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Over the years, only a select few evil inanimate companions have really made a name for themselves. We’ve got Chucky, your classic, run-of-the-mill evil soul trapped in some polyester overalls. He’s got a knife, which is fun, and he ruled that specific niche horror subgenre for a good twenty-thirty years.

But then Annabelle entered the mix, with her elegant nightgown and cute braids that were much too large for her little possessed head. And for years, this is how society functioned: the two dolls living in harmony. Whenever one got too much of a big head, they would be humbled by another subpar spinoff. They would never really interact, only sometimes referencing each other from a distance. And that’s how it was supposed to be! Things were quiet, nice even….until M3gan came along this year.

If Chucky and Annabelle were the Snapchat starlets, M3gan is the Instagram social media influencer of your haunted doll dreams. She gossips, sings, murders in cold blood, and even has a dance routine that has been replicated all over the world (it’s been a slow week). And she knows it! To celebrate her continued success, M3gan decided to do a Reddit AMA. Not to be mean, but Chucky has not done one of those yet, which is probably for the best.

Most of the questions revolved around the haunted dolls that came before her, which M3gan is not a fan of. She, after all, is a robot, not a doll, so she has the power of computers on her side. She might even be a descendant of R2D2, we will never really know. But one thing is for sure: she does not want to be associated with those other guys.

When asked about her thoughts on Chucky, M3gan, seemingly with no media training whatsoever, called out the little guy:

like many middle aged white males whose souls are stuck in the body of an 80s toy, chucky has trouble accepting that technology has come a long way and i’ve been created to rid the waste of anyone who gets in the way or is a threat to my besties

When Gen Z robots don’t use capitalization, that’s how you know they are serious!

M3gan also doesn’t really think that Annabelle should get a pass either, even though she doesn’t really move or do stuff besides look scary. According to M3gan: “Annabelle never moves, so i wouldn’t have to really lift a finger against her and chucky is old, so i’d just go right for his pacemaker.”

As for who she does like, M3gan has a soft spot for chaotic women: “Lydia tár’s beautiful, talented and completely unhinged. what’s not to like?” It’s so nice seeing women celebrate each other instead of tearing each other down. THIS IS CINEMA!!

While the wait for Saweetie‘s debut album Pretty Bitch Music drags on, she keeps expanding the other parts of her portfolio. After wrapping up a recurring role on Freeform’s Grown-ish, she’s adding another acting credit to her resume, making a cameo appearance in the upcoming second season of Peacock’s dramatic Fresh Prince reboot, Bel Air, according to Variety. She’ll appear as herself on the show, although the report doesn’t state in what capacity she’ll be crossing paths with Jabari Banks ’ Will Smith, Olly  Sholotan‘s Carlton Banks, or Coco Jones’ Hilary Banks (fingers crossed for a star-crossed romance with Jordan L. Jones ’ Jazz).

Although Saweetie has delayed the release of her album numerous times, there have been a few hints that it could be dropping this year. During a recent live stream with fans, the Bay Area rapper previewed a new song with single potential, “Icy Girl, Icy World,” which is based on Aqua’s 1997 hit “Barbie Girl.” And although her EP The Single Life supposedly underperformed — which is hard to tell without knowing what it was expected to sell in the first place — it definitely generated some buzz thanks to its coincidental release in close proximity to Quavo’s “Messy” verse seemingly referencing their relationship and her rumored connection to Lil Baby. While she denied that her single “Don’t Say Nothin’” was a response, the possibility that she might address those rumors on PBM keeps it firmly in the running for one of 2023’s most anticipated albums.

LeBron James will pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the top spot on the NBA’s all-time scoring list later this season, as he is 422 points shy at the moment. Given that James is averaging 29.1 points per game, he should break the record in the next 14-17 games (meaning right after the All-Star break).

Once LeBron passes Kareem, he figures to tack a bunch more onto that total given his stated goal is to play at least one season alongside his son, Bronny. That likely means he pushes close to or beyond 40,000 career points, setting what was once considered an unbreakable record even further out of reach. However, given the offensive explosion in the NBA and the prevalence of the three-point shot and 30-plus point scoring nights, it’s possible someone tracks down James if they can match his incredible longevity.

That is the part of the equation that’s going to be most difficult to manage, which is why Kareem’s record stood as long as it did. Playing into your late 30s or 40s at that level is unheard of for a variety of reasons. Some challengers to the scoring record, like, say, Kevin Durant — currently just under 12,000 points behind Abdul-Jabbar — have missed such substantial time with injuries that, even as he goes into his mid-30s as a 30-point per game scorer, he just has too much ground to make up.

