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Regardless of how the jury decides in Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, at least Heard can rest easy knowing she has one Hollywood heavyweight on her side: Jason Momoa.

As the New York Post reported, entertainment industry consultant Kathryn Arnold took the stand on Monday in the ongoing legal battle between Depp and Heard, and spoke to the damage both actors’ careers have seen in the wake of the various ugly stories to emerge about their toxic relationship and short-lived marriage. Arnold also likely set a record for the number of times she was forced to say “poop,” or some variation of the term, in a professional setting in one day.

“Every time she appears anywhere, the social media negativity campaign starts up again,” Arnold said, before stating that Heard’s endorsement deal with L’Oreal has been put on hold and that even though she was one of the leads in the billion-dollar Aquaman, Heard was excluded from several major press events for the movie, as well as its marketing materials. “Her work stopped,” according to Arnold. And when DC began developing plans for a sequel, there was apparently a lot of discussion around dumping Heard altogether.

While Heard’s agent claimed that there were major concerns about the lack of chemistry between Heard and Momoa, Arnold said that it was because of Momoa and Aquaman director James Wan remaining “committed to” Heard and being “adamant” that she be part of the sequel that she retained her role in the superhero series, even if the role was severely “diminished.”

In an attempt to quantify how much Heard’s very public relationship and divorce from Depp has cost her, Arnold claimed that 2018’s blockbuster hit Aquaman should have been the kind of “Star is Born moment” to bring the actress much more lucrative roles and endorsements. Instead, purportedly because Depp and his lawyer deemed Heard’s domestic abuse allegations against the Pirates of the Caribbean star a “hoax,” the mention of Heard’s name often brings about a storm of negative publicity, particularly on social media, which has caused much of the industry to turn her back on her. Good thing she’s got Aquaman on her side.

According to the Post, Depp’s former girlfriend Kate Moss is expected to take the stand in his defense this week.

(Via New York Post)

Elon Musk has some notable connections to the music world, like his relationship with Grimes and that time he and Kanye West were palling around in 2020. Last year, he also got to know Miley Cyrus when the two were on Saturday Night Live together. That week, he also spent some time with The Kid Laroi, who joined Cyrus for a performance on the show. Naturally, given that Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, Laroi asked the billionaire for advice and he got some.

In an interview on Australia’s Nova radio network (as Billboard notes), Laroi said:

“He’s like, actually a really down-to-earth just he’s just like, hanging out. So I went up, and I asked him, and he basically, yeah, he told me to invest in something that I love. Which I thought I thought was great advice. You know, obviously, you like you expect someone to give you like an entire plan. All right, that’s what you do. But then I, I walked away realizing like, ‘Damn, that is probably the best financial advice you could give anyone,’ because I mean, if you don’t believe in something, then how is everybody else gonna believe in it? He could tell me something to invest in whatever. But if I don’t believe in it, then why would I do it, you know?”

Meanwhile, Laroi is ramping up a new era, as he released “Thousand Miles” last month.

Ryan Gosling hasn’t starred in a movie in four years, since 2018’s excellent First Man. But he’s about to be in two very different films: Greta Gerwig’s weird and wonderful Barbie with Margot Robbie, and The Gray Man, an action-thriller from the directors of the second highest-grossing movie of all-time, Anthony and Joe Russo.

You can watch the trailer below.

Based on author’s Mark Greaney’s “Gray Man” novels, The Gray Man stars Gosling as CIA mercenary Court Gentry, who goes by Sierra Six. “Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once an Agency-sanctioned merchant of death,” according to Netflix’s official plot description. “But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.”

An action movie with Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas? That’ll do. The Gray Man is one of Netflix’s most expensive movies to date, with a reported budget of around $200 million, at least $75 million of which was spent on Evans’ “trash ‘stache.”

The Gray Man will be released in select theaters on July 15, and hit Netflix on July 22.

[WARNING: spoilers for the Better Call Saul midseason finale to follow]

Last December, Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk posted a photo of himself and Patrick Fabian, who plays Howard Hamlin, on his Twitter account. “Happy birthday pally!” it reads. It seemed like an innocuous birthday message at the time, but following the events of the Saul midseason finale, it’s taken on a whole new meaning. Based on Fabian’s disheveled appearance, including blood (!) in his uncharacteristically messy hair, the photo was clearly taken while they were filming “Plan and Execution,” in which Howard is shot and killed by Lalo Salamanca in Jimmy and Kim’s apartment.

Have a look:

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Fabian was asked whether anyone at AMC freaked out when Odenkirk posted the behind-the-scenes photo last year. “What photo? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, laughing. “You know what? It didn’t really go anywhere. We just pretended there was nothing there, but I also had plenty of explanations for it as well. So I was glad it didn’t go any further than it did.” Later in the discussion, Fabian (who, it’s worth noting, was incredible in this episode) said that he’s “been so lucky to be a part of Better Call Saul, and I pinch myself every time I think about it.”

