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In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, singer Greyson Chance revealed he felt “completely abandoned” after signing to Ellen Degeneres‘ record label back in 2010. Degeneres, who launched eleveneleven records that year, also signed Charlie Puth around that time. In another interview with Rolling Stone Puth, who had recorded a demo EP under the label, also shared that he felt ghosted by Degeneres and her team.

“We both have different experiences, me versus Greyson,” he said. “But I do agree with him that no one was present, certainly, after the creation of my first demo EP. Not putting any blame on one person, but from a collective… All the people that were in that room, they just disappeared. I didn’t hear from anybody.”

While Puth may not have had the best experience under Degeneres’ label, he said the comedian and former talk show host was always pleasant toward him.

“People describe Ellen as rude,” he said. “I’ve never experienced that. Maybe she likes me.”

His career would take off years later, with his appearance on Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” from the Furious 7 soundtrack in 2015. He admits he is thankful that he didn’t come to fame right away, as he doesn’t have much confidence in those early recordings.

“I don’t know how good they are,” he said.

Charlie Puth’s latest album, Charlie, is out now via Atlantic. Stream here.

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

The Charlotte Hornets enter the 2022-23 season with modest expectations, even after reaching the Play-In last season. Still, there remains a great deal of positivity surrounding LaMelo Ball, and the talented guard is the clear centerpiece of Charlotte’s plans, both in the present and future. On Monday evening, the Hornets welcomed a Southeast Division rival to Charlotte for a preseason game in the form of the Washington Wizards and, in the third quarter, Ball was forced to exit the game with a left ankle sprain.

Ankle sprains are notoriously difficult to peg, as some require only a very brief absence (or none at all), with others taking weeks to heal. As such, it is too early to speculate on any potential timeline for Ball, but he appeared to be in pain and there was no reason whatsoever for the Hornets to even consider reinserting him into the game in a preseason setting.

Ball averaged 20.1 points, 7.6 assists, and 6.7 rebounds per game last season, and he just turned 21 years old in August. While there is room for improvement on the defensive end and elsewhere, Ball is a budding star and, simply put, the Hornets project to rely on him heavily when constructing their offense. Veteran guard Terry Rozier would be in line for even more usage if Ball were to miss time, but the Hornets can ill afford to be without Ball for any extended period, and Charlotte opens its regular season schedule with a road game against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

On the other side, the Wizards likewise saw a star go down with an ankle injury when Kristaps Porzingis came up limping after a Eurostep layup attempt.

It’s not a great time for comics. Chris Rock got slapped on live television by a guy who was 20 minutes from winning an Oscar. Not long after, Dave Chappelle was knocked down by an audience member. This weekend, an up-and-coming comic, Ariel Elias, was attacked when a heckler threw a beer can at her during a set. Elias’ reaction was priceless: Not only did she avoid getting hit, but she grabbed the can and downed its contents. Video of the incident went viral, and now Elias may be making her late night debut.

After the incident went public, comedians far and wide rallied around Elias. One of them was Jimmy Kimmel, who was so taken by Elias’ quick thinking and crack timing that he tweeted, “five stars for this flawless performance.” Elias took advantage of the good fortune, writing back, “Can I make my late night debut on your show?” Kimmel wrote back, “definitely.”

Soon Deadline confirmed that that the late night host’s team is already in contact with Elias and working on a date to bring her on.

The incident happened at Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Elias was doing a Q&A as part of her act, and one of the attendees asked her if she voted for Trump.

“Why would you ask me that question when you know I’m the only Jew in the room?” Elias replied. “Are you trying to get me killed?”

The woman snapped back, “I can tell by your jokes that you voted for Biden.”

To which Elias replied, “I can tell by the fact that you’re still talking when nobody wants you to that you voted for Trump.” Her joke earned widespread applause.

A few seconds later, someone threw a beer can at Elias. She’s shocked, but she soon regains her senses, picks it up, and chugs its remaining liquid.

According to the club’s owner, it wasn’t the woman who threw the can at Elias but her husband, who then fled the scene. The club is pressing charges against him. “I’m not,” Elias said, “because in order to do that, I would have to return to Point Pleasant Beach, and I’m not doing that unless someone pays me to.”

Elias’ ability to neutralize a febrile situation earned praise from colleagues.

Elias has been covered by The New York Times, who in 2020 — in a piece about comedians performing outdoors in the early days of the pandemic — called “a sly young comic from Kentucky.” Her wesbite is here.

(Via Deadline)

It looks like Jermaine Dupri and Diddy are set to take the stage in a Verzuz facedown. During a performance at ONE Music Fest in Atlanta, GA, JD, the So So Def founder announced that he is planning to face Diddy, the Bad Boy founder, in a Verzuz live stream competition.

