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There’s a good chance that, if you clicked on this post, you gobbled up the third season of The Bear already when it dropped last week. This means that you almost certainly enjoyed the score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and the wealth of cameos. Perhaps you even began ‘shipping Luca and Sydney, but it’s also worth noting that the show gave us a definitive answer regarding a character who we’ve only seen in nightmarish bits and pieces until now.

That would be Joel McHale’s “NYC Chef,” as he was credited along with the character’s actual name: Chef David Fields.

Behold how awful he was to Carmy in the first season while telling him (under fever-dream-esque lighting during flashbacks) that he was “bullsh*t” and “talentless.” He also tossed in a “you should be dead” for bad measure:

Fields did appear very briefly in the second season finale, too, when he was shown for a split second at The Bear’s “friends and family” night despite being neither friend nor fam. In the first two seasons, we also didn’t see him interact with anybody other than Carmy, so it was only natural that Fields would be the subject of fan theories that he wasn’t real. Redditors, especially, wondered if Fields (who they at times referred to as “Chef Winger” as a riff on McHale’s Community character) was imaginary or perhaps an “insecurity avatar” or a manifestation of “Carmen’s inner demons holding him back.” Other Redditors wondered if Fields was real but perhaps Carmy’s memory of him was altered or whether where was an actual reason why Fields was a total jerk.

Well, Season 3’s finale episode confirmed that Fields exists (outside of Carmy’s mind) because when Carmy gestured towards him at Ever’s farewell dinner, Luca and Sydney glanced over at McHale’s character and acknowledged that he existed. With that question resolved, the audience can rest assured that Carmy was truly following Fields out of the party to confront him over how “you gave me ulcers and panic attacks and nightmares.” Fields, however, remained convinced that he “gave you confidence, leadership, and ability” and helped Carmy be “an excellent chef.”

The episode also actually pulled a Mad Men moment with an “I think about you too much” followed by an “I don’t think about you.” That was strange, yes, but also, McHale did reveal the inspiration for his character (as noted by Collider in a visit with Seth Meyers) to be real-life Chef Thomas Keller. McHale added, “I don’t think he is as awful as I was, but he does whisper at his employees.”

Interestingly enough, Keller also appears in The Bear‘s third season finale, “Forever,” as himself and a seemingly helpful mentor who helped Carmy learn how to handle a “family dinner” chicken. That episode, like the rest of The Bear, can be streamed on Hulu.

Logic has long been a huge anime guy, and now he’s teamed up with one of the industry’s biggest US-based titans — anime-focused streaming service Crunchyroll — and one of his favorite shows, Cowboy Bebop. As for what they’re doing: It’s a new streetwear collection partnership inspired by the classic show.

The following 11 Crunchyroll exclusives are included in the collection: See You Space Cowboy T-shirt, Sympathy for the Devil T-shirt, Logic and Radical Ed Smiley T-shirt, The Crew T-shirt, Logic and the Crew-neck Sweatshirt, Logic and the Crew Sweatshirt, Cowboy Bebop 1998 Hoodie, Varsity Jacket, Beanie, Corduroy Hat, Skate Deck, and Poster. The collection is available to pre-order now on the Crunchroll online store.

Logic offered a statement, saying, “Anime was there for me when I was growing up in a drug and violence-ridden childhood and household. I discovered anime through Cowboy Bebop, and would later go on to befriend the voice of Spike Spiegel, Steve Blum, and collaborate with him on various albums, which is a dream come true. Without Cowboy Bebop, there is no Logic. I just hope that collabing with Cowboy Bebop and Crunchyroll will allow me to introduce a lot more of my fans who might not be hip to Cowboy Bebop, and vice versa, and hope that a bunch of people out there who love Cowboy Bebop will realize I’m making fun anime nerd albums.”

Usher won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 BET Awards on Sunday, but his speech was so heavily edited that viewers watching at home weren’t able to make out what the “Confessions Part II” singer was saying. BET has since apologized for what a spokesperson called an “audio malfunction.”

“Celebrating global icon Usher on our stage with a star-studded tribute and having him accept his award with a heartfelt speech was an honor,” the spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. “Due to an audio malfunction during the live telecast, portions of his speech were inadvertently muted. We extend our sincere apologies to Usher as we couldn’t be more grateful for his participation in culture’s biggest night. Fans can catch his full uninterrupted speech across BET platforms and tonight’s encore on BET.”

