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Zachary Levi got some fine career stimulus when he scored the title role in Shazam!, as the superheroic alter ego of a gentle Philadelphia teen. Comic book movie roles ain’t nothing to sneeze at. Instead of a one-off gig, you get paychecks for as long as they keep your character around. Congrats to the guy from Chuck! But it wasn’t his first superhero rodeo. He was up for another key role, and not getting it, he thinks, is what got him the one he did get.

/Film caught Levi’s appearance on The Playlist podcast The Fourth Wall, where he reveals he auditioned for the role of Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy, for his pal James Gunn. That, obviously, went to someone else.

James and I knew each other, we were friends, we would have game nights at each other’s homes, had a lot of mutual friends. And so he had asked me to come in and read for Star-Lord, and I did, and then that led to the next step, and then all of a sudden I was camera testing. Oh man, I wanted that role so bad, like so, so, so, so bad. It came down to me, one other guy, and Chris Pratt, but Chris was always their favorite and he was hesitant to take it, which is understandable, I mean it’s a big franchise thing, it’s Marvel, does it work out, does it not work out? Is this what everyone is going to know me as for the rest of my life? All of those things that go through your head.

But one door closes, another opens, as the saying goes:

But eventually, and I think smartly, [Pratt] decided to take the job and so it didn’t go my way or anyone else’s way for that matter, but I hoped I left enough of a good impression with James that when I was auditioning for ‘Shazam,’ and his very dear friend, and manager, and sometimes producing partner, Peter Safran, calls up James because this is how our industry works … Fortunately, I was in good standing with James, I try to be in good standing with as many people as I can be and try to be a decent person, and I think between that and how well James thought I did in the Star-Lord test, he said, ‘Yeah man, you really should give Zach an opportunity at this. I really think he could be great.’

“Was that the thing that sent it all over for me? I don’t know that, but I’m sure it was part of that conversation, absolutely. I’m indebted to James that he would believe in me enough to remember that and pass that info on.”

So it all worked out in the end. Meanwhile, Pratt is due for Vol. 3 of Guardians — and Mario, and Garfield — while Levi has Shazam! Fury of the Gods, where he gets to hang with no less than Dame Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu. The creator, as they say, has a master plan.

(Via /Film)

Although he’s a legend in his own right, Charles Barkley let it be known that he really wants to meet one of rap’s biggest stars – Eminem. On a recent appearance for The Paul Finebaum Show Barkley said Em is one of the few people who he really wants to meet but hasn’t crossed paths with yet.

“I’d like to meet Eminem,” the former player turned sports commentator said. “I am a big fan of his. I got to meet Snoop Dogg last year. I’ve met Dr. Dre before. I’ve met Denzel, which was awesome. There are very few people that I have not had the opportunity to brush around in my amazing, amazing life.” That amazing life, of course, included a lengthy career in the NBA that resulted in an entry into the Hall Of Fame, an NBA MVP award, and a stint playing basketball in the Olympics.

So, if there’s anyone in this equation who should be excited for this meeting, it could just as well be Eminem! He showed face recently for a venture outside of music when his Mom’s Spaghetti restaurant opened in Detroit. That would’ve been a great place for Barkley to show up in order to meet Em? Either way, surely these two will cross paths soon — especially now that Eminem has heard this high praise. Check out the interview up top, the subject of Eminem comes up around the 4:11 mark.

Last week, Selena Gomez quietly announced the launch of her new “mental fitness” site, Wondermind, a partnership between Gomez, Newsette CEO Daniella Pierson, and her mother, Mandy Teefey. Gomez has been open about her own struggles with mental health in the past, even recently discussing quitting music entirely — though she later walked that comment back — and her desire to help others who struggle comes through crystal clear in Wondermind.

“You work out your body, but what about your mind?” the site asks, before launching into a more detailed breakdown of what “mental fitness” really is. “To us, mental fitness means creating a routine; working through your feelings to better understand your mind — with the right tools and community to support growth. It means committing to a daily practice, even when you feel out of your comfort zone (which shows it’s working!). Here at Wondermind, there’s no judgment. Just progress. Keep going, you’ll get there — and one day before you know it, it will all be second nature.”

Soon, the trio will also be launching a podcast that speaks to the same concepts. For now, they’ve put together a video, above, that helps explain the vision, and also have a newsletter that anyone can sign up for by visiting the website right here.

It’s been nearly four and a half years since Paramore dropped an album, namely 2017’s After Laughter, which gave the band their third top-10 album as well as a Gold certification. Since then, the band has been fairly quiet, at least as a unit. Meanwhile, lead vocalist Hayley Williams launched her solo career with two albums: 2020’s Petals For Armor and 2021’s Flowers For Vases/Descansos. At long last, after a number of hints, it seems like Paramore is finally gearing up to drop a new album, as Williams recently revealed.

