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The Golden State Warriors tipped off their first of two back-to-back games in San Antonio with a rough second half performance that saw a five-point halftime lead evaporate into a 105-100 loss.

The Warriors scored just 41 in the second half, as the Spurs defense, led by Dejounte Murray and his eight steals on the game, put the clamps on Golden State to allow themselves to pull in front and hang on. Stephen Curry did his best to keep the Warriors hopes alive, scoring 32 including this stepback to cut the lead to one with nine seconds to play and give the Warriors a fighting chance.

After a pair of DeMar DeRozan free throws to get to 21 points on the night, the Warriors got the ball with 8.7 seconds to play needing a three to tie. The Spurs put a lot of focus on Curry, unsurprisingly, and when the inbound pass went to Draymond Green, the Warriors big man anticipated a foul was coming and, well, you can see for yourself.

The Warriors broadcast crew’s reaction was the best, as they couldn’t help but wonder aloud, “what’d he do that for?!” and an exasperated, “why?!” Now, it looks worse than it actually was because Green was, of course, trying to get three free throws to tie the game — although he had just missed two free throws not long before that so the likelihood of him sinking three in a row felt low — but it looked hilarious as Derrick White recoiled and avoided contact to allow Green to brick a 35-footer with authority.

Naturally, people immediately jumped to the Carlton Banks basketball moment and Green will have to live with the jokes for some time.

The Spurs got the win, thanks to Murray’s 27-point, 8-steal night and DeRozan’s 21 as well, and the two teams will get to do it all over again tomorrow in the same place.

There is perhaps no more famous teen in America right now than Claudia Conway. The daughter of two prominent people with diametrically opposed views on Donald Trump — his former counselor Kellyanne and fierce critic and Lincoln Project co-founder George — the 16-year-old has made a name for herself, doing things like leaking to the world that her mother had contracted COVID-19 and accusing her of posting nude pictures of her online. She lives one rollercoaster of a life, and here’s another sharp turn: She’s going to be on the next season of American Idol.

The news broke Monday night during an episode of ABC’s The Bachelor, with an Idol commercial that dropped the Conway daughter in as one of its “bigger surprises.” It’s actually not that big a surprise: Back in the fall, Conway teased her audition on the show over her popular (and sometimes national news-making) TikTok. But people evidently forgot about that, possibly because a ton has happened in the world — and even in Claudia’s life — since then.

Though Claudia and her parents don’t have the calmest of relationships — both Kellyanne and George had to resign from their jobs to tend to their parental duties — they’re very supportive of this, less earth-quaking move on her part.

“Claudia and her siblings are taught to be independent self-starters and free thinkers who dream big and aim high. She sets goals and works toward them. Of course, American Idol is next level!” Kellyanne Conway said back in the fall, as per The Daily Beast. “We are proud of Claudia for entering the arena and sharing her beautiful voice and inspirational message about mental health with others.”

In any case, it’s a reminder that 2021 seems to be about as random and weird as 2020.

Back in December Offset received an extremely rare Lamborghini worth $700,000 from no less than Cardi B. But it seems he has so many cars that he can’t keep track of them all: The rapper is being sued by a rental car company after he reportedly misplaced one of their luxury rides.

According to a report from TMZ, Offset rented a Bentley Bentayga for a video shoot from LA car rental company Platinum Transportation Group. The transaction went down in the spring of 2020 and he had originally only rented it for a few days at a rate of just under $600 per day. However, when it came time for him to return the ride, Offset kept pushing the date back. He eventually admitted to the company that he wasn’t going to be able to return the Bentley because it wasn’t actually in his possession. He apparently couldn’t remember who last had the car and he had no clue where it was.

Needless to say, Platinum Transportation Group wasn’t happy about Offset’s negligence and was even less enthused when he stopped making payments for the ride. So in order to recoup their damages, the company has reportedly hit him with a $100,000 lawsuit, which they say is to make up for lost revenue.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Though he’s a legend of the music industry, David Crosby has slowed down on releasing music in recent years. He instead spends some of his time sharing hot takes on Twitter and rating his followers’ poorly-rolled joints. Some of Crosby’s opinions have gotten him in hot water, like when said he felt “meh” about Eddie Van Halen’s music just days after the musician’s death. Now, Crosby has given his tepid review of Phoebe Bridgers’ recent performance on Saturday Night Live, though Bridgers wasn’t phased.

Bridgers took the SNL stage over the weekend to perform some of the tracks off her sophomore album Punisher. Though most of her songs are relatively slow, Bridgers had one trick up her sleeve to liven things up a bit: After singing the final verse of her track “I Know The End,” Bridgers began smashing her guitar against a nearby amp. People had a lot of opinions about the shtick — including Crosby.

One of Crosby’s followers tweeted at him asking how he felt about Bridgers’ attempt to destroy her guitar. Crosby offered his succinct critique: “Pathetic.”

Much like Crosby’s review, Bridgers had a pithy response. “Little b*tch,” she wrote under his tweet.

While it seemed as though Bridgers had totally broken the stage amp during her guitar smashing, the singer later revealed that it was all premeditated. Apparently, SNL had a fake monitor made especially for the occasion.

