Leighton Meester is returning to the big screen (well, the Netflix big screen) next month in The Weekend Away, based on the 2020 Sarah Alderson novel of the same name.
Meester stars as Beth, a new mother who is convinced by her longtime pal Kate, played by Christina Wolfe, to go away for a weekend abroad. The two have a fun night out to relive their college days, and then things turn sour, as Beth wakes up to her friend dead, and no memory of what happened the night before.
Suddenly, she is the main suspect in a foreign country and she can’t leave. Beth has to try to piece together the events of the night before, while trying to clear her name for her best friends murder. The movie also stars Ziad Bakri and Luke Norris.
The former Gossip Girl star (not to be confused with the 2021 reboot) recently had a main role in Single Parents and several smaller movie stints over the years. This isn’t the first creepy psychological thriller that Meester has starred in, as she was in the 2011 cult classic The Roommate alongside Minka Kelly. She recently returned to TV as a regular on How I Met Your Father with Hilary Duff.
The Weekend Away debuts on Netflix on March 3rd. Check out the trailer above.
Last night’s BRIT Awards ceremony gave a whole new meaning to the term “playing with fire” as rap music won big and dominated the onstage performances with dynamic sets from Black artists like Dave and Little Simz (who, incidentally, are also alums of “the British version of The Wire,” Top Boy).
Dave, who won the Best Hip Hop/Rap/Grime Act award, also performed his song “In The Fire” from his 2021 second studio album We’re All Alone in This Together with fellow Grime standouts Giggs, Ghetts, Meekz, and Fredo. After completing his passionate verse, Dave revealed a surprising talent, donning an electric guitar to play a dazzling solo as flames shot out the end, a la Mad Max: Fury Road. Watch the performance above.
Another big winner was Little Simz, whose 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was widely considered one of the year’s best. Nominated for Artist of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act, Simz won Best New Artist, bringing her mum onstage for an inspirational acceptance speech encouraging fans to chase their dreams and holding herself up as an example of the fruits of perseverance. She also played album standouts “Introvert” and “Woman” alongside actress Emma Corrin from The Crown. You can check her performance out below.
For many artists, 2022 is the year that they will finally start touring in support of projects they dropped in 2020 or 2021. Such is the case for Fleet Foxes, who announced today that they’ll finally be touring in support of their 2020 LP Shore.
The shows begin with a run of North American shows, starting in Salt Lake City in late June before wrapping up at New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium in mid-August. After a brief pause, a run of UK and European shows begins in late August and concludes a couple weeks later. These shows will be the band’s first since 2018, in support of 2017’s Crack-Up.
Check out the full list of tour dates below.
06/27 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Sandy Amphitheater
06/28 — Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom
07/01 — Dallas, TX @ The Factory in Deep Ellum
07/02 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
07/03 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater
07/05 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre
07/06 — San Diego, CA @ Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheater
07/08 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
07/09 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl
07/10 — Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre
07/12 — Portland, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater
07/15 — Seattle, WA @ King County’s Marymoor Park
07/29 — Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater
07/30 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
07/31 — Pelham, TN @ The Caverns
08/02 — Minneapolis, MN @ Surly Brewing Festival Field
08/03 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
08/05 — Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple Theatre
08/06 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
08/09 — Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
08/10 — Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion
08/12 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Mann Center
08/13 — New York, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium
08/26 — London, UK @ All Points East
08/28 — Dublin, IE @ National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks
08/30 — Edinburgh, UK @ Usher Hall
08/31 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy Glasgow
09/02 — Wiltshire, UK @ End of the Road Festival
09/03 — Manchester, UK O2 Apollo Manchester
09/05 — Paris, FR @ Salle Pleyel
09/06 — Antwerp, BE @ De Roma
09/07 — Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
09/09 — Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
09/10 — Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg (Ronda)
09/11 — Berlin, BE @ Columbiahalle
The Los Angeles Lakers lost again on Tuesday night, falling to the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, 131-116. It was the latest in what has been a brutal season in L.A. — the team trailed by 30 points in the second half, tried to rally back, got the deficit down to 10, and then ran out of gas. Now, the team is 26-29 on the season, which puts them in ninth place in the Western Conference.
