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After much beefing with her record label, Halsey finally released their new single, “So Good,” last night. Now, hours later, Halsey has shared a video for the song. It’s a meta visual, in which Halsey plays herself, directing a video for the song. The clip also stars her partner Alev Aydin, who works with a blue-wigged actress. Halsey later wears the same wig and looks back at their relationship with Aydin. While Halsey “directs” the video within the video, Aydin directs the actual video (if that makes sense).

Halsey says of the video, “The film we created for ‘So Good’ really tells the full story of the song in the way I intended. Samsung helped us share our vision, giving us the creative freedom we needed to make something we are really proud of. Using the Freestyle, Alev and I were able to share a glimpse of the way that we fell in love: watching romantic films together. But this time, the Freestyle is playing real home movies from our life together. For us, this makes ‘So Good’ come to life in a really special way that we’re so excited share with fans.”

After the song’s release, Halsey had some words for their fans, tweeting yesterday, “guys stop texting your exes lmao this song isn’t about an ex that worked out later on! It’s about the friend that was always there for me, who I realized I was in love with one day. text that angel instead!!!!!” They added, “I think this is the biggest and best reaction to a song release I have ever seen from you guys. I’m truly giddy. all of this was so worth it. I had a gut feeling this was a good one. ily.”

Watch the “So Good” video above.

The Staircase, HBO Max’s limited series starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, has been a hit with viewers and critics (our own Carrie Whitmer called it a “masterpiece”). But the real people both at the center of the 2001 death of Kathleen Peterson, and the 13-part docuseries it inspired, aren’t part of its fan club.

In an exclusive interview with Variety, Michael Peterson—Kathleen’s husband, who was convicted of murdering her in 2003 in a homicide case that turned into a legal roller coaster—expressed his dismay with the series, which he ultimately blames on Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who directed the original 2004 documentary series. (Got that?)

Just last month, de Lestrade spoke with Vanity Fair about how he and his fellow filmmakers felt “betrayed” by Antonio Campos, who created the fictionalized HBO Max series. The French filmmaker took particular issue with the way in which the series suggests that de Lestrade and his editor Sophie Brunet (who began a romantic relationship with Peterson in real life—again, got that?) crafted their documentary in a favorable way so that it might help Peterson with his appeal. “I understand if you dramatize,” de Lestrade said. “But when you attack the credibility of my work, that’s really not acceptable to me.”

Peterson himself has heard de Lestrade’s complaints, but believes the fault in these negative portrayals ultimately rests with the documentarian. “I have read about Jean de Lestrade’s sense of betrayal by Antonio Campos and HBO Max’s presentation of The Staircase,” Peterson told Variety. “But what has been forgotten or overlooked or simply ignored is his betrayal of me and my family. We feel that Jean pimped us out—sold OUR story to Campos for money—what word other than pimped describes what he did?”

De Lestrade did sell Campos his archive of documents and footage, which is a big part of why the documentarian feels betrayed. “I really trusted the man,” he told Vanity Fair. While he did receive an executive producer credit on the HBO Max series, de Lestrade never read any of the scripts or participated beyond sharing the information he had. Which is exactly what Peterson is taking issue with.

“He released his archive to Campos who then created a fictional account of events, most of which trashed me (which I really don’t care about) and my children—which I really do care about,” Peterson told Variety. “There are egregious fabrications and distortions of the truth in the HBO series, well beyond what may be considered ‘artistic’ license.”

While Peterson claims that de Lestrade never told him that he had sold his archived material to Campos, the documentarian disagrees. He says he informed Michael and his family of the transaction around 2008. “Since I knew that Antonio had in mind to tell the story of Michael and the documentary, I thought that it would be better to cooperate, and be involved in the process then to stay totally outside as a stranger,” de Lestrade told Variety. “In a way I thought I was protecting Michael and his family by being involved, but I was wrong.”

De Lestrade can’t recall whether he informed Peterson that the HBO Max series was happening (oops!), and told Variety that, “If I didn’t, I should have.” While the documentarian claims he was paid just over $9,000 for his materials, Peterson believes that number is a lie.

“Jean should have known that when you sell your ass/property, you assume the risk of getting f**ked/betrayed,” Peterson said. “Every hooker knows this. So he got betrayed/f**ked. Why should he be surprised?”

Someone should make a documentary about this.

