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Succession was all about Alexander Skarsgård’s character, Lukas Matsson, this week. Of course, I am exaggerating but the episode still felt 90% Skarsgård, which is never a bad percentage when it comes to plugging him into an HBO show. Interestingly enough, however, the Roy siblings began their trip across the pond with Kendall declaring that it was an occasion to “bleed the Swede.” Little did anyone realize that the Swede was bleeding himself.

This was a True Blood easter egg, for sure. Yet for an obnoxious tech-bro character who dude fakes everyone out, Matsson has a legion of fans among the viewership. Let’s get real, though. The appeal spawns from fandom for the actor, who was kind enough to let his abs do some of the work in this scene.

No one was mad to see it happen. Play it again, Skarsgård.

That scene had such an effect that it couldn’t be dampened by a later revelation of Matsson’s dubious pastime/fetish. As revealed to Shiv during a late night conversation, Lukas has a crush on his comms director, so he sends her his blood as a token of his affection. That’s not good PR, as Shiv points out while adding, “Deniability is difficult, given she has so much… of your blood.” And no one can deny that hearts were still pumping, “sicko” or not.

HBO’s Succession airs on Sunday nights at 9:00pm EST.

The Rap Mount Rushmore meme reared its head once again on the latest episode of The Bootleg Kev show as the DJ asked his guest Nick Cannon about one of the most notable names in rap.

Cannon and Kev shared their praise of Nicki Minaj, who Cannon took care to note is among the greatest of all time regardless of gender. “She’s one of the coldest artists in the last decade,” he enthused. “We can’t sleep on her skill, her pen, sonically. She changed the game. ‘Monster’? That was her record.”

As he expanded, he went a little more old-school, saying, “The only person, to me, that has the same level of talent, and that we should even be comparing her to, is Lauryn Hill or Missy Elliott. Those three, that’s the Mount Rushmore.”

The Rap Mount Rushmore meme has been a recurring theme online since it’s always good for some engagement. Within the last few years, we’ve gotten takes from the likes of Ja Rule and J. Cole, with the latter putting a tongue-in-cheek spin on things, along with reactions from the likes of the West Coast rap legends who named their group after the meme and Nicki Minaj herself. Meanwhile, Lil Baby had some fun with it for the cover of his album It’s Only Me after fans debated his inclusion in one for Atlanta rappers.

The New York Jets were linked to just about every big name quarterback on the market this offseason, and the case can be made that they went out and acquired the biggest name of them all. After weeks of negotiations between the various sides, New York has reportedly landed Aaron Rodgers, whose time with the Green Bay Packers will officially come to an end.

It took a few times of negotiations stalling out and restarting, but the two teams have finally agreed to a trade that sees them swap first rounders this year, with Green Bay getting a second this year and a 2024 second that becomes a first of Rodgers plays 65 percent of the season for the Jets this year.

New York showed flashes of being one of the more promising young teams in the NFL last season, but often found itself handcuffed by subpar quarterback play. Four separate players — Joe Flacco, Chris Streveler, Mike White, and Zach Wilson — all started at least one game under center, with Wilson’s time, in particular, leading to plenty of scrutiny. The former No. 2 overall pick struggled with injuries, but also got benched and was not expected to return as the Jets’ starting signal caller in 2023.

With the need for a new QB, the Jets saw themselves linked to names like Derek Carr in the free agent market. But eventually, it became obvious that New York wanted to acquire Rodgers, the 39-year-old who has exclusively played his professional football in a Packers uniform. The 4-time NFL Most Valuable Player made clear that he was not sure if he’d return to Green Bay, seek greener pastures, or retire, although it was eventually reported that a 19th season with the Packers was unlikely.

Now that Rodgers is heading to New York, the expectation is that Green Bay will turn things over to Jordan Love, the No. 26 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft who has backed up Rodgers in each of the last three seasons.

There are over 2,700 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Big Bird has one, Pentatonix have one, even freaking Shrek has one, but not Carrie Fisher. The iconic actress, author, and good-dog-haver has not been immortalized on Hollywood Boulevard, unlike her Star Wars co-stars Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford. This injustice will finally be corrected on May 4th, a.k.a. Star Wars Day.

“Fans will be over the moon to know that their favorite movie princess, Carrie Fisher will be honored with her star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame! Carrie will join her Star Wars co-stars and fellow Walk of Famers Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford on this historic sidewalk” Ana Martinez, Hollywood Walk of Fame producer, said in a statement. “I am happy to add, that her star is just a few feet away from the star of Mark Hamill and across the street from the star of her legendary mother Debbie Reynolds!”

The ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 4, at 11:30 a.m. PST. Once Fisher joins Hamill and Ford, this should open the flood gates for more Star Wars characters on the Walk of Fame (the random weirdos dressed as Leia around Hollywood do not count). Your time is coming soon, Boss Nass. I know it.

(Via Walk of Fame)

Big Mouth, Netflix’s raunchy animated series about the trials and tribulations of being a middle schooler, is coming to an end after eight seasons of weirdo situations that make you feel like you shouldn’t really be watching.

