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Lizzo had some kind words to say about her friend and fellow musician, SZA. In an excerpt in Time‘s 2022 Time100 Next issue, Lizzo shared an account about how she met SZA in Minneapolis before either of them had risen to mainstream fame.

At the time of their first meeting, they took a selfie together, not knowing they would form a long-term friendship. A year after their first encounter, Lizzo booked a tour with SZA as the headliner. Shortly after, the two would watch each other blow up in the music world.

“When she dropped Ctrl, her debut studio album, it was a cultural f*cking reset,” Lizzo said of her friend in the magazine. “She changed the world! The authenticity in her craft — the way she’s able to tell her story and the way she uses melody — is extraordinary. No one can replicate that. When she’s onstage, she’s timeless. She’s someone who’s the real deal, and I think that she’s well on her way to being regarded as one of the greatest songwriters and singers of all time.”

You can watch SZA’s video interview here.

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

Eli Manning’s second act has gone pretty well. After retiring from the NFL as a two-time Super Bowl winner at the conclusion of the 2019 campaign, Manning has become one of the most engaging television personalities in the game. His weekly broadcast of Monday Night Football alongside his brother Peyton is must-watch, while he’s gotten his own show on ESPN+, Eli’s Places.

Recently, that show has led to the longtime New York Giants signal caller generating a ton of attention for a character named Chad Powers, who attempted to walk on as a quarterback at Penn State. Even he admits he’s surprised the character took off the way it did, to the point that there are rumblings that we could get a whole lot more of Powers sometime soon.

Uproxx Sports caught up with Manning this week via his partnership with IBM and the ESPN Fantasy Football app to discuss Powers, his recent love of fantasy football, the Giants, and more.

You took a trip to my alma mater over the summer and it turns out that just blew up — every group chat that I’m in, every Penn State grad that I know seems to have shared and loved it, and it went beyond us. Did you have any indication the whole Chad Powers thing was going to catch on like it did?

No, I didn’t know it would catch on quite like it did. I was excited for this show and this idea. We’d finished shooting everything, every other episode, really back in June and early July. We had to wait six weeks for the tryout day, to go to Penn State — I was looking forward to it just because … just the idea of getting to try out and getting to play football, I haven’t played in three years, I was antsy to get there and see if I could still throw it and make plays.

And there was really no script, just got to figure it out as you go. No one knows who Chad Powers is, go create him. Whatever comes out, make up stuff and just roll with it. And so that was the idea, and it was fun just seeing the reactions, seeing some of the coaches just very confused — like, “I know something’s going on, but I’m not quite sure what.” They were asking me a ton of questions, which is great, because then I get to make up more story about Chad. It was fun, I enjoyed it, and I’m glad that a lot of people have gotten to check it out and see it.

You were quite the college football player, but that was 20 or so years ago. What’s the biggest thing that you learned about what it’s like to be a college football player in 2022 from that experience?

Well, it’s all shotgun now as a quarterback. I didn’t take one snap under center during the tryout, it was all shotgun, shotgun footwork. That was very different than when I was there. I mean, we were still third-and-10 under center, dropping back in college. The game has changed a little bit, you are throwing the ball a lot more, but the offensive scheme is totally different.

You’re here because I hear you’ve become quite the fantasy football player. Is that right?

Since retirement, I’ve gotten into fantasy football, it’s been a lot of fun. I have to admit, my first year, I was very bad at it. I was drafting former teammates and friends of mine, it was all on a personal standpoint, I did not pay attention to any of the data that IBM or Watson and AI were telling me, I just went, hey, I played football, I know the game, I know who’s gonna be good. That didn’t work — Trade Analyzer was my biggest friend in trying to trade to get a decent team.

But now, my third year of doing it, my daughter and I are on the same team with a couple other friends and their kids in a league. And so that’s been a lot of fun, having her and getting her into the game. And so each week, the great thing about it, she sees one player play well the week before, she’s like, “Dad, we gotta get this guy on the team, did you see that catch? Let’s trade Ja’Marr Chase and get this guy.” And I’m like, no, let’s just put that in the Trade Analyzer, let’s see if that’s a good idea. It comes back, no, bad idea, and she listens to it each week, we look at the boom and bust and we make decisions.

