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Every fan base in every sport shares one belief, and that is that the referees are out to get them.

Smaller market teams are convinced there’s a grand conspiracy against them to help the big guys, while big market teams think the refs hate them like the majority of other fans. It is one of the main roles of officials, to be the scapegoats because it’s easier to blame outside undue influence rather than the truth, which is usually that your favorite team wasn’t as good.

However, because of this, officials have to be very careful about doing anything that could lead to the belief that they would be bias on the field or court. That’s why video of a pair of officials appearing to ask Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans for his autograph after the Bucs dismal loss to the Panthers on Sunday raised some eyebrows and also sparked an NFL investigation into the matter.

We’ll learn the exact context of all of this after the investigation concludes, but it’s safe to say this isn’t a good look no matter what — and is why the “no asking for autographs” rule is in place. Now, given the Bucs lost in rather spectacular fashion to the Panthers as 13-point favorites, it’s pretty clear there wasn’t a lot of referee influence on the game, but you can’t have officials chasing down players in the tunnel to get them to sign something.

Lil Uzi Vert hasn’t been on tour since 2018, but that’s apparently soon to change, according to Complex. The genre-bending rapper, who recently came out as non-binary, announced that they are going on a 20-city headlining tour produced by Live Nation beginning in March 2023. The dates and venues will be announced soon; fans took the announcement as a promising sign that Uzi’s long-awaited third major-label album, The Pink Tape is also on the way after they delayed it in October 2021 to make sure “it won’t suck.”

Uzi’s last album, Eternal Atake, was released in 2020, but they were unable to tour after its release due to the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting industry shutdown. The shutdown was since rescinded but Uzi was already hard at work on the follow-up. To tide fans over in the meantime, Uzi shared the Red & White EP in July of this year, rolling it out piecemeal on their SoundCloud. Since then, Uzi’s been mostly radio silent until earlier this month, when they returned with a new single, “Just Wanna Rock.” The song sees Uzi taking a stab at a new sound, Jersey Club, and could foretell what to expect whenever The Pink Tape does drop.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The first trailer for the latest installment in the MCU is here, featuring everyone’s favorite snack-sized superhero, Ant-Man! Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will hit theaters in February 2023 with Paul Rudd back to reprise his role of the tiny guy who takes on the world’s most prominent villains. Maybe Thor is too busy or something?

The highly-anticipated installment will feature the infamous Marvel villain Kang, who is gearing up to shuffle in a new phase of the Marvel universe. Jonathan Majors has been portraying Kang in the MCU since last year when he appeared in Disney+’s Loki. We already know that Majors is set to reprise his role of Kang in The Avenger: Kang Dynasty in 2025, so this looks like it will be the beginning of a whole new era of villains. With the new trailer comes a daunting new poster that features Kang as the puppet master.

Fans might remember from Loki that there are different iterations of He Who Remains, and one of them is the powerful Kang (much like there are handfuls of Lokis running around in other universes), so it’s likely that there will be a lot of layers to the character during the next phase, which is why Majors was so interested in Kang. “It was the character and dimensions of Kang,” Majors recently revealed. “And the potential that it had. I thought I’ll take a chance on that.”

Now that Thanos and Gorr are out, Kang seems like he will be the next guy showing up all over the MCU and wreaking havoc. But Jonathan Majors is definitely ready for that! We just might be seeing Majors popping up in other Marvel shows in the future.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be released in theaters on February 17th, 2023.

In The Eye, music’s best up-and-coming artists take to an intimate and minimal studio space to perform highlights from their discography, with only one microphone and one take. This time, in the studio is Pheelz, who you’ve probably heard while scrolling on your phone.

Earlier this year, the Nigerian Afrobeats singer had a moment on TikTok: Well before it was actually released, his and BNXN’s “Finesse” went viral on the platform, and after it came out, it continued to do well, racking up over 66 million streams on Spotify. The tune even landed him a record deal with Warner UK.

His career actually started long before that, though. He first made his name as an in-demand producer and was declared one of Nigeria’s best in 2013. At The Headies 2020 (a Nigerian music awards show), he picked up the Producer Of The Year award for his work on Teniola Apata’s “Billionaire.”

Then came “Finesse.” Aside from the aforementioned accolades, it was his first song to appear and go No. 1 on the Nigerian charts. It also got him his first Billboard chart placement when it landed on the Billboard Global 200.

