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It seems like every year someone makes a splash at the Met Gala with their fashion choices. In 2018 it was Lena Waithe’s “queer cape” that enthralled the press and public alike, with its simple but powerful message about inclusivity and LGBTQ rights. In 2016, Emma Watson used that year’s technology theme to send a more subtle but equally powerful message about the environment with a dress made entirely from sustainable products.

Even with America and much of the world still reeling from COVID-19, this year is no different.

In fact, two dresses, in particular, have gone viral with very different but very powerful messages about life in 2021. This year, the honor of showcasing the most talked about outfit is being shared between singer Billie Eilish and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). And much like Waithe and Watson before them, one dress wore its heart on its sleeve (or tails to be exact), while the other was subtle in its vital message about animal rights.

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First was Eilish. Everyone is talking about her stunning homage to Marilyn Monroe and we get it. Eilish has been getting increasingly comfortable stepping out publicly in more adult, form-fitting attire, such as her appearance on the June cover of Vogue. During the Met Gala, Eilish talked about finding new confidence in having her figure on public display and the personal empowerment she’s gained while staying true to her past comments about body positivity. “I’ve always wanted to do this,” she said during her red carpet appearance when asked about the Monroe comparison.

However, it wasn’t just about a killer gown. There was a catch and we love Eilish all the more for it: She only agreed to wear the Oscar de la Renta dress on the condition that the acclaimed fashion designer agrees to stop using animal fur.

“It is an honor to wear this dress knowing that going forward Oscar de la Renta will be completely fur free!!!” Eilish, who is vegan, wrote to her 91 million Instagram followers. “I’m honored to have been a catalyst and to have been heard on this matter.”

At the same time that Eilish was going viral, AOC was making waves of her on the political front. The New York Democrat showed up to the Met Gala in a white dress with red lettering on the back that read “Tax the Rich.” Ocasio-Cortez said she was proud that her dress was drawing attention to what she called the nation’s unfair taxation system which enables seemingly endless loopholes for wealthy Americans and corporations.

The medium is the message. https://t.co/b4Ssr6HkYR

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC)
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“When Aurora and I were first kind of partnered, we really started having a conversation about what it means to be working-class women of color at the Met, and we said, ‘We can’t just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall and challenge some of the institutions,'” AOC said during a red carpet interview about her collaboration with designer Aurora James. “While the Met is known for its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it.”

Ocasio-Cortez did receive some criticism from both the political Right and Left for her appearance, with some saying it was hypocritical for a public servant so critical of economic privilege to appear at an event with a $30,000 ticket price and attendees paying an estimated $250,000 per table. However, others praised the lawmaker for bringing her message of equal taxation directly to those who would be most affected by it.

Regardless of your politics, it was refreshing to see both Eilish and AOC using their respective perches and power to make bold statements for the causes they care about. And let’s be honest, it doesn’t hurt when those more serious topics are conveyed with some top-level fashion sensibility.

Last month Kevin Morby announced a follow-up/companion release to his excellent 2020 record, Sundowner. The collection of demos, dubbed A Night At The Little Los Angeles, and it was named for the back shed of Morby’s Kansas home. Early sessions recorded on a 4-track in 2017 and 2018 were what eventually made up Sundowner, and by sharing the bare bones versions he hoped to let fans hear exactly what he was going for on the finished album.

“My goal was to capture the essence of these initial recordings, and here you will now have access to the very essence I was chasing,” he explained. “Many of my favorite recordings have been made inside of an artist’s home with little to no regard of the outside world, but instead deep in their own that they are building in real time. And with that — I’d like to invite you into my own little world here and now and ask you to please step inside and spend A Night At The Little Los Angeles.”

Today, Morby shared the 4-track version of the title track, “Sundowner (4-Track Demo),” noting that close listeners will definitely locate differences between this demo and the final version. “In this demo of ‘Sundowner’ you’ll notice a few differences from the album version,” he said. “Wait for it!” Listen to the very end for one glaring difference, but check in above for other changes. The full demo album will be out in early October, and he also previously released the 4-Track Demo version of “Campfire.” Check out his “Sundowner” version above and pre-order the entire demo album here.

