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ESPN’s College Gameday rolled through Los Angeles on Saturday ahead of UCLA playing host to Oregon in the biggest game of the Pac-12 season so far. There was, really, only one choice for a Gameday trip to UCLA for guest picker, as ESPN brought Bill Walton out to his old stomping grounds to bring a little extra life to the Gameday set.

What transpired was almost 25 minutes of chaos, as the show steamrolled into the 12:00 hour thanks to Walton’s ramblings about famed basketball alums from every school, booming business in the state of Utah, and all manner of other Walton-isms. Watching the Gameday crew trying desperately to move things along while Walton commandeered the ship was truly incredible to watch, and it took approximately five seconds from his arrival on the set for things to go off the rails as he asked, “have you ever seen a bear fight a duck?”

Poor Rece Davis got to know what Dave Pasch’s life is like during college hoops season as he tried in vain to keep the train rolling along, telling Bill at one point he needed to introduce a sponsor, which Bill was delighted by.

Almost every school that came up, Walton had some strong takes on, whether that was picking Wake Forest because of Tim Duncan and Chris Paul or expounding on Utah’s burgeoning business scene for, no joke, 60 seconds before taking the Utes. The man was prepared, but the best parts were where he was reacting to something, like learning that a “poke” is a cowboy, noting that he is a space cowboy.

When it came time for Washington State’s game to get picked, Rece tiptoed around their “strange” week where Nick Rolovich was dismissed for refusing to get the vaccine, but Walton was more than happen to go into that territory, saying “get a vaccination, please.”

There were also lots of animal noises, from cougars to tigers to bears. At the end, Corso finally got to throw on his headgear, picking UCLA in spite of Puddles’ presence on set and earned a smooch from Walton — who even got a jab in at Kirk that he can’t read.

Gameday needs this kind of chaotic energy more, and I think once a season they should invite Walton on as the guest picker. They might just want to start picks at 11:30 instead of 11:45 next time.

Lana Del Rey released her eighth album Blue Bannisters on Friday and to promote it, the singer stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform a track from the new album. Del Rey selected “Arcadia,” delivering a tender performance that found her accompanied by just a piano. It was also shot in black-and-white, which that made the performance feel even more intimate.

Blue Bannisters boasts 15 songs and zero guest appearances. It’s her second full-length release of the year, following March’s Chemtrails Over The Country Club. Weeks after she released the latter album, Del Rey began the promotion run for Blue Bannisters, releasing three singles from her subsequetn album: “Wildflower Wildfire,” “Blue Banister,” and “Text Book.”

Before releasing Blue Bannisters, Lana Del Rey shared some insight about the project and explained her intentions behind it. “I guess you could say this album is about what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now,” she said. “If you’re interested go back and listen to the first three songs I put out earlier. They chronicle the beginning.”

You can watch Del Rey’s performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert above.

Blue Bannisters is out now via Polydor/UMG. Get it here.

In the Fast and/or Furious movies, Vin Diesel’s Dom is always going on about family. It’s the most important thing in the world, he says, and it transcends blood relations: It’s also about the friends you meet along the road. But Diesel himself apparently believes that, too. Over the weekend, people lost their minds over images of Meadow Walker, the daughter of the late Paul Walker, being walked down the aisle at her wedding by her father’s costar.

Meadow herself shared images from her wedding, where she tied the knot with her fiancé Louis Thornton-Allan on a beach in the Dominican Republic. Accompanying her was her godfather, Diesel. Meadow told Vogue that the pandemic had impacted the wedding. “Louis’s family wasn’t able to attend,” she said. “A lot of close friends whom we consider family were also unable to attend due to travel restrictions.”

She also released a video, which showed the happy couple getting into a car afterwards.

When images of Diesel and Meadow Walker went public, the internet went nuts.

Both Paul Walker and Diesel rose to fame with the first Fast and the Furious movie, and though Diesel skipped the next two installments — and Walker bailed on the third — the two reunited with 2009’s Fast & Furious, which put the franchise on the track to become the behemoth it is today. Walker tragically died in 2013 after a freak car accident. He was only 40 years old.

