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The inaugural edition of WitcherCon went down late last week as a joint event from CD Projekt Red (the developer of The Witcher video games, which are canon-divergent) and Netflix (the maker of The Witcher TV show, which is canon and pulled the bathtub into that status). As a result, the fandom received several updates on the TV/film front. That included a look at Jaskier belting out his upcoming banger and a few release dates of interest: the anime movie Nightmare of the Wolf will stream on August 23, and The Witcher‘s second season will arrive on December 17.

To that end, Henry Cavill appeared on a few WitcherCon panels, and he revealed that Geralt of Rivia will have a slightly different edge to him in the new batch of episodes. Never fear, those grumpy faces and stoic grunts won’t be going anywhere, but Geralt might be chattier than viewers expect. Cavill explained that he felt Geralt’s relative silence made a ton of sense during the first season due to Geralt saying less because he’s thinking more. Yet Geralt’s got more reason to speak up during Season 2.

Here’s how Cavill more fully explained the different approach:

“I played the Season One way deliberately, which was him out in the wilds and without the opportunity for vast swathes of dialogue. I thought it best to be the man who says less because that seems like he’s thinking more. And that was the intention with that. But once you get into a scenario with Cirilla, and the Witchers and his home space and with those people who he already knows, I was of the opinion that you had to let him be verbose and be philosophical and speak more and be intellectual, because that’s what he is. He’s not just a big old white-haired brute.”

This totally makes sense, given that Geralt will grow paternal with Princess Ciri while embracing their destinies. He’ll also be around more Witchers, so he’s gonna let those lips fly a little looser. This should be an awful lot of fun when Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir, shows up because he’ll be played by none other than Kim Bodnia (the wickedly amusing and duplicitous Constantine of Killing Eve). I hope they grunt at each other in addition to talking. You know you wanna see that, too.

(Via WitcherCon)

The Bucks got themselves on the board in the 2021 NBA Finals on Sunday night with an impressive 120-100 win over the Suns in Milwaukee, bouncing back from a pair of losses in Phoenix where they simply looked outclassed. There were a number of differences in Game 3, most notably the Suns going cold (aside from Jae Crowder’s 6-of-7 night) from three-point range and Devin Booker scoring just 10 points, while Milwaukee saw Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton finally get it going offensively to support another monster 41-point effort from Giannis Antetokounmpo.

A contributing factor to the Suns’ woes was Deandre Ayton getting into foul trouble after dominating the early portion of the game. Ayton had 12 points in the first quarter to lift Phoenix to a three-point lead going to the second, but picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and sat the rest of the way. From that point forward, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks absolutely dominated offensively, and Ayton quickly added a fifth foul after returning to start the fourth and wouldn’t play another minute.

There were a couple 50/50 calls on Ayton, but the fourth, in particular, was simply a mental mistake of grabbing Giannis on a second-chance opportunity when he just needed to let him go for a layup given the circumstances of the moment. Ayton not being out there led to lots of Frank Kaminsky minutes, which went disastrously, and small-ball lineups that scored better but likewise stood no chance of containing the Bucks and, especially, Giannis. There were certainly some calls that the Suns could’ve had gripes with, but not to the point of it being decisive in the game.

However, that didn’t stop Monty Williams from pointing out that Giannis attempted more free throws (17) than the Suns did as a team (16) — funnily, seconds after insisting he wouldn’t publicly complain about officiating.

There were a couple 50/50 calls that went Giannis’ way in Game 3 — most notably an instance when it seemed he crashed into Jae Crowder going to post up and Crowder got hit with the foul — but that was also just a product of Giannis, by himself, being as aggressive as the entire Phoenix team.

The Suns’ love of the midrange jumper is an advantage in that it’s the shot most defenses are willing to give up, but it’s also just not a shot you get fouls called on very often. Not getting to the rim was the biggest issue in the Suns not getting calls, whereas Giannis was moving downhill all night. On top of that, when Giannis goes downhill, the book on him is to try and foul him to make him take free throws instead of getting layups and dunks, which the Suns did plenty of to willfully accept a foul in exchange for stopping a layup — Giannis just happened to hit 13-of-17 from the stripe.

That doesn’t really matter to Williams, who knows a lot of these things but is still hoping to get a couple of those 50/50 calls to go in the direction of the Suns in Game 4. Still, there are far bigger things for the Suns to correct going into Game 4 than worrying about calls, most notably that if they’re doing what they need to and being more assertive and attacking, the whistles are likely to come.

