The legacies of Snoop Dogg and Tupac loom large in Los Angeles, as their fingerprints are all over West Coast rap, but one muralist is trying to preserve a tangible homage to them.
Earlier this week, a Los Angeles painter going by @sloe_motions on Instagram posted that his mural prominently featuring Snoop and Tupac is at risk of being taken down. The late Kobe Bryant, Danny Trejo, Vin Scully, and Oscar De La Hoya are also in the mural.
“SAVE THE LA MURAL IN BELLFLOWER! we recently received a notice to take down this mural in the city of bellflower. I want to reach out to everyone n help get the word spread to keep this up. this is our culture and these are our city’s,government policies n politics shouldn’t have any effect on the peoples art or expression,” the artist captioned an Instagram video showing the mural in question.
The caption continues, “I’m tired of the cities tryna stop artist and make things hard on us when we are the ones giving the inspiration to the community’s n giving back in a real way. this mural is also on the owners property. I want to start fighting for what is ours and stop letting these city people silence our art and making them think there’s no encouragement in our community’s without them. they love to hop on the train tho when we bring good attention n want to act like they were apart of it the whole time and take credit.”
They added, “Everyone i had been in touch with loved this mural and long time residents of the area kept saying ‘we have nothing cool like this in our area.’ let’s get this mural to stay and please share if u can.”
Fox 11 Los Angeles quoted the property’s owner, Renae Cornejo, “I guess [we] broke a code we didn’t know about.” Cornejo was confused as to why city officials are getting involved because “it’s our home; we own the property.”
“We didn’t know about the code violation until we got served last week with it. So we’re doing our best to work with the city,” property co-owner Robert Cornejo added.
The Change.org petition to save the mural was closing in on 5,000 signatures as of April 28.
Kevin Durant‘s future in the NBA got sorted out a little earlier this year, as the Brooklyn Nets sent the All-Star forward to the Phoenix Suns ahead of the trade deadline. With that all sorted out and the Suns in the midst of a run in the postseason, it appears Durant’s attention turned to making sure he has Nikes on his feet for the rest of his life.
Boardroom announced on Friday morning that Durant, who has been a Nike athlete ever since he entered the NBA as a member of the Seattle SuperSonics, agreed to a lifetime deal with the company, making him the third basketball player after Michael Jordan and LeBron James to agree to such an arrangement.
“When I first signed with Nike, I couldn’t have dreamed of how far we’d go in this partnership,” Durant said in a statement. “We’ve done amazing work creatively and philanthropically. We’ve traveled the world together and built a business that will now last forever. I’m excited for the future and honored to be in rare company with this deal.”
Durant has gotten 16 signature sneakers during his time with Nike. The latest, the KD 16, has not been released yet, but he has worn them during the 2023 NBA playoffs.
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE – Follow me
Okay, here’s the situation…
This week’s episode of Ted Lasso featured a fun little throwaway joke about how Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruyff looks a little bit like Tim Robinson, the creator and star of the very funny Netflix sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave. The context isn’t really important to the journey we’re going on here, but I did go through it all a bit in my weekly Ted Lasso Power Rankings, so you are welcome to click that and peruse if you require background information. The important thing is the part where it happened at all, which I can prove to you with this screencap…
APPLE
Which is great. But here’s where it starts to get really fun: One of the main recurring players in I Think You Should Leave is Tim Robinson’s longtime comedy partner Sam Richardson (shoutout Detroiters), who has appeared in a number of sketches, including but not limited to the wonderful “Baby of the Year,” which I will link to right now, in part because I think providing evidence is important and in part because it’s very fun and I want an excuse to watch it again.
Still a 10/10 piece of business. And noteworthy for our purposes here because Sam Richardson — star of that sketch and also The Afterparty, which was so freaking good, too — also appeared in a few episodes of Ted Lasso last season. He played an African billionaire who swung through Richmond and caused a bunch of chaos and also, at one point, did this.