The Daily Show returned on Monday night, and right out of the gate, host Trevor Noah went to town on Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre speech at a 9/11 memorial event where the disgraced Trump attorney launched into a gooffy aside about Prince Andrew. Noah personally found the speech captivating because it showed how much things have changed since the 9/11 attacks.

“Twenty years ago, Rudy Giuliani was ‘America’s Mayor’ projecting calm and sobriety when the country needed it most,” Noah said while setting up a clip of the speech. “But at Saturday’s commemoration, Giuliani was… not that.”

After playing Giuliani’s speech where the former mayor did a terrible British accent while impersonating the Queen, Noah couldn’t over the fact that Giuliani swore up and down that never met Prince Andrew, and then a second later, reveals that they partied in his office:

Only Rudy can spend the 9/11 anniversary talking about the time he hung out with Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged pedophile friend. You know your speech went off the rails when people watching it are like, “I wish this guy would talk more about 9/11. What is he doing?”

I mean, my favorite part of this whole thing is how Rudy Giuliani can’t even get his story straight while he’s telling it. “I never once meet Prince Andrew. Never! I mean, yeah, one time we hung out in my office, and we had that party that time. Bernie remembers that, don’t you? Don’t you, Bernie?”

Noah ended the segment by joking, “I mean, I don’t know who Bernie is, but I bet he and his wife had a very long car ride home.” But here’s the thing: Bernie is former NYPD police commissioner Bernie Kerik who was forced to resign after a series of scandals, one of which involved having an affair in an apartment that was reserved for clean-up workers in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

So, somehow, Giuliani’s speech manages to get even worse as more details emerge. But don’t say he was drunk! “America’s Mayor” has been very adamant in follow-up interviews that he only had one Scotch before taking the stage. Just like the time he said never met Prince Andrew, you can trust him.

(Via The Daily Show with Trevor Noah)

A Twins sequel is not new. As early as 2012 Universal announced they were hoping to reunite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. It was to be called Triplets, and the two mismatched brothers would discover there was a third one all along. He would be played by Eddie Murphy. That never happened. But the project is back in the works, and while Murphy, despite his semi-recent comeback, is not in it. But Murphy’s Coming 2 America colleague, Tracy Morgan, is.

As per Deadline, the 30 Rock alum will join the former California mayor and the longtime Frank Reynolds in the very belated follow-up, which will join the characters over three decades after their last misadventure. The 1988 film, the fifth highest grossing movie of the year, told the story of a brainy muscleman and a much shorter small time crook who learn they were separated at birth after a bizarre medical experiment. (It was the ‘80s, so there had to be a convoluted reason why Conan the Barbarian and Louie from Taxi were related.) Twins was the Austrian strongman’s first big comedy after a string of action hits, if you don’t count 1970’s Hercules in New York, and it paved the way for the more family-friendly likes of Kindergarten Cop and Jingle All the Way.

Murphy was actually almost in Triplets, but returning director Ivan Reitman — whose son Jason recently rebooted another of his father’s ‘80s smashes, Ghostbusters — said that after hits like My Name is Dolemite and Coming 2 America, he simply “got himself booked up heavily.” They didn’t want to wait, so they got Morgan, who Reitman describes “as one of the funniest men in the world.” Maybe Reitman, Schwarzenegger, and DeVito can get Murphy to join them, should they revive Junior.

(Via Deadline)

Australian pop star Banoffee has been slowly but surely been unfurling the songs on her second album, Teartracks, the follow-up to her 2020 debut full-length, Look At Us Now Dad. She initially teased a return with the shimmering “Tapioca Cheeks,” and then announced her new album with the campy “Idiot” video. Today, she’s followed up those two initial songs with “Never Get To F*ck Any1,” a song with a very straightforward title but a deeper meaning. “I wanted the record to track a couple of different emotions,” Banoffee said of the track. “It goes from like, ‘You don’t love me enough’ to like, ‘Sh*t, I’m never gonna have sex like this again’, which is really materialistic and quite funny.”

