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Tom Cruise might be losing his cinematic first-place space-race goal to Russia, but he’s not giving up on finishing Mission: Impossible 7 filming soon. Cruise’s infamous recent on-set tirade (launched at crew members who weren’t taking COVID protocols seriously) was followed by a holiday break, but he’s reportedly planning on rolling camera again within days. He’s going to do so at a former military base, which sounds pretty hardcore, but alas, Variety reveals that this base had already been redeveloped as a studio that has hosted several blockbuster productions (including Guardians of the Galaxy, Skyfall, and Artemis Fowl) in recent years.

However, it’s notable that Cruise is returning to the U.K. to film before more people are vaccinated for COVID-19 and while cases are skyrocketing. Presumably, the new location (Longcross Film Studios) will make it easier to keep production in a sort-of bubble, though. Here’s what Variety has confirmed:

Variety has confirmed that Tom Cruise is back in the U.K. after a Christmas break Stateside, with production shifting from Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden to Longcross. The latter studio, which is in Surrey in Southeast England, falls within Tier 4 (the highest level of restrictions), although productions are allowed to continue under strict COVID-19 protocols. The film is expected to complete principal photography at Longcross.

Tom has shown already that he’s ultra-serious about social distancing and masking protocols, and he made it clear that he won’t shut down the production again. Hopefully, the new location will help everyone stay safer. Many people supported Tom’s message during his rant, although ex-Scientologist Leah Remini believes that Tom’s pulling a publicity stunt. Still, if that publicity stunt happens to keep people from getting sick, that can only be a positive effect. A source recently told People that Tom takes the breaking of COVID-19 protocols “personally” because these films “are very special to him. They are ‘his’ movies.”

Mission: Impossible 7 is scheduled for a November 19, 2021 release.

(Via Variety)

Gift-giving is hard. We all like to think of ourselves as the sort of ultra-compassionate, sensitive friends who know a person’s desires better than they know them themselves, but — judging from the gifts we get — we’re probably just as bad at the whole rigamarole as everyone else. Unless you’re Tom Cruise or Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock‘s “Secret Santa” episode, the chances are that someone will return something you gave them this week.

You’ll do the same and you know it. Swapping the gift you swore you loved for something you actually want.

With the season for giving is winding down, the season for returning upon us, and the season for self-improvement in our sights, let us offer you the only three kitchen-related gifts that really lit our tree in 2020. To be clear, these are big-ticket items; the idea is to return multiple gifts to afford these splurges. But they’re indulgences we stand by — sure to make you more resilient in the kitchen and leave you with a deeper appreciation of what being a good cook is all about.

Also, they’ll help your food taste better. Which is sort of the whole point.

The Farmstand

Price: $348-$649

The idea behind the Lettuce Grow Farmstand is easy and straightforward. It’s a vertical hydroponic tower for you to grow herbs, fruit, and vegetables in. There are a few such items on the market — and many of us in the ecology/ culinary space have been on this wave for a while now. But having picked up my Farmstand more than a year ago, and having benefitted from five full crops of food in that time (many of which I was able to harvest multiple times), I can say without fear of being wrong: If you love food, you want this thing.

Seriously. It’s a home cooking game changer.

If you’re spending $600 or so on a giant plastic tower with a tiny motor and some PVC tubing, it’s normal to want to look at the specs, but I’m not listing them here (besides the fact that Lettuce Grow utilizes ocean-bound plastic, which is admirable). What makes the Farmstand so wonderful is the ease of the thing. I spend literally five minutes with mine once per week; I haven’t had to clean it or change parts. It just sits there, looking like it came from The Jetsons and supplying me with food.

Lettuces, herbs, and leafy greens get Jurrasic-sized with the Farmstand. I haven’t tried tomatoes yet, because I grow those fine in my garden, but my first chard seedling kept me in chard for months. And the costs — beyond the stand — are almost negligible. $2 per seedling, $50 for minerals, and $25 for pH supplements (I’ve only had to re-up my minerals once). Over the long term, you’re definitely saving time, energy, and money with this thing versus going to the grocer.

Bottom Line: COVID reminded us how vulnerable our food systems are. This will make your personal food system more resilient.

Buy The Farmstand here.

