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The producer of the strangest but most iconic reality show The Circle is teaming up with Alan Cumming for Peacock‘s latest reality series. The Tony award-winning actor (who has recently been searching for his beloved chimpanzee) will host and produce the series for the streaming service.

The Traitors will be set in a remote castle among the Scottish Highlands, as contestants work as a team to complete harrowing and dramatic missions in order to earn money. The catch (there always is one!) is that three of the contestants are traits who attempt to manipulate the gameplay and send others home so they can keep the $250,000 price themselves. The 10-episode series is expected to go into production later this month.

Jenny Groom, EVP of Unscripted Content, told Deadline: “We can’t think of a better person to serve as puppet master of this series than Alan Cumming. His wit and eccentricity will add the perfect layer of comedy to this thrilling world of high stakes deception.” Studio Lambert CEO Stephen Lambert added, “In a game of secrecy, suspicion and plot twists, who better to take the helm and guide our game players through the drama and challenging missions than our very own Scot, Alan Cumming.”

We already know Cummings can play a deceiving mastermind who controls minions from a remote castle, so his hosting duty will come as no surprise to his loyal fans, or Spy Kids enthusiasts.

While preparing to present the trailer for her highly-anticipated movie Don’t Worry Darling starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde was served with legal papers from ex Jason Sudeikis. The two split in 2020, and have two kids together.

The move confused those in attendance, though Wilde calmly took the papers and continued with her presentation. Wilde has been linked with Styles for the past year and was recently seen attending his Coachella set. The two allegedly began dating while Wilde was directing the film.

A source told Page Six that the whole ordeal was confusing and inappropriate, and sent Wilde reeling. “Olivia was confused when she was handed the envelope, and she was even more confused when she opened it,” the source shared.

The source added, “It seemed unthinkable to her, and it took a moment to set in, but as mortifying as it was, she did not want to give a reaction. She was there to introduce a project that is near and dear to her heart, and for someone to try to take that moment from her — whether it be Jason, a process server or anyone else — was beyond inappropriate.”

Sedeikis’ team insists the Ted Lasso actor had no knowledge of when and where the papers would be served, which can be at the descretion of the legal team that was hired.

It’s hard to nail Bakar down — in terms of genre, style, and, in his early days, even by a name. With each of the London-bred singer’s songs, he wants the listener to cherish the moment in which they are hearing and feeling it. On Bakar’s debut album, February’s Nobody’s Home, each track unfolds like the pages of a book, detailing his most cherished moments, lining in Hampstead, Camden, and Chalk Hill.

We get a glimpse of Bakar’s day-to-day life in the video for “NW3,” the title of which refers to the postal code of London’s Hampstead district. Whether he’s alone on a rooftop, enjoying a meal with friends, or smoking in his flat, Bakar finds solace in each moment, often getting lost in time, dancing throughout.

But before Bakar, born Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr, “found the answer” in “NW,” he released much of his music on Soundcloud beginning in 2015, anonymously. Oftentimes, he would upload vocal freestyles over samples of King Krule and Bombay Bicycle Club, many of his raw, unfiltered lyrics opening windows to his soul. One of these tracks is 2016’s “Sharing Is Caring,” on which, he reels over a love lost.

“Hope that you believe like how I believe / Gave you my love, you sold it back to me / Play with love too much, you might lose it / Smoked my last Camel but we can twos it,” Bakar sings, as adlibbed hums and coos give the song a forlorn and haunting element.

The influence of Kid Cudi and Dev Hynes is present in Bakar’s work, the latter of which Bakar has been a fan of since Hynes’ Lightspeed Champion days. Hynes released his most recent album as Lightspeed Champion in 2010, and Bakar says Hynes and Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke were among his favorite artists during his adolescence. As Bakar is wont to live in the moment, these are probably the closest hints we’ll ever get in regards to his actual age. In a 2018 interview with Wonderland, following the release of his debut mixtape, Badkid Bakar said his age was “infinity.”

