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It’s been a wild week for president-turned-failed blogger Donald J. Trump. He doesn’t have much to do, bumbling around a resort, regaling strangers with fanciful tales about a stolen election. One thing he’s allegedly been telling them, we learned, is that he’s going to be reinstalled in the White House in August. How? Surely not even he knows. But it’s not surprising to learn which person may have given him this ridiculous idea.

As per The Daily Beast, Mike Lindell, aka My Pillow Guy, is, he claims, possibly the person who inspired Trump to adopt this fairy tale story as gospel. “If Trump is saying August, that is probably because he heard me say it publicly,” the businessman — whose vast bedwear fortune may be taken from him by Dominions Voting Systems — told the Beast.

This may be one of the only provable things Lindell has said in the last six months. As the Beast points out, he did appear late last month on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room, where he uttered the magic words, “Donald Trump, I believe, will be back in by the end of August.” He also said eventually even liberals, such as Rachel Maddow, would admit the election was stolen.

Of course, it’s not clear who came up with the August line first — if Trump maybe heard Lindell say it then parroted it to others. The Beast did do some snooping into Trump’s August claims, which were first made public by The New York Times, and found some more intel:

In the past few weeks, two people close to Trump told The Daily Beast, the ex-president had begun increasingly quizzing confidants about a potential August return to power. What’s more, he claimed that a lot of “highly respected” people—who Trump did not name—have been saying it’s possible. Both of these sources said they decided not to tell the former president what they were thinking, which was that it’s not going to happen.

On one hand, this all seems cartoonishly unlikely. On the other — and not to sound paranoid — stranger things sure have happened.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Fans of Jupiter’s Legacy, we have some good news and bad. The good: The Netflix adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic — about superheroes struggling to live up to the lofty ideals of the previous generation — is getting a spin-off. The bad: It’s also coming to an end. This slightly confusing bit of news comes from Deadline, which reveals the streaming giant has greenlit Supercrooks, which exists in the same world, but that the main show itself is no longer.

That might not be for forever, mind you. While Netflix is pursuing a different part of the IP, Millar says he’s “confident we’ll return” to Jupiter’s later. But for now, the show’s main cast — Josh Duhamel, Leslie Bibb, and Ben Daniels among them — has been released from their commitments to the show. That way, they’re not sitting around, turning down other work while Netflix figures out when they’ll get back to Duhamel’s The Utopian, Bibb’s Lady Liberty, and Daniels’ Brainwave.

But back to that upside: Supercrooks is a go. The show will be take an anime approach to that comic, which follows eight supervillains involved in some high-powered heist shenanigans. That wing of Millar’s comic-verse does share some characters with Jupiter’s, but it’s unclear if there will be any overlap between the two shows.

Jupiter’s Legacy bowed on Netflix in early May and ran eight episodes. Its heavy look at family matters earned it comparisons from Uproxx to Shakespeare and a verdict that it was a “swell way to spend a handful of hours.”

(Via Deadline)

Ever since The X-Files ended for the first time in 2002, Gillian Anderson has seemed to work whenever she feels like it. She’ll do the occasional movie but she’s never been consistent. Same with TV shows. She’s still basking in the raves for her eerily spot-on Margaret Thatcher on The Crown, but in a new Hollywood Reporter round-table chat with fellow actresses, she confessed that the show that made her also nearly destroyed her.

“I had a good couple of mini breakdowns during that, and at the end, could not talk about it, could not see it, could not see pictures, could not,” she told Cynthia Erivo, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulson, Mj Rodriguez, and Sarah Paulson. But she came up with a solution.

“I needed to immerse immediately in theater in another country,” Anderson said. “And then after a while, I was able to embrace it again, but when I started to embrace it, it was almost like I separated myself so much that I was looking at the image as if it was another person. When you immerse yourself so entirely as we can, and we do for such long periods of time, there’s not going to be no consequence to that. Of course, there’s going to be consequence to that.”

