GoneTrending

Panels are all about creating excitement for TV shows and movies, and Rosario Dawson certainly made that happen for The Punisher in Chicago over the weekend. Dawson appeared at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) and during a Q&A session may have let slip that a new show she hopes to work on, a potential Punisher reboot on Disney+, may also bring back a beloved actor from the Netflix version of the property.

Dawson, who played Claire Temple on the Netflix version of Punisher (among the streamer’s related shows), let slip that “Punisher is coming back” and that may mean Jon Bernthal may also be coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a result. The move would be big — Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Bernthal’s Punisher thrived on Netflix. A revival of Daredevil has many fans hoping the same will happen to Punisher, and Dawson’s slip indicates that those fans will get what they want. But not everyone was sold that Dawson spilled the beans on much of anything just yet.

You can see video of the moment from the panel below, which is far less of a triumphant announcement than an offhanded comment for sure.

You can hear some in the crowd audibly react to her mention of Bernthal, but none of this is officially official at all. Which is probably why, later on Twitter, Dawson walked back the comments and made it clear that she’s not to be “trusted” when it comes to MCU news.

“I can’t be trusted,” Dawson said. “Getting intel from fans during signings is iffy apparently. My bad. I get excited.”

From the tweet it sounds like Dawson is blaming bad information from a fan, not anyone actually involved with the show. Which would make Dawson a pretty lousy reporter, unless she’s just trying to cover her tracks a bit after accidentally spilling the beans.

“Confirmation is key when you’re told what you want to hear,” Dawson said, which sounds like it’s more a personal hope than anything at this point. But given the buzz her surprise “announcement” made, it’s clear she’s not alone in hoping Bernthal returns to the fold.

The new HBO series Rap Sh!t isn’t the only premium cable TV show to spawn a potential rap hit. Starz series P-Valley apparently got in on the action Sunday night, recruiting its own real-life hitmaker to play a rap star onscreen. Megan Thee Stallion appeared in last night’s second-to-last episode of P-Valley‘s second season as her alter ego, Tina Snow, to perform an original song at the show’s titular strip club, The Pynk. A standout line: “Man, I’m outta here like pussy hair, y’all hoes be rippin’ me off.”

Intriguingly, the song is Meg’s fourth new one of the year after debuting the ferocious “Plan B” at Coachella, following up with its video in June, and swiftly returning with “Pressurelicious” featuring Future just a month later. Of course, her first single of the year, “Sweetest Pie” with Dua Lipa, gave her her highest chart debut even despite creeping out many of her fans with its body-horror-focused music video. Meg’s increased rate of release seemed to suggest that the follow-up to her 2020 debut album Good News was on the way soon — and she recently confirmed as much, declaring the album is finished in an Instagram post. After another post seemed to suggest a title, fans are more eager than ever to see what else Megan has in store.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Part of the territory of being in a successful and long-running band is fans wanting to share a moment with you. For Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, that’s fine, but he believes that “asking for a photo ruins it instantly.”

On Wednesday (August 3), an RHCP fan named Luke Vesely shared a brief video of himself and a couple others wrapping up a friendly-sounding conversation with Anthony Keidis and wrote in a follow-up tweet a couple days later, “@flea333 thank you (and AK) for being so kind and genuine while meeting us, you both are such rays of sunshine, you didn’t have to stop and chat but you did and i hope you know that you really impacted our lives. we love you and AK with all of our hearts! @ChiliPeppers.”

Another fan noted this sort of interaction with the band isn’t common and Vesely responded, “wow, that makes the meeting with him and flea way more special, perhaps he just felt comfortable in that moment, none of my friends nor i asked for a photo or autograph or anything we just talked so maybe that had to do with his interaction with us.”

Flea confirmed those suspicions, sharing the tweet and adding, “It’s because you all generated a kind and gentle light, and you didn’t ask for a picture. We are always down to talk and chat, asking for a photo ruins it instantly.” In response to another user who asked what’s wrong with taking a photo, he added, “There’s is nothing wrong with it. But it ruins having actual conversation. It is a transaction.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Back in June, 100 days already passed since Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine. The Russians encountered more resistance and difficulty than expected with stalled convoys presenting a ridiculous look. Sure enough, we heard word of Russian troops sending up the mutiny vibe and threatening to blow up their general. And Putin lost a top commander (a.k.a., “The Executioner”) when he got whacked by a sniper, but that’s not all. As of a few weeks ago, Putin’s army had seen half (adding up to 75,000 soldiers) killed or wounded during the ongoing conflict.

