GoneTrending

While wins have been hard to come by for the Orlando Magic so far this season, there are plenty of reasons for optimism surrounding one of the youngest teams in the league. One of the players responsible for this is Bol Bol, who has carved out quite the role in Orlando as part of his career reset after things didn’t quite work out for him in Denver.

On the season, Bol is averaging 13.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and two blocks in 27.1 minutes per game while connecting on 41.9 percent of his attempts from behind the three-point line. His play has encouraged his teammates, with Paolo Banchero talking to HoopsHype and coming close to comparing the uniqueness of Bol’s game to Victor Wembanyama, the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

“Everyone talks about the Victor dude from France,” Banchero said. “I’m not trying to compare them, but Bol’s 7-foot-2, shoots threes, brings it up the court, makes passes, and blocks shots. I feel like people kind of forget about him, but Bol’s a freak of nature.”

Banchero went on to say that Bol’s play this season has not caught the Magic by surprise, citing the times they played together over the offseason and Bol’s track record as a blue-chip recruit in high school.

“He’s ultra-talented at 7-foot-2, can shoot pull-up threes, and block shots all around the court,” Banchero said. “He moves like a 6-foot-5 shooting guard. It’s crazy.”

The Magic are 5-16 on the season. Of their seven top leading scorers, only Gary Harris is older than 23.

Following GloRilla’s recent Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance, there are a lot of artists anticipating working with her it seems. One of those is DJ Jermaine Chambers, who posted a recent Facebook statement claiming that the rapper called him and wanted to collaborate on a song.

“So GloRilla just called me and told me to pack my bags,” he wrote. “It’s time to turn my state up one more time.”

Eventually, Glo caught wind of Chambers’ post and had some choice words for his claim. “What are your talking about,” she responded. “Ian said sh*t like dat.”

Glo is frequently active on her Facebook under her real name Gloria Woods. A while back, she assisted a fan who needed help with bills as a birthday gift.

Despite her generosity for fans on social media, GloRilla doesn’t stay quiet when it comes to getting hate and weird comments. She recently fired back about people who didn’t like her music or positive nature. At the end of the day, she’s laughing with her Grammy nod.

“The same song they was clowning me & my friends about saying we was Ugly & Dusty just got nominated for a Grammy,” she posted. “WHEN GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE YOU CANNOT FAIL. BUT GOD.”

As Avatar: The Way of Water gets ready to dive into theaters this month, the sequel is testing the cultural impact of the first Avatar film. In the process, James Cameron has not been shy about his filmmaking process for the sequel that’s 13 years in the making. In his latest interview, Cameron reiterated that, unlike the Marvel movies, the Avatar sequel will show his heroes actually growing and taking on the greatest challenge of them all: raising a family.

In order to tackle Jake and Neytiri’s role as parents, Cameron admits that he mined his interactions with his own kids to flesh out the dynamic at the center of The Way of Water. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“I’m on a rules-based universe, and the kids weren’t into it,” Cameron says. “They said, ‘You’re never around half the time. And, then, when you come home, you try to make up for it by telling us all what to do. And Mom’s really the one that’s been making all the rules the whole time while you’ve been off shooting. So you don’t get to come home and do that.’”

More specifically, Cameron used the sequel to grapple with bringing his domineering directorial style home with him instead of leaving it on set. In a surprisingly open and self-deprecating moment, Cameron admits that he can be a lot to deal with as a dad, and his kids were right to call him out.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to work out a lot of my stuff, artistically, that I’ve gone through as a parent of five kids,’” Cameron told THR. “The overarching idea is, the family is the fortress. It’s our greatest weakness and our greatest strength. I thought, ‘I can write the hell out of this. I know what it is to be the asshole dad.’”

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on December 16.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Christmas came early this year: the trailer for Cocaine Bear is here.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear tells the real-life story of a bear that goes on a murder spree after eating a bunch of cocaine. It’s basically an episode of Justified… but with a bear. “I am cautiously optimistic that people will will like it,” Banks said about the film (which has a great poster). “It’s definitely a wild ride. It’s a unique film that absolutely lives up to the title and one of the things I’m most excited about is, I feel like the trailer just scratches the surface of everything this film has to offer.”

You can watch the trailer above. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild dark comedy finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow… and blood.