I’ve gotten into it, and I think with IBM and Watson and all the data and information, it’s not just the hard stats, they’re looking at the podcasts and the blogs and what’s going on, what’s being said, really just getting great information. So, it’s been fun. I’m a little more involved and into it than I thought I would get into it having not played before.

Why did you wait until after your playing days? Was it just scratching that competitive itch, does the NFL have some rules about this, or was it, “hey, you know, I just don’t know if this is for me”?

I had the real game to worry about. I was trying to learn plays and I was trying to win games and compete, and I just didn’t need to worry about it. Who am I starting this week? Oh, it’s Thursday at six, I have to set my lineup, who’s playing Thursday night? I wouldn’t have been focused, I wouldn’t have been committed to it. And so, even the first year I did it, I didn’t know what my commitment would be, if I would be into it or not. But it’s just fun, it’s fun watching other teams and rooting for guys. Even with my daughter, getting her involved into it, and we’re watching our players, but she wants to watch the other players, and we’re on a group text chain with all the parents and kids, and there’s trash talk going on.

It’s made a fun environment and a little bit of a different way to watch football. I still watch the Giants and I root for them, but now, Sundays, you’re peeking in at moments and [wondering] how’s my team doing? Hey, who should we watch? We need this player on Monday night to have a big game, you gonna watch a little bit with me? It gets the kids into it and that’s what makes it fun. That’s a great thing about fantasy football, it gets people to know more about players all across the league and what they’re doing, it gets them watching games they normally wouldn’t watch because of their team.

You brought them up, let’s talk about the Giants — 2-1 this year, the one came last night. Obviously you never want to lose but I feel like you can always take away a couple of positives from losses, things to build on. What were the biggest things that jumped out from last night’s game against the Cowboys?

Well, I think they came out in the second half and played really well. And they just got to figure out how to get a little quicker start, and I thought last night, they started up tempo that first drive, they didn’t move the ball, had to settle for a field goal that, unfortunately, got blocked. But I thought they did a lot of good things, are finding ways to keep games close in the fourth quarter, they just couldn’t quite make the plays they needed last night. That’s gonna happen, they made some plays in the other games to put us in that situation.

So, I think the confidence is there that they can win those games, they can make those plays in critical moments. You saw there were a couple plays that were there on the sidelines in the fourth quarter, they just didn’t complete them. So, they’re putting themselves in positions to win these games. You’re not going to win every one, but I think they’re playing good football and they feel good about where they are right now.

I want to ask about two guys before we wrap up, the first one is Daniel. Obviously you were there for day one for him, and with the understanding you haven’t been around him every single day, where’s the area as you watch that you’ve seen him grow the most compared to when he was just a rookie?

Well, I think Daniel’s just learned the timing of the NFL, and I think he’s done a good job of making better decisions, understanding coverages and looks and “nothing’s gonna be open right here, I can tuck and run and get positive yards,” and not holding it waiting, waiting for something to maybe open up. I thought last night Daniel played really well in a tough environment, tough situation, a lot of pressure coming — he took five sacks but also saved maybe six or seven sacks from happening just by moving in the pocket, scrambling, keeping his eyes downfield, making plays, running when he had to.

He never let the pressure and taking those hits and the constant movement in the pocket make him make a bad decision and turn the ball over. That’s how you have to win these games, be patient, it might be tough at first, but don’t make the big mistakes. That can keep you in the game into those fourth quarters and then make some great plays. I thought he threw a couple of great balls in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, you have a wide receiver trip coming out of a break, threw an interception. Those hurt. Those are unfortunate. So, I thought he played a solid game and put the team in a situation to win these games.

The other guy is Saquon. The last two years have obviously been a bit rough for him, but I think he’s looking like Saquon Barkley again. As someone who has lined up in a backfield next to him, what does him being at his best do for the other 10 guys on the field with him?

