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Eminem is still going strong: In 2020, his album Music To Be Murdered By went No. 1 and spawned the hit single “Godzilla.” Now, he’s a day away from releasing his 12th album, The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce). Before fans get their hands on it, though, Em has a message for them, about how he thinks the project should be heard.

On X (formerly Twitter) today (July 11), Eminem explained, “Public service announcement: the ‘death of slim shady’ is a conceptual album, therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense. Enjoy.”

This isn’t Eminem’s first go in the conceptual space, as 2009’s Relapse is often considered a concept album, about drug rehabilitation and falling short.

So far, we’ve heard “Houdini” and “Tobey” from the new album. On the latter, some thought Eminem was dissing Jay-Z with the lines, “Ain’t feelin’ your top five favorite rappers / So I know they ’bout to be pissed at me / But this, to me, is a mystery / How rappers I’ve already ripped could be / Higher up on a list than me.” However, Eminem associate Royce Da 5’9″ shut that idea down, saying “of course not” to the diss speculation.

“A lot of great musicians have come from Georgia, there is just a spirit that the mountains have that isn’t everywhere else.”

On the latest episode of Uproxx Studios’ new show, The Street I Grew Up On, rising country star Peytan Porter takes us down to Georgia. Dawson County to be exact, the small town that helped shape her artistry, and the site of her most potent memories of trying to find her voice as an artist. With many modern country stars, there is an element to their artistry that can sometimes feel like small-town cosplay, but that isn’t the case with Porter; one quick stroll through her hometown makes it clear that she’s the real deal. A certified country girl.

That’s probably why her lyrics are so potent. When you see the street she grew up on, you can imagine the characters that inhabit her songs, like Barbara Sue from “Lemonade,” sitting on her front porch, all dressed up, hoping to catch a glance from the mailman. You can see Johnny, the son of a drunk Pentecostal preacher, yearning to escape his lot. And escape is something Porter thought she needed too.

“I really had to force my way out of this ball of expectations. I thought that it was saying goodbye to these people and this place forever. They are still welcoming me. They’re still loving me, I don’t think that I ever really knew that was an option. To have the best of both worlds.”

It’s clear that even though Porter left Dawson County for the big country stage, she’s still very much a part of the community, whether it’s through the memories of a neighbor whose late mother would sit on the porch and listen to Porter develop her voice, or through the halls of Dawson County high school, where her name still echoes.

To learn more about Peytan Porter’s hometown experience, watch the latest episode of The Street I Grew Up On above.

When it comes to legendary actresses of the ’90s, Winona Ryder was the alternative goth icon that only comes once every generation to inspire young women to rebel against society. In the 2010s, we had Aubrey Plaza, and now, we have Jenna Ortega, who just so happens to be working with Ryder in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

In the highly anticipated sequel to the 1988 horror/comedy, Ryder reprises her role of Lydia while Ortega portrays her stubborn daughter, Astrid. “Everyone wanted to be Lydia after watching the first film,” Ortega told Harper’s Bazaar. “She’s so self-assured and smart and ahead of her time.”

Ortega also revealed that Ryder took the young actress under her wing when they first met while Ortega was shooting Tim Burton’s Wednesday series. Ortega has been open about her struggles with fame after appearing in the hit Netflix series.

“She definitely helped me feel less alone,” Ortega began. Ryder was only a few years younger than Ortega was when she took on the first Beetlejuice film.

Ortega conitnued, “It’s a very isolating experience and a scary one. Being able to speak to somebody who had witnessed that firsthand, maybe even more, was a great source of comfort for me, and I can’t thank her enough for that.”

Even though they are friendly off-screen, their on-screen characters don’t see eye-to-eye. If only there was an overly-eager poltergeist on the way to help them test their rocky relationship!!!

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice hits theaters on September 6th.

(Via Harper’s Bazaar)

Americans are known as some of the best salespeople in the world. The country has been the home of some of the most influential business communicators of all time, like Steve Jobs of Apple or filmmaker Walt Disney. America is also the birthplace of people who became legends for their ability to excite people with their incredible, audacious promotional skills, such as P.T. Barnum or Muhammad Ali.

There’s also a dark side to the uniquely American gift of gab. Americans have the reputation of being masters of BS. Hunter S. Thompson, a writer with a fondness for exaggeration, once referred to America as a “nation of 220 million used car salesmen.”

