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Though the Oscars was a wild night for the likes of Will Smith and Chris Rock, whose “slapgate” incident seems to have sucked all the air out of the event, plenty of other celebs had their own drama going on at this year’s Academy Awards. Thankfully, though, no one else seems to have resorted to violence, and it may take weeks for the Academy’s formal review of the incident to play our.

In other news, Lady Gaga, for instance, had a packed night of helping support Liza Minnelli, and trying to avoid future Fox News contributor Caitlyn Jenner. In a stiff exchange between the two, that an eagle-eyed onlooker managed to film, Caitlyn mentioned to Gaga that she hasn’t seen her around Malibu recently. Gaga affirmed that she still spends time in the area, but she “switched baristas.”

“Are you spending time out in Malibu anymore?” Jenner asks, to which Gaga responds “Yes!” Jenner follows up: “Oh you’re still out there? I haven’t seen you at the Starbucks in a while. Gaga, a little stony faced: “Well, I’ve switched baristas.” Given the Fox News contributor angle, and Jenner’s conservative politics in general, despite her status as a trans woman, it’s easy to see why the incredibly liberal Gaga might be seeking to avoid her Malibu neighbor. Of course, Gaga fans had a field day with this one. Check out some reactions below.

Ten years ago I was working from home one day (which, at the time, wasn’t as common as it is now) and my phone started ringing. The number read “blocked,” which means, today, there’s no way I’m answering that call. But back then spammers hadn’t quite figured out the cell phone market, so it looked like more of a curiosity and I was intrigued. So I answered. “Hello,” I asked, with a more straying, exaggerated “o” sound at the end, signaling that I was confused about what was happening. I hear a gruff voice say, “I’m looking for Mike Ryan.” It’s at this point I think I’m in trouble. As far as I knew, I didn’t have an outstanding bills or anything, but now this very stern voice with a blocked phone number is looking for me. I admit to the voice on the other end that I, indeed, am the person he’s seeking. As long as I live I’ll never forget the tone of voice and delivery of the next words that were said. They were said with pride, knowing, I assume, the reaction these words have gotten him over the years, “This is Bruce Willis.” I was not expecting a call from Bruce Willis that day, or any day, really.

Okay, so, yes, for my job I do interview actors, so the idea that someone like Bruce Willis would call me at some point for a scheduled interview isn’t completely preposterous. Though the big factor here is I did not have a scheduled interview with Bruce Willis that day or ever. In shock, I asked, “Why are you calling me?” He responded he was under the impression we were going to talk about the new Rian Johnson movie, Looper. In another moment I will never forget, I said back to Willis, “No one told me we’d be doing this.” And then without missing a beat, like it was John McClane himself delivering the perfect line, Willis responds, “Welcome to Hollywood.”

Willis asked if I needed time to prepare. Which, yes, I did. But also, no, I didn’t. Making a quick decision, I thought the odds of Bruce Willis randomly calling me a second time that day were low, so I told him we could just do the interview now. And it’s not like I already didn’t have a wealth of knowledge about Willis’s career waiting to go, because, especially for people born during a specific window of time, Willis is the guy. From Moonlighting to Die Hard to even admirable failures like Hudson Hawk, I brought up any topic I’ve ever wanted to ask him about, all while kind of hiding behind the whole “hey I had no time to prepare” excuse, just in case Willis got to a point where he was like, “Why are we talking about Moonlighting?” For the record, he could not have been nicer.

(So, what had happened was, a few weeks before, Sony Pictures, who distributed Looper, asked if I wanted to talk to Bruce Willis. Of course, I was like, “Hell yes!” But then I never heard another word about it, assumed it wasn’t happening, and completely forgot about it. Apparently, Sony Pictures sent a list of people like me to Bruce Willis’s team to approve. What usually happens is, Willis’s team will then approve who they want, send it back to Sony, then Sony will contact me to set up a time to talk. Somehow Willis himself got this list. And instead of approving people, he just started cold calling. Which I, to this day, find so delightful. Imagining Bruce Willis a little annoyed that he has to deal with this in the first place, but, hey, that’s the job, so better start calling.)

Obviously, I’m retelling this story because of the news that Willis will be taking a step back from acting because of his diagnosis of aphasia. And, now, all those low-budget movies he was doing make a lot more sense. But it’s still a really sad story and it’s a pretty hard to read about. (And obviously, now, there are a lot of ethical questions about why he was put in these positions to begin with.

