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While the denizens and lawmakers of New York City have valiantly fought COVID-19, normalizing masks and social distancing and even shuttering beloved institutions, not everyone has played by the rules. One exception: Staten Island bar employee Daniel Presti, who has become a Fox News regular for repeatedly defying pandemic laws, even allowing patrons to drink and eat indoors, sans masks. He’s been arrested for the crime twice in the span of a week, and his most recent brush with the police allegedly involved him running over a deputy with his jeep.

According to New York 1, the incident happened at Mac’s Public House, where Presti is general manager, in the early hours of Sunday. Police had been staking out the joint, whose windows had been darkened to obscure the illegal activity happening inside. They observed several patrons entering through a back door, but they waited until after Presti was closing the bar, after midnight, to make their arrest.

But it didn’t go so smoothly. Presti — who had declared the bar an “autonomous zone,” free of any pandemic-related laws that might stop the spread of an already out-of-control virus, though the police obviously disagreed — made a run for it. He jumped into his jeep and, in the commotion, allegedly struck one officer, who was thrown onto the vehicle’s roof. Presti kept driving, but he was soon apprehended. The deputy has since been treated for his wounds and was discharged.

It’s a pretty wild story — but it also may not have happened.

A lawyer representing Presti disputed the story told in the police report. Whatever the case, the next day the bar manager was escorted from the local precinct and into a sheriff’s car.

The previous time Presti was arrested was on last Tuesday, when he pulled the same stunt, minus the alleged part where he tried to flee the scene and ran over a cop. The next night the streets outside were filled with “patriots,” i.e., people potentially spreading a highly contagious disease.

Though Presti’s been fêted as a hero among conservatives, others have not been so kind. One noted Staten Islander who does not appreciate Presti’s cavalier attitude amidst a global public health crisis is Pete Davidson, who on the most recent SNL started to rail on him on Weekend Update, only to wind up talking about dildos bearing his likeness instead.

Meanwhile, on the day Presti illicitly opened the inside of his bar to patrons, there were reportedly over 200,000 new COVID-19 cases in America and over 2,000 COVID-19-related deaths.

(Via NY1)

The holiday season is a time of giving and receiving, and Pete Davidson would really like you to know that, should you be in need of a last-minute gift, you can always buy your loved ones a vibrator with his face on it.

Davidson’s first appearance on this week’s Saturday Night Live found him parodying Eminem’s “Stan, changing the lyrics so it’s about threatening Santa into giving him a PlayStation 5. But he returned for “Weekend Update,” where he pitched another kind of holiday gift. Davidson was brought in to talk about a bar owner protesting COVID safety regulations in his hometown of Staten Island, but he kept getting sidetracked talking about a vibrator adorned with his face on it currently being sold on Etsy.

Davidson joked that this new story means he’s not what people think of when asked “What’s the worst thing that’s come out of Staten Island?” “Weekend Update” co-host (and fellow Staten Island native) Colin Jost said that people liked Davidson, which gave him a chance to point out that they do, just not in the “right way.”

“I don’t get to, like, host the Emmy’s like you and (Michael) Che,” Davidson said. “But I did just find out there’s an Etsy store selling Pete Davidson vibrators.

“Yeah, how weird is that? You can buy a vibrator with my face on it for $15 dollars or one without my face for $20,” Davidson continued. “I don’t even get a cut of the sales. Now I know how Chappelle feels.”

The sketch continued, but the Davidson-branded vibrators came back later, when he pointed out things you could do at home instead of drinking inside a bar in Staten Island. This time, however, the vibrators were labeled as “official.”

“I just decided it was,” Davidson said. “It’s a quality item, and it’s weirdly accurate. How did they know how white it is?”

A quick look at the listings for such items on Etsy reveals that there are indeed various items for sale at that price, and many predate the airing of this SNL sketch. So either the show has done some pretty substantial legwork to get these out there so they can make these jokes, or Davidson has some very enthusiastic fans. I think it’s safe to say, however, that the latter is much more likely.

Zion Williamson is one of those guys that every time you look at him on a physical level you can’t believe he’s real. He’s insanely fast, can jump out of the gym, and has a level of powerful athleticism that few possess. So when he goes up against guys, even in the NBA, he’s usually the one dominating them, not the other way around.

That was until he came in for group practices with the Pelicans and discovered just how incredibly strong his new teammate Steven Adams is. Adams does not let other bigs dominate him. He uses a mix of strength and savviness to force anyone going up against him to work for every basket and fight through every screen. It’s like going up against a moving brick wall.

