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We’ve now reached the part of The Slap where former Oscars host Billy Crystal is weighing in on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock live on stage after the comedian told a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. Of course, Crystal brings a unique perspective to the situation given his background as a fellow comedian, and the fact that he’s hosted the Academy Awards nine times. He’s also a three-time Grammy host, so it’s safe to say Crystal knows a thing or two about how these productions go down.

While appearing on Bob Costa’s HBO Max show, Back on the Record, Crystal offered his blunt assessment of The Slap. “[A] most disturbing incident, for sure. It was an assault,” Crystal said. “I’ve had experiences. I hosted the Grammys three times and I’ve been thrown things.”

According to Crystal, The Slap is a prime example of why it’s always good to have a host for these awards shows to move things along and/or capitalize on the moment. Via Deadline:

Crystal maintained that having a host brings an element of control to an event.

“I sort of set myself up to host the show, really host the show, so you can tie it together. So, whenever I see shows that it’s a no-host show, yeah, it went faster, but there’s nobody there to capitalize on anything and give the audience the feeling of there’s somebody in charge.”

What Crystal is describing is essentially what Rock did even though he wasn’t technically one of the three hosts for the evening. Rock has received praise from Whoopi Goldberg, who often hosted the Oscars alongside Crystal, for being “the adult” in the room and not escalating the situation. In fact, Goldberg believes Rock’s cool demeanor saved Smith from even further trouble.

(Via Deadline)

Doja Cat had what is surely the most famous music urination in recent memory, when she nearly missed the chance to accept her Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance because she was in the bathroom. Fellow Grammy nominee Japanese Breakfast (aka Michelle Zauner) had a unique perspective on that bit of Grammys history as she was actually in the bathroom with Doja during that fateful pee.

Zauner broke down different parts of her 2022 Grammys experience in a new Pitchfork feature and she noted of Doja:

“I went out during a commercial break and I was in the bathroom. Doja Cat came in, and I was like, ‘OMG, it’s Doja Cat! She’s going to pee next to me.’ Then some woman came in and was like, ‘Doja Cat! Doja Cat! Doja Cat!’ And all of sudden she was, like, yanking her by the wrists past me, and her skirt flew up and she flashed her ass to everyone running in to go and accept her award. They close the door and hold them during a commercial break, and once the show starts, they don’t let anyone back in, and so she was running with Doja Cat because she had just won.”

We now have a look at basically every part of that moment, as Zauner’s story comes shortly after video of Doja’s sprint from the bathroom to the stage surfaced.

She also discusses getting a photo with BTS and more, so check out the feature here.

Whoopi Goldberg might not be thrilled with her Tesla this week (a missing safety feature will do that), but Ted Cruz is singing another song. Specifically, he’s praising the song of flatulence, which is one way to temporarily drown out the Cancun jokes that won’t stop until the end of time.

Ted got onto this strange fart-tangent while discussing Elon Musk’s new stake in Twitter, which many people hope will yield an “edit” button, and thank goodness if that happens. However, far-right lawmakers like Lauren Boebert see this as a free-speech victory (even though Twitter is still a private company and can ban however they please) and a vindication of the “take back what is ours” mentality, and Ted feels that way too. But he’s equally excited about fart noises. Here’s what he said on his podcast, The Verdict With Ted Cruz, while bantering with co-host Michael Knowles.

“Look, I am so happy about it, I may go out and buy a damn Tesla,” Ted declared. He then forged into fart-talk:

“You know why the girls love the Tesla? Because the central computer makes fart noises in each of the seats. And for an 11 year old and a 13 year old, that is the coolest feature. And I gotta admit, as a 51 year old, that’s a pretty cool feature, although I probably shouldn’t admit that publicly.”

Sure, let’s watch this in video format:

There’s not much more that can be added to this information besides, damn, it would be awful to go on a road trip with Ted Cruz while he’s giggling about fart noises. That’s even more reason for him to book that flight to Cancun.

Happy Thursday! The latest trailer for Netflix’s trippy comedy Russian Doll has arrived, just two weeks before the second season drops.

The second season of the acclaimed comedy picks up where the first season left off, with Natashia Lyonne trying to piece together her life, but this time instead of dying, she time-traveling in the most horrifying location — the New York City subway system. The series also stars Greta Lee, Charlie Barnett, and Yul Vazquez, with Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy being introduced in season 2.

Here is the official Netflix synopsis:

Discovering a fate even worse than endless death, this season finds Nadia and Alan delving deeper into their pasts through an unexpected time portal located in one of Manhattan’s most notorious locations, the New York City subway. At first, they experience this as an ever-expanding, era-spanning, intergenerational adventure, but they soon discover this extraordinary event might be more than they bargained for and, together, must search for a way out.

The first season of the series aired in 2019 and became an instant hit, with four Emmy nominations and inspiring many early COVID lockdown memes (remember when we were all living the same day over and over and over?). After numerous production delays, the second season finally began filming last spring. The second season is set to premiere Wednesday, April 20th. Check out the trailer above.