That all said, I have long hated the Razzies. (I wrote this piece about them in 2011 and linked to it every year until Movieline disappeared from the internet. But now someone found it again, so there it is.) The TL;DR version: even back then they were tiring and that over the first years of their existence a good case could be made they were fun. They would find truly bad movies like Mac & Me and point them out for what they are. Over the years, that changed. Now they either do stunts, like giving Mike Lindell a Razzie. Or they are just petty, like giving LeBron James a Razzie for the new Space Jam. What’s even the point of that?

And speaking of petty, the Razzies decided to do a whole “tribute” to Bruce Willis, just two weeks ago, that’s incredibly mean and, well, just downright shitty. Look, I’m going to assume they didn’t know about his condition (though rumors that something wasn’t right with him have been out there for a while), but, regardless, it’s crass. And now that we do know, their yukfest is still up. Can we be done with this group already? Yeah, they released a new tweet that gives a half-ass apology that basically equates to, “oops,” then passed the blame. Again, if they were seeking out truly awful movies and doing something interesting, their model could probably still work. (Honestly, there are probably 100s of truly bad movies released to streamers every year that we never hear about that would probably love the attention.) But, no, let’s drag Bruce Willis right when he’d going through one of the worst moments of his life. What a bad organization. Bruce Willis, after all he’s given us over the years, deserves better. And, frankly, so do we.

(UPDATE: The Razzies have rescinded their Worst Performance award for Willis.)

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

In The Eye, music’s best up-and-coming artists take to an intimate and minimal studio space to perform highlights from their discography, with only one microphone and one take. This time, in the studio is Sabrina Claudio, one of the most intriguing rising stars in R&B.

The Miami-based singer-songwriter got her start, as many do, on SoundCloud, uploading songs there, generating attention, and working her way up. The hustle eventually landed her a label deal with Atlantic and she’s made good on it so far by staying busier than most of her peers: Between albums, EPs, and mixtapes, Claudio has put out a whopping six releases since 2017, with three of those being albums. The future is looking bright, too: In addition to another album, Based On A Feeling, set to drop on May 6, she also earned the favor of The Weeknd, who granted her an opening slot on his upcoming After Hours tour.

Before all that, though, Claudio has taken to The Eye for a performance of her latest single, “Better Version.” As is often the case with The Eye performances, Claudio goes for a more stripped-down arrangement of the song here, which makes it feel more like a tranquil ballad than the original. The minimal instrumentation gives Claudio’s voice plenty of room to breathe, which, when you’re blessed with as much vocal talent and beauty as Claudio, is never a bad thing.

Claudio previously told Paper of the song, “This song stems from the perspective of someone who’s in a relationship with a person who is internally toxic, they choose to remain in this relationship because of those once in a blue moon glimpses of who their partner has the potential to be. It feels like this person is in a relationship with two completely different people and doesn’t want to leave either of them at the risk of losing them both.”

While a studio rendition like this shows off what Claudio is like as a performer, it’s not the same as getting on stage in front of a crowd. However, we know she thrives in that setting, too: Uproxx’s Caitlin White saw her live in 2019 and noted, “Silky, effortless voices like Claudio’s don’t come around that often, so when they do, seeing a performer like her live is the way to go.”

Watch Claudio perform “Better Version” for The Eye above.

Sabrina Claudio is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

While there are plenty of deadbeat dads in the world, Tyga isn’t one of them — and neither is Rob Kardashian — even if Blac Chyna wants the world to think so. Chyna is the mother of children with both men, and set out to imply that due to a lack of child support, she’s had to sell off some of her own belongings to make ends meet. “Yesterday I had to give up 3 of my cars …my reasons… morals, beliefs, being a single mother, no support I’m a MAMA,” she wrote on Twitter, adding: “Single no support child support.” Chyna shares a nine-year-old son King Cairo with Tya, and five-year-old daughter, Dream, with Rob.

The problem is, both men are the primary caretakers of their respective children, and clothe, house and feed the children very close to full-time. Both Tyga and Rob also responded to Chyna’s posts by sharing exactly how much they pay to send their kids to private schools — and the number is in the high $40K range annually for both kids (That means these pre-teens are getting an education that costs as much as my college tuition, but I digress…).

Tyga responded too: “I pay 40K a year for my son’s school & he lives w me Mon-Sat,” Tyga wrote in an Instagram comment responding to stories about Chyna’s tweets. “Why would I pay child support lol

Rob responded too: “I pay 37K a year for my daughter’s school. I handle every single medical expense. I pay for all her extracurricular activities. I have my daughter from Tuesday-Saturday. Why would I pay child support lol.”

