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The Empire Strikes Back is not only the best Star Wars movie, it’s also the darkest.

Luke Skywalker nearly freezes to death; Han Solo gets encased in carbonite after his friend betrays him; Darth Vader cuts his son’s hand off; and the bad guys win. Yay! To offset the downbeat tone, a new final shot was added months after filming had wrapped — and it became one of the most iconic moments in Star Wars history.

On Twitter, Mark Hamill was recently asked, “We could inquire to Mark, did you guys re-shoot the Medical Bay scene at the end of Empire after principal photography had already wrapped?” The Star Wars legend replied, “Filmed 4 months after we wrapped principal photography on #ESB, it wasn’t a ‘re-shoot,’ it was an added scene. Concerned about the downbeat ending & thorough defeat of the protagonists, they wanted to add an uplifting moment of hope & rejuvenation to reassure the audience.”

Thus, The Empire Strikes Back ends with Lando and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon to find Han and Luke, Leia, R2-D2, and C-3PO looking out at the stars, getting ready for their next move. It would, as we find out in Return of the Jedi, end up being a ridiculously convoluted plan that somehow works.

(Via IGN)

For many Americans, November 7, 2020, will forever live as a day of infamy. For it was on that day that Rudy Giuliani—the once-beloved mayor of New York City and one-time TIME Person of the Year, then acting in his capacity as personal attorney to President Donald Trump—took to the podium in the parking lot of a landscaping business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attempted to be taken seriously as he prattled on about missing ballots and stolen elections. While a slack-jawed group of onlookers didn’t know whether to look at Rudy, the nearby crematorium, or the dildo store he had set up shop next to.

It’s hard to forget the images of that day, as a sweaty, ranting Rudy unsuccessfully tried to maintain a sense of decorum while it was obvious to anyone watching that what we were seeing in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping was the incompetence of the Trump Administration on full display. It’s a moment in time that then-attorney general Bill Barr will never forget.

As Insider reports, Barr talks about Trump’s unwillingness to accept that he lost the 2020 presidential election, the lengths to which he went in order to challenge the election results, and the all-around cringiness of that summer day in a landscaper’s parking lot his new book, the appropriately titled One Damn Thing After Another.

“[Trump’s] legal team had a difficult case to make, and they made it as badly and unprofessionally as I could have imagined,” according to Barr, who Insider notes specifically cited Rudy’s “bizarre” parking lot press conference, as well as the notorious presser that occurred just a couple weeks later, on November 19, “in which mascara appeared to drip from” from Rudy’s head.

“It was all a grotesque embarrassment,” Barr writes—a sentence that is definitely in contention for Understatement of the Century.

One Damn Thing After Another is available now.

(Via Insider)

During Tuesday’s episode of The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld went on a rant about how no one is allowed to question the media narrative forming around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that, he feels, is being moved in only one direction through images that are used to garner an “emotional response.” (For a little context, Fox News has been airing plenty of pro-Putin rhetoric since the invasion began and even conservative figures like Bill O’Reilly have called the network out.)

It’s that “galvanizing force” in the media to support Ukraine that Gutfeld apparently takes issues with after being asked by Geraldo Rivera why he feels so conflicted. Via Mediaite:

“There are crises like this that has happened for thousands of years and nobody knew. We just didn’t know, but now we see it. The bad part about is, there is this galvanizing kind of narrative that is there to create a reaction, and if somebody like me says, ‘Hold on a second,’ and you try to counter the drum beat, you’re seen as an inconsiderate, cold-hearted p*ssy. But if you amplify that story, why can’t you be called pro-war?

“If you want to push this stuff why can’t I call you pro-war? We’re stuck in the prison of two ideas right now, where its you either gotta be one way or you gotta be the other. It’s not as clear as that. It’s somewhere in the middle and just saying that you have to do something is not enough.”

When Rivera comments that he can’t help but be moved by the photos of a Ukrainian family killed by Russian forces, Gutfeld fired back, “Unfortunately, we forget a lot of things that happen here.” Nope, nothing cold-hearted there.

(Via Mediaite)

Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall are set to triple host the 94th annual Academy Awards later this month, which marks the first time the broadcast has had a host in over three years. As for how Schumer got the gig alongside Sykes and Hall, she has no idea because the comedian plans to make a night to remember.

In an interview with Extra to promote her upcoming Hulu series, Life & Beth, Schumer joked that the Academy made a mistake bringing her on because she’s going to get herself in “some trouble.” Via Mediaite:

“I mean, I don’t know who made the decision to let me personally be a host, but it’s not a good one,” Schumer, who led the 2015 MTV Movie Awards, said. “Because it’ll burn all bridges. I’ll burn every bridge.”