“Before I go, thank y’all so much for the incredible support these last couple years,” she wrote in a newsletter according to NME. “I know we didn’t get to properly come together to sing and vent and sweat it all out…but I do think that Petals and descansos lived exactly the lives they were meant to.” She added, “Besides, Paramore can’t be ‘on a break’ forever now can we? I love y’all. See you sometime next year?”

Williams also thanked her bandmates for the support they gave her as she crafted her two solo albums. “In the thick of it all, I wrote. Enough to make up 2 solo albums,” she wrote. “The kind of albums I swore I’d never make! Because how dare anyone, most of all me, think for a second that my loyalty to Paramore had dwindled.” She added, “The guys were by my side nearly the entire process. If not actually working on the project with me then cheering me on. I even got to write with a few friends outside of – but very much connected to – Paramore, who taught me so much and gave me so much to be inspired by.”

Williams concluded her message with a shoutout to a close collaborator. “Petals would likely not even exist if not for Joey Howard, his bass guitar, and a drum machine!!” she wrote.

Now that he’s out of jail, Bobby Shmurda, aka Ackquille Pollard, is taking Covid-19 seriously, back in the game, and listening to… Adele? The Brooklyn rapper had some thoughts about a potential collab with the 30 star, but frankly, his idea isn’t very realistic. Though Shmurda may or may not have been spinning 30 when he had the thought of Adele working on a “strip club anthem” with him, there’s nothing on Adele’s new record that would suggest she’d be down. However, would it be epic? Oh it certainly would be, so we have to give Shmurda credit there, for the creativity.

“You know what the world needs,” the rapper began. ” #BobbyShmurda & #Adele to make a Strip Club Anthem.” As one would necessarily need to do in these situations, Shmurda followed the sentiment up with a crying smiley emoji. Perhaps Bobby noticed that within three days, 30 became the best-selling album of the entire year, and those numbers were just as motivating as his desire to make an anthem that sends the club up. Or, maybe he figured if Drake is friends with Adele, then she’s probably worth getting to know. Here’s a better idea, Bobby, hop on the remix of the fifteen minute version of “I Drink Wine” — win win.

Joe Exotic may have technically run against Donald Trump in 2016, but when he got in legal trouble he knew to ask him for help. During the former president’s last weeks in office, the star of Tiger King, the Netflix documentary series that took the nation by storm early in the pandemic, asked if he could make him one of his 11th hour pardons. Trump did not, and Exotic was pissed. And in his new memoir, he’s still pissed, though it seems more at himself.

The book is called Tiger King: The Official Tell-All Memoir, and it’s released as its author is still languishing in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, serving a 22-year sentence on 17 charges of murder-for-hire and animal abuse. As per The Daily Beast, it’s a predictably flamboyant read. The first sentence goes like this: “Dear American Public, can you believe that b*tch Carole Baskin is out there free as a bird while I’m sitting here rotting away in prison?”

But Exotic reserves some ire for others. Among them is Trump, who seems to have considered intervening but did not, pardoning the likes of the recently indicted Steve Bannon instead. Exotic says that Trump snubbing him left him looking like a “dumbass,” though he doesn’t let himself off the hook. “Word has it I should have written a big check and I would have gotten that pardon, too,” he writes.

It’s a game-recognizes-game moment, one convicted criminal knowing that the way to the heart of another legally troubled figure is through cold hard cash.

Meanwhile, the Tiger King sequel was recently dropped on Netflix, and though Baskin attempted to get her and her cats removed over contractual hiccups, she, alas, failed.

(Via The Daily Beast)

MyPilllow CEO Mike Lindell’s Thanksgiving “marathon” (the “Thanks-A-Thon”) aims to overturn the 2020 election, which feels like his 25th time to unsuccessfully do so. In actuality, it appears that he’s using the four-day, 96-hour-long fundraising event to scrounge up donations for his legal fund. It doesn’t seem to be going so well, given that he paused the live stream to eat Thanksgiving dinner and claimed that “millions” were probably watching, when only dozens truly tuned in to watch his energetic shenanigans on the Freedom Patriot Network YouTube channel.

In the midst of all of this, Lindell called for a protest outside of Fox News headquarters, and approximately 10 people showed up (all shouting “Shame on FOX!”) to protest how the conservative news network was discussing other topics instead of (nonexistent) voter fraud. Well, it was time for a new trick, so at around 11:30 p.m., Lindell decided to throw in what he had left to receive donations for what he’s calling a “Legal Offense Fund.” Via Business Insider, even the tiniest donation will score donors a “free” copy of Lindell’s memoir, subtitled From Crack Addict to CEO, and Lindell described an excerpt to sweeten the deal:

“If you donate anything, even if it’s $10, I’m gonna send you a free book,” Lindell said, referring to his memoir, titled “What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO.”

Lindell also described the contents of his memoir, including a chapter where he writes about digging through a carpet for crack cocaine.

According to the website of The Lindell Legal Offense Fund, individuals can donate amounts ranging from $10 to $50,000. The website claims that the money donated will be used to “save our country.”