(Via Vogue)

Details about the tragic accidental gun discharge on the set of the low-budget Western Rust are still emerging, painting a damning portrait of an industry that doesn’t do right by its employees. On Thursday, star Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that was reportedly loaded. It resulted in the wounding of director Joel Souza and the killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Now we’re learning that conditions on set were already febrile beforehand, and that it wasn’t even the first time a prop gun had gone off.

According to The Los Angeles Times, sources from the Santa Fe set said that, hours before the shooting, a half dozen camera crew members had walked off the set in protest of terrible working conditions, including “long hours, long commutes and waiting for their paychecks.”

What’s more, safety protocols, including gun safety inspections, were not being strictly followed. Last Saturday, mere days before the fatal shooting, there had even been another accidental discharge:

Baldwin’s stunt double accidentally fired two rounds Saturday after being told that the gun was “cold” — lingo for a weapon that doesn’t have any ammunition, including blanks — two crew members who witnessed the episode told the Los Angeles Times.

“There should have been an investigation into what happened,” a crew member said. “There were no safety meetings. There was no assurance that it wouldn’t happen again. All they wanted to do was rush, rush, rush.”

A colleague was so alarmed by the prop gun misfires that he sent a text message to the unit production manager. “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe,” according to a copy of the message reviewed by The Times.

The person in charge of the gun props, known as the armorer, was 24-year-old Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the daughter of a veteran armorer and who had recently completed The Old Way, with Clint Howard and Nicolas Cage. She could not be reached for comment by the Times.

Meanwhile, crew members were forced to make alarmingly long commutes. They had been promised that they would receive hotel rooms in a nearby Santa Fe hotel.

But after filming began, the crews were told they instead would be required to make the 50-mile drive from Albuquerque each day, rather than stay overnight in nearby Santa Fe. That rankled crew members who worried that they might have an accident after spending 12 to 13 hours on the set.

Hutchins had been reportedly advocating for better conditions for her crew. When they walked off, she was heartbroken about how badly they’d been treated. “She said, ‘I feel like I’m losing my best friends,’” a source told the Times.

(Via The Los Angeles Times)

Beyonce is preparing for another release through her beloved line Ivy Park, and it sees her partnering with Peloton, the popular fitness company. According to Women’s Wear Daily, the upcoming line includes lifestyle and performance footwear and apparel in neon, olive, and black colors. In total, 29 pieces will be available, including T-shirts, bike shorts, tights, sports bras, shorts, windbreaks, and cropped hoodies. She’s also releasing the IVP Ultrapack, a unisex sneaker that will be sold in sizes 4 to 14.

The line will be available on the Adidas website, in physical stores, and on the Peloton e-commercial sites on November 10. Prices for the apparel will range from $45 to $200 while IVP Utrapack shoes are priced at $200. She also shared a campaign video for the upcoming drop on her Instagram page.

Beyonce teamed with Peloton nearly a year ago for a multi-year partnership benefiting HBCUs, which gave two-year Peloton Digital memberships to students at ten HBCUs: Bennett College, Clark Atlanta University, Grambling State University, Hampton University, Howard University, Morehouse College and Morehouse School of Medicine, Spelman College, Texas Southern University, and Wilberforce University. Students were thus granted access to a library of fitness classes on the Peloton app. In a press release, the fitness company also promised to “build on its relationships with each of these schools to pursue long-term recruiting partnerships at both the internship and undergraduate levels.”

The greatest goal scorer in the history of the Premier League did his best to get one of his old clubs a new fan on Friday. Alan Shearer, who scored 260 goals in his PL career for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United from 1992-2006, is in Los Angeles for Premier League Fan Fest, the product of NBC Sports and the league teaming up to bring the beautiful game to cities in the United States.

While there, Shearer met with former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a well-documented supporter of Liverpool. Their half-hour meeting involved a pitch to get Schwarzenegger to embrace Newcastle, and while the pair did pose for a photo of The Terminator holding a shirt, Shearer is brutally honest in how he thinks his pitch went.

“I don’t think it worked,” Shearer tells Uproxx Sports.

Shearer usually spends a whole heck of a lot of time talking about Newcastle — he’s the greatest player in club history and was part of the inaugural class of Premier League Hall of Fame inductees in large part due to his excellence as a Magpie — but that’s been ramped up lately, as the club came under new ownership through a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s government and its sovereign wealth fund. He has acknowledged that he has reservations about the takeover, but he’s excited for long-suffering fans of Newcastle to see their loyalty rewarded by owners who do everything they can to support the club.