Well, I think it puts a lot of attention … the defense pays him a lot of attention, and so it should free up the outside for a little bit more man to get some explosive plays, hit guys on the move where you can throw it short and get guys running. So, it’s just a matter of everybody coming together and everybody doing their role, also making the plays when you get the opportunity. But he’s still a guy you want to find ways to get the ball in his hands — run the ball, screen, put him out wide, just move him around. He’s so talented that you can try to create some mismatches and you don’t just have to hand it off to him and there’s gonna be eight guys in the box trying to stop them. You can move him around and try to get the ball to him in space, because he’s one tackle away from making a big play every time.

AMC’s Interview With The Vampire hasn’t even premiered yet (that happens on Oct. 2), but the powers that be saw fit to announce a renewal. A surprise move? Yes, this might seem a bit premature, but the show is very good and actually better than the movie (which obviously starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt). This updated version of the story does still largely take place beginning in 1900, but it also zooms ahead to 2022, where Louis (Jacob Anderson of Game of Thrones) is still telling his tales to the journalist (Eric Bogosian), who’s a bit exasperated at this point. It’s fun, and Sam Reid gives a more refined version of Lestat, but don’t worry, things still get wild. As well, Bailey Bass is incredible as young Claudia, who’s not as young as she was in the movie.

As stated already, AMC is feeling so confident about this revival that a second season is in the works, and the story will move to Europe. Via Variety, showrunner Rolin Jones (who adapted the Anne Rice book after she did so with the 1994 movie) issued a celebratory statement:

“Bulgaria. Romania. Paris. (Ah Paris!) San Francisco. New Orleans. Dubai. The writing staff of ‘Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire’ is honored, humbled, and hungry to add more stamps to our vamps’ passport books. All praises be to our fearless network, we shall endeavor not to screw it up.”

Likewise, AMC Networks original programming President Dan McDermott declared, “This stellar cast deliver powerful performances that emotionally connect us to these characters and their humanity.” That’s absolutely correct, and Louis is very updated and textured, as is his relationship with Lestat, which is explicitly queer and full of both fun and fury. I’m interested to see the audience reaction in only a few days.

In the meantime, AMC also revealed a still from another upcoming Anne Rice adaptation, Mayfair Witches. Here, we have Alexandra Daddario as a neurosurgeon who also happens to be a witchy heir and also happens to have discovered a massive crow on her windshield. Happens!

AMC’s ‘Interview With The Vampire’ premieres on Sunday, October 2 at 10:00pm EST. Mayfair Witches will arrive in 2023.

For all its convenience, Netflix comes with its fair share of annoyances, too. There’s, of course, the escalating subscription prices — which currently has one out of every four subscribers reconsidering their memberships. Not to mention the shame that comes with the pop-up message asking if you’re still watching Too Hot to Handle? (The answer is always “yes,” Netflix. Get off my back.) And while placing titles in bizarre, if not just outright wrong categories, is a Netflix specialty, the streamer’s decision to tag Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as an LGBTQ title has understandably outraged viewers, media, and activists alike.

The new Ryan Murphy miniseries, which portrays the life and death of the notorious cannibalistic serial killer, dropped last week and has already amassed nearly 200 million viewers. While the series has reignited the debate over the way in which true crime series such as Monster re-traumatize the families of the real victims, Netflix has also been called out for one very intentional — and controversial — decision: categorizing Monster as an LGBTQ series. After being faced with a tidal wave of backlash, Advocate reports that Netflix has now removed the tag.

While Netflix has yet to offer an official explanation for its original classification, The Independent wrote that “It has been speculated that the reason the series was initially marked ‘LGBTQ’ was that many of Dahmer’s victims were LGBTQ, or because of Dahmer’s own sexuality.”

In a post that has since gone viral, TikToker lizthelezbo wanted to know why Netflix would categorize the series as LGBTQ. “I know it’s technically true,” she said, “but this is not the representation we’re looking for.”

@lizthelezbo

♬ original sound – liz

As Advocate noted, the LGBTQ+ community in Milwaukee — where Dahmer lived when he brutally murdered 17 men and boys over more than a decade between 1978 and his arrest in 1991 — is particularly upset by the series, which stars Evan Peters as Dahmer.