APPLE
The takeaways here are twofold:
If I Think You Should Leave exists in the Ted Lasso universe, then that means Sam Richardson exists in it, too, which means there is an African billionaire running around who looks exactly like a beloved American comedy figure, and that’s something I’m going to be thinking about a lot going forward
Sam Richardson is the best
But maybe that’s all a little flimsy for you. Maybe that’s not weird enough. Maybe you read the Power Rankings and saw me make this point already a few days ago. That’s fine. Because I can make it even weirder. Chew on this…
If, as we previously deduced, Sam Richardson, the person, exists in the Ted Lasso universe because I Think You Should Leave exists, then that means, one assumes, the other projects he has been in exist, too. Projects like Veep, where he played Richard Splett, but also projects like the Harley Quinn animated series, where he showed up as the voice of Swamp Thing in a season three episode. Here, look.
HBO MAX
And this is fascinating — to me, if not to anyone else — because, in the Valentine’s Day special episode of Harley Quinn that dropped this February, Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy Kent in Ted Lasso, showed up as a heightened cartoon version of himself — with repeated mentions of his writing and acting duties on Ted Lasso — and performed a sold-out, shirtless poetry reading for an audience of very thirsty ladies that was thwarted because a sexually frustrated Bane grew to 100-feet tall and started trying to have intercourse with skyscrapers. That last part isn’t super-relevant to the point I’m making but it is a lot of fun to say. (Harley Quinn is a good show.) Anyway, here’s the evidence of his appearance in that show.
HBO MAX
Do you see?
Do you see what is happening here?
Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy Kent in Ted Lasso, also, in theory, if we connect all these dots from I Think You Should Leave to Sam Richardson to Harley Quinn, exists as himself in the Ted Lasso universe… as the co-star of… the television show Ted Lasso.
Ted Lasso, the television show, exists within the television show Ted Lasso. What a delightful little philosophical pretzel they went and created for themselves, all because of a fun little throwaway joke about a soccer player looking like Tim Robinson. I want to see someone — Coach Beard, preferably — explain all of this to Dani Rojas.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to this week.
ITEM NUMBER TWO – FOLLOW ME AGAIN
HBO
This is a screencap from the most recent episode of Succession. I suspect you knew that already, either because you watched it or because it’s been all over your social media feeds all week long, as it should have been, because it’s great. Look at Frank and my beloved Karl just chilling in the robes outside the sauna that a bunch of Swedes are sweating in. These two have it figured out. They’re just waiting for their golden parachutes to kick in and not making any waves and looking like everything I could possibly want out of life. I am so happy for them.
And again, so was everyone. People went a little nuts, as people will sometimes do. There were a bunch of tweets that compared them to Statler and Waldorf, the famously cranky Muppets who sit up in the balcony and crack themselves up with jokes at others’ expense. I don’t know if this is accurate, really, but I do like it a lot. The only downside is that now I am upset neither of them has a mustache. I think Karl would look good with a mustache. Maybe he’ll grow one in retirement.
But here’s the fun thing…
Just after this episode ended, as people were starting to flood social media with comparisons of Frank and Karl and famous Muppets, this tweet started making the rounds, too.
hey guys, just checking — does everyone know that frank from succession was a puppeteer on the muppet show? yeah, he played a giant singing carrot opposite gilda radner. okay, sick pic.twitter.com/hWbc8GjBVe
This is… it’s really just incredible. And true! I looked it up and everything! Talk about a life well-lived, man. Good for Peter Friedman. Good for Frank and Karl. Good for the Muppets.
But mostly, good for us. It’s nice to have fun online. People forget that.
ITEM NUMBER THREE – The Chandler-Keanu feud has ended… probably
Getty Image
It is really kind of funny that Matthew Perry wrote a big memoir about his life in Hollywood and his struggles with addiction and all of that but the only thing people took away from it is that he was mean to Keanu Reeves. I don’t know why I enjoy that so much. I have nothing against Matthew Perry. I hope he’s doing great! But I do find it pretty funny. I don’t know. It’s fine.
You remember this, yes? The thing where Matthew Perry repeatedly busted on Keanu out of nowhere and for no reason? The thing where he said “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” and the thing where he says he punched a joke through the wall of Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room when he heard Chris Farley died and then punctuated the story in the book by saying “Keanu Reeves walks among us”? And the thing where the masses rose up like the mighty ocean and dumped a tsunami of rage on him for being mean to Keanu?