On Friday, Uproxx Sports caught up with Shearer to talk Newcastle, the perceived title contenders in the Premier League this season, the early season struggles of two of the greatest English goal scorers of the current era, and more.

What are you going to be doing in Los Angeles this weekend?

Engaging with the fans of the Premier League and all the different football clubs. It’s great to be a part of it, and it’s great see how diehard of supporters they are — they have to be to get up at stupid o’clock to watch their teams do it. So, we’re here for the weekend. I’ve been fortunate enough to do … I think we did one in New York, one in Washington, one in Austin, we’ve been to India several times, and here we are in L.A., and I’m really looking forward to it, should be a great weekend.

What’s your favorite thing about getting to do an event like this?

My favorite thing is seeing the dedication of all the U.S. soccer fans for the Premier League. I mean, obviously I’m aware of it in England and around Europe and other parts of the world, but to get here and just sample the atmosphere of all the fans here, I think it’s amazing.

This is a really fun weekend in the Premier League, what is the thing that you’re most excited about with the league this weekend?

Well, I think the standout game is Manchester United-Liverpool on Sunday. I don’t need to tell you or anyone how big those two particular football clubs are around the world. And I’m sure that it’ll generate great interest in our Fan Fest on Sunday. The way both teams are scoring goals, I’m hoping for a high scoring game. I have no particular allegiance to any of those teams. I just hope it’s a really exciting game for us all to watch.

I’d love to start picking your brain about the teams and first one would be United. They got Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer, got Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho, but something has just seemed a little bit off. What has stood out about them?

Well, I watched them closely last weekend when they played Leicester and were beaten by Leicester. Man United will always score goals because of the fantastic attacking talent that they have, whether that be Ronaldo, or [Marcus] Rashford, or [Mason] Greenwood, or Sancho, [Bruno] Fernandes and [Paul] Pogba. All these guys, they’re so good going forward.

But what I also noticed is that they’re so open, and that’s why they’re conceding so many goals. I felt they really struggled last weekend in terms of the press, they didn’t know when to press, how to press. And I think when you’ve got that attacking talent in the team, it’s finding that balance. So, that’s why I think they’ve struggled defensively. You can’t pin all the blame on the back four, whether that’s Harry Maguire in there, or [Victor] Lindelof, or Varane when he’s played. The press must come from the midfield and the forwards, and I’ve just felt they’ve really struggled with that this season.

And then Liverpool, they’ve just been scintillating. To me, they look like the team that pushed City to the final day then ran away with the league again. How have they been so effectively, to this point, able to put last season behind them and have success this year?

One of the big things, obviously, is [Virgil] van Dijk being back. When you have a player of his caliber missing for the year that he did, then you’re gonna miss him, because he’s one of the world’s best, and he proved that when Liverpool went all the way. So, to have him back is a big plus, and then the way that the forward players are playing. I think it also helps that Mo Salah, if I’m correct in saying, didn’t play any football in the summer. So, he’s coming back and he’s probably playing the best football of his career, and for me, is probably the best in world football as we sit here.

And then I want to ask about the other two teams viewed as the title contenders. First one is Chelsea, they’re top of the table. Some injury concerns, but what do you think they need to do to be able to stay on top for the remainder of the season?

They’ll need to keep [Romelu] Lukaku fit. I know they had one or two injury concerns with him and [Timo] Werner, I think they both came off in midweek, which will be a concern in the long run. I don’t think it should be a big concern this weekend for them.

But he’s a game-changer for them. I know he hasn’t scored for five or six games, Lukaku, but in terms of what he gives them with a threat in front of goal. They didn’t quite have that last season despite them winning the Champions League — Werner missed numerous chances last year. So, they keep Lukaku fit or get him fit and he doesn’t miss too many games, then it won’t be too long before he’s back amongst the goals. And as I said, he will be the game-changer for them.

I think defensively, they’ll be strong, they know how to defend as a team. They’ve got midfield who can pretty much do everything and make it tough for the opposition. They just needed to find someone to put the ball in the back of the net, and they’ve taken great confidence from what they achieved last season. I actually picked them to win the title this season. I’ve not seen, at the minute, anything to change my mind.

