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The controversy surrounding Dave Chappelle’s homophobic remarks in The Closer (on Netflix) continues, and for this newest development, Chappelle appears to have changed his tune. This is happening weeks after he addressed the matter of being “cancelled,” and he had declared that “I love it.” The “jokes” in question involve him declaring that he is “Team TERF” and in agreement with author J.K. Rowling’s TERF-aligned remarks. He’s also declared that “gender is a fact.”

The backlash was fierce, including Hannah Gadsby (of Netflix’s Emmy-winning Nanette special) calling out Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos for an “amoral algorithm,” which followed his claims that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” Then Netflix employees staged a walkout (the organizer of the walkout has been fired for leaking metrics) and Chappelle’s team signaling (via TMZ) that he was open to sitting down with those employees who staged the walkout. Now, Dave is defensively pushing back onstage, where he listed conditions for meeting with Netflix’s trans employees.

Chappelle posted video footage of his relevant remarks to Instagram; here’s the clip, and we’ll post transcribed quotes below.

As far as the transphobic remarks are concerned, there’s no apology coming from Dave: “I said what I said.” He’s also complaining about being cancelled by film festivals after accepting invitations (for an upcoming stand-up documentary), and now, Dave says that only Ted Sarandos and Netflix haven’t cancelled him:

“This film that I made was invited to every film festival in the United States. Some of those invitations I accepted. When this controversy came out about The Closer, they began disinviting me from these film festivals. And now today, not a film company, not a movie studio, not a film festival, nobody will touch this film. Thank God for Ted Sarandos and Netflix, he’s the only one that didn’t cancel me yet.”

Then Dave listed some conditions to meeting with Netflix employees while declaring that he won’t be summoned and is “not bending to anyone’s demands”:

“To the transgender community, I am more than willing to give you an audience, but you will not summon me. I am not bending to anyone’s demands. And if you want to meet with me, I am more than willing to, but I have some conditions. First of all, you cannot come if you have not watched my special from beginning to end. You must come to a place of my choosing at a time of my choosing, and thirdly, you must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny.”

Yes, he truly took a swing at Hannah Gadsby while putting the ball in Netflix employees’ court. That feels like a sure sign that this controversy ain’t over yet. What happens if those employees decide not to meet with him? That would be quite an outcome.

(Via Dave Chappelle on Instagram & Variety)

The post Dave Chappelle Demands That ‘Some Conditions’ Be Met For Him To Meet With Netflix’s Trans Employees: ‘You Will Not Summon Me’ appeared first on UPROXX.

A major hurdle has been cleared in the Ben Simmons saga: The Philadelphia 76ers are not fining him anymore. In a bit of news reported on NBA Today by Ramona Shelburne and confirmed by Marc Stein, the team has stopped levying fines against the All-Star guard amid his ongoing attempts to get a trade.

As Shelburne explained, this is, in part, because the Sixers are now in a situation where they need to stop withholding his money due to the circumstances under which he’s away from the team.

“Some of this, Malika, is because there’s a standard provision in player contracts that says if you’re dealing with a mental health issue — which Ben Simmons has reported to the team that he is, and he wants to work on himself, mentally and physically, this week,” Shelburne said. “They’ve taken that in good faith and said, ‘Ok, we’re taking that you are working on yourself, mentally and physically, and we’ve offered to make these resources available to you.’ And so right now, everybody’s in a good place, and the fines are not accumulating, and that was an issue for Ben Simmons, as you know, in the first couple of weeks in this standoff.”

Simmons addressed the team last week and said that he was not in a place mentally to contribute to the level he expects of himself, something that led to him getting support from teammates like Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, and Tyrese Maxey. Back on Oct. 1, Simmons was owed $8.25 million of his contract, but the Sixers opted to withhold it and place that money in escrow.

The post The Sixers Are No Longer Fining Ben Simmons appeared first on UPROXX.

Ordinary Joe (NBC, 10:00pm) — It’s like Sliding Doors but with TV Prince James Wolk (Watchmen, Mad Men, Political Animals, Zoo) and no Gwyneth Paltrow. If that’s not enough to make you climb aboard, consider that Wolk not only plays a rock star (!) but two other Joes in parallel timelines. This week, Nurse Joe’s parenting all by himself while Music Joe’s (surprisingly) handling the task better. What’s Cop Joe doing? You gotta watch to find out.

