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Madonna Makes Jimmy Fallon Deeply Uncomfortable By Flashing Her Butt And Straddling His Desk

Madonna has always been one to live life by the beat of her own drum, and she did more of that on The Tonight Show yesterday. On the program, she engaged in some playful antics, which left Jimmy Fallon not quite knowing what to do.

Speaking about the inspiration author James Baldwin had on her and her Madame X tour documentary, Madonna said, “One of the things that I quote over and over again in the show is that artists are here to disturb the peace, so I hope that I have disturbed not only your peace this afternoon but also people’s peace while they watch the show. But I mean that in the best way.” Fallon responded, “Oh yeah, you get in good trouble.” Madonna, seemingly in thought and intrigued by Fallon’s phrasing, repeated, “Good trouble.” Then, without warning, she pushed aside the items on Fallon’s desk and laid on it with a leg hanging over the front side.

The host was clearly taken aback by the moment, as he frantically filled the air with calls for Madonna to “stop it” as the audience cheered. Declaring he didn’t know what to do, he took off his jacket to cover Madonna’s waist. She then dismounted and said, “No one’s gonna see anything, my god.” As she returned to her chair, while facing away from the camera, she briefly lifted the bottom part of her dress. That quickly offered a look at some skin, which left Fallon covering his face with his jacket.

Check out that clip, as well as others from Madonna’s Tonight Show appearance, above and below.

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Devonte’ Graham Is A Perfect Fit On The Pelicans’ Roster

Upon first glance, Devonte’ Graham is easy to discount. He’s a 6’1 second-round pick who shoots 37.6 percent from the field for his career. Initially viewing him as a spark plug reserve guard is understandable. Yet a more nuanced depiction of his game, between the numbers and the film, reveals he’s much more than that.

The New Orleans Pelicans completed a fantastic signing this summer when they inked Graham to a four-year, $47.3 million deal, presumably to be their starting point guard on the heels of Lonzo Ball’s departure. He’ll bring some crucial elements offensively and benefit from the infrastructure already intact. New Orleans absolutely has some faults to critique in their team-building vision over the last couple seasons, but this is not one of them. Graham is a very good player who aligns well with what the Pelicans’ needs offensively, accrued experience in Charlotte playing alongside primary and secondary initiators — which makes for a fairly seamless transition to New Orleans — and helps replace some of what they’ve recently lost.

Graham is the rare player who provides both efficient, high-volume three-point shooting and sound playmaking. It’s an archetype not commonly found across the NBA and those who do tout it are usually some of the league’s top offensive guards. As an arbitrary and fun data set, over the last two seasons, the only two players to launch at least eight threes per game and shoot 37 percent while posting at least five assists a night are Graham and Damian Lillard, per StatHead.

Stephen Curry would be there if he hadn’t missed most of 2019-20. Ball and Donovan Mitchell achieved it this past season. Broaden the criteria slightly and guys like Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Trae Young enter the frame. Graham is not on the level of those guys, but he’s an excellent offensive talent.

According to Synergy, he was one of the NBA’s premier pull-up maestros in 2019-20, ranking in the 85th percentile off the dribble. Although he regressed to the 42nd percentile last year, opponents still respect him. When he finds airspace around a screen, it warps the configuration of defenses. Stationing a guard with legit pull-up gravity alongside Zion Williamson, who is arguably the most dominant paint scorer in the league (it’s him or Giannis), should produce bountiful results.

Ball, for all his exploits and concordance with Zion, did not offer that aspect. Ingram has off-the-bounce chops, but doesn’t draw eyes off of picks with the immediacy of Graham, nor does he execute passing reads with precision and haste like Graham. Not only does he provoke traps and swarming closeouts while causing hesitation from pick-and-roll defenders, he’s masterful at promptly reading the floor and parlaying his shooting magnetism into playmaking opportunities. Graham represents a notable upgrade in on-ball viability at the guard spot for New Orleans.

