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After spending the past four years fully immersed in the Neil Young catalog, it’s only right that Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson have begun to emulate his views on technology. “Get rid of the internet, we didn’t earn it,” Rosenstock shouts, with Stevenson providing a more even-keeled harmony — “we didn’t use it properly.” In fairness, both artists have long had to balance their drive to democratize the music industry with pragmatism — even the most idealistic DIY artist will almost certainly have to use the internet as a means of distribution in 2022, putting them at the mercy of some tech mogul. But less than 24 hours after releasing Younger Still, their second Neil Young covers EP, they have more reason than usual to be inflamed.

Elon Musk’s $44-billion takeover of Twitter has just taken effect and the duo have settled on a kind of nihilistic optimism, that this might be the extinction level event that frees them from decades of spiritual bondage. “Kill Twitter for me so I don’t look at it anymore,” Rosenstock jokes, having yet to fully surrender like Stevenson, who has outsourced all social media management to her husband. Seeing as how three years separate the conception of this 4-song EP to execution, it’s worth pointing out how the project could have been far more prolific had they, like so many other their peers, embraced the possibilities of remote collaboration during the pandemic. Yet that approach would contradict the entire point of Younger Still and its predecessor — “let’s find a reason to hang out.”

Throughout most of their friendship, they rarely needed much of a reason or predetermination to collaborate. Rosenstock sees both EPs as a sort of throwback, “in the spirit of the periods when both of us were playing in six bands at the same time.” Occasionally, those projects would intersect, such as the 2009 split between Stevenson and Bomb the Music Industry!, the massively influential punk rock collective that Rosenstock fronted prior to forming the Death Rosenstock band. But as the two toyed with the possibility of recording a batch of Neil Young covers in 2019, the demands of adulthood and their individual successes would soon create an impassable distance. Though Rosenstock’s songwriting (and IRL) voice makes him innately suited to play the role of the neurotic New Yorker, his contributions to the Cartoon Network sitcom Craig Of The Creek helped make the long-considered move to Los Angeles a reality. Meanwhile, Stevenson was in her first trimester of pregnancy and desperately trying to avoid throwing up during the drives from upstate to recording sessions at Rosenstock’s home in Brooklyn. “I was just so nauseous the whole time, shoving saltines in my face,” she recalls.

Even with their technophobic leanings, we’re still canvassing the entirety of the United States via Zoom — Stevenson is in her Saugerties home, backed by a gigantic bookcase, whereas Rosenstock is flanked in the blindingly bright, 55-degree weather that Los Angeles passes off for “autumn.” Though separated by thousands of miles, the two finish each other’s sentences and swap stories about Jones Beach and MTV like they’re still hanging out in Long Island. Rosenstock and Stevenson see their impending 10-date, cross-country run as something of a paid vacation, albeit one where they’re still packing at the last minute. “It’s hard to describe it without making us sound unprepared,” Rosenstock laughs, as the two try to suss out the setlist in real time. But much like Younger Still, the tour exists to reconnect with the artistic and personal philosophy they’ve shared since their teens — “we should do this, life is short. I miss you. Let’s get in a car.”

Do you see recording cover songs as a break from writing original material or does it happen alongside it?

Jeff Rosenstock: I don’t look at it as taking a break from anything. At least for me, it’s an excuse to make stuff with Laura so we could have fun doing something and not really feel any pressure to write a good song. Because someone already did that! We just have to barely play.

Neil Young has written a lot of good songs and a lot of bad ones too, though.

Rosenstock: We haven’t covered any of the bad ones — Laura, are you upset about that? That we haven’t done “Motorcycle Mama”?

Laura Stevenson: Yeah, I really like “Piece Of Crap.” That’s always been my favorite “bad Neil Young song.” When I was young, I thought it was the funniest song I’d ever heard in my life.

Rosenstock: Maybe this tour will just be us playing a long “Piece Of Crap.”

Stevenson: If we do that and deconstruct a bad Neil Young song, we might find out that it’s actually fucking genius.

Rosenstock: That’s likely, I’d say.

I’m no expert on Neil Young, but I’ve definitely heard “Piece Of Crap” and know there are people who’ll vouch for it, especially since it came at a time when he was reestablishing himself for a new generation as the “godfather of grunge.” But what about the “bad songs” from when he was actively trying to break his record deal?

Rosenstock: Like if we did “Kinda Fonda Wanda?” But yo…I watched the video for “Kinda Fonda Wanda” off Everybody’s Rockin’, it’s kind of a good song! It’s stupid, but it’s still kind of a good song.

Stevenson: It’s rockin’!

After you released Still Young, were there any fans saying that this EP introduced them to Neil Young?

Stevenson: I feel like anyone who knows me has listened to Neil Young. He’s huge and I’m really obscure so how could you know me and not know who Neil Young is?

Rosenstock: You’ve probably gone through the A-list…

Stevenson: Before you get to that G-list.