An X user named Alz, born in Hong Kong, was curious about why Americans are so great at sales, presenting ideas, and (less favorably) BS-ing than people in other countries. The tweet went viral, receiving over 1.4 million views. Nearly everyone agreed that Americans are the world’s best salespeople, but there were many different answers to why.

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“Why are Americans, on average, so incredibly good at presenting/selling/ (you could uncharitably call it) BS-ing? Is it something about early/middle/high school education? Culture? Parents teaching their kids?” Alz asked.

“I troll, but this is an incredibly important skill, and for some reason observationally, America, which has an early education system few are generally jealous of, seems to systematically produce ppl with a much higher distribution of presentation ability than anywhere else,” Alz continued.

I troll but this is an incredibly important skill, and for some reason observationally, America, which has a early education system few are generally jealous of, seems to systematically produce ppl with a much higher distribution of presentation ability than anywhere else

— alz (@alz_zyd_) May 30, 2024

Some respondents believe Americans are great at sales because so many work in the service sector. Over the past 50 years, globalization has altered the labor landscape, with many jobs moving from manufacturing to the service sector. Thus, Americans have learned to place a significant value on those who can communicate one-on-one, such as people who work in hospitality, retail, or personal training.

Honestly I think it’s because we were the first major economy to really transition from an industrial to service based economy. The vast majorities of our jobs are all about providing a service, and many of those are about selling said service as well

— Alex (@nycwebs90) May 30, 2024

The service sector in the U.S. reached 70% of GDP when millennials were born (circa 1990). My theory is that kids raised in a service-sector family have these traits. pic.twitter.com/1cN9kn3s9D

— Jiageng Liu (@jiageng_liu) May 30, 2024

Others believe Americans have the gift of gab because its education system highly values communication skills, which are favorable in the business world. However, some believe this emphasis comes at the expense of STEM skills, which are seen as more important in other countries.

Probably the fact that *every* class in primary school had multiple presentations a year.

Its probably the easiest way to pass time in a classroom, split the 30 students into 10 groups of 3, have each present for 15 minutes, boom that’s like 3 days of no work.

— John Ruf (@JohnRuf6) May 30, 2024

It is the education system My daughter was taught to write, critique, present, argue, structure and edit from kindergarten. Woven through her school experience. It is pretty amazing.

— Neela Saldanha (@NeelaSaldanha) May 30, 2024

American education emphasizes synthesis, argument, and persuasion over rote memorization and rule-following.

Identifying patterns + convincing others

Which is maybe surprising b/c we also infantilize our youth, giving them very little personal freedom outside the classroom.

— Joey Katzen (@joeykatzen) May 30, 2024

Many people think Americans are great communicators because it’s crucial to be able to sell and persuade in a competitive, free-market capitalist system. If you aren’t able to sell the goods and services you provide and produce, then it doesn’t matter if you’re in business at all. Further, American business culture is also seen as more relationship-based than in other countries, where buying and selling is merely transactional.

This is a great question and having lived in the US for a few years here’s what I think:

America is a capitalist society and this capitalism is rooted in a Protestant ethos (Max Weber has a book on it).

In this Protestant worldview, creating a business means serving the…

— Mushtaq Bilal, PhD (@MushtaqBilalPhD) May 30, 2024

The free market rewards it

— Triple Bankshot (@triplebankshot) May 30, 2024

I’ve wondered the same thing. It’s definitely cultural, and I think it’s connected to how Americans tend to do business relationally rather than transactionally. Europeans often take a more formal, regulated approach while American business is more trust-based.

— Gil Gildner (@gilgildner) May 30, 2024

Social mobility and the myth of the “self-made man” basically inculcates the idea that anyone can talk themselves into wealth and status. Plenty of these types are lionized in American history.

— David Kiferbaum (@DavidKiferbaum) May 30, 2024

It could be that it’s all part of a culture that values openness and confidence which bleeds over into other aspects of American life. Persuasion and sales come a lot more naturally to people who’ve been raised with zero fear of calling attention to themselves. Outside the business world, Americans are also seen as friendly in social situations and have no problem engaging in small talk with strangers. Americans’ extroverted nature can sometimes shock people who travel to the U.S. on vacation.

