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Liverpool entered Sunday’s action fifth in the Premier League, one point back of Chelsea for the all-important fourth position which earns you a trip to the Champions League rather than the Europa League. Facing a relegation side in West Brom, Liverpool was expected to win but found itself locked in a 1-1 tie going into extra time, with Champions League dreams fading as a result.

However, in the fourth and final minute of stoppage time, Liverpool had a corner kick for a last gasp chance for a win and brought everyone into the box, including their goalkeeper, Alisson Becker. What came next was something incredible (and rare) as a beautiful header from their goalie won them the game and gave them a real shot at a top-4 finish in the league.

It is as good of a header as you could hope for from a world-class striker, much less a goalie, as Alisson drives the ball into the far corner of the net, out of reach of his goalie counterpart for the game-winning strike. The Spanish call from Andres Cantor really elevates this moment with the energy it deserves.

The win is crucial for Liverpool as they move into a tie with Leicester City for third, two points clear of Chelsea who have to play Leicester on Tuesday. A Chelsea loss would put Liverpool in the drivers seat going into the final match day of the season, up two points on the Blues. A draw would put Liverpool in fourth, a point up on Chelsea and a point behind Leicester, making for a very dramatic final match day next Sunday, while a Chelsea win would likewise make for some juicy drama as the Blues would move a game ahead of Liverpool and Leicester, who would be tied.

Much like this week’s cold open, Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment was all about masks and vaccines. And much like the cold open that addressed the uncertainty of when vaccinated people can finally shed a mask for good, Colin Jost and Michael Che pointed out we’re not exactly done with masks just yet.

“The CDC announced that fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks or socially distance. Except, if you go to most places,” Jost said as a lengthy list of places still requiring masks popped up next to him. “Anyway, have fun out there.”

Jost noted that Mitch McConnell said “free at last” when he heard the mask mandate had been updated, calling it “wildly tone deaf” and making a joke about embattled Florida representative Matt Gaetz.

“It’s like if Matt Gaetz took off his mask and said ‘I feel like a kid again,’” he said.

Che addressed a study that suggested some people who have had coronavirus reported suffering from erectile dysfunction and potentially experienced penis shrinkage, which got him thinking about how to better promote getting vaccines in the arms of men.

“Now that’s how you sell some masks. I mean Pfizer, you want people to get vaccinated you need to run with this,” he said. “Forget ’Stop The Spread,’ it should be ‘Stop The Shrink.’”

The segment also covered Tom Cruise giving back his Golden Globes and other topics from the week that was. There was also a joke about Elon Musk, in case you were missing him from this week’s episode.

Fear the Walking Dead is in the midst of not only its best season ever but legitimately one of the best seasons in the entire The Walking Dead universe. Yet as it rounds the corner to the final four episodes of the season, fans still can’t stop speculating about whether Kim Dickens’ Madison Clark will return to the series.

Madison was killed in fairly definitive fashion back in the fourth midseason finale, and while Kim Dickens felt blindsided by it, the TWD community never really appreciated Madison until she was gone. Now it’s all they can talk about. Over on the Fear subreddit, for instance, this is the top comment on a post about Colman Domingo returning next season: “All I’m saying is, I want Madison to come back. BUT, I will not believe it till I see it.” Meanwhile, there are two subreddit threads concerning a minor character from season four named Cole, presumably killed along with Madison and who kind-of-but-not-really has seen a hinted return, which have the subreddit in a frenzy:

There’s no doubt in my mind Madison is coming back at some point now. Because cole was confirmed dead after the stadium, so I guess the writers changed their minds. If they change their minds for him, they change their minds for Madison for sure.

The above is a common sentiment. Meanwhile, the Fear Twitter account sent everyone into a tizzy earlier this year when it included Kim Dickens among the list of words that fans should mute ahead of the season premiere.

I will say, however, that there’s slightly more substance to the latest round of speculation. For instance, instead of ruling it out because the character is dead, the showrunners are not being cagey about the possibility, and the series itself has made a couple of nods to Madison, referencing the baseball stadium where she died a couple of times (including last week’s episode, in which Grace is told during a dream sequence that Madison’s daughter, Alicia, returned to her community at the baseball stadium).

But what’s really set off the Fear community is the title of next week’s Alicia-centered episode: “Mother,” and its logline: “Alicia reunites with old friends and must confront her past.” If there were any episode that might include Madison, it’d be this forthcoming episode because the showrunners are clearly teasing us.

The promo for next week’s episode is also already out, and there’s a possible tease in it, too (don’t worry for those who haven’t seen this week’s episode on AMC+ yet; the promo doesn’t spoil anything).