Rosenstock: We didn’t do good enough to inspire anybody to say, “hey, that’s nice.”

Stevenson: Hey, my dad likes it.

Rosenstock: Laura’s dad likes it, John [DeDomenici, Death Rosenstock bassist]’s dad likes it. A lot of dads out there are happy about it.

You can do worse than breaking the “dad rock” demographic.

Rosenstock: Yeah, why isn’t there anything for older men, huh?

Maybe in 20 years, “dad rock” cover albums will be of Green Day or something like that. But as people who came up in Long Island’s punk scene, I’m curious about how the two of you first got introduced to Neil Young. When I was listening to Green Day and coming of age in the mid-90s, I mostly knew Neil Young as “that classic rock guy who Pearl Jam really likes.”

Rosenstock: I knew Neil Young as “Rockin’ In The Free World” and that he made a record with Pearl Jam that I didn’t really care about. Also, Neil Young on MTV Unplugged. When I was young, I don’t think I wanted to listen to anything that wasn’t just either really bouncy or in-your-face. Like pop or punk or metal or rap. I always knew Neil Young was good, but I listened to Harvest and was like, “I don’t care about this.” Because, “A Man Needs a Maid” — terrible song! “Old Man,” kind of a terrible song! There’s a lot of terrible songs on Harvest, this is my axe to grind with the world of Neil Young fans. But then I texted you and Mike, your husband — like, “hey, where do I get started,” because I feel like I want to like Neil Young and I don’t like this [Harvest]. You recommended After The Gold Rush and Comes A Time and I liked them both. In particular, I was listening to After The Gold Rush on a tour for a long time and did a deep dive when I was older, late 20s, I guess. It’s not that old, but older than when I was like, “is it Biohazard? Because if it’s not Biohazard, I’m not listening to it.”

Stevenson: My dad is the biggest Neil Young fan in the world. That’s the reason he has a computer, he just lives in the message boards for Neil bootlegs and is very deep in the world of nerd Neil fans. There was a stretch of time that, whenever I was at his house in the morning, he would put on Comes A Time, and that was the music I woke up to in the living room. That record really resonated with me and I love it. It’s those songs from your childhood that are just the soundtrack of your life, you’re not really diving in, it’s kinda fed to you. So later in my 20s, I would go deeper, the same thing with Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead was always on, I was going to their concerts and Jerry Garcia Band concerts, like…“oh, there’s that chorus that I like and there’s a lot of jamming that I don’t like.” But when I saw Neil, I liked the jamming because it was very interesting and rough and super distorted. I liked Green Day and punk bands in the early-to-mid-’90s, so I liked distorted guitars and Neil was doing that. Like, oh, you can be a band that my dad likes but also be rockin’, in a way that I like.

Rosenstock: You saw Neil Young a bunch when you were a kid?

Stevenson: Yup!

Rosenstock: Jones Beach?

Stevenson: Jones Beach, Madison Square Garden…my dad would take me to shows all the time and my mom was mad. Whenever it was my dad’s weekend, he’d take us to shows. I had to make an invention for a class assignment in fourth grade, and I was always so embarrassed that I was wearing wax earplugs and they were always getting stuck in my hair and it looked so disgusting. So my invention was just a headband, but you can wear it over your wax earplugs and no one has to know you’re a loser.

Do you remember what grade you got?

Stevenson: Probably not a good grade. All I had to do was put a headband over my ears, I didn’t have to do anything.

Rosenstock: It could pass as an invention in second grade…you didn’t put any glitter glue on it?

Jeff, were your parents taking you to any shows as a kid?

Rosenstock: No! Maybe later, but I didn’t go to concerts with my parents all that much. We saw KC And The Sunshine Band play for free in New York one time and then my parents drove me to Warped Tour.

Stevenson: They were really different experiences, but I didn’t have MTV, so I was completely disconnected. I didn’t have an older sibling who showed me cool stuff. I was just trying to find stuff on the radio so I was just being fed everything.

Rosenstock: We did have good radio in Long Island, 92.7, WDRE…

What was it about After The Gold Rush that resonated with you where Harvest didn’t?

Rosenstock: The songs that sounded like a Defiance, Ohio record. That song “After The Gold Rush” sounds like a normal person just singin’ his heart out — minimal arrangements, good ass songs!

Stevenson: After The Gold Rush is the one I suggested to Jeff as a songwriter. Comes A Time has a lot of good hooks, but After The Gold Rush had more of a…romantic composer [feel], very emotional. There’s a beautiful color to it that I thought would interest Jeff as a writer who’s interested in the individual voice.

Rosenstock: There’s a lot of heart in how he’s singing. On Younger Still, you brought TWO songs from American Stars & Bars into the pile, which is a record that I have almost never thought about. It’s a good record.

Stevenson: I like those songs especially, and as a younger person, I was just drawn to the cover.

