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The Memphis Grizzlies came through the play-in tournament to reach the playoffs in 2021 for the first time in the post-Grit ‘n Grind era, as the young Grizz, led by Ja Morant, beat the Spurs and Warriors to earn the 8-seed out West.

It was the type of season that only builds excitement for fans, but this offseason saw Memphis continue to take things slow rather than trying to make a big swing with any major additions. They’ll focus on internal development with their young core and hope that gets them not only back to the playoffs, but can lead to even more postseason success after a feisty 5-game exit against Utah.

Roster:

Ja Morant
Dillon Brooks
Kyle Anderson
Jaren Jackson Jr
Steven Adams
Brandon Clarke
De’Anthony Melton
Desmond Bane
Tyus Jones
Xavier Tillman
John Konchar
Jarrett Culver
Kris Dunn
Ziaire Williams
Santi Aldama
Sam Merrill
Killian Tillie (two-way)
Yves Pons (two-way)

Projected Vegas Win Total: 41.5 at BetMGM

Biggest Addition: Steven Adams

The Grizzlies, as mentioned, didn’t do an awful lot this offseason in terms of trying to make additions to win now. Their biggest move was to deal Jonas Valanciunas to New Orleans for Adams, Eric Bledsoe (now in L.A.), and the 10th pick which became Ziaire Williams. Adams brings a different dynamic than Valanciunas to the frontcourt, with less impact as an offensive threat, but still a quality rebounder and, with strong defenders around him, can be a solid rim deterrent. The real answer here is, hopefully, a full season of Jaren Jackson Jr. after he played in just 16 games to end the season, including playoffs. That might mitigate some of the pain of losing Valanciunas.

Biggest Loss: Jonas Valanciunas

It’s hard to overstate how good Valanciunas was for Memphis a year ago, and having to navigate next season without him is going to be the biggest challenge for the Grizzlies. His 17.1 points and 12.5 rebounds per game were, by far, the best on the team, and his 15.1 offensive rebound percentage played a big role in getting an offense that wasn’t particularly efficient (15th in the NBA in offensive rating) second chances when they needed them. Defensively he was also a big factor in their success despite not always carrying the reputation as a terrific defender, and his presence in the paint is going to be an uphill battle to replace on both ends.

Biggest Question: How good can Jaren Jackson Jr. be?

We have seen flashes of the talent that made him the No. 4 overall pick in 2018 — most notably a terrific sophomore campaign averaging 17.4 points per game — but he’s struggled to remain healthy. Now, with Valanciunas gone, he figures to be the offensive focal point in the frontcourt for the Grizzlies and, while so much focus will understandably be on whether Ja Morant has another leap in him, their success and whether they can replicate last season’s run to the playoffs will be dependent on how good (and healthy) Jaren Jackson Jr. is in an spotlighted role.

What Makes This Season A Success: Making the playoffs and positive growth from young players

Because last year saw them make the playoffs, that is now the expectation for Memphis no matter how daunting the task in the West. Beyond that, this offseason made clear that this is a franchise thinking about their future, and they’ll want to see the likes of JJJ, Brandon Clarke, Desmond Bane, and De’Anthony Melton all continue to show growth. They believe this is the core of the franchise, but I also think they want a bit more time to evaluate where the real needs are for upgrading. The fewer spots that look shaky the sooner they can try to make the moves to vault into West contender status, and that starts with backing up a great 2020-21 with more improvement internally this season at a number of spots.

What Makes This Season A Failure: Missing the playoffs and players taking steps back

This one’s pretty simple, missing the playoffs isn’t the only thing here, as a play-in berth probably wouldn’t make Memphis fans feel awful, but if it’s missing the playoffs because they see some guys take steps back from where they were a year ago, that will feel like they’re going in the wrong direction. This is a team feeling a tremendous amount of positive momentum after last season, but they mostly punted on this offseason. That could pay off if everyone keeps improving, but development isn’t always linear and, even if it’s not a disaster if guys stagnate or look a touch worse this season, it won’t make anyone in Memphis feel particularly good.