Game 3 of the Bucks-Suns series started as so many have, with each team trading blows early and the Suns starting to open up a healthy first quarter lead while Milwaukee struggled shooting from long-range. The Suns led 28-25 after one quarter of play in Milwaukee thanks in large part to the play of Deandre Ayton, who dominated with 12 points in the opening frame as he took advantage of the Bucks’ switching defense early.

Chris Paul also had a nice start with 10 points and four assists, but aside from those two, the Suns struggled to get consistent production. After shooting 50 percent from three-point range in Game 2 at home, Phoenix was ice cold from deep on the road, going 2-for-14 from distance in the first half. Milwaukee wasn’t significantly better, 5-of-18, but they were able to more consistently get themselves to the rim — in part due to their ability to get out and run off of misses from Phoenix — and that proved to be the catalyst for a big second quarter push.

Leading the charge in the second was Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had 18 points in the first half to go along with eight boards and four assists, as he did a bit of everything for the Bucks who were far more assertive than they had been in the first two games of the series.

The Bucks defense was the catalyst for their second quarter run, as they smothered the Suns’ playmakers, particularly Devin Booker, who was just 2-for-11 in the first half for seven points, as Khris Middleton, PJ Tucker, and Jrue Holiday were aggressive in pressing Booker and making the Phoenix star uncomfortable.

Middleton also got himself going after some struggles on the road to open the series, scoring 15 points with five assists and four rebounds in the first half as Milwaukee started to break down Phoenix’s defense to take a 60-45 advantage into the break.

The third quarter started with the two teams trading buckets, as the Suns simply had no answers for Giannis inside, but were finally able to see a pair of threes go down courtesy of Jae Crowder.

The best moment of the game for the Suns came in the mid third quarter when Cam Johnson did something no one in the building was expecting when he took off and hammered home an and-1 dunk on top of PJ Tucker — the Bucks challenged the block call and were unsuccessful, allowing everyone instead to just watch dozens of replays of Tucker’s massacre.

That proved to be the catalyst for an extended run, led by Johnson who had 10 points in the first seven minutes of the third, that got Phoenix within four of Milwaukee.

However, Jrue Holiday, who has been dreadful shooting the ball all series, was able to come back with two huge three-pointers to keep the Suns at a distance. From there, the two teams traded buckets as with Ayton out with four fouls, the pace picked up on both sides with small-ball and shots started to fall from long-range on both ends.

However, the Bucks were just relentless on offense. Holiday continued his hot shooting, knocking down a fourth three late in the third and then, from there, Milwaukee had Giannis and Phoenix — which somewhat bizarrely never put Ayton back in the game in the third — had no answers.

Giannis finished with 16 third quarter points, feasting inside with Ayton out and also connecting on most of his free throws, and he finished off the quarter with a great read and find of Pat Connaughton for a three to put Milwaukee up 22 going to the fourth.

The fourth quarter was more of the same involving Antetokounmpo, as he was absolutely relentless attacking the basket on his way to back-to-back 40-point games in the Finals.

Ayton picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth and again went straight to the bench, as he was held ineffective in the second half by foul trouble and Monty Williams not allowing him to play through it. Ayton finished with 18 points and nine rebounds after such a dominant start, and the Suns couldn’t figure out how to patrol the paint without him. Frank Kaminsky’s minutes were disastrous, and while the small-ball lineups scored well, they couldn’t do anything to slow the Bucks down. Figuring that out going forward is going to be critical for Phoenix without Dario Saric for the series, as there will be another game where Ayton finds himself in foul trouble and Williams is either going to have to trust him to play through it or figure out some kind of miraculous coverage to slow down Giannis when Ayton sits.

Elsewhere for Phoenix, Chris Paul was very solid with 19 points and nine assists, while Jae Crowder was 6-of-7 from deep for 18 points, but they just couldn’t get consistent production from anyone else. Devin Booker sat for much of the second half, as Williams seemed to punt on this game to get his guys some rest going forward with Ayton and Booker playing 24 and 29 minutes, respectively. Booker had just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting and getting him some rest might prove prudent longterm as this series seems likely to tighten up.

For Milwaukee, it was a game they needed to have with a rather stress-free 120-100 win where all of their key guys had excellent performances. Giannis was, obviously, the focal point with 41 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists as he continues to level up this postseason with monster showings night in and night out. More importantly, though, Holiday and Middleton got going at various points in Game 3 and that has to be a sight for sore eyes in Milwaukee. Those two combined for 39 points, 15 assists, and 12 rebounds, providing Antetokounmpo with the support he needs and showing how tremendous this team can be when all three of their stars are rolling.

