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When Stardew Valley was released back in 2016 it became so much more than just a little farm game. It became one of the most popular games of the last decade with, thousands upon thousands downloading and playing the game so they could go work on their own little farm, make relationships, fall in love, and have a nice relaxing time. It’s a truly delightful game that took the concept of the old Harvest Moon games and ran with it to success. Most impressively? It was all made by just one guy, Eric Barone.

It’s been a long time since Barone released Stardew Valley and he hasn’t exactly slowed down. He’s released multiple updates, expansions, and the game has been ported to platforms beyond the PC. It’s a true hit and he would be completely justified to never make another video game. However, he announced back in 2018 that he would be forming a team to help him with the future production of Stardew Valley but also to give him time to work on a new game.

On Thursday, Barone finally revealed the new game he has been working on. ConcernedApe’s Haunted Chocolatier has a teaser trailer available for everyone to watch. It showcases a game that is very similar in aesthetic to Stardew Valley, but it’s also very clearly its own game. It features a much heavier emphasis on combat with players traveling through what looks like a portal to another world so they can gather resources. What are these resources being used for? Making chocolate of course. Barone explained his decision in a blog post at Hauntedchocolatier.net.

Why chocolate? I’m not sure. It just kind of came to me. I think sometimes the best ideas just appear in a flash, instead of being cleverly thought out. That’s how I like to work, anyway. What’s important is the execution. And after 10 years of practice, I feel more confident than ever in being able to bring an idea to life.

Regardless, I think a lot of people like chocolate.

A lot of people do like chocolate, and the possibility of making chocolate in this new world that is very Stardew Valley in style but has its own mysteries to it is an exciting one. We have no idea when the game is going to be released, and neither does Barone, but we can’t wait to see further updates as the game proceeds further into development.

Earlier this fall, the football world found itself briefly focused on a small charter school in Ohio after Bishop Sycamore got blown out on national television by IMG Academy, to the point that the announcers calling the game couldn’t hold back their disgust that the game ever got scheduled, much less put on television.

In the aftermath, further details emerged about the lack of funding for the program and how players at the previous iteration of the school slept on floors and stole from grocery stores just to eat. Ultimately, the coach of the team was fired and the story eventually faded into the background, but that will change in 2022 when not one but two documentaries on the Bishop Sycamore debacle will be released. Kevin Hart and Rich Paul are partnering on one such documentary, which was announced back in September, and that will now be joined by an HBO Sports documentary on the program from Michael Strahan and Adam McKay.

HBO Sports has acquired the television and streaming rights to a feature documentary chronicling the Bishop Sycamore high school football scandal from Michael Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini’s SMAC Entertainment, Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries, Boat Rocker’s Matador Content, and The Athletic. The film will debut on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max in 2022.

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With exclusive access to [coach Roy] Johnson, the documentary will explore two very beguiling questions: What exactly is Bishop Sycamore and who in the world is Roy Johnson?

Both documentaries promise unique interviews with people involved, with the Hart/Paul doc promising interviews with players and coaches, while it seems the HBO doc will have the much talked about coach as the centerpiece of its look at the saga. We’ll find out next year just how interested folks still are in all of this, but for those still wondering how this program even came to exist, we should get answers aplenty from a variety of viewpoints.

If you had an opportunity to see Pusha T play a live show around the time that DAYTONA dropped in 2018, you’d have seen a rapper whose dedication and delivery are on another level in the game. He’s seemingly committed to not just rapping over his songs on stage and for an artist of his caliber, it just increases the intensity of the already pressing music on an album that’s tough to top. But wait…

King Push spoke with Billboard for a feature that was presumably centered about how he was sifting through his closet to produce a portfolio of threads for a “The Vault:Pusha T” Closet Sale on the high-end menswear site Grailed (you can rock Pusha T’s 2015 Burberry floral print jacket for $600; adjust your holiday gift lists accordingly). But the pride of Virginia Beach clearly had more on his mind, namely his next album, which was said to be nearly done back in March when he was just waiting on a collaboration from Kanye West.

He told Billboard today that the project is being mixed and the finishing touches are being put on feature verses. It’s set to have production from The Neptunes and Kanye West, and he added that “I want to give fans an offering of not only great music but something merch-wise, hard copy, vinyl, everything.”