As for the contents of his roughly 13-minute speech, Usher talked a lot about forgiveness.

“We’ve got to be willing to forgive. We’ve got to be willing to be open,” he said. “I’m telling you, you’re standing before a man who had to forgive a man who never showed up ever. And look what I made with it. Look what I was able to ‘usher’ in. But that’s what’s real. That’s what makes us human. That’s what makes us women and men.” Let’s see if he forgives BET.

You can watch the full (uncensored) speech below.

Shaquille O’Neal apparently isn’t big on taking an actual offseason, as the Hall of Famer turned TNT analyst spends his summers moonlighting on the music circuit as DJ Diesel. Since his Finals duties on NBATV ended, Shaq has been hitting the road to put on shows, from Cleveland Guardians games to Vegas to Nashville, where he joined Murda Beatz for a set over the weekend.

Shaq also is one of the most online NBA Hall of Famers, as his music career has pushed him to keep up with what’s relevant and trending in both the music world and social media in general. As such, when the opportunity presented itself to meet up with the viral sensation of the moment — Hailey Welch, aka the “Hawk Tuah” girl — he said the same thing that happens when any brand asks him to do a commercial: Yes.

It was a big weekend for Welch in Nashville, as DJ Diesel wasn’t the only musician she interacted with, as she also got up on stage with Zach Bryan at his tour stop in the Tennessee capital, as she capitalizes on her moment in the spotlight after going viral for her part in one of those “interview drunk people on the street” videos.

During last night’s BET Awards ceremony, Donald Glover — who was there to present the award for Album Of The Year — took a bit of a digression during his time onstage to call out the show for never nominating him. Indeed, it’s one of the first times the network has even acknowledged Glover’s existence, and the fact he was also allowed to plug his quirky new film Bando Stone And The New World is probably a testament to the concessions BET’s programmers had to make to soothe his bruised ego over the years of neglect.

“This isn’t personal, but I just feel like I should have more BET awards,” Glover said. “I’m serious. It’s the Black Entertainment Television Awards. How much more entertaining do I have to do? Because it’s just the math of the fact. It doesn’t really make sense. I have more Grammys than Will Smith, which makes no sense, but I have the same amount of BET awards as Sam Smith.” Smith and Glover both have one BET Award each; Glover won Best Music Video in 2019 for “This is America”, while Smith won the 2015 award for Best New Artist. I don’t know if you noticed, but Sam Smith… also isn’t Black.

Glover joked that he’d be willing to remake BET Saturday afternoon mainstay Baby Boy if it would get him more recognition from the network. “I’ll have Jonathan Majors put me in a headlock, shave my head, I’ll do it,” he said, referring to a scene in which Ving Rhames puts Tyrese Gibson in a headlock during a heated domestic dispute in the film.

Social media users on Twitter noted that Glover has kind of a point — he should not have the same number of BET Awards nominations as Sam Smith, regardless of whether he and Will Smith have the same amount of Grammys — and drew parallels to another recent addition to the BET canon, Tyler The Creator. The Hawthorne, California native also went unacknowledged by the network until 2021, when he was honored with a (the admittedly vaguely titled) Rock The Bells Cultural Influence Award. During an interview about the award, he, too, acknowledged that he felt he “wasn’t accepted by that audience,” but that he held a deep reverence for the network growing up.

“I was so hype to perform at the BET Awards,” Tyler admitted. “I just never felt like my style of music would ever have been, not even appreciated, but allowed on there. And because of that, I would mock it. It was like a defense mechanism because I felt like I wasn’t accepted by that audience. But when they asked me this year, man, I was enthralled. I was so happy.” At first glance, it does appear that artists like Glover and Tyler contrast starkly from the usual BET fare. When they were both in the target demographic for BET’s old video countdown show, 106 & Park, they likely didn’t see themselves reflected in the usual rotation of artists like Soulja Boy, 50 Cent, or Hurricane Chris.