“I’m saying this to let y’all know the So So Def Bad Boy Verzuz is happening,” said JD.

Since its launch in 1993, So So Def has produced records by some of the biggest names in hip-hop, including Jagged Edge, Anthony Hamilton, Bow Wow, and Da Brat. Bad Boy, which also launched in 1993, has been home to artists like The Notorious B.I.G., 112, Mase, Machine Gun Kelly, 8Ball & MJG, Janelle Monae, and more.

JD and Diddy have long teased a Verzuz battle, however, In an interview with on the Rory And Mal podcast last year, JD said that a facedown may not work, due to the fact that one of Bad Boy’s original artists is no longer with us.

“I feel like it’s a performance-based thing now and the majority of Puff’s records, who’s gonna perform?,” JD said. “Yeah…The LOX, but you can’t have nobody do Big’s verses! And I don’t know that Mase would come out with him no more, so I don’t think that it would happen based on that. All my people, we rockin’ and we coming with a whole lot of energy!”

As of now, there is no set date for So So Def and Bad Boy’s Verzuz stream.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When The Young Pope premiered in 2016, it seemed like there were few weirder shows. Then it got a follow-up. Called The New Pope, it brought in (that’s right) a new pope (John Malkovich) to replace the old young pope (Jude Law), who had suffered a coma. Eventually he woke up, and there were two popes. Then there was another, final twist. Where to go next? Is there anywhere to go? You may get to find out.

In an interview with Deadline (in a bit teased out by Yahoo!), producer Lorenzo Mieli — whose credits include both Popes as well as Luca Guadagnino’s new Bones and All — briefly, very briefly mentioned that Paolo Sorrentino, the shows’ creator, wasn’t done with the world of Catholic Church honchos who are into things like smoking and punk rock.

“There is an idea that Paolo has that maybe is going to happen. The third and last,” Mieli revealed.

That’s it! It would be tough to top the first two series, which featured such unexpected incidents as a kangaroo getting murdered in the Vatican gardens and Diane Keaton as a basketball-playing nun. But we’ll be Sorrentino and company have it in them to push the envelope in even weirder directions.

Mieli also talked about the genesis of The Young Pope, and it’s pretty perfect. “He brought me an idea about a pope, an American pope, that smokes cigarettes. That was the pitch, and I said fantastic,” he said. “That seemed to me a very good pitch.” Seriously, what else do you need?

(Via Deadline and Yahoo!)

Stevie Nicks is encouraging fans to get involved in the upcoming midterm elections. Today (October 10), the Fleetwood Mac lead vocalist took to Instagram to express her worries for the younger generations.

“At 74 years old, I can honestly say that I am worried about every one of you,” Nicks said. “Worried about health care, and just in general, worried about your God given rights. You must gather together now. You must register to vote as soon as you can (for many of you the deadline is tomorrow, October 11th!) and you must vote!”

In her post, Nicks also wrote a poem called Get It Back, in which, she warns of the dangers that will take place if fans don’t use their voices and utilize their rights to vote.

I have my scars
You have yours
Don’t let them
Take your power
Don’t leave it alone
In the final hours
They’ll take your soul
They’ll take your power

Don’t close your eyes and hope for teh best
The dark is out there
The light is going fast
And all the rights you had yesterday
Are taken away
And now you’re afraid
You should be afraid
Because everything I fought for
Long ago in a dream — is gone
The dream is not over, the dream has just begun
Or is it a nightmare?
Or a lasting scar

It is —
Unless you save it
And that’s that
Unless you stand up
And take it back
Try to see the future
And get mad
It’s slipping through your fingers
You don’t know what you had
You don’t have much time
Get it back

Nicks says revealed she plans to share the poem in song format at some point in the future.

Check out the full poem above, and find out how you can register to vote here.

We are all familiar with the stories of The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. In every childhood tale, wolves were depicted as deceitful and threatening – creatures that would devour our livestock and grandparents. As a child, I had chills when wolves howled in films.

All it took to change this perception was taking one step into Wolf Park, a research and education facility in Battle Ground, Indiana. As a visitor, intern, volunteer, and now staff member, I’ve observed the wolves at Wolf Park mourning packmates who have crossed the rainbow bridge, gently tending to pups, and spending afternoons playing chase on frozen lakes or grassy meadows. Studying wolves at such a close distance is enough to alter anyone’s perceptions of this apex predator.

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One of the things I always tell the more than 20,000 visitors that come through our facility each year is, “Disney got wolves wrong.” The deeply rooted misconceptions about wolves, reinforced by film and media, that prevent people from understanding the essential role of wolves in our environment are the same misconceptions that existed 50 years ago when Wolf Park was founded.