He says the goal is to put some form of music out this year, but the biggest statement was when he called his shot: “I think I’ve topped Daytona for sure,” Push told Billboard. “One-thousand percent.” This is very much in line with when he told the Instagram Live show Behind The Velvet Rope in March that it’ll be “the best album that drops in 2021.” Here’s hoping he’s not reading too much into Kendrick Lamar’s new Spotify photo like everyone else is…

Looking for something sugary-sweet to watch this holiday season? Great news, you won’t even need the Hallmark channel to do so! For the past few years, Netflix has been sleighing it (sorry, I had to) when it comes to releasing cute-and-cozy holiday movies the whole family can enjoy during the most wonderful time of the year, and their ongoing The Princess Switch series is no exception. For all you fans of the romance and Vanessa Hudgens-filled films, you’ll be delighted to know we now have a trailer for the third entry in the franchise and, even better, looks just as charming as its predecessors.

In The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star, Hudgens stars as three unique versions of herself: Queen Margaret, Princess Stacy, and their troublesome cousin Fiona. Together, the team of look-alike relatives must band together to solve the mystery of who might have stolen a precious relic hailing straight from the Vatican City: the Star of Peace. The trailer’s description goes on to imply this is just the start of the women’s royal adventure, promising “Christmas romance” and “unexpected” switches along the way:

“When a priceless relic is stolen, Queen Margaret and Princess Stacy enlist the help of Margaret’s audacious look-alike cousin Fiona who teams with a dashing, mysterious man from her past to retrieve it… rekindling the sparks of a tantalizing Christmas romance and resulting in a very unexpected switch.”

In addition to Hudgens, the film also features Remy Hill (Crazy Rich Asians), Nick Sagar (Run the World), Sam Palladio (Nashville), and Will Kemp (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce). Mike Rohl, the director of the series’ previous two films, is staying on board as The Princess Switch 3‘s director, with Robin Bernheim writing the film’s script. The film is scheduled to hit Netflix on November 18.

Snoop and Martha’s Very Tasty Halloween (Peacock special) — The dynamic duo re-teams again, this time to host a baking competition that’s geared toward the spookiest holiday of all. Expect to see giant chocolate spiders and cotton-candy cobwebs, all packed into room-sized, edible creations.

Introducing, Selma Blair (Discovery+ film) — As the title indicates, this feature follows Selma Blair’s perspective, and it’s a very serious one, given that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and keeps on maintaining a Hollywood career.

The Next Thing You Eat: Season 1 (Hulu series) — Chef David Chang teams up with director Morgan Nevill for six episodes that follow seismic changes in the way we eat. There’s a global perspective, and expect to see robots and lab-grown food and all manner of other surprises.

Sex, Love, and goop (Netflix series) — Gwyneth Paltrow once advocated for women to put jade eggs into their vaginas, so one can only imagine what this “wellness” series has to offer. She’s enlisted courageous couples who have asked the goop people to help them have more pleasurable sex. Hmm.

Ghosts (CBS, 9:00pm) — A freelance journalist and a chef move into a massive country estate while hoping to transform it into a bed-and-breakfast. As the title indicates, however, there are ghosts afoot, and they’re comedic. So, there’s a Prohibition-era lounge singer, a hippie who indulges in hallucinogens, a scout leader, and a Militiaman. This week, nosy neighbors attend a dinner party with the ghosts inviting themselves.

Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 9:00pm) — Season 23 (!) continues with the 500th episode of this series that took over the franchise until Chris Meloni’s return provided for endless crossover potential in Organized Crime. Please tell me they won’t use this as the inevitable “hook up” episode.

Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC, 10:00pm) — Bearded Stabler is still doing the enormously risky undercover thing after Olivia told him to “come home.” This episode is called “Unforgivable,” and the goons figured out that there’s a traitor in their midst, so be careful, Elliot.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya

Doom Patrol: Season 3 (HBO Max series) — DC’s struggling misfit superheroes are back for another round of being portrayed by an incredible cast. Brendan Fraser has received plenty of raves for his fury-filled Cliff Steele/Robotman, and more kudos should go to Diana Guerrero (Orange is the New Black) as Crazy Jane, which is actually a role that requires Diane to play dozens of incarnations, including a very timely take on a Karen.