FN Sharp 3 Knife Set

Price: $360

Having a whole bunch of knives is nice. But it’s not strictly necessary. You only really, truly need a few knives to do what you want to do in the kitchen. What you do need/ deserve is for those knives to be good, hold an edge, and worth you getting professionally sharpened every year for a decade.

This FN Sharp trio can pretty much upend all your other knives (you probably want a serrated bread knife in the house, but that can be a cheaper brand). The 67-layer Japanese / Damascus steel blade is both beautiful looking and superb at holding an edge over time. And while you never want to put fancy knives in the dishwasher, this construction — with a glass-based epoxy grip — can stand up to that sort of wear and tear (I know, because my partner puts mine in the dishwasher no matter how many times I beg).

Though it’s great to have an expensive, durable, eyebrow-raising chef’s knife, my all-arounder in this set is actually the Santoku blade (the mid-size one). It’s a chopper, slicer, and mincer — with those little air divots so that potatoes and similar vegetables don’t stick to the blade. At more than 8oz, it’s also a knife with heft.

Having won cooking competitions with these knives, I can personally report that people notice when you bring them out — which is something you at least kinda want when laying down $360. But the mix of durability and high-level craftsmanship is what you’re really paying for here and it’s worth it. Far more than a similarly priced 10 knife set, if you’re serious about cooking.

Bottom line: These knives practically feel like custom items. If you love making food and take it seriously, this is the sort of indulgence you make once every 15 years or so and never regret.

Buy FN Sharp’s 3 Knife Set here.

CruxGG Air Fryer “The Musa”

Price: $299.95

There was a Twitter thread recently where someone in media asked the relatively common culinary question: “Is an air fryer worth it or not“?

Typically, I’d say no. Air fryers take up a ton of space and they’re a little noisy. And while air frying is a good healthy frying alternative, it’s not a replacement for actual frying — which still tastes better. 100% of the time.

But…

This appliance — from CRUX and the food collective Ghetto Gastro — is more than a single appliance. It’s like five. A trick which almost never works with food items but does with this one because the heating element is actually replaceable. So you have an air fryer/ dehydrator element and then you have the pressure cooker/ slow cooker/ roast element — which are easily switched in and out.

Since the purpose of this item is air frying, let’s speak to that: With frozen foods, like empanadas, burritos (chimichangas), etc, this thing works wonders. I’ve never liked frozen foods more than when they’re done in the air fryer; it changes the game for someone on the move. The basket is a little small for fries — because you want them all to have exposed surface area to properly crisp — but, honestly, a little oil isn’t going to kill you. Make your fries the way God intended.

As a pressure cooker, the Musa really excels. The menace with pressure cooking is how messy/ potentially deadly it is on a stovetop. This pressure cooker literally idiot-proofs itself — in that it won’t open without the pressure fully released and the heating element has cooled.

Even if you unplug it because you’re in a hurry. Which I 100% tried on Christmas eve.

Finally, and not for nothing: This design, which comes from Ghetto Gastro, and donated its early proceeds to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp, looks like something you’d find in the Star Wars universe. It’s certainly fly enough for your countertop.

Bottom Line: Don’t get it just because you want an air fryer. But if you’ve been eying a pressure cooker and an air fryer, with an eye towards sleek design, this is the one.

Buy The Musa Air Fryer here.

With a greater emphasis on safety measures while flying, airlines have no tolerance for customers who don’t comply — even if they’re a famous rapper. Over the weekend, Lil Pump was reportedly banned from flying JetBlue airlines after he refused to wear a mask on his flight.

Per a recent report from TMZ, Pump was headed to LA from his Fort Lauderdale residence when he refused to comply with their mandatory face mask requirement. Apparently, the rapper took his mask off mid-flight and began to cough and sneeze into a blanket. Pump was dealt with “firmly” by crew members and was reportedly getting so heated that flight attendants had to call LAX to have police officers on site at touch down.

It seems that Pump eventually calmed down as no arrest was ever made at the airport — but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t outraged at the situation. Shortly after the incident, Pump posted a short clip to social media expressing his anger at the airlines’ policies. He continued to assert his refusal to wear a mask and falsely claimed COVID-19 is “fake.”

While JetBlue was the target of Pump’s frustration over the weekend, the rapper has previously been focused on hating on Eminem for no apparent reason. Following the release of Eminem’s Music To Be Murdered By (Deluxe) LP, Pump has some not-so-kind words for the veteran rapper. “I woke up on bullsh*t today, I’m back on my f*ck sh*t,” Pump said in an Instagram video on Christmas Eve. “You lame as hell. Ain’t nobody listening to your old ass. You lame as f*ck, b*tch.”

