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Next month, Billie Eilish will release her documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, which will premiere in movie theatres globally and on AppleTV+ as well. Ahead of its release, the singer sat down with Vanity Fair to share what it was like to re-experience certain aspects of her life.

“It’s really about my life, me, in such a way that I was not expecting, and was pretty brutal to relive,” she said. “I was going through hell in certain parts of my life, and I had no idea anyone was seeing it. The fact that they have footage of it and you can see my emotions.” She also revealed that the film reminded her of a certain beloved sitcom.

“It’s like, I can’t help but think about the last episode of The Office when Erin was like, ‘How did you do it? How did you really get how we felt and what we were doing? How did you do it?’” she said. “I used to watch that episode and be like, That would be amazing if somebody did that and you could rewatch those parts of your life from a different perspective. And I did it!”

Director R.J. Culter also shared some thought, saying the “stories of teenage life are so interesting to me.” He added, “It’s such a fascinating time of life, where you were both child and adult; one foot in childhood, one foot in adulthood and especially for somebody who’s going through what Billie was going through and who was such a remarkable talent.”

You can watch the trailer for the film above.

Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry premieres globally on 02/26.

(via Vanity Fair)

In March Spy Kids turns 20 years old. Mazel tov! It’s also about to cross another milestone: It’s been a decade since the series saw a proper film. (There was a short-lived TV show, which ran two seasons, ending in 2018.) But that’s about to change: According to Entertainment Weekly, it’s coming back, complete with franchise’s father (and Baby Yoda bud) Robert Rodriguez back in the same seat.

What’s not clear is if anyone from the original four films will be returning as well. Those starred Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara as the spawn of two spies, played by Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino, who follow in their parents’ footsteps when they get captured. Will Vega and Sabara return, each with their own batch of kids who spy? Could be! But the only detail known at this time is that, much like the original, the revival will revolve around a multicultural family.

When Rodriguez made Spy Kids, he was coming off a line of R-rated, adults-only (or teens-also) genre movies, starting with his attention-grabbing, almost-no-budget debut El Mariachi, which he was able to shot for a shockingly low $7,000 back in the early ’90s. (Post-production cost rather a lot more than that, but it was still a bargain.) He still often makes movies in a home studio in Austin, including his last picture, the gigantic, James Cameron-shepherded Alita: Battle Angel. Whatever he does with Spy Kids 5 or whatever it is, he’ll probably at least have the sense to bring back Danny Trejo.

(Via EW)

The pandemic has made it hard for all corners of the entertainment world to operate under normal procedures. Festivals have been shut down, award shows have gone virtual in empty venues, and anything that requires a team present requires multiple tests beforehand. Cardi B recently shared what her team has to do on a weekly basis as a result of the pandemic, as well as how much it costs to ensure everyone’s safety.

“I get Covid tested bout 4 times a week,” she wrote in a tweet. “My glam and management gotta get tested as well. Everytime we get tested is about 250$ each. This is seriously a new business [face palm emoji].” It’s a fairly expensive amount to spend on a weekly basis for the test, amounting to $1,000 a day and $7,000 a week for a team of four, Cardi herself included. However, it’s necessary that tests are done at a frequent rate, given how cases around the country continue to rise at rapid rates.

Cardi’s tweet comes months after she revealed that when she and Megan The Stallion shot the video for their collaboration “WAP,” they spent a total of $100,000 on COVID-19 tests.

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

Beloved NBA writer and analyst Sekou Smith died on Tuesday. Smith, a Michigan native based out of Atlanta and a perpetually welcoming face to hoops fans who would tune into NBA TV, lost his battle with COVID-19, sparking an overwhelming response from the basketball community for a man whose love for the game was unmatched. The news of his passing became known to hoops fans by Unit1HoopSource.

A graduate of Jackson State, Smith, who was 48, covered the league for decades following a stint at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. He spent years covering the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks before joining Turner, where his musings would appear in writing, on television, and on his podcast, “NBA Hang Time,” which he hosted alongside Lang Whitaker and Rick Fox. A man who wore many hats, the thing that always came through no matter the medium was that Smith truly loved the game of basketball, something that NBA commissioner Adam Silver articulated in a statement.

Bringing Smith up to anyone in the basketball world would always elicit a similar response — a smile, a story, something about how he was a force for good in the sport. This sentiment spread like wildfire among those who knew him in the game, whether they were players, fellow reporters, or anyone else who got the chance to know him.