(Via Variety)

There’s a common theme among reviews for Jurassic World: Dominion, the sixth and possibly final installment of the Jurassic Park/World series. See if you can guess it.

From Mashable: “A big, dumb animal that deserves extinction.”

From Entertainment Weekly: “Let’s get these dinosaurs to the nearest tar pit.”

From Collider: “Please, God, let this franchise go extinct.”

And my personal favorite, from The Independent: “Yikes!”

Jurassic World: Dominion has a 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest among all the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies. But in one respect, it’s better — or at least more accurate — than Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster masterpiece.

[Dominion paleontology consultant Steve] Brusatte’s job on the new film was primarily that of an asset-on-call, being available for any questions creatives on the film had relating to the film’s dinosaurs. Brusatte aimed to make Jurassic World Dominion the most accurate depiction of dinosaurs yet, all coming down to one mega-important detail: feathers.

“I’m really pleased with the feathers,” he told Variety. “That’s the biggest thing of all because we’ve known that dinosaurs had feathers for a long time, but they haven’t made it into Jurassic World, frustratingly. Or Jurassic Park.”

Brusatte said he was “always annoyed” about the lack of feathers, but he understood why the more bird-like dinosaurs didn’t make their Jurassic debut until Dominion, as “the first film came out before the discovery happened,” Variety explained. Or it’s because dinosaurs with feathers look stupid. One of the two.

Another paleontologist was less forgiving. “The whole thing drove me nuts,” Jim Kirkland raged. “They could have just said, you know, ‘Oh, originally we were using frog DNA as the template. Now we use chicken DNA, so we get much better dinosaurs.’ And then you get feathered dinosaurs! And you’ve explained it in one sentence!”

Never challenge a paleontologist to a dinosaur trivia-off. You might go extinct.

(Via Variety)

Vladimir Putin’s comparing himself to an all-powerful Russian monarch, but does he really have a personal poop collector? Yikes.

Let’s back up a moment. Over 100 days ago, Putin made the imperialistic decision to invade Ukraine. His troops have run into molotov cocktail-wielding grandmas amid news that the troops are so frustrated that some nearly blew up their general. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have lost their lives for one man’s quest to rule as much of the world as possible, all while Putin’s so upset about the slowness of his progress that he’s firing military leaders. In addition, one of Putin’s top commanders got whacked by a sniper, and Putin is allegedly out of Botox, so what else could go wrong with this war?

Well, Putin’s rumored to be suffering from both health woes and assassination attempts, so that seems to have amped up his sense of paranoia. Via Yahoo, things are getting strange in that regard, but it’s been building up for years (since 2019, and it’s still ongoing), according to French media reports. That is to say, there’s reportedly a Putin poop collector, who sends his stuff back to Russia. And you thought your job was hard:

The journalists found indirect evidence about the work done by the “special” bodyguard back in 2019, when Putin visited Saudi Arabia. The same person accompanied Putin on bathroom visits during a visit to France.

The report suggests that this agent collects the excreta of the Russian leader in special bags, which are then packed into briefcases and dispatched to Russia. This is done presumably so that nobody can get information about Putin’s health.

We truly live in incredible times. Speaking of which, Reuters reveals that Putin gave a Thursday speech that reveals how he views himself, and he’s comparing his legacy to that of Tsar Peter the Great while suggesting that, while invading Ukraine, he’s only taking back what already belongs to Russia. Yep, Putin said this:

“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned (what was Russia’s),” Putin said after a visiting an exhibition dedicated to the tsar.

As NBC News notes, this will likely only amplify concerns that Putin also wishes to invade Poland and Finland if he’s ever finished waging war on Ukraine. And amid all of that seriousness, Putin’s freaking out about anyone digging into his own poop. Fitting.

(Via Yahoo, Reuters & NBC News)

While covering the January 6 hearings for NewsNation, former Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt dropped a bombshell that he will be testifying in front of the House Select Committee on Monday. Stirewalt was fired from the network after he defended the decision to call the state of Arizona for Joe Biden during the tumultuous 2020 presidential election. Since then, he’s been a vocal critic of what he saw going down on Fox, and now, he’ll be sharing his experience with the Jan. 6 committee.