I hope so. It was a good time. But it appears this one-sided feud is now over. Matthew Perry revealed earlier this week that copies of his book going forward will edit out the Keanu digs. Sayeth Matthew:
“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do,” Perry said at a recent book festival, as per The Los Angeles Times. “I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.”
He added, “If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize. It was just stupid.”
There are, as far as I can tell, two possibilities here. The first and more probable one is that Matthew Perry was still thinking of Bill & Ted era Keanu, the one whose public image was that of a goofball stoner who ambled through life aimlessly, and he made this joke without realizing Keanu had become a kind of widely beloved sweetheart for a significant chunk of the population that spends a lot of time on the internet (guilty as charged here), and backtracked after he got yelled at a lot.
The other possibility, less likely but much funnier, is that Matthew Perry had never seen the John Wick movies and was home sick one day after his book published and watched three of them in a row on basic cable from the couch and saw Keanu move like a ballerina while mowing down dozens of trained assassins and he sat up and thought to himself, “Mother of God, I have made a terrible mistake.” It’s a fun little mental image to tinker with. Put Matt LeBlanc in the room with him if you want. It’s your daydream. You can do whatever you want.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR – Let Rihanna swear in the Smurf movie
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Hey, here’s a really fun coupling of sentences from a recent report in Deadline…
In her third trimester, Rihanna showed up at Paramount Pictures’ CinemaCon presentation on Thursday in Las Vegas to say she’s playing “a little blue badass” — that being Smurfette in Par and Nickelodeon Movies’ The Smurfs Movie. Rihanna also is producing the movie and providing original songs.
I am going to be very direct here. No rambling or dilly-dallying. This is too important…
Please let Rihanna swear in the Smurf movie. Let Smurfette cuss. I think Rihanna would like that. I know I would. Let her sing some steamy club banger and have Smurfette perform it in character in the movie. Let’s do it all. There’s nothing stopping us. Look what they are doing to Winnie the Pooh in a new series that is being shopped around right now.
Christopher Robin is a comedic live-action/animation hybrid reimagining of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. Per the logline: Christopher Robin is a disillusioned New Yorker navigating his quarter-life crisis with the help of the weird talking animals who live beyond a drug-induced portal outside his derelict apartment complex, the Hundred Acres.
If Christopher Robin can be a junkie who hallucinates famous characters from children’s books then we can let Rihanna cuss as Smurfette. It is only fair.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Jimmy Kimmel seems like a pretty good dude
John Mulaney has a new Netflix special out this week that touches on the roller coaster ride he’s been on the last few years. Drug addiction, intervention, rehab, divorce, having a baby with Olivia Munn, really just a lot. He looks like he’s doing okay now. I hope he is. And if telling the world about it in a comedy routine is helpful at all for him, man, god bless. Whatever works.
He stopped by Jimmy Kimmel’s show the other day to promote it and, while there, revealed that he had lived in Jimmy’s guest house for a few weeks after he got out of rehab. That’s… I mean, that’s pretty cool. Think about it a little. A guy you know hits rock bottom — divorce, drugs, all of it — and you just invite him to stay with you while he puts his life back together. That takes a real solid dude. It helps that Jimmy Kimmel had a whole separate guest house to put him up in. I imagine it would be different if Jimmy had a two-bedroom and John Mulaney asked if he could crash on the couch. But still. Pretty cool.
Jimmy Kimmel seems like a really good dude. It’s kind of wild that we got here after he started his career with crank calls and busty women jumping on trampolines, but hey, everyone’s journey is different, you know? The destination is what matters most. Pretty good lesson to file away.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Eric:
Just as the absolutely delightful Shrinking ended its first season, Succession began its final season, and watching them so close together, I had a brainstorm: I need a show in which David Rasche and Ted McGinley play brothers. I mean, they look more like brothers than most real brothers do. I looked up their ages — Rasche is 78, McGinley is 64, which sounds like a big gap, but, hey, Michael McKean played Bob Odenkirk’s brother, so, ya know, Hollywood magic and so forth, good enough.
McGinley, despite his reputation as the Patron Saint of Shark Jumping, is a national treasure, as he reminded us with his portrayal of the D-Man. As for Rasche, well, he’s now paying off that stock I bought the first time Sledge Hammer shot a hole in my screen.