Viggo Mortensen is famously picky about roles, and he’s spent the years since the Lord of the Rings trilogy ended only popping up in things he wanted to, when he felt like acting. The result is one of the most adventurous and unpredictable careers in Hollywood, from David Cronenberg joints to Best Picture winners to Argentine Westerns in which he doesn’t speak a lick of English. While promoting his latest project, Falling — which is in fact his directorial debut, in which he plays a gay man railing against his homophobic old father (Lance Henriksen) — he talked about one of the many roles he turned down, X-Men’s Wolverine, which he didn’t do for his son.

In a recent podcast appearance on Happy Sad Confused (as caught by IGN), Mortensen talked meeting with Bryan Singer, the since-disgraced director, back when he was planning the first X-Men movie. Mind you, this is before The Fellowship of the Rings, but even then he was choosy. He said he already had misgivings about the role.

“The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of that same character over and over,” Mortensen explained. So he brought along his son, Henry, to the meeting, both as a “good luck charm” and because he knew a lot about comics and had already said the script got some stuff wrong:

“And he goes ‘yeah, but he doesn’t look like this,’ And all of a sudden the director is falling all over himself and then the rest of the meeting was him explaining in detail to Henry why he was taking certain liberties … We walked out of there, and Henry asks if he will change the things he told him about, and I say I don’t think so. I’m not going to do it anyway, because I’m not sure I want to be doing this for years, and then a couple of years later I’m doing three Lord Of The Rings [films] so who knows.”

So there you go: You might have missed out on Viggo’s Aragorn had it not been for his reluctance to take a role with a multi-year commitment — which he got over, apparently — and because of his son. Granted, many stories about acclaimed thespians taking on comic book roles revolve around them doing it because their kids wanted them to. So enjoy this rare case in which the opposite happens.

In the meantime, you can catch Mortensen’s Falling, which was released in America Friday, on PVOD now.

(Via IGN)

The biggest game in basketball on Monday was in Storrs, Connecticut, as the No. 1 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks took on the No. 2 ranked UConn Huskies in a massive women’s college hoops showdown.

The game delivered on its promise, as the two teams went back and forth in regulation, as freshman phenom Paige Bueckers dueled with Aaliyah Boston in regulation. As the game came to a close, South Carolina had a two-point lead with just over a minute to play when Bueckers got the ball moving towards the baseline on the right and hit a tough contested pull-up to knot things at 54-54.

On South Carolina’s final possession they had a number of opportunities, as Boston continued their dominance on the glass, but couldn’t get two put-back attempts to fall and we went to overtime.

In the extra period, it was the Paige Bueckers show as she hit back-to-back pull-up jumpers after the Gamecocks went up three to give UConn a one-point lead (one almost identical to the game-tying basket in the fourth), and then put the dagger in the top-ranked team in the country with this leaning shot clock buzzer-beater that got a very friendly bounce — but one you earn when you already have 28 points.

Bueckers finished the night with 31 points and five assists, her latest spectacular performance as she’s found her footing and showing why she was the top recruit in the country, and had all nine of UConn’s points in the overtime period as she flat out took over. It’s a tough loss for South Carolina, who will feel like they had plenty of chances to get a big road win, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if these two teams met again in early April at the Final Four.

Boston finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds, dominating inside, but it was Bueckers’ shot-making that made the difference down the stretch as both defenses refused to give up anything easy.

This week, former president the case against Donald Trump goes on trial in the Senate, whose members will vote whether or not to impeach him for his role in early January’s failed MAGA riot. One of the Republican lawmakers who played a key role in hyping up the event that led to the storming of the Capitol was Ted Cruz. In the month that’s followed, the Texas senator has not admitted wrongdoing nor has he apologized to the colleagues who lives were in danger. Instead, he’s spent much of the time trolling Democrats and getting owned online, including by one of the stars of his favorite movie.

That happened again on Monday, when Cruz decided to come for current president Joe Biden, at least online, choosing a most Trumpian line of attack: his relationship with China. He didn’t mention any specific stance, merely tweeting, “Team Biden is soft on China.”

Suddenly people were thinking about “Team Cruz.” And few had anything nice to say about that squadron.

Some people pointed reminded anyone thinking of joining Team Cruz that it’s the one led by someone who goes to bat for people who insult his wife and dad.

But maybe Team Cruz only has one member anyway.

Or maybe even less than that.

Just a few weeks ago, news broke that Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci was wanted by police as a suspect in a case involving drive-by murder. Days later, the rapper turned himself into authorities — but first he made sure to drop his “Rolled On” video with Mozzy. YFN Lucci has been in jail since and was denied bond while awaiting trail. But now, it seems like his luck has turned around as he’s reportedly been released.

According to a report from TMZ, Lucci is now out of jail on a hefty bond of $500,000, but while he’s no longer behind bars, he still has to abide by certain rules so that the judge can be sure he won’t skip town before his court date. For starters, Lucci has reportedly been ordered to wear an ankle monitor and is required to be inside his house from 7 pm to 7 am. Outside of that 12-hour window, he’s permitted only to see his legal counsel, go to the doctor, and visit with his children.