Stirewalt made the revelation during a Friday morning broadcast of Morning In America with Adrienne, which caught host Adrienne Bankert by surprise. She literally asked “why in the world” is he testifying. Since they were discussing the Thursday night hearings, Stirewalt wanted the information out there in the spirit of full disclosure. Via Mediaite:

CHRIS STIREWALT: Well, I am not in a position now to tell you what my testimony will be about. I just want to make sure that folks know that I am so that it so so that I’m not playing any hidden ball tricks here. I was asked to testify and I, and I got to go.

ADRIENNE BANKERT: Yeah, but just to inform people, because there are all kinds of people who are asked to testify, including journalists. Is it because of some of the reporting that went out that day? Can you at least tell us that?

CHRIS STIREWALT: As I say, I’m not in a position to tell you what I’m going to testify about. I just wanted to make sure that folks knew that I was going to participate there.

Since his firing from Fox News, Stirewalt has criticized the network’s coverage of the January 6 attack, particularly in Tucker Carlson’s documentary, which Stirewalt called “beyond reckless and is another mile marker down the road to the kind of Alex Jones-ian Info Wars-ian garbage that makes it impossible to have any kind of a conversation.”

(Via Mediaite)

It’s a real mess out there on cable news for Donald Trump after a televised hearing of the House Select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection proved that many of the former president’s closest allies eventually accepted his loss in the 2020 Presidential Election. Even though Fox News’ Sean Hannity is praising the MAGA leader, not everyone at the conservative news network agrees.

Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, who’s spent the past year trying to convince Trump and his MAGA supporters to move on from their baseless claims of voter fraud, recapped the first night of the hearings in which previously unseen footage and interviews with Trump allies like Bill Barr, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump were aired for the first time. While Kilmeade tried to downplay the violence of alt-right white nationalist groups like the Oath-Keepers and the Proud Boys, saying the new footage didn’t show anything worse than what audiences have already seen, he took a harder stance against Trump’s continuing efforts to cast doubt on the election results.

“[What] you sat there the whole time saying is, number one, you gotta accept the results of an election,” Kilmeade said. “Get your legal team out there. You go ahead and pursue it aggressively, responsibly. And after that, when William Barr, your greatest ally turns around and said there is nothing there when your MVP Mike Pence who has been with you through every step of the way said there is nothing there, when Ivanka Trump and Jared [Kushner] say we can’t see any proof that there is anything there, you turn the page.”

Of course, Kilmeade also went on to absolve Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and to a lesser degree, Trump himself, from the eventual insurrection their claims of voter fraud caused, pointing to texts on the day of the attack on Capitol Hill that proved none of Trump’s inner circle though things would go that far. But, if you scream fire in a crowded theater just for some attention and it ends with a mob killing people, culpability still exists — and it looks like Trump is now losing the backing of some of his biggest supporters on his favorite network.

(Via Mediaite)

Families with newborns across the country have been scrambling lately, as the baby formula shortage has only gotten worse, with very little government intervention. Actress Olivia Munn and her baby have also felt the pain of the alarming shortage.

Munn posted an Instagram story this week with a photo of her young son’s formula, which opened accidentally in her suitcase. She said, “When there’s a formula shortage and you open your suitcase to find your carefully packed formula has popped open and half of it is now gone,” paired with a photo of the formula.

Munn co-parents with her boyfriend John Mulaney, who is currently on tour. The comedian recently gained some unwanted attention after he welcomed Dave Chappelle to the stage. This is just the tip of the John Mulaney controversy that this man has seen over the years after a very public divorce.

This isn’t the first time Munn has spoken about the formula shortage. Last month, she said she was “panicking” due to the shortage. In May, the actress tweeted: “It’s so crazy when people say ‘if you breastfeed you won’t have to worry about the formula shortage!’ I have low milk supply, so to keep my baby fed I depend on formula. I wish I could breastfeed so I wouldn’t be panicking about the shortage right now. But I don’t have a choice.” As with many other mothers, most of whom are way less fortunate than the celeb couple, the shortage has sparked anxiety among young families.

(Via Page Six)

Pop-punk revivalist Machine Gun Kelly recently released his newest album Mainstream Sellout in April, and now he’s already back with more music. After collaborating with artists like Blackbear, Lil Wayne, and more, he teamed up with the 17-year-old rising hyperpop star Glaive, who dropped extra songs from his All Dogs Go To Heaven EP earlier this year, for this new invigorating track “More Than Life.”

The song retains the edge of Kelly’s previous material and brings in Glaive’s eccentric taste, with urgent lyrics at the forefront: “I don’t want to die / I need you I need you more than life,” they spit.