Saul viewers are also pinching themselves — for not noticing the spoiler until now.

Stay tuned for more Saul content, including the Lie Detector Test recap.

Perhaps the most famous Pavement lyric comes from the band’s 1994 favorite “Range Life,” when Stephen Malkmus sings at the end of the song, “Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins / Nature kids, I, they don’t have no function / I don’t understand what they mean and I could really give a f*ck / The Stone Temple Pilots, they’re elegant bachelors / They’re foxy to me, are they foxy to you? / I will agree they deserve absolutely nothing, nothing more than me.”

Last night, Pavement returned for their first concert in 12 years and they’ve decided to leave the beef behind: Uproxx’s own Philip Cosores was at last night’s (May 23) show at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles and he reported Malkmus changed the song’s lyrics to no longer mention Smashing Pumpkins or Stone Temple Pilots. They opted to note different bands instead: While the first one is hard to make out, the second is Toad The Wet Sprocket.

If you ask Malkmus, the original lyrics weren’t a Smashing Pumpkins diss at all, or at least not an all-encompassing one: In a 1999 interview, Malkmus said of the supposed Pumpkins beef: “I only laughed about the band name, because it does sound kinda silly. […] And well, their status, that they were the indie darlings, the heroes of the indie scene. I never really dissed their music. I like their songs — well, most of their songs anyway. Especially ‘1979,’ that’s a cool song. As I said, I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status. I never really cared for the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle or being ‘indie.’”

After a blowout road win in Game 2 to steal home-court advantage from the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics ceded the advantage with a home loss on Saturday. Just 48 hours later at TD Garden, the Celtics wasted no time in taking control of Game 4, seizing a massive first half lead and cruising to a 102-82 victory to even the Eastern Conference Finals at 2-2.

Prior to tip-off, the lion’s share of attention was on the injury report, with Tyler Herro ruled out for Miami and Marcus Smart out of action for Boston. Even without the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Boston’s defense was suffocating in the early going, and the Heat certainly missed Herro’s offensive punch. In fact, Miami was simply unable to score for an incredibly lengthy period of time in the opening period.

The Heat missed their first 14 shots, the most consecutive misses to open a playoff game in more than two decades, and Miami did not convert a field goal for more than eight and a half minutes. With seven quick points from Derrick White and reasonable offensive efficiency, Boston took an 18-1 advantage, even as the Celtics missed six of their first seven attempts from three-point range.

Miami eventually coaxed a couple of shots through the rim with help of Victor Oladipo, but Boston led by as many as 22 points in the first quarter and held a 29-11 lead after 12 minutes. The Heat shot just 15 percent from the floor in the period, setting a new franchise playoff record for the fewest points in an opening quarter. Boston was not overly efficient in terms of shot making, but the Celtics owned a massive advantage on the glass, winning the possession battle and benefitting from Miami’s inaccurate attack.

Picking up where they left off in the first quarter, the Celtics nudged their advantage to as many as 27 points in the second quarter, leading 50-23 after approximately 20 minutes of action. The Heat missed 19 of their first 23 attempts from inside the three-point arc, with Boston riding Jayson Tatum on the offensive end.

Tatum led the Celtics with 24 points on 6-of-11 shooting in the first quarter, using 14 free throw attempts to boost efficiency. Boston’s team-wide offensive numbers (38 percent from the floor, 4-of-17 from three-point range) were extremely pedestrian, but with Miami shooting just 11-of-40 from the floor on the way to 33 points, the Celtics held a 24-point advantage at the break.

Boston continued its dominance to begin the third quarter. The Celtics built their lead to 32 points and, by the middle of the period, whispers were circulating on just how long the starters for both teams would remain in the contest.

However, the Celtics scored only 19 points in the third quarter, shooting 35 percent from the floor in the process. It wasn’t as if Miami lit the world on fire on offense, also scoring 19 points, but the Heat used an 8-0 run late in the period to get back within 24 points with 12 minutes remaining.

That (faint) push from the Heat did not persist, and the game effectively ended with a final haymaker from the Celtics early in the fourth quarter. Boston used a 12-5 run to take a 31-point lead, and while the Heat did close the gap with hot three-point shooting in garbage time, the result was never in doubt.

For Miami, it was simply an offensive nightmare. Oladipo performed well with 23 points, but the Heat dug an impossibly deep hole in the first half and shot just 29.6 percent on two-point attempts, even with the help of a scattered fourth quarter. On the other end, Miami’s defense was at least reasonable, aside from failures on the defensive glass, but it was a performance to forget.

