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When The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits theaters in the spring, it won’t be the first big screen take on the classic Nintendo game. But it will be the first animated one. Back in 1993, Hollywood spent nearly $50 million — almost $100 million today — on a live-action adaptation (that bombed and was hated by one of its leads). For Mario and Luigi, they didn’t cast two Italians. Instead they chose a Brit (Bob Hoskins) and a Colombian with Spanish and African roots (John Leguizamo). It’s the kind of diverse casting you see today — which is why Leguizamo is pretty disappointed that the new one stars two white actors, namely Chris Pratt and Charlie Day.

“I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original,” Leguizamo told IndieWire. “I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one.’ I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.”

He recalls his casting being rare for the time. “The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought really hard for me to be the lead because I was a Latin man, and [the studio] didn’t want me to be the lead,” Leguizamo said. “They fought really hard, and it was such a breakthrough. For them to go backwards and not cast another [actor of color] kind of sucks.”

It’s not the first time Leguizamo has criticized the new Mario Bros. for its non-diverse casting (although it does have Keegan-Michael Key voicing Toad). Last year, when Pratt’s casting was first announced, he sounded off on Twitter.

“So glad #superMariobros is getting a reboot! Obviously it’s iconic enuff,” he wrote. “But too bad they went all white! No Latinx in the leads! Groundbreaking color-blind casting in original! Plus I’m the only one who knows how to make this movie work script wise!”

Leguizamo isn’t the only one critical of Pratt’s casting. Pratt had promised that his voice in the film would be “unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before.” When the first trailer dropped, people had lots of jokes, though perhaps the best one was that he sounded less like an Italian plumber and more like Linda Belcher from Bob’s Burgers.

(Via IndieWire)

Fresh off Kristen Stewart‘s nomination for portraying Princess Diana in Spencer and Imogen Poots‘ starring in the Oscar-worthy The Father, the pair are set to keep those Academy vibes rolling along with a prestige memoir adaptation. This time, Stewart will be behind the camera, making her feature film directorial debut and co-writing the screenplay for The Chronology of Water with Andy Mingo.

Based off Lidia Yuknavitch’s creative non-fiction work of the same name, the movie will feature Poots as a woman overcoming familial sexual abuse and violence, discovering her own sexual identity alongside her identity as an artist. Stewart joked(?) in May that if she didn’t get to make the long-gestating film this year, she’d “die.”

“Lidia’s memoir honors corporeal experience, radically,” Stewart told Deadline. “To make that experience physical feels vital to me and what this impulse means … is that it absolutely must be a film. This project has been cooking for five years with the help of Scott Free, whom I could not be more privileged to have as partners and friends. Imogen Poots will carry this movie and the staggering weight of Lidia’s life. She can hold it. I am beyond lucky to have her.”

It’s a bold, audacious project from a singular writer. Yuknavitch is a staple of the Oregon writing scene and wrote the memoir partially because of a good-natured ribbing from Chuck Palahniuk who joked about not seeing much value in the form (but who proclaimed he’d read any memoir she wrote). Stewart is an exciting voice for this, and it’s positioned perfectly to shoot, lounge around Cannes, and then bound onto screens next fall. There’s no official timeline for it, but don’t be too surprised if that’s how it goes down.

(via Deadline)

To date, more than 80 women have accused former Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, with charges ranging from harassment to rape. With that many women sharing very similar — and equally terrifying — accounts with the man behind such critical hits as Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love, Gangs of New York, Paddington, and Carol, it was clear from the beginning that the details revealed during any trial would be both disturbing and salacious. But one thing people might not have been expecting were the bizarre details Weinstein’s accusers have given about his highly abnormal genitalia, photos of which the jury in his current Los Angeles trial were forced to examine last month.

Weinstein’s legal team came out of the gate swinging when the trial first kicked off in October, and spent days grilling the first victim to testify, a.k.a. Jane Doe #1, about her claim that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on his. Though it was just one of several horrific acts the alleged victim described, Harvey’s legal team pounced on the oral sex aspect of her claim that he had forced her to “suck him and suck his balls”​​ to paint her as a liar. The case has only grown more contentious, and strange, since.

Last week, as Insider reported, another victim — Jane Doe #2 — described Weinstein’s “disgusting” genitalia in further detail, saying that his penis looked as if “it had been chopped off and sewn back on, like something wasn’t right about it.” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California governor Gavin Newsom, echoed the latter part of this sentiment earlier this week.

Newsom, who is identified in court as Jane Doe #4, testified in California on Monday about her 2005 encounter with Weinstein, who she claimed raped her at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. As the New York Post reported, Newsom — clearly shaken up and emotional — described the incident as, “My worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll that he’s just trying to masturbate off of.”