The series features an all-star cast of comedians led by Nick Kroll, including John Mulaney, Ayo Edebiri, Jason Mantzoukas, Maya Rudolph, and Fred Armisen. The upcoming seventh season will air in 2023, and the final season is expected to premiere in 2024, so there are still a lot more masturbation jokes to come. According to Netflix, there have been 689 so far, but who’s counting? Like, actually, who counted those jokes and what was that experience like?

Of course, the series can’t end without making a little bit of history. With eight seasons, Big Mouth will become the longest-running series in Netflix history (aside from kids and family programming because nobody will ever beat the cult classic Cocomelon). The series also has its own spinoff show Human Resources, which is currently in its second season of shenanigans.

In a press release, Kroll poked fun at the long-running series, “If you would have told adolescent Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg that middle school would take 8 years to finish, they would have been like ‘yeah, that sounds about right. This seems like it will never end.’” It’s good when series creators are aware of when their shows need to end. Someone should bring that energy over to Riverdale.

Let me tell you a brief but true story about Facebook settlements:

A couple of years ago, my husband and I saw an article about a Facebook lawsuit settlement in Illinois. We’d lived in the state and used Facebook during the dates the settlement covered, so we took two minutes to fill out a simple form.

Then we forgot about it.

Last year, we each got a $397 check from Facebook in the mail.

The End.

(Told you it would be brief.)

When people see headlines about lawsuit settlements, they often assume either that they aren’t eligible or that receiving part of the settlement will involve a whole bunch of red tape. It’s often just as simple as it sounds, though, and people who assume otherwise leave money on the table.

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Right now, there’s a $725 million settlement that anyone who used Facebook between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022 is eligible to submit a claim for. The form takes just a couple of minutes to fill out, so if you’re like, “Yes, sign me up!” here’s the link to the website. (I promise it’s legit, despite sounding like a fake URL. I went through this with the Illinois settlement as well. This is just how these things are done in the internet age.)

You can either fill out your claim on the website or print it out and mail it to: Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, c/o Settlement Administrator, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

The form just took me 2 1/2 minutes to submit. I timed it, and that included getting a verification code sent to my email and having to re-find the claim form window because I have too many tabs open. (You have until August 25, 2023, so no big rush.)

If you’re not sure yet and you want to know what the heck this is all about before you fill out a form, here’s the background info:

If you click on “What’s this lawsuit about?” in the FAQ section, here’s the synopsis:

“Numerous lawsuits were brought on behalf of Facebook users who allege that Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) shared or otherwise made accessible to third parties (including but not limited to third-party app developers, “whitelisted” parties, business partners, advertisers, and data brokers) user data and data about users’ friends without permission of the users whose data was shared, and did not sufficiently monitor and enforce third-party access or use of that data.”

Basically, our data was shared without our permission. Neato. But that sounds a little vague, right? Surely there’s something specific that prompted this settlement, right?

Well, yes. Do you remember the 2016 election? Yes, that one. In the two years leading up to that election, a data analytics company called Cambridge Analytica allegedly paid Facebook developers for Facebook user data, which it used to target voters in the election. Cambridge Analytica is tied to deep-pocketed Republicans and Trump’s former campaign manager, Steve Bannon, so it’s not a big stretch to guess who benefited from this data privacy violation.

Of course, Cambridge Analytica is not the only third party to collect data from Facebook without user knowledge, it’s just the most well-known. At any rate, all of us who were Facebook users for the past 16 years are eligible for a payout from the company, whether our specific data was shared or not.

The big question is how much each person will get. Nobody knows, and the final amount will depend in part on how many people submit a claim. Lawyers will take their cut as well, so I’ll be surprised to get another $390+ payment. But for two minutes of form-filling, even a much smaller amount would be worth it.

Find the claim form website here.

On Monday morning, Don Lemon announced he’d been terminated by CNN after 17 years of serving as a news anchor for the network. Lemon claimed the news came as a shock, saying he was “stunned” by his employer’s decision and suspecting there were “larger issues at play” when it came to his firing. In a tweet, the on-air personality alleged, “At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network.”

CNN’s own version of events, however, contradicts Lemon’s perspective, and a recent expose by Variety, which details allegations about off-camera behavior, must not have helped matters.

In February, Lemon went on temporary leave following remarks he made about presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, age 51, while suggesting that she’s too old for the job. When pressed by a female co-anchor on whether Lemon meant “prime for childbearing” or “prime for being president,” Lemon responded, “Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s like, prime. If you look it up. If you Google when is a woman in her prime, it’ll say 20s, 30s and 40s.”

CNN Chief Executive Chris Licht announced Lemon would undergo some type of “training” following the incident while the anchor tweeted an apology for his comments.

One month later, Variety‘s report alleged that long-time anchor had a history of sexist and misogynistic behavior that went unchecked at CNN for far too long. According to the outlet, Lemon was accused of harassing former female co-workers and sending his assumed rivals threatening text messages when they received higher-profile reporting gigs. After his own late-night news program began to fall in the ratings, Lemon was slotted to co-anchor CNN This Morning alongside Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow.

