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Earlier in the week, media baron Rupert Murdoch reportedly made it clear to Donald Trump that he should not announce a presidential run after the disastrous midterm results. Murdoch even went so far to say that his vast media empire would back a Democratic candidate should Trump become the Republican nominee.

Rupert wasn’t playing around.

Following Trump’s Tuesday night announcement that he will once again seek a return to the White House, the Murdoch-owned New York Post executed a brutal snub by burying the Trump news on page 26 of Wednesday’s paper. Granted, the Post opted for a fear-mongering front page hyping concerns about crime, but it also let readers know that Trump’s announcement didn’t warrant the attention he so desperately craves.

Not content with burying Trump’s announcement, the Post staff also wrote a scathing report that ridiculed Trump for the Mar-a-Lago raid, his cholesterol levels, and his frequent claims of being a “stable genius.”

You can read the full text below:

With just 720 days to go before the next election, a Florida retiree made the surprise announcement Tuesday night that he was running for president. In a move no political pundit saw coming, avid golfer Donald J. Trump kicked things off at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and classified documents library. Trump, famous for gold-plated lobbies and for firing people on reality television, will be 78 in 2024. If elected, Trump would tie Joe Biden as the oldest president to take office. His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup. He has stated that his qualifications for office include being a “stable genius.” Trump also served as the 45th president.

Again, Rupert Murdoch is not messing around. However, there are reportedly conditions for his media empire backing a Democratic candidate against Trump. Should Joe Biden run for re-election, Murdoch will reportedly remain neutral. But should a new “more promising” Democratic candidate emerge, News Corp will support that ticket “for the sake of stability and a sensible White House.”

Not gonna lie, that feels like a trap, but it does appear Murdoch is already making moves to shut down Trump in more ways than one.

(Via New York Post on Twitter, Christine Romans on Twitter)

Yesterday, the nominations for the 2023 Grammys were unveiled. With that, Beyoncé earned nine total nods in various categories and broke a ton of records in the process. She is currently tied with her husband, Jay-Z, as the most-nominated artist of all time. Both have received a total of 88 nods from the Recording Academy.

She did break the record to become the female artist leading the way for the most nominations ever. In addition, Beyoncé surpassed Frank Sinatra for the most nominations in the Record Of The Year category. They had previously been tied at seven. Now, with her newest acknowledgment for “Break My Soul,” she is leading the way at eight.

According to Billboard, she holds the record as the first woman of color (as a solo artist) to receive four nominations for Album Of The Year. Mariah Carey, HER, and Whitney Houston each hold three.

Beyoncé’s additional nominations this year include Song Of The Year and Best Dance/Electronic Recording (“Break My Soul”), Best Dance/Electronic Music Album (Renaissance), Best R&B Performance (“Virgo’s Groove”), Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Plastic Off The Sofa”), Best R&B Song (“Cuff It”), and Best Song Written For Visual Media (“Be Alive”).

Out of Beyoncé’s nine total nominations, she only needs four wins to become the highest-awarded artist by the Recording Academy of all time. Currently, she has won 28 total times and would beat out Georg Solti and Quincy Jones if this happens, according to their official website.

The Grammys are being held on February 5, 2023.

SZA fans have been waiting a long time for her second album, S.O.S., but it looks like they’ll be having a merry Christmas this year. According to Billboard, the singer — who has been ambivalent about whether or not she even wants to be one — has settled on a December release date for the album, which will feature standout singles from the past year such as “Shirt” and “I Hate U.”

It will also feature, according to SZA, improved songwriting, as she was a “more carefree writer” on her beloved debut, CTRL, and has become more focused since. SZA also made an effort to explain why the process took longer than fans might have wanted. “I feel like music, in this capacity, I don’t see longevity,” she said. ” like to create, I like to write, I like to sing, and I like to share. But I don’t know if chasing after superstardom or whatever I’m supposed to be doing right now is sustainable for me or for anybody. I’mma take a good swing at it, and I’mma give ’em my absolute best.”

Fans have speculated that the album is coming out next month ever since she was announced as the musical guest for the December 3 episode of Saturday Night Live. They also interpreted a possible easter egg in her video for “Shirt” as a clue to the release date. If it does turn out to be correct, SZA heads will be having a happy holiday, indeed.

On her newest single, “Do You Miss Me?” PinkPantheress enjoys time with a lover. As her infatuation grows, she finds herself approaching obsessive territory.

In the first verse of the single, which features hypnotic, dance-ready percussion by Kaytranada, PinkPantheress sings, “I can’t let go of your hand / I can’t even breathe without you / I don’t think you understand  / I love to watch you as you speak / And you say the words ‘I love you’ / Tell me, when you fall asleep.”

Back in October, Paramore brought out PinkPantheress to perform the band’s iconic song, “Misery Business” at Austin City Limits. Paramore is one of PinkPantheress’ all-time favorite bands, and in an interview with Alternative Press, PinkPantheress recalled seeing them perform live and coming to the realization that she, herself, wanted to be a musician.

