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While appearing on Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, Senator Rand Paul once again dipped into his never-ending bag of COVID misinformation. As he continued to rail against the “hysteria” surrounding the coronavirus, which he of course lays at the feet of Dr. Fauci, Paul trotted out a false statistic that the majority of the people hospitalized with COVID are vaccinated. (They are not.) But perhaps his biggest whopper was referring to the recent surge in Omicron variant cases as “nature’s vaccine,” and ultimately, a good thing even though Paul admits people are going to die.

Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter:

We’ve got 150 million people in our country that have already had this. Now, in the last couple weeks, we’re adding millions of people every week who have already gotten this. And the one thing we know is that if you get this mild variant, the omicron, it actually is going to protect you against the more serious variants. This is basically nature’s vaccine that is running through the community. That doesn’t mean that some of our vulnerable people may not suffer and die from this. We should be trying to protect the vulnerable.

Paul’s assertion that Omicron is basically a vaccine handed down by God did not go over well on social media where people dragged Paul for his continued callousness in the face of unprecedented illness and death. They also made it a point to question his medical credentials, which don’t have anything to do with infectious disease.

(Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter)

Sean Hannity is not exactly being forthright with his reaction to yesterday’s news about his (alleged) January 6 involvement. More specifically, Hannity’s apparently being encouraged to cooperate with the House Select Committee on January 6 over reports that he urged President Trump to shut down the insurrection by making a plea to the MAGA crowd. There’s no subpoena, yet, for Hannity, who was one of multiple Fox News personalities who were said to be in touch with Mark Meadows during the siege on the U.S. Capitol, but maybe a subpoena will be forthcoming, after all.

That’s just a hunch because the January 6 Committee put it all out there on Twitter, saying that they’d like Hannity to “answer questions about matters including communications between Hannity and the former President, Mark Meadows, and others in the days surrounding Jan 6th.” And over at Fox News, as Mediaite points out, Hannity spent the entirety of his Tuesday night episode pretending that nothing is happening. He did, however, start ranting about “swamp people,” as Mediaite, which has video, reports:

“I have an important message to all you elected swamp creatures in Washington, D.C., your willing accomplices, your press secretaries in the media mob. It is frankly repulsive, just repulsive that all of you sycophants, you sit idly by, you say nothing, you do nothing, as Joe Biden completely mismanages Covid-19.”

In other words, it’s probably no surprise at all if we see an actual subpoena coming down the road for Hannity. He’s a master of diversion, after all. Back in 2018 when Fox News confirmed that Trump attempted to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller (and this was the story of the night), Hannity famously responded by showing a high-speed car chase. Priorities.

(Via Mediaite)

The incarcerated members of Gucci Mane’s 1017 label are having a rough news week, with Pooh Shiesty agreeing to a plea deal in his federal firearms case that could see him serve 97 months or more in prison. Now, fellow 1017 rapper Ralo can look forward to his day in court, as he announced that a date has been set for his marijuana trafficking trial — nearly four years after his initial arrest.

“After 4 years of being dragged through all these different jails and COVID BS, I finally got a date set March 15,” he wrote in a caption on his Instagram alongside a photo of himself in better days. “If I ever did anything to hurt you, I ask that you forgive me. I don’t wanna walk in that courtroom with no bad vibes, I need prayers for me and not AGAINST me. It’s some people that love and need me free. Go to FAMERICANEWS.COM to help.” Meanwhile, it appears he’s still honing his craft behind bars, adding, “On another note the feds finally allowed my music to be sold in they prison system, so tell anybody you know in the feds to go download all my music off the Corrilinks system.”

Ralo — real name Terrell Davis — first captured the interest of trap rap fans in 2015 with the release of his single “Can’t Lie,” featuring Future. He was arrested in 2018 for possession with intent to distribute, with authorities accusing him of selling drugs from an apartment complex he rented in his native Atlanta, flying nearly 1,000 lbs. of marijuana from California

While St. Vincent’s Daddy’s Home came out in the first half of 2021, there’s still a place for it here in 2022. Last night, that place was The Late Late Show, as she appeared on the show to perform a highlight from the record, “…At The Holiday Party,” utilizing the show’s bar set as she sang the song accompanied by a guitarist.

Meanwhile, ahead of the performance, St. Vincent also took a few minutes to chat with James Corden. While starting the interview, Corden pointed out that 2021 was a big year for St. Vincent, as she dropped the new album, toured, released her movie The Nowhere Inn, and worked with Paul McCartney (remixing “Women And Wives” for McCartney III Imagined). She told the story about first hearing from McCartney about the project, describing the phone call she got from the Beatles legend.

