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GOP Senator Marco Rubio has had quite a handful of years. He lost the 2016 Republican primary to a guy that dubbed him as “Little Marco,” and then Rubio spent four years ingratiating himself to the GOP’s MAGA crowd, almost up until the very end of Donald Trump’s White House days. It seemed pretty obvious that Rubio always felt unease at supporting Donald but also feared rocking the boat on his own political career. What will Rubio receive for that display of (obviously troubled and reluctant) loyalty? It doesn’t sound like a “thank you” in any shape or form.

Ivanka Trump is rumored to be considering a run for Rubio’s seat, and the very thought of a challenge by Donald’s daughter is a slap in the face, to say the least. When confronted with this prospect by Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, here’s how that went:

Cavuto: “You do know that next year you could be facing a primary challenge? There’s talk that Ivanka Trump is interested in running against you. What do you think of that?”

Rubio: “Bu bu bu but… All of us are elected. Any one of us can be primaried, every single one of us can have a primary challenge.”

Cavuto: What would you think of it was Ivanka Trump?

Rubio: I would… I would… I like Ivanka Trump.

Rubio’s not too great with confrontation, even from a mild-mannered Cavuto. That’s a little strange coming from a senator, but we’re also talking about the same guy who’s turning off Twitter replies to avoid seeing a deluge of negative responses. And in the process, he’s silencing voices that he may very well represent from his Florida district. Then again, Ivanka has flat-out deleted tweets that receive a backlash, so uh yes, expect these debates to be a hot mess, if Ivanka actually steps up to challenge him.

While AmeriCup qualifying scheduled to take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February will not feature NBA talent since it takes place in the middle of the season, two former NBA All-Stars plotting their returns to the league will star for Team USA.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported on Wednesday morning that both Isaiah Thomas and seven-time All-Star Joe Johnson will suit up for the United States with the hopes of showing off their talent and getting an NBA contract out of it.

Johnson, who is 39, last appeared with the Pistons and played in the Big 3 in 2019. Thomas had a solid season with the Wizards in 2019-20 but did not appear in the Bubble after being traded to the Clippers and then waived after the trade deadline.

Team USA team will be coached in the 2021 AmeriCup (which used to be known as the FIBA Americas Championship) by longtime NBA assistant Joe Prunty, and compete against teams from across North and South America in the tournament. We’ll have to see how the rest of the roster shakes out, both for qualifying and the proper tournament, but next month will serve an opportunity for two fan favorites in Johnson and Thomas to show NBA teams what they have left in the tank while also having the pride of representing their country in international competition.

As teams near the halfway point of the NBA season, the trade market has begun to heat up and final rosters will take shape as well. Depending on what Johnson and Thomas show in Puerto Rico, perhaps they could be intriguing veteran bench fillers for playoff teams in the stretch run.

Pink Sweats has been building up to the release of his debut album Pink Planet for some time, releasing a steady stream of singles and EPs that have endeared the mellow singer to R&B with his understated, heartfelt production and songwriting. His latest single, “At My Worst,” is a prime example of both, and today, he shares a soulful remix featuring another fan-favorite singer, Kehlani.

The Bay Area vocalist is the perfect foil for Sweats’ velvety tenor, transforming the hopeful ballad into a warm, midtempo duet. While the emotive verses they trade to begin the song are enjoyably relatable, the true magic comes toward the end, when their voices blend like cream and coffee to close out the song on a sunny, hopeful final note.

Kehlani has become something of a go-to feature within the R&B world linking up with Bryson Tiller, Ty Dolla Sign, Victoria Monet, Russ, Jhene Aiko, and Rexx Life Raj in her most recent album cycle for It Was Good Until It Wasn’t.

Listen to Pink Sweats’ “At My Worst” remix featuring Kehlani above.

Pink Planet is due 2/12 via Atlantic. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After giving the financial world a very public black eye by causing GameStop stock prices to seemingly soar out of nowhere, day traders on Reddit have turned their attention to AMC Entertainment, and it may have just pulled a major movie theater industry player from the brink of bankruptcy. In the midst of the GameStop chaos, AMC’s stock also began to dramatically surge, which is a surprise considering the company is struggling even more than GameStop due to the pandemic. With Hollywood continuing to delay major blockbusters even further into 2021, and audiences being understandably hesitant to sit in a theater for over two hours, AMC was heading for collapse until this “new class of traders” stepped in. Via CNBC, here are the numbers:

AMC jumped 26% on Monday, and 12% on Tuesday, and is now up more than 370% this week. On Monday, the company announced it had secured enough financing to remain open and operational deep into 2021.