“I feel like it fetishizes this whole horrible moment in Milwaukee history,” drag performer B.J. Daniels, who performed at one of the clubs Dahmer regularly trolled for victims, told Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN. “I know a lot of my friends, and a lot of people who lived through this period, will not be watching it. They will not be putting money into somebody’s pocket that is literally disturbing the graves of victims.”

(Via Advocate)

Los Angeles police have identified a pair of suspects in the murder of Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock, arresting one, according to TMZ. The LAPD says it has arrested a 17-year-old for shooting and killing PnB Rock at Roscoe’s House Of Chicken ‘N Waffles in South Los Angeles on September 12, while another suspect, the boy’s father, is still wanted. Police say the man, Freddie Lee Trone, drove the getaway car after the fatal shots were fired and have put out a photo for more information. After escaping with Rock’s jewelry, police say the killers burned the getaway car.

In addition, a new theory has emerged about how the rapper was targeted. Police now believe that the father and son were already in the parking lot when the rapper arrived, removing the possibility that he was targeted due to his social media posts. Fans were quick to speculate that social media played a role in the rapper’s death, likely due to the murder of Pop Smoke during a home invasion in 2020. In that case, the killers were said to have learned the address of his rental home from a video he posted on his Instagram Story.

Police also looked into the possibility that Rock’s established enemies had set up a hit; now, it appears that the attack was nothing more than a crime of opportunity.

Is the idea of hopping aboard a helicopter and spending a day shooting feral pigs with Marjorie Taylor Greene your idea of a good time? If your answer is “hell yeah,” we’re so sorry. But it looks like your dream date could actually become a reality.

On Tuesday, Mediaite shared that the kooky congresswoman from Georgia posted a video to YouTube (which you can watch above) in which she managed to conflate a handful of different issues, all in less than 45 seconds. “We’ve got skyrocketing inflation, high diesel fuel [prices], and Democrats’ America Last policies,” Marge says while dressed in her Rambo best. Which somehow brings her to… wild hogs?!

These savage swine are wreaking havoc for America’s farmers, and MTG is sick of it. So she’s ready to strap into a ‘copter with her trusty AR-15 style rifle — much like the one she gave away last year in another ill-conceived contest — and start picking off the little piggies one by one. And she wants you to join her!

Interested parties can sign up to “win” here. If you’re chosen as Marge’s designated hog-hunting partner, you’ll be able to bring a guest (lucky them!) and you’ll both receive round-trip airfare to Texas, ground transportation, and lodging — not to mention all the stories you’ll be able to tell. (If you could find out why the promo video keeps showing Greene being struck by lightning and seemingly turning into some sort of QAnon zombie, that would be great, too.)

Even Greene doesn’t seem too sure about this whole endeavor. As she notes in bold on the contest page, “Someone has to win…might as well be you!” Which only sort of sounds like a threat.

(Via Mediaite)

Burna Boy continues to promote his new album, Love, Damini, with a new video for “It’s Plenty.” Opening with footage from his tour, on which he’s been filling up venues and packing festival stages, the video follows the self-proclaimed African Giant from the barbershop to his private plane to the streets of Jamaica, where a Carnival celebration is going in full force.

Burna Boy’s next festival appearance will be at the 2022 Lost In Riddim Afrobeats Music Festival in East San Jose on the weekend of Nigerian Independence Day, October 1st and 2nd. He’s headlining alongside Wizkid and Davido, presiding over a massive lineup that runs the gamut of the African diaspora, from Afrobeats to dancehall to grime.

Continuing his Love, Damini rollout, Burna Boy put in an appearance at 30 Rock in New York City to perform the album’s standout track “Last Last” on The Tonight Show. He’s also put out vibrant videos for the singles “Vanilla” and “For My Hand” with Ed Sheeran, as well as sold-out a show at the Madison Square Garden — becoming the first Nigerian artist to headline a show there in the process.

Watch Burna Boy’s “It’s Plenty” video above.