On Sunday, following practice, Williamson spoke to the media and spoke about how absurdly strong Adams is.

“I thought I was strong, Seeing it up close, on the same team now, and it’s crazy. Steven is really strong and he’s a great basketball player”

It’s funny to hear Williamson speaking about how strong Adams is because it’s not exactly a secret in the NBA. Everyone knows how powerful he is, but it’s also one of those experiences where you don’t really understand it until you go up against him — Jimmy Butler famously discussed how he thought he was going to die when he ran into an Adams screen once. It’s one thing to see video of a guy like Adams shoving someone off the block, but it’s another to be the one being shoved. Especially when you’re a guy like Williamson that is so used to dominating everyone he goes up against.

It’s safe to say that Williamson is happy to have Adams playing with him, not against him, this season.

Aubrey Plaza is currently doing publicity for two projects at once, as she promotes the Hulu holiday comedy Happiest Season as well as another film, Black Bear. And it seems, as busy as she is, she’s heard all the buzz from fans about her role in the former and that many wished her character got a different fate from the writers.

The movie, which stars Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart as a couple headed home for the holidays, also features Plaza in a supporting role. Spoilers incoming if you haven’t seen it yet, but the film is one of the rare holiday movies to feature a homosexual relationship front and center, though some fans think the wrong couple stays together at the end.

And on Thursday’s appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Plaza was asked about the romance in Happiest Season and specifically how she wanted the movie to end. In the film, Plaza plays Riley, an ex of Abby (Davis) who runs into her and Harper (Stewart) several times in the film. Many people who watched the movie thought that Riley and Harper should end up together, but that’s not how the film plays out. Which has had a lot of people tweeting about the pairing in the days since the film started streaming.

“Do you have a message for the fans who think you should have ended up with Kristen Stewart?” Colbert asked around the 1:30 mark of the video. Plaza smiled and admitted that she’s with them.

“Look, I wanted it too, okay? I’m not gonna lie. I wanted it too. I wanted it very badly,” Plaza said. “But I didn’t write the thing and I didn’t direct the thing. I showed up, did my job, and got out of there. There are some things you just don’t have control over.”

Still, Plaza said she’s not convinced all is lost for her character.

“I’m not giving up hope for Riley,” she said. “I think she’s got a bright future ahead.”

It’s unclear if she’s talking about a sequel or a standalone film where Riley finds love, or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

But there are plenty of people interested in a retcon, or at the very least more satisfying conclusion for one of the few truly likable characters from the holiday film.

When Green Book won the Best Picture Oscar two years ago, Spike Lee — whose BlacKkKlansman was also up for the prize — tried to storm out of the Dolby Theatre in disgust, only to be told he had to return to his seat. It was perhaps the most public and ostentatious form of criticism the film received, having been chastised in some circles for its retrograde white savior narrative. But there’s one person who is definitely pro-Green Book: star Viggo Mortensen.

In a new interview with The Independent, the erstwhile Aragorn — whose performance was Oscar-nominated, though co-star Mahershala Ali did win his second Best Supporting Actor trophy — reflected grimly on the film’s violently split reputation. “It’s become a cliché to say, ‘Is this movie going to be the Green Book of this year?’” he said. “Green Book has become a pejorative.”

He continued:

“Much of the criticism that was levelled at that movie was not only unreasonable, but it was inaccurate, mendacious, and irresponsible … It’s based on a load of bulls*** and an axe to grind and little else. Does it affect what I’m doing, or how people perceive me as an actor? Maybe it does. But I can’t really do anything about that.”

Mortensen didn’t go into details about how calling out a film that features a white character “teaching” a black character how to eat fried chicken could be considered “inaccurate, mendacious, and irresponsible.” He also could have argued that its instant classic pizza-sandwich scene does atone for some of its more questionable aspects. Alas.

The acclaimed actor — whose directorial debut, Falling, in which he plays a gay man dealing with his conservative father (Lance Henriksen), just opened in the UK — has sometimes been a bit more critical of past work. In 2014, he semi-infamously said he preferred The Fellowship of the Rings to the other LOtR films, saying that with The Two Towers the series “already started ballooning, for my taste, and then by the third one, there were a lot of special effects. It was grandiose, and all that, but whatever was subtle, in the first movie, gradually got lost in the second and third.” A handful of years later he was a bit more circumspect:

“I don’t really want to get into it … but over the years certain things that I’ve said have been taken out of context in certain ways that were unfortunate. I’ve tried to be honest when someone is asking me which movie I prefer. My preference is certain scenes that I remember and that’s natural, but the overall experience was fabulous, unforgettable, instructive. The obvious benefit is that the popularity of the trilogy around the world opened doors for us. Dave Cronenberg wouldn’t have been permitted to cast me in A History of Violence had it not been for the popularity of the trilogy, for example.”