“This means that any talk of an imminent bankruptcy for AMC is completely off the table,” said CEO Adam Aron.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, r/Wallstreetbets became intensely focused on AMC on Tuesday as the coalition of Reddit day traders zeroed in on a new target to stick it to hedge funds, and if it happens to save movie theaters in the process, even better. “AMC to the moon boys!” one user wrote. “Do not sell. Let’s bankrupt another hedge fund!” User Starduststones also jumped in with: “Support out local theaters, and for sure… YOLO!”

The increased attention on r/Wallstreetbets disrupting the market has earned the praise of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian who tweeted out support for the day traders on Wednesday morning.

(Via CNBC, The Hollywood Reporter)

In December, Death Cab For Cutie shared The Georgia EP exclusively to Bandcamp for 24 hours, and the fundraising effort featured covers of songs by Georgia artists. About a month later, the group reported that they had given the effort a less ephemeral release and put it on streaming services. Now, they’ve brought one of the highlights, TLC’s “Waterfalls,” to Jimmy Kimmel Live! for a socially distanced cover.

The band wrote when sharing the EP to streaming services, “Because we are so happy with the results of the recent Georgia runoff elections, we have decided to release our EP ‘The Georgia E.P.’ – originally released on Bandcamp for 24 hours in early December – today on all streaming services, so that everybody can take a listen to it. It will also be available soon on peach vinyl, which we’re all very excited about. It’s an EP of covers of acts from Georgia including Neutral Milk Hotel, Vic Chesnutt, R.E.M., TLC, and Cat Power, and we had a blast making it. We raised over $100K for voting rights organization Fair Fight, which we’ve always been big supporters of; we’re really stoked. So, we hope you enjoy it and we hope to see you guys in person very soon.”

Watch Death Cab For Cutie cover “Waterfalls” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Last year, Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker took to a cabin in Massachusetts to record a pair of albums, Songs and Instrumentals. She took to a different environment to play the song for The Late Show, though, as she retreated to the desert to perform “Anything.”

Although it’s not the same setting in which Lenker recorded the gentle track, it’s still beautiful to see it performed at golden hour surrounded by sand. This performance is also somewhat similar to Lenker’s Tiny Desk performance from November, when she played some songs from a camper in Joshua Tree.

Lenker previously said of the song, “It’s a montage of many different images that I had stored in my mind from being with this person. I guess there’s a thread of sweetness through it all, through things as intense as getting bit by a dog and having to go to the ER. It’s like everything gets strung together like when you’re falling in love; it feels like when you’re in a relationship or in that space of getting to know someone. It doesn’t matter what’s happening, because you’re just with them. I wanted to encapsulate something or internalize something of the beauty of that relationship.”

Meanwhile, Lenker’s Big Thief bandmate Buck Meek is fresh off the release of a solo album of his own, and Lenker co-wrote a song on it.

Watch Lenker perform “Anything” on Colbert above.

Before speaking to Jac Schaeffer, the head writer and an executive producer of WandaVision, I had a feeling there was a deep cut of a television show that was, at least, partially driving the influences here. It couldn’t all be the more obvious show like Bewitched or The Brady Bunch. In other words, there just had to be a show in Schaeffer’s childhood that was an influence for WandaVision that might not exactly be mainstream. A show that if she went around saying, “Well, it’s based on this,” people would be confused.

Out of this World premiered in 1987. It was a weird show that aired during weird parts of the day, which differed depending where you lived. 1n 1987, NBC-owned stations tried starting prime time a half-hour early and Out of This World was part of this one-season experiment. After, it continued on in syndication for three more seasons. The plot was about a 13-year-old girl named Evie who learns that her father is an alien, so, being half-alien, she has alien powers that get he into a lot of wacky situations. In retrospect, it was a very weird show. And in retrospect, yes, it makes total sense how a show like that could have at least some influence on a show like WandaVision.

Ahead, Schaeffer tells us all about how the weird intricacies of out of this World helped her shape WandaVision. Also, she looks ahead to the future episodes and, without giving any story details away, takes us through a lot of the shows of the 1980s that will inspire what we are going to see on WandaVision very soon.