What would the premise be? Doesn’t really matter. I just want them to play brothers. But if I must suggest something: They’ve both just gotten divorced and their wives are keeping the houses so they get an apartment together, two 70-ish bachelor brothers back in the game. We can’t call it The Disgusting Brothers, unfortunately. But we can call it anything else.
I really don’t have too much to add here. This is just a really great email. I like that Eric thought all of this and then said “I bet Brian would like this” and then he typed it all out and sent it to me. The best part is that he sent it a few weeks ago, before I even wrote my ode to Karl, the character Rasche plays on Succession. Another one of those emails that really makes me feel like I’m doing something right out here. Terrific vibes.
Anyway, my only requests for this show are as follows:
They live on a golf course
They have a neighbor played by Joe Pera
The ex-wives are played by Jennifer Coolidge and Catherine O’Hara and they become friends, too
The most menacing animal at the Blackpool Zoo in England isn’t in a cage. It’s flying overhead.
I promise you all that you do not know where this is headed. Unless you read the article earlier in the week. Then you do. But be quiet and don’t ruin the surprise for everyone else. It’s too good. I mean, like, look at this entire paragraph.
Seagulls have been diving down to rip hot dogs and hamburgers from the hands of visitors, sometimes biting their hands. It has gotten so bad, the zoo has hatched a plan: Hire someone to walk around in an eagle costume to spook the seagulls and keep them at bay.
Perfect. From beginning to end. Because it starts out with the objectively great visual of seagulls dive-bombing out of the sky and absconding with entire hot dogs that had once belonged to now very startled British people, and then it somehow improves on that in the next sentence by introducing the concept of a man or woman in an eagle costume running around the zoo flapping its wings to scare away lunch-snatching seagulls.
This is already better than most of the television shows I watch. Hell, it is a television show I would watch. A workplace comedy about a zoo dealing with repeated seagull attacks. Parks and Recreation but with more animals. I was joking when I started this paragraph but now I’m serious. This happens a lot.
“They love ice cream,” he said. “They’ll take the whole cone and swallow it in just one go.”
The birds even got a taste for indoor dining. Mr. Fawzy said automatic doors had to be removed because the seagulls learned how to work the sensors and wander into the cafe.
ZOO EMPLOYEE: [running into office, out of breath] Sir…
ZOO MANAGER: What is it, Johnson?
ZOO EMPLOYEE: [gasping, covered in peck wounds] The seagulls, sir… they’ve… they’ve…
ZOO MANAGER: Dammit, Johnson, spit it out!
ZOO EMPLOYEE: [sweating, voice cracking] They’ve… they’ve learned how to open the automatic doors, sir…
ZOO MANAGER: [cigar falls out of mouth] Mother of God.
The job pays £8 an hour, or about $10 an hour, for those between 16 and 20 years old, a zoo spokeswoman said. Those 21 years and older make £2.80 more an hour. Mr. Fawzy said about 200 applications have come in, including some from as far away as Uganda.
It’s really very exciting to me that a handful of teens from England and around the world are, a decade or two from now, going to be able to explain to someone that their summer job in high school was to dress up like an eagle at the zoo and flap their fake wings furiously in an attempt to scare away dessert-thieving seagulls. Hell of an icebreaker on a first date.
Yesterday, I was so distracted by quotes like “I was absolutely baffled that Aquaman was received so well” and “Han Solo! Indiana Jones! Bro!” that I neglected to mention the most important part of the time that Men’s Health spent with Jason Momoa: his naked bike ride.
In “Jason Momoa Shows Off His Gym & Fridge,” the Fast X star, well, shows off his gym and fridge — and his body. The video begins with Momoa answering the door while holding a Guinness and wearing nothing but a pink robe; his genitals are censored by a bottle of his liquor, Meili Vodka. Later, he shows his fridge, the contents of which include more beer, more vodka, and ham. “Gotta have the pork,” Momoa says. Speaking of meat…
At one point, Momoa shows off his variety of mountain and riding bikes before deciding to hop on one completely in the nude. “Yeah I like to mountain bike, like to go downhill fast,” Momoa says as he bumps up and down on his bike with — once again — a Meili bottle graphic covering his private parts. The Game of Thrones alum then continues riding in circles around his rustic gym and eventually flashes the camera with his bare bum on the bike seat.