Well then I have to ask about the champions. With Manchester City, it’s going to be tougher sledding for them compared to last year. What have you liked about them, and where have you been concerned about their potential ability to retain their title?

Well, they obviously wanted to bring in a center forward, they wanted to bring in Harry Kane, and that never happened. They wanted to bring in Ronaldo, obviously that never happened. So, clearly, Pep [Guardiola] felt he was short in that department, and I think the longer the season goes on … I mean, it’s very difficult to predict because they’ve got so many good players who can be creative, who can score goals, who will open teams up for fun. We’ve all seen that. But there has been a few occasions where they’ve just missed that killer instinct, or that who can be that presence in and around the six yard box, because I’ve always said it, really, an average player in Man City’s team should get at least 20 goals a season. But a world class center forward in their team, I think, would get 40 to 45 goals.

Is there one team outside of that perceived top group that you’ve really enjoyed watching the most, and why?

Well, I’d love to say Newcastle [laughs]. I would say Leicester because of how long they’ve been up there now, how long they’ve been with the big boys. I know they’ve had injury problems this season, but they were back to somewhere near their best last weekend against Man United. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their football, they had Jonny Evans back, who was a big player in that team, and the way they’re not scared of the bigger teams, bigger clubs. They just go after them, and they’ve got so many talented players in that squad. So, I’d have to say Leicester.

I figured with how great of a goalscorer you were, you’d be a perfect person to ask about Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling. The narrative is they’ve both had a poor run a form relative to their expectations. Do you think that’s a hangover from Euros and their summers being so hectic, or do you think something’s going on with them?

I think something’s going on with Raheem. I think that has, sort of, rolled on from last season, if you’d like. He had a brilliant summer for England, as did Harry Kane. I have no doubt about both players’ abilities and that they’ll both come back. I mean, Harry came back last weekend against Newcastle, and if you look over his career, traditionally, he’s a slow starter for most, if not every, season in the Premier League. So, he got his first against Newcastle last weekend, don’t be surprised that, because of the life of a goalscorer, you go a few games without scoring, then you get one, then you get another three or four after that. So, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he went on a bit of a scoring spree now.

But with Raheem, I don’t know, I guess it looks to me as if something’s gone on. But they’ve got so much talent, particularly on that left-hand side, where he wants to play, or I think is his best position. Whether that’s Phil Forden in there, whether that’s Jack Grealish in there, Bernardo Silva, or Raheem, I mean, that is some serious talent, and you can’t play them all. If I remember rightly, Bernardo Silva — there was talk about him in the summer leaving, or at the end of last season — he’s probably been Man City’s best player this year. So, if you get your head down, which I’m sure Raheem will do, then I don’t think it’ll be too long before we’re talking his form and his goals again.

You said Newcastle fans are excited after feeling like they haven’t had a voice in their club for 14 years. Do you anticipate that fans are going to be willing to be patient with the new ownership group, knowing that if it takes a few years, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel here?

Absolutely, they will be patient, because they know there’s a project going on. It just can’t happen instantly, as much as we’d all like it to, because we, as a football club, Newcastle have flatlined and had no ambition and no hope for the last 14 years. So, the owners have come in and they’ve had more communication in the last 10 days with the fans than we’ve had in the in the previous 14 years. So, I’m absolutely certain the fans will be patient. And it’s going to take time, and whoever the next manager is, that may not be the guy that takes us to the success that the fans want in three, or five, or 10 years’ time. So, there’s a project going on, and we all understand that, and we all have to be, and will be patient, for that.

Yeah, I think people forget that it took City three years to win a trophy and four to win the league. So, I’m glad that you think there’s going to be that willingness for that fans to be able to sit back and say, “Alright, our club is going in the right direction.”

Well, at least we’re going in the right direction, at least we’ve got some hope now, at least they’ve got a little bit of excitement, and a little bit of ambition. And that’s why they will be patient and understand that.

During the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Phoenix Suns, a fan was ejected for an incident with Lakers guard Rajon Rondo. Video showed that Rondo, while appearing to point at someone in the aftermath of a drink getting spilled on the floor, had his hand slapped away by a fan sitting courtside.

