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Oscar nominations always make people mad, though this year people seem angrier than usual. The biggest controversy, at least according to Jimmy Kimmel and Kevin Smith, is over Spider-Man: No Way Home, the biggest moneymaker since the pandemic began and which was denied a Best Picture nomination. (Fans will have to make do with its lone nom for Best Visual Effects.) But one actor has chosen another snub to make him peeved.

As caught by /Film, Josh Brolin dropped an Instagram video last week in which he discussed how Dune — in which he plays super serious House Atreides weapons master Gurney Halleck — received a stunning 10 nominations, the second most, one behind The Power of the Dog. It even got one for Best Picture. But the actor’s mood was more somber, funereal, miffed. That’s because it should have been 11.

Brolin began by congratulating all his Oscar-nominated Dune colleagues, then he segued into mourning the one person who didn’t get one but, in his estimation, should have. And the unbelievable, almost numbing, flummoxing I feel for Denis Villeneuve not being nominated for Best Director,” Brolin said. “It’s just one of those things where you go, ‘Huh? What?!’”

Villeneuve did accomplish something no one, not even David Lynch, could do: He turned one of sci-fi’s most acclaimed yet dense tomes into a popular blockbuster, even with one of the most snickerable names in recent cinematic memory. It’s a huge feat, and he still has the second half of the first novel to film, to say nothing of the numerous, increasingly bonkers sequels. Maybe the Academy will finally recognize him when he gets to the one with the giant, horny sandworm-human.

(Via /Film)

On February 16, the first part of Kanye West’s documentary, Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, will be available to watch on Netflix. On Friday night, the director duo held a screening of the film for an audience in Los Angeles, with Kanye himself in attendance. This comes after he requested final edit approval over the documentary earlier this month. He also demanded that Drake narrate the film, but both requests were turned down.

At the screening, Kanye took a moment to speak about Black Future Month, a term he coined to replace Black History Month. “When you have people next to you that believe in you, and a community, and that the community sticks together, that’s the way that we can protect each other,” Kanye told the crowd. “Out here in Hollywood a lot of times, I got my man DaBaby right here, people try to cancel us and we all run away from each other.” He continued, “We not talking to each other, not communicating, and that’s why on Black Future Month we stood up and said, ‘We got stand next to each other and we ain’t gonna let each other go when someone brings up one mistake that someone did.’”

Later on in his speech, Kanye also spoke about his “mistakes” and why he’s open with them.

“When y’all see me doing certain things that y’all wouldn’t expect us to do, and y’all want me to step back and be a house***a, that’s not my position. My position is to make what y’all might think are mistakes in public, so I can show you that that ain’t no red line, that ain’t no real wall. That’s just a smokescreen, and it’s for us to take this. We on labels we don’t own, play for basketball teams we don’t own. The time is now. I got offered $100 million by Larry Jackson to put Donda on Apple, but I ain’t never got a meeting with Tim Cook. So it ain’t about the money, it’s about our power and out respect collectively. So I be saying stuff that people try to remind me in Black History Month that people got killed for. But this is Black Future Month.

You can watch Kanye’s speech in the video above.

It appears that the “Let’s Go Brandon” craze may have peaked. Last fall, conservatives started using the phrase — long story, see below — as a euphemism for “F*ck Joe Biden.” It began at NASCAR, obviously. Lawmakers like Lauren Boebert, even Governor Ron DeSantis seized upon it. One classy guy said it to the president himself during a Santa-themed broadcast. But perhaps that dude represented the trend’s last gasp.

As per The Daily Beast, an Ethereum cryptocurrency called “Let’s Go Brandon” has fallen on hard times. It was all the rage late last year, with shout-outs from TrumpWorld cronies, even getting advertised on the hood of the car driven by Brandon Brown, the NASCAR driver whose name inspired the phrase.

The salad days, alas, are over. Over the last 30 days, the currency has fallen some 99.5 percent, with the combined value of all 330 trillion coins now worth just a few thousand dollars. In other words, “Let’s Go Brandon” is essentially worthless, at least as a form of alternative currency.

The slogan was born when Brown was giving a post-victory interview on NBC, all while the crowd behind him chanted “F*ck Joe Biden.” Reporter Kelli Stavast mistakenly thought they were chanting “Lets Go Brandon.” And thus a far right saying was born, cursing anyone with the very popular name to a dumb association.

