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Earlier today, Chloe Bailey hopped on Instagram Live to address some “backlash” to the self-confident videos she’s been posting to her social media lately. People perked up when her emotional performance of “Forgive Me” at the end of last year indicated a shift in the polished young star, and when her “Buss It” viral challenge dropped, conversations about her body and sexuality reached a fever pitch. Add in another casual Instagram post at home in a t-shirt and underwear, and apparently the chatter got to Chloe, because she was emotional in her Live, saying it was hard for her to grapple with the idea of herself as “sexual” at all, and detailing her own journey with self-confidence in her body.

But never fear, in this case Twitter is completely on Chloe’s side over the ridiculous claims that she shouldn’t dance and perform in whatever clothing she wants, whenever she pleases. There has rarely been a musician so universally defended as a wonderful person, or who elicited this kind of protective energy from the sometimes prickly power users who make Twitter what it is. But everyone from musicians to comedians had something positive to say about the young singer. Hopefully this will help her drown out the haters. Check out some responses below.

Ever since the enormous success of “WAP” took over 2020, much in the same way “Bodak Yellow” did when she dropped it back in 2017, fans have been clamoring for Cardi B to follow-up her debut album, Invasion Of Privacy. The rapper has let fans know that she definitely has music in the works, but like most of the industry, had her plans disrupted by the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Since she’s mentioned COVID-19 as a reason to hold off on releasing new music, and the vaccines are slowly beginning rollout, perhaps there is hope that we’ll get a new Cadi album by the end of 2021.

And on Sunday she just added to that hope by letting fans know she’s going to be making a special announcement on Monday. Decked out in a very intentional lingerie set with a floor-length, denim trench coat, Cardi struck a dramatic pose on her staircase before sashaying her way down, and telling fans she’s going to let them know something about her plans very soon. “I got a announcement to make tomorrow,” she wrote in the text Tweet.

Here’s hoping we get news of that second album, or at least another massive single that makes Republicans cry.

Chloe Bailey has been coming into her own recently, between a particularly emotional performance of “Forgive Me,” to her jaw-dropping “Buss It” challenge, the young singer seems to be owning her body and self-confidence in her sexuality in a new way. A few more recent posts on her Instagram apparently had some internet commenters doing what they do, and shaming her for just living her life at home… during a pandemic. When was the last time most of us put on pants?

Regardless, Chloe took the comments to heart and even hopped on Instagram Live earlier today to address those who have a problem with her being too “sexual” and showing her body whenever she feels like it on her own personal social media. In her live, she talks about things that are so common for young girls to experience — feeling distress over something like stretch marks or feeling “fat” — and addressing the seemingly impossible task of achieving self-love and acceptance, a task that is even more difficult for young Black girls due to racist beauty standards endlessly perpetuated in American culture.

“For every woman out there, don’t change who you are to make society feel comfortable,” Chloe said during her Live. “And I’m telling myself that’s not what I’m going to do, even when I posted the video yesterday, I posted it because I was saging and doing Palo Santa and I was like, ‘Let’s spread positive vibes. I didn’t even really notice you guys were talking about my ass because I was like, ‘OK, I’m just walking in from one seconds, two seconds…’ And I feel like I’ve shown my ass more than I have with that like if you look at our performance videos, the last performance we had in December,” she added. “Like, I was just so excited and on stage, and just being myself, so… I don’t know.”

“I just felt it was important to address it, so you guys get to kind of know who I am inside,” she continued. “And it’s really hard for me to think of myself as a sexual being or an attractive being quite frankly. So, when I see all the uproar about my posts and stuff, I’m a bit confused. Like, I really don’t understand because I’ve never seen myself in that way.”

During the conversation, at some points Chloe gets so emotional about her experience she starts to cry, wiping away tears while she continues to talk. Check out snippets from her Live below.

As promised, Bad Bunny showed up at the Royal Rumble tonight to bring his own appreciation for wrestling to the event.

Before he actually got involved with the fight at the Royal Rumble, quite literally getting into the match with The Miz and John Morrison, the Latin pop superstar welcomed the crowd in by performing his single “Booker T,” which is an apt choice considering it’s named after a wrestling legend.

One of the tracks off his El Último Tour Del Mundo album — the third record he released late last year, following up March’s Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana and May’s Las Que No Iban A Salir — the video for the song featured none other than the wrestling legend Booker T himself. So it wasn’t necessarily a huge surprise that he was also onstage during Bad Bunny’s performance of the track at the Royal Rumble. Booker T has already been having a busy 2021, starring in a Bills hype video, and now collaborating not once but twice with one of the biggest musicians in the world.

