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Billie Eilish, along with her brother Finneas, has written some of the most beloved songs of the past few years. However, if you ask her, as Apple Music’s Zane Lowe just did in a new interview today, songwriting really isn’t her strongest skill, at least not as strong as her abilities as a performer.

The conversation spawned from Eilish praising Finneas’ writing skill/habits and comparing them to her own, saying:

“Dude, Finneas is so annoying. Finneas can make… Finneas can work anytime. The dude doesn’t get a break, like, within himself. He doesn’t need it. For me, I kind of go through phases of feeling really creative and actually getting stuff done, and then go through phases of absolutely nothing at all, musically. The creativity works in other ways, but musically, Finneas is just… the guy can write so fast and so well and so often and constant. It’s his way of expressing himself and it’s really kind of his only way, and so I think that’s a big part of it. For me, I have a lot of ways of expressing myself that I find myself good at, and maybe better at, and feel really confident at. And for Finneas, songwriting is just, like, his tool.”

Lowe then asked if Eilish feels she’s better at expressing herself through means other than songwriting and she replied, “Yes [laughs]. Absolutely!” Lowe asked for an example and Eilish responded, “I feel like I’m a better performer than a writer. I feel like maybe singing is more my… like I feel more… I don’t know.”

After Lowe pushed back on Eilish perhaps selling her songwriting abilities short, Eilish continued, “I go through these many, many months where I’m like, ‘I don’t write songs, I haven’t written songs in a long time.’ And then I’ll sit down and I’ll write.”

Check out the full interview above.

If there is one thing Dakota Johnson is known for, it is unleashing absolute chaos everywhere she goes, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show and her own kitchen which at one point contained a bowl of limes, which she later revealed she is allergic to. So it makes sense that Netflix’s adaptation of the beloved Jane Austen novel Persuasion is the most chaotic Jane Austen adaptation ever made, which includes Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Wishbone the dog as Mr. Darcy on Wishbone, and a 2003 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice set in the modern-day Mormon community.

In Netflix’s Persuasion, directed by Carrie Cracknell with a screenplay by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, Dakota Johnson at her absolute most Dakota Johnson plays Anne Elliot, a woman who is reunited with her former fiance, Captain Wentworth, after eight years. Anne was in love and wanted to marry Captain Wentworth but was encouraged by her family to end the engagement because he was poor. The film is a beautiful nightmare, a period piece that looks pleasant but sounds like nails on a chalkboard with dialogue that sounds like it was created by a Twitter meme generator. It feels more inspired by Jane Austen TikTok than Jane Austen. It’s bad but ultimately an entertaining if occasionally cringe-worthy piece of cinema that showcases the best of what Johnson has to offer.

Here’s why you should watch Dakota Johnson in Persuasion on Netflix. You’ve been warned: pretty much every reason is Dakota Jonhson.

Dakota Johnson is ready for the year 2022

In Persuasion, Johnson has side swept, perfectly conditioned bangs and a British accent inspired by watching Love, Actually once every holiday season. She looks like she just got her makeup done at a Brooklyn Sephora, with freshly manicured eyebrows at a Benefit brow studio. This is, of course, a movie, and movie stars have, from the very early days of Hollywood, been done up in a way that is most appealing to them and modern beauty standards, but the lengths Persuasion goes to not make Johnson and other characters feel of the period is so absurd that it almost feels like a troll.

Dakota Johnson in her Jim Halpert era

For better or worse, Persuasion breaks the fourth wall, with Johnson looking at the camera at many moments as if the year is 2006 and this is the set of NBC’s hit workplace comedy The Office and Sakota Johnson is not Anne Elliot, Jane Austen heroine, but Jim Halpert, a paper salesman with a crush on the secretary, a nerdy nemesis, and a tendency to side eye cameras at opportune moments.