Others simply don’t want to play that long. When looking at younger players that could challenge James’ record, Luka Doncic stands out because of how quickly he’s established himself as one of the NBA’s elite scorers, already piling up over 8,000 points in just over four seasons. However, don’t expect Luka to stick around nearly as long as James, as he has his eyes set on early retirement on a farm in Slovenia, as he told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

“If you’re saying me, there’s no way,” Doncic said before the question was even asked, “because I’m not playing that much.”

…

“I don’t know about 20 years,” Doncic said after a 32-point, nine-rebound, nine-assist performance in a home win over James’ Lakers that afternoon. “That’s a long time to play basketball. I’d rather go back to my farm in Slovenia.”

It’s a tremendous quote from Doncic, and a friendly reminder that not everyone wants to play the game forever. Doncic might change his tune as he starts to approach his mid-30s, but he also could just walk away from the game. He’ll have made a fortune playing basketball by the time he’s been in the league for 12 years, much less 15-plus, and if he wants he can happily shut it down and enjoy some solitude on the farm rather than continuing to get his body ready for the NBA schedule.

Mayans M.C. will soon ride off into the sunset, and hopefully, this means that Angel will cultivate his own nut farm like Clayton Cardenas wanted (“sunflower seeds!”). In all seriousness, however, the Sons of Anarchy spinoff will embark upon its final tour with Season 5, which should premiere sometime in 2023. The J.D. Pardo-starring series has grown much darker on the club-infighting front, and I actually wondered how — despite the show’s intense and vocal fandom — the series could recover after the death of Richie Cabal’s Coco (which was even more surprising than Ryan Hurst’s Opie being killed), and after EZ caused Emilio Rivera’s Alvarez to fly into such a disgusted rage in the Season 4 finale.

Don’t f*ck with Alvarez and his club, man! Remember, Emilio Rivera was the second actor to appear onscreen in SoA, which has always felt symbolic. Also, there were times when I’ve genuinely feared for Alvarez’s safety, but if you lose his faith in the club, all bets are off. With that in mind, Variety relayed the official word from FX Content and FX Productions chairman John Landgraf, who confirmed that Season 5, which was renewed in July 2022, will mark the end of the show. When will that happen? Fans await further word.

Variety also doubles back with a reminder from showrunner Elgin James (who took the solo wheel for Season 3 after original Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter left the building) on his planned “last shot,” and this almost sounds prophetic in retrospect:

“We know where it ends,” he told Variety at the red carpet premiere of Season 4. “I know the very last shot. So, it’s not in Season 4 so I’m just going to say, there at least has to be one more. But we know exactly where it ends and we have been headed there for a while now.”

It’s been a solid run, and the show has gone to some odd places lately, but it’s kept the original spirit alive, at least until Alvarez had enough of EZ’s sh*t. I hope that Emily manages to watch off that mess of a hair-dye job, and from there, I hope that Danny Pino embarks upon a long and successful career as a director, and hopefully, he never sports a handlebar mustache again.

(Via Variety)

In the lead-up to the explosive release of Stranger Things‘ highly anticipated fourth season, The Duffer Brothers revealed that Finn Wolfhard, by sheer luck, guessed the plot of the spinoff series that they’re kept tightly under wraps. While they obviously didn’t elaborate on Wolfhard’s lucky guess because, again, tight wraps, the Stranger Things star stopped by The Tonight Show this week where he confirmed to Jimmy Fallon that, yes, he freaked out the Duffers with his clearly psychic abilities. (What now, Eleven?)

“We were on set filming Stranger Things 4 and we were all talking about if there’s going to be—like joking, ‘oh they’re all going to have us back in 20 years and we’re all going to [be] fat and old,’ that kind of thing,” Wolfhard told Fallon before revealing he went in a different and remarkably accurate direction that ended with the young actor being sworn to secrecy.

Via Gizmodo:

“And then I was like, ‘But if you guys are actually going to do a spin-off, it should be this.’ And then I said it and the Duffers looked at each other and looked at me and they were like, ‘Could we talk to you for a second?’ And then they pulled me off and they were like, ‘That is the idea. Who told you?’ and I was like, ‘No one,’ and they were like ‘What do you mean? You just came up with it?’ and I was like, ‘Well, no, I just thought that that would be a cool way to expand.’ It was really funny and they were like ‘Okay, well… don’t tell anyone.’”