Check out the performance video above, and check out clips of Bad Bunny getting into it with The Miz and Morrison below.

There is no event on the WWE calendar quite like the Royal Rumble, where the 30-man and 30-woman battle royale matches allow for filler spots that let WWE go chase cheap pops through nostalgia by bringing back former superstars and, on occasion, a celebrity appearance in the match.

On Sunday, we got both as Bad Bunny was on site for a performance at the WWE Performance Center, but got involved in the Rumble match after The Miz smashed his equipment along with tag team partner John Morrison. Bad Bunny stormed down the ramp and a giddy Miz and Morrison tried to goad him into entering the ring while referees attempted to stop him from entering. Damian Priest would take advantage of the distraction to eliminate both Miz and Morrison with a double clothesline over the top rope, which Bad Bunny followed by living out every wrestling fan’s dream and climbing to the top rope to do a diving crossbody onto Miz and Morrison.

In terms of celebrity spots, this one was pretty damn good. He doesn’t get a ton of height off the top ropes, but the commitment was there and he executes it to damn near perfection. He even pops up and gives a DX crotch chop to Miz and Morrison as they lay on the ground, which really tells you when Bad Bunny was at the height of his wrestling fandom.

We’ve learned a lot of strange things about the world during the Trump era, but up there as the weirdest is the existence of QAnon believers. It’s not just your typical disproven conspiracy theory; believers actually think the former president was battling an army of Satan-worshipping pedophilic cannibals. It’s so cuckoo not even Alex Jones is buying it. Among those claimed to be involved are various Democratic politicians as well as CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

No one was more shocked to hear that QAnon believers believed that Anderson Cooper was involved in a Satanic cabal than Anderson Cooper. The journalist recently spoke to one former QAnon-er, name of Jitarth Jadeja, who spent part of their interview personally apologizing for thinking he was a cannibal.

“I would like to apologize for that right now. I apologize for thinking you ate babies,” Jadeja told Cooper, uttering one of the most surreal sentences ever aired on a news network, which is saying something.

“You actually believed that I was drinking the blood of children,” a flummoxed Cooper asked him.

“Yes. I did,” Jadeja said, through a thick cloud of embarrassment.

When Cooper asked him if it was something about his personality or something that made him think he was capable of eating babies, Jadeja explained that “Q” — the secretive founder of the discredited theory, who had claimed to be a part of military intelligence — had mentioned him “very early on” in the theory’s life. He also told Cooper “some people thought you were a robot.” And he mentioned something about “fifth-dimensional interdimensional extraterrestrial bipedal bird aliens called ‘Blue Avians.’”

Well, at least Jadeja got better! In the meantime, QAnon has a supporter in Marjorie Taylor Greene, the new Georgia representative who’s already making life hell for her colleagues, some of whom she once said should be “executed.” Fun times!

You can watch their full exchange, complete with some heavy furrowed brow action from Cooper, on CNN.

The Washington Wizards came into Sunday 3-12 on the season, battling myriad issues on and off the court, and with the Brooklyn Nets in town, even without James Harden, it seemed unlikely a reprieve was on the way.

However, despite falling behind by as many as 18 in the first quarter, Washington battled their way back into the game and their energy was able to bring Bradley Beal out of his first half funk, as the NBA’s leading scorer put up 37 in what was the most stunning win of the season in the NBA. While Beal erupted in the fourth, it was Russell Westbrook who led the way for Washington, as he always enjoys squaring off with Kevin Durant and went off for a season-high 41 points, along with 10 rebounds, and eight assists.

Those two played a pivotal role in the most improbable sequence any game has seen this season, as the final 10 seconds were truly outrageous. Beal got things started with a deep pull-up three with the Wizards down 5 and 7.6 seconds to play. Then, on the inbounds pass, Garrison Mathews got a steal, stayed inbounds, and found Russell Westbrook who hit a rare three-pointer to take a 147-146 lead.

From there, the Nets had their own chance to get a game-winner of their own, and after Westbrook tipped the initial inbounds play out on the baseline, Brooklyn was able to get Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot wide open at the basket for a layup that, somehow, didn’t go down.

Beal would hit a pair of free throws to give Washington a 149-146 lead and, with no timeouts, Brooklyn’s only hope was a Kevin Durant heave at the buzzer that went begging.