But all things must pass, and if the spiraling nature of the crypto is any indication, conservatives angry with the guy who beat Donald Trump by over seven million votes may simply have to start using the f-word again.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Shortly after the release of her fourth album, 30, Adele announced a Las Vegas residency that was set to kick off 2022. Called Weekends With Adele, it was supposed to take over the Caesars Palace Colosseum in Sin City and hold shows every Friday and Saturday (except for one weekend) starting on January 21 until April 16. Alas, Adele was forced to postpone it just before its launch due to COVID-related delays. She shared the announcement with a tearful apology video, and nearly a month later, she’s unveiled additional details behind the problems with the residency.

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, Adele said “lots of delays” and limited “manpower” led to her decision to postpone the residency as she did not want to deliver subpar performances. “I tried my hardest and really thought I would be able to pull something together in time,” Adele said. “I regret that I kept going until that late in the day. It just would have been a really half-assed show, and I can’t do that.” She added, “People will see straight through me, up on stage being like, ‘She doesn’t want to be doing this.’ And, I’ve never done anything like that in my life.”

Norton then asked Adele why she didn’t simply lower her expectations. “I’m not going to try to do a stadium show in a theatre — but it’s Vegas,” she said. “It can’t just be me on my f*cking guitar.” She also assured fans that the residency is still “100% happening.” “I’m not going to announce a new set of dates until I know that everything will definitely be ready,” she added while confirming that the Vegas shows are still scheduled for “this year.”

Ted Cruz is by far the most dunkable lawmaker on Capitol Hill, and not without good reason: The Texas senator always steps in it, even when it’s the star of his favorite movie trashing him. But ragging on Cruz means admitting when he’s innocent. So it is that those viral tweets of him making bizarre claims about Austin Power were, as it were, fake news.

It began with an Austin Powers commercial set to air during the Super Bowl on Sunday — one of a number of high-profile ads dusting off iconic ‘90s movie characters. Shortly thereafter, writer Keaton Patti shared screenshots allegedly showing Cruz repeatedly tweeting bonkers Austin Powers claims.

In one, Cruz “wrote” that “Joe Biden thinks he’s Austin Powers, but he’s actually Dr. Evil,” referring to the hero and villain of the franchise, both played by Mike Myers. He “did it again” for Obama, then reversed the formula for Trump, who was purported to be the swinging secret agent, not the global terrorist modeled on Donald Pleasence’s version of Bond baddie Ernst Blofeld. The final one finds Cruz “discovering” that Myers plays both characters, back in 2015.

Alas, these tweets were too pure for the real world.

Both PolitTweets and CNN’s master fact checker Daniel Dale — hot off proving that a Trumpist lawmaker who thought he was quoting Voltaire but was actually quoting a neo-Nazi busted for child pornography — soon debunked the tweets’ veracity. How? By simply searching Cruz’s Twitter feed for “Austin Powers,” which produces no results. Furthermore, Dale noted that Patti has a history of posting “fake political images as alleged comedy.”

Cruz eventually caught wind of this kerfuffle and made a kind of victory post.

So kudos to Cruz for not actually tweeting weird things about Austin Powers. But fret not: He’s bound to post something mockable again any day now.

(Via The Daily Dot)

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film career still hasn’t gotten back on track after his stint as governor of California. Perhaps Triplets, the forthcoming belated sequel to Twins, will be the one to atone for multiple underperforming Terminator romps. In the meantime, he’s got that jokey Zeus Super Bowl commercial. And speaking of Twins, he recently went on late night TV to tell a pretty good story about co-star Danny DeVito pranking him by getting him high.

The former Governator went on Jimmy Kimmel Thursday night to talk anecdotes and discuss living with a bunch of animals in his home, including a mini-horse and a mini-donkey. (Kimmel’s team also provided a supercut of his guest repeatedly beating up animals in movies, including an aggressive reindeer in Jingle All the Way.)

There was also a bit about DeVito, a famous on-set prankster. Schwarzenegger told a story about their second film together, 1994’s Junior, the one where the erstwhile Conan the Barbarian gets pregnant. The two were lunching together during a day of shooting, and DeVito — wanting to pay it back due to Schwarzenegger’s habit of gifting him with fine cigars — offered him some good pasta. When they returned to set, Schwarzenegger realized he couldn’t remember his lines. That’s because DeVito had slipped a little something into his food.

You can see Schwarzenegger discuss trying to act while unwittingly high — as well as other fun tales — in the video above.