The dialogue sounds like it was written by a Twitter meme bot or a TikTok teen (perhaps both)

Did they use the word playlist in the early 19th century? None of us were around then, so who’s to say definitely whether or not a woman in 1800s England would describe a collection of music sheets as a playlist. I don’t recall using the word playlist until the invention of Spotify in 2011, though. Before that, we called them “burned CDs.”

Exes is suddenly a word that exists within the Austen canon

You almost have to respect the shameless audacity of the Persuasion screenplay. Defying its own tone and setting, the screenplay sprinkles (read: pouring) modern language including abbreviations (exes) and meme formats (he’s a 10) into a film that also contains dialogue ripped word for word from Austen’s novel. This film probably would have been better in every way if it was just set in the present day, but they refused.

Behold, more Dakota Johnson staring at the camera

Dakota Johnson has become an icon for many things: her love of limes, her lime allergy, and her bangs. But her most iconic moment as a celebrity unfolded for all the world to see on November 27, 2019, when she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and called Ellen Degeneres a liar. Johnson did not care about calling out the daytime host, who antaogonized the actor on air for not inviting her to her birthday party even though she was invited. “That’s not the truth, Ellen” made Johnson an instant icon and spawned one of the internet’s only good memes. In Persuasion, Jonhson gives the camera the Ellen death stare energy, in a way that almost redeems the film’s glaring flaws, and suggests that she hates this movie as much as everyone else does.

Dakota Johnson speaking Italian

In a scene that contains the sentence, “how do I prioritize self-care with everyone around me constantly bidding for my attention,” Johnson speaks Italian while rolling her eyes. Acting has never been better than this, folks. I am no expert on Italian accents, but Johnson’s Italian sounds better than her meandering British accent.

Hot and boring men

In Persuasion, protagonist Anne Elliot is faced with the ultimate conundrum: a weird somewhat reluctant love triangle between two hot men! The characters in Austen’s novel are appealing, with many layers that make Anne’s situation compelling and dramatic. But in this film which dumbs down Austen’s darkest novel to fleeting rom-com, Dakota Johnson has to pretend to be torn between two extremely hot men (Henry Golding and Cosmo Jarvis) who also happen to be extremely boring. It’s painful to watch but Johnson, sadly, plays it naturally.

Essentially, you should watch Persuasion because of Dakota Johnson

You are guaranteed to have a bad time watching Persuasion but the film, which is meant to play in the background while you do laundry or reorganize your closet or while you fan yourself during the heat wave we are currently experiencing, is a great showcase for Dakota Johnson, the one true king of not giving a sh*t.

A tried and true way to get people debating sports is to pit old teams against one another. For example: In a recent interview with Complex, Steph Curry laid out his case for why he thinks the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors would beat another legendary NBA team, the 1999-2001 Los Angeles Lakers.

“…if you could match up in some alternate universe, us versus the 2001 Lakers, obviously we feel like we can win,” Curry said in the lead-up to his gig hosting the ESPYs. “I don’t know who would guard Shaq but I don’t know who would guard me and Klay either. We rockin’ with that. And three is better than two.”

On the newest episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” Shaquille O’Neal got the chance to respond to Curry. While he made sure to stress that Curry is his favorite player and the two are close, Shaq laid out the reasons why he thinks saying that is off-base.

“My team that went 15-1, that’s the best team ever created, cause we should’ve went 16-0,” Shaq said.

Shaq then noted that the arguments are basically laid out as follows: The belief of the Lakers is that the Warriors wouldn’t have anyone who could guard himself and Kobe Bryant, while Golden State would respond that Los Angeles wouldn’t have anyone who could guard Curry and Thompson, with the aforementioned line about three being worth more than two as the crux of their argument.

“Here’s my rebuttal: Once they get hot, ‘D-Fish, send ‘em to the hole, Imma lay their ass out, Steph, Klay, and KD’” Shaq said. “Imma touch they ass all the way up, and you know who I would’s gonna have a lot of points? The center, what’s his name?”