While many may think wolves live in every thick forest across the country, they’ve become functionally extinct in 90% of the lands they once lived in. Wolves historically lived throughout the country for thousands of years, but systematic killings by humans, falsely justified by these age-old misconceptions, have almost erased them from their historic habitats.

One key misconception is that predatory wolf packs are killing large numbers of ranchers’ livestock. However, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that only about 1% of unwanted livestock deaths are connected to wolves.

This misconception stems from the false notion that wolves wipe out other animals in an ecosystem. In fact, wolves are considered a keystone species, meaning that they actually regulate other prey populations. This, in turn, allows plant and other animal populations to grow and thrive.

Another misbelief is that gray wolves’ position on the food chain as apex predators will cause their population to balloon without human regulation. However, by living in packs, wolves are able to self-regulate and control their own populations by only letting certain members of the pack breed.

I believe my job became even more important after the US Fish and Wildlife Service removed gray wolves from the endangered species list in January of 2021. This controversial decision stripped wolves’ federal protections and brought back brutal hunting tactics, causing key wolf populations to plummet.

Since the delisting, multiple states have introduced aggressive wolf management plans that have been nothing short of death sentences for the remaining wolves in those states. Idaho’s plan, for instance, allows for up to 90% of the wolf population to be killed. Wisconsin was even forced to halt its hunting season after hunters slaughtered 119 wolves over the target in the first weekend of the season.

Officials claimed the decision to delist had been made after data showed that gray wolf populations had made a successful recovery, but multiple peer-reviewed commissions found the initial proposal misrepresented population data and contained “substantial errors.” It is clear that the decision to delist wolves was not made based on scientific evidence, but a legacy of hatred and misunderstanding wolves.

That’s why the campaign to relist gray wolves on the endangered species list has found support across the country and been championed by a coalition of conservationists, environmental nonprofit organizations, wildlife advocates, and scientists. Although federal protections were restored in a majority of the continental United States earlier this year, wolves remain vulnerable to hunts in the Northern Rockies where a majority of the slaughter occurs.

At Wolf Park, we’ve hosted summer camps where participants, having learned the legal status of wolves, have joined thousands of Americans across the country to advocate for federally relisting gray wolves on the endangered species list as part of the national #RelistWolves campaign. We must continue our calls on legislators to protect this iconic species.

But to truly protect wolves for generations to come, we must rid ourselves of the misconceptions that we’ve been exposed to since childhood. We must create a society that is not worried about the Big Bad Wolf coming to blow our houses down and instead sees the animal as protectors of our delicate ecosystem. Wolves deserve a place on our planet just as much as we do.

Christopher Lile is the Education & Advocacy Director at Wolf Park in Indiana and a member of the #RelistWolves campaign.

Statistically speaking, the number of humans who have traveled into space is insignificant. But the experience of leaving our home planet and venturing into the great beyond is incredibly significant for the individuals who have actually done it.

One of those fortunate humans is actor William Shatner, who spent three years pretending to hurtle through space in his iconic role as Captain James T. Kirk on the original “Star Trek” series. As captain of the USS Enterprise, Captain Kirk was dedicated to exploring “strange new worlds,” seeking out “new life and new civilizations” and boldly going “where no man has gone before.”

Naturally, Shatner has spent a lot of time pondering what it would be like to actually experience leaving Earth, and when he took the opportunity to join Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin trip to space in October 2021 at age 90, he was able to compare how his expectations met up with reality.

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Shatner shared an excerpt from his new book with Variety, and it reveals that his initial reaction to being in space was surprisingly dark.

“I love the mystery of the universe,” Shatner wrote. “I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years…”

However, as he looked out the window of the spacecraft—a real one, not a screen on a film set—and looked in the direction opposite Earth, “there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold,” he wrote. “All I saw was death. I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing.”

As he turned back toward “the light of home,” he saw the opposite. “I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.”

Then he had a stunning revelation: “Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong.”

Again, this is a man who has spent much of his life thinking about space—not as an astronaut or astronomer or astrophysicist, but as a human being stuck on the Earth’s surface, struck with wonder about what’s out there. He explained what he had been wrong about:

“I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things—that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film ‘Contact,’ when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, ‘They should’ve sent a poet.’ I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.

“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”

Shatner explained how this “sense of the planet’s fragility takes hold in an ineffable, instinctive manner” for many astronauts when they view Earth from orbit. It’s part of the “overview effect“—the profound shift in perspective that comes with seeing our collective home from a distance. With no visible borders between nations or peoples, it becomes clear that our divisions are all manmade, which can change the way we view humanity as a whole.

The experience left Shatner with renewed conviction to focus on what we share in common.