(Via The Independent)

The New York Jets entered Sunday at 0-11 on the season, a game ahead of the 1-10 Jacksonville Jaguars for the first overall pick and, presumptively, the right to select Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence in next April’s NFL Draft.

Both teams found themselves in the lead at various points on Sunday, as the two fanbases fretted over the possibility of getting a win and ruining their draft position. Now, the players on the field of course don’t care about where they’re drafting next year, but fans surely do and for the Jets they found themselves leading by four points late in the game against the Raiders.

Las Vegasmarched down the field and had a 4th-and-3 opportunity inside the 10, but failed to convert on a second attempt after offsetting holding penalties wiped away a touchdown initially. However, with just over 90 seconds to play, Las Vegas had two timeouts remaining and were able to force a punt, getting the ball back with just over 30 seconds to play. After moving the ball into Jets territory, Vegas needed a minor miracle to escape the ignominy of being the first team to lose to New York this season, and got that in the form of a bomb from Derek Carr to rookie speedster Henry Ruggs III.

It is an incredibly Jets finish to the game, as New York somehow failed to put any safety help over the top on the outside of the field, instead leaving room for Ruggs to go one-on-one and, with his incredibly sub-4.3 speed, that’s a losing proposition for most defensive backs in the league.

Jets fans are thrilled by the result, as they maintain a stranglehold on the top spot in next year’s draft, and as such the right to take Lawrence or Justin Fields or whatever player they desire. Jaguars fans, meanwhile, not only saw their hopes for being tied for that top spot taken away but find themselves in overtime in Minnesota with a chance of moving two games out of that top pick and, likely, locking themselves into second at best.

Keeping his “Get Twisted Sundays” series alive for one last week, Tobe Nwigwe recruited D Smoke for their new collaboration, “Headshots.” Just like his other singles from the past weeks, Tobe delivers an impressive visual for the track. It begins with Tobe laying on the ground beside a few dancers. Shortly after he resorts to the seashore with a woman beside him before the visual transitions to show D Smoke rapping his verse in the water while fully-clothed. As the video comes to an end, the two rappers reunite as they sing the final lines of the song.

The track arrives ahead of Tobe’s Cincoriginals project which the Houston rapper will drop at the end of the week on December 13. It will be his second project of the year following The Pandemic Project which he shared in August. Cincoriginals is led by “Bozos” and “Father Figure” and flaunts guest appearances from EarthGang, Duckwrth, Big K.R.I.T., Royce Da 5’9,” Black Thought, D Smoke, Bun B, Trae Tha Truth, and more.

As for D Smoke, the video arrives after the Inglewood native landed a Grammy nomination in the Best Rap Album category for his Black Habits debut. He joins Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s Alfredo, Nas’ King’s Disease, and Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony.

You can watch the “Headshots” video above.

Cincoriginals is out on 12/13 via Tobe Nwigwe. Pre-order it here.

The Milwaukee Bucks enter this season as the favorites to win the Eastern Conference once again, and spent this offseason retooling their roster to try and build a team that can finally get over the hump and make it to the NBA Finals.

They traded a bounty of first round picks to New Orleans for Jrue Holiday and, after having a Bogdan Bogdanovic sign-and-trade fall apart, spent the rest of the offseason bringing in various role players to fill out the roster and try and build out some depth around their strong starting unit. The centerpiece of everything in Milwaukee, of course, is Giannis Antetokounmpo, and whether this offseason is viewed as successful or not is dependent on whether the reigning two-time MVP signs his supermax extension by December 19.

Antetokounmpo celebrated his birthday on Saturday, as he turned 26 years old, and on Sunday when the Bucks met with the assembled media Khris Middleton was asked how they celebrated with their star teammate. The fellow All-Star had quite the response, noting that the entire team decided to get Giannis what they felt was the perfect gift, 19 pens that they hope he will “enjoy and use.”

It’s a not so subtle message from Middleton and the Bucks, and if Giannis does indeed sign his extension this will be a clever and fun thing everyone can look back on. If he doesn’t, then, well, it will be incredibly awkward for all involved and this season will be with one eye on the future and hoping the superstar doesn’t depart for elsewhere should they fall short of their ultimate goal once again.

Joe Biden campaigned, in part, on the fact that he wouldn’t break news on Twitter once he was elected president.