Now, Pheelz finds himself in The Eye, for performances of his two biggest songs: “Finesse” and “Electricity.” On both renditions, he maintains the original feel of the songs, singing over a pre-recorded backing track. This setup lets both his original production and his smooth live vocals really shine.

Watch Pheelz perform “Finesse” and “Electricity” for The Eye above.

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

As one of the top Latin artists in the world, Shakira is looking to collaborate with another Latin superstar soon. On Sunday (October 23), the Colombian singer revealed that she wants to work with Bad Bunny next.

Shakira is no stranger to working with Bad Bunny. In 2020, during her co-headlining set with Jennifer Lopez at the Super Bowl Halftime show, she brought out Bad Bunny as a surprise guest. The Puerto Rican singer performed “I Like It” with Shakira along with a salsa version of her hit “Chantaje.” Lopez brought out Colombian artist J Balvin as her surprise guest.

It’s been two years since Shakira and Bad Bunny hit the stage together and she revealed that she’s waiting for him to reach out for a collaboration. On JaviFerrariTV’s reaction video to her single “Monotonía” where he called for them to work together, she left a surprising comment.

Shakira wrote in Spanish, “I’m waiting for Bunny to call me. Yes! How did you know?”

A Shakira and Bad Bunny collaboration would be epic and sure to break records. With “Monotonía,” Shakira recently surpassed Bad Bunny for the Latin video with the most views on YouTube within its first 24 hours this year. Bad Bunny previously held that record with “Moscow Mule” video from his Un Verano Sin Ti album.

If you weren’t already jealous enough of Blue Ivy Carter, you might have another reason to be.

While attending the 2022 Wearable Art Gala in Los Angeles — an annual benefit founded by her grandparents, Tina Knowles-Lawson and husband Richard Lawson — the 10-year-old ended up placing an $80,000 bid over diamond earrings, leading to a very entertaining bidding war, according to TMZ.

Tons of celebrities and entertainers, such as Keke Palmer and Quinta Brunson, were in attendance for the lavish “Harlem Nights”-themed affair.

After a pair of Lorraine Schwartz diamond earrings made their way to the auction block, Blue Ivy shot her paddle board up, to the surprise of not only the guests in attendance but the auctioneers, Palmer and her grandmother Tina.

But it looks like even Jay-Z and Beyoncé kid’s allowance has limits — Blue Ivy would eventually be outbid by Monique Rodriguez, the founder of the beauty company Mielle Organics, via her husband, Melvin, TMZ reports.

The two went back and forth over the jewelry until the price reached six figures and Blue Ivy bowed out.

This isn’t the first time the celebrity child found herself spending an exorbitant amount of her parent’s money. In 2018, Blue Ivy got into another hilarious bidding war with Tyler Perry over a painting of Sidney Poitier, bidding nearly $20,000.

Ahead of the House of the Dragon season finale, HBO premiered the first teaser trailer for its other show about a rich family arguing over who gets to rule.

The Succession season four teaser kicks off with Logan Roy (Brian Cox) complaining that “everything I try to do, people turn against me. I’m a hundred feet tall. These people are pygmies.” We then cut to a shot of the Roy kids — Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) — in the aftermath of the season three finale, when they unsuccessfully tried to oust their aging father from the company. “Here they are, the rebel alliance,” Connor calls his siblings (the Conheads are gonna love this).

Later, Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) asks Shiv if she wants to talk about what happened. No, Tom, your wife probably doesn’t want to talk about you ratting her out to her dad. Save that kind of talk for Greg (Nicholas Braun). Here’s more on season four:

In season four, the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.

Succession returns in spring 2023, possibly after The Last of Us (?).

House of the Dragon certainly delivered a satisfying season finale this week, which will hopefully cause even more chaos in season two. While various fan theories came to life, there was one constant complaint throughout the entire debut season of the hit series: it’s just too dang dark.

While HBO generally has higher quality shows, many fans were complaining that they could barely make out the sea of blonde heads this season because of the literal darkness in the show. Showrunner Ryan Condal definitely heard the critique, though he says he thought it initially “looked great.”