Founding principles of the country. You can do anything here.

It’s highly ingrained within society

— Ashish “Logmaster” (@ashishlogmaster) May 31, 2024

Egalitarianism. Americans learn naturally to speak to everyone as if they were friends. This is good for sales although not everywhere in the world.

— Alex Tabarrok 🛡️ (@ATabarrok) May 31, 2024

I’m going to throw it out there: Because Americans are also REALLY good at buying things – they’re great consumers of products and ideas. Old world places – like Europe tend to be suspicious of new ideas (but not ideologies it seems) which makes selling them much harder.

— James Clark 📈📉¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@mr_james_c) May 31, 2024

High openness. People are not afraid of talking with others.

The fact that one might call it “BS-ing” might indicate the root cause issue of why others are not good at it.

— Peter Kazanjy (@Kazanjy) May 30, 2024

Or, it could be that Americans just have a ‘rizz that’s the envy of the world.

Yeah I don’t know how else to describe it except calling it a culture of rizz, it’s a huge difference I noticed coming here from Europe as a kid

— dog that lays eggs (@l_wzbr) May 30, 2024

It’s called CHARISMA, and we invented it

— Rhett Ullmann (@rhettullmann) May 30, 2024

Team USA got its first exhibition game under its belt on Wednesday night, beating a formidable Canada squad comfortably in Las Vegas. However, the discussion on Thursday wasn’t about the terrifying defense the Americans showed or how fun the Stephen Curry-LeBron James combo looks on the court together for the first time in a USA Basketball uniform. Instead, it was about the roster shakeup that took place when Kawhi Leonard pulled out of the Olympics with continued knee soreness and was replaced by Celtics guard Derrick White.

White joins teammates Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum on the roster, but conspicuously absent is Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, who has been vocal about his desire to be on the team and is not happy by his exclusion from the replacement spot. Grant Hill has looked to diffuse the situation by noting their task is to build the best team, and sometimes that means taking a great role player over a great star player to fill a need. In this case, that’s someone comfortable in shorter bursts playing off the ball as a shooter and doing the little things on both ends. White certainly fits the bill, but Brown would argue he’s capable of all of that as well.

The Celtics star wing has focused his frustration on sneaker giant Nike, who sponsors Team USA, believing they were the driving force in keeping him — an adidas athlete — off the roster in favor of a Nike player in White.

This follows in a long line of roster conspiracies on both the men’s and women’s side dating back to the Dream Team’s exclusion of Isiah Thomas. It’s also not the first time Nike has come up in one, as Candace Parker’s exclusion as an adidas athlete drew some murmurs it was partially about adding Nike athletes — although in that case more of the focus was on the UConn-Tennessee rivalry and Parker believing Geno Auriemma’s role with USA Basketball kept her off the team.

It’s not the first time Brown has taken aim at the Swoosh, as he did the same back when they dropped his friend Kyrie Irving.

Grant Hill addressed the controversy on Wednesday night, joking about being a longtime FILA athlete before again explaining the goal is to build the best team possible and considering fit.

That won’t satiate Brown, who will likely carry this frustration forward, and there won’t ever really be a way for USA Basketball or Nike to prove it wasn’t a factor. Tatum was also asked about it and clearly was trying not to upset anyone with his answer — it’s a particularly difficult spot when one of his teammates got added over another.

This year’s USA squad does feature a lot of Nike/Jordan athletes, but that’s also in part because they sponsor a majority of players in the NBA. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Bam Adebayo, and Derrick White all either have Nike/Jordan signatures or wear Nikes. But Stephen Curry (Under Armour/Curry Brand), Anthony Edwards (adidas), Joel Embiid (Skechers), and, before he was replaced, Kawhi Leonard (New Balance), all represent other sneaker companies.

If nothing else, Brown has found his motivation for next year coming off of a championship, but after seemingly putting to rest the questions of internal friction between Boston’s stars by winning a title, those will once again reappear thanks to USA Basketball.

When a movie has an exclamation point in it, it can mean one of two things: that movie will be a modern classic or a forgettable horror attempt and there is no in between. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s next directed feature will be called The Bride! based on the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein. And you have to say it with the emphasis every time!