Circumstances continue to grow more dire by the day with untold loss of life for Ukraine and Russia. Business Insider is now reporting that Putin is now down sixteen top generals since the war began. This information arrives via a UK Ministry of Defence report, which details how Putin canned six of those generals, and the other ten have gone missing (General-Colonel Aleksandr Zhuravlev notably did not show up for July 31 Navy Day) or been confirmed dead. Here’s now the overall military deaths stack up:

Russian losses from the war in Ukraine are estimated to be in the tens of thousands. US officials estimated on July 28 that more than 75,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured — about half of the number of troops Russia initially deployed in its invasion.

While there have been few definitive assessments of the total casualties on either side, Insider previously cited a defense expert saying in late June that Ukraine has lost more than 18,000 troops.

And it sure looks like no one is giving up soon with everyone in it to win it. “It” being Putin’s desire to be seen as a Peter The Great-like figure in terms of imperialistic tsar-ing. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Presdent Volodymyr Zelensky famously refused a ride of the country and has vowed to keep fighting. According to an ex-NATO general, Putin’s put a nine-month target on winning the war, but the Ukrainians won’t make it easy for him.

(Via Business Insider)

While everyone remembers Donald Trump‘s infamous military parade-slash-“Fourth of July celebration,” what they don’t know is the behind-the-scenes battle that took place between Trump and his generals, who were obviously not thrilled with the idea. According to a new exposé by The New Yorker on the frequent skirmishes between Trump and military brass, the former president became enthralled with the idea of a parade after visiting a Bastille Day celebration in Paris during his first year in office.

French president Emmanuel Macron knew Trump would love the tanks rolling down the streets, and sure enough, he flew home and immediately demanded a parade of his own. However, Trump reportedly made a specific (and insulting) request to Chief of Staff John Kelly and just wait until Jon Stewart hears this one. Via The New Yorker:

“Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade,” Trump said. “This doesn’t look good for me.” He explained with distaste that at the Bastille Day parade there had been several formations of injured veterans, including wheelchair-bound soldiers who had lost limbs in battle.

Kelly could not believe what he was hearing. “Those are the heroes,” he told Trump. “In our society, there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are—and they are buried over in Arlington.” Kelly did not mention that his own son Robert, a lieutenant killed in action in Afghanistan, was among the dead interred there.

“I don’t want them,” Trump repeated. “It doesn’t look good for me.”

On top of demanding that his Big Man Tank Parade not have any “wounded guys” in it, Trump also reportedly criticized military leaders for not being loyal like “the German generals in World War II” a.k.a the Nazis.

“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Kelly told Trump, who unsurprisingly denied the historical fact. “No, no, no,” Trump said. “They were totally loyal to him.” (They weren’t.)

(Via The New Yorker)

There’s an old adage that if you learn a referee’s name, it’s probably for a bad reason. No referee better epitomizes than than Tim Donaghy, the former NBA official who was infamously caught in a gambling scandal that led to him spending time in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting wagering information through interstate commerce.

In the latest edition of Netflix’s UNTOLD docuseries, the Donaghy scandal takes center stage with a special twist in UNTOLD: Operation Flagrant Foul. For the first time, Donaghy and his co-conspirators, James Battista and Tommy Martino, discuss their involvement on video.

“This film is full of ‘he said, she said,’ but regardless of what is true and what is falsified by the wild cast of characters involved, the heart of this story for me is so much larger than Tim Donaghy, the calls and bets he made,” David Terry Fine, the director of the episode, said in a statement. “It’s a story about American greed, one in which no matter who or what you believe, the common denominator amongst all parties becomes clear: money and profit have taken precedence over the sanctity of a game on which many rest their hopes and dreams.”

UNTOLD: Operation Flagrant Foul debuts on Netflix on Aug. 30, 2022. You can see the trailer at the top of this post.