But over the years, they’ve each garnered mainstream acclaim for their creative works, which have always celebrated their Blackness and drawn extensively from deep cultural roots — even if they didn’t reflect the stereotypical looks and concerns promoted by not just BET, but mainstream depictions of Blackness in media in general.

Glover’s groundbreaking work in music and television includes the funk-soul revival album Awaken, My Love! and his paradigm-shifting dramedy Atlanta, which often addressed ongoing current events and made references to Black lifestyle deep cuts like the “haunted” Lake Rainier in his native Georgia. Meanwhile, Tyler’s multihyphenate takeover of hip-hop, fashion, and animation with albums like Igor, shows like The Jellies!, and his history-making collaboration with Pharrell Williams and Louis Vuitton, centered Blackness and posited a broader spectrum of possibilities for it. You can’t tell me you couldn’t see Carlton Banks decked out in Tyler’s preppy Louis pieces. There are all kinds of alternative expressions of Blackness, and neither artist allowed the fact they didn’t see those expressions on TV stop them from expressing themselves in full.

While it’s clear that BET’s definition of notable Black art is expanding — a net good for a network whose narrow typecasting of Black art has been criticized in the past — neither Glover nor Tyler should ever have fretted. They’ve been two of the most important Black artists of their generation all along. From the beginning, both artists have presented a dazzling, wide-ranging perspective of what Black art can be. Beyond BET, we would all benefit from recognizing those talents — and the talents of others who go against the grain — and letting Black art be more than what we’ve already seen.

Khalid has impressed recently with the singles “Adore U” and “Please Don’t Fall In Love With Me.” Now, we know the fate of those songs: They’ll be included on Sincere, the new album (Khalid’s third) that was announced today, July 1. The project is set for release on August 2.

In a statement, Khalid says of the album, “Sincere is a combination of my life experiences, it takes inspiration from conversations that I have had with my fans, supporters, and the people that love me. When I listen back to this project, I hear a sound that’s so unique and represents me at my best. This album is me at 26, continuing to evolve with the knowledge that I have garnered throughout the years.”

A press release says the project “showcases Khalid’s evolution as an artist and person and explores the all-too-relatable feelings of growing up.”

Meanwhile, almost exactly a year ago now, Khalid found himself in a car accident, which forced Ed Sheeran to open for himself on his Mathematics Tour. It was reported at the time that Khalid “had pulled over after his car started to overheat, got into the passenger seat, then was hit by a passing car.”

Sincere is out 8/2 via Right Hand Music Group/RCA Records. Find more information here.

The Splash Bros era with the Golden State Warriors is officially over. After days of speculation that Klay Thompson was preparing to leave the team in free agency, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the future Hall of Fame inductee is on his way to the Dallas Mavericks on a 3-year deal worth $50 million. Woj also noted that Thompson is joining the Mavs via a sign-and-trade that also includes the Charlotte Hornets.

Multiple sources confirmed Wojnarowski’s reporting.

The catch is that, according to Chris Haynes, the Warriors and Mavs are still trying to work out the details of this deal, and that there is still some work that needs to be done on that front.

Thompson has spent his entire professional career as a member of the Warriors — the franchise took him with the 11th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft — and has been a gigantic part of the four teams that have gone on to win an NBA championship. Much was made of the fact that Thompson and Golden State’s front office could not agree to an extension for months leading up to the start of free agency, and in the weeks leading up to the start of the new league year, reports began to indicate that Thompson was more seriously considering a change in scenery, as the relationship between himself and the Warriors was no longer salvageable.

It was reported in the lead-up to free agency that the Warriors were preparing to lose Thompson, with the Mavericks joining both Los Angeles teams as potential suitors — the Lakers, in particular, were linked strongly to Thompson, as LeBron James was reportedly willing to take a pay cut if it helped bring him on board.

While injuries and Father Time have both began to catch up with Thompson, he is still a very good shooter who competes on the defensive end of the floor. Thompson averaged 17.9 points in 29.7 minutes per game while connecting on 38.7 percent of his threes and a league-best 92.7 percent of his attempts from the free throw line.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for A Quiet Place: Day One.)