Anderson also admitted that she’s “never really gone after things,” which may explain why her work is relatively sporadic. She continued:

“And when I finished with X-Files, I didn’t know if I wanted to be on a set again ever. So aside from having grown up in the U.K. and wanting to go back, I knew it would take time before I could if I was going to. And in London, you could move between theater and TV, and that was always my dream. But every actor has the thing that they’d want more than the thing that they have, and I’m a cinephile, and so I [wonder], ‘Why do I keep doing TV? All I want to do is do film.’ And I’m still doing TV.”

That said, Anderson has a film in the pipeline: White Bird: A Wonder Story, a war drama that pairs her with no less than Helen Mirren. And being on Sex Education, on top of The Crown, is nothing to sneeze at.

Felix Gretarsson, 48, was an electrician working in his home country of Iceland 23 years ago when a miscommunication with coworkers led to him accidentally grabbing a live wire. The 11,000-volt shock threw Gretarsson to the frozen ground more than 30 feet below. Not only did he break his back and neck in three places, but his arms caught fire as well.

“I just remember lying there waiting for the ambulance and feeling pain in my belly because my body had shut out everything else,” Gretarsson told Positive News. “I was put to sleep when I got to the hospital, and woke up three months later with no arms.”

At first, his arms were amputated just above the elbow, but repeated infections resulted in losing the limbs all the way up to his shoulders. He ended up having 54 operations in the years immediately following the accident.

That’s a lot of trauma and pain, and Gretarsson numbed it all with substance abuse. “My therapy was shutting it out with drugs and alcohol and general destruction for the next few years,” he said. “I got to a place where they said: ‘you are either going to be dead or you do something’.”

After getting help from Alcoholics Anonymous and two liver transplants, Gretarsson got a glimmer of hope. A French doctor who had successfully transplanted a hand happened to be lecturing in Iceland in 2007. Gretarsson spoke with him and he agreed to review his case. Gretarrson moved to Lyon, France, to be closer to the transplant doctors who might be able to help him get his arms back.

In Lyon, he met a yoga teacher from Poland named Sylwia. They fell in love, got married, and began a life together with their two dogs as Gretarsson’s hopes for an arm transplant sat waiting in the wings.

This January, the phone call came. A suitable donor had been found and the doctors wanted to go ahead with the surgery.

The procedure, the first double arm and shoulder transplant, was billed a success. It will be three years before they’ll know exactly how successful the surgery really was, as it takes time—and rehabilitation work—for the nerves to grow and function.

However, Gretarsson’s progress is looking incredibly promising. He posts updates on his new arms on Instagram, and in a recent video, he shared how he’s able to flex his bicep far earlier than doctors anticipated. He said that doctors had told him before the surgery that nerves grow on average about one millimeter per day, which would mean that after about a year, his nerves would be reaching the elbow, and in two years, may reach his hands.

It’s been less than six months since the transplant, and Gretarsoon says he already has some nerve feeling in the forearms. And his voluntary movement of his bicep is incredible, since the lead surgeon had talked about how life-changing just the possibility of being able to bend his elbow would be if the surgery and recovery went well.

Gretarsson keeps an upbeat attitude about his rehabilitation, often making jokes about the transformation his body has undergone. He is also grateful for the gift of modern science.

“I have a Danish liver, French arms – I’m a modern-day Frankenstein,” he said to Positive News, adding: “No-one else has ever lost their arms and shoulders, and got them back. I consider myself to be very, very privileged.”

Follow Felix Gretarsson on Instagram to see updates on his progress.

Miley Cyrus closed out 2020 by dropping her seventh album, Plastic Hearts. It’s a project that the singer intended to release at the end of 2019 under the title of She Is Miley Cyrus, but vocal chord surgery for tonsillitis in October 2019 forced her to delay it. But Cyrus has already begun work on her next project, news that producer Andrew Watt shared in a recent interview with Guitar World.

During the sit-down, Watt, who worked with Cyrus on Plastic Hearts, mentioned the singer as he spoke about the upcoming projects he’s working on at the moment. “He’s also on board for another record with Cyrus, though that’s still in the planning stages,” the publication wrote, adding that a timeline for the album’s potential release has “yet to be fixed in stone.”