A year after that interview, Bakar would release an EP called Will You Be My Yellow?, which contained the breakthrough hit, “Hell N Back.” Like Bakar himself, his music is ageless, as he remarks on a tumultuous relationship over jazzy horns and subtle drum patterns.

“Could you tell where my head was at when you found me? Me and you went to hell and back just to find peace,” he sings, delivering soft, silky vocals, with his soulful, British accent still audible throughout.

“Hell N Back” became a sleeper hit in the United States, reaching the top of the Adult Alternative Charts 27 weeks after its release, breaking the record for the longest climb to No. 1. Bakar had actually begun the process of writing Nobody’s Home before he wrote Will You Be My Yellow?, but the timing of the ideas he had conceived and the work he wanted to put out just wasn’t right.

“Will You be My Yellow? started picking up — you know, that song ‘Hell N Back’ started going crazy,” Bakar said in an interview with Document Journal. “It bought me some time, basically, to figure out the record. A couple songs [from my first try] were really potent. They stood the test of time. When I came back to Nobody’s Home in 2020, I was ready, long story short. I was so ready — the way the world was, all the topics, Palestine, this, that.”

On his proper debut, Bakar offers a collection of tracks that are both timely and timeless. He shares anecdotes of love and heartbreak, both romantic and familial. On a particular track, “Youthenasia,” he explores the dark parts of fame, and how his status has affected his role in his family.

“It’s like lately feel the pressure, I’ve been feelin’ nauseous / Lately like my mama has become my daughter / I wouldn’t change it for the world, man, this sh*t is awesome / I ain’t seen my dad in fifteen years, who would’ve thought it?,” he rap-sings over a thumping drum loop.

As the son of an immigrant mother from Tanzania, Bakar examines racial injustice on the track “The Mission,” while expressing a desire to create wealth for the generations of his family after him.

“All I ever hear is people talking about how bad nepotism is,” Bakar says in the song. “Do you know how badly I want some nepotism in my life?”

Since his breakthrough, Bakar has found fans in collaborators Dominic Fike, Kenny Beats, and Benee, as well as the late Virgil Abloh, the artistic creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection. Abloh even designed a special edition cover for Bakar’s Nobody’s Home. Though Bakar’s rise in the US may seem less rapid compared to that of the TikTok hitmakers of our time, his music, both old and new, still sounds fresh and timely, whether you were to have your first listen today, or months from now.

As we ease back into festival season, the tension continues when it comes to the unresolved tragedy of Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival, where ten people died. There have been many lawsuits, petitions to get him removed from Coachella, and conflicting attempts of damage control. The rapper was just recently announced as a headliner for Brazilian festival Primavera Sound, his first since the tragedy.

In the midst of all this, filmmaker Charlie Minn has been working on a documentary that’s (maybe insensitively) called Concert Crush: The Travis Scott Festival Tragedy. In a recent interview with Page Six, Minn said, “Travis Scott to me is a punk. In my opinion, he is a criminal. Ten people died. How do we get around that?”

“The reason he deserves criticism and jail time, he knew there was a problem,” he further explained. “He acknowledged an ambulance in the crowd. He noticed people passed out and stopped the show on three occasions. I’m not saying he knew people were dead, but he knew there was a problem. An ambulance is not an ice cream truck.”

The documentary is playing in select theaters in Texas starting today for just one week. It’s also available to stream online.

The Dallas Cowboys opted to grab some reinforcements for their offensive line during the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. The team picked 24th overall and decided to select Tulsa tackle Tyler Smith, a gigantic lineman who could step in right away and plug a hole for the team at left guard.

The team was quite high on selecting Smith, something we learned thanks to Jerry Jones’ perpetual flair for the dramatic that can sometimes come back to bite him. During the team’s press conference in the aftermath of his selection, Jones explained that Smith was the highest-ranked guard on their board over a pair of other players, Boston College’s Zion Johnson and Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green, by holding up the team’s draft board and revealing it to the media.

Everyone up on the dais seemed to laugh at it, even though Jones’ son and Cowboys CEO Stephen Jones had to tell him on a few occasions to put the sheet of paper down. Anyway, if you see any team jump in front of the Cowboys before they pick next — the 56th overall pick — you can probably assume it is because they managed to decipher whatever this sheet of paper said and realized Dallas was going to pick a guy they wanted.