Turner analyst Steve Smith took a moment before his broadcast of Clippers-Hawks on Tuesday evening to speak about Smith, emphasizing that the impact Sekou had on him goes beyond hoops.

Smith was well-known for his ranking of the league’s MVP candidates, which was known as Sekou’s MVP Ladder and always found a way to inject insight into even the most one-sided of races to be named the league’s top player.

For those who had the privilege of knowing him, there was no one better. Rest in peace, Sekou.

It’s been almost a week since Mitch McConnell lost his prized gig as Senate Majority Leader, a position he held since 2015. During his tenure, he developed a reputation as the “Grim Reaper” (his description), blocking untold pieces of progressive legislation, including the second stimulus package that still, over a month since its passing, hasn’t reached millions of Americans. So when Senate Democrats, including new Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, tried to do something McConnell felt went against Senate rules, he let them have it — at least over Twitter.

According to CNN, McConnell has spent the last week trying to save the filibuster, the controversial procedure that has evolved in the last handful of years into a way to stall legislation. Removing it has been one of the top priorities for certain Democratic Senators, and McConnell, despite no longer having any real power, has been adamant about keeping it. But when it looked as though Democrats lacked the votes to expel it, McConnell declared victory.

“Today, I made clear that if Democrats ever attack the key Senate rules, it would drain the consent and comity out of the institution,” he tweeted. :”A scorched-earth Senate would hardly be able to function. It wouldn’t be a progressive’s dream. It would be a nightmare. I guarantee it.”

First off, again, McConnell and his party no longer have control over the Senate. (That doesn’t mean the famously pleasant Schumer won’t ever cow to his threats, mind you.) For another, McConnell is perhaps the last one to speak about destroying Senate “comity.” And people were quick to remind him of his past deeds, among them blocking Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland for over a year, railroading Amy Coney Barrett into the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s SCOTUS seat mere weeks before an election, etc. etc. etc.

Others reminded everyone that McConnell does not have the power he claims to wield.

Anyway, Schumer and company, don’t be afraid of a little turtle.

(Via CNN)

Over the weekend a clip from VH1’s 2017 series Signed resurfaced on Twitter. In the episode, Rick Ross, The-Dream, and Lenny S. are judges for a number of contestants who are looking to land a record deal. In this particular clip, the trio is judging two acts named Brittany and Kaiya. In what seemed to be a sheer coincidence, both singers auditioned using an instrumental of Ross’ 2010 track “Aston Martin Music.” At the end of their respective performances, the judges favored Brittany’s rendition over Kaiya’s, but viewers of the clip thought otherwise and cited a huge difference in the quality of their auditions. As a result, the trio was hit with heavy criticism, including accusations of colorism. Less than a week after the clip reemerged, The-Dream took to Twitter to respond.

The singer shared a lengthy message that stretched over four tweets. “I’m completely surprised by even the smallest amount of people that would ever test my Blackness and my love for my people and my culture in everyshade esp. the darkest of u,” he said. “I’m not overly surprised. But as much as I’ve done to move women forward through songs and always… Being the one that make sure sh*t looks a certain way. I’m sure every director and every artist or person who have saw me work and been around me know exactly how I prefer things. Black ass f*ck all the time. With all I’ve done this is what y’all have for me. Makes you think diff.”

The-Dream then dove into his previous relationship issues, which landed in the public eye:

And for no particular reason, as a unapologetic figure as I’ve kept it beyond and taken falls for past exes even publicly to save themselves from things they have done against me and to harm my word and upbringing. I protected a lot of people and ate it. I could’ve been said it. That means I took all that for no reason. So basically I should’ve snitched right. I hurried the truth. I watch you all talk and still I took the higher space. I always do I always did. Now me I’m not black enough even though I walked out of labels left 5ms cause race sh*t.

Over four long years, Donald Trump never had a good relationship with any White House reporter (unless they’re from OANN). Quite the contrary. If he singled them out, it was to insult them, call them stupid, trash their outlet. Joe Biden hasn’t been on the job even a week and he’s already made friends with the “enemy” — which is to say he’s already got a jokey buddy comedy routine going with a staffer from Fox News.

That person is Peter Doocy, son of Fox & Friends mainstay Peter. On Monday, Biden lightly razzed the longtime Fox News journalist, saying he always asks me tough questions, and [they] always have an edge to them.” But he jokingly added, “I like him anyway.” The very next day Biden was at it with Doocy again.