The Bride! has been getting buzz thanks to its all-star cast and the fact that it’s Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second directed feature. Her debut, The Lost Daughter, was critically acclaimed and even snagged three Oscar nominations.

Here is everything you need to know to prepare yourself for The Bride! It all seems so exciting with the exclamation, right?

Plot

Much like your classic Frankenstein’s monster plot, the movie is set to follow the monster as he makes a female companion to act as his bride.

According to the official plot, the upcoming film “sees a lonely Frankenstein travel to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.”

Cast

Doing his best not to appear as a Joker clone, Christian Bale will play the Frankenstein’s monster, though Gyllenhaal refers to him as “Frank.” It’s a common debate. Gyllenhaal shared the first image of Bale sporting some tattoos and a couple scars. Being dead is not very easy on the body.

Jessie Buckley, who starred in Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, will play the titular Bride (!) complete with her icy white hair. “We are just about to start [filming],” Buckley told IndieWire in March. “I feel so grateful that I get to be part of a coin of extraordinary women who have so much to say, such brilliant minds, and such imagination. It is beyond my wildest dreams getting to go back and work with [Gyllenhaal] again. We really fell in love working on ‘The Lost Daughter.’”

It doesn’t stop there. Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Juliana Hough and Annette Bening are also set to appear in the film.

Always one to keep the business in the family, Jake Gyllenhaal will also apppear in his sister’s film. He seemingly teased it while wearing a The Bride and Frank shirt while on SNL this year:

Release Date

Filming for the movie began in March of this year. Right now, The Bride! is scheduled to be released in the United States on September 26, 2025, though the release date has already changed, so it could shift around once more before the time comes.

Trailer

No trailer quite yet, but here are some behind the scenes shots shared from Gyllenhaal’s Instagram:

Nobody does spectacle quite like Lady Gaga. The iconic triple threat confirmed her seventh studio album is en route by flashing the message “LG7 GAGA RETURNS” just before the screen went black to end her Gaga Chromatica Ball concert film.

What better stage to announce a release date or reveal the album’s cover art than the 2024 Paris Olympics?

Is Lady Gaga Performing At The 2024 Paris Olympics?

It isn’t a firm yes, but it also isn’t a firm no!

On Thursday, July 11, rumors began swirling online that Lady Gaga will perform at the 2024 Paris Olympics’ closing ceremony on August 11. People are citing the French outlet Purepeople, which claims Gaga is “expected to sing” at the closing ceremony.

As of this writing, no substantial reports have been published to support this claim, but people have noticed that Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2024 Summer Games, recently followed Gaga on Instagram.

https://twitter.com/gaga_latest/status/1811449383394709930

Gaga reportedly nearly made a surprise cameo at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were actually held in 2021, but it was sadly left as a hypothetical.

Tangentially related: The Sun reported in late June that Céline Dion had “received a formal offer from organizers of the Paris Olympics to perform” during the opening ceremony, and Hoda Kotb added fuel to the possibility.

Most of the time, when a horror movie is teased as being the scariest movie ever made, it just means that it will give you a couple of cheap scares and, if you’re lucky, a nightmare or two. And there is nothing wrong with that! But thanks to the mysterious marketing, bloody images and the enigmatic Nic Cage, Longlegs actually might be too scary for some.

Directed by Osgood Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins, Longlegs is a particularly dark horror film that just might end up being Neon’s most successful theatrical opening. Taking place in the ’90s, Cage plays the titular serial killer with Satanic ties who is being hunted by Lee, portrayed by Maika Monroe. While it’s normal for hype to be overplayed, this movie seems to be actually scary.

The movie is rated R (please do not bring your children) and leans more into the creepy factor than jump scares. But that doesn’t mean you’re safe from nightmares.

In his Radio Times review for the film, Patrick Cremona says that it’s more about the feeling you have after seeing the movie than the movie itself. “It all adds up to ensure that Longlegs really is one of the finest – and scariest – horror films of recent years. Just don’t go in expecting a mainstream movie packed with a series of jump scares – instead embrace the creepy, slow-burning atmosphere that Perkins has crafted. And maybe sleep with the lights on for a couple of weeks afterwards.”