The Daily Mail further reported that some of Lemon’s co-workers issued ultimatums, demanding he be fired for his “diva-like” behavior. Whether or not that report is true, it’s clear that Lemon’s CNN days are done.

Taylor Swift was in Houston this weekend for a trio of The Eras Tour concerts. At the second of those, on April 22, some fans observed that she seemed to have cut her hand. Billboard notes, “Fans watching the second of Swift’s three shows in Houston over the weekend quickly noticed that she was missing a chunk of skin from her left palm, which appeared to bleed on and off throughout the remainder of the performance. […] As the concert progressed, Swift could be seen with bandages wrapped around her wrist and palm.”

Now, Swift herself has taken a moment to address what happened with her hand.

In a post shared today (April 24), she reflected on the weekend, saying, “Just got to play 3 insane shows in Houston and I’m waking up smiling reminiscing about how much fun we all had. Loving this tour so much because of the passion these crowds put into it all – seriously can’t wait for Atlanta [smiling emoji] PS for those asking how I cut my hand, I’m totally fine and it was my fault completely – tripped on my dress hem and fell in the dark backstage while running to a quick change – braced my fall with my palm. It was all very Mercury in retrograde coded. Don’t worry about me I’m gooooood [kissy face emoji].”

This comes after Swift’s previous weekend in Tampa, where she was joined by Aaron Dessner.

The Kings and Warriors are returning to Sacramento for Game 5 with the series tied 2-2, as both teams have taken care of business at home. While the home team has won each game, the series has been filled with late-game drama and has been the most entertaining of the first round tilts.

The first four games have, in particular, cemented Kings guard De’Aaron Fox as a star. Fox has averaged 31.5 points, 7.0 assists, and 6.0 rebounds per game in his first four postseason appearances, carrying the Sacramento offense at times and continuing to thrive in the fourth quarter as he did all regular season. Fox’s game translating to the playoff stage has been absolutely critical to the Kings’ success, which is why Monday’s news that the rising star had suffered a fracture of the tip of his index left finger (which is his shooting hand) in the fourth quarter of Game 4 provided a significant damper on the excitement for Game 5.

The Kings are heavily reliant on Fox’s creation skills, especially late in games where he’s their only real isolation threat as a scorer. If he’s unable to go in Game 5, which seems likely given the expected “doubtful” designation, this year’s Coach of the Year, Mike Brown, will have his hands full crafting a new rotation. On top of his huge offensive performances, Fox has also been vital to the Kings’ defensive gameplan against Stephen Curry, where he and Davion Mitchell take turns hounding the future Hall of Famer fullcourt to disrupt the Warriors’ rhythm.

Without Fox, executing that gameplan becomes much more difficult because no one can replace Fox’s recovery speed, which is part of why he can pressure full court. On top of that, Fox makes playing Mitchell much easier on the offensive end, where Davion is not an on-ball threat and is a below average shooter (but has made some timely baskets in this series). Malik Monk is the obvious answer for where Brown turns for on-ball creation in the backcourt, but he’s not been able to replicate quite the same success he had in Games 1 and 2 over the past two on the road. Domantas Sabonis also becomes more important as a hub, as the dribble-handoff game with the Kings’ various shooters would likely be an even bigger staple of the Kings offense without Fox.

Even if he can play, it’s hard to see the injury not inhibiting him at least some, and the rest of the Kings will have to be ready to step up, particularly as shooters, if the finger issue causes him to struggle with his feel on his shot.

For the last few years, Lil Baby has been considered one of the hottest names in rap. However, fans now fear his hot streak could be coming to an end after he was photographed dining out with Khloe Kardashian. Lil Baby fans wondered whether the photo meant that Lil Baby and Kardashian had begun dating — and worried that he would be the latest entertainer to fall victim to the so-called “Kardashian Curse,” which many insist has already claimed everyone from Kanye West to James Harden.

It’s no doubt misogynistic and gross, but a meme on the internet over the past decade has been the half-joking, half-serious belief that entertainers who become romantically entangled with the Kardashian family (including the Jenners) are doomed to fall into a slump in which their output suffers greatly, both creatively and commercially. This goes for the athletes that get involved with any of the five sisters, resulting in losing streaks and stretches of poor performance compared to their previous averages.

Ball players and rappers who have supposedly fallen victim to the curse include Blake Griffin, French Montana, James Harden, Jordan Clarkson, Kanye West, Kris Humphries, Lamar Odom, Tristan Thompson, and Tyga.

The legend of the curse likely originates in the sisters’ apparent shared preference for, well, Black NBA players and rappers, and the fact that nearly all of them did have slumps in performance while dating one of the Jenner-Kardashians. However, there is also a number of alternative explanations that don’t involve sexist assumptions about their dating histories. Also, some have had their greatest successes in that time, such as Travis Scott.

Still, that won’t stop fans from freaking out any time one of their faves is photoed hanging around the Kardashian crew — just see the responses to Bad Bunny being shot by paparazzi with Kendall Jenner and the reactions to Lil Baby’s apparent association with Khloe Kardashian.