In one of his first days in office, Biden fielded a phonecall from Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, whose administration been accused of tampering in the last two American elections. As Tuesday’s press conference was ending, Doocy shouted out a final question, asking what he and Biden had talked about. Biden quickly quipped, “You,” adding, “He sends his best.”

It’s clear Doocy is going to be a thorn in the Biden administration’s side. But it’s also clear that Biden knows how to deal with it: with a charming soft jab, a bit of light sarcasm, not the thin-skinned maelstrom Trump brought to everyone who asked him a question he didn’t like. And for a second day in a row, people loved the rapport they’ve developed.

Some accused Biden of dodging Doocy’s question. Thing is, a readout of his Putin conversation is already on the White House website, for all to see.

In a year when the U.S. saw the largest protest movement in history in support of Black lives, when people of color have experienced disproportionate outcomes from the coronavirus pandemic, and when Black voters showed up in droves to flip two Senate seats in Georgia, Joe Biden entered the White House with a mandate to address the issue of racial equity in a meaningful way.

Not that it took any of those things to make racial issues in America real. White supremacy has undergirded laws, policies, and practices throughout our nation’s history, and the ongoing impacts of that history are seen and felt widely by various racial and ethnic groups in America in various ways.

Today, President Biden spoke to these issues in straightforward language before signing four executive actions that aim to:

– promote fair housing policies to redress historical racial discrimination in federal housing and lending

– address criminal justice, starting by ending federal contracts with for-profit prisons

– strengthen nation-to-nation relationships with Native American tribes and Alaskan natives

– combat xenophobia against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, which has skyrocketed during the pandemic

“In my campaign for president, I made it very clear that the moment had arrived as a nation, as we face deep racial inequities in America and systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, far too long. I said that over the course of the past year that the blinders had been taken off the nation, the American people. What many Americans didn’t see or had simply refused to see couldn’t be ignored any longer.”

Biden spoke of how George Floyd’s killing opened the eyes of the nation and the world and marked “a turning point in this country’s attitude toward racial justice.” He spoke of the impact of the pandemic on Black and Latino communities and the economic inequalities that plague the nation. He spoke of the white supremacists who invaded our Capitol.

“We have never fully lived up to the founding principles of this nation, to state the obvious, that all people are created equal and have the right to be treated equally throughout their lives,” he said. “And it’s time to act now, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because if we do, we’ll all be better off for it.”

“For too long we’ve allowed a narrow, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester,” he went on. “You know, we’ve bought the view that America is a zero-sum game in many cases. If you succeed, I fail. If you get ahead, I fall behind. If you get the job I lose mine. Maybe worst of all, if I hold you down, I lift myself up. We’ve lost sight of what President Kennedy told us what he said, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’ When we lift each other up, we’re all lifted up. And the corollary is true as well. When anyone is held down, we’re all held back.”

President Biden gave some details about what the four executive actions signed today will mean, including giving Native tribes and nations access to the federal stockpile and FEMA, as well as taking a step toward stopping corporations from profiting off of incarceration that is “less humane and less safe, as the studies show.”

He also elucidated on further actions he wants to take, or see taken in the case of legislation in Congress, during his administration, starting with undoing some of Trump’s last actions as president:

“In the weeks ahead, I’ll be reaffirming the federal government’s commitment to diversity equity and inclusion and accessibility, building on the work we started and the Obama-Biden administration. That’s why I’m rescinding the previous administration’s harmful man on diversity and sensitivity training. And abolish the offensive counterfactual 1776 commission. Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth. Not ignorance and lies.”

And including making it easier for all Americans to vote:

“Here’s another thing we need to do—we need to restore and expand the Voting Rights Act, named after our dear friend, John Lewis. And continue to fight back against laws many states are engaged in to suppress the right to vote, while expanding access to the ballot box for all eligible voters.:

Biden concluded with by repeating the call for racial equity to be incorporated throughout every part of the government:

“Here’s the deal, and I’ll close with this,” he said. “I ran for president because I believe we’re in a battle for the soul of this nation. And the simple truth is our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist. It’s not going to be overnight. We can’t eliminate everything. But it’s corrosive, it’s destructive, and it’s costly. It costs every American, not just who felt the sting of racial injustice. We are not just a nation morally deprived because of systemic racism. We’re also less prosperous, we’re less successful, less secure. So we must change, and I know it’s gonna take time. But I know we can do it. And I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change as well. We need to make equity and justice part of what we do every day. Today, tomorrow, and every day.