Pick-and-rolls involving Zion and Graham connect one player with domineering roll gravity and another who commands sufficient pull-up attention. Zion’s yet to experience that dynamic from an NBA guard consistently. It’s going to prop up the entire offense toward elite outputs. Graham-Jonas Valanciunas pick-and-rolls won’t be too shabby, either, and he’ll draw help from the wings to generate slashing lanes or open spot-ups for guys like Ingram, Naji Marshall, Josh Hart, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

The Graham-Zion partnership will not be confined to traditional pick-and-rolls. Graham was occasionally utilized as a screener in Charlotte and that gambit should become a mainstay, especially when Zion is initiating possessions. Despite being undersized, Graham sets good screens. He’s precise about making contact, applies his stout frame well, and transitions fluidity out of them.

Last season, inverted pick-and-rolls between Zion and J.J. Redick were a popular action for the Pelicans. Graham and Miles Bridges also dabbled in it for the Hornets. I expect that to persist with these two, as it’s one way Graham can help compensate for the absence of Redick’s shooting, even though he is not in the same pantheon of movement sniper as Redick. Similarly, dribble handoffs for Graham that manipulate the space Zion’s defenders often extend him on the perimeter can be copied from the Zion-Redick playbook.

Graham is a capable off-movement shooter with a feisty trigger unswayed by defensive pressure. Slide screens, floppy sets, relocation, Spain pick-and-rolls, and screen-the-screener actions should all be incorporated (or naturally woven) into his off-ball deployment. I’d also like to see some empty corner pick-and-pops where Ingram is the handler and Graham is the pick man, as well as Horns Flare with Zion or Valanciunas as the screener for Graham while Ingram controls the ball. You can even scheme Hammer actions during Ingram-Valanciunas side pick-and-rolls to flummox the defense.

Graham will garner on-ball reps, but Zion is this team’s offensive engine and Ingram warrants creation responsibility, too. Those stretches are when Graham’s off-ball prowess can shine and help embed a gamut of nifty wrinkles into a potentially preeminent attack. Given the divergent production between 2019-20 and 2020-21, his true pull-up capacity is somewhat murky, but the dude is a dynamite off the catch.

Over the past two seasons, Graham cashed 42.3 percent of his 499 catch-and-shoot triples, including some low quality looks. Playing alongside Zion, Ingram, and Valanciunas, he’s going to encounter plentiful chances to showcase those merits and maybe even heighten them.

Graham will help maintain Ball’s transition passing prowess, albeit to a lesser degree, which harmonizes with Zion. Independent of Zion, though, Graham also brings Ball’s decisiveness as a facilitator, while adding more aptitude conducting ball-screens.

As a facilitator, he’s both daring and caring. According to Cleaning The Glass, he’s never ranked lower than the 73rd percentile in assist-to-usage ratio, nor has his turnover rate ever peaked north of 13 percent (70th percentile last season). He seamlessly delivers skip passes, maps the floor quite swiftly, and capitalizes upon the openings derived from the stress induced by a pick-and-roll. His experience playing alongside Bridges — another springy, dunktastic wing — should also simplify the assimilation to Zion’s presence in some regards.

Despite being flanked by a limited number of credible play-finishers, only nine players have generated more assists at the rim over the past two seasons, according to PBP Stats. A team with Zion, Valanciunas, and Jaxson Hayes will surely benefit from that trait, just as the Pelicans collectively will reap the rewards of Graham’s passing web.

Graham’s interior struggles run interference to his chances of being an elite offensive player. He’s finished 20th (2019-20) and 40th (2020-21) in Offensive Estimated Plus-Minus the past two years, yet has been hurt by ineffective driving and two-point scoring. He’s shot a combined 39.1 percent on twos and 33.3 percent on drives during that span. His rim frequency was 15 percent in 2019-20 and 7.6 percent last season. Each time, he’s finished in the seventh percentile or lower in scoring efficiency around the basket, per Synergy.

These constraints are why it’s important for the Pelicans to properly balance his on- and off-ball delegations. Fortunately, rim pressure and paint scoring won’t be areas of need with Zion and Valanciunas mashing inside. The more pressing demands have been exterior excellence and reliable complementary handling from the guard position.