During his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump made the bold claim that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,” and he wouldn’t lose any voters. Well, if you’re wondering whose loyalty he was so sure of, it’s that of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Mitch gave a damning interview (with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan), in which he doubled down on his support of the ex-president, who he once labeled as “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6th insurrection. After the attack on Capitol Hill, McConnell blasted Trump for inciting the mob saying that Donald Trump’s actions preceding the Jan. 6th insurrection were “a disgraceful dereliction of duty” and that he was “practically and morally responsible” for the damage done to our country’s democracy on that fateful day. Just two weeks later, McConnell pulled an about-face, shocking everyone by issuing his support of Trump should the twice-impeached former president run for office again. That kind of fairweather loyalty is pretty confusing for voters. so Swan quizzed McConnell on how he could go from dragging Trump in the press to pledging his loyalty to him just a few days later — and McConnell had a predictably cryptic answer.

“Well, as the Republican leader of the Senate, it should not be a front-page headline that I will support the Republican nominee for president,” McConnell said when asked if he’d support Trump’s 2024 run. “I think I have an obligation to support the nominee of my party.”

Swan was understandably gobsmacked asking, “Is there anything they could do? You seem to hold two concurrent conflicting positions.”

“Not at all inconsistent, I stand by everything I said,” McConnell interrupted. “Because I don’t get to pick the Republican nominee for president. They’re elected by the Republican voters all over the country.”

So, in McConnell’s mind, you can do everything including trying to overthrow our government, and, as long as you’re a Republican, you get his vote.

(Via RawStory)

Academy Award-nominated filmmakers are just like us! Director Richard Linklater is, apparently, owed money for his work on Dazed and Confused, his 1993 feature film about high schoolers in the 70s. The film received high critical acclaim, introduced the world to one Matthew McConaughey, and became one of the biggest cult classics in film history. And yet, writer/director Linklater has never been paid for Dazed and Confused, according to Linklater.

Linklater shared this tiny but significant detail in an interview with The Daily Beast published Tuesday. When asked about the film’s upcoming 30th anniversary and its legacy, Linklater said, “Yeah, and it’s like… where’s my money? How come a movie that cost less than $7 million has $12 million in interest against it?” When The Daily Beast, in understandable shock, followed up by asking if he made any money off of the movie, Linklater said, “F*ck no!”

Linklater didn’t really have an explanation for why he allegedly hasn’t received any payment for Dazed and Confused. “I don’t know. Ask Universal! Hollywood accounting,” he said. “Everybody has that first story of getting screwed with their first project. That film was an indie success. It made more than it cost theatrically, and over the years it’s been everywhere,” he added.

Despite apparently not receiving any payment for Dazed and Confused, Linklater is, like many creatives who do unpaid work, grateful for the experience.

“That’s such a cliché to bitch about,” he said. “But I did go through the Hollywood experience. Here I complain but they did green-light the film, and they wouldn’t green-light the film today. Cast of unknowns? Period film when not much happens, riding around? One film out of Sundance? I don’t think there’s a pitch for that movie today, so I sit here very, very blessed that I came along at a time when studios were going, hey, we’ll make this and this and then throw some chump change over to these guys. I’m still grateful I got the film made, and got it made the way I wanted it to.”

A New York City jury has found Nathaniel Glover — better known as Kidd Creole of seminal hip-hop group The Furious Five — guilty of manslaughter for a 2017 stabbing incident, reports Billboard. Glover was accused of stabbing a homeless man, John Jolly, in the chest with a steak knife in 2017 after Jolly asked him “What’s up?” Glover, who was walking to his maintenance job, believed that the man was hitting on him and attacking him.

Glover’s lawyer Scottie Celestin tried to frame the attack as self-defense, asking, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is New York City. It’s 12 o’clock at night. Who’s saying ‘What’s up?’ to you with good intentions? His fear for his life was reasonable.” Celestin also attempted to blame Jolly’s death on sedatives that he was given during treatment at the hospital rather than his stab wounds.

Unfortunately, the jury did not believe that the former rapper was in danger. While the final verdict of manslaughter is a step down from the original charge of murder, Kidd Creole can be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison as well as fined. His sentencing was set for May 4.

As a member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Kidd Creole was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 along with the rest of the group. They were the first rap act to be inducted. Their 1982 hit “The Message” is considered one of hip-hop’s first-ever “conscious rap” songs and is a classic that has been referenced repeatedly throughout the years. Co-writer Edward Fletcher, aka Duke Bootee, died last year at the age of 69.

In a telling, and somewhat strange, interview with himself, Donald Glover has revealed a lot about his relatively private life over the last few years. He talks about tucking in his kids, Euphoria, and his upcoming projects, including his highly-anticipated Mr. And Mrs. Smith series in the works for Amazon Prime. You know, the mediocre movie that got overshadowed by the whole Brad/Angelina/Jennifer drama.