When asked to describe what she recalled of Weinstein’s physique, she replied:

Lots of bruises, markings, yellow and green, lots of stretch marks on his belly, very not physically fit at all. Looked uncircumcised and strange though, kind of fish-like, the penis, something was distorted in the testicles … Lots of skin, lots of skin down there.

Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault related to his trial in New York. In Los Angeles, he is being charged with sexually assaulting four women between 2004 and 2013.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, help is available 24/7 through the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE and online.rainn.org.

(Via New York Post)

Last week, Sam Bankman-Fried was the king of crypto. Now he’s a supervillain. FTX Trading — the young, shorts-wearing exec’s cryptocurrency exchange company, once backed by Larry David and Tom Brady — collapsed in the span of a week. On Friday, they filmed for bankruptcy, leaving millions of people and companies short of funds they may never see again. Details continue to pour in, many of them bizarre. Now, to make things even more surreal, Bankman-Fried has been sending unhinged DMs to reporters.

Vox reporter Kelsey Piper revealed that on Tuesday night she spent an hour chatting on Twitter with Bankman-Fried, who’s mostly spent his infamy sleeping and playing video games, and may or may not be on the run. She asked hard questions; she got weirdly, distressingly honest-seeming answers. For one thing, his previous public stance as an agent of do-goodery who’s even open to the crypto world being regulated? Partly a façade.

“f*ck regulators,” Bankman-Fried told Piper. “they don’t protect customers at all.” He’s not against regulation per se, but he claims that regulators, at least the ones running the show nowadays, “can’t do it” because they “can’t distinguish between god and bad.”

So is that why he may have done some supremely shady things, such as allegedly gamble with — and lose — billions of other people’s money? It’s not clear. He told Piper, “I didn’t want to do sketchy stuff” and that he “didn’t mean to,” adding that “each individual decision seemed fine and I didn’t realize how big their sum was until the end.”

Piper spoke with Bankman-Fried over the summer, long before the collapse of his company and reputation. When reading back some of the altruistic beliefs he shared — like how one should never do “unethical s*it,” he replied, “heh,” laughing off “all that dumb s*it I said,” which he revealed was “not true, not really.” He even agreed that the “ethics stuff” was mostly a “front.”

Bankman-Fried was also pressed about one of the wilder parts of the FTX collapse: that they had transferred billions to a sister company, Alameda Research. He said that their promise that they would never invest their deposits was “factually accurate,” but only, it seems, because it was Alameda that had done it. He admitted he “thought Alameda had enough collateral to reasonable [sic] cover it.” Turned out he was wrong, to which he said, “life creeps up on you.”

Oh, and that missing billion or so dollars that can’t be accounted for? Bankman-Fried blames it on the hack that hit the company last weekend.

Bankman-Fried eventually admits he “f*cked up,” “big,” “multiple times.” But his biggest regret wasn’t that he lost billions. It was that he filed for Chapter 11, thus losing control of the company, which he swears he could right if he had the chance. As of now, he has “2 weeks to raise $2b.” Surely that will be difficult, if not impossible, given that his name — and possibly his entire future — is in the toilet. To that, he can only point out that “a month ago I was one of the greatest fundraisers.”

You can read the full article — and see many of his DMs — over at Vox.

Hannah Einbinder holds her own against Jean Smart in HBO Max’s Hacks to such a delicious degree. The way those two (rather insufferable on their own) characters circle each other is masterful and so f*cking funny. In real life, Hannah’s also terribly amusing on her own. She did a blazingly good Conan Needs A Friend podcast episode (here’s the Apple link) if you are so inclined. And she still dabbles in stand-up from time to time.

At the moment, however, Hannah’s not feeling very entertained by Dave Chappelle’s most recent SNL monologue, in which he once again courted controversy (months after those “I’m Team TERF” jokes in a Netflix special). Einbinder did find much of the SNL monologue to be very funny, but she didn’t appreciate what she called his “two truths and a lie” approach, which she believes is a “genius technique” (regarding his commentary on Kanye West’s blazing anti-Semitism) but still nonetheless not her thing. The Anti-Defamation League wrote that Chappelle’s jokes “not just normalize but popularize” anti-Semitism, and Hannah seems inclined to agree. As Deadline notes, Einbinder used her Instagram story to outline her issues with Chappelle’s monologue.