Rosenstock: The cover is awesome, it’s punk.

Stevenson: It’s so sick, I really wish we had found a way to make [our cover] a drunk dog and a drunk dog stripper…

Rosenstock: To whoever’s reading this, we need to find out whether it’s painted or a collage. I feel like it’s painted.

Stevenson: I feel like it’s a collage.

Rosenstock: Didn’t Harry Dean Stanton’s son make it? It looks like an oversaturated collage, it looks like a Thermals album cover. You guys are laughing at me! F*ck you, Laura! F*ck you, Ian! It’s 2022, if there’s an idea that people disagree with, I have to double down.

With that attitude, I can’t believe you’re not gonna miss Twitter when it’s gone! In the meantime, were there any songs that you tried out that didn’t make the cut?

Rosenstock: “Borrowed Tune,” “On The Beach,” “Like A Hurricane”…was there another one that didn’t make it?

Stevenson: I had an idea for “Hey Babe” — “we need to make this into an Antarctigo Vespucci song, super poppy and full-band.” And it didn’t end up that way, but it ended up way better than I would’ve imagined it. The songs that really resonated with us were the ones that melodically could work in any format.

Rosenstock: The way that we record, there was no way to make [a full-band “Hey Babe”] sound good — it’s two of us in a room, picking up things and playing it at the same time. It’s not a big, “two guitars, drums and bass” thing happening. Out of the pile, “Like A Hurricane” was gonna be such a rocker. But like, what are we gonna do for eight minutes? That’s not a great place to start if you’re making a record in four days. It was stuff we were fucking around with, like oh, “‘Razor Love’ sounds kinda good? Does this kinda work with you playing guitar and me playing drums and signing these parts?” Were we talking about doing “Walk On”? “Looking For A Love,” “Barstool Blues,” “Don’t Cry No Tears”…the Cyndi Lauper version [ed note: he might be referring to “Don’t Cry No More,” which is a completely different song]. Great, it’s gone, who needs it!

What are the plans for the setlist on the upcoming tour?

Stevenson: We’re still discussing it, we’ll figure it out.

Rosenstock: We’ll play some of our own songs, our hope is that it works. It’ll be a nice, intimate…intimate is the wrong word. Real casual. And hopefully, we don’t take “casual” too far.

Stevenson: We will be taking no requests. [laughs]

Will anyone else be joining the two of you on stage?

Rosenstock: It seems like it’s just the two of us for now, we’re figuring out how to arrange these things. Go see the shows!

Stevenson: We like the way that each other drives. Jeff’s my favorite driver on tour, and I’d like to think I’m your favorite driver on tour.

Rosenstock: You are and you’re my favorite shotgun.

Stevenson: And you’re my favorite shotgun!

Rosenstock: Really?

Stevenson: You’re way better than Matt was.

Rosenstock: I’m way better than Matt [Keegan] from Bomb The Music Industry! who turned off Laura’s music while he was asleep in shotgun.

Stevenson: The worst shotgun of all time.

What makes for a good driver on tour?

Stevenson: Safety, space.

Rosenstock: And if you could do it with safety and space…speed. I’ll say it!

Stevenson: Gentle speed.

Rosenstock: The three S’s: safety, space, and speed. And sobriety.

Stevenson: There’s four.

Rosenstock: And staying awake.

Stevenson: Sensitivity. Sense of humor.

Rosenstock: Converssssation.

Are the two of you locked into future Neil Young cover EPs or are you considering pivoting to a different classic rock artist?

Rosenstock: Nah… I don’t know what happened. I thought about covering some shit that’s on that first f*cking thing [Still Young] and I was, like, “Laura you wanna do this?” It wasn’t like, “what’s our angle to break into this thing as two friends chopping it up together” or anything like that.

Stevenson: It would have to only be other Neils — Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka…

Rosenstock: This is why we work well together, I’ll do both of those. Neil Hamburger…

Vince Neil?

Rosenstock: He’s a murderer. We don’t cover known murderers.

He certainly doesn’t abide by the Five S’s of Good Tour Driving.

Rosenstock: He’s got speed. At some point in 2023, we’ll record more songs and put those together with the ones we finished in Brooklyn but didn’t put out. It’ll be a 12” vinyl like, “here’s all the stuff we did together for a couple of years.” Let’s assume the tour goes well, like, we don’t cancel on day two because, hey we’re bad.

Stevenson: We don’t have COVID…

Rosenstock: We don’t have COVID, ticket sales were good, it’s just you don’t want to see this! Assuming that doesn’t happen, it’s just cool we have a nice document of the time we hung out together as we were both growing up in our lives and taking on new weird shit and communicating together through music and this weird anchor. It’s cool that we have these moments in time captured that have nothing to do with us writing it out — we just made this stuff together.