Shaq was then told that Draymond Green was listed as the center for that Warriors squad — while Zaza Pachulia normally started games at center, Green was at the heart of the team’s vaunted “Death Lineup.” As such, Shaq said that for Golden State to win, Green would need to reach 30 points.

The big man received some pushback that the Lakers had a “drop-off” after himself and Kobe, but Shaq did not think that would be an issue.

“There’s not a drop-off, cause they’re gonna have to double me,” Shaq said. “If they don’t double me, I’m going for 60 without the free throws.”

There is no way to ever figure out who is correct here, but it appears Shaq, Curry, and the other parties with a stake in this debate are having a good time.

Whether or not you live in Pennsylvania, you should be paying attention to its upcoming senatorial race, and not just because its outcome could help tip the balance of power in Washington, DC. But because it has turned into a social media bloodbath with PA native and all-around badass John Fetterman ferociously trolling former TV quack—and longtime New Jersey resident—Dr. Mehmet Oz at every turn. Imagine another Godzilla match-up movie, but in this case it’s Godzilla vs. a regular-sized moth (that also comes from New Jersey).

Fetterman has been dishing out sick burns for weeks (with beloved Philly institutions like Pat’s King of Steaks jumping on the trend), while Oz’s attempts to play along have ended in abject failure.

Fetterman’s most clever dig, and smartest investment, yet may very well have been paying for Jersey Shore star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi to record a Cameo for Dr. Oz, letting him know how much Jersey loves him and assuring him that he’ll be back home soon.

Apparently, that tweet really struck a nerve with Oz, and for all the wrong reasons. As Vanity Fair reports, Oz got pretty darn upset that Snooki had helped Fetterman make the doc look a fool—and even went so far as to claim that Fetterman took “advantage of” the MTV reality show star, who once peed on herself on a dancefloor, then proceeded to pass out.

While recently chatting with Philadelphia radio staple Dom Giordano, Oz responded to the Fetterman-fronted, now-viral video of Snooki by complaining that “She’s been on my show. I know all these celebrities. I could actually have celebrities do my campaign for me.”

When asked about Fetterman’s main charge against him—that he’s NOT a Pennsylvanian—Oz claimed it really shouldn’t matter “if I happen to have a house here or there.” Except, yeah, it sort of does matter to the people of a state whether or not their elected representatives actually live there and understand its residents’ unique challenges.

While Oz does indeed now own a home in Pennsylvania, VF notes that it was only purchased this year. And as most people know, he misspelled the name of the town (it’s Huntingdon Valley, not Huntington Valley) on some paperwork.

As Caleb Ecarma wrote for Vanity Fair:

During a Monday Fox News appearance, the former celebrity doctor accused Fetterman of “hiding from voters for the last few months” and using “snarky posts written by consultants,” adding, “That’s why I’ve been asking him to get on the campaign trail, come play.” Fetterman returned to the campaign trail last week and is scheduled to attend his first in-person general election fundraiser on Thursday. He gave his first interview since the stroke to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week, where he said he is “feeling really good” and has “no physical limits” other than some continuing struggles with hearing.

Only Dr. Oz could make two words like “come play” sound totally f**king creepy. Unfortunately for him, he’s about to get his wish.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Between seasons three and four of Stranger Things, Hopper went from dad bod to…. Marvel actor bod. Being a prisoner in Russia (and as a result, a prisoner of a boring storyline) turned out pretty well for him physically. Many fans noticed this change, and actor David Harbour, who plays Hopper on the beloved Netflix series, explained his transformation in a lengthy Instagram caption.

“Many of you have asked about Hopper’s physical transformation from season 3 to season 4,” Harbour wrote, adding that he worked with a trainer for eight months who he continued to work with throughout the pandemic to maintain the physique (Stranger Things season four started shooting but pauses production for several months due to the coronavirus pandemic).

