An extended trailer for the film was released in February, and it’s finally arriving next month.

The public has expressed overwhelming support for her in the face of racist attacks she’s been dealing with for playing the role. Along with fans praising her, she was lauded at her audition, which she just revealed in a new interview with V Magazine made everyone in the room cry. She said:

“I went to the first audition in New York, and they were very warm and very kind to me. They asked me if I wanted to sing or act first, and I was like, ‘I’ll just sing first because I feel I can get all the nerves out.’ So I just remember singing and closing my eyes, and then when I opened my eyes, everyone was crying. And at first, I was like, ‘Oh, no! Did I do something bad?’ And then I quickly realized that it was good. So from there, I had two more auditions and then a screen test, and then months passed and I completely forgot about it. I thought, ‘Well that ship sailed.’ And then I got a call saying that I got the role a few months later.”

Check out the full interview here.

HBO’s White House Plumbers will roll around in your head after an episode, even if you didn’t exactly expect to enjoy the experience. Perhaps I’m making an assumption that you, like many people, suffer from political fatigue and don’t quite know if you should sign up for a show about Watergate. As well, the scandal has already been explored by Hollywood on multiple occasions (including with 1976’s All The President’s Men and decades later with the comedic reimagining, Dick), and there’s the temptation to wonder whether the mess is still relevant. That’s the case not only because of the passage of time but due to what we’ve seen in the past several years.

This is where I admit that I’ve been dreading the moment when I type about how it feels awfully strange to describe Watergate as “quaint” compared to what the U.S. has recently witnessed. It’s all relative, you know? I mean, sure, these guys infiltrated the DNC, but we watched a president attempt to topple democracy by inciting an insurrection that unfolded live on TV, among other things that we don’t need to mention here. You know the drill. People are numb at this point when it comes to political mudslinging.

In contrast, the most damning part of the Watergate fiasco revolved around President Nixon’s coverup of said attempts to gather mud against the opposition. Underneath it all, though, there’s actually an entertaining story to be had. White House Plumbers gives us that look at the bumbling-burgler-filled underbelly of the maneuverings of key players, and man, were they a sloppy bunch. History tells us that the careless group was led by two former intelligence agents — Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy — recruited to help ensure the reelection of a president who didn’t really need extralegal assistance. Dozens of convictions resulted from Watergate, which remains a bona fide scandal and led to the resignation of Richard Nixon following impeachment efforts by Congress. This was a dark time in our nation’s history, but we’ve seen darker by now. Much darker.

With that twisted context in mind, the act of looking back on this low-tech disaster, however, is rather fun. Not funny in a contrived way, per se, but fun. Because this didn’t need to be painted as a comedy — the circumstances were amusing enough on their own. These idiots tossed sh*t around, didn’t cover their trails, and the burgling was spectacularly obvious. It’s almost breathtaking to consider that much of the detail (although certainly not all because liberties are taken) is purportedly real.

Throughout the course of five episodes, Veep guys Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck (showrunners and writers) and David Mandel (director) adapt Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh’s book, Integrity. In doing so, the team puts a satiric spin upon the experiences of Egil (played by Rich Sommers) during and after his time leading the Special Investigations Unit that was tasked with plugging information leaks. Liddy and Hunt thought it cute to call themselves “The Plumbers,” and they were Patriots in the way that the word is a right-wing badge of honor these days.

As well, much of the initial lead-up to the central burglary involves intentionally bad wigs and a fake nose and prop glasses and essentially makes Liddy look like Groucho Marx had a love child with any given Woodstock attendee. Let me also say that Justin Theroux really goes for it throughout the series. He is bitingly comical and the standout of the entire show. Whereas casting Woody Harrelson as Howard Hunt feels like a natural move — he can probably play this type of role in his sleep — placing Justin Theroux into the shoes and ‘stache of Liddy is nothing short of inspired. He warmed up for this series by playing the brilliant, paranoid, and annoying Allie Fox in Apple TV+’s recent The Mosquito Coast, and Theroux’s at the opposite end of the political spectrum here but transforms into a firecracker.

A firecracker who’s invigorated by Hitler’s speeches, that is. Theroux has an absolute ball while playing a reprehensible guy and future talk-radio host who undoubtedly influenced modern-day snake oil salesmen like Alex Jones. The supporting cast includes Domnhall Gleeson as terminally murky White House Counsel John Dean and Lena Headey as Howard’s wife, Deborah, a CIA asset who knows too much for her own good. Their long-suffering children (Kiernan Shipka, Liam James, Zoe Levin) receive a lot of airtime to show what a shattering experience Watergate was outside of simply being a political scandal that took down a presidency. Oh, and Judy Greer pops in as Liddy’s wife, Fran, which looks like a fluffy role from the outside, but I suspect it was not the easiest gig to pull off. Kathleen Turner as dramatic lobbyist Rita Beard is an absolute hoot, too. Good actors all around.

In the end, White House Plumbers is a fairly tight portrait of a loose-as-hell f*ck up. There are some anxiety-ridden moments, and I don’t think I can hear Woody Harrelson yell, “Don’t answer the phone!” one more time. I wish I could unsee one scene, in which Theroux literally acts his ass off. You’ll know it when you see it, and like me, you may be ashamed to also kind-of enjoy it. And there’s a marvelous sense of comeuppance to be gained by watching the confidence of Hunt and Liddy sending their guys into battle, only for everything to explode on them. White House Plumbers is both fun and tragic, but thankfully, it blends those ingredients in the most effective way possible.

HBO’s ‘White House Plumbers’ premieres on May 1.

One of the only credible complaints about Dune, a movie that otherwise rules, is that it didn’t have enough Zendaya. Well, like Homer being fed donuts, Dune: Part Two will have all the Zendaya in the world!