Then, before introducing the performance, Corden asked about how St. Vincent spent her holiday season, and she revealed that she has “started to make my family perform a version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in full Victorian garb.” She noted that while she doesn’t perform in the musical production, she serves as “a very exacting director.”

Watch St. Vincent perform and chat on The Late Late Show above.

Despite describing his biggest hit to date, “Wockesha,” as the “official lean national anthem,” it turns out Moneybagg Yo has turned over a new leaf, giving up the purple drink and finding a renewed passion for his craft. The Memphis rapper tweeted this week that since becoming sober, he’s surpassed his own expectations and feels like a better artist despite his initial doubts.

“I use to think being sober would f*ck wit my creative process,” he wrote. “I see dats just a mind thing cuz I been more active skin glowing and I been dropping nun but pressure.”

Ironically, this was the challenge he was issued by fellow Memphis rapper NLE Choppa, who last year proposed for his fellow artists to replace the codeine-laced soda with his own brand of chlorophyll drinks. At the time, Moneybagg Yo did not respond, but it appears that he ultimately was able to kick the habit himself.

He joins a growing list of rappers who once proudly pledged their allegiance to lean but were able to quit which includes Future, Smokepurpp, Mustard, and more. And although Future once said he was reluctant to reveal his lifestyle change for fear of alienating his fans, it looks like Moneybagg Yo is more than happy to advocate for a sober lifestyle.

Nicolas Cage is a huge Prince fan. He called the legendary musician “one of his heroes” (he once asked if he could take a photo with him, and while Prince said no, “I understood and I still love him”) and performed a “primal-scream therapy” version of “Purple Rain” at a karaoke bar around the third anniversary of his death. The clip went viral, “and that became everybody’s business,” the actor told the New York Times in 2019. “There was a recent breakup. I don’t really want to talk about it. I was pretty upset about that and the way things happened.” The experience left Cage so rattled that he’s done with karaoke.

“For me, karaoke was like therapy,” Cage said during a conversation with Peter Dinklage, Andrew Garfield, Jonathan Majors, and Simon Rex for the Hollywood Reporter, “until someone videotaped my punk-rock version of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ and it went everywhere and I said, ‘I’m not going to karaoke anymore.’ Karaoke’s supposed to be private. It’s like a prayer.” (He should have sang Madonna instead.)

Garfield joked that Cage is “using this platform to get out his gripes” about the person who leaked the video. The culprit remains unknown, but it’s a shame the performance was released to the public when this scene from Face/Off already exists.

Now that’s how you karaoke.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

When Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter just two days after the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, Marjorie Taylor Greene complained… but kept on tweeting.

Now that the crazy-eyed, conspiracy theory-lovin’ Georgia representative’s personal Twitter account has been booted from the site for regularly spreading misinformation about COVID, it’s a different story. On Tuesday night, Aaron Rupar shared a clip of Greene railing against Twitter during an appearance on Newsmax, and basically acting like being banned from a social media site that’s currently more interested in how a reality TV star was making $50,000 per week selling her own farts in a gross violation of Greene’s civil rights.

“We don’t need to have our speech controlled by Twitter,” Greene explained. “We need to be working for our constituents, those are who elected me. I represent their values and their voice and Twitter has attacked my district and, I would say, our country as a whole by kicking a member of Congress off of their platform.”

(Our country did not respond to our request for comment, but we have to imagine it would disagree with the congresswoman.)

It’s important to note here that while Greene’s personal Twitter account was permanently suspended, her professional one—the one under which the congresswoman, who has suggested that 9/11 was a hoax and has viciously harassed the teenaged survivors of school shootings, is still free to share whatever damn thoughts she desires—is still very much active. Which conveniently seems to have slipped her mind when she mentions things like “our constituents” and “my district.”

In order to add more forcefulness to her argument, Greene reminded viewers that Twitter also banned Trump “while he was a sitting United States president. So Twitter is completely out of bounds: No one elected them. No one put them in charge of what is information or what is misinformation. So I’m calling for everyone to leave Twitter.”

Yet, Greene’s professional account is still active, so…

(Via Aaron Rupar)

All the way back in February 2021, Paramount+ announced a new Beavis and Butthead movie would be coming to the streaming service, and now, creator Mike Judge has shared a first look at the classic characters who have definitely had a rough couple of years. When the film it was first teased, the announcement hinted that the iconic duo would be “older, more mature,” and while the drawings shared by Judge confirm the first part, their maturity level will almost definitely be open to debate.