Immediately after the fan made contact with Rondo, the officials and courtside security came over and saw to it that he was removed from the arena. It is unclear if Rondo and the fan exchanged in any back-and-forth, or if the fan was unhappy with how Rondo was pointing at him.

At the time of the incident, the Suns found themselves up by 30 in a rematch of a series we saw in the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs. The Lakers had already lost their first game of the year on the league’s opening night of the 2021-22 season in a 121-114 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

After winning a championship with the Lakers during the NBA’s Orlando Bubble, Rondo joined the Atlanta Hawks in the 2020 offseason before getting traded to the Clippers at the deadline. This past offseason, he made the decision to return to the Lakers on a one-year deal.

As the Los Angeles Lakers coughed up a lead in the second quarter of their Friday night tilt with the Phoenix Suns, a rematch of last year’s Western Conference quarterfinals, Los Angeles big men Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard had to be separated by teammates after the two got into a scuffle on the bench.

Howard looked to be getting up and infringing on Davis’ space and Davis seemingly took issue with it, extending his arm and causing Howard to fall back toward the seats on the Lakers’ bench.

A subsequent shot captured the two continuing to hash it out verbally with Howard getting frustrated and seeming to repeatedly say “come on” to Davis.

Another returning member of the Lakers’ 2019-20 NBA Championship-winning team, Rajon Rondo, was able to get between the two big men in both situations to settle things down. Earlier in the game, Howard had been called for a personal foul against Suns point guard Chris Paul, slapping at the ball and catching a lot of body from Paul at the same time.

The Lakers went into the half down 13 after their physical play allowed Phoenix to get into the bonus with about 9:30 left in the half. Los Angeles committed 14 fouls in the first half alone, and Davis and Howard contributed two apiece.

On November 18th, Paloma Mami will be vying for the coveted Best New Artist Award at the 22nd Annual Latin Grammys. The Manhattan-born Chilean-American now lives in Santiago and she’s quickly becoming the gold standard of Chilean Latin Pop. She released her debut album Sueños de Dalí, this past March and there’s a palpable Andean lean to terrific Pop songs with production from Hitboy, Nova Wav, The Stereotypes and others. Stylistically, highlight tracks like”Goteo” and “Religiosa” align her more with the celestial reggaeton-tinged pop of Kali Uchis than with fiercer Latin trap of artists like Karol G and Becky G.

Today, Paloma Mami released “Cosas De La Vida.” the first single from her yet-to-be-announced follow-up album, along with the song’s video that she co-directed. Her pillowy voice rests alongside a delicate acoustic guitar-driven melody and in the video, she’s navigating steadily through space with a panoramic view of the stars and the universe. It paints the imagery that she sings about in the song, of looking to the heavens and dreaming of being with that certain someone once again.

She tweeted today that: “COSAS DE LA VIDA YA ESTÁ AFUERAAA!! Esta canción es muy especial para mi…espero que se pueda transmitir todo el amor que le metí” (“COSAS DE LA VIDA IS OUT!! This song is very special to me…I hope that all you can feel all of the the love that I put into it.”)

Watch the video for “Cosas De La Vida” above.

The Pardon the Interruption 20th anniversary celebration rolled on this week, and to cap off the hit ESPN show’s actual anniversary, hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon received a congratulatory message from former President Barack Obama. As Kornheiser explained, this was a surprise largely organized by ESPN’s Pablo Torre, at which point Obama popped up on screen, much to the delight of the two hosts.

The former President of the United States described his time as a state senator two decades ago when he would, during a long day of menial work, turn on ESPN for some light entertainment and often find himself watching PTI to catch up on the sports stories of the day and hear the two hosts bicker and debate until the buzzer sounded.

“Segment after segment, day after day, year after year, you guys show up,” Obama said.

As president, Obama was well-known for his sports fandom and he often linked up with ESPN for interviews and his annual NCAA Tournament bracket. Of course, since the show has always been filmed in part from Washington, D.C., and Wilbon hails from the president’s hometown of Chicago, it likely holds an even greater place in Obama’s heart.

May we all hope one day to argue with our friends so passionately about sports that the President goes out of his way to tell us we did it incredibly well. If any show deserves that, it is PTI.