Who knows how many rock-tinged songs Kelly has left; in a recent interview, he said he would be pivoting back to rap. “I’m going to make a rap album for myself, for no other reason, no point to prove, no chip on my shoulder,” he said. “If I keep doing things to prove things to people, I’m going to one: drive myself crazy, and two: not make a good product. I made Tickets and Mainstream Sellout because I wanted to make them. I need to now also make people miss that sound.”

Watch the video for “More Than Life” above.

Stephen A. Smith is the unequivocal showman and star of ESPN’s First Take. His boisterous emotions, theatrics, and unparalleled rants go viral seemingly every day. The absurdity of his demeanor is hilariously entertaining, and his latest stance is once again casting far across the airwaves.

On Friday morning, he, Patrick Beverly, Molly Qerim, and Jay Williams discussed a hypothetical 2-on-2 game involving Smith, Beverley, Williams, and JJ Redick. Williams poked fun at Smith’s defensive shortcomings, while Smith retorted “I don’t need defense.” After various voices converged into a concert of noise, Smith had something to say about his chances in this matchup.

“Jay Williams, Patrick Beverley, JJ Redick, these are NBA players. I’m not on that level, I know better than that,” Smith said. “But Jay Williams came out and said I’m not scoring a point. I’m not saying I’m gonna win by any stretch of the imagination. … I’m gonna have my moments where, Jay, I’m gonna bust your ass.”

The entire crew, Smith included donning a wide grin, burst out in laughter and smiles. Beverley and Qerim kept asking who Smith’s partner would be between Beverley and Redick. Smith insisted it did not matter and that he’d find success against Williams regardless of his teammate.

“It don’t matter who your partner is. As soon as you touch the ball, Stephen A., your back’s gonna be to the basket,” Williams responded. “If you get five dribbles off of me, that’s gonna be a Hail Mary situation for you. You won’t be able to see the rim.

“Make it, take it, game to 7. He ain’t getting the ball.”

Simply, nobody does it like Smith. His talent is artistry.

Kevin Gates is back. The Baton Rouge General sources his street cred in the video for “Intro,” his third official single of 2022. While he’s peppered the first half of the year with freestyles like “Super General,” “Who Want Smoke?” and “Talking To My Scale,” he’s been slow-rolling the release of his upcoming third studio album Khaza, due June 17 on Atlantic. He kicked off the promotion cycle in April with the release of “Big Lyfe,” then continued with “Bad For Me” last month.

In addition to dropping Khaza next week, Gates is gearing up for his Big Lyfe Tour, starting in August and running through October. You can see the full tour dates below.

08/18 –- Dallas, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
08/19 –- Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
08/20 –- Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
08/21 –- Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
08/23 –- Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center
08/25 –- Albuquerque, NM @ Tingley Coliseum
08/26 –- Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre
08/27 –- Riverside, CA @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium
08/29 –- Sacramento, CA @ Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
08/31 –- Seattle, WA @ WaMu Theater
09/1 – Boise, ID @ Revolution Concert House and Event Center
09/2 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
09/6 – Omaha, NE @ Baxter Arena
09/8 –- Kansas City, MO @ Azura Amphitheater
09/9 –- Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
09/10 –- Milwaukee, WI @ The Eagles Ballroom
09/13 –- Chicago, IL @ The Riviera Theatre
09/14 -– St. Louis, MO @ Pop’s Outdoors
09/15 -– Detroit, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheater at Freedom Hill
09/16 -– Indianapolis, IN @ TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park17 – Newport, KY – PromoWest Pavilion at Ovation
09/20 -– Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica
09/25 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
09/27 – Washington, DC @ Echostage
09/29 – Charleston, SC @ North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center
09/30 – Nashville, TN @ Nashville Municipal Auditorium
10/1 -– Atlanta, GA @ Lakewood Amphitheatre
10/6 –- Charlotte, NC @ Bojangles Coliseum
10/7 –- Birmingham, AL @ Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex
10/8 –- New Orleans, LA @ UNO Lakefront Arena
10/12 -– Shreveport, LA @ Shreveport Municipal Auditorium
10/13 –- Little Rock, AR @ Simmons Bank Arena
10/14 –- Pensacola, FL @ Pensacola Bay Center

Watch Kevin Gates’ “Intro” video above.

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