After the Phoenix Suns ended New Orleans’ 2021-22 season Thursday night with a 115-109 Game 6 victory, the Pelicans conducted exit interviews on Friday. During Zion Williamson‘s interview, he was asked about signing a potential contract extension, given he just wrapped up his third year in the NBA and will be eligible for an extension this summer.

Amid a confusing, unfortunate, injury plagued season, Williamson’s media appearances were understandably quite limited as he missed the entire year. Words can only stretch so far without actions, but this sort of resounding positivity about inking another long-term deal is certainly interesting after the last seven months.

Williamson, of course, is well within his right to exercise his agency and aim to play wherever he wishes. Nonetheless, it would be very enjoyable to watch him find consistent health to suit up for this young, fun, and talented Pelicans squad. Hopefully, he’s able to return to the court soon and make good on all the promise he carries. His offensive talents would provide a necessary punch to a team that sometimes got bogged down in the half-court.

He was tremendous in 2020-21 and it would be great to see him ink a new deal while reminding everyone why he’s such a tremendous star at just 21 years old. His comments Friday indicate contentment in New Orleans and the next few months could further reinforce that.

MAGA cheerleaders Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene both lean to the far right, and both of them love to troll on Twitter. They also teamed up to heckle President Biden while he discussed his dead son, Beau, and Boebert later tried to defend herself to little avail. Yet as it turns out (according to a new report from Politico), Boebert actually doesn’t like being associated with Greene, and things are getting ugly between the two GOP-ers.

An intended distancing makes sense for Boebert, who already is so controversial that she has no guaranteed path to reelection in Colorado. Greene is even more extreme in her behavior, having called for “marshall law” after Trump’s election loss and having actually tried to link Satan and the Catholic Church, and there’s a decent chance she’ll be barred from ballots altogether. Also, Boebert would absolutely like to remain friends with Ted Cruz, who is super conservative but still falls within his party lines without publicly pushing conspiracy theories.

That’s Greene’s behavior, for sure, and Politico summed up the budding animosity between Boebert (“who’s seen as more of a party team player” and “detests” any public linking of herself with the the QAnon congressman) and Greene. They reportedly clashed during a House Freedom Caucus held near the U.S. Capitol “over Greene’s appearance at a February event organized by a known white nationalist.” Here’s more:

Their confrontation grew so heated that at least one onlooker feared the Greene-Boebert back-and-forth might escalate beyond the verbal cage match had another board member not stepped in to de-escalate, according to a GOP lawmaker who was granted anonymity to describe what happened. The incident was confirmed by three people connected to the Freedom Caucus, whose members largely avoided public criticism of Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) at the time and focused their discontent on the event organizer, Nick Fuentes.

Yep, when you’re a Republican who’s lost Lauren Boebert, that says a lot. She loves to anger people and dabble in controversy, but she draws the line at the QAnon cult-mindset and rambling about “Jewish Space Lasers.” Actually, it sounds like (as far as Congress goes) only Matt Gaetz really likes to hang with Greene, and since we all have heard what Matt Gaetz has been up to, that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. Also, making Lauren Boebert look more mainstream is certainly quite a feat.

(Via Politico)

Burgeoning Jacksonville, Florida star Nardo Wick explained who he is with his 2021 debut album (fittingly titled Who Is Nardo Wick?, which dropped via RCA Records in December). Today, he picks up where he left off with the video for “Krazy Krazy,” his first new music since dropping the debut. “Krazy Krazy” comes with an intense video depicting the Florida rapper’s livewire energy through clips in the studio and on the streets, sewn together with a frenetic edit that matches the thumping Tay Keith production.

Nardo’s been on a roll since releasing his breakout single, “Who Want Smoke??” Releasing a remix of the song featuring 21 Savage, G Herbo, and Lil Durk, he maintained his momentum with another star-assisted single, “Me Or Sum” featuring Future and Lil Baby. The strength of those singles helped lift his first major-label album to a No. 21 debut on the Billboard 200.

