GoneTrending

Taylor Swift fans got a preview of her re-recorded albums back in December when a snippet of “Love Story” popped up in a Ryan Reynolds-helmed Match ad. Now she’s ready to release the song, as she revealed this morning that she is dropping it at midnight tonight.

In a video she shared with Good Morning America today, Swift also noted that she finished re-recording all of Fearless and that it will be released soon: “Good morning, America, it’s Taylor. I’m so excited to share with you that tonight at midnight, I’ll be putting out my version of my song ‘Love Story,’ which was originally on my album Fearless. I’ve now finished re-recording all of Fearless, which will be coming out soon. My version of Fearless will have 26 songs on it because I’ve decided to add songs from the vault, which are songs that almost made the original Fearless album, but I’ve now gone back and recorded those so that everyone will be able to hear not only the songs that made the album, but the songs that almost made it. The full picture.”

She also shared a note on social media, in which she revealed that the new edition of the album is called Fearless (Taylor’s Version):

“when i think bAck on the fearless album and all that you turned it into, a completely involuntary smile creeps across my face. this was the musical era in which so many inside jokes were created between us, so many hugs exchanged and hands touched, so many unbreakable bonds formed. so before i say anything else, let me just say that it was a real honor to get to be a teenager alongside you. and for those of you i’ve come to know more recently than 2008, i am ecstatic that i’ll get to exPerience a bit of that feeling with you in the very near future. now that i can fully appreciate it in its whimsical, effervescent, chaotic entirety.

fearless was an album full of magic and curiosity, the bliss and devastation of youth. it was the diaRy of the adventures and explorations of a teenage girl who was learning tiny lessons with every new crack in the facade of the faIrytale ending she’d been shown in the movies. i’m thrilled to tell you that my new version of fearless is done and will be with you soon. it’s called fearless (taylor’s version) and it includes 26 songs.

i’ve spoken a lot about why i’m remaking my first six albums, but the way i’ve chosen to do this will hopefuLy help illuminate where i’m coming from. artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really *knows* that body of work. for example, only i know which songs i wrote that almost made the fearless album. songs i absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons (don’t want too many breakup songs, don’t want too maNy down tempo songs, can’t fit that many songs on a physical cd).

those reasons seem unnecessary now. i’ve decIded i want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my fearless album. that’s why i’ve chosen to include 6 never before released songs on my version of this album. written when i was betweeN the ages of 16 and 18, these were the ones it killed me to leave behind.

this process has been more fulfilling and emoTional than i could’ve imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music. i Hope you’ll like this first outing as much as i liked traveling back in time to recreate it. love story (taylor’s version) will be out tonight.

sincerely and fearlessly, taylor.”

Fans quickly noticed that Swift’s message includes a lot of oddly capitalized letters and pointed out that those spell out “APRIL NINTH,” which strongly suggests the release date of Fearless (Taylor’s Version). It’s also worth pointing out that the digits of April 9 (4 and 9) add up to 13, a number that has popped up a lot over the course of Swift’s career.

Check out Swift’s note below, which also reveals the Fearless (Taylor’s Version) cover art.

The Phoenix Suns picked up one of their biggest wins of the season on Wednesday night when they took down the Milwaukee Bucks in a 125-124 thriller. Devin Booker and Chris Paul finally had big nights at the same time for the first time this season, as Booker had 30 and Paul had 28 to out-duel a monster night from Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The reigning two-time MVP went off for 47 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists, but wasn’t able to lift the Bucks to a win when he got the ball with 2.8 seconds to go. Antetokounmpo caught the ball about 30 feet from the basket and pulled up from 18 feet, missing the game-winning jumper long.

After the game, Booker was asked about how he felt watching Giannis go for the game-winner, and said that once Giannis rose for a jumper, he felt the Suns were “in good shape.”

Now, this wasn’t Booker taking a big shot at Giannis, but simply noting that when it comes to the Bucks at the end of the game, seeing Giannis pull-up from the deep midrange is just about the best case scenario after he was getting to the rim at will most of the night.

