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Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Arnold Schwarzenegger posted a nine-minute video to “reach my dear Russian friends” and educate them on “terrible things you should know about.” The Austrian action-movie icon and former California governor relayed what his Nazi father had experienced during World War II as a cautionary tale. Predictably, Russian state TV did not like it. But, Schwarzenegger won’t be silenced as the war in Ukraine rages on.

Ukrainian rap group Kalush Orchestra shared the video for their single “Shchedryi Vechir” on Wednesday, January 11, and it begins with a voiceover from Schwarzenegger: “And that is a great message for all Ukrainian people, especially now in this very, very difficult time. That everyone can have a dream, and you can make this dream become a reality.”

Kalush Orchestra’s YouTube description of the video further contextualizes, “Yo, when we were in the US on tour, we shot a video for one of our songs. We didn’t even think that it would be such a cool video. We used to run through these streets in the game [Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas], and now we made our own interpretation of Shchedrivka there, + visited Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

The end of the video features a cameo from Schwarzenegger simply saying the song’s title, which translates to “Generous Evening.”

Kalush Orchestra has contributed significantly to their home country during this horrific time, according to their Instagram post from December 30.

The group summarized a “very productive” 2022, which included raising 60 million in Ukrainian hryvnia and spreading Ukrainian music across “half the world.”

Watch the “Shchedryi Vechir” video above.

Now that all the controversies surrounding Don’t Worry Darling have passed (I will not be recounting them), let’s focus on what matters: Florence Pugh!

Whether it’s Midsommar or Little Women or The Little Drummer Girl (which you should really watch), Pugh has proven time and time again that she’s one of the best actresses of her generation. She’s also been outspoken about “vulgar” body-shaming trolls.

In an interview with Vogue (the second time she’s been on the cover, a prestigious honor for anyone but especially someone who’s only 27), Pugh discussed the nipple fiascos she’s found herself in. “I’ve never been scared of what’s underneath the fabric,” she said. “If I’m happy in it, then I’m gonna wear it. Of course, I don’t want to offend people, but I think my point is: How can my nipples offend you that much?” Pugh continued:

“It’s very important that we do this. I know that some people might scoff at me saying that, but if a dress with my breasts peeking through is encouraging people to say, ‘Well, if you were to get raped, you would deserve it,’ it just shows me that there’s so much more work to do.”

You can read the rest of the profile here. And enjoy a new “Cooking with Flo”!

(Via Vogue)

In 2022, Rufus Taylor, member of The Darkness and son of Queen drummer Roger Taylor, was one of the drummers given the honor of performing with the surviving Foo Fighters members at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts. (That’s part of the reason why some fans think he should be Foo Fighters’ new drummer going forward.) Now, he admits all the star power on the bill left him extremely nervous before rehearsals.

In a recent MusicRadar interview, Taylor said:

“I was sh*tting myself a little bit going into the rehearsals, because I knew that it was gonna be a room full of the best drummers in the world, like Omar Hakim, Dave [Grohl], and Stewart f*cking Copeland, all these monster players. Obviously, I know Dave, but Stewart and Omar, all those guys — me and Taylor used to talk about them all the time. So now I suddenly have to go in and play a nine-minute solo in front of them! I still hadn’t mapped it out in my head. I didn’t know what was gonna happen. But it all kind of went really smooth in the end.”

He also noted about how he feels Hawkins’ influence in his own drumming, saying, “When I was touring with The Darkness in the States, there were a lot of times immediately after [Hawkins’ death], I would do these flams and little fills here and there and I’d go, ‘Oh my God. I stole that from him years ago.’ I’ve always been doing it and I never thought about it. It was very weird. But seeing the Foos guys — they are like family to me — seeing them in rehearsals and then doing what my guy always did was quite surreal. But I had to just think, ‘If he was in the room, would he be proud? What would he say?’ He would just be egging me on, I know it. So that kind of thought got me through it. But yeah, it was nerve-wracking.”

Check out the full interview here.

Earlier this week, social media went wild over a report that suggested the Biden administration was considering a ban on gas stoves following a lengthy study on hazardous methane emissions, which may cause asthma in children. Naturally, Fox News immediately picked up the story, and in less than 24 hours, “Biden wants to take away your gas stove” was already a whole thing. However, as these things often go, the situation was blown way out of proportion.