Boston did not light up the box score with shotmaking, but the Celtics used the free throw line and their defensive resistance to secure the win. The home team shot 32-of-38 from the line and secured 14 offensive rebounds while committing only 11 turnovers. Tatum led the attack with 31 points, and it was a balanced and effective effort despite only 23.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

With the series now leveled at 2-2 and the Heat still boasting home-court advantage in the best-of-seven clash, there is something of a reset in advance of Wednesday’s Game 5 in Miami. Through four contests, however, the series has operated in bizarre fashion, and the status of Herro and Smart will be of great interest as the teams travel on Tuesday.

In a move similar to creating the “burn book” in Mean Girls, Russia has released a list of nearly 1000 Americans who are permanently banned from entering Russia, and the list is really something.

Coming in at number 840 is acclaimed actor Morgan Freeman, who has been banned due to the fact that he narrated a 2017 video clip that accused the Russian government of “cyber warfare.” The clip was from The Committee To Investigate Russia, and was directed by Rob Reiner, a director known for The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally. Reiner also made the list, which includes a slew of actors, politicians, and Mark Zuckerberg. Anyone named on the list allegedly “incite Russophobia.”

Noticeably present on the list is a handful of names of people who are quite literally dead, so they had no plans on heading to Russia any time soon. This includes John McCain, the deceased senator who was once desperate for Twitter followers. McCain died in 2018 after a lengthy battle with brain cancer.

Other notable names include Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vide President Kamala Harris, and her husband, Douglas Craig Emhoff.

Some people listed were “honored” by the list, including diplomat Mike Carpenter, former federal prosecutor Norman Barbosa, and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.

Not including on the list is former president Donald Trump, who would tweet about it if he could!

The first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder was a pretty lighthearted affair. It wasn’t even clear what the movie was about. It shows Chris Hemsworth’s ripped Norse god trying to find the new him in the wake of Avengers: Endgame. He’d appointed Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie as king of New Asgard so he could cruise the cosmos with the Guardians of the Galaxy. We saw glimpses of Natalie Portman’s returning Jane Foster, who we knew would become Mighty Thor. There was some Guns N’ Roses licks. It wasn’t even clear if there would be any real conflict. Maybe there didn’t need to be.

If that’s what you thought, clearly you forgot Christian Bale was the baddie. He’s Gorr the God Butcher, a pale, ghostly “galactic killer” hellbent on destroying all gods. He doesn’t pop up till halfway through the latest trailer, but he singlehandedly darkens and deepens what still seemed like a goofy lark. It’s our first look at him, and he is very much not kidding around.

Before he shows up, though, we get to see more of Portman’s newly ripped Jane. When it begins, it’s narrated by Korg, the endearing rock creature voiced by director Taika Waititi, and he positions the film as being a tale of two former lovers reuniting — and one of them going so far as to steal his hammer. Indeed, as Waititi promised, it appears that Portman will have a lot more to do than she did when she was just some nice scientist from planet Earth.

You can watch the new Thor: Love and Thunder trailer above. The film arrives on July 8.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is about to enter its fourth month, and no matter what Vladimir Putin tells his people, it’s not going well for them. The aggressor nation has been hit with untold sanctions, which have affected everyone from yacht-owning oligarchs to local Netflix subscribers. But now Russia is hitting back at their critics in one relatively small way: They’ve banned almost 1,000 Americans from entering the nation — and before you ask, yes, Morgan Freeman is among them.

As per The Hill, Russia unveiled a list on Saturday that included a whopping 963 names, all Americans, all of them permanently banned from visiting the land that once produced such game-changing luminaries as Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Sergei Eisenstein. There are the usual suspects: Joe Biden (and his son Hunter), Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Cory Booker, etc. There are also, strangely, some folks from MAGA world, including Louie Gohmert and Paul Gosar. (One name not on it: Donald J. Trump.)

There were even some names from the entertainment industry. Rob Reiner, an outspoken critic of Trump and Russia, was no surprise. But what is Morgan Freeman doing on it? What did the guy from Lucky Number Slevin ever do? Well, maybe it has to do with a video he participated in back in 2017 in which he called out Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.

“We have been attacked. We are at war,” Freeman says in the video, looking straight into the camera, his voice at its authoritative-cum-soothing best. He even accused Putin of using cyberwarfare “like the true K.G.B. spy he is.” He then called on then-president Trump to “use every resource available to conduct a thorough investigation to determine exactly how this happened.”

The video enraged Russian authorities and locals at the time. Perhaps they haven’t forgotten. And now they’ve included him in what the nation’s foreign ministry admits is a reponse to the sanctions they’ve received since invading Ukraine. Anyway, it’s their loss. It just means more occasions to hear him narrate the pool scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High for the rest of us.

