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Philip Baker Hall was a great actor — a theater god who didn’t do his first movie until he was almost 40, who didn’t get his first big role until he was over 50, and who only became a big name when he was pushing 70. When word of his passing at 90 years old broke on Monday, people remembered his incredible turns in films like Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia (all for Paul Thomas Anderson), as well as Say Anything…, Zodiac, Argo, and so many more. Some pointed to the one-man film Secret Honor, in which he played Richard Nixon having a 90-minute meltdown.

To many, though, Hall’s most beloved work came on the small screen. In 1991, he appeared on Seinfeld on the Season 3 episode “The Library” — one of the show’s best — in which Jerry learns he has a mysterious outstanding fine at the New York Public Library. At one point he’s visited by the NYPL’s investigations officer, who’s actually named Lt. Bookman and who’s played by Hall. It’s maybe the series’ best scene. Part of the reason is that Hall plays him as a hard-boiled detective out of ‘40s pulp fiction, all rapid-fire accusations punctuated by dramatic finger-pointing. Seinfeld himself looks like he’s struggling not to laugh.

Hall’s passing led many on social media to share the clip, or to simply fawn over, as Patton Oswalt put it, “hands down, the greatest guest spot in a sitcom, ever.”

Some shared the clip of Hall popping up on another Larry David program, Curb Your Enthusiasm.

And others shared Hall’s incredible work in other films, often as a scene-stealing character actor, and in too few (Secret Honor, Hard Eight) as the lead

You can watch Hall’s astonishing work on Seinfeld in the video above. Rest in peace, Philip Baker Hall.

TikTok is a weird, weird place. It’s the only social media platform that champions randomness above all else — there is never any rhyme or reason to why something blows up on TikTok, it just happens. Like the Tortilla Challenge, a recent trend that has exploded on the app in which a small circle or pair of people will repeatedly slap each other in the face with a flour tortilla while holding liquid in their cheeks until someone inevitably spits out the liquid on to the “winner.”

There are a few notable variations on the trend, some people play a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets the first slap and some people skip the mouthful of water. We have a bone to pick with the latter, if you’re going to slap your close friends and loved ones with a flour tortilla for all of the internet to see, at the very least do so while running the risk of getting spit on. Have you no decency?

While getting spit on might not exactly be winning per se, watching an endless feed of other people slap each other with flour tortillas until they spew water (or whatever, get creative!) all over one another, is a quick way to triumph over boredom while you’re waiting on something or someone. So we picked out the best spins on the trend and compiled them for your viewing pleasure so that you don’t ruin your own TikTok algorithm and get nothing but tortilla slaps in your feed for the next week.

A few observations this trend has given us: big tortillas produce the best slapping sounds, some people call tortillas “tortilla wraps” or “flatbread,” and an uncomfortable amount of couples seem to take a lot of pleasure in slapping each other with tortillas.

Kanye West isn’t happy about Adidas’ new shoe, calling out the company’s CEO over “blatant copying” and calling the Adilette 22 slides ” a fake Yeezy made by Adidas themselves.” After deleting his first-quarter shenanigans from Instagram, it looked like he’d return to using the platform primarily to showcase his creative endeavors, like this weird McDonald’s packaging redesign. That lasted less than a month; he returned today to post a screenshot of the Adilette (apparently taken from a sneaker interest site) and lambast the German shoe manufacturer, despite the fact that they’ve been his design partner since 2015.

“THIS IS YE driving down the same street Kobe passed on,” he wrote. “Maybe I feel that Mamba spirit right now To Kasper I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more To all sneaker culture To every ball player rapper or even if you work at the store This is for everyone who wants to express themselves but feel they can’t cause they’ll loose their contract or be called crazy Bravery is not being afraid Bravery is overcoming your fear for your truth This Ye with the blue paint on my face These shoes represent the disrespect that people in power have to the talent This shoe is a fake Yeezy made by adidas themselves I’m not talking to DC about this either Kasper come talk to me Happy Monday”

… Look, man. Not to be that guy, but… Pot, meet kettle. Remember Nike’s Roshe silhouette? That year you couldn’t go anywhere without running into 500 pairs of those things on everyone’s feet from hardcore sneakerheads to errand-running girl dads. Then, Kanye switched teams from Nike because he didn’t like the terms of his partnership there, only to go to Adidas and drop the Yeezy Boost 350 — which looks almost exactly like Nike Roshes, despite his claim that it’s the “most iconic shoe of the past 15 years.” (Let’s not even get into how Walmart sued him because his new Yeezy Gap logo looks just like Walmart’s or how people thought the original Yeezy Slides look just like Crocs.)