WandaVision so far is reminding me of a time when I had no real choice in what I watched, I just watched whatever was on after school. I’ve seen almost every episode of Hazel, a show that ended well before I was born, because it “was on.”

Yeah, that was my experience, whatever was on. I watched whatever used to come on at 8:00 and 8:30 every weeknight. I used to know that schedule. And then, also, the movies that I watched were whatever was playing on TBS and TNT, and then syndication after school.

We know the influences from Bewitched or The Brady Bunch, but what’s a deep cut show that you brought some of that to this?

Here’s a deep cut. Do you remember Out of this World?

I do.

So do you remember the pilot episode when she gets her powers?

I actually think I do.

It’s really a really weird moment. You’re in this silly little sitcom and everything is very twee and unexpected. And then I think she’s holding something. I want to go back and look at it. She’s holding cards or something, and she suddenly drops them and then puts her hands together, and it’s really weird and creepy. And that was a big influence on me, with the rupture of the sitcom tone.

So what from Out of this World did you put in WandaVision?

Just that everything could be so canned. And then also, and this is me projecting, but when she got her powers, it was her birthday and I think it was her 12th or 13th birthday? So there was a kind of a subversive, reaching puberty thing that I sort of put on it. And so there was a psychological element to it. So, yeah, all of that is part of the fabric of the weirdness of WandaVision, from the role that I had in it.

I remember Small Wonder was on around the same time, which was another really weird show that was similar.

Like ALF and My Secret Identity and the sitcoms that dealt with the supernatural were always a little funny. Because, with this show it was my greatest hope – and it seems that we have achieved it for some people – that it would hit on a subconscious level. And those shows did that to me. Like watching whatever – Growing Pains and Family Ties – that’s just fine and great and you’re enjoying it. But that sort of supernatural stuff, I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I would love to speak with those creators and know if they were trying to be weird.

On Family Ties, Nick may have been supernatural.

[Laughs] Have you seen, this is a real test, have you seen… was it called My Valentine?

Wait, yes, but his name is Scott Valentine. The movie…

This interview is getting weird fast, probably because I’m tired, but yeah, I love that you know that movie. It’s a weird one. [Note: the movie is My Demon Lover]

They made a spin-off of Nick’s character. He got his own show. I think for one episode. It was just a pilot. And then he came back to Family Ties.

We missed the airing.

So in the trailer for WandaVision we see Kathryn Hahn wearing the eighties aerobic gear. We haven’t seen that episode yet. Is that this Friday?

You’ll have to wait and see.

Okay, fair enough. So how does it end? How does the whole show end? Just tell me.

Okay, that I can tell you.

Can you say what show the aerobics outfit ’80s show is mostly based on?

Oh, well, all the sitcoms are amalgamations of a lot.

But which ones for you were your main influences?

Well, the eighties, that’s my zone. It’s everything. You’ll recognize all the pieces, from the production design, things from Family Ties and Full House and Growing Pains and Who’s the Boss?

I’ve got my fingers crossed for It’s Your Move. Remember It’s Your Move?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it’s got Roseanne and Just the Ten of Us, which [WandaVision director] Matt [Shakman] was on.

I talked to him about that. I don’t think he believed me when I said I had seen every episode of Just the Ten of Us. But, what else was I going to watch?

At this moment, I believe you.

It was a spinoff of Growing Pains. It’s Coach Lubbock.

I was in. There was a lot of hair aspiration with those young women. That’s what I stood up for.

Are there any other deep-cut shows coming? Because Out of this World, that’s a pretty good deep cut.

I feel like I nailed it with that one.

Yeah, I was very happy to hear that.

And that’s on an inspiration level. I’m not saying that there’s like any kind of one-to-one, that is just is my personal experience.

That would be quite a scandal if someone took it the other way.

[Laughs] Yeah. So don’t do that! But, I did have other sitcoms. I mean, I loved Designing Women and Golden Girls.

Designing Women was amazing. Golden Girls, obviously, but we don’t talk enough about Designing Women.

I agree with you. I really loved that show. There was an episode where Suzanne Sugarbaker, Delta Burke, she was off the show for reasons. And they said she had Dutch Elms disease. Oh, man, was that funny. What a ridiculous concept, that she has Dutch Elms Disease. I remember my parents laughing. And when I was younger, everything for me was about trying to unlock comedy, and I didn’t get the joke entirely. And they had to explain to me that it was a disease of trees and that’s why it was funny. Oh God.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Fans eagerly awaiting the release of Doja Cat‘s third album may end up having to wait for it. The “Say So” star recently noticed a discrepancy in the lyrics of her verse on Saweetie’s “Best Friend” on streaming services and wants it fixed pronto, or she says Planet Her is never coming out.