We’re Here (HBO, 9:00pm) — Nope, you’re not looking at a photo of Beyoncé. This ^^ would be the fabulous Shangela (of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame), who’s back with the rest of the Queens (including Bob and Eureka) in Spartanburg, South Carolina and Temecula, California after COVID interrupted the first round. In Season 2, the trio will continue to recruit small-town residents (in this case, that would be Noah, Faith, and Olin) and train them for onstage moments that they never dreamed possible. This week, they’re traveling to Del Rio, Texas. Yee haw.

All-American (CW, 8:00pm) — Season 4 picks up after the Beverly and Crenshaw State Championship’s devastating events while Spencer’s struggling to come to terms with competitors.

4400 (CW, 9:00pm) — This new series follows (as the title suggests) 4400 people (all belonging to marginalized communities) who somehow disappeared from Earth without a trace. There’s gonna be quite an aftermath.

Wakefield (Showtime, 9:00pm) — This miniseries follows a beloved and brilliant psychiatric nurse who’s caring for patients int he Blue Mountains of Australia. Her array of patients will also entertain as well as endear.

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Anderson Cooper, Cobie Smulders. Atom Willard

In case you missed these weekend picks:

Dune (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max) — Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, and Stellan Skarsgård playing a 300-pound villain. Oh, and sandworms and spice, too. What more could you possibly want? Well, how about an interpretation of Frank Herbert’s classic from director Denis Villeneuve? That’s more like it, especially because David Lynch would love to pretend that his version never existed. Expect a mythic and epic and world-building journey of a hero, Paul Atreides (Chalamet), who must live up to his incredible destiny. No pressure, of course.

Night Teeth (Netflix film) — Debby Ryan and Lucy Fry play the lead-character vampires of this film, but there are also vampires played by Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney, so you know what that means: any human in their sights are in big trouble. That includes a college-student-turned-chauffeur, Benny (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.), who’s tasked with driving the two primary vamps around to parties, where they can get their thirst on. Can Benny stay alive, can he save Los Angeles, and can he possibly do both things? Talk about a guilty pleasure of a movie.

The post What’s On Tonight: ‘Ordinary Joe’ Takes On Challenges, And ‘We’re Here’ Takes On Texas appeared first on UPROXX.

After months of pulling for his ailing mother Beverly Tate on social media, West Coast rap pioneer Snoop Dogg is now mourning her after she passed away. He announced as much this weekend as he updated his Instagram with a string of grieving posts. Beginning with one recalling one of his mom’s favorite phrases, he continued with a few more, writing “Mama thank u for having me” in the next and continuing to make brokenhearted posts through the rest of the day.

In May, Snoop first gave the indications that his mother was sick, asking fans to pray for her with another set of hopeful posts. Then, in July, he offered an update on her health, writing, “Me and my brothers went to c mama today and she opened up her eyes to c us and let us know she still fighting.” It looks like her fight is finally over; Snoop can take comfort knowing she was comforted and cared for at the end. Longtime Snoop fans are aware that she was the one who first gave him his rap name, nicknaming him Snoopy for his resemblance to the cartoon character. Snoop fans including stars like Magic Johnson have reached out to express their condolences, wishing him well

Also over the weekend, Snoop posted advising Dr. Dre to use the “negative energy” he’s experienced lately to “make something magical.”

The post Snoop Dogg Mourns The Passing Of His Mother, Beverly Tate appeared first on UPROXX.

The Batgirl movie is moving full steam ahead. The film has officially locked down its villain, which is good news, and that villain will be played by the recently resurgent and usually awesome Brendan Fraser, which is better news. Fraser has signed on to play Firefly, a Gotham City foe who has yet to appear in a live-action film, but did have a prominent presence in the hit Batman: Arkham Knight video game.

Deadline was the first to report Fraser’s casting for the highly-anticipated film, which will star Leslie Grace (In The Heights) as the title character and be directed by the Bad Boys for Life team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah:

The film will bow on HBO Max, marking one of the first major DC properties to debut exclusively on the streamer. Christina Hodson penned the script with Kristin Burr producing. While plot details are under wraps, it is known that Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, will be the character behind the cape in this version. Gordon is the most established version of the Batgirl character and was first introduced in 1961 as Betty Kane.

Batgirl will also have an interesting place in the once crumbling DC Extended Universe. Grace’s version of the character will reportedly be the daughter of J.K. Simmons‘ Commission Gordon, who first appeared in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. That would place Batgirl in the same canon as the upcoming The Flash film.

On top of all that, directors Abri and Fallah also reportedly said in an interview that Batman will appear in the Batgirl film. As for which one, they simply said, “the real one.” That doesn’t really narrow it down, considering we currently have Robert Pattinson, Ben Affleck, and Michael Keaton all in the mix in one way or another. But presumably, that distinction will be made clear after The Flash wraps up its reality-breaking adventure through the DC Films universe.