Anyway, I’m sure this will lead to all kinds of chaos in the sneaker world this week, so if you’re an enthusiast (or a recovering one), buckle up. There could be some seismic shifts in the future.

Charlotte Hornets center Montrezl Harrell is set to be a free agent on July 1, but he is facing more pressing issues regarding his future, on and off the court, after a traffic stop in Kentucky last month.

According to court records and a police report obtained by the Charlotte Observer’s Rod Boone, Harrell was pulled over on May 12 for following a car too close in Richmond, Kent., and police claim a subsequent search of the vehicle he was driving found three pounds of weed.

Trooper Jesse Owens stated he “upon stop observed odor of marijuana” from the silver 2020 Honda Pilot that Harrell was driving, according to the citation. Harrell, Owens wrote in the report, “admitted to being in possession of marijuana and produced a small amount from his sweatpants.” During a subsequent search of the vehicle, which the report states Harrell claims was rented, “three pounds of marijuana in vacuum sealed bags” were found in a backpack in the back seat, according to the citation. He’s been charged with trafficking less than five pounds of marijuana.

That charge is a Class D felony in Kentucky, carrying a potential sentence of 1-5 years and a fine of up to $10,000. Harrell was set to be arraigned on Monday morning at 9 a.m., but no further details have emerged since that scheduled court appearance. Kentucky is one of 14 states in the United States without legalized marijuana in any form, medical or recreational.

It’s already great news when a lost pup finds its way back home. But it’s even better when the story involves a movie star.

When her beloved dachshund named Blue disappeared, Chelsea Blackwell did what any distraught dog mom would do—she immediately went searching for him. She desperately drove through the streets of New York for an hour before seeing a line of squad cars and people with cameras near the Greyhound bus station in Albany.

Blackwell had prepared for even more bad news. “I pulled over and thought, oh man, did someone get shot?” she told local publication Times Union Albany.

As she would soon find out, Blackwell had just made it one huge step closer to finding Blue, along with a celebrity surprise.

Blackwell had actually stumbled onto a filming location, rather than a crime scene. Resuming her search, she began to ask the film crew if anyone had seen a small brown dog. To her shock, the answer was yes, someone had found a small brown dog. Not just anyone, in fact. But a household name.

Blackwell was in disbelief until about an hour later when a car pulls up and she sees Blue sitting in the lap of none other than Hilary Swank

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Swank has a reputation for being a dog lover and hero. In her 2021 interview with People Magazine, Swank shared how “every dog I’ve ever rescued and also shared my life with have all had their unique way of being in the world.”

The two-time Oscar winner even created her own foundation called Hilaroo (named after own rescued pup named Karoo), which pairs abandoned animals with at-risk youth. Perhaps little Blue was just in the right place at the right time … or maybe Swank has transformed into a dog magnet. Who knows?

Either way, it was a truly happy ending. Relieved, and a little star struck, Blackwell asked Swank for an autograph. Instead, the actress offered a picture together. Because who wouldn’t want to capture this once-in-a-lifetime moment?

So happy that Blue is back home, and that he has his own celebrity sighting story.

There is once again peace between the members of the Roc-A-Fella Records dynasty, as Dame Dash and Jay-Z finally settle their dispute over Dash’s plans for an NFT supposedly based on Jay’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt. According to TMZ, both parties have elected to settle out of court, with Dame agreeing that only Roc-A-Fella has the rights to sell any future NFTs based on Reasonable Doubt, which means none of the individual shareholders — Dame, Jay, and Kareem “Biggs” Burke — can sell the album. Dame can, however, sell his stake in the company at any time.

The dispute kicked off a year ago this week when Dame offered a Reasonable Doubt NFT via online auction, prompting Jay (via Roc-A-Fella) to sue to stop the sale. Dame later clarified that his plan was to sell his third of Roc-A-Fella after Jay tried to buy it a few months before for a lower price than Dame wanted. In Dame’s words, “Under the terms of the deal with a potential buyer, the buyer would buy my share of Roc a Fella Records, and Jay-Z will have exclusive administration rights.”