Teartracks is a fairly straightforward breakup album, jumping from the fear of falling in love on “Tapioca Cheeks” to the sense of loss of not just sex but intimacy that this new track details, and the regret on “Idiot.” Slated for release on October 22, the album also features contributions from artists like PC Music’s Planet 1999, Perto and Ceci G. Never one to do anything by halves, Banoffee imagined this second record as a “companion” for a breakup, not necessarily the salve. Check out the new single above and look for her full album out this fall.

One of the funniest people to ever live died on Tuesday. After a lengthy (and reportedly private) battle with cancer, Norm Macdonald passed away at age 61, with seemingly everyone in the world of comedy taking some time to celebrate a man who managed to take just about anything and somehow make it hilarious.

There may not be a better example of this than Macdonald’s tenure as the host of Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update. Macdonald hosted the segment on his own in the midst of the OJ Simpson trial, and he never exactly held back his belief that Simpson was guilty of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. In classic Norm style, he took this remarkably serious topic — one that, as ESPN’s acclaimed documentary series on the trial showed, was far more than just a trial involving a football player — and ripped joke after joke about it. Famously, on the first episode of SNL after Simpson’s acquittal, Macdonald welcomed viewers by saying, “Well, it is finally official: Murder is legal in the state of California.”

One enterprising YouTuber put up a compilation of Macdonald’s work during the trial. They combine to be more than half an hour long. Both videos are painfully uncomfortable, occasionally gasp-inducing, and also, some of the funniest things you will ever see.

It is speculated that Macdonald’s constant ragging on Simpson played a role in his departure from Weekend Update and, eventually, SNL. While he denied this was the case, former NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer was close to Simpson and expressed support for him during the trial, and there was a pretty widespread belief that Macdonald’s relentlessness led to him getting the hook.

That touched off a nasty feud that had Mr. Macdonald appearing on CBS’s late-night show with David Letterman (another former NBC star who has a feud going with Mr. Ohlmeyer) and on Howard Stern’s syndicated radio show. Mr. Macdonald berated Mr. Ohlmeyer for dismissing him, saying that Mr. Ohlmeyer objected to his often vicious barbs about O. J. Simpson.

Mr. Ohlmeyer, a friend of Mr. Simpson’s who stood by him during his trial and acquittal, has said that had nothing to do with the decision to remove Mr. Macdonald. He pointed to the innumerable monologue jokes that NBC’s biggest late-night star, Jay Leno, has delivered about Mr. Simpson, without drawing any reaction from Mr. Ohlmeyer.

While he originally expressed support for this belief, Macdonald eventually came to the conclusion this was not the case and expressed some doubts in recent years that Simpson committed the murders. Now, because it is Norm Macdonald, it is extremely plausible that this was a bit, but this is purely speculation on my part. Anyway, let’s remember one more time he told an OJ joke: during his legendary monologue as host of the ESPY Awards in 1998.

Nicki Minaj’s recent claims about a vaccine’s side effects on her cousin’s friend already brought her into conflict with conservative English pundit Piers Morgan and now, they’ve got her at odds with no less an authority than Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US authority on the COVID-19 virus and the government’s response strategy.

During a recent appearance on CNN covering Nicki’s tweet that she’s not vaccinated because she doesn’t trust any of the available vaccines, Fauci said that her anecdote about a friend who experienced some “sexual discomfort” after receiving a vaccine seems less than likely. As host Jake Tapper ticked off Nicki’s bonafides — nearly 180 million combined followers across social media platforms and an intensely loyal (and susceptible) fanbase — he pointed out how vaccinations opponents have already weaponized Nicki’s tweet.

“Is there any evidence that the Pfizer, Moderna, or the [Johnson & Johnson] vaccines cause any reproductive issues, in men or women?” he asked. Fauci didn’t hesitate. “The answer to that, Jake, is a resounding no,” he asserted. “There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen.” Then, in response to Tapper’s follow-up wondering how authorities can combat misinformation from powerful stars such as Nicki Minaj, Fauci replied, “It’s very difficult. There is a lot of misinformation, mostly on social media. The only way we know to counter mis- and disinformation is to provide a lot of correct information… These claims may be innocent on her part — I’m not blaming her for anything — but she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis except a one-off anecdote. That’s not what science is all about.”