“Is that you?” Alicia asks, as though seeing someone again for the first time in a long time. It could be Madison, but I suspect Alicia’s reaction to seeing her mother would be far more exclamatory. I suppose this could be a reaction to see Cole, except that the actor who plays him, Sebastian Sozzi, was teasing tonight’s episode on Instagram stories, not next week’s Alicia-centered episode.

All the same, despite all the teasing, I think that the possibility of Madison returning is still remote. Then again, as fans will see in tonight’s episode (no spoilers), introducing characters who we thought were dead is not out of the realm of possibility.

Republican politicians who have signed on to Donald Trump’s “Great Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him have, by and large, escaped a deadly insurrection and Trump’s second impeachment unscathed. Rather, the Republicans who have spoken out in favor of shunning Trump have seen consequences, such as Liz Cheney losing her leadership role in the party and being censured in Wyoming.

Every now and again, though, there is pushback in the press and that’s exactly what happened on Sunday to Dan Crenshaw. On Sunday’s edition of Meet The Press, Chuck Todd challenged the Texas representative and battled back after the politician espoused that the “largely liberal” press was misconstruing the truth about, well, everything. Todd pointed out that Crenshaw signed on to a lawsuit that attempted to throw out votes in swing states in an effort to undo election results and hand Trump the election he lost.

“This is the issue that many people had, is that you’re sitting here trying to say ‘no no no, I just had a specific question.’ Yet what you did gets weaponized by the former president,” Todd said, pointing out the “unhinged” rantings that Trump continues to have about the election. “I understand you guys want to put this behind you but he is the leader of your party and he doesn’t stop talking about this nonsense.”

Crenshaw tried to counter by saying there are “many leaders” in the party, stumbling a bit before blaming the “largely liberal” press for misconstruing what Republicans are saying. But Todd wasn’t having that.

“Don’t start that,” he chirped. “There’s nothing lazier than that excuse.” Crenshaw tried to press on, saying that Republicans aren’t all focused on the 2020 election and that he wouldn’t take the “bait” he accused Todd of using here. So Todd got more specific.

“Why do we have a political party that’s rallying around this bizarre lie and mythology that the former president is doing and you guys just want to say ‘Hey, pay no attention to this,’” Todd asked.

As The Daily Beast wrote, at one point in the interview Todd asked point-blank why anyone should believe Republicans if they continue to insist on the Big Lie Trump keeps trumpeting.

“But why should anybody believe a word you say if the Republican Party itself doesn’t have credibility?” Todd asked.

It’s an uncomfortable balance many conservatives are trying to manage, trying to move forward while still staying loyal to an in-Florida exile Trump. Watching it play out on Meet the Press on Sunday shows just how tough that balancing act will be for some, especially the politicians that stumped hardest for Trump’s false claims of a stolen election in the months that followed.

[via The Daily Beast]

After the 2020 ceremony was delayed nearly a year, the star-studded Class of 2020 was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday in an emotional ceremony as Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Tamika Catchings, and Kobe Bryant were all immortalized in Springfield.

On Sunday, the Hall announced the Class of 2021 which will be inducted into Springfield later this year, which sees some players make it many have felt are long overdue. Paul Pierce and Chris Bosh are the first-ballot honorees in the Class of 2021, as the modern Celtics legend and the dominant Raptors and Heat forward will be enshrined. Joining Pierce and Bosh from the ranks of modern NBA players are Ben Wallace and Chris Webber, two players whose names have been on the ballot for some time and have been considered two snubs to this point. Former Croatian and Chicago Bulls star Toni Kukoč will also go into the Hall as this year’s International Committee selection, a deserved honor for one of the first European stars to make the leap to the NBA in the 90s.

From the women’s game, seven-time All-Star and three-time WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson and seven-time WNBA All-Star Yolanda Griffith will be welcomed into the Hall. Three coaches will also go in, as Rick Adelman, Jay Wright, and Bill Russell will all be honored later this year — Russell, of course, going in for a second time as he’s already in the Hall as a player and now will go in as a coach as well.

The rest of the 2021 Class will include selections from various committees: Val Ackerman, Cotton Fitzsimmons, and Howard Garfinkel (Contributors), Clarence “Fats” Jenkings (Early African-American Pioneers), Bob Dandridge (Veterans), and Pearl Monroe (Women’s Veterans).

It’s been a busy week for J. Cole, as he dropped his latest album, The Off-Season, to rave reviews last Thursday night and on Sunday, he made his debut in the new Basketball Africa League for Patriots Basketball Club in what turned into an 83-60 win for Cole’s squad in their season opener.