Last week, the internet was still buzzing from Taylor Swift‘s surprise album Evermore as she became the first artist in history to simultaneously top Billboard‘s Hot 100 and 200 Albums chart. Fast-forward one week and Swift has broken another charting record — but this one isn’t positive.

As the data for this week’s charts arrived Monday, it revealed Swift’s song “Willow,” previously at No. 1, landed all the way down the chart at No. 38. The 37-slot difference means it broke a record previously held by Tekashi 69’s song “Trollz” for the biggest fall from No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 chart history.

Though Swift’s song did not last long at No. 1, it’s surely a reflection of the season rather than an indication of her music’s popularity. This week’s data revealed that there was only one non-Christmas song in the top ten on the Hot 100 chart, an all-time record. Leading the chart was Mariah Carey’s obligatory return to No. 1 with her holiday smash hit “All I Want For Christmas,” which was followed by Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” at No. 2. The only non-festive song on the chart was 24kGoldn and Iann Dior’s hit “Mood,” which earned both of the musicians their first-ever No. 1 back in October.

Evermore is out now via Republic. Get it here.

His Dark Materials (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — The Dust-filled fantasy series is already renewed for a third (and final) season, but before that happens, the second season must (of course) draw to a close. This week, Mrs. Coulter’s confrontation with a formidable foe leads to her finding an important answer, and Lyra and Will’s search for his father ends with a dramatic new status and semi-conclusion.

In case you missed these recent picks:

Industry (HBO Max season finale) — Two episodes are on tap for the Succession-esque series for the younger crowd, and everything’s coming to a boil with a Reduction in Force Day looming toward the graduates, who are all attempting to prove that they’ve got what it takes to become a permanent asset to Pierpoint. There’s a passive-aggressive dinner party, an unexpected meeting, and all manner of drama. In other words, sit back and enjoy all the resentment and jealousy and be happy that (at least) this stress isn’t your own. It’s the small mercies in 2020 that go a long way.

Wonder Woman 1984 — (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max) Years ago, no one would have imagined the newest Wonder Woman movie heading straight to streaming (at the same time as some U.S. theaters), but here we are. And the end result ain’t dark and gritty but, instead, a lot like dessert. Gal Gadot’s Diana is done with World War I, and now she’s soaring through a mall food court and working in a museum. Watch out for that Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) and Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), and yes, Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor is somehow back for more after presumably biting the dust.

Soul — (Pixar film on Disney+) Yep, this movie was scheduled for theaters, too, and you know the drill by now, but you’ve probably never seen anything like this Pixar installment. Jamie Foxx voices a jazz-obssesed music school music teacher in this existential and cosmic movie. His character dies, turns into a fuzzy blob, and then ends up in a place called The Great Before. There, he learns about the inception of souls and personalities before they head up to Earth. He ends up answering profound life questions for himself while exploring what makes life worth living.

Bridgerton — (Netflix series) Shondaland brings us a series that I’m predicting will appeal to the Emily In Paris crowd but in a far less problematic way. Essentially, the show follows the debut of a daughter from a powerful family, who must navigate high society with the help of the rebellious Duke of Hastings, as they hatch a plan to reach their mutual goals. The romantic aspect of this series might be predictable, but the lessons learned and the lightly nibbling social commentary should strike a chord out there on Twitter.

It’s hard to know what to say when someone you know is going through a crisis. Whether a person has lost a loved one, received a dire medical diagnosis, or is experiencing some other kind of grief, we’re often at a loss for words for how to comfort them.

It gets even trickier when we share in some measure of the person’s grief. When your friend finds out they have a terminal illness, that’s painful for your friend and their family, but also for you. While it’s important to honor that, it’s also important to recognize that your grief isn’t the same as the person afflicted, nor is it the same as their spouse’s or children’s or parents’ grief. It’s totally fine to feel the weight of your own sadness and loss, but there are appropriate and inappropriate places to put that weight. For example, saying to a mutual friend, “I can’t handle this, it’s too devastating” is very different than saying the same thing directly to your friend who just found out they are dying.

Psychologist Susan Silk has created a helpful concept that makes figuring out what to say and what not to say a bit easier. She refers to it as the Ring Theory, and she and author Barry Goldman described it in an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times.

