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In both a truly weird flex and the most stunning admission of political corruption from a sitting U.S. Senator we’ve seen in quite some time, Republican Ted Cruz penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, basically copping to the fact that he’s received bribes from corporations in exchange for political favors.

Cruz’s confession was anything but accidental. In fact, the Congressman from Texas seemed pretty eager to reveal his close working relationship with companies like Coca-Cola, Boeing, and Major League Baseball. Cruz wrote the op-ed to, as he described it, take a stand against “woke” CEOs who opposed Georgia’s latest round of voter legislation. While defending Republican support of harsher voting laws in the state, Cruz threatened companies that have publicly opposed measures to curb voting rights and announced they’d be pulling events and cutting back on their financial support of the state. But it’s the way he tried to leverage his political power that’s raised eyebrows within the ethics community — and on Twitter.

Cruz strongly suggested that in the past, Republican lawmakers have “look[ed] the other way” when big companies owed billions in back taxes, caved to lobbyists, and granted billions in corporate welfare in exchange for campaign funding — something Cruz promised he’d stop participating in later in the piece. But, as it turns out, people who actually value their morals took issue with Cruz’s bizarre self-own, people like Walter Shaub, the former head of the Government Office of Ethics who worked under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Shaub tweeted out his response to the article calling it “the most openly corrupt thing a Senator has said.”

And if having the guy who used to be in charge of determining what’s ethical and what’s not labeling you a political mercenary willing to sell your soul to the highest bidder isn’t compelling enough, seeing how Twitter reacted to the senator’s essay might give him some pause.

Enjoying watching Cruz repeatedly hit the self-destruct button on his political career is starting to feel a lot like taking candy from a baby. It’s just too easy to be any fun.

Running Wild With Bear Grylls (Nat Geo, 9:00pm) — Legendary nice-guy-who-plays-every-bad-dude Danny Trejo joins Bear to do the daredevil-in-nature thing. Despite being a record-breaker for his countless movie deaths, Danny will prevail here, but it won’t be easy. He endures scorching temperatures while traversing cliffs and climbing huge boulders within the Arches National Park in Utah. The dude’s done prison time, so how does this adventure measure up? You gotta tune in to find out.

9-1-1 (Fox, 8:00pm) — A hit-and-run puts a familiar face into the hospital, and Athena’s digging into the case of a missing woman with Buck’s assistance.

9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox, 9:00pm) — Owen’s on the hunt for a serial arsonist while being forced into downtime mode following his surgery, and the relationship between T.K. and Carlos is moving to another level.

Pray, Obey, Kill (HBO, 9:00 & 10:00pm) — Here’s the conclusion of the documentary series from investigative journalists Anton Berg and Martin Johnson, who retraced what happened on a frigid night when a small Swedish village saw a woman murdered and a neighbor shot before a nanny confessed to the acts of violence while citing a strange motivation. This week, anonymous texts drop bread crumbs from former cult members about the local abuse they suffered.

Debris (NBC, 10:00pm) — Bryan and Finola are still working to figure out what went wrong and what threatens the very fabric of reality.

Breeders (FX, 10:00pm) — Martin Freeman’s starring turn in this comedy enters the sophomore season with new parenting challenges. This week, one of Paul’s old friendships could present a cost to Ava, and it’s not helping his relationship with Ally.

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Sean Hayes, Casey Wilson, Jason Aldean

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Aidy Bryant, Girl In Red

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Michael Che, Richard Kind, Mario Duplantier

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Tiffany Haddish, Dominic Fike

In case you missed these streaming picks:

The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 4 (Hulu series) — Elisabeth Moss has so much going on these days, but she’s going back again to fight for freedom against the totalitarian government of Gilead. This season, she’ll lead the rebellion while fighting for justice and revenge, but perhaps the biggest threat she’ll face is staying true to herself and the relationships that she values most. Moss and the show keep on racking up Emmys, and she’s back with more with Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, O-T Fagbenle, Bradley Whitford, and Max Minghella. Expect the show to get nomadic this season, leaving the Boston area and officially abandoning home base, which must have presented quite the challenge while filming during a pandemic (as if the show wasn’t socially relevant enough already).

Yasuke (Netflix series) — Netflix will up its anime game with this dazzling series from Japanese animation studio MAPPA, and the project arrives with quite a pedigree. LaKeith Stanfield voices a character who’s based upon the real-life first African samurai, who struggles to shed his past life of violence while striving to keep a peaceful existence. However, he must reluctantly pick up his sword again when a war-torn, feudal Japanese village becomes ground central for warring daimyo. The score’s courtesy of Flying Lotus, and creator/director/producer LeSean Thomas will build upon his proven track record (The Boondocks, Cannon Busters, and Black Dynamite) of interweaving anime and Black culture with a big boost from head writer Nick Jones Jr.