Offset may not be a Los Angeles native but it looks like his time in the city has left him with a close affinity for its local heroes. TMZ reports the Atlanta rapper was one of a number of high-profile well-wishers to help out with the costs of actor Anthony Johnson’s funeral. The Friday co-star passed away a week ago at the age of 55, receiving fond tributes from hip-hop stars like Bow Wow, Ice Cube, and Vince Staples.

Unlike those three, Offset had no personal connection to the late comic actor, but he did contribute to the nearly $70,000 that have been donated to the actor’s family’s GoFundMe. According to TMZ, Offset donated $5,000. Another notable donor was comedian Lil Rel Howery (Get Out) who gave $4,000. Michael Blackson, another comedy personality, helped raise $10,000.

Johnson’s widow will give the overage after paying for the funeral to the actor’s four children and start a standup comedy school for underprivileged youth. She also wants to advocate for entertainers to get life insurance, as Johnson’s sudden passing left his family scrambling to cover the funeral costs.

Before his passing, Johnson was known for acting roles in House Party, Lethal Weapon 3, and Menace II Society, as well as a standup career in the LA area.

Matt Amodio is officially a part of Jeopardy! history after he became just the third contestant to win $1 million on Friday. But regardless of what some fans think of his quirky answering style, he’s already done something far more important in the immediate sense as he continues to cruise through Season 38 of Jeopardy!: make everyone focus on the games, not the drama around the show’s disastrous search for a new host.

Aside from Amodio’s brilliance, recent news about the show has been nothing short of exhausting. Mike Richards was a bad pick to replace Alex Trebek, may have rigged the search that landed on him in the first place, and made decision-makers at Sony look bad for thinking his extensive baggage wouldn’t matter to the show’s biggest fans. Every other person seemingly in the running has had a bad news cycle or two, to boot.

Even the groundswell of support for a guest host like LeVar Burton got tiring. It didn’t help that, for a variety of reasons, he simply wasn’t very good at the job. Burton knew it and said it himself, but it didn’t seem to matter to those crusading for him to get a job he now has repeatedly said he doesn’t want.

No one is really immune here, though. Potential Trebek replacements have jockeyed for position and lobbied for public support for months now. Fan petitions, cryptic comments and intense scrutiny of their job performance on guest hosting weeks have become big entertainment news. It’s made things hard for contestants and fans alike, and all of that has distracted from what’s made the show so enjoyable for so long. Because if those in charge of Jeopardy! want to move past the PR wreckage of 2021, they need to pick a host that embodies the late Alex Trebek’s biggest mantra: it’s not about the host.

“You have to set your ego aside,” Trebek told Vulture in 2018 when asked what makes a good Jeopardy! host. “The stars of the show are the contestants and the game itself. That’s why I’ve always insisted that I be introduced as the host and not the star.”

Despite becoming synonymous with Jeopardy!, Trebek said again and again that the show was not about him. His focus, he said, was on making the three contestants on stage the reason people keep tuning in to watch.

“And if you want to be a good host, you have to figure a way to get the contestants to — as in the old television commercial about the military — ‘be all you can be,’” Trebek said in 2018. “Because if they do well, the show does well. And if the show does well, by association I do well.”

For many it always felt like Trebek had all the answers, even if that was just part of the gig. But because Trebek was a constant presence, the contestants actually became stars in their own right. Fans of the show had far more than just three Jeopardy! GOATS they can name offhand. While Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter are undoubtedly the show’s biggest names, contestants like Austin Rodgers, Arthur Chu and Buzzy Cohen are familiar even passive Jeopardy! watchers.

Cohen’s success in the show’s Tournament of Champions earned him a guest hosting spot this year. Watching he and Jennings take the podium and look the part was a good example of embodying that Trebek quote: both knew how to make contestants comfortable without stealing the show. Because before all the drama it was quirky personalities, impressive performances and viral blunders that once made Jeopardy! viral, with Trebek the professional foil to keep it moving with a steady hand.