Lucci’s attorney, Drew Findling, told TMZ that he was released on bond with a number of special conditions. “The bond was negotiated last week and finalized today,” Findling said. “He was released just before 4 pm. There are a variety of conditions which is somewhat consistent with these cases, which included surrendering his passport.”

YFN Lucci is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Along with being a successful musician, Machine Gun Kelly’s other talents include starting beef with Eminem and, apparently, designing memorable merch collections. The rapper-turned-pop-punk musician just added new items to his website, following the release of his pop punk LP Tickets To My Downfall. But with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, the musician is offering some limited-edition items. One addition to his beefed-up collection was the source of a lot of talk on Twitter: a hot pink vibrator with the words “compliments of Machine Gun Kelly” printed on its box.

This actually isn’t the first time Kelly has sold the Lil’ Devil vibrator on his website. Last year, he offered a red version of the sex toy around Valentine’s Day. But seeing as the pink one is version 2.0, it’s sure to have some upgrades.

Along with the vibrator, Kelly is making sure everyone knows he’s dating Megan Fox. His website lists a pink hoodie that has a photo of the couple making out on the front. The design also includes a verse from Kelly’s Tickets To My Downfall track “Banyan Tree (Interlude)” which reads, “She loves a boy so much she wants him to steal her breath.”

Check out a photo of Kelly’s merch above and find it on his website here.

Tickets To My Downfall is out now via Bad Boy/Interscope. Get it here.

Have you ever been watching a Disney movie and had a bit of deja vu? Not just that “Oh, this movie has that familiar Disney look and feel” feeling, but more like, “I swear I’ve literally seen this exact scene before in another movie”?

If you’ve watched a lot of Disney films, you actually have seen the same scenes repeated in different movies. People have been pointing out parallel sequences on social media and it’s got some folks super freaked out.

Check it out:

Watching that “Jungle Book” and “Winnie the Pooh” sequence, there’s no denying it’s exactly the same animation template, just with different backgrounds and characters. But how? And why?

Disney has actually been recycling its animation for various movie scenes since it created Dumbo in 1941. Floyd Norman, a veteran Disney animator who has worked on Disney films as far back as Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and as recently as Mulan and Toy Story 2, weighed in on the reason for reusing animation sequences, saying:

“It was done probably to save time, save money. Although I don’t think it saved much time and I don’t think it saved much money because it was much more of a hassle to go dig this old footage out of the archive. It would’ve been easier to just sit down and animate a new scene than to go back and try to retrofit all this old stuff to something new. We’re looking back to the 1960s and 70s when people weren’t thinking how films would change, how media would change, and how people would be able to look at these various films and compare one film against another.”

This video by Cartoon Hangovers shares various recycled Disney scenes and explains why they were reused, showing how it all began with animators tracing over live footage of real actors to create more realistic animation in Disney’s first full-length feature film, “Snow White.”

Every Recycled Disney Shot & Why – Snow White, Frozen, Toy Story, Moana and More – Cartoon Hangover

youtu.be

Despite the eventual mega-success of the Disney empire, the company’s beginnings were not so rosy. “Snow White” was a surprise box office hit, but follow-up films “Pinocchio,” “Bambi,” and “Fantasia” went way over budget and were considered losses for the studio. “Dumbo” was a success, but then WWII hit. That’s when Disney really got started with resuing animation.

The main reason was purportedly to save time and money. According to Floyd Norman, Walt Disney himself probably never even knew or noticed that animators were recycling scenes. He was focused more on the big picture and not so concerned with the technical processes of the animators.

The practice of reusing scenes continued, with “The Sword in the Stone” and “The Jungle Book” in particular snagging lots of scenes from previous Disney projects. But there are lots of well-known examples, including “The Aristocats” reusing scenes from “101 Dalmations,” and “Robin Hood” stealing scenes—and even parallel characters—from “The Jungle Book” (Ever notice how similar Little John and Baloo are?) and other Disney films.

These Disney films from the 60s, 70s, and 80s can trace their recycled animation primarily back to one director–Woolie Reitherman. He’s not the only one to utilize the reuse of animation, but he’s best known for it. He basically didn’t see a reason to reinvent the wheel.

However, the practice didn’t necessarily save time or money. Floyd Norman has pointed out that it’s a lot of work to go through old footage, find what you want, and remake it into a new animation. In some ways, it would be easier just to animate from scratch.

Even newer Disney movies have reused scenes, though more often not, those serve as an homage to the original films that made the newer films possible. Such is the case with the dancing scene at the end of “Beauty and the Beast,” which mirrors the one at the end of “Sleeping Beauty.”

So no, it’s not your imagination—there is no shortage of Disney scenes that are repeated in different Disney films. No one is complaining, of course, with Disney having made dozens of beloved productions enjoyed by billions of people. Perhaps recycling scenes is even part of what gives us a sense of familiarity when we watch a Disney movie.

At the end of the day, animators are magicians. Whatever tools they use to make the magic happen, so be it.