Lindell professes to be using this “Offense Fund” (“we’re always on the offense”) to fight for freedom, although it’s not entirely clear what he means by that statement. He has, however, been sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.3 billion over his unyielding claims that the 2020 election was rigged. In response to that lawsuit, Lindell sued Dominion for $1.6 billion. He’s also, as mentioned above, embroiled in a public battle with Fox News, which is still running his ads for now, but who knows what will happen after he sent 10 protesters to their headquarters. And the Thanks-A-Thon continues!

(Via Business Insider)

The GOP have been trying to paint Democrats as the party against the working class, and for good reason: They’re the ones opposing legislation that could make everyday Americans’ lives better, but they still want their votes. The result has been some very amusing cases of cognitive dissonance.So you get Eric Trump cluelessly slamming Joe Biden for spending time away from the White House, or Rick Scott complaining about spending while being cool with tax cuts on the rich. And you get the GOP’s official Twitter account trying to slam Kamala Harris and only getting owned.

Late Friday, the account came for the Vice President, who last week went to France on a diplomatic trip. As per The Washington Free Beacon, Harris took some time to visit a Parisian boutique shop and reportedly dropped hundreds on cookware.

“While Americans are struggling to pay more than EVER for the holidays, Kamala Harris is out buying a $375 pot,” the GOP tweeted while sharing the article.

Evidently Harris’ lavish spending — from her personal cash, mind you — offended party of millionaires, whose ex-president leader owns a gold toilet. And people on social media were quick to point out the hypocrisy of the GOP complaining about throwing money around.

Donald Trump received the brunt of the mockery. Many dwelled on all the golf trips he took on the taxpayers’ dime.

Or his legal bills.

Or his many, many other extravagances.

Some put their blame on the Republican party in general, who didn’t think much about struggling everyday Americans when they signed tax cuts for the unimaginably rich in 2017.

And others pointed out that the GOP is almost uniformly against the Build Back Better plan, which aims to improve the lives of average Americans.

Amy Schneider, a transgender woman (and engineering manager) out of Oakland, California, recently took Jeopardy! by storm and ousted a five-time champ during Trans Awareness Week and has kept her winning streak going. As of this date, Amy’s scooped up over $250,000 in winnings over eight games, and that streak doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

With each successive win under Amy’s belt, the calm and collected champ regularly takes to Twitter to talk strategy after each game. She has, however, revealed that there’s a downside to winning, and she is no gloating champ, that’s for sure. “The one thing that sucks about Jeopardy is that for me to win, the other contestants have to lose,” Amy tweeted. “Madeline was a very nice person as I said, and as a viewer watching at home, I would have loved to see her go on a run of her own (no offense to Dan btw). But I don’t want to lose!”

Not too many game show winners (or winners in any arena) would stop to tweet that message, and her triumph will likely be long-lived. Also very important: Schneider has been very clear, throughout her streak so far, that she’s not the first transgender contestant or champ on Jeopardy! In fact, Kate Freeman became the first openly transgender champ quite recently on the show, back in 2020. Following the Thankgiving episode, Amy also tweeted about why she chose to wear a transgender pin on the holiday edition. She wished to provide a signal of support (on national TV) for anyone who might be feeling ostracized from their family (or any unaccepting holiday members) during the holiday season.

Jeopardy! didn’t rest for the holidays, and expect to see Amy defending her winner status again on Monday, November 29.

Birds of Prey was a legitimately unusual comic book beast. Not only was it female-driven (and -directed, and -written), but it was goofier, grittier, and gleefully R-rated, and not in the smirking manner of a Deadpool entry. But if you try to watch it on HBO Max, you’re in for a rude awakening: The version that currently lives there has been censored, whittled down to a PG-13 (or thereabouts). And the movie’s fans are pissed.

As per ComicBook.com, the version of Birds of Prey on the streamer now opens with a curious message: “This film has been modified as follows from its original version: it has been edited for content.” It’s the kind of wordage one usually sees on edited TV versions of R-rated movies.

That’s because that’s exactly what it was. A Warner Bros. spokesperson later told IGN that the broadcast cable version, which would normally air on places like TNT, was “mistakenly added to the service.” They said the “unedited original version will be available on HBO Max instead.”

As of this writing, the mistake still hasn’t been corrected. Despite a note claiming it’s Rated R, the version on HBO Max still has the “edited for content” disclaimer and runs about six minutes shorter than the one released to theaters.

Birds of Prey — full title: (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), despite the seemingly failed attempt to rename it — was the second film to feature Margot Robbie’s quasi-villainous Harley Quinn, plucking her away from the Suicide Squad (as well as her ex-beau Joker) and teaming her with four fellow female badasses. It also featured a fried egg breakfast sandwich for the ages.

When people noticed Birds of Prey was cut to shreds, they were not pleased.

Some, noticing that R-rated boys comic book fare hadn’t been censored, called it sexism.

And others reminded people the importance of purchasing physical media and not relying on the whims of streamers.

(Via ComicBook.com and IGN)