The loss of that guidance has been notable since Trebek’s death in November but so, too, is the obvious change in what’s become important when watching the show. Turning the end of last season into a proverbial bake-off made what the hosts were doing on stage much more important than how contestants played or who could survive wave after wave of hosting change. It absolutely impacted the game, too.

Remember that Jeopardy! is a show built entirely on the host’s whims and wants. It was Trebek’s voice and cadence contestants studied in order to get the timing down for when to use their signaling device. Trebek himself was responsible for exactly how long contestants had to answer questions, his literal finger on the button of the game’s flow behind the podium. But with him at the controls, none of that was the focus. It was three smart people doing their best to answer questions under bright TV lights. Five episodes a day, if you’re lucky.

Amodio succeeding amid all this weirdness to win $1 million is an incredible accomplishment. But that Amodio has survived this gauntlet of host changes and incredibly weird on-set vibes and is still winning games immediately makes him one of the best contestants in the show’s history. If only because his run has given some of the show’s biggest fans time to breathe and just take in a very good player impressing night in and night out, too.

“Anyone else feel like we are watching just normal J! for the first time since November?” a member of the Jeopardy! Reddit board posted recently. “The only thing I look forward to/gets me through a Monday is the return of Matt on Jeopardy!” wrote another. And the warm feelings are certainly mutual, as Amodio admitted he’s reading all those kind words from afar.

What’s ahead for the Ph. D student if he keeps winning are more comparisons to Rutter, Jennings and Holzhauer and a much-hyped crack at the next Tournament of Champions. Fans are certainly rooting for him to stick around for a while, just to see how big those numbers can get before a worthy foe ends his run. It’s been too long since the contestants have been the focus on Jeopardy!, but Amodio has certainly done his best to distract everyone else from the mess happening all around him.

After years of allegations and court dates for R. Kelly, a verdict has finally been handed down: The New York Times reports that today, Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and eight violations of an anti-sex trafficking law. The singer now “faces the possibility of decades in prison,” the publication says.

A jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty of all nine counts with which he was charged, The Huffington Post reports. Along with the single count of racketeering, he was also convicted for eight violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. The verdict arrived at about 3:15 p.m. ET this afternoon, on the seventh week of the trial.

Kelly is set to be sentenced on May 4, 2022 at 10 a.m. ET. Tilem & Associates notes the maximum penalty for violating the Mann Act is ten years in prison and a fine. Meanwhile, individuals found guilty of racketeering can face up to 20 years in prison and a fine. The New York Times speculates Kelly “could spend the rest of his life in prison.”

As for Kelly’s reaction to the conviction, the Times notes, “Kelly sat motionless in the courtroom as he was found guilty of all nine counts of the racketeering and sex-trafficking charges against him. His facial expression was hidden by a mask.”

Sean Spicer was the first in a long line of White House Press Secretaries during Donald Trump’s reign. He turned those traditionally informative audiences with reporters into a political sideshow, using the lectern as a place to sell lies about nearly everything from the size of Inauguration crowds to his boss’ private meetings with Russian diplomats at Trump Tower.

Sean Spicer was so bad at his job — and such a prolific liar — that he forever changed the way White House press conferences are now viewed by the public, so it’s truly wild that now, the man who once helped Trump vilify the press and contributed to the rampant spread of misinformation is now condemning the Capitol Hill riots his former employer instigated.

In a wide-ranging chat with Mediaite’s The Interview podcast, Spicer said he was upset over the Jan. 6th insurrection and Trump’s role in it.

“I think it’s very concerning,” Spicer said. “And you saw the fallout, frankly, in the Georgia Senate elections where we lost two seats, frankly, because a lot of people said, well, I’m not going to go out and vote if the system is [rigged].”

He went on to say that the attacks were “personal” to him because of the many years he spent in those buildings and cautioned those spreading Trump’s conspiracy theories: “I think that when there are people that fundamentally don’t believe that the system is fair, you’re going to have a problem.”