(Via The AV Club)

On Friday night, Justin Bieber held a performance in West Hollywood at the Pacific Design Center. Afterward, he threw a after party nearby at The Nice Guy, and according to TMZ, the event featured a stacked guest list that included Drake, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Kendall Jenner, and Khloe Kardashian. Things were initially smooth sailing, but at around 3 am local time, a fight broke out outside the after venue. Before the chaos began, Kodak Black was standing on the street smiling and talking alongside Gunna and Lil Baby. When things got out of hand, he reportedly got involved, taking a swing at someone.

The fight was caught on camera and video was provided by TMZ. Shortly after Kodak throws a punch, gunshots can be heard, which causes everyone in the area to flee the scene. Law enforcement told TMZ that four people were injured after ten rounds of gunshots were fired. Officers add that the wounded individuals are all in stable condition and that the suspect(s) remain at large.

The fight and the shooting that followed come after Kodak Black had his trespassing charges from a Florida arrest dropped. He was detained on New Year’s Eve in his hometown of Pompano Beach for failing to comply with a cease and desist letter.

You can view a video of the incident on TMZ here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

While Nicki Minaj might not be the most prolific artist of the 2010s, she’s been celebrated as part of the rap Mount Rushmore due to influence alone. Though her last full-length release, Queen, fell flat, and Nicki herself has been embroiled in a back and forth with an accuser who says Nicki’s husband sexually assaulted her, though he tells a different story. Either way, some fans might be caught up in the logistics of Nicki’s complicit behavior defending her husband, Kenneth Petty, but plenty are asking only one question: Is there new music coming? And more importantly, is there a new album coming? The answer, on both fronts, is a resounding yes.

Does Nicki Minaj Have A New Album Coming?
As noted, the short answer is yes, and it’s likely coming very soon. Not only has she confirmed to fans that a new project is in the works, but she’s told press to expect the return of “Mixtape Nicki” — as in, bars on bars. Kicking off what seems very much like an album rollout with her Lil Baby collaboration, “Do We Have A Problem?” she followed that first single up much quicker than anyone expected with a follow-up single: “Bussin.” This second single also features Lil Baby, so with those two songs in the universe, fans have a bit of a taste of what might be in store for Nicki LP5.

Joel Embiid played his first game as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers in the post-Ben Simmons era on Friday night. One day after Simmons was sent to the Brooklyn Nets as part of a package in exchange for James Harden and Paul Millsap, Embiid led the Sixers to a 100-87 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in which he had 25 points, 19 rebounds, five blocks, and four assists.

Embiid unsurprisingly got asked about the Simmons trade after the game, and after reacting to that, he was asked about a tweet that he sent in the aftermath. Here is the tweet:

You will be shocked to know that Embiid did not say that he posted this because he viewed Simmons as his biggest hater, or he wanted to make sure his tenure with the Sixers was dead, or anything like that. Instead, he decided to claim he had no idea what was going on.

“Honestly, I don’t even know what the tweet was about,” Embiid said. “I just tweeted a random person.”

After the reaction in the room made clear that absolutely no one believed him, Embiid went on to say, “I just saw the picture on the internet. I thought he was well-dressed, he had a nice suit on, good-looking. So, he had some swag, so I thought it was a good picture.”

Our hunch is that Simmons will not have nearly as much fun responding to this tweet when he is inevitably asked about it.

One of the more under-the-radar elements of the James Harden-Ben Simmons trade is that the Philadelphia 76ers had to give up backup big man Andre Drummond. While backup centers don’t normally get a ton of love, Philly has struggled for years to figure out what to do when Joel Embiid is on the bench, and Drummond has easily been the best backup 5 that they’ve had.

As such, the minutes behind Embiid have to go somewhere, and beloved Sixers reserve Paul Reed got a chance to fill in for the MVP candidate on Friday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Reed is known for being a tenacious defender, which he put on display in the second quarter when he took an inbound pass away from Darius Bazley. Reed had a clear path to the rim after that, and appeared to think it was time to do something flashy.

The catch: Reed misjudged his path to the rim, so instead of doing what I think was supposed to be a LeBron-esque dunk where he rocks his arms to the side and then back around and dunks with both hands and his back facing the rim, this happened.

“You just gotta come up with the two points here” is some excellent analysis. Anyway, the Sixers led at halftime, 46-41, while Reed had two points, three rebounds, two blocks, and two steals in seven minutes of work in the first half.