Following this weekend’s news of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson’s breakup after a nine-month relationship, Kanye West is in celebration mode: This morning, he shared a fake New York Times headline that reads, “Skete Davidson Dead At Age 28.”

It would seem Kardashian is far from amused.

A “source close to” Kardashian reportedly told The Daily Mail, “Kim won’t stand for this. She is demanding that Kanye take the post down, but he won’t. She has been vigorously defending Pete. She’ll never get back together with Kanye over the way he’s treated the people she loves and respects. She has tried incredibly hard to have a good co-parenting situation for the children. She won’t stand for this type of behavior from him.”

Kardashian has yet to offer a public comment of her own about the post.

This post is being updated.

We are not at the end of the road for entertaining Steve Harvey clips.

The new season of Celebrity Family Feud kicked off by pitting the casts of Abbott Elementary and Hacks against each other, and it’s only gotten more “sure, why not” from there. Episode three had the stars of Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series vs. Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, while over the weekend, former-SNL cast member Jay Pharoah had a showdown with Rhys Darby from Our Flag Means Death.

Death was on everyone’s mind, because in an early round, Harvey was looking for the top six answers for a not-so-nice way to say that someone died. Pharoah answered with the top survey response (“croaked”), but his team was only able to get one more (“kicked the bucket”). It was now Team Darby’s turn. “I’d like to say ‘carked it,’” Darby replied. He used the word in a sentence — “You know, as in, ‘What happened to that guy?’ Oh, he’s carked it” — but Harvey was confused by the New Zealand slang term for “carcass.” After Team Darby stressed that the word has an “r” in it (and that they weren’t saying another similar-sounding word), Harvey said, “What the hell’s going on? I need subtitles for these guys sometimes, too. This game’s going to hell right here.”

You can watch the clip above.

Despite the fact that his parent company is in cost-cutting mode and clearly has no qualms putting TV shows and films out to pasture, John Oliver couldn’t resist taking a jab at Warner Bros. Discovery for shelving the Batgirl movie. During a longer segment on the monkeypox crisis, the Last Week Tonight host highlighted how the United States let 20 million monkeypox vaccines expire, which gave Oliver an opening to mock the Batgirl debacle and essentially ask WBD WTF is going on. Because it sure seems like they’re lighting the whole place on fire.

Via The Daily Beast:

“We let the vaccine sit unused on a shelf in our reserves like an expired Chobani or a $90 million movie on HBO Max,” said Oliver. “By the way, hi there, new business daddy! Seems like you’re doing a really great job. I do get the vague sense that you’re burning down my network for the insurance money, but I’m sure that will all pass.”

Oliver’s quip aside, Last Week Tonight is presumably safe despite the chaotic week at Warner Bros. Discovery. While new CEO David Zaslav has been making some sizable cuts at HBO Max, HBO proper has (so far) been safe from the wreckage. In fact, the company’s strategy going forward appears to be strengthening the HBO brand and ensure its prominence as a premium network channel. Next summer, the confusingly named HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge into some sort of super app that will serve as a secondary home for HBO series after they’ve aired.

As for how many shows or streaming movies will survive that transition is up in the air, but so far, the new WBD regime has shown no signs of axing HBO proper series even if their late night hosts fire off some jabs at the top brass.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Will Smith left his mark on the Oscars (and on Chris Rock’s cheek) earlier this year when he unexpectedly took the stage and delivered the slap heard ’round the world. Smith spoke about it recently in a new video, offering apologies to Rock and to Questlove, whose Oscar win for Best Documentary Feature was overshadowed by the physical altercation that immediately preceded it. Those in Smith’s life have been careful when it comes to addressing the topic — neither Willow nor Jaden Pinkett Smith talked about it on the first post-slap episode of Red Table Talk — and now Willow has spoken about it for the first time.

In a recent Billboard interview, Smith’s daughter noted the aftermath of the incident didn’t “rock me as much as my own internal demons” and added, “I see my whole family as being human, and I love and accept them for all their humanness. Because of the position that we’re in, our humanness sometimes isn’t accepted, and we’re expected to act in a way that isn’t conducive to a healthy human life and isn’t conducive to being honest.”

Meanwhile, Willow is fresh off announcing a new album, Copingmechanism, and dropping the single “Hover Like A Goddess.”

Check out the full feature here.