Of course, while Spicer was more than happy to drag his former administration, he got a bit defensive when the host asked about his own association with Newsmax, a conservative channel that embraced Trump’s voter fraud claims. Spicer’s now hosting his own show on the network and, despite Newsmax facing multiple defamation lawsuits, including one from Dominion Voting Systems, Spicer said he was proud of the work his news organization was doing.

“I’m not aware of any conspiracy theory that Newsmax pushed,” Spicer said when asked about the lawsuits. “So no, I’m very proud of our coverage actually.”

This guy was so much more fun when Melissa McCarthy could use him as a comedic punching bag.

(Via Mediaite)

At long last, The CW is headed to the final frontier… er, wait, that’s another series, huh? Alright, alright… but The CW is bulking up their space content by reviving cult-classic 90s series Babylon 5. Oh, and for those of you already a bit skeptical hearing about the iconic space-opera’s resurrection, we have even better news: they’re doing so with original series creator J. Michael Straczynski.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The CW, Warner Bros., and the Hugo award-winning Straczynski are teaming up for a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of the original show. While no cast members or timeline has been attached to the project as of yet, we do already have a lengthy description of the new Babylon 5‘s plot that is sure to delight former fans:

“The new take revolves around John Sheridan (originally played by Bruce Boxleitner), an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background, who is assigned to Babylon 5, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space, a port of call for travelers, smugglers, corporate explorers and alien diplomats at a time of uneasy peace and the constant threat of war. His arrival triggers a destiny beyond anything he could have imagined, as an exploratory Earth company accidentally triggers a conflict with a civilization a million years ahead of us, putting Sheridan and the rest of the B5 crew in the line of fire as the last, best hope for the survival of the human race.”

While The CW and Straczynski might seem an odd pairing to tackle this ambitious project, its also worth noting The CW has continuously been pushing to expand their channel and acquire new IPs. In addition, Straczynski does have some experience writing shows for a younger demographic, most notably Netflix’s Sense8, meaning this could very well be a match made in heaven.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, if the project does go forward “it would provide another key franchise revival for The CW and Warners at a time when well-known IP has become increasingly important as networks and streamers alike look to break through a cluttered landscape,” making this a pretty big opportunity for all parties involved. Here’s hoping we hear even more about the reboot early on next year.

Fletcher Cox has steadily established himself as one of the best interior defensive lineman in the NFL over his decade with the Eagles. The big man out of Mississippi State wreaks havocs on opposing offensive lines as one of the best pass rushing tackles in the league.

However, playing defensive tackle requires a certain sense of humility, because half of the job is occupying space and attention to allow linebackers and others to stay clean from blocks and make plays. That can be a tricky balance to strike when you’re talented enough to go make a play regularly, but Cox says it’s all about communication and understanding your job and assignment on each and every play.

We spoke with the All-Pro last week on behalf of his partnership with Tide about the Eagles defense’s strong start to the season, how they will adapt to Brandon Graham’s absence after suffering an Achilles injury, his favorite DTs around the league, how Jalen Hurts just needs to be himself, and what it was like doing voice work for a washing machine.

It’s been a good start for you guys on the defensive side of the ball. What have you felt has been working through the first two weeks for you guys and kind of clicking on that end?

I mean, just knowing that plays are coming to you. Just let the plays come to you, and not try to make everybody else’s plays. It’s just everybody’s alignment, assignment, and doing the job, and you know, everybody’s crowding the football. Everybody runs to the football, not guessing or thinking that one guy’s got him down. It’s about having two guys on one person than just one guy. Just accountability, you know? Just holding everybody accountable, doing their job, and so far it’s paying off. We just gotta keep that same mindset.

The first thing you said about everybody knowing their assignment and playing their assignment, that’s something that’s especially important on the defensive line with gap contain and making sure that you’re in the right spots. That’s as big of a job as trying to make the play every time. How do you learn to do that as you come through your football career and learn that patience that it takes to understand that sometimes it’s not your job to necessarily make the play, but to help set up your guys to make the play?