Momoa also showed off his record collection, which includes albums from Howlin’ Wolf, Nirvana, and Slayer. He’s never been more relatable (mostly the Slayer-listening, beer-drinking part, not so much the nude bike riding).
You can watch “Jason Momoa Shows Off His Gym & Fridge” (which could be the title of an SNL sketch) above.
French Montana’s journey toward achieving mainstream international success has not been easy. The “Ain’t Worried About Nothin’” rapper is ready to showcase the trials and tribulations on full display in his forthcoming documentary For Khadija. Executive produced by fellow musician Drake and his record label’s founder Diddy, the film includes never-scene-before clips of the recording artist’s start in the rap game, growing up in the South Bronx, his return to his native country Morocco, and more. Artists like Drake and Fat Joe make appearances in the trailer.
Pulling it’s name from Montana’s mother, Khadija Guled, the film’s trailer is a heartbreaking look at the high and lows of his career thus far.
“Us watching America as kids, they sell you the dream. They don’t show you that behind those buildings, there’s the nightmare part,” declared Montana. From his time as a street dealer, to the imprisonment of his longtime friend and collaborator Max B, dealing with the emotional scarring the abandonment of his father left him with, For Khajida leaves no stone unturned.
With everyone celebrated victory, Montana has quietly battled a few losses proving that everything that a life in the limelight isn’t always glitter and gold.
For Khadija is slated to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. For more information, click here.
Ed Sheeran has a lot going on. That might seem like an overly obvious sentence about one of the world’s most prevalent pop stars, but he really has a lot going on right now.
Next week, Sheeran will drop Subtract, his sixth studio album that already boasts the incredibly vulnerable singles “Eyes Closed” and “Boat.” The release will be accompanied by a four-part original Disney+ documentary series, The Sum Of It All.
And later in May, Sheeran will set out on his Subtract Tour. The 14-date North American trek was announced today, April 28.
“I’m playing some smaller theatre shows in the US this summer, so I can play Subtract the entire way through with full band in an intimate setting,” Sheeran posted to Instagram.
Per press release, Sheeran “is using Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan technology,” and registration has already begun this morning. Verified Fan registration will be open here until Sunday, April 30, at 11:59 p.m. EST. The Verified Fan onsale is scheduled for Tuesday, May 2, at 10 a.m. local time.
Sheeran’s Subtract Tour overlaps with the North American leg of Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour. The Subtracts Tour will feature Ben Kweller as the supporting act “on most dates,” while the Mathematics Tour will oscillate between Khalid, Russ, Dylan, Rosa Linn, Cat Burns, and Maisie Peters as the openers.
See all dates for both tours below.
Subtract Tour
05/19 — Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
05/26 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
06/02 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
06/16 — Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
06/29 — Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre
07/14 — Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
07/21 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
07/28 — Chicago, IL @ The Chicago Theatre
08/11 — Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre
08/18 — Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
08/25 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
09/01 — Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
09/15 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
09/22 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Auditorium
Mathematics Tour
05/06 — Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium
05/13 — Houston, TX @ NRG Stadium
05/20 — Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium
05/27 — Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
06/03 — Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field
06/10 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
06/11 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
06/17 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
06/18 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
06/24 — Landover, MD @ FedExField
06/30 — Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
07/01 — Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
07/08 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Acrisure Stadium
07/15 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
07/22 — Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
07/29 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
08/05 — Kansas City, MO @ GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium
08/12 — Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium
08/19 — Denver, CO @ Empower Field at Mile High
08/26 — Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field
09/02 — Vancouver, BC @ BC Place
09/09 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium
09/16 — Santa Clara, CA @ Levi’s Stadium
09/23 — Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium
— (Subtract) is out 5/5 via Asylum and Atlantic. Find more information here.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Lola Brooke‘s breakout single, “Don’t Play With It,” is still going strong but that doesn’t mean the pint-sized Brooklyn rapper doesn’t have more heat in the stash. With all of that momentum behind her, it’s the perfect time for her to drop some new music, which arrives today in the form of the “Just Relax” video.
Taking a sample of Black Sheep’s “The Choice Is Yours” and pairing it with some Swizz Beatz-style drums, producer Reefa crafts a throwback beat that provides the perfect platform for Brooke’s rugged rhymes. The video kicks it old-school too, placing the action at a good old-fashioned house party where TKTK.
