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It’s hard to really put the special brand of nostalgia that people have for Casa Bonita into adequate words. On one hand, this food of childhood outings was pretty darn awful, other than the sopapillas. On the other, the possibility of unlimited sopapillas was great, along with the opportunity to watch cliff divers and eat near a fake volcano and so on. “Entertainment” is truly a brilliant concept.

That’s probably why South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (who showcased the restaurant in a Season 7 episode) decided to resurrect their childhood by purchasing a Denver-area location (after all Casa Bonitas shuttered) and resolving to make it better. In other words, they even promised “good food”! They did the deed under their “The Beautiful Opco, LLC” umbrella and hired Chef Gina Rodriguez, but the project quickly swirled into money-pit territory with Stone telling the Denver Post that the duo poured “all of our money” into bringing everything up to code and fully renovating the joint. This was a “nightmare” scenario, according to the pair, but finally, there’s some powdered sugar at the end of the tunnel.

On Twitter, Casa Bonita officially revealed an opening date: May 2023.

The pair also released a Christmas video with Chef Rodriguez, who introduces herself by her “Loca” nickname.

The pink palace is shaping up, and that fountain is brand new after the old one had to be demolished. Much of the downtime sure went to good use as well. Parker and Stone kept up payroll for the restaurant’s existing employees while asking them to volunteer at organizations including Habitat for Humanity. In addition, employees attended complimentary bilingual classes, which should increase camaraderie come opening time. And it’s coming! Please don’t tell Cartman, though.

Movies don’t really exist on their own lately. If it’s a hit, there will likely be more installments book tie-ins, or various television programs in order to keep that magic alive. It makes sense! If it works, why not milk it for all its worth? That’s why we get oh so many Star Wars tales.

Even though it’s fun and familiar for us, those making the movies might not be as excited about adding a subtitle, like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Director Rian Johnson, who is very familiar with franchise movie titles, is not so happy about the choice.

“I’ve tried hard to make them self-contained,” Johnson told The Atlantic recently. “Honestly, I’m pissed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title. You know? I want it to just be called Glass Onion,” he added. The choice was likely pushed by Netflix in order for audiences to associate it with the hit film from 2019. Though then people might assume Chris Evans and his fancy sweaters are in the sequel (sadly, he is not).

Johnson then continued, “I get it, and I want everyone who liked the first movie to know this is next in the series, but also, the whole appeal to me is it’s a new novel off the shelf every time,” the director continued, explaining that he wants to stories to exist on their own without needing any backstory. “But there’s a gravity of a thousand suns toward serialized storytelling.”

Still, it seems like the subtitle worked! Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery became a hit in theaters, though Johnson would have preferred it to stay a bit longer before heading to Netflix last week. “I’d love it to be [in theaters] longer; I’d love it to be in more theaters,” he said. “But also, I appreciate that Netflix has done this, because this was a huge effort on their part, and the theater chains, to reach across the aisle and make this happen. I’m hoping it does really well so we can demonstrate that they can complement each other.” Hopefully, with this new move, more movies will get the option for streaming and theatrical releases. Nicole Kidman would really love that!

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Ticketmaster is not having the most pleasant run this holiday season. While they’ve very publically endured the wrath of the Swifties, who have filed two lawsuits since the disastrous pre-sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, several other fanbases have jumped on the “Ticketmaster is cancelled” train.

Earlier this month, Bad Bunny fans in Mexico were distraught to find that Ticketmaster had allegedly sold them fake tickets through their official sales outlets, resulting in them being turned away at the entry point.

The sales for Death Grips’ upcoming tour, their first in four years, were also handled by Ticketmaster. But like the presale for Swift’s upcoming tour, several fans alleged that many of the Death Grips presale tickets went to bots and resalers.

Tickets for Bruce Springsteen And The E-Street Band’s were going for over $5,000 in some cities. While Springsteen defended the prices, he promised fans who weren’t satisfied on the way out of the tour that they could have their money back.

Some of the issues fans have been having with Ticketmaster date back to last year, when Olivia Rodrigo fans were unable to purchase tickets for her Sour tour due to technical difficulties.

But these recurring issues have fans nervous going forward. Recently, tickets for SZA’s SOS tour with Omar Apollo proved to be rather pricey. And although Beyoncé has yet to formally announce her Renaissance tour, the prices for SZA tickets prompted fans to start saving, so they can be ready for when Bey finally does make the announcement.