Also featured on the album were fellow rising stars like Big30 from Memphis and Milwaukee’s own Lakeyah, while production was contributed by Boi-1da, Hit-Boy, Murda Beatz, and Tay Keith. In addition, Nardo was able to keep his name buzzing this year with features on Doe Boy’s mixtape Oh Really and Latto’s album, 777.

Watch Nardo Wick’s “Krazy Krazy” video above.

Together, The Beatles leaders Paul McCartney and John Lennon made some of the most beloved and memorable songs in the history of recorded music. Given that Lennon died in 1980, however, it’s been a long time since fans have been able to hear McCartney and Lennon sing together on stage. Yesterday, though, they got as close as is possible in 2022, when McCartney made use of old Beatles performance footage to “duet” with Lennon.

McCartney performed in Spokane, Washington last night and at the start of his encore, he and his band performed The Beatles’ “I’ve Got A Feeling,” but McCartney was accompanied by the archival Lennon video, effectively creating a posthumous live duet.

Deadline reports that McCartney confirmed on-stage that Get Back director Peter Jackson played a part in making that moment happen: Jackson took audio from a live performance video, isolated Lennon’s vocals (allowing the band to play and McCartney to sing along), and edited the video that played behind McCartney on stage.

This comes after McCartney honored another late rock hero, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. After his death, McCartney wrote, “Not only was he a GREAT drummer but his personality was big and shiny and will be sorely missed by all who were lucky to live and work alongside him.⁣ […] You were a true Rock and Roll hero and will always remain in my heart.⁣”

Vanessa Bayer spent seven years on Saturday Night Live playing pop icons, child newscasters, Bar-Mitzvah boys, and Totinos-loving housewives but her latest comedy on Showtime is giving her a brand-new character to test out: herself.

Well, sort of.

I Love That For You is a half-hour comedy about a woman who, after surviving childhood cancer, lands her dream job at a home-shopping network. She ends up flubbing her chance at stardom so spectacularly that the only way she’s able to hold onto her on-air slot is to lie about her cancer recurrence. It’s a wild premise, one that probably wouldn’t work for anyone but the former SNL breakout.

When Bayer was young, she battled childhood leukemia and that experience has always fueled her comedy career in one shape or form. With this new series – which also stars comedy heavyweights like Molly Shannon and Jenifer Lewis – she wants to push the boundaries of how likable she really is, and pay homage to a fascinating world we haven’t seen depicted on TV before.

Uproxx chatted with Bayer about using her experience with cancer to her advantage, Catherine Zeta Jones’ famously-soft blankets, and the SNL sketch she never thought would get made.

I suppose the question you’re going to get the most is, how much of this story is pulled from your real life?

It’s definitely inspired by the experience that I had growing up having childhood leukemia and also just always being a huge fan of the home shopping networks. I used to watch a lot of QVC when I was little. A lot of it is sort of pulled from experiences that I had of missing out on certain moments. I was diagnosed with leukemia when I was 15 and so I had to play catch-up on being kind of an adult and some of that is explored in the show. But then also the fact that I was always someone who really loved attention and so when I got leukemia, I really loved like all the attention I got for it, all the special treatment and everything.

That’s always been something that my family and my friends have really joked around about, the fact that I always kind of used it to my advantage. I’ve always wanted to do something where I explored that because I do think it’s kind of a funny take on that time and a funny way that I handle things that I think a lot of people do, because why not? We’ve earned it.

Speaking of, your character makes a kind of cringe choice at the beginning of the season, but she’s still someone you end up rooting for every episode. How did you manage to make me like someone who lies about having cancer?

Well, we wanted to show that she tells this lie, and then it’s hard for her. She sort of does it in the moment and then it’s like, ‘How will she handle the fallout from it?’ We really explore that as the season progresses. But also, in general, I’ve learned in comedy that I am generally able to … I don’t know if it’s because I smile so much or just because I look sort of innocent, but I’ve been able to get away with making unlikable characters relatively likable. It’s a bit of a thing I can get away with. And so I guess we’ll just see how far I can push it before people have had enough.