Graham meets those qualifications, and his arrival is one reason New Orleans could conceivably fashion a top-three offense. Scoffing at the notion is a justified reaction, but much like Graham, a careful analysis illuminates its virtues.

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Tomi Lahren’s Resurfaced Tweet Imploring People To Get Vaccinated Has Come Back To Haunt Her

For someone who claims that they’re “not anti-vaccine, I am anti MANDATORY experimental COVID vaccine,” Tomi Lahren sure tweets a lot of negative things about vaccines.

“When Biden’s vaccine patrol comes a knockin’ they can kiss my country ass! Take your experimental vaccine and shove it in your own arms!” she wrote in July, while last month, the Fox News personality tweeted, “Vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and diphtheria are NOT THE SAME AS THE COVID Vax! Stop using them as examples. They are time tested and studied. The COVID vax is not! That’s just a fact!!” Lahren’s argument here seems to be that we should wait another year, if not years, to study the vaccine, even though it’s proven to be an effective and safe measure to fight the virus. And if another 300,000 people die? That’s the price we pay for freedom. “Just a fact!!”

Also a fact: Lahren implored parents to get their kids vaccinated in 2019.

“Now we have a measles outbreak in LA county. As if we don’t have enough problems. If not vaccinating your kid only impacted your kid, fine. But that’s not the case! Vaccinate your kids or stay home!” she wrote. The tweet has recently resurfaced, with many on Twitter mocking Lahren for arbitrarily choosing which vaccines are good and which were created in a Democrat-funded lab by Mark Zuckerberg and George Clooney in nerdy scientist glasses.

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The Rock Is Apparently A Rapper Now, Thanks To His Verse On Tech N9ne’s New Single, ‘Face Off’

Okay, so yes, technically The Rock “raps” on “You’re Welcome,’ from Disney’s Moana soundtrack (in character as a Polynesian demigod, no less), and he did appear on Wyclef Jean’s 2000 single, “It Doesn’t Matter,” to do some of his signature smack-talk at the height of the WWE’s “Attitude” era. But on Tech N9ne’s new single “Face Off,” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, wrestler, actor, action star, and world-class fitness motivator, actually raps. It’s … not bad? I mean, obviously, don’t quit your day job (or hurt me for saying so), but … we’ve heard worse.

After the track kicks off with some expected lightspeed tongue-twisting from Tech and his Strange Music cohorts Joey Cool and King Iso, The Rock, credited here as Dwayne Johnson, comes in with his own tough-talking bars, daring challengers to “bring Drama to the King Brahma,” boasting at the end that he nailed his verse in one take.

If he ever did decide to commit to music full-time (or at least, what constitutes full-time for future superheroes and former riverboat captains) The Rock wouldn’t be the first actor to jump into a music career. He would, however, be one of the biggest movie stars to do so, after appearing in the aforementioned Disney favorite Jungle Cruise and anchoring the upcoming Black Adam movie for DC Comics. For what it’s worth, even John Cena, who now shares a Fast And Furious role with his fellow former wrestling star, did it the other way around, using a Slim Shady-esque ring persona that included, yes, his own rap album.

You know what this means: We need a Verzuz. Get on it, Swizz!

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Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, And MF DOOM’s ‘Barcade’ Video Brings Video Game Vibes

New MF DOOM music continues to pop up nearly a year after his death last Halloween at the age of 49. The latest comes on Atmosphere’s new single “Barcade” from the Minnesota underground rap duo’s new album Word? which dropped today. Joined by Aesop Rock, the song constitutes a spiritual successor to the Molemen’s 2001 song “Put Your Quarters Up,” which also features Aesop, DOOM, and Slug trading bars about video games. “Barcade” continues in that vein, along with its suitably spaced-out video, which features arcade game visuals inspired by games like Gradius, Metroid, and Space Ace.