Near the end of her statement, Einbinder declared, “These men who pick on marginalized groups are establishment bullies reinforcing the status quo — not at all the job of a comedian.” Here’s more:

“No one who laughs at the solid jokes would be willing to admit that there was antisemitism in that monologue, because that admission would then qualify them as complicit. No one wants to feel like a bad person. The fact is: non Jews aren’t as keenly aware of antisemitic ideas, tropes, verbiage etc. Most people just missed these ideas all together, and only remember that they laughed. So when Jews say hey, there was antisemitism in there, folks go, ‘you’re too sensitive. Learn to take a joke.’ … The danger here is that Dave Chappelle, and every other male comedian who believes that their amplification of bigotry is just freedom of speech, are seen as tellers of hard truths, and thus anyone who criticizes them are seen as snowflakes.”

You can read Hannah’s full remarks here. As well, Jon Stewart has defended Chappelle while declaring, “I don’t believe that censorship and penalties are the way to end anti-Semitism or to gain understanding.” He then added, “I don’t believe in that. It’s the wrong way for us to approach it.”

(Via LA Times, Deadline &ampl NY Post)

Did you know there are only eight more weeks of the 2022 NFL regular season? It seems like time is flying by but, with four teams on bye in Week 11, there are still 11 games to consume over a five-day period that begins on Thursday. In this space, we’ve found our footing to some degree with a stretch of 8-1-1 over the last two weeks, but nothing comes easy and we must grind through another slate.

Before we touch on this week’s selections, let’s take a broad look at the season-long progress.

• Week 10: 4-1
• 2022 Season: 26-23-1

Come get these winners.

Green Bay Packers (-3) over Tennessee Titans

Candidly, I grabbed this at 2.5 early in the week and that is obviously a better spot. I still like the Packers at 3, though, and we’re banking on repeat success after riding Green Bay in Week 10. The Packers seemed to find something by leaning heavily on the ground game and Christian Watson bring more dynamism on the outside. Tennessee’s defense is stout, but I’m generally a bit lower on the Titans and I tend to lean on home teams on short weeks.

Detroit Lions (+3) over New York Giants

Why in the world is this number three? Well, it stinks. Even with two wins in a row, Detroit is 3-6. New York is 7-2 and playing at home. That split would lend itself to a much larger spread but, as soon as this number floated to 3.5, it got gobbled up by sharp action. The Giants aren’t a bad football team, which is a win itself, but most do not believe in their 7-2 record being indicative of team quality. Put me in that camp as well, and the Lions are plucky on offense. Hold your nose.

Philadelphia Eagles (-6.5) 0ver Indianapolis Colts

A road favorite? Yeah, it’s gross. This number opened above seven in some spots, and I wouldn’t lay that many points, but 6.5 is a good spot. It’s a mini-dip for Philadelphia after a loss on national TV, and there seems to be a belief that the Colts are “back” after the Jeff Saturday Experience led to a win in Week 10. Admittedly, Indianapolis is much better with Matt Ryan at the helm, and there was a lot more juice on offense, but I’ll take Philadelphia’s roster and, um, an established coaching staff to take care of business in a bounce-back spot.

Houston Texans (+3.5) over Washington Commanders

Yep, we’re taking the other side of the post-Monday reaction frenzy, too. Washington did look great against Philadelphia, managing the game beautifully and making enough plays to get a win. Now, with a bit of a shorter week, they are laying more than a field goal on the road. Houston is definitely bad, and I get why no one wants to take the Texans here. At 3.5, I just have to. Principles are principles.

Dallas Cowboys (-1) over Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are running incredibly hot at 8-1, including a slew of one-score victories. Maybe that continues here and we’ll be wrong, but Minnesota is No. 16 (!!) in the NFL in DVOA right now despite one loss, and I just think Dallas is better. Is it scary to take Dallas in a coin-flip game on the road? Maybe a little, but I trust the defense and this is a good price on the Cowboys.

Memphis rapper GloRilla is having one hell of a year. Her breakthrough single, “F.N.F (Let’s Go)” dropped in May, which led to her inking a deal with Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group label. She then dropped the track “Tomorrow 2” featuring Cardi B which saw her reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and now just received her first-ever Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance at the 65th Grammy Awards.

So why stop now? Her debut EP on CMG, Anyways, Life’s Great, came out last week and now GloRilla has announced her first-ever US headlining tour. GloRilla’s 2023 Anyways, Life’s Great Tour begins on January 27 at the underground in Charlotte, NC, and closes on February 25 at Union Stage in Washington DC.

Check out the complete list of GloRilla 2023 Tour dates below and get tickets here.

01/27 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
01/28 – Atlanta, GA @ Hell At The Masquerade
01/30 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live Studio
01/31 – Dallas, TX @ The Cambridge Room at House of Blues
02/02 – Phoenix, AZ @ Aura
02/03 – Las Vegas @ Hakkasan
02/08 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
02/09 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
02/14 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Other Side
02/16 – Chicago, IL @ Avondale Music Hall
02/20 – Detroit, MI @ The Shelter
02/22 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
02/23 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
02/24 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
02/25 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage

The abrupt collapse of crypto firm FTX has brought yet another moment of crisis to the cryptocurrency community. The value of various currency has plummeted, customers are left with nothing and the company’s founder may be in serious trouble about literal billions of real dollars missing from FTX’s books.