Cole has made clear his desire to make it in the basketball world for some time, and not just as a friend to NBA players and someone who name-checks his superstar friends on albums — although, to be clear, he does that too. Cole wants to prove he’s a real hooper and to show his commitment he tried out for and made the Rwandan squad in the new BAL. His debut was rather unspectacular, but he did get on the board with a putback bucket on a follow in transition for his first professional points.

He finished the game with three points, three rebounds, two assists, and three turnovers, doing the little things and not trying to impose his will too much. While he’s the superstar name on the team and in the league, J. Cole seems to understand and embrace being a role player for the Patriots. He’s happy to play defense, set screens, and try to space the floor for his teammates, while creating and taking opportunities when he can. Brandon Costner, former NC State star and a journeyman who’s played in the G League, China, and elsewhere, led the way for the Patriots with 20 points while Rwandan national Dieudonne Ndizeye added 13 points and six rebounds in the win.

Cole looks like another guy out there, which should be taken as a massive compliment. He doesn’t look wildly out of place with some really, really good basketball players, and for a 36-year-old who’s never played professionally otherwise, it’s a credit to him and the work he’s put in that he’s capable of doing that.

ESPN’s The Last Dance docuseries about Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls became a cultural moment of its own last year, with basketball fans in lockdown reveling in the in-depth look at one of the NBA’s greatest dynasties. But a year later, Saturday Night Live focused in on one infamous scene from the show in a pitch-perfect sketch starring host Keegan-Michael Key.

The sketch has a bit of CGI wizardry in it, superimposing Key into Jordan highlights to preview what was an “extended scene” from Game 5 of the 1993 NBA Finals against the Phoenix Suns. But the action wasn’t on the court, it was in the bowels of the United Center and the game Jordan played against a security guard named John Michael Wozniak where the two tried to toss a quarter as close to the wall as possible.

You remember the one, it included this move when the security guard — played here brilliantly by Heidi Gardner — won.

“He won. I was happy for him,” Key, as Jordan, says later. “But he did that little shrug, and I took that personally.”

If you watched the clip from The Last Dance you know everything here is perfect. The outfits, the weird examples of Jordan’s legendary competitiveness, and the amount he absolutely seethed losing a very silly game to a security guard with incredible hair. Which is why, in the extended clip, the stakes go from five dollars to $1,000, and Jordan quickly gets the upper hand.

“That is financially rough for me,” Gardner’s character says as Jordan celebrates quickly taking $9,000 off a security guard.”

Kenan Thompson as Charles Barkley shows up behind the scenes as well, and the SNL cast also plays Dennis Rodman and Phil Jackson in the sketch. The stakes get raised, the security guard somehow loses his pants and it’s all yet another slightly disturbing metaphor for Jordan’s competitiveness.

“If you’re not playing to win,” Jordan says, cigar in hand after seeing a security guard give him a gun to settle a bet. “Why play?”

Vaccinations are being administered, mask mandates are lifting around the country, and movie theaters are reopening, but for the Saw franchise, it doesn’t seem like much has changed at the box office. The series started off strong back in 2004 but had diminishing returns with its annual releases until 2010 before the franchise went into hibernation. In 2017, it returned with a reboot of sorts, Jigsaw, but even with the time away, Lionsgate could squeeze very little water from that rock, as it debuted with $16 million on its way to a $38 million domestic run, or half of what the Saw franchise could earn during its heyday.

With Spiral: From The Book of Saw, Lionsgate brought back Darren Lynn Bousman — the director of Saw II-IV — and brought in some actual star power in the form of Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, which is fairly unusual for a series whose biggest marquee names in 17 years have basically been Cary Elwes and Donnie Wahlberg. After being delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Spiral seemed poised to do well this weekend. The box office hasn’t had a major wide release since Mortal Kombat, and horror films typically appeal to a younger demographic, who are more inclined to return to theaters.

Alas, however, it was not to be, as Spiral crapped out with a lackluster $9 million debut, which was below even the modest expectations that Lionsgate had for the film ($10 to $15 million). Even with Rock and Jackson, however, the budget was relatively small ($20 million), so it’s likely to at least break even, although the mixed-to-poor reviews for the film didn’t exactly help matters, either (39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). Lionsgate may want to put this franchise back under mothballs for another decade. Personally, I’m bummed, because I’ve always been fond of the series, although it’s gotten less fun over the years.

Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead also opened this weekend, but it didn’t make much of a splash in theaters, either. Not that it was expected to. It will be out on Netflix next week (where it will probably do gangbusters), and at the moment, Netflix only has an arrangement for theatrical release in Cinemark theaters, which account for only around 600 screens. It earned around $750,000 over the three-day weekend.