Despite her self-proclaimed “hardcore conservative” beliefs, Meghan McCain has been a vocal supporter of not just the COVID-19 vaccine, but vaccines in general. The View co-host has a documented history of criticizing “anti-vaxxers” like Democratic primary candidate Marianne Williamson. However, the internal struggle between McCain’s pro-vaccine stance and her love of Republican talking points spilled out into the open on Monday as she offered up a strange, scattered criticism of the COVID-19 vaccine efforts.

While repeatedly stating that she herself is vaccinated and that she encourages everyone to get vaccinated, McCain blamed the Biden administration for stoking vaccine hesitancy. “The messaging toward evangelicals and Republicans is ‘You dumb hillbillies, stay the hell away from me.’ And I don’t think there’s any way that’s gonna convince anyone of anything if that’s the messaging coming out of the White House,” McCain said.

Despite the fact that there’s no official messaging coming from the White House where “dumb hillbillies” are told not to get COVID shots, McCain continued her attack on the vaccine process by questioning their efficacy, which is dangerous waters, especially for someone who claims to be opposed to anti-vaxxer beliefs. Via The Wrap:

“A lot of this feels like it’s more about control than science. If the vaccine is 94 percent effective, which we are told by science and the CDC and all smart people who come on this show it is — if the vaccine works, why do we still have to wear masks outdoors? Why do we have to wear masks inside? And that’s also part of the messaging problem,” McCain argued.

McCain finished her rant by calling the current messaging “psychotic” and claiming that she’s come up with a campaign that will get Republicans on board, but nobody will listen to her. McCain neglected to share what that campaign would be.

(Via The View)

This past weekend, Netflix’s highly-anticipated new anime, Yasuke, hit the streaming service and we here at Uproxx love it. The series follows the rise of the first Black samurai, Yasuke, during one of Japan’s most tumultuous periods of time, and while the show features an abundance of science fiction and supernatural elements, at its core is a very real story about a very real man. While the legend of Yasuke has been contested, forgotten, and rewritten, there is no denying the power of both him and his story, which is so grand it gives the Netflix series a run for its money. Here are five facts about the man who inspired not only the show, but countless people across the globe.

1. Yasuke was born in Africa before going to Japan as an Italian missionary’s bodyguard.

While there is some debate over Yasuke’s life prior to his arrival in Japan, it is believed he was born in either Mozambique, Ethiopia, or Sudan sometime in the 1550s. It is presumed that as a boy, Yasuke was kidnapped and enslaved by Portuguese traders, where he was trained to fight — as his quick rise to fame in Japan seem indictive of some combat experience. Others, however, say his enslavement wasn’t likely due to that very reason. Regardless, Yasuke entered the service of Alessandro Valignano, an Italian Jesuit missionary, and accompanied him on his mission to Japan in 1579.

2. Yasuke arrived in Japan during the Sengoku period, also known as the “warring states era.”

From 1467 to 1615, Japan was in a period of constant social upheaval and civil unrest, as many of the countries various daimyo — or feudal lords — waged war against one another for land, resources, and support from the Japanese emperor’s military, the shogunate. When Yasuke arrived in Japan in 1579, tensions were once again increasing. However, Yasuke was fortunate enough to meet the first of the three men who would come to be known as the “three great unifiers of Japan”: Oda Nobunaga.

3. When Oda Nobunaga first met Yasuke, Nobunaga believed he was a god.

Due to Yasuke’s massive stature, resemblance to the dark-skinned Buddha, and resemblance to the guardian demon of prosperity, or “Daikokuten,” Oda Nobunaga believed Yasuke to be divine. After reportedly trying to rub the pigment off Yasuke, ending rumors it might have been ink, Nobunaga threw a feast in his honor and bestowed upon him many gifts. In addition, Nobunaga wasn’t the only one bewildered and impressed by Yasuke. According to historian Lawrence Winkler, his arrival in Kyoto caused “such a sensation that people climbed over one another to get a glimpse of him with some being crushed to death.”

4. Yasuke become the first foreign-born, and Black, samurai — and did so quickly.

Once settled in Japan, Yasuke was recruited by Nobunaga and rose through his ranks quickly. According to Floyd Webb, a filmmaker working on a documentary about the larger-than-life figure, Yasuke not only had incredible command of the Japanese language, but “understood the cultural language of Japan and loved to dance and perform Utenzi — a historic form of Swahili narrative poetry celebrating heroic deeds.” Within a year, he was riding alongside Nobunaga in battle, and was given his own home, servants, and a stipend. Yasuke was also given a katana — a symbol of the Japanese samurai class — and was allegedly taken on as Nobunaga’s weapon bearer, one of the most highly regarded, and trusted, positions in all of Japan.