After a judge blocked the sale, more details were revealed. SuperFarm, Dame’s partner in the NFT bid, had announced the auction would be for his “ownership of the copyright to Jay-Z’s first album Reasonable Doubt.” This is likely what led to the initial dispute because it could be read that SuperFarm was trying to sell Reasonable Doubt rather than Dame’s stake in Roc-A-Fella Records. Now that they’ve hashed out the exact terms of ownership of the album, Dame might be able to find a buyer for the actual stake.

The ratings hit that is the Jan. 6 committee hearings continued on Monday morning, and with it more bombshells. This time the focus was on what went down election night and its aftermath, when associate after associate told Donald Trump there’s no way the election was stolen from him. But he didn’t listen to them. He listened to a “definitely intoxicated” Rudy Giuliani, who implored him — against pretty much everyone else’s wishes — to go on TV and declare victory. Yes, we’re witnessing this mess because the former “America’s Mayor” was tanked.

Giuliani is already fighting back. As per Raw Story, the former president’s bumbling personal lawyer went on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room. He didn’t counter any specific claims made by the committee. Instead, he borrowed a move from the client who left him out to dry: He flung insults and yet more conspiracy theories.

“They have no case,” Giuliani railed. “The millions of hours they’ve spent trying to find a crime on Donald Trump and they can’t do it. They started this frame about five years ago.” He slammed some of the “cast of characters,” including committee chair Bennie Thompson and Eric Swalwell. Adam Schiff he awarded the Trumpian name “Shifty Schiff.”

Then there’s Liz Cheney, the daughter of one of the most notorious Republicans in modern history, who’s earned the wrath of her longtime party for standing up to Trump’s nonsense. Giuliani called her “completely hysterical,” claiming that she “has gone off her deep end.” (It’s worth noting that Cheney has been unfailingly calm and measured.)

Perhaps Giuliani wasn’t happy that Cheney told the nation that on Election Night 2020, he was “apparently inebriated,” even though that was already common knowledge.

Speaking of going off deep ends, Giuliani made a leftfield pivot into talking about something else: He wondered why the committee wasn’t looking into a baseless theory that Antifa were involved in the death of Ashlii Babbit. Of course, Babbitt wouldn’t have been there had she not been fed the voter fraud lies that are now being further exposed by the House select committee.

(Via Raw Story)

Ever since the series finale of Insecure, Issa Rae fans have waited with bated breath for her next big television project. They didn’t have to wait long; Issa and HBO announced that the multitalented creator would be crafting a show semi-based on the come-up story of Miami duo City Girls, Rap Sh!t. Today, she shared the first trailer from the show, which included a Guapdad 4000 (aka Guap) cameo. The show follows a pair of Miami strippers turned aspiring rappers named Mia and Shawna as they find fame and navigate the trouble that comes with it. Sound familiar?

Issa’s certainly accumulated her fair share of experience with the music industry — and not all of it has been good. She started her own label, Raedio, under Atlantic Records and signed her first rapper, NCognita, but also encountered the unbalanced contracts that have unfortunately become industry standard over the past few years. The experience prompted Issa to call the music industry “the worst industry I’ve ever come across,” characterizing it as “an addiction industry.” How much that will inform her depiction of the industry in Rap Sh!t remains to be seen but if the response is similar to any of her other projects, the show is sure to be a hit, even among those who don’t know the behind-the-scenes workings of the average record label. Check out the trailer above.

Wow, what a game-changing season finale for Barry. We’ve seen some people say they can’t fathom how Bill Hader and company manage to dig themselves out of this one. But while the creative team constantly writes themselves into a corner, they haven’t yet failed to figure out how to keep creating jaw-dropping TV. We wouldn’t bet against the HBO series doing the same in season 4.

We would, however, like to offer up a few guesses as to what comes next, defying the very accurate read on the show from co-star Anthony Carrigan, who told us that it is “fan theory proof.” Before we get into it all, though, we do need to warn that the following is going to be filled with spoilers for everything Barry up to this point. We’d also like to briefly talk about what happened and what could have happened in the season finale before we look to the future.

