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If there’s one thing that everyone thinks they’re an expert on when it comes to celebrities and public figures, it’s mental health. We hear the hot takes, read the think pieces and listen to the armchair therapists out there sharing their opinions. Oftentimes those opinions are based off a very limited experience and understanding of mental health conditions. When a celebrity or other public figure is called a jerk, narcissistic or downright crazy, it adds insult to injury as no one should be labeled with such dehumanizing terms.

It’s important to understand that no two people’s mental illness looks the same. Sure, there will be similarities between two people that experience the same mental health condition, that’s how you get the criteria needed to meet the diagnosis, but the diagnosis can affect people very differently. So an influencer or social media friend sharing their commentary on celebrities they share a diagnosis with is unfair and unhelpful. Having a mental illness only makes one an expert in how that particular mental illness affects oneself, not another person.

The same sentiment goes for therapists who don’t specialize or work with the population they’re discussing. When it comes to mental illness and fame, therapists have to ask themselves if their opinion needs to be on display for the entire world to see. The general public has little compassion for people in the public eye experiencing mental health crises. It seems that people would rather gawk and discuss what the person said or did instead of intentionally tuning out.

Accountability for poor behaviors and actions can come after the public figure has been deemed safe and of sound mind, but the accountability for the media should be in the moment. People across the globe would have no idea what a celebrity in the middle of a mental health crisis said if they didn’t have a camera and microphone in their face. People wouldn’t know what a celebrity did while in a mental health crisis if paparazzi wasn’t snapping a picture for media outlets to print and discuss. But we as consumers also have the responsibility to disengage from this type of content.

News stations, magazines and online media sources push stories they think their readers will be interested in, but are we really interested in seeing someone publicly struggle? Are we assuming that because they were able to make it to an interview they must be coherent enough to know what they’re saying? Being a celebrity with a severe mental health diagnosis is a double-edged sword because you can afford appropriate healthcare, but you also have people whose job it is to book you interviews and events and get you there. If an average person were to experience these things, would they be able to make these appearances?

It’s important to remember that public figures are still people. Their families are seeing a much fuller picture than you are and are likely unable to help in an effective way. The money to get to do the things that pop into your head at a moment’s notice is something the average person doesn’t have, so it can make the celebrity’s behavior seem much more extreme. Especially because the average person could have a fleeting thought but no means to complete it so they move on to the next thought.

Celebrities are people and people experience mental health crises. In the moments that they are unable to self-identify that there’s a problem, we should look away, because as long as we are consuming the downward spiral, we are inadvertently contributing to the behaviors.

Sometimes we talk ourselves out of our dreams and convince ourselves that we can’t do that thing because of kids, age, not enough time or some other reason. But what happens when we just go for the dream we want instead of thinking of excuses to avoid the commitment? That’s exactly what 49-year-old Ray Ruschel did, and his teammates are glad he didn’t think he was too old to try. Ruschel, a student at North Dakota State College of Science, decided to try out for the college football team even though he hadn’t played the sport since his senior year of high school.

The backup defensive lineman is old enough to be the dad of his teammates, and that additional life experience has come in handy for the team. It’s easy to get discouraged or frustrated after a loss, and typically coaches are the ones giving the pep talk or calling out all the areas the team went wrong. But pep talks seem to be something Ruschel is really good at. When the team lost to a rival college, Ruschel stepped in to tell the team they weren’t failing by losing one game and they still had the rest of the season to qualify to make it to the playoffs.

The middle-aged lineman wasn’t always a motivational speaker to football teams. He spent nearly 20 years in the Army National Guard as well as working nights at a sugar beet factory before deciding to return to school. The school is a two-year college that offers degrees in skilled trades and healthcare, among other things. The decision to return to college would not only allow him a change to move up in his career field, but it unexpectedly gave him another chance at playing college football.

Ruschel told the AP that once he found out his college didn’t have an age limit for school sports, “Something just clicked in my head, like why not play?” The coach of the football team is one year younger than Ruschel and explained to the AP that the older player is “just a really likable guy with an ambition not to leave any stone unturned. As long as he’s here on this earth.”

When you’re over a certain age demographic, taking risks to chase after dreams can be terrifying but Ruschel is proving that it can be worth the risk. You’re never too old to go after things you want in life and with your lived experience comes a level of wisdom that you likely wouldn’t have had earlier in life.