In the song’s lyrics, Doja describes her bestie’s tendencies, noting her BFF is “off her fifth shot, I said, ‘Mm-mm don’t go there.’” However, the lyrics that have been appearing on various sources from YouTube lyrics videos to Spotify give the bar as, “She off her fish, I said, ‘Mm-mm don’t go there,’” which as Doja notes, doesn’t make any sense.

Actually, Doja put it a little differently in her all-caps tweet. “SHE OFF HER FISH DON’T MAKE NO F*CKIN SENSE,” she raged. “COME HERE SO I CAN BEAT YOUR F*CKING ASS, GUMBY.”

Of course, her fans, well accustomed to trolling the rapper back-and-forth, have been sending her pics of her head photoshopped onto a fish, prompting her to start putting them “on timeout.” “I’m sending you to your grandparents,” she told one. “No chips or soda, no video games, no social media, no $ for chores. you’re GROUNDED.”

The issue will most likely be corrected soon enough, but her frustration is understandable. Before the song’s official release, Saweetie fumed that an incomplete version was mistakenly released early on Apple Music after months of buildup. Hopefully, the rest of her and Doja’s album rollouts go smoother.

Check out Doja’s reactions to her erroneous lyrics above.

Earlier this month, it was Netflix showcasing its 2021 slate of films, including Don’t Look Up with Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio and Red Dot with The Rock, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds. Now it’s Warner Bros. turn to show HBO Max subscribers (and theater-goers) what they have to look forward to this year.

The “Same Day Premieres Trailer” begins with footage from Dune, but we’ve seen Timothée Chalamet looking dramatic in the sand before. What we haven’t seen is Margot Robbie eating an apple as Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga busting demons (not ghosts; that’s another studio) in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and Michael Gandolfini as Anthony Soprano — a.k.a. James Gandolfini’s real-life son as the young Tony Soprano — in The Sopranos prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark. The sizzle reel also highlights Godzilla vs. Kong, Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho, King Richard (in which Will Smith plays Venus and Serena Williams’ dad), Space Jam 2, Mortal Kombat, and although there’s no clip, The Matrix 4.

Here’s the full list of Warner Bros. 2021 releases:

The Little Things (January 29)
Judas and the Black Messiah (February 12)
Tom & Jerry: The Movie (February 26)
Godzilla vs. Kong (March 31)
Mortal Kombat (April 16)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (June 4)
In the Heights (June 18)
Space Jam: A New Legacy (July 16)
The Suicide Squad (August 6)
Malignant (September 10)
The Many Saints of Newark (September 24)
Dune (October 1)
King Richard (November 19)
The Matrix 4 (December 22)
Cry Macho (TBD)
Reminiscence (TBD)
Those Who Wish Me Dead (TBD)

NBC has dropped the first official trailer for it’s upcoming series Young Rock, which focuses on the early life of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as he lifts and hustles his way to wrestling superstardom before setting his sights on Hollywood. But in a new twist, the trailer also reveals that the show will focus on The Rock’s future where he’s set his sights on Washington. While The Rock has teased fans with his presidential ambitions before, Young Rock takes that dream to a whole new level by actually showing The Rock running for office in 2032.

The presidential subplot will be boosted by Rosario Dawson and Randall Park, who both appear in the new trailer. According to Entertainment Weekly, Dawson plays General Monica Jackson, an “unrivaled force whose respected ethics and values are introduced as a very integral key to Dwayne Johnson’s presidential campaign.” As for Park, who was happy to reunite with showrunner Nahnatchka Khan after working together on Fresh Off the Boat, he plays a future version of himself who’s pivoted from acting to TV reporting.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Young Rock” is a single-camera comedy that tells the story of the wrestling star, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and actor’s colorful early years. From growing up in a strong and resilient family, to being surrounded by the wild characters of his professional wrestling family, to playing football at the University of Miami, the show will explore the crazy roller coaster that has shaped Dwayne into the man he is today and the larger-than-life characters he’s met along the way.

Young Rock premieres February 16 on NBC.

(Via NBC)