After a four year absence, Black Mirror finally returns to Netflix with a fully stacked Season 6 that features an all-star cast including Salma Hayek, Aaron Paul, Annie Murphy, and Josh Hartnett. While we don’t have a specific release date for Black Mirror Season 6, the new episodes will arrive in June, so the wait won’t be long.
As for what to expect from the twisted sci-fi series, here’s what creator Charlie Brooker recently told Tudum after unveiling the jam-packed cast:
“Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and the viewer, I began this season by deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what to expect,” he says. “Consequently, this time, alongside some of the more familiar Black Mirror tropes we’ve also got a few new elements, including some I’ve previously sworn blind the show would never do, to stretch the parameters of what ‘a Black Mirror episode’ even is.”
While Black Mirror will venture into uncharted waters, Brooker promises Season 6 will still feel familiar to fans, but with some twists.
“The stories are all still tonally Black Mirror through-and-through,” Brooker said. “But with some crazy swings and more variety than ever before.”
As for the cast, just check out the wall of talent: Aaron Paul, Anjana Vasan, Annie Murphy, Auden Thornton, Ben Barnes, Clara Rugaard, Daniel Portman, Danny Ramirez, David Shields, Himesh Patel, John Hannah, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Michael Cera, Monica Dolan, Myha’la Herrold, Paapa Essiedu, Rob Delaney, Rory Culkin, Salma Hayek Pinault, Samuel Blenkin and Zazie Beetz.
Black Mirror Season 6 starts streaming in June on Netflix.
For many of us, the impacts of childhood trauma linger on insidiously. Aspects of our adult identity become shaped by those terrible chapters in our early years without us even realizing it. And because this happens at such a young age, it can take years of soul searching, not to mention professional support, before a person can sift through those painful memories to recover a real sense of self.
Yes, it’s a taxing and scary process, with perhaps the most daunting aspect being the fact that you once again have to bring that trauma to light by talking about it. But as we have seen many times over, being open and honest about our struggles often results in the support, healing and transformation needed to improve our mental health. In other words—the rewards outweigh the discomfort.
Filmmaker Kevin Smith is a celebrity pretty well known for being candid about his personal challenges, especially when it comes to health and well-being. After suffering from a heart attack back in Feb 2018, the “Clerks” director has made his weight loss journey and the insights from it a major part of his presence online. You’d be hard pressed to find a fan that didn’t know about this part of his life.
However, in an exclusive with People, Kevin Smith revealed for the first time that the root cause of his previous weight struggles had been related to sexual abuse he experienced at 6 years old, when an older boy forced him to perform sexual acts with a young girl in the neighborhood.
As Smith told People, he always denied the gravity of the incident, telling himself that “we were just playing doctor in an alleyway.” It wouldn’t be until the age of 52, after checking into Arizona’s Sierra Tucson treatment center and dedicating a month to intensive therapy, that Smith would learn the event was indeed severe and left him with an untreated psychological wound.
It took suffering from a “complete break from reality” and being stuck in a “weird, dark place,” but Smith did finally get help. After talking with a therapist, he learned that the incident, along with being made fun of for his weight by a teacher in grade school, led him to create a “larger-than-life” public persona he calls “the other guy.”
“I felt disgusting, like I didn’t matter. That’s when ‘the other guy’ started to appear. I decided to be entertaining and make people love me before they noticed I was fat,” he told People.
As we all know from “Jay and Silent Bob” alone, this strategy has worked. Perhaps for Smith more than most, it would seem disastrous to throw away an alter-ego which has brought such great commercial success.
And yet, Smith has still decided to not only take steps towards finding his “authentic self,” which include discontinuing smoking pot and incorporating a more relaxed work schedule, but to share his story with fans in an effort to spread the message of the importance of self-acceptance.
Smith posted a link to the People article on his own Twitter account, writing, “Having been a creature of the Internet for 28 years now, I fully expect to get trolled for this. But if it can help some folks, it’ll be worth it. So here goes…A few months back I went through a mental health crisis. This is some of the stuff I learned.”