Absolutely. Just communication, communication and being disruptive at the same time. Knowing that, like you just said, that I don’t make every play, but at some point, I had something to do with being disruptive to help [Javon] Hargrave or Brandon [Graham] or [Josh] Sweat or [Derek] Barnett or Milton [Williams]. Or, one of those guys make plays, even if it’s a safety coming down in the box or a linebacker or a corner. So that’s the biggest thing, just being effective, and just knowing your job, and knowing who you are. So I think that’s one of the biggest deals about playing defense in the NFL.

Obviously it was unfortunate to see Brandon go down but I think his response was something a lot of people gravitated to. What does it say about him not just as a player, but as a person, that he’s trying to take this positive outlook even as he goes down with such a tough injury?

Yeah man, you just got to take the good with it. I mean BG is a great person, great leader. He was always smiling. If you know BG, you know BG was always smiling and always have positive words to say, no matter what was going on during the game or what’s going on during a practice or during a meeting or somebody had miscommunication with something. He always tried to take it to make good out of it, and that’s why BG’s got so much respect. And for a guy that hasn’t missed a game in like I think like 9 or 10 years because of an injury, it says a lot about him and how much he values his body and how much he takes care of himself.

And then for you guys as a defensive line, how do you how do you adapt, because obviously you can’t replace a guy like that necessarily with one guy, but how as a group do you adapt to his absence the rest of the way?

You just gotta know that he’ll be there. You know he’ll be there helping, pushing up the young guys a little bit, after he’s able to get around after his surgery or whatever. But we got a lot of guys that’s played d end, that’s played a lot of ball too. You know, Ryan Kerrigan, Derek Barnett, Josh Sweat. So, I mean, those guys played a lot of ball and for them and for me I think it all again goes back to communication and just knowing what you’re doing, and knowing that we’re holding you, whoever that is, accountable. Whoever they decide to put there to fill that spot, knowing you gotta hold you accountable, and know that you don’t have to go out there and be BG. You got to go out there and be you.

There’s a ton of talent I think right now in the defensive line spot, especially on the inside at tackle. Who are some of your favorite guys around the league to watch when you get a chance to sit down and take in some games or take in some film at that position?

I mean, believe it or not, I don’t really watch a lot of sports, and I don’t really watch a lot of football. I’m a fan of a lot of people, though. Obviously I’m a fan of Aaron [Donald], Chris Jones, DeForest Buckner. I even have been talking to Derrick Brown a little bit from Carolina. I mean, just talking to those guys, communicating, and asking them — we all talk about, if I text them or something like that we’ll talk about how they played this block, how they play that block, and how to do certain things. But obviously we’re all in different defenses and, you know, it can only go so far. And obviously pass rush is pass rush, but in this game with defense you still have to play within your scheme of defense and make the best out of it.

And then on the other side of the ball, you’ve been going up against him for a year and a half now. What have you seen in the growth of Jalen Hurts every day in practice and what he’s bringing now that he’s in year two?

He’s being the best Jalen that he can be. I think he’s just taking in all of the coaching and the new system, and just taking off with it, just soaking it in, and doing what has to be done. And for a second year guy, when you ask for that, and they give it back to you, and you get paid back big in the end. So I was excited to see Jalen run around out there, have fun throwing the ball around, making plays. This entire offense, they just run around having fun, so I’m excited to watch them for Monday night.

How did this partnership that you have with with Tide come about, and what was it like doing voice work for a washing machine?

[Laughs] It was good, it was good. I’m very excited to be partnered with them, and it was a great opportunity for me to be a part of this. And really the biggest thing, a lot of us don’t really know this or understand about turning to cold with Tide, is that it saves a bunch on your energy bill. And basically just trying to help save the environment, save the planet in so many ways that turning to cold [water] can be effective. Not only that but doing the voiceovers was really fun. And then once I learned about the winner going to Tide.com, signing up, and you could get to win a voiceover washing machine with my voice on it which, it’d be great. And you get people excited to get out there and go in their washroom and be excited to hear my voice, their favorite Eagle on that washing machine.