Either way, congrats to Brendan Fraser for joining the elite pantheon of Hollywood action stars who’ve taken a crack at terrorizing Gotham.

(Via Deadline)

The post Oh Heck Yeah, ‘Batgirl’ Is Gonna Let Brendan Fraser Play A Villain appeared first on UPROXX.

Indianapolis Police Officer Jeff Stagg selflessly maintained the roadside memorial of Shelby Smith, who had been killed by a drunk driver. He picked up trash and placed little plastic flowers, figurines and rocks around it to keep it presentable. Though Shelby died nearly 22 years ago, Officer Stagg didn’t want her to be forgotten. And now, his act of kindness won’t be forgotten either.

Passerby Kaleb Hall (@kalebhall00 on TikTok) noticed the officer cleaning up the site and asked him what he was doing here. Kaleb had already thought the behavior a little uncharacteristic, “a cop cleaning up trash in the hood,” so he went over to inquire.

After explaining that Shelby’s memorial was in his patrol area and that he guessed her family had moved away, Officer Stagg told Kaleb, “no one’s keeping it up anymore, so I just wanna make sure it stays kept up.”

Stagg had noticed the memorial had become surrounded by overgrown grass, weeds and trash. After driving past it every day, Officer Stagg thought enough was enough.

He would later tell CNN: “I believe strongly that this is part of the job. When we can try to do something to make things a little bit better as a result of a tragedy, that’s what we do.”

Kaleb posted a TikTok video of their interaction, which quickly racked up nearly 330,000 views and well-received comments like “I wish all cops had a heart like this,” and “It’s so nice to see officers doing things like this for our city. Indy needs more cops like him.”

The video’s popularity led to Shelby’s mother, Sherry Smith, reaching out to meet in person. Say what you will about TikTok, it has a powerful way of bringing people together.

Sherry had in fact moved to Texas 12 years ago, and the pandemic made visiting the memorial difficult. On hearing the news of Officer Stagg’s heartwarming act, Sherry knew she “had to meet him because he had to be a very special person, and he is,” as she told CNN.

On Monday, Oct 18 Sherry and Officer Stagg did have their meeting, but not before Stagg had a new white wooden cross built for the memorial, with Shelby’s name in bright pink letters. He also made sure to bring the officer who arrested the drunk driver who killed Shelby, who Sherry recognized instantly.

Sherry and Officer Stagg met at the memorial site, which had the freshly made wooden cross, surrounded by pink toy ponies and flowers. Sherry brought her own bouquet and a picture of Shelby. She immediately gave Officer Stagg a warm hug and big “thank you.” On seeing the memorial—pristine, maintained and well loved—the mother got emotional, understandably.

Nowadays we don’t often get news of police officers that make us feel much more than injustice. But every now and then there’s a “good cop” story that reinstills our hope in humanity. Thank you, Officer Stagg, for your kindness and empathy. And for honoring those you protect and serve.

The pride of Portland, Aminé did an admirable job staying busy during the pandemic. The rapper put out nearly a full album’s worth of new material in the Limbo (Deluxe Edition) and then was among those featured in the soundtrack to the Space Jam: A New Legacy sequel. Now he’s dropped “Charmander,” his first new track of 2021 and the video is telling of what he’s been up to since… well, sort of.

“Charmander,” named after the classic Pokémon fire-breather, sees him expanding into new sonic frontiers as the track is propped up by a sped-up jump up drum and bass beat. He ruminates on being comfortable in his home base with the repeatable hook, “I’ve been chillin’ on an island, too,” and is seen hanging with a new friend: A giant poodle. As he goes about his day-to-day in a woodsy Oregon cabin, flipping through records, cooking with his lady, and chopping wood, the massive pup is by his side. And the dog has a similar disposition to Aminé: Curious, but always relaxing. He spoke about the track in a statement:

“After the release of Limbo I took some time to experiment and challenge myself to create in ways I hadn’t before — exploring different textures and tempos without any expectations. ‘Charmander’ was the first product of that period that felt natural while still being at a completely different BPM than any of my previous work.”

Watch the video for “Charmander” above.

The post Aminé Kicks Back With A Giant Poodle In The ‘Charmander’ Video appeared first on UPROXX.

While promoting his new book, Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash, the always talkative writer/director opened up his interactions with infamous producer Harvey Weinstein, who already had an unscrupulous reputation before his #MeToo reckoning in 2017. According to Smith’s book, Weinstein allegedly pulled Good Will Hunting out of theaters specifically to screw Robin Williams out of his back-end deal on the film, despite the fact that the acclaimed actor helped to clinch its box office success.