The Suns were helped by the clock, as with 2.8 seconds to go it was going to be difficult for him to get from 30-plus feet out to the basket so long as the Suns played decent defense. By denying Khris Middleton the ball, the Bucks best jumpshot creator, they forced it to Giannis well away from the basket, and from outside 10 feet this season, he’s shooting under 30 percent from the field. It’s, objectively, a best case scenario for anyone facing the Bucks, but at the same time, it is a pretty funny quote when you consider he’s saying that about the league MVP taking a decently open shot for the win.

On Wednesday afternoon, reports emerged that Karl-Anthony Towns might return to the lineup against the Clippers after missing the last 13 games with COVID-19. Towns’ diagnoses was a particularly scary turn of events after the Timberwolves center had lost his mother, along with six other family members, to the disease in the past year.

Following some uncertainty about whether he would actually suit up, Towns did just that and logged 18 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists, as his team ultimately fell to the Clippers, 119-112. Given the circumstances, it was an inspiring performance so soon after suffering an ordeal with a deadly virus that has decimated his family.

After the game, Towns told reporters about his experience with the disease over the past few weeks since his diagnosis, explaining that because he was in the high-risk category, it had a particularly severe effect on him and led to some terrifying experiences as he worked his way through recovery.

Karl-Anthony Towns: “Getting COVID stopped everything…I am a high-risk case. COVID did not treat me well whatsoever. A lot of scary nights.” He told his sister he got a bad version of COVID and had “a lot of it in me..A lot of long nights and the vitals weren’t good (at times)”

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) February 11, 2021

KAT: “Everyone is different. My underlying conditions did not play in my favor with COVID… I am the most genetically close to my mother…nothing was playing in my favor.. mental health is very real. I have dealt with it my whole life and my mother always knew how to heal me.”

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) February 11, 2021

KAT: “I feel very guilty about the treatment I got [that] I [wish was] more widely available to anyone in the world. I feel very guilty… there is such mental strain through all this time. A feeling of guilt because of the resources I have. I wish I could (share) the resources.”

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) February 11, 2021

Towns went on to describe the feeling of triumph he felt just being able to return to action after so much uncertainty surrounding his health and the unimaginable toll it’s taken on his family this past year.

Karl-Anthony Towns on overcoming COVID with all he and his family have endured: “I was just smiling on the court. I am so proud of myself just getting to this point… things got very serious. You get to a point where you just don’t feel like you will ever see that court again”

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) February 11, 2021

The outcome of the game was almost incidental. It was mostly just heartening to see KAT healthy and back doing what he loves, but his story of how difficult his battle with this virus was is a reminder of the need for continued vigilance in following safety protocols to try and protect as many people from this as possible.

While 2021 started as what appeared would be a very strong year for Morgan Wallen, it all came crashing down when a video of the singer using a racial slur was widely shared online. TMZ published the video, and it caught him referring to his friend as a p*ssy as n*****.

In the following 24 hours after news about the incident was shared, Wallen had his record label contract suspended and he was denounced by Maren Morries, Jason Ibell, and other country stars. Now, more than a week later, the singer is trying to clean up the mess he made by starting with a new apology video.

Wallen tried to explain his actions and apologized for them in an Instagram video that lasted for more than five minutes. “The video you saw was me on hour 72 of 72 of a bender, and that’s not something I’m proud of either,” he said at one point in the video before explaining why he waited so long to apologize publicly.

“This week, I’ve been waiting to say anything further until I got to apologize to those closest to me that I know I personally hurt,” Wallen added. He also acknowledged the severity of his actions while revealing some of the work he’s done in the past week to turn things around. This includes speaking with members of the Black community and embarking on a new period of sobriety.

“Since that video was taken, I’ve been sober for nine days,” Wallen said. “It’s not all that long of time, but it’s enough to know the man in that video is not the man that I’m trying to be.”

You can watch the singer’s full apology video above.