Three years ago Popeyes dropped its now infamous chicken sandwich and single-handedly changed the landscape of fast food. It sounds, frankly, ridiculous, but once Popeyes introduced the fast food-eating public to a truly delicious chicken sandwich, every single fast food restaurant that didn’t already have a great chicken sandwich tried to capture some of that magic. Now, three years later the chicken sandwich is as much a staple on fast food menus as the cheeseburger.

But strangely, Popeyes dropped a chicken sandwich, and then kind of dipped out. And while they were never the innovation factory that is Taco Bell, it still felt a little odd.

Fast food needs to innovate, constantly — sometimes that’s to a menu’s detriment. At times, that means your favorite chain restaurant dropping beloved items or re-formulating recipes that don’t need to be messed with. So it’s at least a little strange that Popeyes dropped what is easily the most famous chicken sandwich in all of fast food and then just didn’t do a whole lot with it afterward. Popeyes did link up with Megan Thee Stallion for a slightly sweet and spicy remix of the recipe, and it was delicious, but aside from that, the sandwich has remained unchanged since it was first released in 2019. Until today.

The new Blackened Chicken Sandwich is the most radical change-up of the sandwich to date. It’s not heavily breaded and fried but instead marinated in blackened seasoning, fried (rather than grilled), and served on the same toasted brioche bun with your choice of mayo or spicy mayo and crispy pickles. It’s not a complete reinvention, but it is decidedly different than the original. We’re a little salty that Popeyes still hasn’t made a version of this sandwich that is breaded in its spicy batter (spicy mayo doesn’t deliver the heat) but we always welcome change.

So is the Blackened Chicken Sandwich any good? Let’s find out!

Blackened Chicken Sandwich (Spicy)

The new Blackened Chicken Sandwich is available in both classic form (with mayo) and spicy (with spicy mayo) and for this review, I opted for the spicy version. Not because I think Popeyes’ spicily sauced sandwiches are superior, but because I thought the blackened seasoning would pair better with a bit more heat. In retrospect, I think I was right. Popeyes’ blackened seasoning features a blend of black pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika, oregano, onion powder, and some kind of chili powder. It’s very flavorful and tastes incredibly similar to whatever seasoning is used on Popeyes’ battered Cajun fries.

It begins with an earthy cracked pepper flavor before shifting into the more complex and spicy flavors of garlic, onion, and chili powder, with a dark-smokey finish. The spicy mayo adds a savory and slightly sweet component to the dish bringing just a touch of heat to the aftertaste. Not enough heat to make you sweat, but enough that it tantalizes the tastebuds.

The texture of the chicken is pretty interesting. Blackened chicken is grilled but in this case after marinating this chicken filet for a sufficient amount of time, Popeyes batters it and throws it in the frier. It has a crispy exterior that adds a nice little crunch to every bite. Once you break through the slightly dry exterior, the chicken inside is tender and juicy. It’s a lot drier overall than the OG version, but it’s still very satisfying and not dry enough for it to be a noticeable issue — that could be because Popeyes double-sauced the bun, but I’m pretty sure the marinade had a hand in that too.

What surprised me the most about the sandwich was just how small the filet is. Popeyes OG chicken sandwich is big, In this sandwich, I was often left hoping for a more substantial bite. Maybe I got a less-than-ideal filet, but either way, I found the sandwich to be incredibly enjoyable and bursting with flavor. On certain days when I feel like a less food-coma-inducing meal, I might say it’s even better than the original.

The Bottom Line:

Popeyes finally took a chance with a major revamp of their chicken sandwich and it has paid off. This is delicious, bursting with flavor, and definitely worthy of a pick-up the next time you’re craving Popeyes.

Find your nearest Popeyes here.

A few years back during a discussion of Inside Llewyn Davis, a friend of mine raved “every movie should have a magical cat.” Those words, oddly, have stuck with me almost as much as the movie itself (which is one of my all-time favorites).

“Magical cat” is one of the most succinct encapsulations I’ve heard, of something that virtually all of my favorite movies (and really all types of art) do. Llewyn Davis’s cat (really the Gorfeins’ cat, if you want to get technical) sort of exists in the physical and the metaphysical realms simultaneously. Yes, it’s a literal cat, that does believably cat things, like wander down the fire escape and run off into the night, but it also allows for broader interpretation — like maybe this cat isn’t just a cat, but an agent of chaos, a message from the universe.

The magical cat is a kind of non-prescriptivist symbolism, an element of the script that becomes self-aware. As opposed to, say, the suitcase in Pulp Fiction, which shouts “I am the symbolic element!” the magical cat’s magic is merely there if you want to see it, like probably all signs from the universe. It’s not religious, necessarily, but an acknowledgement that universe has, or could have, a logic beyond that which the storyteller can adequately explain or control.