Comedian and SNL vet Norm Macdonald suddenly passed away on Tuesday after a long and private battle with cancer. For decades he was one of the most distinctive voices in comedy. His dry, don’t-give-a-f*ck style was polarizing, especially when he was a regular cast member (and Weekend Update host) on the most famous live sketch comedy show on television. Some hated it; a lot loved it. He changed comedy, and his influence can be felt everywhere.

One of the many who was inspired by Macdonald was Seth Rogen. In many ways, they’re different. Rogen is far more earnest than the mischievously detached Macdonald. But they share a deadpan style, which Rogen admitted he got from him. In fact, when he started out he wanted to be him.

“Oh f*ck. I was a huge fan of Norm Macdonald and I essentially ripped off his delivery when I first started acting,” Rogen wrote after news of his passing broke. “I would stay up specifically to watch him on talk shows. He was the funniest guest of all time. We lost a comedy giant today. One of the the all time greats. RIP.”

Indeed, if you watch Rogen’s early performances on Freaks and Geeks, where he got his start, you see a very different Rogen. He’s much more sarcastic and withering, with a flat, matter-of-fact delivery that’s clearly indebted to Macdonald. Over the course of the show’s one-and-done season, you can see Rogen’s style evolve. By the last episode, he’s found his voice. But perhaps he only got there by attempting a straight-up impersonation of Norm Macdonald.

The two did get to eventually appear in a movie together, in the same scene, but not face-to-face. Macdonald cameoed as himself in Judd Apatow’s Funny People, ribbing Adam Sandler’s comedy star George Simmons at a party celebrating him overcoming a major health scare. Rogen, as the up-and-comer and Simmons pal, winds up hanging with Ray Romano. You can watch the scene below.

In the meantime, feel free to drown your sorrows in the many, many, many amazing Macdonald clips being shared online. Rest in peace.

In case you missed it, there’s a new “fresh prince” getting ready to be crowned over in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, and we now know who will be joining the lucky gentleman in his California palace. According to a Variety report, NBC streaming service Peacock has now revealed the entire main cast of its upcoming dramatic reboot of beloved comedy series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air simply titled Bel-Air, and it looks to be packed with talent and quite a few fresh faces.

At the helm of Bel-Air is Jabari Banks, a young actor from West Philadelphia who will be portraying Will in what will be his first acting role ever. In addition to Banks, the new cast includes Adrian Holmes (At That Age, V Wars) as Phillip Banks, Cassandra Freeman (The Enemy Within, Atlanta) as Vivian Banks, Olly Sholotan (Run Hide Fight, Evolution of Nate Gibson) as Carlton Banks, Coco Jones (Let it Shine, Vampires vs. The Bronx) as Hilary Banks, Akira Akbar (We Can Be Heroes, Captain Marvel) as Ashley Banks, and Jimmy Akingbola (Most Dangerous Game, In The Long Run) as Geoffrey. Also joining the series is Jordan L. Jones (Rel, Snowfall) as Will’s friend Jazz, and Simone Joy Jones (The Chair, What If) as Will’s on-and-off-again love interest Lisa.

Bel-Air is based on a viral video of the same name that was created by Morgan Cooper back in 2019. In the four-minute long video, Cooper reimagines the story of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as an intense drama with a much darker tone than the original series. Following the success of the clip, Peacock gave the show a two-season order, stating the reboot would be a serialized one-hour drama set in modern-day America that leans into the show’s original premise: “Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air.”

While original The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Will Smith is attached as one of Bel-Air‘s executive producers, there has been no word on if he or any other former cast members will make an appearance in the upcoming reboot. As of right now, the series’ does not have a release date.