(Via The Hill)

David Cronenberg hasn’t made a movie in eight years, and he hasn’t made a proper “body horror” movie in far longer than that — since 1999’s eXistenZ, where futuristic gamers plug consoles directly into their bodies. Is the director of such vomit bag classics as Scanners, Videodrome, and The Fly — to say nothing of transgressive sex movies like Crash and Naked Lunch — back in the habit? The first reviews of his new Crimes of the Future, say yes — but they also promise something else: an experience that, at least on first viewing, isn’t easy to get a hold on.

The new Crimes of the Future (not to be confused with a somewhat similar early work from 1970 of the same name) stars regular Viggo Mortensen as a performance artist (named Saul Tenser) who has become obsessed with growing new kinds of organs inside his body, crafted by his personal surgeon (Léa Seydoux). Having cast Robert Pattinson in his last two films, Cronenberg turns to fellow Twilight alum Kristen Stewart, who plays a government agent who examines their work.

Despite breaking through as a master of horror, Cronenberg is also what you could dub a maker of art films, and he’s long fused the two genres in ways that are both beguiling and sometimes tricky to grok. It can take multiple viewings to get what he’s doing, especially when he strays from genre, as he’s done with the likes of Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash, and more. Though Crimes’ first wave of Cannes reviews have been positive, even the raves are tempered with warnings that it can be rough going. Cronenberg himself has promised mass walk-outs, and the reviews agree that it’s at least pretty darn gross.

From IndieWire:

Whether you have the stomach to survive “Crimes of the Future” would seem to be a more complicated matter. At a time when holy s*it, you have to see this insanity has become the fastest shortcut for arthouse fare to get around the always-suffocating layers of superhero movie hype, it was inevitable that Cronenberg’s first movie since “Maps to the Stars” would be positioned as some kind of sick endurance test that found him revisiting the familiar preoccupations of body horror classics like “Dead Ringers” and “The Fly” so that he could combine all of their gnarliest moments into a career-spanning orgy of squelching latex.

Variety argues that is “out to provoke and disturb us with something far more traumatic than mere monsters”:

Am I talking about the fact that in the distant future where the film is set, human beings grow mysterious new organs in their bodies? Or that having those organs removed through surgery has become, for a creepy rebel aesthete named Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), a species of performance art? Or that people no longer experience physical pain, and will therefore stand in the street late at night cutting each other for cheap thrills, as if they were shooting heroin in a back alley? Or that surgery itself, as someone puts it, has become “the new sex”?

Entertainment Weekly describes it as a “Cronenberg Greatest Hits” collection, “so loaded does it it come with his signature themes and gooey, seemingly hand-crafted contours.” Critic Leah Greenblatt also calls it “inscrutable,” saying that, “Aside from a few neat visual tricks — a chair seemingly made of rubberized bones, a writhing dancer dotted with real human ears like a walking Duchamp punchline — the film unfurls mostly in shadows and corners, and so do its characters’ inner lives.”

The Playlist:

His new film — titled “Crimes of the Future,” as in committed by rather than during that span of time — finds the master on the other side of his extended sojourn in high-minded literary adaptation, biopic quasi-prestige, and Tinseltown satire, back to playing the body-horror hits on which he made his name. He’s resumed pondering the permeability of flesh, how its penetration by surgical tools (the new sex, as we’re informed) can be just as intimately sensual as good old fornication. We’re treated to state-of-the-art grotesqueries

Deadline:

Originally readied for production in 2003 before being canceled, this is a film very much targeted to the director’s core audience; rarely, if ever, have human organs played such an important role in one of his works, and that’s saying something. But whether it’s age or inclination, he’s having a bit of fun with his grotesque conceits here and taking them less seriously; he’s not at a self-parody stage, but there’s something of a wink behind what he’s doing that wasn’t often in evidence before.

And The A.V. Club:

Cronenberg’s A History Of Violence and Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortensen plays Saul Tenser, in eternal discomfort because his body is rebelling against him. Within him grow unnatural organs, which his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux) removes during live performance art ceremonies. They live in an underground bunker, or maybe it’s a dried-out aqueduct, and Saul sleeps in what looks like a giant upside-down beetle. He eats in a contraption made from bones that jostles him around, supposedly to help him digest. Whenever he goes out, he wears a cloak like he’s about to sing backup for Enigma. Nothing about it makes a lick of sense, but there’s a surreal flow to it all that, in the moment, carries you from scene to scene.

Crimes of the Future is set to be released in June. You can watch the latest red band trailer above, though be forewarned: It’s intense.