Clearly, someone needs to sit Finn Wolfhard and make him guess the plot of upcoming TV shows. Like, for example, will Baby Yoda get his own jetpack in Season 3 of The Mandalorian? You know, the important stuff.

(Via Gizmodo)

George Takei is not one to go down without a fight, as evidenced by his decades-long feud with a former co-star and all of those various space fights. The actor is known for speaking out against things that he doesn’t agree with, and it turns out, that’s the reason he decided to come out as gay in 2005.

In a new interview with The Stage, the Star Trek actor explained the “guilt” that he felt living as a closeted gay man for most of his life. “I was closeted for a long period of my career,” Takei told the mag. “I was silent during the AIDS crisis, which fills me with guilt, although I did write checks and checks to AIDS organizations,” he added.

But Takei didn’t want to be silent any longer when California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called to veto a bill that would’ve legalized gay marriage in 2005 in California. Takei came out that November. He explained, “Why did I come out when I did? Because Schwarzenegger presented himself as a movie star who had worked and was friends with gays and lesbians, many of whom voted for him, but then vetoed that bill. I was so angry that I spoke to the press for the first time as a gay man at the age of 68.” Eventually, Schwarzenegger voted to legalize gay marriage two years later.

Takei said that he felt like he needed to stay silent in order to keep working in Hollywood and didn’t want to jeopardize his chances. He added, “Why did it take me so long to come out? Because I’m an actor and I wanted to work. I learned at a young age that you couldn’t be an openly gay actor and hope to be employed. And I was already an Asian-American actor, so I was already limited a lot,” he said, adding that there is still discrimination in the industry today. “To this day, there are big Hollywood actors who are not out in order to protect their careers.”

Taylor Swift clearly knows how to make music, but she also really knows how to sell it. Now that the dust is settling on 2022, some year-end sales numbers that show this are starting to surface. For instance, the 2.928 million albums she sold last year were nearly triple that of the artist in second place: Harry Styles, with 1.06 million. It turns out she similarly crushed the vinyl market, too.

Billboard reports that Swift sold 1.695 million vinyl records across her entire catalog of releases, according to Luminate’s year-end report. For reference, that’s more than the next two biggest artists combined: Styles with 719,000 and The Beatles with 553,000. Here’s another way to contextualize Swift’s sales success: One of every 25 vinyl records sold in 2022 was by Swift (more specifically, she had 1.695 million of 43.46 million total vinyl albums sold by all artists, or 3.9 percent).

She also had six of the year’s top 40 vinyl albums: Midnights (at No. 1 with 945,000 sales); Folklore (No. 7, 174,000); Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 11, 153,000); Evermore (No. 14, 134,000); Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 30, 97,000); and Lover (No. 36, 91,000). In that metric, Styles and Kendrick Lamar are tied for second with three top-4 albums apiece.

Lamar, by the way, had the year’s best-selling hip-hop album on vinyl, but it wasn’t 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers like might be expected.

In a year in which vinyl again outsold CDs by a sizable margin — this first happened in 2020, but the trend has continued since as the age-old format surges in retro interest and the more recent one declines in popularity — some surprising albums made up the best-selling vinyl of the year in hip-hop (pop star Taylor Swift blew everybody out of the water, though). According to Billboard, while Tyler The Creator’s recent records Igor and Call Me If You Get Lost did brisk business, selling 172,000 and 211,000 copies, respectively, the best-selling hip-hop record of the year went to Kendrick Lamar.

However, it wasn’t his new album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, that racked up all the sales. Instead, it was the 10th-anniversary reissue of his 2012 debut album Good Kid, MAAD City that propelled him to being one of the best vinyl-selling artists of the year with 254,000 copies sold. According to Billboard’s data collection service Luminate, Good Kid, MAAD City was the fourth best-selling vinyl record of 2022, while Tyler’s Call Me If You Get Lost and Igor in the 6 and 8 spots, respectively. Billboard also notes Kendrick had the second-most titles among the year’s top 40-selling vinyl LPs, tied with Harry Styles at three each. In January, Good Kid, MAAD City became the first hip-hop album to spend 10 years on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

We’ve got a wine-focused activity that may just be your new go-to game at your next party. Best of all, it incorporates drinking. Enter blind tasting, one of the most fun (and educational) ways to hone your tasting skills. And while it may seem intimidating at first when surrounded by a group of friends, blind tasting can actually be a great way to pass the time around some great bottles of wine.