As a late Christmas gift, country singer Zach Bryan decided to give the gift of live music to his fans, so they wouldn’t have to pay Ticketmaster prices. The album is appropriately titled, All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After getting pelted with criticism over his Mario voice despite proclamations from his co-stars that it’s The Sopranos-level, Chris Pratt recently decided to try his hand at beekeeping. That, predictably, did not go well. In a video shared on Instagram, Pratt revealed that he’d been watching a lot of videos of Texas beekeeper Erika Thompson, and she made wrangling the stinging insects look so easy.

“She’s so cool and brave and she goes in front of these hives of bees and says, ‘They’re very calm today. I’m going to remove the bee, I’m going to use my bare hands to sift through the bees and look for the queen,’” Pratt told his Instagram followers while oddly wearing sunglasses indoors. “So it’s built up this false sense of security in me to where I said, ‘I think I can control bees, too.’”

He could not. As Pratt reveals in the video, his attempt to just go ahead and touch the queen was not a calm experience.

According to the Guardians of the Galaxy star, he came across a beehive and thought this was his moment to assert his dominance over the bee kingdom.

“I went towards it and the man standing next to me said, ‘Be careful, there’s bees,’ and I said, ‘These bees look very calm,’” Pratt said. “And I just stared at these bees and then one of the came out and stung me in the eyeball.”

The whole experience gave him a new perspective on Thompson’s viral videos (and a very swollen eyeball). “So, anyways, f*ck that bee lady,” Pratt said.

(Via Chris Pratt on Instagram)

One of the greatest defensive players in NFL history will retire at the conclusion of the 2022 NFL season. Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt, a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year winner, posted on Twitter that Sunday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the final home contest of his career.

The Cardinals have two more games left this season, as the team has already been eliminated from postseason contention. The team will travel to Atlanta to take on the Falcons this week before wrapping up the year with a trip to San Francisco to play the 49ers.

Watt, who turns 34 in March, joined Arizona’s roster in the 2021 offseason. Prior to that, he established himself as one of the most fearsome players to ever rush the passer during his decade-long tenure with the Houston Texans. While injuries hampered him towards the end of his time with the franchise, Watt is the greatest player in the Texans’ short history. In addition to his trio of Defensive Player of the Year wins in 2012, 2014, and 2015, Watt was a seven-time All-Pro selection with the team. Five of those selections came as a first-team player.

For his career, Watt has accrued 111.5 sacks, which puts him in 38th in NFL history.

The hip-hop community remains divided over the Daystar ‘Tory Lanez’ Peterson v. The State Of California criminal case. Unfortunately, the victim in the case, rapper Megan Thee Stallion, has found herself in the middle of some vicious attacks from veteran acts 50 Cent and Joe Budden. Thankfully, now that Tory Lanez has formally been found guilty of shooting Megan, the public has begun to flood the “Anxiety” with support, including Drake’s long-time producer Noah “40” Shebib.

Social wellness organization On Canada Project shared a gallery of images on Instagram declaring their support of the musician. Fans quickly noticed Shebib in the comment section.

The producer used a few emojis, including the hands of praise and applause, to second the organization’s #IStandWithMeganTheeStallion caption. While fellow commentators enjoyed seeing Shebib’s outward support of Megan, several were confused due to his long-time friendship and business partnership with Drake.

As the co-founder of the OVO Sound label, Shebib has worked on all of Drake’s albums, including his collaborative project Her Loss with 21 Savage. His public support of Megan Thee Stallion directly contradicts his professional work on the album. On the song “Circo Loco,” featured on the album, Drake subliminally disses Meg, rapping, “This b*tch lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion / She don’t even get the joke, but she still smiling.”

Later rapping, “Shorty say she graduated, she ain’t learn enough / Play your album, track onе, ‘kay, I heard enough,” which is a direct jab at Meg graduating from Texas Southern University in 2021.

In the credits for the song, Shebib isn’t listed as a producer. However, he is listed as a writer.

Shebib’s attempt to show support for the H-Town hottie may have backfired.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Macaulay Culkin’s favorite Home Alone movie is the one without Donald Trump.

“The first one was more fun because we didn’t know what we were walking into and it was a lot less flying all over the place; it was all in Chicago. Also it had 100 percent less Trump,” The Pizza Underground singer said in 2018. Culkin even supports Trump being removed from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which “he [bullied] his way into the movie,” according to director Chris Columbus. But even though basically everyone (except Rob Schneider, probably) wishes he wasn’t in the film, Trump is still proud of the time that he told Kevin McCallister that the lobby is down the hall, to the left.

In response to a Truth Social user who called Trump’s Home Alone 2 cameo the “best part of the movie,” the former president wrote, “Thank you!” I’ve always said movies should have more scenes where characters give directions. That’s way more exciting than the Wet Bandits, Tim Curry, or the Pigeon Lady, who definitely isn’t Piers Morgan.