The response to Ruschel playing football with teenagers and young adults more than half his age was one of acceptance. He told KVLY, “They’ve all been very receptive of me coming in and playing. At first, they thought I was another football coach on our first day of camp. And whenever I got in line for pads, they were like ‘wait a minute, you’re playing?’”

Ruschel explained to KVLY, “I’m having a blast playing. Out here with these young kids and actually being able to keep up! I surprise myself.” Just that sentence alone should be enough to get you to go for a dream you’ve been putting off. The lineman is proving not just to be an encouragement to his teammates but to people everywhere.

I was alive during the peak of Barney & Friends-mania, but I still find it hard to believe how much people hated that purple dinosaur. The hostility towards the unassuming kids show is the inspiration for Peacock’s I Love You, You Hate Me, which chronicles “the rise and fall of Barney the Dinosaur’s furious backlash — and what it says about the human need to hate.” The documentary also features an interview with David Joyner, who was inside the Barney suit from 1991 to 2001… and now works as a “tantric sex guru.”

“David Joyner, the body of Barney, talks about this in the film… tantric sex guru and Barney,” director Tommy Avallone told Fox News. “It’s weird in the same sentence, you know? But once you put space in between and really talk about [it], it’s not as weird as you would think in that he’s never doing any of this tantric stuff in the Barney suit.”

Kink-shaming is wrong and bad, except for when it comes to people looking to have a, um, tantric experience with Barney. They deserve some light shaming.

In I Love You, You Hate Me, Joyner (who previously discussed his second career with Vice) explains that he helps “goddesses reconnect with their sexual energy on a spiritual level,” which includes massage and meditation. “Anything beyond that, there’s no extra fee,” the “tantric massage specialist” added. Does that mean what literally everyone thinks it means? “Not necessarily,” he said. “Not all the clients have a full session.”

Avallone stressed that while many people associate Joyner’s tantra principles with sex, “that was never happening with Barney.” Instead, he relied on the “energy work and meditation” from his practice to “heighten Barney’s performance” and deliver joy. “You talk to other people from the Barney crew, and they feel like it worked,” said Avallone. “You really felt David’s heart come out of his suit.”

I Love You, You Hate Me is available on Peacock now.

(Via Fox News and EW)

Prior to announcing Blink-182’s official reunion, Mark Hoppus attended the Children’s Hospital gala in Los Angeles over the weekend. Attending the red carpet with his wife, he spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about some other exciting career moves he has in the works.

Hoppus is hopping on over to the book world, revealing that he’s in the process of writing a memoir. While it will include details about his time in Blink-182, Hoppus will also document his journey of battling a cancer diagnosis. In June 2021, Hoppus entered treatment for stage 4 lymphoma. He has since been cancer-free since last September after breaking the news on Instagram.

“I started writing a book, actually, earlier this year,” Hoppus said. “I’m not that far into it yet but I’m writing a book about my life and experience in Blink and what I’ve gone through over the past year or so.”

“We’re finalizing the deal and I’m really happy with the way that’s coming together. I’m excited to tell my story,” he continued. “I didn’t say anything about being sick for the longest time because I was so scared and overwhelmed by the whole thing.”

Blink-182 will embark on their reunion tour next year, with stops across North and South America, Europe, and Australia. A complete list of dates, along with more information, is available here. The band also are dropping a new song, “Edging,” this Friday.

Blink-182 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

After a long and brutal eight episodes of suffering, despair, and maggot-infested wounds, King Viserys finally succumbed to the illness that plagued him for seemingly decades (though the timeline is a bit uncertain). Paddy Considine’s portrayal of the king was already applauded by George R. R. Martin, and it seems like he is finally ready to say goodbye to the show and the inevitable mess he caused while on his deathbed.

Considine took to Instagram to post a final goodbye to the character and the “incredible adventure” that he had while working on the series. He also gave a special shout-out to Sian Brooke (Queen Aemma Arryn) who helped allow his story to come full circle. Considine wrote:

Thank you for the kind words. I cannot reply to every comment, but I’d like to acknowledge that they haven’t been lost upon me. It was an incredible adventure where I made lots of new friends that will be with me for the rest of my life. I’d like to thank the creators for allowing me the freedom to make Viserys my own. I have never loved a character so much. I want to give massive love and respect to @brooke.sian who came in for only a few days, but changed the course of my character with her brilliant performance and commitment to the work. The impact stayed with me until my final improvised words. She unlocked the missing piece of the puzzle for me, and allowed my story to come full circle. From the moment she dies, so does Viserys. It was a love story. That’s the secret I carried with me. As sick as he gets, he never, himself, demands any cure. He quietly accepts his suffering, never forgiving himself for putting his beloved wife through such torture in her final moments. Viserys was a gift. I am so honoured he found me. Now, no more.