Did you ever second-guess your decision to write a TV show based on such a personal struggle in your life?

So I used to do standup about this time, and I’ve always thought about different projects I could do. I tried to write a movie about it once with a friend. I think the thing that’s really nice now is that I’ve had quite a bit of experience working in comedy, and I have a lot of distance from that time too. I always wanted to do something about this, but I also wanted to do something about home shopping because I find it to be the most amusing, mesmerizing, incredible world.

So getting to do those things together has really been a dream come true. When I was finished with SNL, I was thinking about a home shopping show that I could create and then I happened to have brunch with my friend and now co-create Jeremy Byler. Randomly, we had both independently been wanting to do a show about home shopping. We worked together for years on SNL and we used to write together all the time and we never talked about that. And then we were figuring out what my character would be and I thought my experience with childhood leukemia would be like such a great way for this character to sort of come of age in this story about this world that we love. So it’s sort of all organically sort of came together. It’s two of my favorite things: home shopping and talking about when I had cancer.

How much QVC product have you bought over the years?

This is a great question. So I watched it a lot when I was really young and I didn’t have my own money so I didn’t buy that much stuff, but I remember once my mom let me buy this ring that was rose gold, yellow gold, and white gold – which, you can just imagine what a beautiful piece that is.

All the golds.

Right. But when Jeremy and I found out that Showtime was going to buy our show, we bought each of our three Showtime executives who we work with the most … We wanted to thank them for agreeing to do the show with us. So we went on the QVC website and we bought each of them a blanket by Casada Jones, which is Catherine Zeta-Jones’ homewares line. And they have all told us independently that they love these blankets. That they’re so soft. That they’re really incredible blankets.

Thee Catherine Zeta-Jones is on QVC selling blankets?

I have seen Catherine Zeta-Jones selling stuff on QVC, yes, and it’s so fun! That’s another really fun thing about the world of home shopping is a lot of times these really huge celebrities will come on and sell stuff from these lines that they have. And it’s so fun to watch because there are always people who call into home shopping and want to talk to the hosts and the vendors about like the products. But then there are people calling in because they want to talk to Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Is she going to be on the show at some point then?

At some point, I hope that she hears or sees this. But it just kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?

It’s very meta, but you could have her sell her own products in an episode.

Exactly. It would be great exposure for her.

More people would learn about the blankets. It can only help her.

She needs our help.

Molly Shannon plays your mentor on the show. Did you two swap stories about your SNL glory days?

She’s a legend. Yeah, we’ve talked about it. I think she’s still really close with Lorne. I think we both really feel like we got so much out of that job. That job really prepares you for other jobs because you sort of get a taste of all parts of the business. If one of the sketches that you helped write gets in then you get to help decide what the wardrobe is, what the set looks like the hair and makeup, and all that stuff. It’s such a great job to get you ready for the rest of your career. Also, the hours are completely insane. It’s so funny because when I was doing this show, they’d be like, ‘Is it okay if we call you in early?’ And I’d be like, ‘Yeah, when I was on SNL no one even asked me.’ So it just prepares you. It’s just good to learn that early that like, just don’t take yourself so seriously because everybody’s working hard.

What’s one sketch you pitched that you were surprised actually made it in the live show?

Okay. This is the first one that comes to mind. This was my third to last show, Aidy Bryant and I wrote this sketch with Chris Pine, who we loved, who was so funny and so nice where … basically we’re office women and we just sing ‘The Boy Is Mine’ by Monica and Brandy. I can’t remember if I was Monica or Brandy, but we were on a desk, just singing it to him. It was really easy to write. There are a few setup jokes and then we’re off.

This is one of many sketches that I did where we used real songs and because of that, they’re really hard to find online because the songs aren’t licensed or something. But it did great with the audience. I feel like they really enjoyed it. We had funny wigs on but you wouldn’t think that just Lip-Syncing a song to Chris Pine would make it on the show.

‘I Love That For You’ premieres via Showtime on April 29th.