It’s a promise he reiterated last week, saying that he would not first disclose important news or decisions about legislation on the social media platform. Donald Trump, however, has made no such promises and has famously fired people and announced his own COVID-19 diagnosis on Twitter. He’s spent the weeks following the election spouting election misinformation on social media in a desperate and fruitless attempt to overturn results that clearly elected Biden president.

But on Sunday, he broke some very interesting news in a realm he’s largely ignoring: the rising coronavirus crisis in America. On Sunday, he tweeted that his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had contracted coronavirus, though he used a racial slang for it he’s often leaned on to deflect blame for the pandemic that’s killed more than 220,000 Americans.

“@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus,” Trump tweeted. “Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!”

The news drew plenty of reaction online, as well as concern about his jet-setting legal battle to prop up baseless allegations of election fraud that’s drawn colorful and bizarre characters viral fame in recent days. Now the actual viral nature of Giuliani is an immediate concern, which makes all of this a lot less funny and far more dangerous.

It’s unclear what Giuliani’s status is right now, as there’s been plenty of speculation about him and his health as he appears in increasingly bizarre press conferences and public hearings while maskless. But hopefully he hasn’t turned what’s already been a needlessly prolonged and baseless legal fight into a multi-state superspreader event, too.

Much to the chagrin of movie theater enthusiasts, HBO Max got a lot more valuable to cinephiles last week when Warner Bros. announced that its entire 2021 slate of movies would premiere on the streaming app the same day they hit theaters. But the news was especially cruel to some streaming enthusiasts, mainly those that rely on Roku to get their digital media in this fragmented streaming marketplace.

The lack of an HBO Max app on Roku devices, including smart TVs, has been a sticking point for both owners of said devices and those at Warner who want to see the platform grow. Without a true app on Roku, only a screen mirroring trick or maybe using Apple AirPlay on certain devices served as a proper workaround. Unless you, of course, have another device hooked up like a gaming console or an Amazon FireTV device, which officially added HBO Max in late November.

And despite the glut of big releases soon to hit HBO Max, it doesn’t seem like either side is ready to budge on this stalemate just yet. As Variety laid out earlier in the week, even the kind of application HBO Max would be on Roku is up in the air right now.

Sources confirm to Variety that WarnerMedia and Roku are in active talks. But both sides have signaled that they are unwilling to budge on their positions: Roku wants to keep HBO/HBO Max as a channel it can sell directly to its own customers, while WarnerMedia is insisting that HBO Max be available as a standalone app. The companies are also hashing out the terms for how they will divvy up ad inventory for the ad-subsidized version of HBO Max, which WarnerMedia plans to launch for a reduced price later in 2021.

In other words, things are tied up in quite literally what kind of access to HBO Max would be allowed on Roku, let alone where the money goes from that app or channel if it existed. And neither side seems intent to make a deal despite the additional pressure that will come, starting on Christmas Day, when Warner Bros. movies start hitting HBO Max. As Variety laid out, Warner’s general thesis is that the pressure is on Roku as Christmas is often a time people buy streaming hardware, and not necessarily subscriptions, as gifts. Meanwhile, Roku feels its large user base is incentive enough for HBO Max, which now needs to see its subscriber base grow to make up the billions it’s likely to lose by surrendering big box office returns in 2021.

As a result, HBO Max’s annual average subscriber base would need to be 8.4 million higher than its current pace of additions for WarnerMedia to make itself whole, according to Moffett. “The market has shown a clear preference for go-big-or-go-home digital strategies,” he wrote in a research note Friday. “The most obvious takeaway from yesterday’s news is that AT&T is, come hell or high water, going to drive traffic to HBO Max.”

And Roku, boosted by the COVID pandemic, has seen significant momentum. The company will close out 2020 with an estimated 52 million user accounts — with have a footprint representing around 40% of all U.S. broadband households, according to Rosenblatt Securities.

The deal that got HBO Max on Amazon devices, it should be noted, meant that Amazon could no longer sell HBO subscriptions through its Prime Video Channels. That’s essentially what Roku wants to do with HBO Max, as its research claims channels sold through that tend to get more customer usage than those presented simply as apps. That’s likely because, well, people want to justify their purchases with use, which just so happens to play into Roku’s desire to sell HBO Max as a channel and then tap into ad revenue.

The easy solution for frustrated streaming subscribers is, of course, the most inconvenient one: to have multiple options for streaming content and just be willing to switch HDMI inputs or navigate your way to blockbuster movies with a gaming controller. But as is often the case with these things, it’s just another inconvenience for the people doing their best to stay entertained while they’re stuck at home during a public health crisis.

[via Variety]