We now find ourselves with what looks to be a far more competitive series going forward and Game 4 will feel like a pivotal moment in these Finals. Milwaukee will look to hold serve at homecourt and send things back to Phoenix tied at 2-2, while the Suns will look to shake off a rough shooting night from Devin Booker and figure out something else defensively to swipe one on the road and make Game 5 a closeout opportunity at home.

Seinfeld emerged in an era still beholden to TV theme songs with lyrics, often explaining the premise at hand. But fitting for a show that was famously about “nothing,” its own main theme had no lyrics — just some jazzy synths, some mouth snaps, and one helluva slap bass line. But it was almost too pure for this world. In a new Yahoo! Entertainment interview with composer Jonathan Wolff (as caught by The AV Club), coinciding with the recent, belated release of its soundtrack, we learn NBC almost shot it down.

Wolff says a typical theme song wouldn’t work with the show’s opening, which always found Jerry Seinfeld’s Jerry Seinfeld doing a new stand-up bit. He wanted something that wouldn’t be too distracting. So he came up with what he calls a “basic and sophomoric” bass line, and threw in “the human nature of my finger-snaps and lips and tongues doing stuff.” And thus an iconic theme song was born.

Except that it was almost snuffed out at birth. NBC execs, Wolff recalls, thought it “sounded odd and weird.” Others found it “distracting,” and “annoying.” He argues that one reason was that the slap bass “had not yet enjoyed ‘celebrity status’ as a solo instrument” — this coming before Primus used it for another famous TV theme song, for South Park.

Who saved it? Larry David. Upon hearing that the suits found it bizarre, he sprung into action, fighting for its inclusion. As per Wolff, “Larry, he loves annoying! He lives for annoying! That’s his primary goal in life.”

And that’s why ‘90s Must-See TV got the funkiest theme song since Barney Miller.

(Via Yahoo! Entertainment and The AV Club)

The year’s second Conservative Political Action Conference was as off-the-rails as one would expect. Don Jr. tried to be funny. Lauren Boebert got made fun of by AOC. The audience cheered the dearth of people safe from a highly contagious disease. But the biggest draw was the big boy himself, former president and failed blogger Donald J. Trump. He’s still the party’s figurehead despite being banned over much of social media, and he used his speech on Sunday to do something almost unheard of from him: He told the truth.

In a Greatest Hits speech that cycled through the usual malarkey — much of it voter fraud lies — Trump, for whatever reason, saw fit to brag that he became the first president to be impeached twice. He was talking about William Barr, his once loyal Attorney General, who refused to make up nonsense about the election he lost last November. Trump claimed Barr “became different” after Democrats threatened him with impeachment. But Trump, he claimed, is made of stronger stuff.

“I didn’t become different. I got impeached twice,” Trump said, to thunderous applause. He then added, “I became worse.”

It’s a strange thing to brag about, but maybe it only seems that way because we so rarely hear from a man who now lives in resorts with strangers. Still, some people joked that at least he was finally telling the truth about something.

Some pointed out that this certainly disproves Maine Senator Susan Collins’ defense of why she didn’t vote for impeachment the first time, in 2019, claiming that Trump would learn his lesson. And straight from the horse’s mouth, we know he did not.

And others pointed out that Trump can easily make a comeback if people aren’t careful.

It’s been almost a year since the release of Pop Smoke’s first posthumous album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, and there’s more en route. The late rapper’s management recently revealed that a second such release is arriving on July 16, news that was broken in a new trailer that captured Pop Smoke sharing some motivational words with listeners. “Never let anybody get in between you and your creations,” he says in the video. “Why you just trying to be cool? You gotta make history.” With just a few days left until its arrival, Pop Smoke’s manager, Steven Victor, provided a new update.

On Twitter, Victor revealed that the late rapper’s second posthumous album is called Faith. This is not what some fans presumed it would be titled. Thanks to the pre-save page on Apple Music for the project, many believed the album would be titled Pop Smoke, as that was the name that appeared in the album title location.

The news comes after Smoke’s team shared the outro from the upcoming album. It clocks in at a brief 31 seconds and features some inspirational words from the late rapper himself. While Faith won’t be here for another five days, fans in New York and Los Angeles can preview the album’s songs thanks to QR codes on posters promoting the upcoming release.