The Many Saints Of Newark is, of course, a Sopranos prequel of sorts. It’s certainly possible to view it entirely as a stand-alone movie, and even in the age of the expanded universe, I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t have to do homework before you watch a movie. And yet, how many of us are actually going to go in completely cold?

Many Saints is heavy enough on Sopranos lore that it seems reasonable to expect that if you’re interested in the movie you’d be interested in the lore. And considering it’s been a good 14 years since the show went off the air, we figured you might need a refresher. Besides, there are worse ways to while away the hours than by watching old Sopranos episodes (watching anything on CBS, say).

Where to start? The Sopranos has six and half seasons spanning eight years (1999 – 2007), but not every episode is lore-heavy. Some of them are one-offs, very special episodes about Columbus Day, or the mafia’s view of cunnilingus (short answer: there’s nothing gayer than pleasuring a woman, according to the mafia). One could easily get lost in that pine barrens of one-offs, but luckily I’m here to be your gabagool sherpa. For the most interested rewatchers, I’ve attempted to compile here the most Many Saints-relevant Sopranos episodes, starting with the most relevant and working outwards.

(Note: there will be spoilers for the Sopranos — which, it should be noted, is 20 years old — but only light references to Many Saints)

1. “Down Neck” – Season 1, episode 7. AKA: The One With The Childhood Flashback.

This is arguably the main inspiration for The Many Saints Of Newark, or at the very least its most direct reference, an extended flashback episode that sees young Tony (played by Bobby Boriello, who must be in his early 30s by now) stow away in the trunk of his father Johnny Boy Soprano’s car so he can go to the amusement park. Tony gets caught and has to take a bus, and ends up arriving just in time to see his father and his associates get arrested. All of which, coincidentally, takes place during the Newark Race Riots.

The episode focuses mainly on Tony and his feelings towards his mother, father, and sister, while the movie is more concerned with Tony’s sort-of uncle, Dicky Moltisanti, played by Alissandro Nivola. In fact, “Molti santi” means “many saints” in Italian. I bet you feel like a big stunad’ for not realizing that until now.

So, is Dicky the focus of Many Saints and not Johnny Boy? Well, have you seen the Sopranos finale? There’s nothing David Chase hates more than your expectations.

Additional Trivia: This was the only episode of the Sopranos directed by a woman, Lorraine Senna Ferrara. Also, the young black kid who yells at young Tony when he gets off the bus is played by Michael B. Jordan.

2. “For All Debts Public And Private” — Season 4, Episode 1. AKA: The One Where Christopher Avenges His Father.

Along with “whatever happened to that Russian guy from the Pine Barrens episode?”, one of the biggest questions left open in the original Sopranos series is whether the guy Christopher kills in this episode is actually the guy who killed Chrissy’s father. Tony put Christopher up to it, see, telling Christopher that this recently-retired cop was the guy who killed Christopher’s father. He’d been useful to the mafia before, but now that he’s retired he isn’t any longer, so Tony’s story goes.

Christopher breaks into the cop’s house and the cop denies it, but then, what is he really going to say to a mobbed-up junkie hitman? Still, Tony is acting pretty suspiciously about the whole thing. Is the guy really Christopher’s father’s killer, or just some guy Tony wants dead and has found a clever way to get it done while bringing an underling closer to him in the process? Or is it something in between? Being that the main character of The Many Saints Of Newark is Dickie Moltisanti, it may or may not help answer some of these questions.

3/4. “Nobody Knows Anything”/”Isabella” — Season 1, episodes 11 and 12. AKA: The One Where Tony Survives A Hit.

Out of any of the main cast the Sopranos, arguably the character whom Many Saints does the most to illuminate is Tony’s uncle Junior, aka Corrado Soprano (played by Corey Stoll in the film, and Dominic Chianese in the series). While Junior becomes increasingly addled and irrelevant in later seasons of Sopranos, in this two or three episode arc from season one, we see the conflict between Junior and Tony arise, come to a head, and dissipate between episodes 10 and 13 of season one. It comes to a climax in episode 12 with the attempted hit on Tony. There’s no direct reference to any of this in Many Saints, but it feels important to know.