Season 3 Finale Thoughts

The scene in the season 2 finale with Fuches (Stephen Root) whispering into Gene’s (Henry Winkler) ear about Barry (Hader) killing Janice (Paula Newsome) set the stage for a transformative season, upending everything Barry was trying to build and protect. The result was a long-form panic attack spread across this whole season with peaks, valleys, and revelations about Barry’s darker aspects – kidnapping and threatening Gene, losing control of his rage issues with Sally (Sarah Goldberg) – to the people he most wanted to shield from them. This all pushed us to the point where the season 3 finale needed to, once again, break the mold of the show, allowing it to turn into something else. Now Barry is in police custody (ditto Fuches), Gene is burden-free, and both Hank and Sally are dealing with the aftereffects of having killed people.

To me, there were a couple of possible paths for the show heading into the finale. And at times, each felt like a real possibility.

First, Barry could have made a run for it. We saw him commit to this path, but any kind of romanticized Bonnie and Clyde run was undone first by Sally’s decision to leave LA without Barry and then by the cops who picked Barry up with a gun to Janice’s father’s head. It’s all for the best, though. While a total change of setting with a new cast of characters would have made for a bold new direction, it would have eventually felt like a step back into the familiar, something this show seems loathe to do.

Of course, another option would have been to have Barry continue getting away with all of his misdeeds, but that also feels like an ill fit for the soul of this show. There has, at times, seemed as though someone or something was putting a thumb on the scale of fate, allowing Barry to evade capture and consequence. Ronnie getting shot last season and everything that went wrong for the “Rage Panthers” this season are examples of this. But how long can you play that card before the show starts to feel predictable or like Barry is bulletproof? With no stakes, there’s no tension.

The scene with Albert letting him go in the finale made it seem like that might be happening again, but the show was just choreographing the end game and letting Barry bleed out emotionally. Barry getting found out by Albert, one of the last people in his life who doesn’t know that he is some kind of monster has the effect of a spiral slamming into a brick wall. This created a kind of numbness that allowed Gene’s dagger to penetrate more deeply than if Barry hadn’t collapsed, vulnerable, anguished, and physically and emotionally spent in front of Albert before getting the false hope of another second chance to evade consequences. That scene, which may well be a signature moment for this show and Hader’s career, is everything. Gene’s coldly satisfied stare after helping to ensnare Barry is a close second in terms of things that are going to stay in our head until the show comes back. But what does Barry look like in season 4? Here are a few thoughts tied to each main character.

Gene

We start with Gene because he might be the most interesting character to consider. He has a real career now and he helped to put Barry in cuffs. What more is there to do? Maybe Gene finds a way to monetize his role in this whole mess, playing himself in a true-crime re-telling of the story. This would be a great way to keep skewering Hollywood (something the show excels at) with Barry’s acting career over and Sally a pariah. It could also be a transition back to the more deliciously tacky side of Cousineau.

Fuches

Stephen Root played the hell out of Fuches’ whirlwind revenge tour this season, laying the tracks for Barry’s eventual detainment. Still, he’ll be limited in the chaos he can cause in a jail cell, won’t he? The prison system is a small world, though. Maybe Fuches and Barry get reunited in prison, allowing them to further antagonize each other.

Hank

While Hank stepped out of character and into Rambo mode to free his lover, Cristobal, it might be hardest to forecast a path for him. That relationship, while storybook compared to the Barry and Sally toxic pairing, is still fat with issues. Is Hank going to be running the Bolivian mob now? Is he going to go into business with Mitch the Beignet Guy? Can both things be true? Either way, I don’t know that it’s Hank’s way to fully process having to shoot his way out of a near-certain death by mauling. The confidence boost from that might lead to some epic moments if Hank embraces his new badass form. At last, he is his own Barry.

Sally

Sarah Goldberg does have a new show that she’s developing, but I don’t think Sally’s trip back to Missouri has anything to do with that, nor do I think it has to do with her ex. And I don’t think it’s permanent. The show needed to make a clear statement that Sally was rejecting Barry’s love, and the visual of her getting on that plane was perfect. My guess is Sally be back in LA (or in NY) resurrecting her career in no time. Everyone loves a comeback story and being the girlfriend of a cop killer is definitely something that’ll get Sally some sympathy.