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

In 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, yes, we got the promised conclusion of the downfall of Anakin Skywalker and how he became Darth Vader. What we didn’t get was a lot of interaction from younger versions of characters we met in the Original Trilogy like Tarkin and Mon Mothma. Turns out, we were supposed to meet Genevieve O’Reilly’s version of Mon Mothma, discussing an early concept of a rebellion, but it was cut out of the final film. O’Reilly was just starting out in her career and, watching it now, you can tell how long she worked on it to get the voice Caroline Blakiston originated in Return of the Jedi just right.

Over a decade later Star Wars came calling again (as she explains, literally, while she was at the post office) with an offer to reprise her cut role in Rogue One. And she’s back as Mon Mothma once again now in Andor. As O’Reilly points out, it’s a different Mon Mothma we are used to. The Imperial Senate still exists (it was finally disbanded in the original Star Wars in a retroactively comical way, using almost a throwaway line for something that seems pretty important) and Mon Mothma has to deal with the political bureaucracy (and her lousy husband who keeps inviting her political enemies over because they are “fun”), while also secretly running the what will become the Rebel Alliance that’s still in its infancy.

Ahead, O’Reilly explains why this version of Mon Mothma in Andor isn’t quite the stoic pillar we get to know later on, the time she met Caroline Blakiston in person, and what it was like being asked to play a role again that she figured she had lost out on a decade before.

I remember being excited for Revenge of the Sith because we’d get to see young Mon Mothma and Tarkin, but then we barely got that at all. But your deleted scene is great and I wish that wasn’t cut out.

Thank you. That’s so kind of you. It was extraordinary filming those scenes in Revenge of the Sith. It was one of my first jobs. I was very young. It was extraordinary to be a part of, to do those scenes with Natalie Portman. With Jimmy Smits. With George and all of his team. With Anthony Daniels. It was such an extraordinary, well-oiled machine to step into as a young actor and there was really interesting things in those scenes.

You’re talking about forming the rebellion. It seems like kind of an important scene and I, to this day, don’t understand why it’s not in the movie.

Well, I understand why they made that choice as producers because, what people were interested in, was of course how Darth Vader became Darth Vader.

Not me. All these characters we’ve heard about for so long, I wanted to see how they came together.

[Laughs] Well, thanks. So thanks for watching the deleted scene.

I could tell how hard you worked to get the voice right from Return of the Jedi...

I did! You’re cool to recognize that. I worked very hard. I was, and I will always have great respect for Caroline Blakiston, who played that role originally. It originated with her with George Lucas. That was extraordinary that they did that together back in the early eighties to have a woman as the head.

Have you ever met her?

Yes.

What was that like?

I met her, actually, it was just before the pandemic. We met in London and we didn’t know each of us were going to be there and we were at a meeting and she said to me, “You’re Genevieve.” And she said, “I’m Caroline.” It was a beautiful moment. She gave me a big hug and we both have such great admiration for each other. She is an actor. I’ve seen lots of her other work. And so we just really, it was a lovely moment between the two of us that we shared this character. Yeah. It was really special.

In Return of the Jedi, she’s only on camera briefly, but she just seems so important. And now you bring that to the character…

I love Mon Mothma. And a lot of respect has to go to Caroline, you’re right, in how she did that originally. But I think she is such a pillar within the rebel community. She is so noble and regal. So even now I go back and watch that scene to remind me of where she started. I feel like in Andor, this is the first time they have really invested narrative space in the woman and I’m very grateful to Tony Gilroy and to Disney for that. Because I think in Andor for the first time we get to see more than that pillar, more than that statue, we get to see the woman behind her. We get to see behind the scenes with her, what she had to wrestle with, the costs to herself.

Just having to deal with her lousy husband. He invites her political enemies over for a dinner party because they are, “fun.”