Cocaine Bear, which stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson, Jr., Christian Convery-Jennings, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kristofer Hivju, Margo Martindale, and the late Ray Liotta, as well as a CGI bear that can’t stop doing coke, opens in theaters on February 24, 2023.

Manuel Turizo‘s global hit “La Bachata” is continuing to take him to new places. Last night (November 29), the Colombian singer performed the heartfelt song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“La Bachata” has become of the biggest hits of the year. Before the Christmas songs crashed the Billboard charts this week, Turizo’s breakthrough single was in the top 10 of the Global 200 chart. On Spotify, the bachata-infused love song has amassed over 542 million streams. On the platform’s Global 50 chart, “La Bachata” sits at No. 3 behind Sam Smith and Taylor Swift. Turizo was invited twice by Coldplay this year to perform the song on the band’s tour stops in Colombia and Argentina.

Now Turizo visited New York City to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Fallon invited him on his late-night show to serenade the audience with “La Bachata.” In a colorful suit, Turizo stood at the microphone stand and let his voice soar. With his signature sultry vocals, he brought the soul behind the song to life with his alluring performance.

Last month, Turizo released his latest single “Éxtasis” featuring Argentine pop star María Becerra. The song will be included on his third album 2000 that’s due out in January. Amazon Music announced that Turizo dropped his version of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on the streaming platform, but oddly his cover was never released.

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

Matthew McConaughey has been open about his love of words. Just this year he wanted to take the word “unbelievable” and “wipe it from the dictionary.” But he has also been very purposeful with the words he uses when talking about the increase in gun-related violence and school shootings.

After a school shooting in the actor’s hometown of Uvalde earlier this year, McConaughey has been dedicating his time to advocating for the families of the victims and even held a press conference at the White House in order to raise awareness. While pleading with elected officials and Texas residents, McConaughey has been actively pushing for “gun responsibility” as opposed to “gun control,” which he explained to People:

It became very clear to me early on, as a lover of words, that to the right, so-called staunch Second Amendmenters — these are my people in the South, I know them well — “control” is a dirty word. It’s like a mandate. Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t you tell me what to do, I got my right to bear arms. So that word, out of the gate, is shutting about 80 percent of their ears. . . . I flipped it to “responsibility.” Responsibility is to give the person the power of choice. It’s forward-moving. It’s affirmative. I’m responsible. Don’t tell me I ain’t responsible.

Despite the alarming number of shootings this year alone, the actor believes that the country can evolve as long as people are willing to listen to each other. “I think there’s incremental changes, there’s breakthroughs,” he added. “I do believe that with time, inevitably we can improve, we can ascend, we can evolve as people.”

(Via People)

Over the years, Sufjan Stevens has gifted us with an incredible selection of holiday music. His catalog boasts over 100 holiday-themed songs, as well as box sets like Songs For Christmas and Silver & Gold. Despite having a robust discography with holiday songs, Stevens admitted in an interview with Vulture that Christmas actually isn’t his favorite holiday.

He shared that his favorite holiday is actually Fourth Of July, though not for any patriotic reasons.

“My birthday is July 1, and I am a pyromaniac. I love fireworks,” he said. “Every year, I drive to Pennsylvania and drop like $2,000 on illegal fireworks, cross them into New York state, and we do a big show.”

Most of his Stevens’ Christmas music was recorded between 2000 and 2010, which he said was a more isolated period in his life, “usually in November-December, where I would get together with some friends for a week or two and we’d create without much forethought and improvise and jump into the Christmas catalog and try and create something as quickly as possible. Sort of like first thought, best thought.”

He revealed that this was also the reason he abandoned his “50 states” project, in which he planned to record an album inspired by each of our country’s states.

“I go on all these excursions and I feel they’re indulgent and slightly megalomaniacal in their approach,” he said. “At some point, I realize how absurd and unhealthy and unsustainable it is, so I am fine moving on.”

Cardi B and Atlantic Records are being threatened with legal action over her Halloween costume, according to Vibe via a report on Artnet.com.

Late last week, Italian pop artist aleXsandro Palombo issued a statement reading, “Cardi B has illegitimately appropriated the work of aleXsandro Palombo for mere business purposes in defiance of the most elementary rules on copyright and Instagram policies, with the consequent serious risks, both of compensation and of discredit for her public image.” Palombo also reached out to Atlantic Records, which he said replied via a publicist who said they’d gladly add a credit on the original post. However, the artist said he wanted a “remedial post” from Cardi, as well as the photographer and stylist, who also posted the photos to their own Instagram accounts.