For a team that comes into every season with championship aspirations, it’s a five-alarm fire when the Lakers find themselves 4.5 games back of an automatic playoff berth and firmly entrenched in a play-in spot as of today. There are plenty of reasons why they’re in that spot, but one has been that offseason acquisition Russell Westbrook just has not worked out the way they had hoped when they acquired him. On Tuesday, Westbrook scored 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting with 10 rebounds and five assists, but watched the final 15 minutes of the game from the bench and was on the receiving end of boos from Lakers fans.
Seeing as how the team gave up almost all of its trade capital in the deal that brought Westbrook to L.A., his struggles have been front and center this year. And now, according to Bill Oram of The Athletic, the Lakers’ brass has come to grips with the ceiling that this team has with Westbrook alongside Anthony Davis and LeBron James. The catch: It seems unlikely they’re able to remedy this any time soon.
Sources have indicated that the Lakers no longer believe they can win at a high level with Westbrook alongside James and Davis, but prior to Tuesday the line of thinking was that the Lakers would be unwilling to wave the white flag and admit their summer blockbuster was a failure. Instead, they would prefer to wait until the offseason, when they could also include a 2029 pick in a potential deal for another max-contract player looking for a new home.
Because of the pick haul that the Lakers sent to New Orleans in the trade that brought Davis to Los Angeles, the only first-round pick the team can currently trade is in 2027. That changes on July 1, when their 2029 first becomes eligible to be traded, and in theory, it’d be easier to move Westbrook if the team has that extra first it can attach to it.
Still, with one day until the trade deadline, it seems evident that Los Angeles believes something needs to change. Whether or not they can make that happen, though, remains to be seen.
duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn.
John Williams‘ musical score for Jaws might be one of the most familiar pieces of film music in the history of cinema. And while it’s brilliant in its simplicity, it’s hard to deny that it is indeed a relatively simple tune. Essentially, it’s just two chords played back to back at varying tempos. And while it’s hard to imagine a visitor to Amity Island getting swallowed up by a great white shark without that ditty playing in the background, the truth is that Jaws director Steven Spielberg thought the tune was a joke when Williams first presented it to him.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Spielberg was interviewed in a previously released making-of DVD feature in which he admitted that he was momentarily taken aback by the theme. “I expected to hear something kind of weird and melodic, something tonal, but eerie; something of another world, almost like outer space under the water,” Spielberg explained. “And what he played me instead, with two fingers on the lower keys, was ‘dun dun, dun dun, dun dun.’ And at first, I began to laugh. He had a great sense of humor, and I thought he was putting me on.”
When Williams, who celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this week, made it clear that he was as serious as a shark attack with his composition, Spielberg gave it another listen—this time without giggling. “It suddenly seemed right,” Spielberg said. “And John found the signature for the entire movie.”
That streamlined, and definitely-not-a-joke, score earned Williams his second of five Oscars for Best Score. “I think the score was responsible for half of the success of that movie,” Spielberg said.
When she’s not emotionally destroying Euphoria fans, or emotionally destroying Spider-Man fans, Zendaya is a headstrong small business owner named Sally, who sells seashells by the seashore. Super savvy!
In a new ad from website builder Squarespace, Zendaya plays Sally, who is super sick of shoddy seashell sales. She turns to the site to help market her seashells to people who don’t live near the beach because, to be honest, why would you buy seashells when they are already free? Sally quickly turns her seashell shack into a seashell empire, which is the main lesson from the childhood tongue twister, for some reason.