5. Yasuke’s life was spared during the fall of Oda Nobunaga.

During the summer of 1582, Oda’s samurai general, Mitsuhide Akechi, attacked Oda’s residence in Kyoto, beginning the Battle of Honno-ji Temple. Unfortunately, this battle would mark the end of Nobunaga’s life and his mission of unifying Japan. Rather than lose his honor, Nobunaga took his own life, and performed the ritual “seppuku.” According to historian Thomas Lockley, author of African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan, Yasuke was then taken prisoner by Akechi’s troops, but was ultimately spared because he was not Japanese. He then became a “ronin,” or samurai without a master. After the events of 1582, there are no records of the first Black samurai, whose history was all but lost for centuries. However, this intrigue allows the Yasuke showrunners complete freedom to interpret and speculate about Yasuke and his legacy.

May 22 will mark the finale of Saturday Night Live‘s 46th season and in the final two weeks, the show’s musical guests will be two of 2021’s most successful, chart-topping young stars. May 15, “Driver’s License” singer Olivia Rodrigo will perform in an episode hosted by The Prom‘s Keegan-Michael Key, while the season finale will feature Ana Taylor-Joy of The Queen’s Gambit and “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” rabble-rouser Lil Nas X.

Incidentally, each of the young music stars’ No. 1 hits have been the subjects of sketches on previous episodes of SNL. In February, guest host Regé-Jean Page and cast regulars Alex Moffat, Beck Bennett, Bowen Yang, Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, and Pete Davidson participated in a tongue-in-cheek analysis of “Driver’s License” from the ironic perspective of the all-male denizens of a pool hall unexpectedly relating to the song’s teenage emotions. Rodrigo called the sketch “the best birthday present ever” in a tweet expressing her approval.

Meanwhile, the conservative establishment-trolling video for “Montero” was lightly lampooned in an early-April sketch that saw Chris Redd stand in as Lil Nas to address the kerfuffle over the video and its tie-in “Satan shoes” from MSCHF. The sketch saw Redd-as-Nas perform a lap dance on “God” to balance out the bad vibes from his similar moves on the devil in the “Montero” video, minus the neck-snapping at the end. Nas’ reply was equally cheeky, as he joked “SNL going to hell.”

In addition, Nas responded to SNL’s announcement, revealing that he’d be performing a new song in addition to “Montero.”

While crypto fans are certainly excited about Elon Musk appearing on Saturday Night Live this weekend, few other seem particularly jazzed about watching the billionaire owner of Tesla grasp around for stuff to do on stage. This, perhaps, is why the show has gone with some, well, notable actors with the final two host gigs of Season 46.

SNL announced Monday that Keegan-Michael Key and Anya Taylor-Joy will host the final two episodes of the season. And unlike the last time we saw yellow, blue, and pink index cards, no one made a meme out of letting Pol Pot host America’s most visible sketch comedy showcase.

Key is an easy win for SNL, as he himself helped co-pilot a very successful run of the sketch comedy show Key and Peele on Comedy Central. Musical guest Olivia Rodrigo, it should be noted, first gained America’s attention as the star of the Nickelodeon show Bizaardvark. So expect her to continue the run of musical guests appearing in sketches on the show.

Taylor-Joy, meanwhile, has a string of very serious roles to her credits, perhaps most notably a chain-smoking, beer-guzzling chess prodigy in The Queen’s Gambit. So file live-action sketch comedy as a step in a new direction, though we’ve seen a number of very serious actors get cast in new light on the Studio 8H stage before. Musical guest Lil Nas X is almost guaranteed to take part in the fun as well, especially amid his current album cycle’s controversial trolling.

It all should make for an entertaining last fortnight or so for SNL, which is probably just glad they’re not finishing the year trapped in their individual homes making sketches like they were for Season 45. Now if we can all just survive what’s coming on Saturday, whatever comes after will certainly be worth watching.

The Weeknd’s After Hours was released way back in 2019, but the album still has plenty of life in it. Not only that, but it’s still producing No. 1 singles: On the new Billboard Hot 100 chart dated May 8, his new version of “Save Your Tears” featuring Ariana Grande is on top. Last week, the song (then credited to just The Weeknd) ranked at No. 6. This dethrones Polo G, whose “Rapstar” falls to No. 4.

This is the sixth No. 1 song for both artists. For Grande, it comes after “Thank U, Next,” “7 Rings,” “Stuck With U,” “Rain On Me,” and “Positions.” For The Weeknd, it follows “Can’t Feel My Face,” “The Hills,” “Starboy,” “Heartless,” and “Blinding Lights.”

This makes After Hours the first album to produce three No. 1 singles since Drake’s Scorpion did it in 2018, and just the seventh album since 2010 with three chart-toppers. Another interesting trivia tidbit is that Grande is now just the second artist with three No. 1 duets, after Paul McCartney; Grande’s “Stuck With U” and “Rain On Me” are collaborations with Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, respectively.