In the image, Cardi cosplays as the iconic matriarch of the long-running animated sitcom The Simpsons with poses and styling inspired by Palombo’s 2013 project Marge Simpsons Style Icon, which reimagined Marge in ensembles from pop culture. Palombo’s project was inspired itself by a photograph of a model wearing a revealing dress designed by the late Thierry Mugler in 1995, as well as other iconic images including Breakfast At Tiffany’s, the Spice Girls, and Playboy. Cardi’s costume shots duplicated the Mugler look right down to the original photo hanging on the wall behind her.

While Palombo has not formally issued a lawsuit, he is demanding a response to his request for a follow-up post linking to his own work and compensation. He says he has yet to receive a response.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Mayim Bialik has settled nicely into co-hosting duties of Jeopardy! Despite all of the drama surrounding the succession plan following Alex Trebek’s death, the author and actress has found a rhythm in juggling multiple projects and sharing the host podium with Ken Jennings.

And that’s mostly because the two seem entirely uninterested in fans picking favorites or nitpicking outfits or pronunciations despite the attention the show has gotten in recent years. Bialik and Jennings have made it clear that there’s no drama between themselves despite rotating hosting the show and its various spinoffs. But the rigors of the show’s filming schedule are tough for everyone. Jeopardy! films five episodes a day,

Which, according to Bialik, is why getting really good at taking short naps has become essential to her process. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Bialik explained why napping is so important to her routine. So much of her life is now spent on set filming, which means little things that once happened at home like putting on makeup or recharging after a stressful day now takes place behind the scenes at the studio. Thankfully, she’s had some co-workers help make her comfortable, too:

I try and nap and meditate every day, even if it’s only 20 minutes on my lunch break. Cheyenne Jackson, my co-star [on “Call Me Kat”], got me this amazing blanket that’s really cozy, and I have a pillow that I got from a group of fans online. I just lay on my couch and turn off the lights.

Given how stressful running a Jeopardy! game on camera can be, it’s kind of incredible she’s able to power herself down like that with so little time between episodes. But Bialik said getting even a few minutes of sleep between episodes is important.

“The shortest nap I’ve done and been able to feel refreshed was seven minutes,” she said.

Not everyone sleeps the same way, but a seven-minute nap may be all that’s possible during a busy filming day. Whatever it takes to get the job done, I suppose.

[via WSJ]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has emerged as a surprise challenger to a possible Trump 2024 presidential run in recent months but, according to insiders, the self-appointed crusader of wokeism is not a fun hang.

In fact, a new The Atlantic article featured a handful of GOP pundits skewering DeSantis for seeming out-of-touch and robotic, to the Mitt Romney degree. DeSantis, who has made headlines recently for bulldozing the rights of transgender teenagers and shipping hundreds of migrants off to Martha’s Vineyard, is seen as less of an attack dog and more of a wet blanket among Republican circles, something that may hurt him when he eventually squares off against his former idol, Donald Trump.

“I’d rather have teeth pulled without anesthetic than be on a boat with Ron DeSantis,” former GOP lobbyist Mac Stipanovich said, adding that he gave off major “step away from the vehicle” vibes. Another Republican media consultant claimed DeSantis was “a strange no-eye-contact oddball,” while former GOP congressman Carlos Curbelo — who served with DeSantis — said the governor has “this robotic quality that he has to shed.”

“I think he is going to run into some challenges,” Curbelo explained. “It’s that question that often comes up in politics—the question of ‘Would you want to have a beer with him?’” Also this: “I’d rather have teeth pulled without anesthetic than be on a boat with (him).”

Even supporters of a DeSantis 2024 run are worried the governor won’t hold up against Trump on the debate stage. One critic described DeSantis as “dour” and said he “doesn’t improvise particularly well.” Critics point to his lackluster performance in his run against Democratic hopeful Charlie Crist as evidence he’s just not ready to face off against Trump in primetime while others worry his preference to isolate himself from other GOP members won’t gain him the support he needs to make headway in states that aren’t Florida.

In other words, the guy who snapped at high school kids for wearing masks and gave himself a gold star for trafficking vulnerable men, women, and children sounds like he’s just not a fun time. We are shocked.

(Via The Atlantic)