However, the Oscars is already embroiled in controversy, and Schumer still has over two weeks to go before she takes the stage. The broadcast has chosen not to air several categories in an attempt to boost ratings. Namely documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short, and sound. The move has prompted celebrated filmmakers like Steven Spielberg to speak out against the decision.

“I feel that at the Academy Awards there is no above the line, there is no below the line,” Spielberg wrote in a statement. “All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can. And that means for me we should all have a seat at the supper table together live at 5.”

The 94th Annual Academy Awards air March 27 on ABC.

(Via Mediaite)

Finneas dropped his debut album Optimist a few months ago, and now he’s back with new music via a Spotify Singles release, which features renditions of Optimist cut “Medieval” and Bon Iver’s “Flume.” For both tracks, Finneas takes to the piano and lets his vocals shine, especially on the tender Bon Iver cover.

Finneas said in a statement, “Honored to finally be able to get into the brand new and beautiful Spotify Studios to record these songs in these special arrangements.” He also tweeted of his “Flume” rendition, “My apologies to Bon Iver for the unsolicited cover- but I f*cking love this song and I’m so glad it exists. Listen to my cover if you must, then go listen to the original again.”

Finneas has long made it clear that he’s a Justin Vernon stan. In a 2019 Forbes interview, for example, he said, “There’s a line in Bon Iver’s song, “33 ‘GOD’,” which is an awesome song off an album [22, A Million] that’s really influenced my production and writing. The line is just, ‘A child ignored, these will just be places to me, now,’ and, ‘These will just be places to me, now,’ just hit me over the head when I heard it. I’d never really heard it put that way, but that’s how all of life kind of feels. You have a significant experience, and then for some reason, that significant experience is kind of undone. And then it’s just a place, or a street, or a park, or a car.”

Listen to Finneas’ performances of “Flume” and “Medieval” above. If you’d like to fulfill Finneas’ aforementioned request, find Bon Iver’s original version of “Flume” below.

As foretold earlier this week, the Queen “commands all of you to view” this trailer for Shondaland and Netflix’s Bridgerton Season 2. And hold onto your corsets because, although the teaser gave us some intriguing peeks at Phoebe Dynevor’s Daphne Bridgerton (making us all wonder what the Duke is doing), there’s no reason to dwell on the absence of Regé-Jean Page (who retired from the show as planned) as The Duke.

Hopefully, the Duke is not off (in the words of John Oliver) “jizzing in blankets” somewhere, but it doesn’t seem to matter here if he’s smoldering elsewhere. Instead, this season is all about Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) going through the (rather humiliating) paces to find his own match. And being handsome and wealthy ain’t enough, bud. Get ready to fall into ponds while fully dressed and go fencing and maybe have a duel. Yeah, this show (no shame here) is delicious. From the synopsis:

[T]he second season of Bridgerton follows Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), the eldest Bridgerton sibling and Viscount, as he sets out to find a suitable wife. Driven by his duty to uphold the family name, Anthony’s search for a debutante who meets his impossible standards seems ill-fated until Kate (Simone Ashley) and her younger sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) Sharma arrive from India. When Anthony begins to court Edwina, Kate discovers the true nature of his intentions — a true love match is not high on his priority list — and decides to do everything in her power to stop the union. But in doing so, Kate and Anthony’s verbal sparring matches only bring them closer together, complicating matters on both sides.

Also, expect Julie Andrews to continue doing the narration thing while the Featherington house has their own drama going down, in addition to Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) continuing to, well, you know what she is doing.

Bridgerton (along with Lady Whistledown) returns on March 25, and after that, three more seasons shall follow.

There ain’t no bonkers movie like a bonkers Nic Cage movie, and the star of Pig (which churned out a soulful, painstakingly dramatic performance) is back to his bonkers bullsh*t with this trailer for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, an action comedy that might feel too aggressively meta if this wasn’t Nic Cage (or John Malkovich). We already saw a teaser, in which Cage set up his Cage-esque role, Nick Cage.

Yup, he’s a version of his true self, and that fictionalized version is probably not quite as wild as being the IRL guy who deals in dinosaur skulls like it ain’t no thing. In this story, he’s dodging both the judging eye of Neil Patrick Harris but also the Pedro Pascal-shaped, super-wealthy superfan who might be more sinister than he seems, as he reels Nick (fresh off quitting acting) into some sort of sketchy scenario. Tiffany Haddish is also onboard, and why yes, there is a speedboat scene in this trailer, and we’ve also got a joke about Con Air. Sold.