Likewise, Angelina Jolie’s Those Who Wish Me Dead didn’t make a lot of waves. That said, the Taylor Sheridan film was also released on HBO Max, and unlike Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat, it was expected to do better on the streaming service than in theaters. Mediocre reviews (63 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) didn’t help its prospects. Still, the $2.5 million gross was good for third place, behind last week’s number one film, Jason Statham’s Wrath of Man, which fell to number two with $3.7 million. If there’s one good sign at this weekend’s box office, however, it is that Spiral opened slightly better than the $8.2 million of Wrath of Man last weekend.

Demon Slayer took the fourth spot with $1.7 million, as it worked its way up to an impressive $42 million, which is huge for an anime film in or out of a pandemic. Raya and the Last Dragon, which has been a mainstay in the five spot, racked up another $1.59 million for an 11-week total of $46 million.

Alas, that’s all the excitement we expect to see in theaters for another two weeks when Memorial Day (and the official lifting of mask mandates) will give us a better idea of how the box office will perform post-pandemic with Emma Stone’s Cruella, which will be released simultaneously on Disney+ for a $30 surcharge, and A Quiet Place 2, the biggest wide opener that’s not also being released simultaneously anywhere else since Tenet.

Source: Deadline, Box Office Mojo

Statler and Waldorf are mainstays of The Muppets, and their heckling has been part of the show for decades. But on Saturday Night Live, the two’s constant interruptions were addressed in a surprisingly violent sketch starring Keegan-Michael Key.

The sketch was framed as a Disney+ show, but in reality what’s shown is a taping of the show with Statler and Waldorf in the balcony commenting on the action. Kermit is trying to chat up Lily Tomlin, but keeps getting interrupted by the odd couple upstairs. That’s when Key and Kenan Thompson, playing bouncers paid by the venue, come out to settle things down.

“Everyone here paid good money to see this little dragon and his friends do their thing,” Key’s bouncer character said. “So let them do their thing without talking.”

Key’s character says “you are more than welcome to leave” to the duo several times as they tried to argue their case. But eventually, he has to go up to the balcony and rough them up for himself. Both Key and Thompson struggle to keep it together as the two tough guys try to keep of the facade in the face of bruised and battered puppets from the legendary Jim Henson show crumple because of Key’s fists and elbows.

“Look, guys, I’m sorry,” Thompson’s bouncer says, giggling as Statler struggles to breathe and a shaken Waldorf looks off into the middle distance. “Obviously I’m not a big fan of this show either. I mean, it’s a mess backstage. Dude with orange hair just blowing things up. Penguin and chicken turds everywhere. It’s too madcap for my tastes.

“But enough of the hating,” he continues. “No more heckling, OK?”

Waldorf agrees, only to say something that gets him roughed up by Thompson as well. But the sketch ends with an exasperated Kermit telling everyone to quiet down, which gets the bouncers heckling him, too. At least he didn’t get a flying elbow for the effort from Tomlin, though.

Last week’s cold open of Saturday Night Live was a loving tribute to mothers that included most of the cast and Miley Cyrus singing Dolly Parton, but the latest episode got back to business with a rundown of the CDC’s new and somewhat confusing mask policy.

The big news of the week was, of course, that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks outside or inside in “most” situations. But as Kate McKinnon’s Anthony Fauci (“the patron saint of Purell”) explained, it’s not so cut and dry for many people.

“A lot of people had questions. Such as ‘What does that mean? What the hell are you talking about? Is this a trap?’” McKinnon’s Fauci said. “So, to clear things up I found a few doctors at the CDC who minored in theater.”

And so “the CDC players” play out various scenes where things could get confusing. Starting with “man enters a bar,” where it’s explained you don’t need to wear a mask inside said bar if you are fully vaccinated.

“Well, I’m entering a bar at 11 a.m.,” Beck Bennett said. “Did you really think I was vaxxed? Because that’s on you.”

“You’re right,” Aidy Bryant’s character says. “I deserve COVID.”

Another sketch got a bit sidetracked from the “masks are still required on airplanes” by the incessant horniness of the people involved. There’s a joke about January 6 MAGA riot at the US Capitol, and a bit of Kyle Mooney weirdness where the sketch briefly becomes a Family Guy bit.

Pete Davidson gets weird on public transportation in New York, and things continue to spiral despite the good intentions of the sketch in general.

“The real point is we have to trust each other so please be honest and respectful,” McKinnon says, as Fauci. It’s a good message for sure, and comes after a week of very good news for people who are vaccinated. But as the sketch points out, well, it’s always a bit more complicated than respect and honesty these days.