Put another way, Stephen King wrote in his memoir that he knew he was on the right track when his characters started speaking to him, acting almost of their own accord. The best fiction always has characters like that, who seem to exist beyond the boundaries of the texts. It’s why people (read: me) can discuss The Sopranos for hours on end; the characters seem to have personalities, likes and dislikes, inner lives beyond what their creator prescribes for them. I know David Chase had something he wanted to say, but in the process of creating such great characters, their interactions took on a kind of life of their own beyond the initial inspiration.

This is all a very long way of saying that Barry Keoghan, previously of The Green Knight and recently of The Banshees of Inisherin (and yes, also Druig from Eternals) has become something of a magical cat unto himself. He plays very similar characters in all three — all variations on “wild-eyed, urchin-esque Irish rascal” — so it’s not as if he’s some chameleon in the Daniel Day-Lewis mode. It’s more that he has a natural wildness to him, which seems transcend the boundaries of story. There’s an element of natural unpredictability to Keoghan (who was raised partly in foster homes) that makes him a wildcard whose unpredictability can’t be constrained even within a predictable script. Keoghan seems to define Irish rascalry the same way Ben Mendelsohn defines Australian rascalry, or Walton Goggins does for American rascalry. (We may need a second post for each country’s respective national rascal).

Keoghan’s chaotic energy stands out especially starkly in The Banshees Of Inisherin, maybe because it feels like such a prescriptivist movie. In many ways, Banshees is a showcase for what Martin McDonagh does best — which is to stage theatrical versions of pastoral New Yorker cartoons. Two characters have a droll interaction with a sight gag, some cyclical dialogue, and a perfect button.

Banshees, which is far better than McDonagh’s two previous efforts, Three Billboards and Seven Psychopaths, is very clever, but the only time it ever feels like the characters are speaking to the creator and not the creator speaking through the characters is when Keoghan is onscreen. Which is something of a shame considering Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, the two leads in Banshees, are generally quite rascally themselves.

Set on the fictional isle of Inisherin during the Irish Civil War, from which the island is peculiarly insulated, Colin Farrell plays Padraic (pronounced “PAR-ick,” sorta), who has recently discovered that his best and only friend, Colm (Gleeson) doesn’t want to be friends with him anymore. Not because of any specific falling out, but simply because Colm finds Padraic dull, and he doesn’t want to waste his last few years on Earth listening to Padraic’s dull blathering. He’d rather spend it practicing the Irish national pastime, of staring morosely at sea-lashed shorelines, and composing music to play on his fiddle.

Being nice and making small-talk are irrelevant, Colm explains, because when we’re dead and gone no one will remember who was nice. It’s only art that endures. So set in his position is Colm that he promises Padraic that every time Padraic attempts to speak to Colm, Colm will cut off one of his fiddling fingers and give it to Padraic. McDonagh, an inveterate self-plagiarizer (thankfully no little people get karate chopped this time around), seems to have borrowed this imagery from his 2010 severed hand play A Behanding In Spokane. Such that I couldn’t help giving Banshees the alternate title of An Unfriending In Land’s End.

Unlike that play, McDonagh has at least chosen his setting here for reasons greater than “it sounded cool in the title.” To his credit, McDonagh even pokes fun at himself here. “The Banshees Of Inisherin” is a piece of music Colm is composing, and when Padraic asks him why he’s called it that, Colm says it’s because he’s always liked those double S-haiche sounds.

Banshees is always clever, and watchable in the way that each scene is its own self-contained New Yorker cartoon. All of which are pretty good, with sight gags that include an adorable small donkey and a passed-out naked guy with his hat still on (McDonagh apparently having evolved from little people as sight gags to little donkeys — progress!).

Yet Padraic and Colm, as well as the rest of the characters, which include Dominic’s alcoholic cop father played by Gary Lydon and Padraic’s sister Siobhan played by Kerry Condon, never quite get to the point that they feel like they’re speaking for themselves. Right up until the end credits roll, Padraic and Colm feel like competing points of view — McDonagh’s instinct to value friendship and family as the meaning of life (Padraic) vs. his instinct to elevate art above all interpersonal relations (Colm).

McDonagh seems to retain something of the star pupil about him, stretching for endings that are provocative and intentional and reflecting competing the poles of human nature — the kinds of stories an arts school professor would have no choice but to grade an A — but doing so at the expense of not quite letting the characters breathe.

It’s why Barry Keoghan, playing the local delinquent widely acknowledged as the only Inisherin resident demonstrably duller than Padraic, stands out. He’s the only Banshees character that inspires you to speculate about his inner life, to think of as more than just a creator’s utensil, who seems to have been gifted free will. And I think that’s as much due to Keoghan’s energy as an actor/person as it is due to the way McDonagh has written the character (with all due credit to the way McDonagh the director has directed Keoghan).

Keoghan is simply too much of a rascal to be constrained by a script, even by a rigidly prescriptivist writer like McDonagh. He is a human magical cat, who, with his every twitchy mannerism and wild-eyed stare inspires us to dream, to consider the infinite unpredictability of the cosmos. Every movie needs a magical cat. Every country needs a national rascal. Every Banshees Of Inisherin needs a Barry Keoghan.