The rest of Trump’s Truth Social feed is the usual mishmash of bad nicknames and inexplicable uppercase letters. “Merry Christmas to EVERYONE,” he posted on Christmas, “including the Radical Left Marxists that are destroying our Country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is illegally coercing & paying Social and LameStream Media to push for a mentally disable Democrat over the Brilliant, Clairvoyant, and USA LOVING Donald J. Trump, and, of course, The Department of Injustice, which appointed a Special ‘Prosecutor’ who, together with his wife and family, HATES ‘Trump’ more than any other person on earth.”

The post ended with “LOVE TO ALL!” But especially to Kevin McCallister.

Yesterday, a Phoebe Bridgers fan posted a side-by-side photo of herself in front of the famous and distinct rock formation. You know, the one that Bridgers used as the backdrop for 2020’s Punisher album art. “what if i told you i feel like i know you but we never met?” she captioned, using a lyric from the title track.

The tweet gained enough attention for Bridgers herself to spot it and respond. “can’t believe you found it,” the impressed musician replied.

Needless to say, the fan (named Courtney) and her friends were shocked. “I DONT KNOW WHAT TO SAY WHEN PHOEBE BRIDGERS IS IN MY MENTIONS,” she added to Bridgers’ comment about finding the exact spot.

She told others who had asked where she found it that it’s located at Trona Pinnacles. A national park in San Bernadino, California, the location is known for its “unique geological features” and “unusual landscape,” according to the Bureau Of Land Management.

“The red light-desert-scene was the one I was looking forward the most and had the strongest vision about,” Olof Grind, who photographed Bridgers for the cover, told Our Culture in 2020. “Phoebe always told me that she liked my creepy images the best, so the creepier/the more surreal the better. I always love a good adventure while shooting, and driving out in a pitch black desert at 3 AM on dirt roads definitely added to my excitement for the shoot.”

Continue scrolling for some additional fan reactions to the Bridgers’ Punisher location post.

SZA has every reason to celebrate this holiday season. On top of appearing on Saturday Night Live, going viral with a parody track, and finally releasing her long-awaited sophomore album SOS, December keeps proving fruitful for the “Nobody Gets Me” singer. Yesterday, it was revealed that SOS topped the Billboard 200 for a second week.

It appears SZA spent the holiday in Hawaii. To commemorate her latest feat, she shared some pictures of herself on location, wearing a swimsuit that left little to the imagination. In the post’s caption, SZA appeared to reference a post celebrating the first week the album went No. 1 that had since been deleted. However, she was still in good spirits for the second consecutive week.

“Lol instagram randomly deleted my post last week .. but APPARENTLY ITS STILL TRUE THIS WEEK,” she said. “number 1 two weeks in a row .. God is incredible. I won’t repeat it all but thank you everybody for supporting me and speaking power n love into me. It’s 9:43 in Hawaii. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Life is beautiful and what it should be.”

Also in the post were other notable accomplishments, like the fact that SOS is the first album by a Black woman artist since Beyoncé’s 2013 self-titled surprise album two spend its first two weeks at No. 1. There is also a stat in there that notes that SZA and Taylor Swift are the only women artists to have at least 20 songs charting simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100.

Check out the celebratory post above.

Rap/pop superstar Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) may forget the name of a fan, but she never forgets a tweet. She once turned a tweet from her friend Cardi B into a song, for instance. Now, she’s using the old tweets from a fellow musician to form a potential love connection.

Back in April of last year, Yung Gravy let the world know he wanted to explore a love connection with Lizzo, writing, “I wanna f*ck Lizzo so bad.”

Ensuring he was hacked, the rapper followed up his initial tweet with, “Hell nah. I’m not hacked. Duster. Lizzo bad as f*ck.”

The “About Damn Time” singer used rapper Yung Gravy’s past public declaration to jump onto “The Mom Trend” on TikTok. The trend calls for users to show their mother’s personal style, then cut to their mother dressed in their child’s clothing. While at home with her mother, Shari Johnson-Jefferson, Lizzo uploaded the video with the caption, “Yung gravy [eyes emojis].”

Dressed in her daughter’s Yitty line red bodysuit, commenters immediately shared how the pair were nearly twins. The Emmy Award winner may be off the dating market, but she has no problem finding love for her mother.

Yung Gravy has shared his love of the trend as he has been open about pursuing older women, notably when he and Addison Rae’s mom Sheri Easterling had something going on earlier this year. However, he hasn’t responded to Lizzo’s video yet.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.