On Tuesday, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, the chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission had already issued a statement making it clear that while the health effects of gas stoves were being studied, there was no plan or even authority to ban them from homes. Via Gizmodo:

“Research indicates that emissions from gas stoves can be hazardous, and the CPSC is looking for ways to reduce related indoor air quality hazards,” Hoehn-Saric said. “But to be clear, I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so.”

So that should be the end of that, right? Nope. Enter Meghan McCain (and her new M3GAN profile pic.) On Wednesday night, the former The View co-host proceeded to blast liberals for sparking the gas stove oven debate.

“In an era just absolutely filed with tornadoes of dumbass news cycles – the current left wing ‘you shouldn’t own a gas stove virtue signal’ may ACTUALLY take the cake for dumbest,” McCain tweeted.

In McCain’s quasi-defense, there were several people on social media who did latch onto the health and environmental concerns highlighted by the CPSC. Turns out folks are concerned about how much methane gas they or their children are breathing in. Wild! That said, by Wednesday it was already made clear that a gas stove ban was never on the table, and it was Fox News who is still having an absolute field day with the topic.

As always, McCain was ruthlessly mocked in the replies:

(Via Meghan McCain on Twitter)

Just last month, a paparazzi asked Judge Judy what she thinks of Justin Bieber’s evolution since he used to be “scared to death” of her because of his old bad behavior. She said she hasn’t talked to him in a while, but she’s “seen him since, and he looks wonderful, and he seems happy.”

Actor Colin Farrell, though, has a different perspective on Bieber’s past mischief — he doesn’t think it was bad to begin with.

Talking about his own troublesome antics during an actors roundtable conversation for The Hollywood Reporter, Farrell used Bieber as an example of people being overly dramatic about what celebrities do: “When I hear, like, years ago, ‘Justin Bieber threw eggs at his neighbor,’ I’m like, he deserves a medal if that’s all he’s doing. ‘He raced a car on Ocean Drive.’ Like if that’s all he’s doing, that kid is trying the best he can to be a good human being.”

The peak of Bieber’s messy past was when he was arrested in Miami for drag racing and DUI in 2014. On the seven-year anniversary in 2021, he wrote, “My encouragement to you is to ‘let your past be a reminder of how far god has brought you. Don’t allow shame to ruin your ‘today’ let the forgiveness of Jesus take over and watch your life blossom into all that God has designed you to be.”

Watch the full roundtable above.

Iggy Azalea went scorched-earth when The Athletic‘s Tashan Reed tweeted in October, “The combination of Allegiant Stadium trying to make BBQ and Iggy Azalea performing at halftime is gonna make me depressed.” After Azalea completed her performance at halftime between the Las Vegas Raiders and Houston Texans, she replied, “f you think you’re depressed now I’ll spare you the tears you’d cry knowing what my paycheck was to come and jiggle a lil ass.”

The humorous exchange might have been an appetizer for what Azalea has in store for us this Friday, January 13.

Earlier this week, Azalea was asked when she’s planning on dropping new music. “Music?… summer,” she tweeted back. “Scandalous sh*t?… Friday.”

We haven’t heard from Azalea since 2021’s aptly titled album The End Of An Era, which she implied at the time would be her final musical output. However, last August, she changed her mind.

“A year ago I was willing to walk away from music because I was tired of the negative energy it attracted,” Azalea tweeted on August 8, 2022. “But what I’ve learned is that even when I’m minding my business, y’all gonna be negative AND nosey. So if I can’t have peace, neither can you. I’m coming back. Cry about it.”

More recently, Azalea opened on Pitbull’s Can’t Stop Me Now Tour and reportedly sold her master recordings and publishing catalog for “an eight-figure sum.”

Things aren’t so rosy between Donald Trump and Mike Pence, his one-term vice president. That’s what happens when you reportedly suggest that “maybe” your running mate should have been hanged during the attack on the Capitol. Trump is doing it all over again in 2024, but he won’t have Pence to release angry, stream-of-consciousness statements about this time: all of the vice presidents he’s considering are women.

The Daily Beast reports that “Trumpworld has been bandying about the names of Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), along with a third contender who has already begun to rankle corners of Trumpworld: Tulsi Gabbard.” The Hawaii-born Gabbard endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 (after she failed to capture more than two percent of the vote in presidential polls), but she changed allegiances in October 2022, and now she’s filling in for Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

One GOP strategist compared Trump picking Gabbard to President Biden dumping Vice President Kamala Harris in favor of a unity ticket with former GOP Reps. Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger… Stefanik allies point to her loyalty to Trump through both impeachments, the Jan. 6 insurrection, and her endorsement of his 2024 campaign. They pointed out that she was the first to endorse Trump for 2024 among congressional GOP leadership.