A quick note before we dive in. To ensure that everyone can participate, have each person bring a covered bottle of wine (a paper bag or aluminum foil works just fine). Should you decide to surprise your guests and host the tasting and choose all of the wines, you will be the designated pourer for the entire activity. We also recommend sticking to “testable” varieties and saving off-the-beaten-path choices for down the line!

Curious to know how to incorporate this wine-soaked activity into your home party/gathering routine? Follow the six simple steps below.

I — Print Out Tasting Materials

Tasting wine blind can feel like a shot in the dark for those not accustomed to doing so. To make the situation a bit more approachable, providing a few pieces of wine-tasting collateral can go a long way. Simply Google and print out some tasting charts (or buy the wheel above from Wine Folly)to help your guests understand the flavors, aromas, and other vocabulary used in describing wine. Don’t think of it as cheating, think of it as an introductory step.

As time goes on, the helpful hints can eventually be eliminated.

Prepare the Tasting Stations

Each tasting station should have a wine glass, a spit cup, a cup of water, a pen/pencil, and a blind tasting grid from the Court of Master Sommeliers (available for free right here). Should your table or tablecloth not be white, we also recommend placing a blank sheet of white paper at each station so that your guests can properly assess the color of the wine at hand.

Don’t Forget the Palate Cleansers

As much as we love enjoying cheese and charcuterie with wine, these snacks—and really anything besides bland crackers or bread—can mess with a wine’s innate taste, rendering them not ideal for blind-tasting situations. We recommend putting out plain salted crackers or chunks of bread as palate cleansers and saving the flavorful snacks for post-blind tasting enjoyment.

Designate the Pourer

It goes without saying that each person will obviously know the wine that they brought. To ensure that every person gets an unbiased turn to taste, have each person be the designated pourer of the wine that they brought (and therefore, not participate in the blind tasting round — or participate for practice without sharing their answers OR use matching bags and mix them all up!).

Should you care to host the entire situation — and therefore choose all of the wines — expect to be the designated pourer throughout the entire activity.

Ready, Set, Go!

Now it’s time to taste! After every guest has a tasting-size pour in their glass (about one ounce), set the timer for anywhere from three to five minutes. Use a shorter time for more advanced groups and a longer time for newer tasters. Have each person assess the wine at hand and go through the entire grid, then make their final conclusions. Once the timer stops, everyone must put their pens down.

The Grand Reveal

Before removing the wine from its covering, have everyone go around the table and share their final conclusions to see where everyone is at. For an even more in-depth discussion, feel free to go through the entire grid and have everyone share where their assessments were at for each category. After everyone shares their guesses, remove the covering from the bottle.

Repeat and Enjoy!

Although it can seem competitive, blind tasting is supposed to be fun, while ultimately building your palate and making you a better taster all at once. This is why the person who gets the closest guess doesn’t necessarily “win” that round; but if you’re with a group that loves to compete, by all means, incorporate some sort of prize aspect to the activity!

Repeat the activity until all wines are tasted, then enjoy the remaining bottle contents around the table. Discuss! Laugh! Debate!

In California, cannabis seems to be a young person’s game. At least that’s one of the lessons one could deduce from a new study that is showing a substantial increase in the number of olds who are seeking medical help at the ER after ingesting some chronic.

As Raw Story reports, new numbers collected by UC San Diego show that in 2005, just 366 people in California over the age of 65 went to the emergency room for a pot-related issue. In 2019, just three years after it was legalized for adults, the number of senior citizens who sought emergency medical help increased to a whopping 12,167.

“While a law was passed by the state way back in ’96 approving the use of medical marijuana, a second law was passed in 2003 clarifying the legislation prior to its use becoming more widespread,” NBC San Diego reported. “Recreational use of marijuana was approved by state voters in 2016. It’s worth noting that the study shows that while ER visits spiked between 2013-17, they plateaued in 2017, the year weed became legally available for recreational use, so legalization does not appear to be connected to an increase in ER visits by seniors for cannabis-related issues.”

So why are so many zonked geezers seeking emergency treatment? Apparently, an overabundance of confidence!

“I do see a lot of older adults who are overly confident, saying they know how to handle it,” says geriatrician Dr. Benjamin Han, who authored the study. “Yet as they have gotten older, their bodies are more sensitive, and the concentrations are very different from what they may have tried when they were younger.”

In other words: Today’s pot is not your grandmother’s ganja.

(Via Raw Story)