On Sept. 14, 2001, GameCube made its grand debut in Japan. The fourth home console ever made by Nintendo was supposed to big one for the major publisher. Not only were they still competing with SEGA’s last-ditch effort in the Dreamcast, but they had to deal with the upcoming PlayStation 2 from Sony. Not only that, but Microsoft was throwing its hat into the ring with the Xbox. It was going to be a crowded home console market, but Nintendo was not that far off from being the top console creator in the world, so they had the confidence they could compete.

So, how did they do? Well, that depends on who you ask. While the PS2 dominated sales numbers, many look back fondly on the GameCube for having a consistently strong library of games. It may have not had quite the library of a PS2, but what it did have were some truly unique experiences. Their library was unique, and it’s helped all of us who grew up with the GameCube look back on it fondly. Now that it has turned 20, let’s take a trip down memory lane and remember some of the console’s best games Games.

Ports

• Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
• Skies of Arcadia Legends
• Ikaruga

One part of the GameCube library that was actually very strong was a significant list of ports. When the Dreamcast discontinued and SEGA switched over to third-party publishing, many of its games were sent to other consoles. Easily the most bizarre for longtime players was seeing a SEGA logo on a Nintendo console. The console wars between the Super Nintendo and Genesis were fierce, with SEGA going straight at Nintendo in many of its marketing.

So, to see Dreamcast games like Phantasy Star Online, Skies of Arcadia, and Ikaruga on the GameCube was quite the surprise. These games became an essential part of the GameCube library and were a reason to buy the console.

First Party IPs

• Super Mario Sunshine
• F-Zero GX
• Pikmin

If there is one thing Nintendo is known for, even to this day, it’s a deep library of beloved IPs that they can pull from at any moment. While some fans feel like their favorite characters have been forgotten forever in recent years, the GameCube felt like it was trying to play all of its hits. We of course got our guaranteed Mario game with Super Mario Sunshine, but there were some big surprises on there as well. F-Zero GX is an incredibly difficult but extremely fun racing game that fans want to see again, and Pikmin was a brand new IP that that shocked people with its charm. There are games and experiences that can only be had on a Nintendo console and it’s their IPs that made that possible.

Spin-Offs

• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Luigi’s Mansion
• Mario Kart: Double Dash

Another strong aspect of the GameCube was a series of really fun spin-off titles. It even launched with one in Luigi’s Mansion, which was not critically beloved at the time, but it gave Luigi a personality beyond being nothing more than “green Mario.” These spin-offs were also a source of some really fun party games. Mario Kart: Double Dash is still considered by some to be the best Mario Kart game ever made because of the ability to use two characters at once. Super Smash Bros. Melee is still immensely popular as both an esport and a party game. Not every console can say it has a series of spin-off titles that are just as good as its mainline IPs.

Third Party Support

• Viewtiful Joe
• Eternal Darkness
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

One of the bigger — and honestly deserved — criticisms of the GameCube was it lacked the level of third-party support that its competitors had. However, when the GameCube did get support from those third parties, they ended up with some true gems. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is a delightful game that captures a lot of the spirit of Star Wars by allowing players to play through moments from the movies. It’s genuinely one of the best Star Wars games ever made. Viewtiful Joe is one of the wackiest games ever with incredible visuals and a style that has yet to be replicated.

Then, there’s Eternal Darkness, one of the most horrifying games of that generation of consoles. Eternal Darkness was unique, because when the player’s sanity would drop below a certain level, it would start messing with them by doing things such as turning the volume down, pretending to delete their save, or messing with their TV in a way that really only works on CRT’s. Some of the gags are a little dated now, but it’s still a great game from the GameCube and worthy of the praise it gets.

Unique Experiences

• NBA Street: Vol 3
• Custom Robo
• Soul Calibur II

The GameCube was all about unique experiences. That’s what separated it from other consoles at the time and it provided them in plenty of fun ways. One of them was through Custom Robo, a great action RPG that, while a little dated at times today, is still fun thanks to a concept that was fairly unique at the time. The ability to change out robo parts to make our mechs feel like our own was a fun one that, while more common today, wasn’t everywhere yet.