It was a truly astounding game, as Westbrook and Beal combined for 78 points, despite Beal being completely disinterested for much of the first half. The Nets had four players score 23 or more in the game, led by 37 points from Kevin Durant and 30 from Joe Harris, but as has been the case often for Brooklyn, they simply couldn’t play enough defense to run away with what should’ve been a rather easy victory.

Full credit to the Wizards who played incredibly hard, at least on offense, all night, led by Westbrook’s energy which got Beal involved and saw some solid contributions from much of the rest of the roster. The 149-146 final isn’t even the highest Wizards score in the last two seasons, as the Rockets beat them 159-158 in October 2019, but is representative of exactly where these two teams are at. It’s a big win for Washington that can hopefully give them a much-needed morale boost, while Brooklyn will be devastated to give that game away and has real questions on the defensive end of the floor.

The 2020-21 season has been a disaster for the Washington Wizards on just about every front. They have battled injuries, positive COVID-19 cases that shut them down for almost two full weeks, and even when healthy and on the court together, have struggled to put together wins, scuffling to a 3-12 start.

For Bradley Beal, who entered Sunday leading the NBA in scoring at 34.7 points per game, it has been yet another season that has tested his patience as he puts up Herculean efforts on the offensive end to no avail on a near nightly basis — Washington has lost the last 10 games, dating back to last season, in which Beal has scored 40-plus. On Sunday, the Wizards welcomed the Nets to town and after falling behind by 18, they clawed back to take a brief second quarter lead before going on to trail by six at the half. Brooklyn was without James Harden, but it was still a pretty solid half for Washington — even if they gave up 71 points.

However, for Beal, he got off to a slow start and seemed wholly disinterested in, well, doing much of anything when he wasn’t directly on the ball on either offense or defense. The NBA’s scoring leader had just 11 first half points and his body language on the court was, well, noticeable as this compilation of clips from the first half shows the very apparent frustration.

It’s hard to blame Beal for his frustration, which he’s been candid about when speaking to the media but insistent that he wants to stay in Washington despite trade rumors swirling and gaining momentum with each shot of him looking despondent on the bench late in another loss. He will surely get a question about this from someone after the game and will likely offer some form of explanation, but it’s rarely this noticeable during a game when a player is frustrated and one would think something more than just the cumulative struggles of the Wizards caused it.

Freshman Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has been in the news almost constantly since she took office in early January, and for good reason: She’s a QAnon supporter with a long history of dangerous social media posts, from spreading conspiracy theories to calling for the execution of people who are now her colleagues. Calls have been ramping up for her to resign or be expelled from Congress, but on Sunday night, she tweeted out what she alleged was a sign of support. Problem is, no one believed it was legit.

As the Northeast was blanketed in snow, Greene took to Twitter, posting a picture of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, with the Washington Monument looming in the background. Someone had written a hashtag in the snow: #StandwithMTG.

Thing is, pretty much no one believed that it was the work of a stranger who wanted to show their support for a widely deplored congressperson. Instead the many who quote-tweeted her lodged the same accusation: That she had almost certainly done it herself, taken a picture of it, and passed it off as someone else’s handiwork:

Some simply posted the beloved Nathan Fielder image of him claiming to be hanging with friends who are obviously just off-screen.

Some made jokes about her anti-Semitic theory about space lasers causing California’s wildfires.

Others responded in kind.

And others did not think someone who has harassed survivors of school massacres should get the luxury of jokes.

The biggest non-presidential story of 2021 isn’t even close to over yet. It’s the stock market saga involving amateur Reddit investors who gamed the system, turning flailing businesses like GameStop and AMC Theatres into cash cows and prompting angry responses from Robinhood Marketing Inc., the app that helped fuel it, and billionaires angry that non-billionaires were making money. And though the story is only a week old with no end in sight, Hollywood is already turning it into a movie.

This comes from Deadline, who report that MGM — the legendary Hollywood studio that at the height of its powers in the mid-20th century was one of the industry’s five biggest players — has purchased the rights to the forthcoming book The Antisocial Network. Mind you, this book hasn’t even been written yet. So far author Ben Mezrich only has a book proposal and he has yet to shop it around to publishers. In the meantime, the story will undoubtedly become even juicier in the coming weeks.

Among Mezrich’s other books include The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, a Tale Of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, which was turned into — you guessed it — The Social Network. There’s no word yet on who will direct, but surely David Fincher knows his way around not only a Mezrich tome but also scrappy young techies who wind up changing the world, if not always for the better. But again, it’s possible we’re only at the beginning of what could turn into a real game-changer.

(Via Deadline)