“It was doing incredibly well,” Smith told The Daily Beast‘s Marlow Stern. “And the deal that they’d made with Robin was a high-percentage first-dollar gross—a movie-star deal—and it was great, because instantly by putting Robin in the movie their pre-sales paid for the whole f*cking film.”

Good Will Hunting was doing so well, in fact, that it almost broke the $100 million barrier, which would result in paying Williams a larger cut, so Weinstein pulled the film to Smith’s surprise:

From what I remember, Robin’s split would be even greater and he’d get a bigger percentage if it crossed $100 million, so every dollar the movie made at the theatrical box office would have to be split—I’m not sure if it was a 50/50 split—with Robin Williams. I was on the movie as a co-executive producer, so we were privy to some details, and I remember the day when Good Will Hunting was leaving theaters and it felt weird because it was like, “Wait? There’s all this Oscar buzz, so why would you pull it if it was just making money?” And they did it because keeping it in theaters meant that more of the money would go to Robin, whereas the moment it went to video the split wasn’t Robin-heavy. It was hamstrung because greed.

Smith also made it a point to distance himself from Weinstein, who made Clerks a success after buying it at Sundance. The Mallrats director was quick to shoot down the term “mentor” to describe their relationship.

“‘Mentor’ is a big word,” Smith said. “[George] Carlin and Stan Lee were mentors; Harvey was a guy that produced our movies.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Just month removed from helping spearhead the Phoenix Suns’ run to the NBA Finals, Chris Paul is three games into his 16th season in the league. After stops in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Houston, and Oklahoma City, all of which made playoff appearances during his tenure, Paul said Phoenix stands out among the rest.

“Man, this is probably one of the best locker room that I’ve been in my whole career,” Paul told Yahoo Sports. “Because we have young guys that are leaders and everybody leads in their own different ways. We communicate, we talk. It’s a real family over here. You celebrate the guys that got paid this summer.”

One teammate yet to be paid the money he’s earned, however, is center Deandre Ayton, despite his third-year breakout and consderable in-season strides. Paul said he and Ayton talked about the big man’s contract situation and that Ayton “knows what he has to do.”

“The goal for everybody is to see everyone getting paid,” Paul said. “His situation is what it is, but it’s going to work out for him. We hope it works out for him. The biggest thing we know we can do is go out there and win games.”

Ayton should be playing out this season with the security of a new deal awaiting him. But at the very least, wisdom and encouragement from a leader like Paul might offer some reassurance that a big contract is coming soon.

While Edgar Wright might not be the first name you’d throw out there when asked who should get to take a swing at writing the next James Bond movie, you can’t deny the thought is actually pretty damn cool. With films like Baby Driver, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the upcoming psychological horror romp Last Night in Soho under his belt, there seems to be little question of if Wright could do it, but rather if the dark comedy legend would even be given chance to shoot his shot. However, Wright might just be manifesting the opportunity for himself, confessing in a recent podcast appearance he already has a pitch ready to go.

On the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the British director gushed about his love of the James Bond series to host Josh Horowitz before telling him what direction he thinks the 007 franchise needs to go in. According to Wright, the James Bond movies are a mix of “dark chocolate of milk chocolate,” with “dark chocolate” referring to the films with a more intense take on Bond and his storyline and “milk chocolate” meaning the movies that are a bit more light-hearted and comedic in tone.

Wright says that after Daniel Craig’s decidedly “dark chocolate” approach to the character, the series is “crying out for another milk chocolate Bond,” as there’s nothing “to be gained by continuing in the same vein.” Luckily for MGM, Wright even has an idea for a “milk chocolate” James Bond movie, however the director is unsure of if the studio feels the same way about the series’ direction as he does based on the names he’s seen tossed around for the upcoming project.

“I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by continuing in the same vein, and I think it would certainly be interesting to try and… I mean, I do have a take [on Bond], and if they ever ask me, I’ll pitch it to them [laughs], so I’m not going to say it, but when I see some of the names being bandied around, I can’t quite see it, and they seem like Daniel Craig II.”

To Wright’s point, all of the rumors and names tossed around do seem to foreshadow the Bond character will remain more serious in the series’ next installment, making his light-hearted, comedy pitch seem a bit too out there to be greenlit. Hell, even Dune director Denis Villeneuve seems to be advocating for a shot to direct the next 007 movie, and we all know he takes himself and his work very seriously. However, fingers crossed Wright one day gets to at least pitch his idea and maybe we see the Thor: Ragnarok-ification of the Bond series. We all know the suave super spy likes things shaken anyways.