In case you missed these picks from last week:

Guilty Party: Season 1 (Paramount+ series) — Kate Beckinsale stars in this charming-looking dramedy series about a disgraced (and opportunistic) journalist who works to redeem herself by digging for the real story on a young mother who was convicted of murdering her husband, a crime that the mother insists that she did not commit. Expect (strangely enough) some whimsy amid this seemingly serious premise, including some adversaries that are a real pain in the butt.

Aquaman: King of Atlantis: Season 1 (HBO Max) — While DC fans sit in the limbo in between live-action Jason Momoa movies, this three-part animated miniseries from James Wan could tide things over a bit. This week’s installment involves the Dead Sea with Aquaman learning that he’s still got a lot of learning to do upon becoming king. The voice cast includes Cooper Andrews, Gillian Jacobs, Dana Snyder, and Thomas Lennon.

Senator Kyrsten Sinema has had a truly bizarre villain origin story play out in the press over the past year. It arguably began with her now-infamous thumbs-down vote on a Democrat-sponsored bill to raise the minimum wage and has cascaded into a rolling snowball of stories about colorful wigs and skipping out on voting rights meetings with her colleagues to grab a few more vacation days. And now it seems Sinema’s own team is turning against her.

According to CNN, five military veterans on Sinema’s advisory board resigned this week, but not before calling their former boss one of the country’s “principal obstacles to progress.” Yikes.

The military vets, who volunteered to serve on Sinema’s board, wrote the embattled Democratic senator a letter explaining their decision and issuing some harsh criticisms of her recent voting history on Capitol Hill.

“You have become one of the principal obstacles to progress, answering to big donors rather than your own people. We shouldn’t have to buy representation from you, and your failure to stand by your people and see their urgent needs is alarming,” the group wrote. “We do not know who has your ear, but it clearly isn’t us or your constituents.”

The advisors berated Sinema, who has consistently gone against her party by refusing to change the filibuster, support price changes for prescription drugs, and remaining quiet about the Jan. 6th commission, for putting personal profit before people.

“We no longer feel you are aligned with our values, and we cannot in good faith continue to serve on your council,” they wrote after accusing the senator of using them as “window dressing” for her own campaign needs.

Sinema’s reps issued a pretty bland statement in response, thanking the veterans for their service and expressing disappointment that they seemed to disagree on certain policy issues but this is just the latest aftershock the senator had had to weather because of her confusing and often confrontational voting record on the Senate floor.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness brand, Goop, sells a variety of vibrators, some for a reasonable $89, others for the “eat the rich and steal their sex toys” price of $1,249 (or only four interest-free payments of $312.25!). The Oscar-winning actress has been making the promotional rounds to discuss her Netflix show, Sex, Love, & goop, including an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Host Ellen DeGeneres wondered what Paltrow’s 15-year-old son, Moses, thinks about his mom discussing vibrators on TV. “Can I tell you the sweetest thing? This really happened,” she replied. “A few months ago, out of nowhere, he said, ‘Mom, I was really embarrassed for a minute that Goop sold vibrators. And then I realized no, this is great — you’re making people feel not embarrassed to buy something, and that’s great. You’re a feminist.’ I was like, ‘Thank you, my dear!’ It was so cute.” Maybe this actually happened, maybe it didn’t, but I hope it did and that it’s not another “Ruthkanda.”

Paltrow continued, “I try always to be neutral on the topic. I think my generation, we got a lot of messages around sex that made us feel bad about it. I try to just be curious. And teenagers are never going to want to talk to their parents about sex ever, so I sort of follow their lead, and luckily in middle school they had a very thorough sex education, so the school handled the kind of birds-and-the-bees parts, and then I am there for any questions. But the questions are pretty minimal.” That’s good parenting from Paltrow, which not be confused with Goop Parenting, their new clothing line for moms and dads.

You can watch the Ellen interview above.

(Via Mediaite)

After a contentious few weeks that culminated in Netflix employees staging a company-wide walkout on Wednesday, which received the full support from the streaming service as it navigates the controversy, Dave Chappelle‘s team has signaled that the comedian is open to sitting down with the employees who took issue with his The Closer special.