Barry

It’s hard to imagine Barry Berkman ever breathes a free breath again, though it’s possible the justice system could be ripe for dissection with Barry becoming some kind of weird cult figure in the midst of a public trial. Doesn’t our fixation with true crime entertainment and the timeliness of trial watching pair nicely with the trajectory of the story? But it really is anyone’s guess how this team moves forward.

In Conclusion

I would not be surprised if season 4 is the end of the road for the show. It just seems like we’re quickly approaching a natural stopping point, though I happily acknowledge that Hader could find any number of pathways to explore. This is one of the most inventive, consistently surprising shows in recent memory. Maybe Barry’s time on the beach with all his victims is a breadcrumb leading to an exploration of Barry’s feelings over all he’s done in an afterlife-like setting. Or maybe he gets shivved in his jail cell, covered in his own blood and ignominy. Regardless, I’m comfortable predicting an unhappy ending for Barry based on all the work done to show that he is almost certainly broken beyond repair. The question is, are these other characters damned to the same fate?

Americans are far too familiar with the mass-shooting cycle. After the feeling of horror lifts, we ask ourselves, “Why won’t someone do something?” Then after thoughts and prayers are showered upon the victims’ families, there’s some discourse in Washington but the topic soon fades from consciousness after it becomes clear that our elected leaders refuse to do anything substantial to stop the violence.

When Congress did nothing after Sandy Hook, many of us reluctantly accepted that the unique form of terror that are school shootings as a normal part of American life.

u201cAnother mass shooting in Texas after another mass shooting in buffalo and the cycle continuesu2026n#stopgunviolenceu201d

— LouAye (@LouAye)
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However, a bipartisan group of senators has announced they’ve come to a compromise that, if passed, would enact a series of reforms that could significantly reduce gun violence in America. What’s encouraging about the legislation is that 10 Republican senators, the number needed to pass the law in the senate with full Democratic support, have signed on to the compromise.

According to Politico, President Biden said it “would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades.”

The compromise doesn’t include a ban on assault rifles, even though, according to a study cited in the Austin American-Statesman, the one in place from 1994 to 2004 made mass shooting deaths 70% less likely.

Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy still sees it as a groundbreaking piece of legislation on an issue that has seen little progress over the past 30 years.

Murphy has been one of the most vocal supporters of reforms to protect Americans from gun violence after the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre happened in his home state.

u201cud83dudea8NEWS: We have a deal. Today a bipartisan group of 20 Senators (10 D and 10 R) is announcing a breakthrough agreement on gun violence – the first in 30 years – that will save lives. nnI think youu2019ll be surprised at the scope of our framework. nn1/ Hereu2019s what it includes:u201d

— Chris Murphy (@Chris Murphy)
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“The fact of the matter is that we’ve reached a compromise over the weekend that will save lives,” he told MSNBC. “This does allow us to break this log jam and it allows us to be set up for future success. But the content of this compromise, in and of itself, will save lives.”

Murphy provided an outline of the compromise in a press release on June 12. “Our plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons.”

The proposals contain legislation that would empower states to enact “red flag” laws to prevent people who are “a significant danger to themselves or others” from acquiring firearms. It also expands access to mental health services for people in underserved areas.

The bill would also keep weapons out of the hands of those who’ve been convicted of domestic violence and include enhanced background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21. These checks would consult local law enforcement and take mental health records into consideration.

The new legislation may prove controversial among die-hard conservatives but aligns with most Americans’ views. An ABC News/Ipsos poll from June 5 found that 70% of Americans “think enacting new gun control laws should take precedence over protecting ownership rights.”

Senator John Cornyn of Texas has been Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s emissary to the talks and he feels Congress is under a lot of pressure to take action after the Uvalde mass murder in his home state, according to Politico, which quoted Cornyn as saying “it will be embarrassing” if nothing happens this time.

u201cThis agreement will provide schools the resources they need to enhance security and keep our children safe.nu00a0nIt will invest in mental health programs to support communities and schools.nu00a0nAnd, it will not infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.u201d

— Senator John Cornyn (@Senator John Cornyn)
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While some gun safety advocates may find the bill disappointing because it doesn’t include a ban on assault rifles, they shouldn’t allow perfect to be the enemy of good. Murphy sees the compromise as a way to lay the foundation for future gun control legislation.

He told MSNBC that it’s a means to “test the theory” that Republicans won’t lose support for backing legislation that curbs gun violence and “will allow us to build on this.”