“All told it was a difficult and exciting ride, changing diet and exercise plans (or lack thereof),” Harbour wrote. “All told I lost over 75lbs. 265-270 in season 3 and all the way down to 190 when we shot. Recently ballooned up again to play jolly ole st. Nick in a flick I can’t wait for you to see this holiday season, so I am struggling to fight back down towards a good weight for wherever hopper ends up in season 5. All this up and down is not good for the body, and I’ll have to give it up soon, but it is such a fun part of the job to live in a different version of your skin for a while,” he said.

While you wait for Stranger Things season five, you can catch David Harbour as Santa Claus in the action/comedy film Violent Night from Universal Pictures. The film, which follows a group of mercenaries who attack a wealthy family on Christmas Eve, is expected to come out on December 2.

Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz has three rules for living a good life: do what is right, do everything to the best of your ability, and show people you care.

Harley Quinn would care to disagree.

In season three of the fantastic HBO Max animated series, she shares her three rules: eat, bang, and kill.

In the clip below, Harley and Poison Ivy go on a “eat, bang, kill” tour. As you might expect, there’s eating, there’s banging, and there’s killing (there’s also prank calling Jim Gordon while he’s sitting on the can). But don’t worry, Harley only kills a member of the paparazzi. “Send our regards to whatever sh*tty tabloid you work for,” she yells at the photographer while punching him in the face and knocking him overboard. “And tell Ben Affleck I upper-decked his fancy SodaStream.” God, I missed this show.

Here’s more on what to expect in season three:

Wrapping up their “Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour,” Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) return to Gotham as the new power couple of DC villainy. Along with their ragtag crew – King Shark (Ron Funches), Clayface (Alan Tudyk), Frank the Plant (JB Smoove) – “Harlivy” strives to become the best version of themselves while also working towards Ivy’s long desired plan of transforming Gotham into an Eden paradise.

Harley Quinn season three premieres on HBO Max on July 28.

As Disney+ prepares to bring some fan-favorite R-rated movies to the streamer, there are a few things to consider. One is that the scale of rating movies is so skewed these days, it doesn’t feel like it should matter. And the second (and most important) point is that there are some Disney movies that unreasonably traumatized children and it’s time they take responsibility for that! At least that’s what Ryan Reynolds believes.

The Deadpool star took to Twitter to announce the news about the superhero movie arriving on Disney+, but used it as an opportunity to bring awareness to the unnecessary violence that took place in those early Disney cartoons. Who leaves a baby deer out to fend for itself in the wild? That is some cold-blooded stuff.

“We’re supposed to announce Logan and Deadpool will soon be the first R-rated movies on Disney+. But we all know some Disney movies should already be rated R for irreversible trauma,” Reynolds tweeted, along with updated rating cards for various Disney classics.

Reynolds’ various fake rating updates include Snow White, Old Yeller, The Lion King, and, everybody’s first traumatic childhood memory, Bambi.

For Snow White’s updated rating, the card reads: “Rated R for breaking and entering, Borderline polyandry [and] pretty sure those diamonds aren’t cruelty-free.” Maybe there should be a sequel where the dwarves unionize? While Old Yeller gets an R rating for “Totally ugly-crying inducing straight-up murder of Old Yeller. Also, bear abuse.”

There are also some great points regarding The Lion King’s “Fratricide, mauling, very possibly half-sibling lovin’, or at least kissing cousins. Seriously.” Finally, Bambi got a much-needed rating update for “Cold-blooded killing of an innocent deer mom, that will cause life-long trauma.”

As long as this conversation is going, what about the opening sequence to Up or the gut-wrenching incinerator scene from Toy Story. Who let Disney do that?!

For days, word has been spreading that tonight’s January 6th Committee’s primetime hearing will be packed with some blockbuster moments and some never-before-seen footage. What many outlets are teasing is that viewers will be privy to a sort of “blooper reel” from the pre-taped speech that Donald Trump released on January 7, 2021, in which he only kind of condemned the violent actions of the previous day’s rioters.