The actor paired his goodbye note with photos from his short but solid reign on the show. While he’s not the first character to say their goodbyes, he did play a vital role in the first half of the season, so he will be missed. Including for his brilliantly sad reaction photos.

After an NBC News report made the choice to focus on John Fetterman’s stroke recovery, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor still came out swinging at his opponent, Dr. Oz, on Wednesday morning. In a candid tweet, Fetterman continued to be upfront about his health issues, which he’s been transparent about since suffering a stroke ahead of the PA primaries in May. Fetterman has routinely called out Oz’s campaign for taking cheap shots at the near-death experience, and that’s not about to change.

“Recovering from a stroke in public isn’t easy,” Fetterman tweeted. “But in January, I’m going to be much better – and Dr. Oz will still be a fraud.”

Fetterman’s resolve arrives after NBC News aired the first in-person interview with the Senate candidate, and he required the use of closed captioning. However, that isn’t new information. Fetterman has been open that he still has lingering auditory issues from the stroke, and that it sometimes affects his speech. NBC News highlighted this difficulty by noting that “Fetterman occasionally stuttered and had trouble finding words.”

A subsequent published report took things even further by actually writing out Fetterman’s stuttering:

Fetterman, acknowledging the challenges he still faces, added: “But it gets much, much better where I take in a lot. But to be precise, I use captioning, so that’s really the maijing — that’s the major challenge. And every now and then I’ll miss a word. Every now and then. Or sometimes I’ll maybe mush two words together. But as long as I have captioning, I’m able to understand exactly what’s being asked.”

At one point, he struggled to articulate the word “empathetic” — toggling between the correct pronunciation and “emphetic” — and then pointed to that as an example of the effect of the stroke. Asked about those moments, Fetterman said searching for language is not a difficult experience.

“No, I don’t think it was hard. It was just about having to be thinking more, uh, sl, uh — slower — to just understand and that sometimes that’s kind of the processing that happens,” Fetterman said.

NBC News reporting was widely criticized by journalists who have recently interviewed Fetterman. The news organization was also taken to task for leaning into ableism.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via John Fetterman on Twitter)

NPR is continuing to highlight Latin acts on the rise with the El Tiny spin-off of the Tiny Desk series. Dominican rapper Tokischa is the latest artist to perform re-imagined versions of her hits in a performance that was released (October 12).

NPR revived the El Tiny spin-off of Tiny Desk for Latinx Heritage Month. Omar Apollo was the first artist to kick off the series last month. Mexican singer Girl Ultra and Argentine rapper Trueno followed his lead and now Tokischa is up next.

This past year, Tokischa has helped globalize Dominican dembow music. Spanish pop star Rosalía enlisted her for last year’s “Linda” and then “La Combi Versace” from the Motomami album. Last month, Madonna tapped Tokischa for a dembow-infused remix of “Hung Up” that was retitled “Hung Up On Tokischa.”

For her El Tiny desk performance, Tokischa substituted the dembow sound of her hits with other genres of the Caribbean. She transformed “Hola” into a bachata track and infused “Somo Iguales” with a mambo rhythm. Tokischa also dabbled in other genres like bossa nova in “Perra,” her collaboration with J Balvin, and Mexican corridos with the brand new song “Kilos De Amor.” The most striking moment of her set is her soulful performance of “Estilazo,” her LGBTQ+ anthem with Marshmello.

“Kilos De Amor” was the only song from Tokischa’s set that hasn’t been released yet. It could be her upcoming collaboration with Mexican singer Natanael Cano. In May, Tokischa and Cano were spotted filming a music video together in Mexico City.

Scarlett Johansson is one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood at the moment, fronting Marvel franchises and Oscar-nominated dramas while achieving the kind of recognition and staying power most only dream of. But, that wasn’t always the case.