Having been a creature of the Internet for 28 years now, I fully expect to get trolled for this. But if it can help some folks, it’ll be worth it. So here goes… A few months back I went through a mental health crisis. This is some of the stuff I learned: https://t.co/9Uavmnxg6Fhttps://t.co/36NuEkqK0w
“The more we talk about our mental health, the less stigma there will be around it. It’s ok to not be ok. Thanks for sharing your journey with us, Kevin!”
“Kev, I don’t know you well, but we’ve met a few times over the years and I’ve always had a ton of respect for you. And I respect you even more for having the courage to face your demons publicly in a way that will surely help others do the same. Much love, brother.”
“Dude I related to this hard especially struggling with people commenting on my body when I was much heavier growing up and how I processed it. I minimized a lot of the comments going through life. Glad you talked about it Kevin.”
“Sending you all the love, Kev. You are worthy. In every way. You are helping people every day, but most importantly you’re also taking time to help yourself and that’s equally as important. I’ve been on a similar journey and I’m just happy to hear about your healing journey.”
“Thank you so much for this Kevin, being able to actually see the real authentic you is truly amazing, and I hope others get so much positive energy and healing from this, mental health is important and our happiness.”
“This was so beautiful. I can’t thank you enough for sharing all your wisdom these last few years especially. I’m so happy you’re finding yourself, cos that’s who we love. You always shine past the other guy. Much love and godspeed in your continued growth.”
You certainly don’t have to be a popular celebrity to talk about your struggles. If anything, this is a beautiful example of what can happen when we normalize having these types of conversations. It might not look like an interview with People, but opening up to our loved ones, community or a therapist can still work wonders for recovering our sense of self. In fact, it might be the only way for us to truly do it.
You can watch Smith’s full video interview with People below:
There are many reasons why toddlers are fascinated by construction workers and their equipment. The loud noises, flashing lights, and sheer size of these machines can be both exciting and intimidating, which creates a sense of wonder and curiosity.
Construction toys also offer a type of play that is easy for kids to understand. Toy construction trucks do simple things; they dig, transport sand and roll around on wheels. They also give kids a sense of power and control, which is alluring and comforting to them.
“Little ones love big trucks like diggers because to a preschooler, those trucks seem larger than life,” Crystal Paschal, early childhood educator and founder of the website Feminist Books for Kids, told Romper. “They are real machines that do the work of superheroes. Diggers, bulldozers and cranes stimulate their imaginations and allow them to picture themselves controlling something big and powerful.”
The tremendous feeling that young children get when seeing construction workers in action is a big reason why so many people have fallen in love with a video posted to TikTok by a user named @iwishicouldsleep.
Since it was posted on April 6, it has received over 16.5 million views.
Literally tell me youve seen something cuter. I cant stop sending this to people ☺️☺️
In the video, a giddy young boy and his guardian watch an excavator and crew of workers from a safe distance as they dig up a suburban street. The boy and his guardian placed a toy dump truck between the workers and themselves and the difference in size is a unique juxtaposition of a child’s fantasy world with that of working adults. Then, the long arm of the excavator dumps some sand into the back of the boy’s truck, and for the toddler, the scene is pure bliss.
It’s a sweet moment and a testament to the worker’s skill that they could drop the dirt on such a tiny target.
People on TikTok couldn’t get enough of the wholesome video.
“Wonderful gesture that the child will never forget, great job dude,” Gary wrote. “Also, let’s applaud the finesse of that operator! This is awesome,” Mibbecakes added.
“Why did I just start crying?! This is so pure,” Juliana wrote.
The touching moment wasn’t just great for the child; it had to be moving for the construction workers, too. They have to take pride in the fact that their work can bring people such joy. “Every one of those workers’ spirits were lifted up by that. Not to mention the child and his mother’s!” wrote Kellymanfredibl25.
In another video posted on April 17, the construction workers got to hang out and take a photo with the little boy. For the occasion, he put on a construction helmet and vest and posed with his dump truck. It was even more special because it was his third birthday.
“They all wanted to meet the star today!! Big man turned 3,” iwishicouldsleep wrote.
They all wanted to meet the star today!! Big man turned 3 🥹
The video is a great way of reminding people that some of the simplest gestures can give a young kid (or a big one!) a memory of a lifetime. Sometimes all it takes is just a few minutes.
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