“I’ll never forget the thought I had: ‘She’s having so much fun, and she’s getting paid.’ Money is never a factor,” she said, “but I realized you can really make a living off of this. It’s more than just dancing and being onstage, obviously, but it just looked so appealing to me right then. I was like, ‘In any imaginary world where I can do this, this is what I want.’”

Check out “Do You Miss Me?” above.

PinkPantheress and Paramore are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Will Smith has stayed very quiet since The Incident earlier this year that had Hollywood perpetually divided. After taking several months off to meditate and avoid the media, Smith is back with a striking new trailer for the upcoming film Emancipation from Antoine Fuqua, director of The Equalizer franchise.

Inspired by a true story, Emancipation stars Smith, Ben Foster, Steven Ogg, Charmaine Bingwa, Mustafa Shakir, and Timothy Hutton. Here are the official plot details:

Emancipation tells the triumphant story of Peter (Smith), a man who escapes from slavery, relying on his wits, unwavering faith and deep love for his family to evade cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on his quest for freedom. The film is inspired by the 1863 photos of “Whipped Peter,” taken during a Union Army medical examination, that first appeared in Harper’s Weekly. One image, known as “The Scourged Back,” which shows Peter’s bare back mutilated by a whipping delivered by his enslavers, ultimately contributed to growing public opposition to slavery.

Despite Smith’s rocky year out of the spotlight, Fuqua said that Apple was nothing but supportive of the film, which was filmed last summer in New Orleans, months before The Slap. “As a filmmaker, you want your work out there, especially something this important,” Fuqua told Deadline last month. “It was Apple, behind the scenes, they were pushing that as well, trying to navigate through the waters. They never stopped talking about releasing the film, and when would be best strategically. Apple would call me often, with Will, and I have to say Apple has been amazing through this whole film. We moved from Georgia to Louisiana, and they never blinked. We weathered hurricanes, Covid, all those things.”

Even though Smith will be unable to snag an Academy Award for this film due to being banned from the ceremony, Fuqua says he just hopes the actor is able to move on from the ordeal. “Will Smith is a great guy. I was with him for a couple of years, making this movie. He is a wonderful person, an amazing partner and he did an amazing job on this movie. Chris Rock’s a good guy, I know Chris as well…and I just pray it works out for them as friends, and we can move forward.” Yes! It’s time to move forward.

Emancipation will be released in select theaters on December 2nd, and streaming on AppleTV+ on December 9th.

We knew that millions of fans sat down to watch the new season of Yellowstone, though perhaps we didn’t know just how many there were. As it turns out–this show is popular!

The season five premiere of the Kevin Costner-led western drama drew in 12.1 million (!) same-day viewers. According to analytics company Samba TV, Yellowstone is now the top scripted series premiere of 2022. Sorry, Daemon.

The premiere secured 8.8 million viewers in its first airing on the Paramount Network, which then grew to 10.3 million viewers from simulcast airings on CMT, TV Land, and Pop before ultimately climbing to 12.1 million when adding in encore telecasts. For some perspective: the series premiere of House of the Dragon had roughly 10 million fans tuning in this past August. While House of the Dragon has some fun CGI and of course, dragons, Yellowstone appeals to a large part of the US that is often underrepresented: the midwest.

Maybe you haven’t heard of Yellowstone, but it’s probably your distant cousin’s favorite show which follows Costner as Joh Dutton, Montana’s newly-appointed governor, as he protects his family’s ranch from various stressful obstacles. The series began in 2018 and is now in its fifth season, in addition to the popular prequel show 1883 which premiered earlier this year, and the upcoming 1923.

Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Samba TV, says that this is what sets the series apart from other big-name shows on popular streaming services. “Yellowstone continues to tap into the passions of a broad swath of viewers throughout the American Midwest hungry for Western-themed genres that have been largely underrepresented on television in recent years. Viewership significantly over-indexed for the season premiere within cities such as St. Louis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and not surprisingly under-indexed in the largely coastal urban centers of San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.”

Despite its growing popularity, creator Taylor Sheridan wants you to know that show isn’t just for your distant Republican relatives. Plus, Harrison Ford is involved now, and he’s cool! So it’s totally fine to watch. There will be millions tuning in right there with you.

Yellowstone seasons 1-4 are now streaming on Peacock.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Pete Davidson‘s appeal has been explained time and time again — he’s funny, talented, handsome, rich, etc. with a famously big… y’know. But some people can’t seem to understand how he’s dated so many famous and beautiful women, including Ariana Grande (which inspired the iconic song “thank u, next”), Kate Beckinsale, Kim Kardashian, and possibly Emily Ratajkowski. The pair have supposedly been “talking for a couple months now” and they’re in the “very early stages” and “really like each other.”

Here’s more:

A source close to Emily exclusively told E! News that the SNL alum and the Gone Girl actress have “gone on a few dates” together in New York City. While the two have known each other for years, the insider shared that they reconnected after “Pete texted Emily wanting to get together to catch up… Emily thinks Pete is a lot of fun to hang out with,” the source said, adding that the duo have “a flirtatious chemistry right now.”