From Lionsgate’s synopsis:

Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage must accept a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones. With a career built for this very moment, the seminal award-winning actor must take on the role of a lifetime: Nicolas Cage.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent premieres on April 22, 2022.

Ed Sheeran is currently in the middle of a plagiarism court case, as songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue accuse Sheeran of using elements of their 2015 single “Oh Why” (which Chokri released as Sami Switch) in his own “Shape Of You,” specifically the “oh I, oh I, oh I” hook. Sheeran took the stand yesterday and as part of his defense, he sang bits of songs by Nina Simone and Blackstreet.

BBC reports Sheeran wanted to illustrate how the “Shape Of You” melody is common in pop music, so he made his point by singing parts of Simone’s “Feeling Good” and Blackstreet’s “No Diggity.”

“If you put them all in the same key, they’ll sound the same,” he said.

Furthermore, Sheeran denied having heard “Oh Why” before writing “Shape Of You” in October 2016 and rejected the idea that friends may have played it for him. Regardless, due to the legal battle, Sheeran’s royalties from the song (estimated at about £20 million, or around $26 million) have been frozen since Chokri Ross O’Donoghue made their copyright infringement claim in 2018.

Elsewhere, Sheeran “briefly became irritated” when a portion of an unreleased song of his was mistakenly played in court. He looked at his lawyers and asked, “That’s a song I wrote last January. How did you get that? I want to know how you got that.” He was told some of the music played in court was coming from “Shape Of You” co-writer Steve Mac’s laptop and that the wrong file was accidentally played.

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

Like another show that premiered in 2016, Stranger Things is coming to an end after two more seasons. Season four of the Netflix series will be split into two parts, with the first half of the season premiering on May 27 and the second half on July 1, while the fifth and final season will hopefully debut sometime before the kids are in their late 30. Early 30s? The CGI team can handle that. But mid-to-late 30s is tough. Believe me.

Stranger Things producer and director Shawn Levy explained the decision to end the show in a recent interview with ScreenRant. “We never wanted to run on fumes and we wanted to only tell as much story as [creators Matt and Ross Duffer] saw and feel with clarity. So it’s been clear for a while that they know exactly where we’re headed and this is the arc. We wouldn’t want to stick around for one moment beyond that vision and the clarity of that voice,” he said. “So rather than focusing on that sad day that happens who knows when, the end of season five, I’ll just once again reaffirm what I’ve told everyone, which is it has been a long-ass wait for season four.” Levy added:

“I swear to God, the world will realize it’s worth it.”

David Harbour agrees:

(Via ScreenRant)

The Brooklyn Nets are making the trek down to Philadelphia on Thursday night for a showdown between two teams that pulled off the biggest trade of the season last month. Brooklyn parted ways with James Harden and Paul Millsap, and in exchange, the 76ers gave up Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and a collection of draft picks.

Thursday will be the first time those teams have gone head-to-head since the move, and while he’ll watch the game from the bench as he works his way back from a back injury, Simmons’ return to the City of Brotherly Love is in the spotlight, as the expectation is that Sixers fans won’t exactly give him a warm welcome.

In the aftermath of the team’s 132-121 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night, Kevin Durant was asked if he’s discussed the hostile environment Simmons will walk into.

“Absolutely not,” Durant said. “That’s one of those things he’s gonna have to experience for himself. I can’t go over there, nobody’s gonna hold his hand, I’m sure it’s gonna be personal attacks, there’s gonna be some words that may trigger you, personally, but that’s just how fans are. They wanna get under our skin, let their voices be heard. Part of the experience of coming to an NBA game is to heckle — some people don’t even enjoy basketball, their lives are sh*tty that they just get to aim it at other people, so it’s easy to kinda get that release at a basketball game.”

Durant did say that he believes Simmons understands this, and that some of the stuff he might hear could end up being pretty funny.

“But at the end of the day, we realize that life is amazing, we play the game of basketball for a living, and a little bit of trash talk is what it is,” Durant finished.

In a follow-up, Durant said that Simmons hasn’t asked him about his first game back in Oklahoma City after leaving the Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors. Durant famously faced a pretty hostile crowd that evening, but if the Nets are lucky, Simmons’ return to Philly will end the same way that Durant’s return to Oklahoma City ended — the Warriors won that game, 130-114.