‘The Banshees Of Inisherin’ is currently in select theaters. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.

Donald Trump is many things. A former president. A twice-impeached president. An instigator of an insurrection. A reality television star. As much as he tried, he will most likely never be president again, because if the midterms proved anything, he is not popular enough even within his own party to run for president again. And, according to Apple, he is not interesting enough to be the subject of a television series anymore.

A report from The Ankler this week says that Apple has canceled its plans to develop a television series about the life of the former president. Apple quietly optioned the rights to adapt journalist Maggie Haberman’s book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America into a series a few months ago. Haberman’s book was released in October by Penguin Press. Here’s a description of the New York Times bestseller from the publisher:

“Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes.  Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink.”

Apple was smart to abandon this project: a Trump series does not fit in really well with the likes of Foundation, Severance, Mythic Quest, Ted Lasso, or Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me. And also, absolutely no one wants to see this anyway. The Trump Era is a part of American history that is best never, ever fictionalized.

(Via The Ankler)

Vanna White has long been a mainstay on the Wheel Of Fortune stage, working on the show long enough to see several different big boards come and go in the process. The job has changed a bit, too: she’s no longer spinning physical letters around but activating them electronically. And, honestly, it seems like a pretty good gig! But not everyone seems on board with the occupation, and we now know that one of her contemporaries overseas apparently despised their role of “turning bloody letters around.”

According to The Daily Mail, Jenny Powell wasn’t a big fan of her Vanna White-esque job on the UK version of Wheel of Fortune in the 90s. Powell first appeared on the UK version of Wheel in 1995, and it helped launch her career. But it turns out she was never a big fan of the work itself, saying “you’re just turning letters round and not saying anything” when discussing the gig on a new podcast.

She shared: ‘I ended up doing The Wheel of Fortune, which I hated it. It was the biggest thing, but I hated it. Because I was just a girl turning bl***y letters around.’

…

She said: ‘If someone said to you, right Jenny you are going to wear a really short skirt and we are all going to discuss the length of it for like four meetings, wear high heel shoes and turn some letters around and just look pretty and don’t say anything.’

‘Would you, do it? I know what I would tell my daughter today. I wasn’t actually allowed to speak.’

Simplifying the job to just turning letters seems a bit unfair, but Powell’s real criticism here is that she wasn’t allowed to inject any personality into the role. Couple that with what sounds like demeaning meetings about wardrobe and it’s easy to understand why she wasn’t thrilled with the work. And a quick look at some episodes on YouTube showcases that dissonance between what Powell likely wanted from the role and what she was forced to do.

There’s significantly more back and forth between Powell and host John Leslie than you normally see between White and US host Pat Sajak, who save their brief banter for the end of the show. Either way, Powell made it clear that she wouldn’t recommend anyone else take on the “glamorous assistant” role anytime soon.

[via Daily Mail]

The Fast franchise is known for its exponential nature. The series that started about driving post-production modified cars with your pals at night and maybe doing light crimes has turned into a full-fledged heists and international espionage movie phenomenon. Good guys (and girls) become bad guys become good guys again, and then everyone sits down for a beer they grip precariously by the bottle neck.

This is a series that’s flown cars across skyscrapers and mountain landscapes and even sent people into space. The only thing that’s certain about what the next movie will contain is that it will be increasingly ridiculous and, probably, very watchable. And now we know it will also cost a huge amount of money to make it happen. Like, on an increasingly large scale of production costs compared to previous films.

According to The Wrap, a number of factors have caused the budget for the penultimate Fast movie in the franchise to skyrocket, to the tune of 70 percent more than Fast 9 cost to make.

The budget for “Fast X,” the 10th film in Universal’s lucrative “Fast & Furious” action franchise, has ballooned to $340 million, according to individuals with knowledge of the production. That’s 70% more than the reported $200 million budget for 2021’s “F9: The Fast Saga,” and easily the most expensive entry in an action series that has generated $6.6 billion worldwide in ticket sales.

The surging price tag, which factors in tax-incentive offsets, can be blamed on numerous budget-busting elements: increased salaries for series star Vin Diesel and the rest of the franchise’s ensemble cast, general increases in production costs caused by global inflation and charges for pandemic testing requirements mandated by COVID-19 safety protocols.

As the report indicates, the series has made billions in ticket sales through its nine-movie run thus far. So it’s likely that everyone involved will get their money’s worth regardless of the film’s quality. But it certainly sets a high bar for profitability in an era where getting people to the movies has become more difficult. Perhaps part of Diesel’s salary includes some trailers imploring people to experience the majesty of the silver screen because they’ll certainly need butts in seats to afford a final Fast movie to finish the saga.