So, even though it’s pretty scary, it’s still worth it! Peter Debruge of Variety says that the movie might not be as scary as you think, but it will sit with you, which is sometimes worse. “In the moment, it’s considerably less scary than the ecstatic early buzz — ginned up by Neon via whisper campaigns and strategic advance screenings — would have you believe,” he began. “Less than 12 hours after seeing it, however, the demented Nicolas Cage character resurfaced in my nightmares, popping up out of nowhere to screech, ‘Hail Satan!’ in that unnerving, high-pitched voice of his. How many horror movies can claim to hijack your subconscious?”

If you’d rather wait to be scared in the comfort of your own him, the film will eventually be streaming on Hulu later this year. But by then who knows where Longlegs will be by then! He might have other people to kill. You might as well go see it now.

In Knocked Up, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd go to Las Vegas and have a terrible time. But Rogen had a better experience during a recent trip to Sin City, where he was filming the upcoming Apple TV+ series The Studio with Kathryn Hahn.

During Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live guest hosted by Hahn, Rogen recounted a memorable evening spent tripping on acid while watching The Grateful Dead at the all-mighty Sphere. “It was normal Las Vegas for the first week and a half, and then one day, our casino was filled with bald men with ponytails and tie-dye shirts. We were like, ‘Oh, The Grateful Dead is here,’” he recounted. The Sausage Party: Foodtopia star did “a ton of acid” and watched the Dead perform in Sphere, which blew his “goddamn mind.”

Rogen wasn’t a Deadhead before the show, but he left a changed man. “It’s weird to hear a band for the first time and then [they] become your favorite band of all-time,” he told Hahn, who also attended the concert. “I don’t know this song, but it’s the best song I’ve ever heard in my entire life.”

“Dark Star” will do that to a person.

You can watch Hahn’s interview with Rogen above.

Have working conditions really gotten better?

On the one hand, with more work-from-home opportunities, more allowances regarding parental leave, more awareness around the importance of taking days off for mental health reasons, and more businesses adopting four day work weeks…you’d think yes, definitely, things are getting better!

And yet, it definitely can feel like a one step forward, two steps back situation a lot of the time. Many people still woefully lament unlivable wages, having to take on extra work just to make ends meet, and somehow having most of their lives revolve around working. In many ways, all the progress we’ve made toward productivity hasn’t made the common person any freer. Rather, it only moved the goalpost further. Which, needless to say, is exhausting.

It’s this phenomenon that inspired a “cheeky country music duo” named The Doohickeys to make a modern day revamp of everybody’s favorite twangy anti-work anthem: “9 to 5.”

The tune was made famous by Dolly Parton whose character in a movie by the same title bemoaned the common working man/woman’s curse of toiling day in, day out just to essentially be a cog in the corporate greed machine. Serious subject matter…but a very catchy song!

The Doohickeys’ parody cover shows that things have changed a bit…the most notable change of all being that, as the new title suggests, “9 to 5” is out, and “9 to 6” is in.

“Like everyone, we love Dolly’s song ‘9 to 5,’ but we realized that neither of us have ever actually worked those hours — 9 to 6 would be more accurate…Turns out that additional hour struck a chord with viewers ‘cause people started sharing their insane work schedules in the comments, and boy, some of those hours suck!” Doohickey vocalist Haley Brown told Upworthy.

In this version, our singing hero still stumbles outta bed and tumbles to the kitchen. But instead of pouring herself a cup of ambition, she “checks her phone while she eats to see what she’s missin.’”

There’s no time to yawn and stretch, or even take a shower, you see. This working gal has to rush out the door because “there aint no time when your job is 9 to 6.”

Take a listen below. Holy cow, did Brown really nailed Parton’s signature airy twang.

See on Instagram

That’s Part 1. In Part 2, The Doohickeys hilariously sing about the foibles of racking up student debt in college. Surely nothing any Gen Xers and Millennials can relate to. Plus, again, the need to work an additional job…which is 8 to 1.

See on Instagram

All in all, the Doohickeys seemingly did the impossible by making their own unique version of a beloved, almost untouchable classic song, while still holding onto the original’s essence. It’s unfortunate that we still are having these issues, to be sure. But that’s another conversation.

And while we might not see sweeping improvements to the workplace quite as fast, the Doohickeys did immediately fulfill the people’s request to make a full version of the song, which you can listen to on Spotify.

But wait, there’s even more awesome ditties where that came from. Follow the Doohickeys on Instagram here

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