In fact, Johansson has revealed that her teenage acting years were filled with anxiety and fear over being pigeonholed into “hyper-sexualized” roles. The Black Widow star guested on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast earlier this week where she revisited some key moments in her career. Johansson has been acting professionally since she was seven years old, and she admitted that starting in the business so young meant she “definitely was in different situations that were not age-appropriate.”

“Luckily my mom was really good about protecting me from a lot of that stuff, but she can’t do that for everything,” Johansson told Shepard during the hour-long chat, via Deadline.

Once she became a teenager, the actress started booking roles that forced her to be seen as more mature than her age. Her breakout performance in Lost In Translation saw her playing a character five years older than her actual age, which was 17.

“I think everybody thought I was older,” she said.“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I think people think I’m, like, 40 years old.’ I got kind of pigeonholed into this weird, hypersexualized thing… It was like, that’s the kind of career you have, these are the roles you’ve played. And I was like, ‘This is it?’”

The actress started to view that perception of maturity — which had previously helped her book more interesting roles than other actresses her age — as something she need to push back on.

“It somehow stopped being something that was desirable and something that I was fighting against,” she said. “I wasn’t getting offers for work for things that I wanted to do. I felt like it was over, kind of. And so it was scary, at the time.”

Thankfully, Johansson was able to alter that trajectory and carve out a place for herself on film that felt worthy of her talents, something she hopes that the next generation of actresses like Zendaya and Florence Pugh can do with more ease.

“I’ve come to this realization that it’s important to understand progress and change when it’s really meaningful,” she said. “It takes two steps forward and two steps back, and then it gets better and then it gets worse. It’s not finite. I think if you don’t leave room for people to figure it out, then the actual progressive change doesn’t really happen. I see younger actors that are in their 20s, it feels like they’re allowed to be all these different things. It’s another time.”

(Via Deadline)

The 2022-23 NBA season tips off later this month and today, the league’s broadcast partner ESPN has announced another partnership, this one with Atlantic Records, to bring a new slate of thumping soundtrack singles to accompany its NBA schedule. The first round of promos (and a new theme song) has already begun airing featuring a remix of Ty Dolla Sign’s song “My Friends” with Mustard that name-checks such NBA stars as Ja Morant, Klay Thompson, Luka Dončić, and Steph Curry.

New tracks will premiere throughout the season including during ESPN’s Christmas Day slate, the Playoffs, Finals, play-in tournament, and Saturday primetime matchups. While the press release remains cagey, it promises “exclusive remixes and bespoke songs from some of Atlantic’s biggest stars.” Artists on the Atlantic Records roster include A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Bruno Mars, Burna Boy, Cardi B, Don Toliver, Cordae, Gucci Mane, Jack Harlow, Lil Uzi Vert, Lizzo, Meek Mill, Missy Elliott, Rico Nasty, Roddy Ricch, and Young Thug.

In a statement, Atlantic Records’ West Coast President Kevin Weaver said, “We couldn’t be more excited about this new partnership with ESPN for our artists and the upcoming NBA season. ESPN has proven itself as a first-in-class network for the way they use music across all of its programming. This is a fantastic way for our world-class roster of superstars to reach fans where they live every day.”

The season starts Wednesday, October 19, with the Knicks vs. the Grizzlies in Memphis.

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

Of course, as K-pop continues to dominate the globe, it’s worth recognizing this generation’s pioneering artists on the forefront of it all.

With that being said, the MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) announced this year’s nominations including some of the biggest and brightest names in the K-pop industry.

After the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards successfully debuted Blackpink‘s first ever live performance of “Pink Venom” and awarding Lisa for Best K-Pop over the summer, the quartet takes the lead with the most nominations for a K-pop act this year. The female powerhouses are the first K-pop act to ever be nominated for Best Video with “Pink Venom.” The music video goes up against Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl,” and Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).” Other categories the group is nominated for are Biggest Fans, Best Metaverse Performance, and Best K-Pop.

HYBE’s leading boy groups, BTS and SEVENTEEN, each received three nominations. BTS for Best Fans, Best K-Pop and Best Metaverse Performance. While SEVENTEEN also received a Best K-Pop nomination under their belt as well as Best New, and Best Push. TXT, on the other hand, becomes the Korean representative for Best Asia Act.

The full list of nominations for Best K-pop are: Blackpink, Blackpink’s Lisa, BTS, ITZY, SEVENTEEN and TWICE.

Voting is open until November 9 at 11:59 p.m. CET, and the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards will broadcast live from Germany on November 13.