Lil Uzi Vert is undoubtedly one of today’s more unique artists, and his one-of-a-kind character often shines in areas outside of his actual music. According to the rapper himself, his eccentric style has earned him a high compliment from one of rap’s best names: Jay-Z.

According to Lil Uzi, Jay compared him to the late Prince. The Philly native shared the news in a tweet that read, “OG and Hov said I’m Like Prince ..so I’m Lil Prince now” with an umbrella and bat emoji. “OG” most likely refers to Juan Perez who co-owns The 40/40 Club in Manhattan with Jay in addition to his position as president of Roc Nation Sports.

Whether the comparison — if it was actually made — is valid or not, there’s no denying Lil Uzi’s uniqueness. For the last week, the rapper has been one of the most-talked-about artists on Twitter after he got a pink diamond placed on his forehead. The gem was installed by New York-based jewelry company Eliantte & Co. and it left fans with a wide array of reactions to the diamond which reportedly has a price tag of $24 million. Shortly after, he and Grimes shared plans to get “brain chips” together.

You can read Lil Uzi’s tweet above.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Wednesday brought some significant casting news for the HBO adaptation of The Last Of Us, to say the least. First there was word that one of the show’s main roles, Ellie, would be played by Bella Ramsey. Ramsey is a significant get for a major role: she played a fan favorite in a handful of Game of Thrones episodes as a Stark ally and also voiced the titular character Hilda in a charming Netflix series.

But later in the evening we learned the male role in the show will go to The Mandalorian himself. Deadline reported on Wednesday that Pedro Pascal would play Joel opposite Ramsey.

Based on the critically acclaimed video game The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PlayStation platforms, the story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Game of Thrones‘ Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

Pascal’s Joel, tormented by past trauma and failure, must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity.

Shortly after the news broke, executive producer and creator of the Naughty Dog game Neil Druckmann confirmed the news: The Red Viper is returning to HBO for a very different role.

It’s also noteworthy that the casting news came on the same day Pascal’s co-star on another major show, The Mandalorian, was removed from the Disney+ series after a long series of extremely problematic social media posts about a wide variety of subjects. Pascal will now be plenty busy filming The Last Of Us, and the timeline for a new season of The Mandalorian is far from certain right now but it’s clear the man behind the mask will be focus his attention on another television universe in the immediate future.

NBA fans on the internet are a strange bunch, and one of the best examples of this is in Cleveland where the “Me vs. Nuggets” challenge has become an annual tradition whenever the Cavs face the Denver Nuggets. The premise is simple and can be traced back to @WayneEmbrysKids, who started it a decade ago, as they try to eat a chicken nugget for every point Denver scores in the game. This can be disastrous, as Cleveland’s defense isn’t always the best and Denver, especially recently, has been a very good offensive team.

What started as one guy’s mission grew into an actual thing that the team itself has acknowledged, and on Wednesday, it gained its biggest mainstream moment when Larry Nance Jr., who is out with a wrist injury, decided to join the fun.

As tip-time approached, Nance proudly showed his spread of 120 Chicken McNuggets to the delight of Cavs fans everywhere.

However, things quickly got out of hand as Denver started piling up the points, scoring 64 in the first half.

As Denver neared the century mark in the third quarter, Nance Jr. recognized it was time to jump ship and tapped out, nearly 100 nuggets into the night.

As someone who has done an ill-advised chicken nugget challenge of his own on a Chick-fil-A all-you-can-eat night, I am well aware of the feeling Nance has right now. There’s the physical pain of all those chicken nuggets lurking in the pit of your stomach, but also the emotional distress and regret of knowing you have no one to blame but yourself. Add in watching your team get smacked, as happened on Wednesday, and this has to be a real low point of poor Larry’s NBA career.

Still, it was a valiant effort, and no one can blame the man for tapping. Hell, he would’ve run out of nuggets by the mid-fourth anyways had he continued since he only had 120 to start. For anyone else still fighting the good fight in #MeVsNuggets, godspeed to you and your facilities at home.