The other two experiences are ways that made third-party games like NBA Street: Vol 3 and Soul Calibur II must-get on the GameCube in particular. You could play as Nintendo characters! Have you ever wanted to dunk on someone with Mario? You could. Ever wanted to use Link in a fighting game? You could do that, too.

The Best of the Best

Metroid Prime

Before Metroid Prime came out, there hadn’t been a Metroid game in eight years when Super Metroid came out on the SNES. They skipped the Nintendo 64 entirely, but the wait was well worth it. For, some there is no Metroid as great as the Prime series. Instead of going with the traditional 2D side scroller route, the developers decided to take it to a first-person perspective. Changing Metroid into an exploration-based FPS was a brilliant move because it allowed players to experience the series from a unique perspective. We weren’t just thrown into the eyes of Samus. Instead, we got to see everything from her HUD, which made it feel like we were actually inside her helmet. That little detail ended up being the best change they could possibly make and helped turn Metroid Prime into a must-have experience on the GameCube.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

This wasn’t Mario’s first foray into the world of RPGs. Super Mario RPG on the SNES is fantastic, and Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64 is maybe the perfect entry-level RPG. However, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is for many the best of the genre. Hysterically funny writing, colorful characters, a fantastic hub world in Rogue Port, and the ability to play as Bowser and Peach made this game feel gigantic, except it never overstays its welcome. No chapter is too long, no level too big, and no boss fight too daunting. This game was so good that the developers felt the formula for it had peaked and immediately took the franchise in a new direction afterward. For some, it has never come close to the same level of excellence. It’s one of the best games on the GameCube and a must-play, even to this day.

Resident Evil 4

This counts. Yes, Resident Evil 4 is technically a multi-platform title, but it was originally a GameCube exclusive. That exclusivity only lasted 10 months, but what a glorious 10 months it must have been for Nintendo to have a AAA third-party title on their console. Also, it’s arguably the best Resident Evil game ever. RE4 was praised at the time for taking the franchise in a more action-oriented direction while still managing to keep some scares, and has been ported numerous times as a result. There are so many different versions of this game it’s almost comical, but it’s an example of how great it was when it came out and why people rushed to get a GameCubesso they could play it. Despite being considered a console “for children,” the GameCube had two of the best horror games of the generation.

Animal Crossing

The happiest game ever created. When Animal Crossing first started advertising, it left a lot of people confused. A game with no fighting or shooting, and all you do is fish, catch bugs, and talk to animals? Sounds boring.

Well, it wasn’t boring. Animal Crossing was one of the first GameCube games to make use of the internal clock inside the console. This meant that everything taking place in the game was happening in real-time. This also meant that you could celebrate holidays, such as Halloween or Toy Day (Christmas) inside Animal Crossing with your villagers. When it wasn’t a holiday, the player could spend their days collecting money, buying new furniture for their house, or helping out their animal neighbors. The writing for this game is hysterical and will leave the player constantly wanting to learn more about their villagers to the point where some of them get annoyed move away. This can be a bummer, but then, new personalities move in and it’s not so bad. Animal Crossing is what you make out of it and the game is always fun. It was a necessary part of every GameCube owner’s library.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

This is a great Zelda game. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was criticized at the time for being too “cutesy.” While players wanted a realistic and darker-looking Link, what Nintendo gave them instead was a cell-shaded colorful experience featuring Link as a child. The backlash never made sense, because that art style helped the game look great while also featuring the same Zelda charm that make people fall in love with the series. Dungeons are fun, characters are great, and the tools you get along your journey are some of the best in the entire series.

What will create a division among fans is how they feel about the sailing. The world has been flooded, making every body of land into an island and the only way to get there is by sailing. For some players, getting to sail the high seas is a blast. For others, it’s a waste of time that makes the exploration not fun. No matter what, it’s a very unique experience that matches the console’s identity of providing something that can only be found on the GameCube. Criticisms aside, it’s still many people’s favorite Zelda game, and it even received an excellent HD port on the Wii U that fixed some of the exploration issues.