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Condal says that there were a lot of factors to take into account when it came to the (literal) darkness in the show (the figurative darkness will surely be explored in season two). When asked about how he plans to improve the lighting in season two, Condal gave a quick explanation:

The visual continuity of the show is certainly something that we will look at. That stuff is always so tricky because we’re doing [post-production] on millions of dollars worth of high-end equipment, almost as if we’re making a movie. It looked great in post and I looked great on my television. But when you release a Star Wars film, you’re releasing it in theaters. For TV, you’re releasing it onto a million different television screens and different setups and calibrations all over the planet. You’re also releasing it through different distributors who are going to distribute it in 4K or 1080p or 1080i or not that at all. So it’s hard to account for everybody’s everybody’s televisions and their calibrations and sometimes the file can get compressed. So the show can look very different than the thing that we saw and approved and released.

Even though he did approve the darkest episodes of television to ever air, he also insists that he is taking the feedback into account for the upcoming season. “But look: It’s our job to take all that into account,” Condal added. “These are one of the things that you learn in the making of a show – you take that knowledge into account when making season two and say, ‘How can we do better?’ The feedback was certainly heard. I get it. And we want the show to be a great viewing experience for everybody.”

Initially, HBO claimed the darkness was a “creative decision.” This type of critique isn’t new, as many fans felt the same way about Game of Thrones in 2019, though that criticism was overlooked by the disastrous final season.

While there is no news on when the next season will air, with all of the backlash, it wouldn’t be surprising if they buy some fancy new spotlights!

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

In a surprise drop, Marvel has just released the first official trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which sets the stage for Phase 5 of the MCU and the rise of the next Thanos-level threat: Jonathan Majors’ Kang. Picking up after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Paul Rudd‘s Scott Lang is finally getting a chance to enjoy life as Ant-Man. He’s with his daughter Cassie, and Evangeline Lilly’s Hope is reunited with her mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer).

Unfortunately, Cassie goes too far with an experiment and sends a signal to the Quantum Realm where Janet had been trapped for years. The heroes are sucked into the hidden dimension where they come face to face with Kang who appears to be lording over the realm, which Janet may or may not have known. As to what Kang is up to? Who knows? But with Avengers: Kang Dynasty officially announced, it can’t be good.

Also, Bill Murray shows up, which is super awkward considering the allegations that have recently come to light about him. Then again, it’s not like Lilly doesn’t have her share of controversies, so it should be an interesting press tour.

Here’s the official synopsis

In the film, which officially kicks off Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. Jonathan Majors joins the adventure as Kang. Director Peyton Reed returns to direct the film; Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard produce.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters on February 17, 2023.

Sunday’s loss to the Blazers dropped the Lakers to 0-3 on the season, and while the first two losses on the season to the Warriors and Clippers could be explained away by coming against two of the title favorites, this one stung considerably more.

Not only was it a loss to a team the Lakers expect to be battling for a play-in spot in the West, it came after L.A. was up 102-95 with just under two minutes to play. The Lakers should have been able to put the game away, but a series of bad shots and suddenly porous defense allowed Damian Lillard and Jerami Grant to swipe a road win for the Blazers.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for L.A.’s late collapse, from not sending help to Lonnie Walker IV and allowing Dame to walk into the go-ahead three to LeBron getting beat off the dribble by Grant for what became the game-winning bucket, but one play in particular stood out in terms of bizarre decision-making. With 30 seconds to play, Russell Westbrook pushed the ball up the floor with the Lakers lead having just been cut to one, and rather than dribble the clock down, Westbrook went for a 2-for-1 midrange pullup jumper that wasn’t close, slamming off the back iron and setting up the aforementioned Lillard three on the next Portland possession.

In the moment, it was a head-scratching play for a number of reasons, but as ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry noted, even if you strip away Westbrook’s struggles with his shot this year, it’s not a shot anyone every takes in that situation. Ever.

In the last four years there hasn’t been an early clock jumper from anyone trying to swipe a 2-for-1 while leading by a possession, and for it to be Westbrook of all people, who Goldsberry notes is shooting 17 percent on jump shots this season, to fire it up was egregiously bad. This shot alone didn’t lose the Lakers the game, but it did directly lead to the Blazers not only having enough time to get the go-ahead three for Lillard, but also the game-winning bucket for Grant — while the Lakers were limited to a contested turnaround at the buzzer from James to try and force overtime.

Westbrook is not the only problem with the Lakers, but he is the most notable and is also the player that provides their only path to potentially upgrading the roster in a trade (when coupled with a pair of future first round picks they clearly don’t want to give up). It’s also a very clearly awkward situation that has not gotten better once games started as the Lakers had hoped, and while LeBron refuses to get “set up” to criticize his teammate in postgame for now, it’s very apparent how this group still can’t get on the same page with how to navigate key moments.