5. “Kennedy And Heidi” — Season 6, episode 18 (or season 6B, episode 6). AKA: Christopher’s Final Chapter.

Many Saints explains precisely how Chris Moltisanti died in its prologue, so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here. Christopher is only a very minor character in the movie, but if you need a visual for what the movie describes, this is the episode. One of the things David Chase and company did best on the Sopranos was that even when you were convinced a certain character was inevitably going to die, the when and how of it all almost always came completely out of left field. This one is a classic in that regard.

6. “Fortunate Son” — Season 3, episode 3. AKA: The One Where Chrissy Gets Made.

In episode 303, Christopher finally becomes a made man, complete with the drawing of blood, the burning of saints, and all of the oaths and the ceremony and so forth. As it’s happening, a raven lands on the windowsill. What does it mean?? In the original episode, the raven is less about the symbolism in the show than it is about what the superstition means to Christopher the character, though I’m sure there are fan theories that argue otherwise. Many Saints sees David Chase having some fun with this mythology. (Again, here I would argue that David Chase seems to like fucking with us more than he likes symbolism for its own sake).

Additional Trivia: This episode has a cameo by pre-blog Perez Hilton, as the guy selling tickets to a Jewel concert.

7. American Gangster (2007). AKA: The Movie About Frank Lucas.

What, you thought The Many Saints Of Newark would only have lore pertaining to the Sopranos? Please, David Chase would never do anything that straightforward. Despite there being multiple Sopranos characters who claimed to have some part in the Newark race riots, The Many Saints of Newark invents an entirely new guy for Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton, One Night In Miami) to play: Harold McBrayer. McBrayer, oddly, turns out to be an associate of Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug lord portrayed by Denzel Washington in American Gangster (well, the “lord” part may be embellished — whether Lucas was really the boss is still a subject of some debate).

8. “Watching Too Much Television” — Season 4, Episode 7. AKA: The One With The HUD Scam.

As noted above, The Many Saints Of Newark weirdly chooses not to bring back many of the Sopranos characters involved in the Newark Race Riots. But in this episode, Tony makes some money off a HUD scam by leaning on his mafia-friendly assemblyman, Ronald Zellman (played by Peter Riegert), and Zellman’s old buddy, activist Maurice Tiffen (Vondie Curtis-Hall) — the two of whom seem to have gotten their start in politics and activism during the riots.

Mostly, this episode explores how many civil rights leaders from the sixties sold out or got sold out during the Clinton revolution (see also: Bulworth). But the film also offers a nice background on how full of shit Tony is during this episode, which the original episode only hinted out. It’s hard to find a Sopranos character who doesn’t enjoy self-mythologizing.

9. “Where’s Johnny?” — Season 5, Episode 3. AKA: The One Where Junior Goes AWOL.

I’m trying to be more thematic in this rundown rather than explain every single callback from Many Saints (of which there are many, including John Magaro’s trying-way-too-hard Silvio impression), but this episode is a little of both. In this episode, Junior’s originally-fake dementia turns real (it’s later revealed to be the result of a minor stroke), causing him to repeat his most hurtful (to Tony) assessment of Tony like a broken record. Junior ends up running off, eventually wandering the streets of Newark, where the Many Saints Of Newark is set asking questions about many of the people and places the movie depicts.

Additional Trivia: The Junior-faking-insanity storyline is said to have been inspired by real-life mobster Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, who spent 30 years trying to convince the government he was insane, wandering the streets of Greenwich Village in a bathrobe mumbling to himself.

10. “In Camelot” — Season 5, Episode 7. AKA: The One With The Scumbag TV Writer.