“Beavis and Butt-Head will be returning this year with a brand new movie and more on Paramount+,” Judge tweeted. “No exact date yet, but soon. They need some time to get back in shape.”

On top of the film, which will be Beavis and Butthead’s second movie after 1996’s Beavis and Butthead Do America, a revival series is in the works for Comedy Central, which has been keeping Judge very busy. The creator felt that “it seemed like the right time to get stupid again.” Via Deadline:

“We are thrilled to be working with Mike Judge and the great team at 3 Arts again as we double down on adult Aanimation at Comedy Central,” said [Viacom Entertainment & Youth Group head Chris] McCarthy. “Beavis and Butt-Head were a defining voice of a generation, and we can’t wait to watch as they navigate the treacherous waters of a world light-years from their own.”

Judge is also reportedly working on a revival of King of the Hill, his follow-up hit to Beavis and Butthead.

(Via Mike Judge on Twitter)

Father John Misty has been speaking in cryptic tongues as of late, posting peculiar Instagram clips and photos in the lead-up to the much-anticipated follow-up to his 2018 album, God’s Favorite Customer. And you gotta admit, the black and white vignettes that have dotted his feed have been alluring, to say the least, and have fit a unified aesthetic that evokes the style of Father John Misty auteur Josh Tillman.

While Tillman technically announced the release of Chloë And The Next 20th Century in a spoken-word vinyl that was mailed to fans, today he has officially announced the album via his Instagram, shared the tracklist and the video for the lead single, “Funny Girl.” The track is chock full of the FJM whimsy, with a throwback ballroom vibe. The video depicts a futuristic jellyfish drifting through a sepia-toned post-apocalyptic world (recency bias makes this jellyfish look like a sentinel from The Matrix at first glance.)

Among the items seen in an image of the album’s deluxe package posted by Pitchfork, is a version of the track “Buddy’s Rendezvous” by Lana Del Rey. The tracklist also confirms that the two tracks Tillman dropped last year, “To S.” and “To R.,” won’t appear on the album and are just one-off singles.

Watch the video for “Funny Girl” above and check out the Chloë And The Next 20th Century art and tracklist below.

1. “Chloë”
2. “Goodbye Mr. Blue”
3. “Kiss Me (I Loved You)”
4. “(Everything But) Her Love”
5. “Buddy’s Rendezvous”
6. “Q4”
7. “Olvidado (Otro Momento)”
8. “Funny Girl”
9. “Only A Fool”
10. “We Could Be Strangers”
11. “The Next 20th Century”

Chloë And The Next 20th Century is out 4/8 via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.

J.K. Rowling was practically persona non grata at HBO Max’s Harry Potter reunion, where it seemed like the special’s participants went out of their way to avoid mentioning the woman who created the Potterverse, who has spent the past two-plus years alienating former fans and collaborators with her anti-trans rhetoric. But Jon Stewart’s issues with the bestselling author go back even further.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the former Daily Show host ripped into Rowling on the latest episode of his podcast, The Problem With Jon Stewart, not for her problematic anti-trans comments, but for the goblins that run Gringotts Wizarding Bank in the Harry Potter series.

“Here’s how you know Jews are still where they are,” Stewart explained. “Talking to people, here’s what I say: Have you ever seen a Harry Potter movie? … Have you ever seen the scenes in Gringotts Bank? … Do you know what those folks who run the bank are? … Jews!”

Stewart noted the striking resemblance between Harry Potter’s goblin bankers and an infamous illustration from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a wildly anti-Semitic tome from 1903. He said that the typical reaction to showing someone that illustration is “‘Oh, [that illustration is] from Harry Potter!’ And you’re like, ‘No, that’s a caricature of a Jew from an anti-Semitic piece of literature.’ J.K. Rowling was like, ‘Can we get these guys to run our bank?’ … It’s a wizarding world … we can ride dragons, you can have a pet owl … but who should run the bank? Jews, … but what if the teeth were sharper?”

Stewart said he was shocked when he first saw the characters—but even more surprised when no one else seemed to be offended. “It was one of those things where I saw it on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like, ‘Holy sh*t, [Rowling] did not, in a wizarding world, just throw Jews in there to run the f***ing underground bank. And everybody was just like, ‘Wizards.’ It was so weird.”

While Stewart is not the first person to take offense to the characters, and characterizations, others claim that Rowling has regularly called out anti-Semitism. Neither Rowling nor Warner Bros., the studio behind the Harry Potter juggernaut, responded to THR’s request for comment.

You can watch the full segment with Stewart below.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)