“It reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement,” he wrote, “and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart. In this insignificance we share, we have one gift that other species perhaps do not: we are aware—not only of our insignificance, but the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant. That allows us perhaps a chance to rededicate ourselves to our planet, to each other, to life and love all around us. If we seize that chance.”

Just beautiful. Since most of us will never leave Earth, we can take inspiration from those who have, acknowledge our essential oneness and do everything in our power to protect our beautiful, life-giving home.

Shatner shares more of his reflections on life on this planet and beyond in his new book, “Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder.”

We’ve come a long way when it comes to how we view and treat others with disabilities. However, to say that our society has completely done away with ableism would be naive.

Dennis Peek, a man with Down syndrome, had worked at a Wendy’s in North Carolina for 20 years. According to his sister Cona Turner, Peek’s dream was to one day have a “huge retirement party.” Instead, he was abruptly fired after two decades of service.

“They told me [he] was unable to perform the duties of a normal person’s job!!!!,” Turner said in a now viral Facebook post. She added that she was looking into wrongful termination of a special needs employee and considering throwing a retirement party for Peek anyway.

“They have no idea how they hurt my brother,” her post concluded.

Little did Turner know, but voicing her frustrations online would be just the catalyst needed to turn things around in a positive way.

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WSOC-TV reported that only a day later, Turner received a call from Carolina Restaurant Group, which owns and operates the Wendy’s, offering to give Peek his job back.

“We are committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for our employees and our customers. This was an unfortunate mistake and lapse in protocol; we are in touch with the employee’s family, and we are looking forward to welcoming him back to work in the restaurant,” Carolina Restaurant Group said in a statement, according to WSOC-TV.

Turner, “overwhelmed” by the support she and her brother were shown online, updated her post to include the Carolina Restaurant Group offer. However, she felt that it didn’t fully make things right. “To me that was giving a normalcy back to Dennis,” she said in an interview with WBTV. “Now is it fair? No it’s not fair at all. Should there be consequences? Absolutely. You can’t treat somebody like that.”

So instead of returning to work, Peek will be getting his long-awaited big retirement party.

“Wendy’s has offered to help with expenses and anything else they can for his special day,” she wrote in a subsequent post update. “I feel in my heart at this point I should do what is best for my brother.”

Turner told WBTV that Peek “enjoyed every minute working his job,” particularly interacting with other people. Knowing how much the job meant to him made it all the more devastating to receive the news—over the phone and minutes before Peek was set to be dropped off, no less. Turner added that the manager also failed to hand over any termination papers despite her request for them.

”He don’t understand if someone is coming against him,” Turner said. “He don’t understand not being treated fair. He don’t understand none of that. He don’t…it just breaks my heart.”

Peek’s much-deserved party might have never happened without the flood of positive comments Turner received online, making her post go viral. People who had been rallying for Peek to get his job back were celebrating his victory in the comments after Turner’s most recent announcement.

“Way to stand behind your brother in what is right! Praying for all of you in this special retirement party! Please set up a special retirement account that we can give to!” wrote one person.

“I am so happy for your brother for being offered his job back and his retirement party. Is there anything he really likes? I would love to send him a gift. He has a very big heart for others.,” wrote another.

Happy retirement, Peek. We hope it’s the shindig of your dreams. Sometimes social media really can be a force for good.

The last handful of weekends have seen something unusual happen at the box office: the top prize — and indeed most of the Top 5 — has gone to a non-franchise film, including Barbarian and Smile. It’s a big deal considering franchises have all but devoured the multiplexes. Still, there was one wholly original film that really didn’t click, despite a wealth of stars: Amsterdam, David O. Russell’s star-studded ‘30s romp, which opened in third but only scraped together $6.5 million. Problem is, the film’s budget was near-blockbuster-sized, and its underperformance may cost its production companies a lot of money.

As per Deadline, Amsterdam cost a reported $80 million, but right now it’s only slated to bring in a global total of $35 million. Throw in an estimated $70 million for advertising, and this film — which could have been a sleeper hit like Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook or American Hustle — stands to lose about $100 million.

How did Amsterdam wind up costing so much? For one thing, it’s period. For another, there’s the stars. (It seems like every role, even small ones, is filled by a big name, including a certain pop star.) It was also plagued. Deadline reports that a lot of the high cost was due to a change in location, moving from Boston to Los Angeles. It was also one of numerous productions that were delayed due to the beginning of the pandemic. Then there were the lackluster reviews — key to outside-the-box movies like this.

In any case, it’s not a great sign for big-budget original work from established auteurs. But if you want to check out what the guy who made Three Kings and Joy is up to, you might want to head to the theaters but quick.

(Via Deadline)