Here’s how it works:

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First, draw a circle and put the name of the person in crisis in the middle of it. Then draw a ring around that and label it with the people closest to them—spouse, parents, children, etc. Then draw another ring for their intimate friends or other family members they are close to. Next, make a ring for their close co-workers, not-quite-as-close friends, distant relatives, etc., followed by a ring for other people who know them—acquaintances, community members, and such.

These concentric rings represent which direction our words of comfort and empathy should go, and which direction the venting or dumping of our own feelings of grief should go.

The person in the center can say anything they want to anyone, of course. The crisis is theirs and they get all the leeway and grace in how they express their feelings. People in the rings around them can vent their feelings toward people in the larger rings, but not the smaller ones. If we’re talking to someone in a smaller ring than we are in, our words should only be comforting and empathetic, such as “I’m so sorry you’re going through this,” or “What a terrible tragedy, let me bring you a meal to make this time a little easier for you.”

Silk explains that when we are talking to a person in a smaller circle from us—someone who is closer to the crisis—the goal is to help. It’s appropriate not to offer advice, no matter how helpful we think we’re being. It’s not an appropriate direction for our personal storytelling or expressions of despair, however sincere. If we feel an impulse to do those things, we should point it outward, toward the people farther from the crisis.

We should never put people in smaller circles in a position of feeling like they need to comfort us. Comfort should move inward through the rings, not outward.

Let’s imagine my friend Lee just lost her mother to cancer. I lost my much-loved mother-in-law to pancreatic cancer just six weeks after her diagnosis, but this is Lee’s crisis, not mine. As a friend, I’m not going to tell her how much I miss my mother-in-law, describe in detail how hard it was to go through losing her, or go on and on about the meaning of life and death. I’m not going to say those things to her spouse, either. I might say, “I’m so sorry. Cancer really sucks, and this is such a hard thing to go through” and then offer to help watch the kids or bring over a casserole.

Concept by Susan Silk, Graphic by Annie Reneau

If I’m talking to a mutual friend or someone Lee knows peripherally, that’s when I might share my own story or how Lee’s mom’s death is bringing up my own feelings of grief. The key is to make sure I’m pointing that emotional venting of my own toward someone in a larger circle, not a smaller one.

As Silk and Goldman explained, it’s not so much what you say as whom you say it to.

“If you want to scream or cry or complain, if you want to tell someone how shocked you are or how icky you feel, or whine about how it reminds you of all the terrible things that have happened to you lately, that’s fine,” they wrote. “It’s a perfectly normal response. Just do it to someone in a bigger ring.”

“Comfort IN, dump OUT,” they added.

Silk and Goldman point out that most of us intuitively know not to dump our feelings on the person in the center of the circle, but we may not be conscientious enough about how we talk to those who are close to the crisis as well. The Ring Theory visual can help us see where it’s appropriate to vent and where it’s not, and how best to help both those who are grieving and who are in the grieving person’s orbit.

It can even help us recognize what we need most when we find ourselves at the center of the circle. All of us will be there at one time or another, and knowing where we are in the rings can help us know how to comfort one another through our grieving processes.

2020 is the unofficial year of the deluxe edition album thanks to artists who updated nearly every album released this year with additional tracks in an effort to juice streaming after touring was shut down by coronavirus precautions. Even though he was relatively late to the party, releasing his long-awaited Whole Lotta Red on Christmas Day, Playboi Carti confirmed that a deluxe version of his album is also in the works, tweeting “dELuxE oTW . > yEs” in his usual, mystifying style Sunday evening after asking fans what songs they wanted on it the day before.

The news was naturally met with both enthusiasm and skepticism by fans, thanks to the seemingly unstoppable stream of leaks from the album over the past several months that revealed songs that didn’t make the initial tracklist. However, thanks to the repeated delays of the album due to those leaks, some had a hard time believing that the project would actually come out anytime soon. As usual with such a controversial artist, the fan reaction was mixed between those who want to stream the leaked tracks and those who want all-new music.

Meanwhile, Carti’s release night celebration was nearly derailed by Iggy Azalea calling him out for cheating on her and partying with the other woman instead of spending time with his son. He eventually responded by posting a photo and a video of him playing with his and Iggy’s son Onyx. Iggy later confirmed that they’d come to an agreement to make things between them better.