That spells a lot of trouble for a lot of people, and those who used their platforms to encourage people to use companies like FTX may be in trouble as a result. That includes Tom Brady, who was an investor in FTX and reportedly lost big when the company went belly-up last week. Brady most notably was in a Super Bowl ad back in February along with his then-wife, Gisele Bündchen.

The entire purpose of the ad was to show how “in” the now-former couple was on crypto as an investment. Even Fireman Ed was involved.

But just eight months later, all that remains of FTX is a crater and possibly some significant criminal exposure for its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. And, just maybe, all the people who were “in” on crypto in a very public way. Like Brady and Gisele Bündchen. According to the New York Post, celebrities like Brady, Bündchen, and even Larry David could be in legal trouble with FTX evaporating.

Investors not only are suing Sam Bankman-Fried, but also celebrity endorsers of his bankrupt crypto company FTX, including Tom Brady, ex-wife Gisele Bündchen, Larry David, and sports stars like David Ortiz, Steph Curry and Shaquille O’Neal.

Attorneys including star litigator David Boies filed the lawsuit on behalf of Edwin Garrison, an Oklahoma resident who had an FTX yield-bearing account which he funded with crypto assets to earn interest, and others like him.

Celebrity endorsers such as David, who filmed a Super Bowl commercial for FTX, are accused of engaging in deceptive practices to sell FTX yield-bearing digital currency accounts, the suit claims.

That’s bad news for anyone who got the bag for touting crypto, especially if other companies continue to fail and the market fallout continues. And it’s really incredible to consider just how quickly everything changed for both FTX and Brady, who just eight months ago was heading to retirement, still married and finding more ways to make money with crypto. Now FTX is toast, he’s divorced and he’s somehow back playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers despite already announcing a retirement. The lesson here may be: careful how you invest. And if you’re famous: what you promote.

The 2023 Grammy Award nominations were announced this week. The ceremony is set to take place on Saturday, February 5th at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and Kendrick Lamar leads all rappers with six total nominations. And for Lamar’s continued success at the Grammys, there are also a number of rappers who garnered their first-ever Grammy nominations like Latto, Tobe Nwigwe, and breakout star GloRilla.

Memphis’s GlorRilla seemingly came out of nowhere this past May with her breakthrough hit “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” featuring HitKidd and her star has soared ever since. Now signed to Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group, she dropped her debut Anyways, Life’s Great… EP for the label last week which includes her newest hit “Tomorrow 2” featuring Cardi B.

But that first breakthrough single, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” is the one that has brought her Grammy consideration. GloRilla is nominated in the Best Rap Performance category for “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” featuring Hitkidd. She’ll have her work cut out for her to bring home a win because the other nominees include Kendrick Lamar for “The Heart Part 5,” Doja Cat for “Vegas,” Gunna & Future Featuring Young Thug — “Pushin P,” and “God Did” by DJ Khaled Featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy. Power to GloRilla because simply being nominated will surely supercharge her already surging career.

Check out the complete list of nominees for the 65th Grammy Awards here.

After Candace Cameron Bure kicked off a wave of controversy that even has her longtime Full House co-star Jodie Sweetin shading her, The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan has entered the fray. At issue is a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal where Bure says her new home at Great American Family network, where she also serves as Chief Creative Officer, will only produce Christmas movies that focus on “traditional marriages.” (Read: No gay stuff.)

One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton was one of the first stars to slam Bure and Great American Family for “openly admitting their bigotry.” Her tweet caught the attention of her husband Morgan, who backed up Burton for calling out Bure’s anti-gay agenda.

“How’d I miss this twit?! Who the f*ck is this person?” Morgan tweeted before giving his wife a shout-out. “Hey Hil? You’re awesome. We lucky to have ya.”

After calling Bure a “twit,” The Walking Dead star swung back around to fire off another supportive tweet for Burton. “‘Make your money honey.’ Lol… cooked kids dinner and was laughing whole time. Wife has words AND timing.”

On Wednesday, Bure issued a very long, and notably very non-apologetic statement to Variety where she addressed the mounting controversy. She did not walk back her “traditional marriage” remarks, but instead, doubled down on her Christian values and called out the media who “fan flames of conflict and hate.” But she’s not mad.

Bure wants it known that she loves all people. You just can’t be gay and in her Christmas movies. God bless!

(Via Jeffrey Dean Morgan on Twitter)