“You have to think about how you win suburban women and how you win battleground districts,” a GOP operative told the Daily Beast about why Trump is only focused on women as his running mate so far. I’m hearing strong buzz about the brown M&M. She’s wearing glasses, so you know she’s smart.

Other veeps reportedly being considered include South Dakota governor Kristi Noem and Kari Lake, who claims she’s the “real” and “duly elected governor” of Arizona even though, uh, she isn’t. Trump/Lake 2024? Sounds like a match made in hell.

(Via the Daily Beast)

Memphis labelmates Moneybagg Yo and GloRilla team up to depict one toxic relationship in the new video for Moneybagg Yo’s new song “On Wat U On.” Remember when Kendrick Lamar and Taylour Paige made fans very uncomfortable with their back and forth on “We Cry Together?” Well, turn up the drama to 11, add some 808s, and pour in a strong shot of humor, and that’s the energy “On Wat U On” is giving.

The video takes everything to another level, casting the two CMG rappers as quarrelsome lovers as Glo finds a pack of condoms in the backseat of Yo’s car in the drive-thru (rookie mistake, Yo!). She turns up, he responds in kind, and the argument continues at home, escalating to its inevitable end: Property damage at the manicured hands of the ratchet renegade that’ll probably leave them both riding the bus for a while. The best part, though, is the drive-thru clerk’s face as they hash out their situationship rather than picking up their lunch.

The song is the latest example of GloRilla’s unassuming charm, which seems to pop out every time she does an interview. Meanwhile, pairing her with Moneybagg Yo shows that Yo Gotti has a great feel for coaching his growing roster, finding chemistry between his artists, and getting the best out of them. “On Wat U On” bodes well for the future of Collective Music Group.

Watch the video above.

The Coachella 2023 lineup was just revealed, and the headliners Frank Ocean, Bad Bunny, and Blackpink are a big deal. The latter two had massive 2022s with record-breaking No. 1 albums, whereas Ocean’s Coachella performance has been long-awaited since past cancellations.

However, it looks like someone else may have been supposed to play Coachella this year — the one and only Justin Bieber. Sources told TMZ that he was offered a headlining spot but turned it down to focus on working on his new album. They also told the site that he’s likely to headline Coachella in 2024.

The “Peaches” singer had a chaotic 2022. He postponed all of his Justice World Tour to this year. “After getting off stage, the exhaustion overtook me and I realized that I needed to make my health a priority right now. So I’m going to take a break from touring for the time being,” he explained in a statement.

In June, he revealed he was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome. “As you can see, this eye is not blinking,” he demonstrated in a video. “I can’t smile on this side of my face. This nostril will not move. So there’s full paralysis on the side of my face.”

For a brief moment, it looked like Colin Farrell’s The Penguin series for HBO Max was doomed to be a victim of the recent Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The studio was slashing projects left and right on a cost-cutting crusade, especially on the streaming side. However, things quickly took a turn when The Batman director Matt Reeves became the first filmmaker to sign a First Look deal with WBD. Now, The Penguin is not only safe, but according to a new interview with Reeves, it will be an essential building block for The Batman sequel.

Via Collider:

Reeves explains that “There’s actually a whole little fabric of things we’re wanting to do, the way we’re doing with [the] Penguin and how that comes back into how that will lead into the sequel, and what that sequel is going to be.” It sounds like the miniseries will set the foundations for The Batman sequel, which means that fans who want to fully understand Reeves’ BatVerse movies will have to watch all the spinoffs too.

This approach tracks with James Gunn‘s new tenure at DC Studios where he promised a more connected storytelling experience as WBD seeks to more closely follow the MCU’s template for a shared universe across TV and movies. But there’s an interesting caveat in the case of The Penguin. Both Gunn and Reeves have made it clear that the Robert Battinson-verse will remain separate from the DC Universe that Gunn is overseeing. There will still be more connected storytelling as Reeves builds out his own little Gotham universe, but as of this writing, Pattinson’s version of Batman won’t be gallivanting around with Superman or The Flash.

For now.

(Via Collider)