While the singer’s fans will most likely have to wait a while for that album to arrive, they’ll be able to watch her perform songs from Plastic Hearts and more at a string of upcoming festivals. Cyrus is set to appear at this year’s Austin City Limits, Lolapalooza, and Bottleneck. These come after she brought her talents to Saturday Night Live to perform with The Kid Laroi.

You can read Andrew Watt’s full interview with Guitar World here.

The vaccination roll-out has gone better than expected. As of this writing, 63% of Americans have at least one dose, with 52% fully vaccinated. But the numbers have slowed the last month, to the consternation of many, and President Joe Biden’s goal of getting the nation up to 70% of at least one dose by July 4 seems like it might not happen. But a dark horse (or Clydesdale) has entered the race: Anheuser-Busch, one of the country’s oldest and most successful beer companies, announced that if we pass that milestone, they’ll buy us a round.

As per The New York Times, the company — which brews Budweiser and its variants, Michelob, Rolling Rock, Shock Top, and which has a number of theme parks they’d like healthy people to visit — said in a statement that they “buy America’s next round” should the nation get their act together.

“We pride ourselves on stepping up both in times of need and in times of great celebration, and the past year has been no different,” the statement read. “As we look ahead to brighter days with renewed optimism, we are proud to work alongside the White House to make a meaningful impact for our country, our communities and our consumers.”

How will this work? Should enough people get at least their first dose, the company will release $5 virtual credit cards for one of their beverages, which include not only beer but alcoholic seltzers and nonalcoholic beers as well.

Anheuser-Busch isn’t the first company to step up and offer goods and services in exchange for helping end a once-in-a-century public health crisis. Krispy Kreme and Shack Shack have offered similar incentives. Meanwhile, some states have gone next level. Ohio offers $1 million lottery prizes to people who can prove they’ve been dosed, while West Virginia is giving away guns and trucks to people who want to protect themselves as well as others from a highly contagious disease.

America, you can do this. And then we can all get together for a drink.

(Via NYT)

The Los Angeles Lakers’ season and title defense is on the line tomorrow night. Down 3-2 to the Suns in the first round, the Lakers need a win at home in Game 6 to survive and force a decisive Game 7.

It’s also unclear right now whether Anthony Davis will be active for Game 6. Davis missed Game 5 with a groin injury and is currently listed as day-to-day. According the Lakers coach Frank Vogel, he isn’t sure if Davis will be active for Game 6, saying “we’ll see” when asked about his star big man’s status.

Ultimately, the Lakers need Davis back to have a shot at winning this series, much less repeating as champions. As it stands right now, Los Angeles needs someone to provide a difference alongside LeBron James against a very good Suns team. Davis is the best bet for that to happen, even if he’s not at 100 percent, as we saw in Phoenix’s blowout of L.A. in Game 5 without him.

Davis is almost certainly not going to be at full strength if he plays in Game 6 or in a possible Game 7, but he is one of the few genuine offensive threats the Lakers have beyond LeBron even if he’s not as dynamic as he normally is. After a poor first game, Davis was dominant in Games 2 and 3 before suffering the injury in a Game 4 loss, and he’s simply not had a long enough rehab period to get back to full strength. The best case scenario here is that Davis can be close to his best just enough to take the Lakers forward. It also seems like the Lakers won’t decide if he’ll play or not until just before Game 6 tips at 10:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, so Lakers fans will have to hope he continues improving over the next 24 hours.

Griff is a 20-year-old singer/songwriter of Jamaican and Chinese heritage who grew up just outside of London. Currently blowing up off the strength of her 2021 single, “Black Hole,” which is one of the best songs of year so far, she’s also already collaborated with heavyweights like Zedd and Honne. During this year’s BRIT Awards, Griff even took home the Rising Star trophy, a vote of confidence from the UK that seems very auspicious. Now, just a few days away from the release of her debut mixtape, One Foot In Front Of The Other, out June 18, Spotify has also given the young artist another massive co-sign.