Grande shared her response to the news, tweeting, “thank you so much @billboard @theweeknd and to everybody listening and showing so much love!!!!!! honored and so grateful.”

“Men in Black” star Will Smith posted a revealing Instagram photo on Sunday and a lot of people can relate. The actor, 52, posted a photo of himself in black shorts, an unzipped hoodie, and slippers showing off his new gut and chest.

“I’m gonna be real wit yall – I’m in the worst shape of my life,” he captioned the photo. In a world where celebrities have to be hyper-sensitive about their image, especially when it comes to weight, Smith’s admission was a refreshing reminder that A-listers can have the same struggles that we do.

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The post inspired several of Smith’s friends to send him messages of support.

Questlove wrote: “This is the most amazing post in the history of social media.”

“Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” co-star Nia Long said, “You still got it baby!!!”

Director Ava DuVernay said, “I see no ‘worst’ here.”

Smith’s admission received over five million likes, probably because it resonates with a lot of people who are also dealing with weight gain during the pandemic. A recent study by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that two in five Americans gained more weight than they intended over the past year.

The average person who gained more weight than they wanted added 29 unwanted pounds. One in ten said they added more than 50.

According to the APA, rapid weight loss can be a sign of struggling to cope with mental health challenges.

Another study by WebMd confirmed the APA’s findings. A recent poll of over 1,000 readers found that 54% of respondents said they have gained weight “due to COVID restrictions. “Fifty-four percent said they were exercising less, 68% said they were snacking more.

Smith is getting ready to shoot his next film, “Emancipation,” a big-budget true story about a runaway slave in 1863. In the film, Smith plays Peter, a fugitive from slavery who flees Loiusiana to find freedom in the north.

However, the film hit some roadblocks after Smith and director Antoine Fuqua said they were pulling filming out of Georgia due to the state’s recent voting restriction laws. The new Republican-led voting changes require voter ID for absentee voting, limit the use of drop boxes, and restrict giving out food and water to voters waiting in line near polls.

The decision to move filming out of Georgia makes sense for a film that deals with racial oppression.

“At this moment in time, the Nation is coming to terms with its history and is attempting to eliminate vestiges of institutional racism to achieve true racial justice,” the statement read. “We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access.”

“The new Georgia voting laws are reminiscent of voting impediments that were passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting. Regrettably, we feel compelled to move our film production work from Georgia to another state,” they continued.

The film was scheduled to start shooting in June 2021.

The Met Gala is an iconic event, but it’s been a while since we’ve actually had one. The most recent was 2019, since the pandemic necessitated the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 editions. On September 13, 2022, though, the event is set to make its return, and it will be led by a strong set of co-chairs: Billie Eilish, Timothée Chalamet, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka, as well as honorary chairs Tom Ford, Adam Mosseri, and Anna Wintour. As Page Six notes, Eilish, who will be 19 years old by the time of the event, will be the youngest person to ever have this role.

Chalamet celebrated the news by sharing an appropriate image gallery on Instagram, of the event’s venue (the Metropolitan Museum Of Art’s Costume Institute), Gorman, Eilish, Osaka, and himself. Osaka and Gorman shared similar posts, but Osaka added a bunch of Rihanna photos, noting in the comments, “And yes I’m trying to manifest Rihanna.” Gorman commented to Osaka’s post, “Right?! Can’t wait to see you sis, serving on and off the court.” So far, Eilish has not offered a public comment about the news.

This news comes shortly after Eilish made perhaps the most iconic fashion statement of her career with a revealing new photoshoot for British Vogue.

The stars of Kong Vs. Godzilla were, well, the monsters, but the human actors who played a role in the movie are lining up some sweet gigs in Hollywood as well. Monday brought word that Alexander Skarsgard, the actor who shined in True Blood and Big Little Lies and also alongside the aforementioned large lizard and gorilla will have a very different role in Season 3 of Succession.

HBO revealed that Skarsgard has been tapped to play a prickly tech CEO named Lukas Matsson, who will emerge as a rival to the Roy family. Surely, there will be absolutely no corporate drama involved with him at all. And that’s not all: HBO also dropped the official (and very vague) logline for the new season, which cannot start airing soon enough.

“Ambushed by his rebellious son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) at the end of Season 2, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) begins Season 3 in a perilous position. Scrambling to secure familial, political, and financial alliances, tensions rise as a bitter corporate battle threatens to turn into a family civil war.”

Succession‘s second season ended with a bang, to say the least, so it’s no surprise that a new CEO would come circling what’s apparently now a vulnerable Waystar RoyCo and create some drama. Here’s hoping Matsson made all of his money disrupting the space hidden inside the Earth’s core and has an improbable-sounding explanation for how he and his team got there when we see new episodes on HBO, whenever exactly that ends up being.

[via IndieWire]