The colorful alliteration-filled ad is directed by Edgar Wright, also known for his terrifyingly vibrant Last Night In Soho. It also featured narration and a small cameo by rapper Andrew 3000, who sails away on the shore
“I was incredibly excited to have the opportunity to work and create with Edgar Wright and André 3000,” Zendaya told People that she had been a fan of Wright,”I really enjoyed working with Edgar Wright as I am a big fan of his work. He’s lovely in person and a dream to work with.”
She continued, “I’ve been a Squarespace user for a while, so I’m familiar with the brand on a personal level. So when they came to me with the idea to modernize the tongue twister ‘Sally Sold Seashells by the Seashore,’ I was drawn to it.” Wait, does this mean Zendaya has a secret small business website nobody knows about?
In a newsflash that will surprise absolutely no one: Marjorie Taylor Greene is complaining about social media. Again. Last month, she had so much to say about being permanently banned from Twitter, that even her own followers were begging her to shut up. At roughly the same time, she was temporarily suspended from Facebook, which only added fuel to her fiery rhetoric. So when Mark Zuckerberg’s company attempted to silence the Georgia congresswoman again this week, albeit temporarily, she reacted in her typically overreactive way.
As The Daily Beast reports, Greene took to her Gettr account (basically, Twitter for people who have been kicked off Twitter for sharing insane conspiracy theories) on Sunday night to lament the fact that she was “in Facebook jail for three days for offending the Communists at Facebook by defending children from needless masking that many of us consider child abuse.” Of course, none of that was true.
(Greene, mature adult that she is, also used the opportunity to take a swipe at Stacey Abrams, calling her “obese and in the highest risk factor for Covid co-morbidities.”)
What Facebook objected to was Greene’s assertion that forcing children to wear masks was tantamount to “child abuse” and that “Masks do not stop the spread of COVID.” The Daily Beast reached out to Facebook (a.k.a. Meta), who confirmed that the company did indeed delete MGT’s post, because it violated their community guidelines because of her erroneous “claims that wearing a face mask properly does not help prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
More importantly, Greene was not in “Facebook jail,” as the many other posts she made to Facebook following her ‘Masks = Child Abuse’ should have made clear to her. Yet when The Daily Beast reached out to Greene’s team for a comment, they did not respond.
Adding to that latter category, yesterday, 2 Chainz shared the off-roading video for “Free B.G.” In it, Chainz and a crew of motorsports enthusiasts take over a vacant airplane hangar to do donuts and wheelies on ATVs and dirtbikes while a whole fleet of scantily-clad women twerks to the Mannie Fresh and Mondo-produced beat. The lyrics pay homage to Mannie’s former labelmate B.G., with Chainz calling himself a hot boy — borrowing from the name of the quartet which B.G. belonged to with Juvenile, Lil Wayne, and Turk — and chanting to free the incarcerated rapper, who was convicted of gun possession and witness tampering in 2012 and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.
Watch 2 Chainz’s “Free B.G.” video above.
Dope Don’t Sell Itself is out now. You can stream it here.
WARNING: Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett below.
After putting the pieces in place for a confrontation between Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and the Pyke Syndicate, who have been make aggressive moves to wrest control of Jabba the Hutt’s empire from the fierce bounty hunter, The Book of Boba Fett finale delivered on that setup as war broke out in the streets of Mos Espa. The finale also put things in place for The Mandalorian Season 3 (and possibly another Star Wars spinoff…), so we’ll break down the highlights of the epic showdown.
The War with the Pykes
While holed up in the bombed out ruins of the cantina owned by Garsa Fwip (Jennifer Beals), Boba Fett and what’s left of his operation prepare for an assault from the Pykes. Mando (Pedro Pascal) assures everyone that a garrison from Freetown will be arriving to help after he spoke to Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant) in the previous episode. However, Mando is unaware that Vanth was gunned down by the ruthless bounty hunter Cad Bane, who has a long history with Boba and has been enlisted by the Pykes.
The situation gets worse as the entire city turns on Boba’s team, which now consists of the Krrsantan and the scooter gang from Episode 3. The Pykes also roll out massive fighter droids with energy shields putting Boba’s forces up against the wall. Even with the Freetown garrison showing up to avenge Vanth, it’s not going well.