In the year since DOOM’s death — which was actually announced two months later, on New Year’s Eve — DOOM’s streaming numbers increased nearly 1,000 percent, and the rapper himself has appeared on a string of songs, both new and unreleased. In May, the first posthumous release was a joint album with Czarface, Super What?, while DOOM also made appearances alongside Your Old Droog on “Dropout Boogie” and IDK on “Red” with Westside Gunn and Jay Electronica. The Avalanches and Thom Yorke both also shared remixes of popular tracks that featured the late rapper, “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life” and “Gazzillion Ear,” respectively.

Listen to Atmosphere’s “Barcade” featuring Aesop Rock and MF DOOM above.

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Jessica Chastain Leads An All-Star Team Of International Lady Spies In The Action-Packed Trailer For ‘The 355’

After four years in development, numerous delays due to the ongoing pandemic, and a few cast changes, the Jessica Chastain led action-thriller The 355 has finally unveiled its second full-length trailer. While the new trailer shares a lot in common with the first one the studio released, in the newest footage we a whole lot more of Avengers star Sebastian Stan — implying the actor might have a bigger and perhaps more dastardly role than previous thought — as well as it made more clear that Bingbing Fan’s character, Lin Mi Sheng, is more of an ally to the team than she was depicted as before.

The trailer begins with Chastain’s character, CIA agent Mason Brown, explaining to fellow agent Nick (Sebastian Stan) the origin story of the first female spy in America before cheekily telling him that “her legacy lives on” in her. The rest of the trailer then follows agent Brown tracking down four, international woman spies — Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Penélope Cruz, and Bingbing Fan — in an attempt to band them together and prevent a catastrophe that threatens the entire globe: World War III. Based on the trailer’s description, this just scratches the surface of what we can expect to see in The 355.

When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival badass German agent Marie (Diane Kruger, In the Fade), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Oscar winner Penélope Cruz) on a lethal, breakneck mission to retrieve it, while also staying one-step ahead of a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Bingbing Fan, X-Men: Days of Future Past), who is tracking their every move. As the action rockets around the globe from the cafes of Paris to the markets of Morocco to the opulent auction houses of Shanghai, the quartet of women will forge a tenuous loyalty that could protect the world—or get them killed.

In addition to Chastain, Nyong’o, Kruger, Cruz, Sheng, and Stan, Zero Dark Thirty‘s Édgar Ramirez is also set to appear in the film. The previously announced Marion Cotillard, however, unfortunately had to drop the project, and has since been replaced by Kruger. The 355 is both written, produced, and directed by Dark Phoenix‘s Simon Kinberg, with Theresa Rebeck (NBC’s Smash, Trouble) co-writing and Chastain helping with production. The film is scheduled to hit theaters early next year, on January 7, 2022.

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Jeff Van Gundy Went At COVID Vaccine Skeptics Who Say They’re ‘Doing My Own Research’

The NBA has seen 96 percent of its players get vaccinated against COVID-19, but among those who have decided to not get the jab, a popular refrain has been that they’re waiting because they are in the midst of doing their own research. It is a line that has been used by some folks who still are not vaccinated despite three separate vaccines being available to Americans, and ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy has a question: what, exactly, are you researching?

Van Gundy was on the call for Thursday night’s preseason game between the Miami Heat and the Houston Rockets. With the Heat up by double-digits in the fourth quarter, Van Gundy, as he is wont to do, started talking about something other than the game. He used this opportunity to challenge those who drop that line as justification.

“I would like someone to answer this question: What does that look like, you doing your own research?” Van Gundy said. “Are you doing studies yourself? Are you in the lab on a nightly basis? What are you doing? I don’t understand what that means, ‘I’m doing my own research.’ How about this, we got smart people, a lot smarter than anybody in the NBA, who’s already done the research.”

The mini rant came on the same day that the Brooklyn Nets listed Kyrie Irving as ineligible to participate in the team’s first home preseason game, which takes place on Friday, due to his resistance to getting vaccinated.