I’m gonna sign these executive actions to continue to work to make real the promise of America for every American. Again, I’m not promising we can end it tomorrow. But I promise you we’re gonna continue to make progress to eliminate systemic racism in every branch of the White House, and the federal government is going to be part of that effort.”

People in racial justice advocacy spaces seemed to receive President Biden’s address and executive actions with cautious optimism. NAACP president Derrick Johnson told MSNBC, “This is a great initial start,” and “The fact he’s embedding this inside of Domestic Policy Council shows the urgency and the gravity of what’s taking place.”

Some pointed out that unless and until there are actual changes coming from the legislative branch, the actions taken by Biden today are tenuous, since they can be changed at the stroke of a pen with a new administration. However, these executive actions and the promises made by Biden do seem to indicate that he is serious about making racial justice a key policy driver during his tenure in the White House.

It’s definitely a start, and considering we’re only seven days in, a promising sign that more meaningful action is on the way.

Menstrual taboos are as old as time and found across cultures. They’ve been used to separate women from men physically — menstrual huts are still a thing — and socially, by creating the perception that a natural bodily function is a sign of weakness.

Even in today’s world women are deemed unfit for positions of power because some men actually believe they won’t be able to handle stressful situations while mensurating.

“Menstruation is an opening for attack: a mark of shame, a sign of weakness, an argument to keep women out of positions of power,’ Colin Schultz writes in Popular Science.

The big problem with menstrual taboos is the way that males are educated on the subject leaves them with a patchwork of ideas that don’t necessarily add up to the whole picture. First, there’s the information they get from growing up with women in the house.

Then, there are the cryptic descriptions of menstruation seen in advertising and the cold, scientific way the topic is taught in sex education.

“Boys’ early learning about menstruation is haphazard,” a 2011 study published in the Journal of Family Issues reads. “The mysterious nature of what happens to girls contributes to a gap in boys’ knowledge about female bodies and to some negative views about girls.”

Unfortunately, the gaps in the average man’s understanding of a complex female health issue can put women in a difficult position. Whether it’s denying them positions of power or a failure to understand their discomfort.

That’s why it’s so important for men to become better educated about menstruation.

A group of women on TikTok are helping the men in their lives better understand the subject by showing them how tampons work on the inside of their bodies by dousing them in water. They call it the Boyfriend Challenge. Some of the guys’ reactions are clearly over-the-top, but it’s also obvious that many of them have no idea how tampons function.

A video by the Demery family has gone viral attracting nearly eight million views. It’s fun to watch, but it also shows men how tampons function and what women go through during their monthly cycle.

Rachel’s man just uttered the phrase “vagina parachute.”

Paulina’s man was completely flummoxed by the inner workings of a tampon. “You’ve been carrying this like, inside of you?” he asks. “The whole day?”

This guy thinks it’s “like a butterfly.”

Amani’s boyfriend was so astounded by the revelation he let out a massive expletive then apologized for the agony she must go through.

Ryley just blew her BFF’s mind.

This guy was amazed by the absorbancy.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic, has been adapted for the screen a number of times. Sure, you remember the 1974 one with Robert Redford and Mira Farrow and Baz Luhrmann’s 3-D stab, with Leonardo DiCaprio, but what about the 2000 TV one with Mira Sorvino as Daisy and Paul Rudd as Nick? Still, it’s never been turned into a full-flung TV limited series before, and with good reason: It doesn’t even break the 200-page mark.

But that’s about to change. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Hirst — known for various historical stuff, like the Cate Blanchett Elizabeth films, The Tudors, and Vikings — is turning Fitzgerald’s tome into a TV show. But there’s a twist: It won’t be a straight adaptation of the tale of a mysterious, party-throwing millionaire obsessed with a woman who loves money. Instead it will re-imagine it as a look into African-American culture during the same time:

Hirst’s Gatsby will explore New York’s Black community in the 1920s as well as the musical subculture. Columbia University’s William B. Ransford professor of English and comparative literature and African-American studies Farah Jasmine Griffin will also serve as a consultant on the series. She will work directly with Hazard and Hirst on the drama. Described as a reimagining, the series will dig deeper into the hidden lives of its characters through the modern lens of a fractured American dream while also capturing the full majesty of Fitzgerald’s timeless vision.

All in all it doesn’t sound too different from HBO’s acclaimed Lovecraft Country, which also used a piece of classic white art to tell the history of African-Americans in the 20th century. On the other hand, it may get “Ain’t We Got Fun” lodged in our heads all over again.

(Via THR)