Taylor Swift has been full of surprises over the last year. The singer dropped not one, but two surprise albums for fans in 2020, that being Folklore and Evermore and by the looks of it she already has another one prepared for her supporters in 2021.

On Wednesday night, Good Morning America revealed that the singer has a surprise announcement to make to fans, one that she would share with them exclusively on the ABC morning show on Thursday. After catching wind of the tweets, Swifties from all corners of the world took to Twitter to share their theories on what the announcement could be about.

The bulk of the responses find her fans anticipating news on her re-recorded songs. “Love story re-recording is coming,” one person said in reply to the GMA tweet. Another said, “HERE WE GO” with the hashtags #TaylorSwift #tayloriscoming #rerecordings, and #lovestory.

The singer has been re-recording her past albums since November 2020 when the embargo that prevented her from doing so was lifted. Her reason for doing so is because her former label, Big Machine, refused to give her the masters of music she made before 2018. Instead, they were sold to another individual for $300 million. Since then, Swift has been hard at work with the process, so much so that she missed the American Music Awards because she was locked in the studio working on the new recordings.

You can read some more reactions from Swift fans below.

Shaquille O’Neal has kept himself busy in retirement. In addition to becoming a staple of Inside the NBA, the big fella has dipped his toe into all sorts of off-court ventures, many of which include lucrative endorsement deals with popular commercial products and brands.

Icy Hot, Papa Johns, General Insurance, and Frosted Flakes are among some of the more visible brands Shaq has lent his voice and image to in recent years, as Shaq has consistently kept his eye on diversifying his various revenue streams. He recently added Krispy Kreme to that growing list.

But on Wednesday morning, tragedy struck the Atlanta-area location he owns when a massive fire broke out and caused significant damage to the historic building on Ponce de Leon Ave. Two employees were reportedly inside the store at the time but were able to get to safety without injury. Shaq later posted a video of the terrifying blaze on Instagram, along with a message of hope.

This particular store is a historic landmark, as one of the first Krispy Kremes to open up outside of the original locations in North Carolina. The store became famous for donating donuts to mourners at local churches on the day of Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.

Word that Gina Carano was fired from The Mandalorian spread like wildfire on social media on Wednesday night, as the Cara Dune actress’s social media history seemed to finally catch up with her after months of drawing the ire of fans who followed her on Twitter and Instagram.

According to multiple reports, Lucasfilm revealed publicly that Carano is no longer employed by the Star Wars company and they had “no plans” to employ her to play Dune in any Star Wars property, including The Mandalorian. Carano’s social media history included transphobic messages, anti-Semitic posts and anti-mask coronavirus skepticism that upset fans on a number of occasions. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday’s social media outcry was the last straw for the company after a long series of incidents online.

Last November, she issued contentious tweets, one in which she mocked mask-wearing amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and another in which she falsely suggested voter fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election.

“They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,” a source with knowledge of Lucasfilm’s thinking tells THR.

It’s a surprising turnaround from whispers at various times since The Mandalorian debuted that Cara Dune may have ended up with her own starring role in a Star Wars show in a world where her more problematic social media posts didn’t gain as much attention.

Multiple Mandalorian spinoffs are in the works from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, including Rangers of the New Republic, which could have potentially starred Carano, though that was not ever officially confirmed. According to sources, Lucasfilm had plans to unveil Carano as the star of her own show during a December investor’s day presentation but scrubbed those plans following her November tweets.

And while the news that Carano won’t return may change the trajectory of the Star Wars universe, or at least prompt an unexpected casting change, many couldn’t help but celebrate news that Carano won’t return to Star Wars after months of problematic moments on social media.

At the very least, they had a lot of jokes ready.

Fittingly, there were a lot of Star Wars videos and GIFs that seemed to fit here.

A number of people suggested ways they could write Cara Dune out of The Mandalorian without much effort.

What happens next in the Star Wars universe next is unknown, but it seems finalized that Carano won’t be a part of it as new shows hit Disney+ moving forward.