Griff will be the next Radar artist for the streaming giant, getting a boost of support from them in the form of a mini documentary, a Spotify Singles recording, and massive billboards in both New York’s Time Square and in her native London. She’s one of the first RADAR stars to be supported by them in both the US and the UK, indicating her popularity in both realms. So what’s the reason so many people are ready to get behind Griff’s songwriting? Well, it cuts to the quick with a certain kind of vulnerability like Julia Michaels, but she also utilizes a single-minded sound with glitchy, unexpected production like, say, Charli XCX. Given the fact that her vocals are on par with either of those two stars, it’s obvious why she’s earned global attention. Keep your eyes out for her mixtape coming soon, and if you haven’t heard it yet check out “Black Hole” above.

The Knicks face a win or stay home scenario in Game 5 as they play host to the Hawks for the third time in their first round series, trailing 3-1 after splitting the first two at Madison Square Garden and then getting pretty much dominated in the two games in Atlanta. As the series shifts back to Manhattan, the Hawks have started to get more vocal about how they feel about the series, with Clint Capela saying they’re going to send the Knicks on vacation in Game 5.

New York’s stars chose to shrug that off and not get into a war of words, but after how things went in Atlanta, it’s hard to blame the Hawks for feeling very confident they can close the series out. On the other side, the Knicks are desperate to figure things out, particularly offensively, for Game 5, and that will start with Julius Randle and RJ Barrett simply making some of the tough shots they had all regular season. Those two have struggled so far, combining to go, on average, 10-for-31 each game from the field, which just isn’t a pathway to success.

Even so, Barrett and company are keeping the mindset that they’re going to find it and win Game 5. When a reporter posed a question to Barrett after shootaround on Wednesday about how he’ll view this season should the Knicks lose, he shut down that line of thinking saying he’s not thinking about that and that they’re winning tonight.

As we have entered a space where we are talking more about the press conference/scrum experience for players, it is questions like this that draw much of the ire from players. This is a solid exit interview question after the season posed too early — one that maybe would play with a coach who is more likely to be willing to talk big picture at this time of year — but a player is always going to scoff at any notion of a question that starts with “if you lose” because their entire mindset is to focus on how they’re going to win not the ramifications of a loss.

Barrett was understandably not pleased with it and shut it down with that “we’re winning tonight” to keep it moving.

The San Francisco Giants have made Major League Baseball history by becoming the first team to wear rainbow-themed uniforms to honor the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month. The team will wear Pride-themed logos inspired by the 11-color Pride Progress flag on the sleeves of their jerseys as well as their hats.

The uniforms aren’t just a one-off nod to Pride Month either. They’ll be wearing them throughout the entire month of June. The Giants will debut the uniforms against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.

The team will also donate some of the proceeds from the game to the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration Committee. The Giants will also host a “Pride Movie Night” at Oracle Park on June 11-12.

via San Francisco Giants

The decision is powerful in a league that has only had one openly gay player and that was in the ’70s. Glenn Burke, who played for the Dodgers and A’s from 1976 to 1979, was out to his teammates although he kept his sexuality a secret outside of the clubhouse.

To see an entire team of men wearing Pride-themed jerseys represents a sea change in attitudes toward the LGBTQ community in the sport.

“We are extremely proud to stand with the LGBTQ+ community as we kick off one of the best annual celebrations in San Francisco by paying honor to the countless achievements and contributions of all those who identify as LGBTQ+ and are allies of the LGBTQ+ community,” Giants President and CEO Larry Baer tweeted in a statement.

The Giants on June 5 will become the first MLB team to wear on-field hats and jerseys with Pride Month colors 🏳️‍🌈… https://t.co/cpvP8aMjIQ

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants)
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“I’m very proud that the San Francisco Giants are taking this step,” team manager Gabe Kapler told MLB. “I’m very, very proud to be a part of it, and looking forward to the impact and the support that we can provide for the LGBTQ+ community.”

It makes sense for the Giants to be the first MLB team to wear Pride-themed jerseys on the field. San Francisco has historically had the highest percentage of LGBTQ citizens in the country and has been at the forefront of issues facing the community.

During Pride Month, most MLB teams have a pride game. Since 2003, 29 of the 30 teams have done some form a pride ga… https://t.co/M8NTDiCscQ

— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3)
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A little more than half of all MLB teams are hosting Pride events this year. Some teams have had to rethink promotional nights this season in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.