Nothing has been confirmed (or denied) by either party, although Ratajkowski’s Twitter may have offered a clue. The model and author liked the following tweet from songwriter Dionne Warwick:

To be fair, it’s a Very Good Tweet that over 278,000 people have liked. But still!

Ratajkowski previously explained Davidson’s appeal to women (and men) in an interview with Seth Meyers. “Pete’s, he’s got the height. Obviously women find him very attractive,” she said. “Guys are like, ‘Wow. What’s that guy got?’ And I’m like, I mean, he seems super charming. He’s vulnerable. He’s lovely. His fingernail polish is awesome. He looks good!” Good enough to date? Perhaps.

(Via E! Online)

The best stuff on Inside the NBA tends to happen when the games are over, they’ve decided they don’t wanna be serious anymore, and they just need to kill a few minutes before they sign off for the night and get to go home. When we ranked the best moments in the show’s last decade or so, a fairly common theme was that the most unhinged stuff came late at night when the show was, for all intents and purposes, over.

We got our latest example of this in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Shaquille O’Neal, who is known for having some absolutely bonkers takes about the moon, shared that he has a brand new theory about the moon. You know how our beautiful planet has one moon, a thing that everyone has agreed on for centuries? Well, Shaq’s theory is that there is another.

“I have a new theory,” the mischievous Hall of Fame inductee says. “There’s more than one moon.”

This elicited groans because everyone else knew some nonsense was coming, but Shaq implored that he be given a chance to speak.

“The other day I was riding — past Auburn, as a matter of fact — and the moon was on the left,” Shaq said. “And I keep going straight, didn’t make no turns, and about 20 minutes later, the moon was behind me.”

“It’s cause it was movin’, fool!” Charles Barkley, who is used to this stuff but by no means enjoys it, said.

“There’s more than one moon,” Shaq continued. “And then another 45 seconds, the moon was on my right. There’s more than one moon.”

This now joins the famous segment where Shaq asked how long it takes to fly to the moon in the pantheon of Inside the NBA moments that are designed to give astronomy teachers headaches.

It looks like third time’s the charm for alternative singer Weyes Blood as the songwriter prepares for the release of her upcoming album, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, this Friday.

Co-produced by Ben Babbitt and Jonathan Rado (of Foxygen), new single “God Turn Me Into A Flower” is much more subdued in nature compared to the Weyes’ previous singles, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” and “Grapevine.” But on the other hand, all three tracks remain true to Weyes’ doom-and-gloom songwriting signature. “Grapevine” chronicled her escape from the losing game an emotionally unavailable partner trapped her in. On “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody,” Weyes confessed to her longing for true connection.

Unlike the previous singles, “God Turn Me Into A Flower” intentionally lacks the theatrics. The nearly stripped track doesn’t have much heft in terms of instrumentation, which forces listeners to hyper-focus on Weyes’ vocals. The layering of them creates an echo chambers allowing her tear-jerking lyrics to pierce through.

Often a lone wolf as it relates to her individual work, on “God Turn Me Into A Flower,” Weyes recruited the help of producer Oneohtrix Point Never (real name Daniel Lopatin). However, instead of serving in a production role, Lopatin joined in on the record by way of the synthesizer. Lopatin’s played heightens the coldness Weyes feels in her romantic pursuits.

This track plays more so like a prayer rather than a song. In the stanza, “It always takes me / it’s such a curse to be so hard / you shatter easily / and can’t pick up all those shards / it’s the curse of losing yourself,” Weyes seemingly acknowledges her faults in the relationship but admits that it could never work.

In the lines, “You see the reflection / and you want it more than the truth / you yearn to be that dream / you could never get to,” Weyes doubles down on this sentiment. She later prays to be revealed of this strain as she’d rather be a flower than a person.

Listen to the track above.

Brendan Fraser has been enjoying a career resurgence complete with numerous accolades for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. While the experience has been an emotional journey for the actor, there are some awards that are simply not worth discarding his principle. When asked if he’ll attend the Golden Globes if he’s nominated for Best Actor, Fraser made it clear that he has not forgiven the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the way it handled his alleged sexual assault by former president Philip Berk.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” he said bluntly. “No, I will not participate.”

His reasoning, for those who have followed the former heartthrob’s rollercoaster career, is obvious: “It’s because of the history that I have with them,” he explained. “And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.”

Following Fraser’s allegations, the HFPA literally tried to chalk the whole thing up as a joke, which the actor obviously did not appreciate. He refused to co-sign a statement that acknowledged Berk touched him inappropriately, but it meant to be humorous. Fraser blasted the organization for closing ranks as it continued to allow Berk to be a voting member until 2021 when he was expelled for sending out a racist email.

So, yeah, you can see why Brendan Fraser is not in the mood to mingle with that crowd again, and good on him for standing his ground.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)