Chappelle’s final installment in his series for Netflix has been under fire after he proudly declared that he’s “Team TERF” while voicing his support for J.K. Rowling’s history of transphobic statement. Netflix’s repeated defense of those remarks sparked the walkout protest from trans employees and their allies. Despite telling a Hollywood crowd that he loves being canceled, Chappelle is now open to meeting with his detractors, but not without his team suggesting that Netflix hasn’t suggested such a meeting. Via TMZ:

Dave Chappelle is willing to sit down at the table with Netflix employees who feel like he’s inflicted harm on them with his LGBTQ+ jokes … and it sounds like the ball is now in their court.

The comedian’s rep tells TMZ … Dave would be open to dialogue if folks from Netflix actually reach out to him for a discussion.

According to Chappelle’s team, the comedian was never asked to come to the walkout, which is not what organizer Ashley Marie Preston told the crowd at the event. However, despite the mixup over whether or not he was invited to the walkout, Chappelle is still willing to meet with the Netflix employees and hear them out.

(Via TMZ)

Obongojayar is a London-based, Nigeria-born afro-futurist singer that’s starting to climb in the ranks. The raspy vocalist was most recently featured on Little Simz’s single and desperado-esque video for “Point And Kill”. His 2020 EP, Which Way Is Forward? showcases a rising talent who culls masterfully from elements of dancehall, afrobeat, trip-hop, and future jazz.

He has a debut LP on the horizon, which hasn’t been officially announced, but the video for the lead single, “Message In A Hammer” just dropped and it would make Hype Williams proud. Directed by Rollo Jackson, it pits Obongjayar as the driver of a wretched mob boss who has abducted someone close to him. The blue and red lighting in the clip, which feels more like a short film, helps paint the picture of a tale of vengeance, with a dynamite performance from the laser-focused singer who’ll stop at nothing for justice.

“‘Message In a Hammer’ is about fight, and fighting against the powers that take and steal and rob from us, and calling them by their name — thieves and murderers,” Obongjayar said in a statement. It’s a can’t miss clip and foreshadows more fiery material to come.

Obongjayar heads out on tour with Little Simz next year, as well as a short European headlining tour of his own, with dates for the latter below.

4/20/2022 – Leeds, UK @ Belgrave Music Hall
4/22/2022 April – London, UK @ Venue TBA
4/23/2022 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla
4/24/2022 – Nottingham, UK @ Rough Trade
4/26/2022 – Brighton, UK @ Patterns
4/27/2022 – Manchester, UK @ BOTW
4/29/2022 – Paris, France @ Point Ephémère
4/30/2022 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
5/01/2022- Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Bitterzoet
5/03/2022 – Berlin, Germany @ Lido

Ice-T takes no lip from people on Twitter. That should be no surprise, but he sure as heck enjoys pushing back when people get argumentative with him. He’s roasted “squares talking sh*t” who give him hell for playing a cop on Law and Order: SVU, and he’s aired his perspective on the cops who pulled him over on his way to work (obviously, to play a cop on SVU). So, you know he’d have a few things to say when people tried to correct him on television history — especially on the day that SVU will air its 500th episode.

Ice was in the mood to celebrate. “TONIGHT!” he tweeted. “Something that has NEVER been done. 500 episodes of a TV Series. Tune in tonight for the 500th Episode of the longest running Primetime Drama in History.”

500 episodes is wild to behold, especially considering that SVU outlasted the original Law and Order flagship series, which called it quits a decade ago (although there will be a reboot of sorts coming). That’s 500 episodes of putting sex offenders behind bars and Ice’s Fin Tutuola taking no sh*t (although he does occasionally go to a strange place in dialogue-land, as evidenced by John Mulaney).

Nonetheless, a few people decided to try and rain on Ice’s parade. When someone popped up to cite Gunsmoke‘s 600+ episodes, Ice pushed back (in a now-deleted tweet), hard.

And of course, other people chimed in as well, citing a few manga series and The Simpsons. Yup, you guessed it. Ice-T is not listening to them, either. “And those are REAL people too right?” he rhetorically inquired. “Smh MFs love to disagree.”

Well, it doesn’t even matter who’s correct here, does it? All of these shows have achieved an absurd number of episodes, and SVU has reached an extraordinary milestone. And Ice-T is correct, too, on the point that people “love to disagree.”

NBC’s Law and Order: SVU airs on Thursday nights.