Pop Smoke is out 7/16 via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic. Pre-order it here.

It’s been over two years since we first heard of the college admissions scandal known as Operation Varsity Blues, in which a number of rich and powerful parents were accused of committing various forms of fraud to get their kids into top universities. Perhaps the biggest name in the brouhaha was Full House alum Lori Loughlin, whose daughter Olivia Jade was fraudulently accepted at the University of Southern California. It turned Jade from a popular YouTube vlogger into a pop culture phenomenon, big enough that she got name-checked on the new edition of Gossip Girl.

Problem is, the show’s writers didn’t get their facts straight. And the person who corrected them was Jade herself. According to Entertainment Weekly, the social media celeb took to TikTok to take umbrage with a joke, in which one of the teen characters, talking about another’s social media popularity, cracks that “Olivia Jade gained followers when her mom went to jail.”

Not so, said Jade. Her fact-check was brief: In the video, she sits in front of a screen showing the offending clip. After the line, she simply says, “No, I didn’t.”

Indeed, Jade lost subscribers after the scandal hit, going from 1.9 million to 1.8 million. That’s not a lot, but while the shocking revelations made her more famous, it didn’t result in new followers. So there.

You can watch Jade’s TikTok here.

(Via EW)

Olivia Rodrigo has had a great 2021. She recently had her debut, Sour, crowned as Spotify’s most-streamed album of the year so far, surpassing Justin Bieber’s Justice in the brief seven weeks since its release. On top of that, Rodrigo has also had a monster single, “Drivers License,” which has spent ample time on the singles chart, clocking in at No. 1 for eight consecutive weeks at the beginning of the year. Now Sour is back at the top.

For the chart dated July 17, Rodrigo reclaimed the No. 1 spot thanks to 88,000 album units sold. This marks the first time Sour appeared at No. 1 without posting more than 100,000 units in weekly sales. Overall, it’s the second overall week that the album failed to post six-digit sales numbers, having done so for its first five weeks on the Billboard 200. Rodrigo’s return to No. 1 comes after she released her concert film, Sour Prom, which featured some of the songs from the album.

The top 10 of charts for this year’s Billboard 200 have not featured too many brand new albums and it continues this week, with G Herbo’s 25 being the lone debut. The album checked in at No. 5, making it the Chicago rapper’s highest-debuting album.

Revisit our review for Sour here.

For some time after he released his sophomore album Free Spirit, Khalid kept things rather quiet on the music side of things. The singer shared a few singles in the two years that followed, but things have been picking up as of late for the Texas-bred singer. With his third album hopefully on the way, Khalid is back with new music and his latest is an effort titled, “New Normal.” As of right now, the track has not been officially released but the singer debuted it during a performance at Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space flight launch on Sunday.

Prior to its release, Khalid shared with Rolling Stone that the song served as his “personal therapy” last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Around this time last year, I was super fascinated and gravitated toward space,” he added, tying in the song with the space flight launch. “I was watching this comet by the name of Neowise last year, and space travel is something that I’ve always been interested in as well. And I’ve been going through the motions of understanding this new, postmodern future that’s coming together, especially when it comes down to technology — it’s something that really excites me.”

Prior to debuting the new song, Khalid teamed with Tate McRae for their collaboration, “Working.” Khalid also connected with J Balvin for “Otra Noche Sin Ti.”

Watch the performance at the 60:20:12 mark in the video above.

Everyone loved the penultimate episode of Loki. It was the one where we met several “variants” of Tom Hiddleston’s anti-hero deity. There was Boastful Loki, President Loki, Kid Loki, even a Classic Loki, played by no less than Richard E. Grant. There was even an Alligator Loki. And there was a “Throg,” who was a frog version of Loki’s adopted brother Thor. And if the one thing he said sounded like it came from a familiar voice, that’s because it did.

In a recent appearance on the podcast For All Nerds, as caught by Entertainment Weekly, series director Kate Herron revealed that the frog version of Thor was indeed voiced by Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth. Mind you, Throg didn’t say much. We heard him say “Ahhh,” and that was it. But eagle-eared viewers may have caught that it came from no less than the star of Michael Mann’s Blackhat.

It’s one of a ton of Easter Eggs crammed into the fifth episode, which kept Marvel heads busy trying to find and/or decode them. There was the Thanos coptor. There was the reunion of Loki and Mobius (or “Lokius,” as they’ve been dubbed). And there were a lot of horn headpieces. And there’s still one more episode left, dropping on Disney+ on the 14th.

(Via EW)