Since both Tyga and Rob spoke out vehemently against Chyna’s accusations, you know the internet decided to get involved and plenty of people are sharing their own opinions on the subject. Is the internet, once more, roasting Blac Chyna? Well, yes. But especially in this case, some of the teasing feels pretty justified. Check out some thoughts on the matter below.

And, in closing, here’s Blac Chyna’s take on “slapgate” at the Oscars:

One year ago, shortly after news broke that the Justice Department had spent several months investigating Matt Gaetz for allegedly having sex with a minor, the Florida congressman sat down for a truly bizarre interview with Tucker Carlson (which is saying a lot).

While blowing off the charges against him as total bullsh*t, Gaetz dragged the Fox News host into his scandalous antics by reminding Carlson that he and the missus had once had dinner with Gaetz and a female friend of his, saying “You’ll remember her.” Carlson claimed to have no recollection of this person, and later described the entire exchange as “one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted” (which is also saying a lot).

Following the interview, Gaetz was essentially exiled from Fox News, with one staffer telling The Daily Beast that “Gaetz is going to be excommunicado for a while” at the time. Well, “a while” appears to mean one year—to the date.

On Wednesday, to commemorate that eventful tête-à-tête, Carlson welcomed Gaetz back onto his show for what Raw Story deemed a “triumphant return.” Ironically, Gaetz’s segment followed one in which Carlson accused the Walt Disney Co. of “sexualizing” kids and acting like a “sex offender.” Which made the segue into Gaetz all the smoother…

Of course, Carlson—top-notch journalist that he is—made sure to address the elephant in the room with Gaetz, even if he did downplay it as something related to the congressman’s “personal life,” which he didn’t want to ask him about because “it’s not my business.” What he did ask, though, was whether Gaetz expected to officially be charged with any crimes. To which Gaetz responded:

“No. That would be a travesty. I’m innocent. I’ve maintained my innocence, I’ve been entirely consistent on this fact. And each and every day, the lies about me unravel and are debunked… And, admittedly, it’s pretty wild to come on your show and say that my family’s being shaken down for $25 million by some fraudsters—some with connections to the intelligence community and the Department of Justice. But, in fact, someone had pled guilty to just that. So I feel vindicated each and every day that the facts are revealed.”

If Gaetz thinks that’s the wildest thing ever said on Carlson’s show—by a guest or the host—he’s clearly not watching a lot of Fox News.

(Via Raw Story)

Over the past few weeks, Snoop Dogg, who recently bought back the Death Row Records brand and much of its catalog, has been working to complete the collection, which was missing certain pivotal records including Snoop’s own debut Doggystyle and Dr. Dre’s debut The Chronic. Both albums were removed from streaming as negotiations continued. After some confusion over the ownership of the latter, it now appears that as of this week, The Chronic will once again appear under the Death Row banner, according to an Instagram post Snoop shared.

While no real details were revealed, that didn’t stop fans and peers in the comments from expressing their excitement, with 50 Cent predicting “something good coming from this.” Snoop previously shared plans to have Death Row become the first “major in the metaverse,” with designs on re-releasing the label’s collection of seminal hip-hop hits as NFTs. In the meantime, it looks like he’s still working out publishing profit shares for the label’s Tupac releases.

Meanwhile, Snoop remains pretty busy outside of Death Row; in addition to lending his likeness to the Call Of Duty video game franchise, he’s appearing in an NFT comic book, working with fellow California legends E-40, Ice Cube, and Too Short as Mount Westmore, and even plotting a collaboration with Korean pop band BTS.

There was a point back in the golden age of 21st-century big-budget franchise movies when you couldn’t go anywhere without some sort of Transformers tie-in. There were video games! SNL skits! Even some pretty ugly Nike sneakers. So, when the studio asked director Michael Bay to make more movies, he had to say yes. Even though…they weren’t good.

In a new interview with Unilad UK, Bay admitted that he should have quit while he was ahead. Fellow director Steven Spielberg also warned him against doing too many. “Steven Spielberg said, ‘Just stop at three.’ And I said I’d stop,” Bay recalled. “The studio begged me to do a fourth, and then that made a billion, too. And then I said I’m gonna stop here. And they begged me again. I should have stopped. [But] they were fun to do.”