[via The Wrap]

This year’s been a long one for Ukrainians (and Russians) after Vladimir Putin decided to wage an imperialistic war. This move quickly backfired with Ukrainians (including grandmas) refusing to accept defeat and Russian army numbers dwindling to such a point that Putin called up hundreds of thousands of replacements, who are abandoning tanks after being told that there’s no medical care, sorry, and please bring tampons to treat your own bullet wounds. It’s no wonder that, along the way, we’ve heard mutterings about how Putin’s underlings were secretly maneuvering to install a successor, should he be found incapable of continuing to lead. And it sure sounds like they got closer to doing so this week while the world awaited fallout from the stray (mystery) missile that killed two people in Poland.

Previously, independent Russia news outlet Meduza had revealed that Putin’s henchmen were (via The Daily Beast) tiptoeing around with “an understanding, or a desire, that in the fairly foreseeable future he will not run the country.” Amid missile gate, Putin’s inner circle reportedly prepped themselves for imminent action to oust and replace the president at a moment’s notice. Also from The Daily Beast, it sounds like a relevant Telegram channel (apparently run by an ex-Russia security services member) detailed how high-ranking Russian security dudes consulted each other and plotted:

“Knowing Putin’s penchant for raising the stakes through escalation, … this group of security officials quickly became convinced that in response to a Russian strike on a country included in NATO there could be both a retaliatory strike and an ultimatum.”

So, according to the channel, they decided that “if the U.S. leadership and the adjoining countries show readiness for a harsh response, then the best way out would be to remove the current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, from power and create a collegial council of security officials to ‘temporarily’ take control of the country into their own hands … blaming all the problems on either a seriously ill or law-breaking president.”

As it turns out, there’s been no immediate action from Poland, the U.S., or NATO at large, so this could all be moot, at least until the next stray missile rolls out. Or when Putin officially runs out of Botox, which seems like only a matter of time, given that he’s tanked the Russian economy and earned pariah status for his country. But yeah, we have to have Botox jokes to cope with the enormity of this entire conflict. What a disaster.

(Via The Daily Beast)

In a move that will surprise absolutely no one given her MAGA credentials, Arizona gubernatorial candidate (and Todd from Breaking Bad fanatic) Kari Lake has refused to concede in her race against Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs. In a message to her supporters on Thursday, Lake promised/threatened that her legal team is carefully scrutinizing the results.

“Rest assured, I have assembled the best and brightest legal team and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week,” Lake said in the video. “I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs.”

Throughout her campaign, Lake has notably side-stepped questions about accepting election results. To make matters worse, she’s reportedly flown to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald Trump who knows a thing or two about making a giant stink after losing an election. Via The Washington Post:

Kari Lake, who was projected Monday to lose her race for governor of Arizona, traveled Thursday to former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, according to two people familiar with the activity. One of the people said she received a standing ovation when she entered a luncheon hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded last year by Trump allies and former members of his administration. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private events.

Considering almost every Trump-backed candidate lost during the midterm elections, which has turned a significant swath of the Republican Party against him, the former president has a vested interest in seeing Lake win her election. However, the last time he tried to overturn election results, a throng of MAGA rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, so we should probably keep an eye on these two. Just to be safe.

(Via The Hill, Washington Post)

For the last few days, much of the talk around the NFL has been about the weather expected in Buffalo as the Bills were set to host the Browns. A massive snowstorm is expected to sweep through the area off of Lake Erie starting on Thursday night, with some models projecting 2-4 feet of snow accumulation, along with strong winds in the area.

As such, there was concern from some about whether the game could be played in Orchard Park or if it would need to be moved (as has actually happened in the past in a Browns-Bills game), as playing a football game outside in a snowstorm can be difficult, to say the least. On Thursday, the league decided to proactively move the game to Detroit, with the Lions on the road at the Giants, where the Bills will play back-to-back games — as the home team against Cleveland and then again on Thanksgiving against the Lions.

The game will still be a 1 p.m. ET kickoff on CBS, but obviously is moving indoors at Ford Field in Detroit. While both teams play in the elements in their home stadiums, the Bills have a bit more experience with the specific unique weather of Buffalo, playing fairly regularly in snow and wind with a quarterback who feels those effects less than others in Josh Allen given his ability to run and also his preposterous arm strength. That won’t be a factor now in Detroit, where the Bills will spend a full week in a rare situation for NFL teams.

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

10. (tie) Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney Plus)

Thor is back once again and he brought some new friends with him. Natalie Portman, to be specific. Which is fun. This follow-up to the also-fun Ragnarok has made the move from theaters to streaming and into your living rooms. That’s another fun thing. It is almost unreasonable how good Chris Hemsworth is in these movies. You should not be allowed to look like that and be that funny. Someone should make a rule about it. Until then… watch it on Disney Plus.

10. (tie) Wendell and Wild (Netflix)

If you’re missing Key & Peele, we have some good news for you. Multiple seasons of the Comedy Central series will arrive on Netflix in November, so you can get your Hingle McCringleberry on, right from the comfort of your living room. In the meantime, you can enjoy Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s voices (along with that of Angela Bassett) as they play plotting demons who tangle with a teen who digs punk rock. Watch it on Netflix.