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Dave Chappelle Declares That He Is Not Worried About Being Cancelled Following Backlash To His New Netflix Special: ‘I Love It’

Following this week’s release of Dave Chappelle‘s latest Netflix special, The Closer, the comedian has been embroiled in controversy thanks to declaring himself “Team TERF” while defending transphobic remarks by author J.K. Rowling. Chappelle also made incendiary comments of his own by saying during the special that “gender is a fact” and “every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman” to be born. (Additionally, Chappelle defended homophobic comments made by DaBaby.)

However, despite the growing controversy, the comedian seems unfazed by his detractors. During a star-studded screening of Untitled: Dave Chappelle Documentary on Thursday night, the comic embraced his current “cancelled” status while being feted by the crowd. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“If this is what being canceled is like, I love it,” the 48-year-old said in response to a standing ovation. The line, and many more like it, was greeted by rapturous applause from the crowd, which included a masked Brad Pitt, Tiffany Haddish, Donnell Rawlings and others. At another point, he was more blunt: “F*ck Twitter. F*ck NBC News, ABC News, all these stupid ass networks. I’m not talking to them. I’m talking to you. This is real life.”

But while Chappelle doesn’t seem concerned with his words, Dear White People showrunner Jaclyn Moore has spoken out and announced that she will (apparently) no longer be working with Netflix if it continues to profit from hate speech.

“I love so many of the people I’ve worked with at Netflix. Brilliant people and executives who have been collaborative and fought for important art. But I’ve been thrown against walls because, ‘I’m not a ‘real’ woman.’ I’ve had beer bottles thrown at me. So, @Netflix, I’m done,” Moore tweeted.

You can see Moore’s statement below:

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Rockstar Teased A ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Trilogy Definitive Edition

There are few franchises in the world as popular as Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar’s sandbox crime series iso one of the most profitable pieces of media ever. However, it’s been eight years since a new GTA game, with much of Rockstar’s time on the series being spent on supporting Grand Theft Auto Online and creating Red Dead Redemption 2.

On Friday, Rockstar finally gave fans what they’ve wanted to see … sort of. While it wasn’t a new game, Rockstar officially announced a remastered trilogy of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is one of those games that has had rumors swirling around it for quite some time, so it didn’t come out of left field, but it was still exciting to have it officially confirmed.

The announcement of this trilogy coincides with a big anniversary for the GTA series: the 20th anniversary of GTA III. For a lot of longtime fans, and really for Rockstar itself, GTA III was the game that changed the entire series. It created the formula that GTA and, really, every open-world game ever has emulated or straight up copied. Anyone who’s played a game where they had a map full of icons that they could take on at their own leisure has, in some way, used the GTA III formula.

While GTA III was extremely popular on its own, it also spawned the spin-off San Andreas and Vice City games. San Andreas took the idea of giving the player endless options in an open world to new highs, while Vice City‘s overall style was beloved by fans everywhere. GTA IV and GTA V sold more, but there are still many fans whose love the original PS2 trilogy. Rockstar is giving them the ability to play those games again in a new way.

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Cardi B Gets Teary-Eyed While Planning A Wedding With Raven-Symoné On A New ‘Cardi Tries’ Episode

Cardi B’s vibrant personality deserves a chance to shine outside of music, and indeed, it has been afforded those opportunities. Aside from her various TV appearances over the years, in 2020, she launched her own show, Cardi Tries __, on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram’s Watch Together platform. As the title suggests, on the program, Cardi takes a stab at a number of different activities from outside of her usual wheelhouse.

The show is alive and well, and a new episode premieres today, in which Cardi teams up with Raven-Symoné to marry a same-sex couple; The episode arrives shortly ahead of National Coming Out Day on October 11 (which is also Cardi’s birthday). In an exclusive clip, Raven-Symoné shows Cardi some different options for flower and table arrangements. While looking at them, Cardi was so moved by the displays that she got emotional and started crying. While trying to compose herself, she said, “I want to get married… again!”

Elsewhere in the episode, Cardi and Raven-Symoné help a lucky person named Brandi plan a surprise wedding for their significant other, Shannon. Furthermore, Cardi herself actually officiates the ceremony, thanks to the power vested in her by the state of California (and an online class).

Check out the exclusive Cardi Tries clip above and find the full episode here.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.