Fun for some, not for others (Megan Fox, to be specific) the movies did make a lot of money, which makes sense as the early 2000s were the glory days of CGI.

Bay ended up doing four Transformers titles, concluding with the critically-panned The Last Knight in 2017. Of course, Paramount wanted more, so they rebooted the series in 2018 with the release of Bumblebee starring Hailee Steinfeld.

The upcoming film Transformers: Rise Of The Beast will take place in the 90s and is expected to hit theaters next summer. It should be noted that Bay is not involved with that one. He does know when to quit, apparently. It just took him a few years to figure it out.

On Wednesday evening, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences released a statement that claimed Will Smith was asked to leave the Oscars after slapping Chris Rock on stage, but the King Richard actor refused to exit the venue. The statement contradicted previous reports that producers and Academy officials deliberated for too long over whether to escort Smith from the building, which allowed him enough time to take the stage and accept his award for Best Actor.

However, sources for Variety are already refuting the Academy’s claim that Smith was formally asked to leave the Oscars. Insiders at the event claim there was a considerable amount of confusion over what to do after the assault, but there was never a firm effort to remove Smith from the ceremony. For the record, a source “familiar with the Academy” disputes that claim and says an “on-site representative” told Smith to leave per a request from Academy president David Rubin. (Going cross-eyed yet?)

Obviously, Smith never left the building, and according to sources, that was because of Oscars producer Will Packer, who reportedly made the call to keep Smith at the ceremony. Although, that assertion is also being disputed. Via Variety:

In the roughly 30 minutes following Smith’s attack on Rock, before the award for best actor was presented, Packer walked out into the orchestra and conferred with Smith, according to two witnesses. Packer said that he and the production “officially” wanted Smith to stay for the remainder of the show, according to one of the witnesses. Another source close to Packer denied that the producer urged Smith to remain.

Packer did not respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for Smith and AMPAS declined to comment.

In a nutshell, lots of finger-pointing going on! Although, it does confirm earlier reports that there was a significant clash between Academy members and the Oscars producers over keeping Smith in the building. That fight appears to be ongoing only, now, through the press.

(Via Variety)

A Madonna classic just got an even more electrifying upgrade. Earlier this month, Madge’s Ray Of Light cut “Frozen” went viral in the form of a remix on TikTok. Canadian producer Sickick gave the song its magic touch to be later officially released with a guest verse from Afrobeats star Fireboy DML. But now, “Frozen” is even hotter with a new remix with verses by 070 Shake.

The remix is accompanied by a meta-style music video, directed by Ryan Drake and Ricardo Gomes, which sees the two in a car chase, which is later revealed to be a video game.

“070 Shake is indescribably mysterious and alluring,” said Madonna in a statement. There are very few women in the trap music world that aren’t pandering to men. Her lyrics are deep and unique — there is no one like her. I’m excited for the world to discover her!”

Though this may be true for many TikTok users, some may boast they’ve already discovered 070 Shake through her appearances on Kanye West’s “Ghost Town” in 2018 and on “Scar” from Beyonce’s compilation album The Gift, produced to accompany the 2019 iteration of Disney’s The Lion King.

Check out the latest “Frozen” remix above.

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

News broke on Sunday night that The Flash star Ezra Miller was arrested in Hawaii, and quickly hit with a follow-up restraining order. But if you were too busy reeling over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars to read about one of the triggers behind the incident, apparently, Miller was set off by a karaoke rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Shallow” from A Star Is Born.

Hawaii Police Assistant Chief Kenneth Quiocho told AP News that “Miller took issue late Sunday with people singing the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper ballad “Shallow” at a bar mostly frequented by locals in Hilo, a small town on the Big Island.” The assistant chief said the song “aggravated” Miller, and that they “yelled obscenities, grabbed a mic from a singing woman and lunged at a man playing darts.”

Given the song’s low and slow beginnings and the ultimately dramatic climax, it seems like a tough choice for an amateur to pull off at karaoke, and the odds of any informal rendition of the song being quite bad are extremely high. Still, attacking someone over a bad song at karaoke seems pretty antithetical to the point of karaoke. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper have not weighed in on the role their song played in the story, though Gaga fans are certainly here for a couple jokes about the incident on Twitter.

Additionally, Miller has been involved in at least ten other incidents on the island that led to the police being called since March 7, and according to Quiocho, it’s not clear how long Miller has been staying in Hawaii. Hopefully they avoid that karaoke bar, and all future covers of “Shallow,” from now on.