But that’s what’s so great about where we start in Andor. We start somewhere we don’t really expect to see with Mon Mothma. We start with her steeped in Empire. We start with her, yes, as a Senator who holds the beliefs that we’ve known and we’ve loved for so long, but she is up to her neck in Imperial society. And she’s having to navigate a world of men, a world of power, a world of with an ever looming autocrat and you will know because of what you’ve just said before, you know her history. She’s been a Senator since she was 16 years old. So she was steeped within the constructs of that orthodoxy that is in empire. So I have even more admiration for this character than I ever had before because I see what it had taken for her to become that woman in Return of the Jedi. To become that woman in Rogue One and I hope the fans love that too because we are taking her on a journey from a place we’ve never seen her before.

Speaking of Rogue One, did they just basically call and say, hey, sorry we cut you out of Revenge of the Sith, but we want you for Rogue One now?

Well, yes.

Okay.

First of all, I would say when they did cut me from Revenge of the Sith, I will never forget the kindness that George and his producer, Rick, approached it with. They wrote to me. As a young actor, they wrote to me and said that the work was strong. That it was great. It was just that, narratively, they had to take a different direction. Of course, as a young actor I was devastated, but now I can see they dealt with that with such grace and good leadership. But, yes, they essentially rang me in. John Schwartz, I think who was a producer on Rogue One, rang me and said they were producing it and would I like to come back and play her. What an extraordinarily generous thing. They could have easily recast her. And I was cut from it and I think that shows such dignity within their leadership. So yeah, they rang me. I was in the post office.

Oh wow.

With my children. I remember, I think one of my kids was really little and I remember talking on the phone to the producer of Rogue One while wrestling my child who was trying to pick up a highlighter going, “Yeah, I know, stop, stop, what, what? Star Wars. Oh my gosh. Yes, please. Of course. Put it down, put it down.” So it was a really lovely moment as a human being to be in one of those situations that don’t quite make sense, but are wonderful.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

This year’s recipients of Time Magazine’s Time100 Next awards were announced today, with the most influential across television, film, music, and more being honored with a photoshoot — and an occasional bio was written on their behalf. British musician FKA Twigs was included in the 2022 nominee class and Hole’s Courtney Love wrote about why she was chosen.

“A few years ago, I saw the FKA Twigs video for ‘Cellophane’ —the one where she’s pole dancing and swirling in silks, wearing steep plastic hooker shoes and looking hauntingly elegant,” Love wrote. “She maintains the mystery of Mata Hari while conveying so much emotion: at one point in the video, the expression on her face is pure yearning. And when she’s dancing, she’s like a lightning rod.”

“I remember her from L.A. when she was a little sprite. I could see the artist in her then,” she continued. “I love how, over the years, she has toyed with us, as if she’s whatever we imagine her to be but you know she’s not. This year, on her mixtape Caprisongs, she breaks it all down in front of us: her insecurities, sex, heartbreak, her songwriting, her trauma. The photo on the cover was so on point—her mouth open, ready to spill her guts. She is ready to tell us who she is, victorious, flying by in the breeze, the music in every muscle in her body.”

View FKA Twigs’ Time100 profile, along with other recipients, here.

Cate Blanchett has been nominated for seven Oscars. Only six actresses have more: Meryl Streep (21), Katharine Hepburn (12), Bette Davis (10), Judi Dench, Geraldine Page, and Glenn Close (8). By this time next year, it’s likely that she’ll have her eighth nomination — and based on the early reception for Tár, possibly her third win.

Tár stars Blanchett as composer Lydia Tár and “examines the changing nature of power, its impact and durability in our modern world,” according to the plot synopsis. The film, which was written and directed by Todd Field (In the Bedroom), premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, where it was met with glowing reviews.

“Tár is breathtaking entertainment,” Vanity Fair‘s Richard Lawson wrote, “anchored by Blanchett’s alternately measured and ferocious performance, a tremendous (but never outsized) piece of acting that is her most piercing work in years.” The New York Times‘ Kyle Buchnan was equally effusive, tweeting, “Tár is incredible and kept reminding me of Kenneth Lonergan’s masterpiece MARGARET, with its focus on a flawed, frustrating, often hilariously self-involved protagonist and the people she leaves in her wake. Blanchett slays hard. It’s her career-achievement reel all in one movie!”

You can catch Tár fever yourself in the trailer above. The film opens on October 7.