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When he first appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s second season, Spike, the charming but nefarious British vampire, was an instant sensation. What was supposed to be a quickie gig for actor James Marsters turned into a long-term job he held over two separate TV shows, spanning some seven years. But if it was up to Marsters, he would have fired him pretty quickly.

In an interview with Radio Times (as caught by Entertainment Weekly), Marsters argues that by introducing another fun vampire, on top of David Boreanaz’s Angel, it changed fan perspectives about the show’s portrayl of vampires.

“I mean, the whole thing is, how do we get this guy on without having him ruin the theme? If it had been me producing that show, I would have killed Spike off in a heartbeat,” Marsters said while celebrating the 20th anniversary of Buffy’s series finale. “As soon as the audience said, ‘Oh, we want him. Oh, have him with Buffy. Oh, we love that character.’ Like, uh-uh. He’s ruining the whole thing. I would have killed me off after probably three episodes.”

Marsters added, “I’m kind of a bastard when I’m producing! I’m heartless! So I’m very lucky that they had more imagination and courage than I would have shown, frankly.”

During the chat, Marsters said that, from his perspective, the writers “never really knew what to do” with Spike. “The original idea for Buffy was that vampires were just metaphors for the challenges of high school, or the challenges of life,” Marsters said. “They were designed to be overcome; they were designed to die. Buffy is not an Anne Rice kind of thing, where you’re supposed to feel for the vampires. It’s why we’re hideously ugly when we bite someone. They did not want that to be a sensual kind of thing. It was supposed to be horrific.”

Marsters concludes that making Spike a major character was always “a weird fit,” adding, “They were always, like, coming to me at the beginning of every season saying, ‘We don’t know what to do with you!’” he recalled. “‘We have a plan for the season, we have a plan for all the other characters, we have all the arcs of all the other characters, we just don’t know what to do with you again.’”

(Via EW)

Foo Fighters’ quest to find a new drummer has come to an end. On Sunday, May 21, during their pre-tour live stream, Foo Fighters: Preparing Music For Concerts, the band shared the news that Josh Freese is their new live drummer.

After the tragic death of the group’s beloved drummer, Taylor Hawkins, fans of the band were interested to see how the Foo Fighters would adjust. Back in March, there was talk that Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron would step up to the plate. Alas, he quickly shot down the rumor. However, now that it has been revealed that Freese would be joining the musicians as their live drummer, this seems like a much better fit.

Jokingly nicknamed the “King Of Replacements” by some music fans, Freese has a history of stepping in for fellow rockers. In the past, he’s played with the Vandals, Devo, Nine Inch Nails, and Sting, to name a few.

After releasing a comedic skit featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, Tool’s Danny Carey, and Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe, supporters were surprised to find that the position was ultimately filled by Freese.

The band’s calendar is filled to the brim with tour dates and music festival appearances around the world.

There are quite a few Miley Cyrus-centered rumors floating around. However, there’s one thing the “Flowers” singer is setting the record straight about: Her latest album, Endless Summer Vacation, will not be receiving an extensive tour. Well, not anytime soon, according to the singer.

During a recent interview with Vogue UK, Cyrus detailed what lead to her decision. When asked about touring, she said, “It’s been a minute. After the last [headline arena] show I did [in 2014], I kind of looked at it as more of a question. And I can’t. Not only can’t, because can’t is your capability, but my desire. Do I want to live my life for anyone else’s pleasure or fulfillment other than my own?”

She added, “Like singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love. There’s no connection. There’s no safety. It’s also not natural. It’s so isolating because if you’re in front of 100,000 people then you are alone.”

Although Cyrus has appeared at several festivals over the last year and even hosted and performed at her own televised concert for New Year’s Eve, fans of her new album will have to hold their breath in hopes that she’ll change her mind.

All eyes are on Olivia Rodrigo. This week the singer celebrated the second birthday of her Grammy Award-winning debut album, Sour. Now according to her the wait for her sophomore album will be over soon.

Back in December, Rodrigo shared a fun holiday track, called “The Bels,” with fans via her private Discord channel. But after she revealed that she had been working on “so many new songs” at the top of the year, fans have patiently waited for the day when her new works would hit streaming platforms. Now, thanks to a sweet handwritten note shared via her newsletter, her forthcoming album, referenced to as OR 2, might be dropping before you know it.

In her note, the “Drivers License” singer wrote, “Hi! I cannot believe it’s been two years since Sour came out. That album will always be so so special to me and I’m so grateful to you guys for embracing it the way you have. I’m taking today to reflect on all the amazing things that have happened since Sour and looking fORward 2 all the things to come.”

Closing the note, “All my love always, Liv.”

No further information about the pending project is known at this time.

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)