Lucasfilm
Mando and Grogu Back Together At Last
In a cliffhanger ending to the previous episode, Luke Skywalker gave Grogu the choice of taking Yoda’s lightsaber and becoming a Jedi or taking Beskar chain mail and returning to Mando. Clearly, the little guy chose Mando as the two are reunited in the midst of the chaos after Grogu is unceremoniously dumped on Tatooine by R2-D2. Nice, Luke. Real nice.
Boba Fett Finally Rides That Rancor
After planting the seed all the way back in Episode 3, and with the help of Danny Trejo, no less, Boba Fett finally gets his Rancor on as he rides the monstrous beast into action and proceeds to turn the tables by absolutely wrecking the Pyke’s giant robots. However, Boba’s ride will be short-lived as he’s forced to confront his past.
Showdown with Cad Bane
In a callback to their first showdown on The Clone Wars animated series, Boba and Cad Bane stare each other down in the streets, and once again, Bane proves he’s the quicker draw than Boba. However, while gloating over his victory, Bane gives Boba the chance to knock the blue alien on his back and stab him through the chest with his Gaffi stick from Boba’s time with the Tuskens. If you were pumped about Cad Bane’s live-action debut, our condolences.
Lucasfilm
Fennec Shand Does What She Does Best
With Cad Bane and the Pyke’s fighter droids wrecked by Boba Fett’s forces, what’s left of the Pykes attempt to pacify the other Mos Espa crime lords, who are now turning on them. Their squabble is short-lived as Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) not only assassinates but the remaining crime lords who betrayed Boba Fett. The bounty hunter’s claim to Jabba’s territory is now secure as he gets to work ridding the planet of the spice trade that caused so much destruction.
An End-Credits Scene With Some Handsome Implications
While Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth is presumed dead, the end-credits reveal that’s not the case as he’s seen healing inside Boba Fett’s Bacta tank. Will he show up in Season 3 of The Mandalorian or is Olyphant getting his own Star Wars series? We don’t know yet, but it does provide some exciting opportunities now that The Book of Boba Fett has wrapped up has closed its first chapter on the fierce bounty hunter’s new life.
The Book of Boba Fett is currently streaming on Disney+.
“Don’t quit your day job” is a piece of advice that is usually doled out in a snarky kind of way. But Amy Schneider’s record-breaking run as a contestant on Jeopardy! has put her in the rare position where stepping away from the 9 to 5 drill could prove to be a very smart, and lucrative, move. So she has gone ahead and done just that, as she announced on Twitter late Tuesday afternoon
Some of you may have heard, but I quit my day job yesterday! It’s a bit nerve-wracking to pivot from software engineer to… public figure, I guess? But regardless of the outcome I’m so excited to spend the next couple years at least tackling this new challenge!
As the New York Post reports, Schneider won just under $1.4 million during her impressive 40-game Jeopardy! winning streak, making her the winningest woman in the beloved game show’s history. And now she’s ready to try and parlay the attention she has drawn to leave her full-time gig as a software engineer and see what life is like as a “public figure.” Just what that entails is a still a bit of a question mark for Schneider, though she has shared that she has always wanted to write a book and is using her newfound free time to finally put together a proposal.
She also recently told the New York Post that she’s looking to do some traveling with her partner, Genevieve Davis, and it looks like Ireland might be first on their to do list. “I mentioned on the show that we wanted to go to Ireland, and while we’re still finalizing it, it’s looking like we’ll be there for St. Patrick’s Day,” Schneider said.
While Schneider has said that she believes interim host (and fellow former champ) Ken Jennings is the ideal person to become the permanent host of Jeopardy!, she also wouldn’t be against trying to fit into Alex Trebek’s shoes and host the show herself. “Whether I’d actually even be good at it, I don’t know,” she said. “But yeah, I‘d certainly consider it if somebody asked.”
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