I said I was going to start with the most relevant and work outward, and this episode is certainly more spiritually related to Many Saints than literally, but go with me here: David Chase is a long-time television writer who originally wanted to make The Sopranos as a movie. The Sopranos is chock full of movie references to the point that it’s basically impossible not to notice that Chase is a huge cinefile. And yet in both his directorial debut (2013’s mostly enjoyable Not Fade Away) and in Many Saints (co-written by Chase but directed by Alan Taylor), Chase has made movies that feel like nothing so much as pilots for future shows.

There are multiple brilliant storylines in In Camelot, one of the all-time greatest Sopranos episodes, but the one most relevant here involves Christopher’s friend from recovery, an incorrigible television writer named JT played by Tim Daly. Between this episode and the one with Jon Favreau, Sopranos writers more than prove that they’re at least as good at writing showbiz parody as they are at writing mafia stories, and JT is an absolute classic. A delusional, pompous prick so high on his own supply that he at one point compares his own shakedown to Tarantino, JT eventually ends up at a pawn shop impotently attempting to argue for the value of his own Emmy (and by extension, the medium of television as a whole).

“Come on, man! This is, like, huge, this shit,” JT pleads to the pawn shop owner, who initially offers him $15.

“If it were an Oscar, maybe I could give you something. An Academy Award! But TV?”

It’s a hilarious line, and probably heavily tongue in cheek for the people writing it. Yet it also seems to lay bare David Chase’s relative inferiority complex when it comes to TV. To me he seems almost like the platonic ideal of a TV writer. A guy who cut his teeth writing for iconic shows like Rockford Files and Northern Exposure, who ended up changing the very idea of what TV could be with The Sopranos. Yet somewhere in his heart he probably still mythologizes the idea of writing for the movies. And yet even when he gets the chance, he still ends up writing stories that feel like TV shows.

‘The Many Saints Of Newark’ hits theaters and HBO Max October 1st. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

As the Succession Season 3 release date draws near, HBO has dropped a new set of character posters that has fans of the dynastic black comedy experiencing a wide range of emotions over the interesting pairings.

Right out of the gate, there’s Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) paired with his tyrannical father Logan Roy (Brian Cox), which tracks given the third season will see father and son going to war over the fate of the Roy media empire.

Next up is Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) and Connor Roy (Alan Ruck), which is definitely the biggest head-scratcher given the two didn’t really interact all that much during the first two season. However, Shiv recently wrapped up a stint in politics, and Connor is looking to run for president, so there could be something there.

This next pairing completely tracks as Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) and Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Mcfayden) have been practically joined at the hip since the first season, and as everyone knows, you can’t make a Tomlette without breaking a few Greggs.

And, finally, the show’s hottest romantic pairing, Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) and Gerri Kellman (J. Smith Cameron) whose unusual relationship took off in Season 2, but behind closed doors. Literally.

After two years since Season 2, Succession fans are obviously hyped for the show’s cast of absolute cretins to return, and you can see for yourself in the reactions to the character posters below:

Succession Season 3 premieres October 17 on HBO.

(Via Succession on Twitter)

A couple days ago, Christine And The Queens took to the Eiffel Tower (well, right in front of it) in Paris and performed a five-song set, as part of a Global Citizen Live benefit concert. Her set featured a pair of covers, Michel Fugain and Le Big Bazar’s “Comme l’oiseau” and George Michael’s “Freedom,” and now she has shared studio recordings of those covers in a surprise new EP, Joseph.

Additionally, while not included on the EP, her set also featured performances of some of her own songs: “People, I’ve Been Sad,” “Tilted,” and “Doesn’t Matter.”

She also took to Instagram to share a message about her performance and the EP, writing (partially in French), “Thank you to [Global Citizen] for having us perform yesterday. [I missed you so much. Thank you for everything you give me when I search with my eyes closed.] The EP gathering the two Joseph bird songs is out and all profits will go to [Global Citizen] — little by little, more light. Upgrade is king upgrade. Upgrade is love flow. See you soon my loves.”

This comes a couple months after Christine And The Queens declared she was taking a break, sharing a poetic message about her planned hiatus of an undisclosed length.

Stream Joseph above and check out the live performance of “Freedom” below.

Joseph is out now via Because Music. Get it here.