There’s no release date for the deluxe version of Whole Lotta Red yet. Stay tuned.

The holiday season is a popular time for folks to get engaged. It’s festive, there are often great backdrops of trees and lights, and it’s a time for family — so why not officially add to yours.

Among those to get engaged in this 2020 holiday season was Pelicans wing Josh Hart, who popped the question to his girlfriend in what appeared to be a very lovely setting.

After the initial flood of congrats from friends and fans, the comments turned their attention to something else entirely, as people couldn’t help but notice that Josh was draggin’ a wagon in some tight pants. As a result, the comments became filled with folks talking about Josh’s kaboose, with an awful lot of peach and cake emojis, which Hart himself had a good laugh about being “double cheeked up” in the picture.

It even found its way to Pelicans Reddit, where they had a lively discussion about whether Hart had any business having that much booty.

The best part was even his friends in the NBA couldn’t help but have a laugh at the sudden turn of the comments, as Isaiah Thomas had to note that his “pants are tight as hell” and Jalen Brunson was taken aback by folks talking about that wagon.

It’s honestly a somewhat refreshing turn of events to see a male athlete post something with their significant other and have the thirsty comments all turned on them. As for Hart, I mean, you know what you were doing when you walked out of the house wearing those pants and these comments were always destined to happen.

Most importantly, congrats to the happy couple on their engagement.

Back in November, when members of the Republican Party were more willing to engage in Donald Trump‘s claim that the 2020 election was “rigged,” Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick offered a $1 million reward to anyone who comes forward with evidence of voter fraud. While that offer got lost in the mix thanks to a non-stop series of disasters from Rudy Giuliani, Pennsylvania’s Lt. Governor John Fetterman was paying attention, and he accepted Patrick’s challenge. Except things didn’t exactly go as Patrick planned.

Patrick was hoping to find evidence of Democratic voters committing fraud to help Joe Biden, which was a long shot in and of itself. What the Texas Lt. Governor didn’t count on was Republicans in PA engaging in voter fraud to help Trump and getting caught in the process. So far, three incidences of voter fraud were uncovered in PA, and Fetterman thinks Patrick should pay up. Not only has Fetterman been trolling Patrick on Twitter, demanding the reward money, but he even took an interview with the Houston Chronicle, essentially bringing his troll game to Patrick’s front door:

“The thing that’s so especially galling is that people like him were smearing our state when we actually had an impeccable election,” Fetterman said. “They keep trying to malign and smear the quality work done by both sides — we’ve got way more Republican counties than Democratic counties. He’s smearing Republicans and Democrats alike when he impugns the electoral integrity.”

“If you’re going to smear my state, then you need to pay up, because we delivered what you asked for,” he said.

Fetterman’s interview with the Houston Chronicle got picked up by MSNBC, which prompted him to fire off even more tweets to Patrick on Monday afternoon:

(Via Houston Chronicle, John Fetterman on Twitter)

We reported last week that on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated December 26, there were six Christmas songs in the top ten spots of the chart, which was an all-time record. Now, that information is already outdated. On the newest Hot 100 (dated January 2, 2021), that record has been obliterated, as there are a whopping nine songs occupying the top ten spots of the Hot 100.

Leading the pack, of course, is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which returned to No. 1 this week and became the first song to ever be No. 1 in three separate years. All of the holiday tunes that joined Carey in the top 10 last week also return this week: Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” (at No. 2), Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (No. 3), Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” (No. 4), Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” (No. 5) and José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” (No. 6). Rounding out the top of the chart is a trio of entries new to the top 10 this week: Dean Martin’s “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” (No. 8), Wham’s “Last Christmas” (No. 9), and Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run” (No. 10). The sole non-holiday song to make the top 10 this week is 24kGoldn and Iann Dior’s hit “Mood” (No. 7).

There’s something similar going on with the Billboard Global 200 chart this week as well. Most of the aforementioned holiday songs are in the top 10, as are Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me,” Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas,” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath The Tree.” On that chart, the only non-Christmas song in the top 10 is Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez’s “Dakiti.”

As far as holiday music goes, this chart dominance marks tremendous progress from 2019: On the December 28, 2019 chart, there were four Christmas songs in the top 10, which at the time was tied for the most ever. Now, it remains to be seen if “All I Want For Christmas Is You” will have another historic chart drop-off like it did after last holiday season.

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