9. Falling for Christmas (Netflix)

Sorry to Mariah Carey but Lindsay Lohan is taking her place as the rightful queen of the holiday season this year. Her throne sits atop the bones of all the Hallmark movies she had to slaughter to get here and every Netflix Christmas flick that follows in her wake will shudder when those first few bars of “Jingle Bell Rock” begin to play. This is the future every millennial raised on The Parent Trap — and the Disney Channel Original movie Life-Size starring Tyra Banks — has manifested. In all seriousness though, this thing looks cute. Lohan plays a hotel heiress who, after a skiing accident, loses her memory and must live amongst the peasants of a snowy mountain town. While there she bonds with a sheriff/single-dad played by Glee’s Chord Overstreet and, presumably, realizes her former life wasn’t as picture perfect as she thought. Watch it on Netflix.

8. The Good Nurse (Netflix)

Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne star in a mostly fictionalized account of Charlie Cullen, a New Jersey nurse who was found responsible for dozens of murders of patients over a 16-year period. The star power is here and everyone seems to love semi-true stories about serial killers lately so there’s at least even money odds that this sucker takes off. Just don’t watch it before you have a doctor appointment. That would not be fun. Watch it on Netflix.

7. Causeway (Apple TV+)

Jennifer Lawrence ended her mini-acting hiatus with last year’s Don’t Look Up, but she was part of an ensemble cast with other A-listers. The Oscar winner is front and center (along with Atlanta great Brian Tyree Henry) in A24’s Causeway as a soldier who struggles to adjust to her life after returning home to New Orleans. It’s the kind of movie that she hasn’t made since her breakout performance in Winter’s Bone — and it looks just as good. Watch it on Apple TV+.

6. Don’t Worry Darling (HBO Max)

Cringe-inducing festival appearances and celebrity break-ups heralded by salad dressing recipe sharing aside, Olivia Wilde’s second directorial effort is a very pretty, very fun watch. Most of that is because of Florence Pugh, who plays a young housewife slowly descending into madness once the cracks of her perfect suburban existence begin to show. The rest is thanks to an intriguing plot that keeps you guessing until the very end, a capable supporting cast (and yes, we count Harry Styles amongst them), and Chris Pine, who seems to be having the time of his life playing a suave pseudo-cult leader who favors unbuttoned shirts and misogynistic family hierarchies. Watch it on HBO Max.

5. Enola Holmes 2 (Netflix)

Thank goodness Henry Cavill didn’t sign on to play Superman again before filming this sequel, or there’d be another The Witcher-esque switcheroo in the works. Cavill is back, but more importantly, Millie Bobbie Brown returns as the sassy younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. One of the bigger plot finds roots in the real-life Bryant & May match factory atrocities, but somehow, the overall mood stays light. Enola sets up her own detective shingle and goes undercover, so you can only imagine what hijinks will ensue. Watch it on Netflix.

4. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (The Roku Channel)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story stars Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe as “Weird Al” Yankovic, obviously. The fake biopic depicts the world’s premier polka-loving pop song parodist as a hard-drinking sex maniac, obviously. It also stars Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, obviously. Should you watch Weird: The Al Yankovic Story this weekend on the Roku Channel? Obviously.

3. Disenchanted (Disney Plus)

Amy Adams returns in her breakout role, but she’s a princess who actually isn’t having as much fun as she imagined would be the case. Giselle is still married to Robert (Patrick Dempsey), and they’re still searching for their fairy tale. Maya Rudolph climbs onboard for a semi-evil role as a villain of suburbia, and this is all very G-rated material again because c’mon, Disney. The story will be as charming as always, but the real attraction is James Marsden’s returning Idiot Prince. Basically, I just want the Idiot Prince to get plowed down at every opportunity again. Watch it on Disney Plus.

2. A Christmas Story Christmas (HBO Max)

Ralphie is back, over 30 years later, and he’s returning to the hometown where everything went down the first time around. Is this pretty much just nostalgia bait? Sure. Did anyone really need to know what Ralphie is up to in 2022? Probably not. Are you going to watch it anyway and end up charmed by the whole thing, up to and including the part where they actually got Peter Billingsly to reprise his role from the original? Hmm. We bet you are. Watch it on HBO Max.

1. Spirited (Apple TV Plus)

Apple TV+ is getting into the Christmas movie game with this musically inclined re-telling of that classic Dickens tales. Ryan Reynolds plays the modern-day Scrooge here, a guy named Clint Briggs who doesn’t take his holiday haunting lying down. Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present who’s determined to inject a bit of cheer into the proceedings no matter how many musical numbers and tap-dancing solos it takes. As far as Charles Dickens adaptations go, you could do a lot worse. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.