There are many different subsections of horror movies, and things that are scary to some might not be scary to others. Zombies might scare some, but might bore others. Evil robots? Definitely not for everyone, though they should be. Even Nic Cage is scary to certain people. But there is one universal truth when it comes to horror movies: the animal literally cannot die. They just can’t. So whatever dog sidekick or cat companion tagging along, they better survive, or else the internet will hear about it.

The scary part of A Quiet Place: Day One is, allegedly, the invasion of the sonically sensitive creatures, but the real fear is that the Lupita Nyong’o’s cute little cat will not make it to the end. It would take one ill-timed “meow” and the whole thing is ruined.

Luckily, Frodo the cat was in good hands, and he makes it through the invasion safely. Director Michael Sarnoski, who previously worked with a pig on Pig, so you know he knows his stuff, said that the cat was always intended to survive.

When asked if there was a chance Frodo would perish, Sarnoski told The Hollywood Reporter, “No. It always made sense that the cat is passed along and would carry on. If you’re gonna kill an animal, it’s got to be for a really meaningful reason. Otherwise, you’re just being cruel to the audience. He meant something to these characters, and I think it would have just been mean to kill him.”

Mean, yes, realistic? Also yes. It would not have been far-fetched for the kitty to abandon his human pals and fend for himself, but he stuck around. Things were made a little bit harder, though, when Sarnoski learned that Nyong’o is very scary of cats. “Lupita was terrified of cats. She wasn’t just ‘not a fan.’ She was really frightened,” the director explained. “And in one of our first meetings, she was sitting on the floor of my office and slowly crawled towards the cat getting a little closer, a little closer, until she finally touched it, and then eventually she was petting it and could pick it up. And now she has a pet cat of her own. It showed how brave she was and how willing she was to commit to this role.”

On the other hand, Frodo was also committed to his role and learned how to eat pizza on command. Where’s his Oscar nom?

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Last month, the racketeering trial against YSL and Young Thug was sent into disarray as Judge Ural Glanville had Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, held in criminal contempt, sentencing him to a month of weekends in jail alongside his client. While that sentence was suspended while Steel appeals the decision, now the whole proceeding has reportedly been put on hold, as another judge must now review a recusal motion filed against Glanville by the defense.

The defense moved to have Judge Glanville recuse himself a couple of times in this case, but he’s refused on every occasion. On June 18, he denied the most recent motion, which stemmed from a secret meeting between the judge and a witness for the prosecution — the same meeting that prompted Steel’s supposed contempt of court when the defense attorney demanded the minutes from the meeting and refused to tell Glanville how he found out about it.

According to WSB-TV Atlanta, the case will now be on hold until another judge has made a decision on whether Glanville can continue to preside over the case, which has been underway for 100 days today.

Young Thug is accused of being the ringleader of a criminal organization, YSL (Young Slime Life), which has been credited with a wave of crimes across Atlanta, including armed robbery, drug trafficking, and attempted murder.

Beabadoobee opened on Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in early 2023, which prompted her to write “Ever Seen,” her latest single from her forthcoming third studio album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves.

According to a press release, “Ever Seen” was “written on the road during her time on tour with Taylor Swift” and “originally intended to be a country song but grew into something more soaring and euphoric, with zig-zagging strings and pummeling percussion.”

Beababoodee can’t stop “dwelling” on the tiniest compliment that exploded into full-blown infatuation. “Spent some time waiting for your face,” she softly sings during the first run-through of the chorus. “Don’t want to risk just making all the same mistakes / The highest I think I’ve ever been / Said I had the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen.” In a clever, romantic twist, the bridge and outro flip the script: “And when I get too high, and I can’t breathe / I can’t lie, he has the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”

In the accompanying video, directed by Jake Erland, was shot in Japan and finds Beababoodee wide-eyed at the natural beauty around her. The press release described the video’s intent as “blend[ing] the calm and the chaotic in a recurring dream sequence.”

“Ever Seen” follows “Take A Bite,” a mesmerizing, introspective tune about “finding comfort in chaos,” and “Coming Home,” a lilting acoustic ballad romanticizing the mundane.

This Is How Tomorrow Moves was produced by Rick Rubin, and Beabadoobee will embark on her subsequent This Is How Tomorrow Moves Tour on September 8.

Watch the “Ever Seen” video above.

This Is How Tomorrow Moves is out 8/16 via Dirty Hit. Find more information here.