The series was originally supposed to star Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, though the Fleabag actress left the project over “creative differences.” Now, Pen15’s Maya Erskine will be the “Mrs.” half of the show. Glover cryptically discussed it in his interview…with himself:

Speaking of men and women, you’re working on Mr. and Mrs. Smith right now. Is that why you shaved your head?
No. I didn’t have to be Earn anymore.
What happened with Phoebe Waller-Bridge? She was supposed to be on Smith, right?
Yeah. But classic creative differences.
Are you and Phoebe still friends?
What does it mean to be a friend? I still like her. I assume she still likes me.
Who’s Mrs. Smith now?
Maya Erskine.
From Pen15? I love her.
Yeah. She’s dope. It’s exciting. I really love the show. I’m writing the finale now.

The Mr. And Mrs. Smith television show was first announced last February. The series, based on your mom’s favorite 2005 romance-action film, was ordered by Amazon Prime. Erskine is known for co-creating the hit Hulu series Pen15 where she played a teenage version of herself. The series just ended after a two-season run. Erskine also has an upcoming role in Disney+’s Obi-Wan series.

Glover has been promoting the third season of Atlanta which just returned after four years off-air. Other notable highlights of his interview include him calling himself Willy Wonka, and also relating his own life to I, Tonya. There is currently no update on when the Mr. And Mrs. Smith series will air, though one thing’s for certain, it will be interesting!

Donald Glover’s show Atlanta gets compared to Lil Dicky’s show Dave a lot. Presumably, it’s because they were both created by rappers who also star in them and because they share a network, FX. Even this very website sorta compared them in a feature about how they depict the weird corners of the rap game in a way that hasn’t been seen before in mainstream media. Glover has said in the past that he doesn’t much like those comparisons, but that didn’t stop him from making one himself in a new interview.

Intriguingly enough, he had all the leeway in the world not to answer the question — or even ask it — since the conversation took place in Interview magazine with Donald interviewing himself. But maybe it’s just been on his mind. He winds up explaining what his (ahem) beef is with Dicky’s show, and how he believes it could be a more honest, “organic” depiction of Dicky’s experience in the rap game — basically, by making it more like Atlanta.

In some recent tweets of yours you reference Dave.

Yeah.

Do you dislike that show?

No! I like that show. But it does bother me when Atlanta’s compared to it.

Why?

You have to think of it like food.

You mean it’s a different flavor.

No. Although I do feel like the flavor is artificial in some sense. The organic show should be about a white rapper who’s more successful than his Black peers from the jump. Because he’s more accessible. But what he actually wants is to be part of the culture, but his success keeps him from that and a lot of his Black peers and friends resent him for it but also feel like they have to fuck with him because it’s good for them. That’s the internal struggle I see. Anyway.

That’s the Donald version of Dave.

Yeah. It’s sadder. What are you gonna do?

Donald goes on to clarify that he doesn’t technically think that Dave should be his version of the show, aptly comparing the two shows to different foods. He also admits that he “can be a snob” but disagrees with assessments that he’s “pretentious.” “Anthony Bourdain wasn’t pretentious,” he says. “But he definitely knew the difference between a dry-aged wagyu and a smash burger. Neither is better or worse than the other. They’re just different experiences. And I wouldn’t want to have either every day.”

There’s an odd trend happening in Elden Ring right now: Players are hiding from each other. This is unusual, because the players that are hiding are usually inviting other players into their game. Historically, souls games like Dark Souls have had a feature where another player could “invade” someone else’s game if they were playing online, so they could go and kill them to get some extra experience points. Of course, if the player fends you off, then they get experience of their own.

Elden Ring, however, is one of the first souls games where you have to opt into allowing other players to invade your game. So if someone is invading you, then that means you’ve chosen to have that kind of game experience. What players are finding is that when they invade other players, they can’t find them anywhere on the map. They search everywhere until they get bored and eventually leave, which nets the player being invaded their own experience points.

Again, this is odd for the invading players, because apparently, the ones invading chose to allow this, so what gives? It turns out that many of these players are using exploits to reach areas that are extremely difficult — if not impossible — for an invader to reach. Then, they call in any invaders to try and get some free experience out of it. Whether you think it’s cowardly or cunning, it’s a trend that is starting to get a little out of hand across Elden Ring.

Players are fighting back in some really creative ways, as Kotaku highlighted in its writeup about these “rune farmers.” A personal favorite of mine was a Reddit comment where someone said they’ve started waiting out the player they invaded.

Obviously, players being able to hide from one another like this isn’t how the developers of Elden Ring intended the feature to work. We assume that a patch will be on the way in the near future. What’s particularly weird about this is that most players who are able to access invasions are at a level high enough to where they aren’t in need of runes to level up their character. There are infinitely better ways to farm runes and ones that probably use up far less times, even if this one does have the benefit of not requiring the player to do anything besides wait around.