The Dune not-a-sequel (“It’s not a sequel, it’s a second part. There’s a difference,” director Denis Villeneuve emphasized to Vanity Fair) was filmed during golden hour in Jordan, which did not leave much time for shooting. Especially during scenes where Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, as Paul Atreides and Chani, need to have believable — and instant — chemistry.

“​​There’s kind of, like, a ticking timer,” the Euphoria actress told Vanity Fair. “You kind of feel like, OK, we got here, but we have maybe an hour to get this. So we revisited a bit every day, and over a few days, that gives us a few hours.” She added, “Every time we revisited it, we kind of got to sleep on it and think about it, and come up with a new set of ideas.”

Villeneuve called Zendaya a “fierce warrior” and that Chani has a “opinion about her world, about the politics of this world, about the religions and all the impact of colonization on their culture, but there’s something about that young man that cracks her heart.” As for that young man, Chalamet “did a beautiful job to bring that sincerity onscreen,” Villeneuve said.

The Wonka star also did a beautiful job riding that worm:

Dune: Part Two opens on November 3rd.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Quavo has shared a few new songs since the tragic passing of his nephew and fellow Migos member Takeoff last year. This includes “Honey Bun,” “Without You,” and “Greatness,” the last of which he used to hint at the end of Migos.

Quavo also recently sat down with Chloe Bailey for Complex‘s G.O.A.T. Talk series. When he was asked to pick a “G.O.A.T. ad-lib,” he answered, “Mama,” and went on to explain why the word was often used by himself, Offset, and Takeoff when they got into trouble at home.

“The story behind the ‘mama’ ad-lib is she used to chase us up and down the house trying to whoop us,” he explained. “And we’d make sure to call her name and say, ‘I’m just playing, mama! I’m just playing, mama! I’m just playing!’

He continued, “Then when she get to you, you say, ‘Mama, mama, mama!’ Only when you in trouble is you calling her name like that.”

In March, Quavo also appeared on NBC’s music show, That’s My Jam, hosted by Jimmy Fallon. He performed a humorous cover of Lil Jon and The Eastside Boyz’s classic song “Get Low,” in which all of the track’s lyrics were changed.

Watch Quavo on the G.O.A.T. Talk series above.

There’s no spitting involved (yet?), but things are getting Olivia Wilde/Harry Styles-level interesting between Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell.

The two comically attractive actors got close while making the R-rated romantic comedy Anyone But You, maybe a little too close for some people’s comfort. Powell’s girlfriend, Gigi Paris, initially “commented a string of celebratory emojis on Sweeney’s post announcing the casting news for the rom-com in January,” but “now [her] comment appears to have been deleted.”

On Wednesday, Paris shared a cryptic post on Instagram. “know your worth & onto the next,” she wrote, along with a video where she’s walking on a sidewalk and flashes a knowing smile. Page Six reports that she also no longer follows Sweeney or her Top Gun: Maverick star (ex?) boyfriend.

Sweeney, 25, revealed her cheeky nickname for Powell during an appearance at CinemaCon 2023 in Las Vegas. She said on Monday that she affectionately calls him “Top Gun” because of his role in Top Gun: Maverick.

“We love seeing ourselves on the big screen,” Powell then quipped, according to People, before the first trailer for their upcoming film played. “Oh, please, Top Gun,” the White Lotus star said in response, prompting Powell to tell the convention attendees, “I love when she calls me that.”

It must be serious: Sweeney and Powell are at the cute nicknames (that everyone else finds extremely obnoxious) phase.

(Via the New York Post)

This week, word surfaced that Donald Trump was so busy attempting to evade the law that he might not have time to attend his wife’s birthday. Melania was said to be preparing for a “low key” celebration of her concluding a 53rd trip around the sun as Team Donald sent out word that he would attend “if his schedule allows.”

His schedule, it seems, was filled with delivering dozens of mini-rants online to form an all-day rant. As well-wishers tweeted at Melania all day long, Trump stayed silent on the matter, as though he had forgotten the occasion or chose to ignore it. Instead of mentioning his wife, the ex-president spent the day publicly freaking out on the first day of the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit, in which she alleged that he raped her.

Did Trump actually forget Melania’s birthday? The Daily Beast wonders if this is the case. Early in the morning, federal attorney Ron Filipkowski suspected that Trump had forgotten and brought it to everyone’s attention while guessing that “when the staff reminds him, and he will have flowers sent over to her chambers.”

Well, Trump was in the midst of another Big Grumpy Boy whine-fest, and it’s impossible to tell if Melania even cared about his fixation elsewhere. She didn’t fly to New York when he was arrested, and heck, we’ve already heard that she’s essentially enjoying a Donald-free life at Mar-a-Lago and only popping out for occasional obligations with her husband. That’s not too surprising, considering that she brushed right past Donald on Biden’s Inauguration Day as though she had “clocked out” and gave no f*cks.

Meanwhile on Thursday morning, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski has made mention (via Raw Story) of how, “Even Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted birthday wishes, but Donald Trump did not.” She continued: “Instead, he posted 15 times on his social media platform criticizing Ron DeSantis and commenting on the civil trial accusing him of sexual assault.”

And heeeeere’s Lindsay:

By Filipkowski’s count, however, there were “about 30 posts today.” and “[n]ot one about Melania’s birthday though. Not to worry, Lindsey’s got it covered.”

This actually wouldn’t be the first time that this happened. Back in 2018, Trump said he was “very busy” and didn’t buy Melania a present, but he did get her “a beautiful card.”

However, does Melania even care at this point? She very well may have had a much better birthday without that dude.