The Daily Beast, picking up from a story in The Washington Post, reported that the creation of that three-minute video we all saw (and you can watch again above), in which Trump finally acknowledged that a “new administration” would soon be settling into the West Wing, was basically the political video version of Apocalypse Now, with Trump in the role of Marlon Brando. The then-president’s two biggest hangups? Publicly admitting that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, and placing the blame for the violence on January 6th squarely on the shoulders of the violent rioters, according to WaPo sources.

“The outtakes, which could be released as early as Thursday night, reportedly show about an hour of [Trump] struggling to make the remarks that were ultimately shown to the public,” writes The Daily Beast news editor Allison Quinn. “A day earlier, he had famously told rioters still occupying the Capitol that they were ‘very special’ and declared ‘We love you.’”

We’re also scheduled to hear from two key witnesses in the investigation into the events surrounding the Capitol riots: former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and former Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, both of whom had the dignity to resign their posts following the deadly events of January 6th.

In other words: Make sure your popcorn supply is well-stocked.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Sit down in a room alone and dim the lights to prepare for Chris Pine in the incredibly sexy and spooky trailer for Don’t Worry Darling, which follows a 1950s housewife living in a glamorous utopian community who realizes that her husband’s company is hiding some disturbing secrets.

While the first Don’t Worry Darling trailer provided a mere glimpse into the psychosexual drama with some brief steamy moments between stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, this second trailer is a deeper dive into just how sexy the movie will be. And it adds Chris Pine to the mix: at the end of the trailer he calls Pugh a “good girl.” Hopefully, they didn’t just cram all of the movie’s hottest moments into the trailers.

Director Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) has promised that her second feature film won’t ignore good sex and that the film draws inspiration from some of the greatest erotic thrillers, including Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal. “I kept saying, ‘Why isn’t there any good sex in film anymore?’ I realized how rarely we see female hunger on film, and specifically this type of female pleasure,” Wilde told Vogue in 2021.

Don’t Worry Darling, which was written by Katie Silberman based on a story by Silberman and Carey Van Dyke & Shane Van Dyke and also stars Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Timothy Simons, and Nick Kroll, comes to theaters on September 23.

The world of NBA broadcasting looks like it’s approaching a gigantic crossroad. Charles Barkley, the Inside the NBA commenter who has spent the last 20+ years as one of the most popular analyst in the game, took a meeting with the upstart golf league LIV Golf earlier this week to discuss joining in some capacity.

LIV Golf, which launched earlier this year, is funded by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. This has led to criticism of the league and the golfers who have accepted gigantic paydays, primarily that they are participating in sportswashing by letting Saudi Arabia use sports as a way to take attention away from their record of human rights violations.

As Barkley explained to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post in the aftermath of his meeting with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, he does not believe this criticism is done in good faith.

“I told [Norman,]” Barkley said. “’Listen, they are making up words, like ‘blood money’ and ‘sports washing.’ I said, ‘We have all taken ‘blood money’ and we all have ‘sports washed’ something so I don’t like those words, to be honest with you.’

“If you are in pro sports, you are taking some type of money from not a great cause.”

Barkley, who confirmed to Marchand that he has three years and $30 million remaining on his deal with Turner (which he has said will likely lead to his retirement from broadcasting upon its conclusion), responded to a question about whether he views the NBA’s relationship with China as an example of this by saying he doesn’t “want to practice selective outrage,” then noted that he is sponsored by Nike and that “I’m not going to do that thing where I pick and choose what I’m outraged about, where my money comes from.”

He did, however, essentially mention that a major factor in all of this is that LIV Golf’s offer makes it worth leaving Turner and, potentially, losing his sponsors like Capital One and Subway, many of whom reached out in the aftermath of the news he would meet with Norman.

“Between the number you just mentioned [$10 million per year] and all my commercials, for me to risk all of that, it would have to be some serious money thrown my way,” Barkley said.