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Mad Max: Fury Road is only five years old, but that’s long enough for urban legends about the film to take hold. One such myth is a persistent rumor that director George Miller didn’t have a script for the apocalyptic thriller and that he relied solely on storyboards to make the technically impressive action film starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. While the no script rumor had gone dormant, it recently resurfaced thanks to a series of tweets from Fury Road co-writer Brendan McCarthy, who claims it was actually Miller himself who started the rumor to add some “showman” flair to the film’s production. McCarthy says he still has the first draft of the script, which dates all the way back to the late ’90s.

However, in a statement to IndieWire, Miller denies starting the rumor, but he does confirm McCarthy’s claim that Fury Road always had a script, and that it’s make no sense to think otherwise:

“I’m not sure how the notion that Fury Road had no script came about. I suppose it’s because of the room lined with storyboards,” Miller said via email, referring to an image of 3,500 storyboards lining the walls of “the ‘Mad Max’ room” that’s been circulated online. “Of course there was a script! How else could we have presented the project to a studio, cast and crew to elicit their interest?”

In an odd twist, McCarthy deleted his tweets shortly after IndieWire published the statement from Miller, so make of that what you will. Obviously, the renewed interest in Mad Max: Fury Road stems from the recent announcement that Anya Taylor-Joy will be taking over the role of Furiosa in a prequel to the 2015 film written and directed by Miller.

(Via IndieWire)

After Dr. Anthony Fauci took the gloves off and admitted to being “really ticked off” at Trump, the president is responding by trashing the veteran immunologist. Tensions between the president and the NIAID director have obviously been running high all year, and things grew especially ugly a week ago when Trump took a nasty swing at Fauci’s competence. This happened after Fauci publicly requested that Trump remove a campaign ad that quotes him out of context — to make it look like Fauci praised Trump’s (botching of his) pandemic response.

That ad’s still running in certain swing states, so Fauci (who has been sidelined from public appearances by Trump) appeared on 60 Minutes, where he revealed to Jon LaPook that he’s had enough of Trump’s COVID shenanigans. Well, Trump wasn’t pleased. During a Monday morning campaign call obtained by CNN, Trump expressed his desire to fire the NIAID director (which he cannot actually do, at least directly) and complained that “people are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots.”

Trump continued with his rant while piling on baseless claims about the coronavirus pandemic. The president also declared that he didn’t care if the press heard his tirade:

“Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we’d have 500,000 deaths,” he said on the campaign call on Monday, before later saying it would be 700,000 or 800,000.

“If there’s a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it, I couldn’t care less,” Trump said. CNN was given access to the call by a source.

Strangely, Trump also remarked that he thinks Fauci is “a nice guy… he’s been here for 500 years.” Make no mistake, though, Trump is angry about the 60 Minutes appearance. “Dr.Tony Fauci says we don’t allow him to do television,” Trump tweeted. “[A]nd yet I saw him last night on @60Minutes.” He made a Bob Hope reference for unknown reasons.

Yes, he’s mentioning that baseball pitch again. Previously, Trump took a swing at Fauci’s baseball arm while attacking his competence adding several made-up claims about how “Trump was right” about COVID.

For his part, Fauci stressed on 60 Minutes that he’d never publicly endorse a political candidate. He was angered that “they’re sticking me right in the middle of a campaign ad. Which I thought was outrageous.” Further, the Trump campaign has refused to remove Fauci’s out-of-context words from the ad, and now, Trump’s further dragging him for daring to speak in public again As Fauci told LaPook of the twisting of his words by the Trump campaign, it’s “stunning.”

(Via CNN)

Moneybagg Yo’s summertime single “Said Sum” has turned out to be something of a viral hit — not surprising, considering its use of a popular meme to flex on haters. The lead single from Moneybagg’s collaborative mixtape with Blac Youngsta, Code Red, the song has taken on a life of its own, finding the Memphis, Tennesee stalwart rapping alongside City Girls and DaBaby for a chest-thumping remix that received an eye-popping video today.

The video puts all three rappers in front of a giant LED screen flashing various graphics as they posture and pose during the choruses, then break off into separate settings for the verses. While JT and Yung Miami spit their verses on the same set, Moneybagg and DaBaby get some more high-concept locations. DaBaby’s Austin Powers-inspired performance piece pays homage to the film franchise villain Goldmember, surrounding the North Carolina rapper with gold-glad vixens in a gold room bedecked in gold furnishings, right down to DaBaby’s smoking jacket/lounge shorts ensemble. Meanwhile, the principal artist is green-screened into a vault stacked to the ceiling with cash.

While this is the official “Said Sum” remix, Chicago rapper Dreezy also tried her had at flexing over the beat to keep her fans sated until her next release. Meanwhile, Moneybagg himself is still riding high off the release of his January mixtape Time Served, raising his profile by the day.

Watch the video for Moneybagg Yo’s “Said Sum” remix featuring DaBaby and City Girls above.

One of the questions many Americans had when Trump became president was how he would handle LGBTQ rights. Public opinion on same-sex marriage has shifted dramatically in the past decade and the Trump administration hasn’t publicly signaled a desire to change that. Trump even added an openly gay man to his cabinet, creating somewhat of an appearance of being LGBTQ-friendly.

However, his record with transgender rights betrays that appearance. Transgender people have become a favorite target of conservative politics, and actions taken by Trump himself have been considered discriminatory by LGBTQ advocates.

These actions were highlighted by a mother of a transgender child at Biden’s town hall event. Mieke Haeck introduced herself to the former vice president as “a proud mom of two girls, ages 8 and 10,” before adding, “My youngest daughter is transgender.”

“The Trump administration has attacked the rights of transgender people, banning them from military service, weakening non-discrimination protections and even removing the word ‘transgender’ from some government websites,” she said, then asked, “How will you as president reverse this dangerous and discriminatory agenda and ensure that the right and lives of LGBTQ people are protected under U.S. law?”

Biden took approximately 0.3 seconds to think about it, then answered, “I will flat out just change the law.”

“I’d eliminate those executive orders, number one,” he said. He told a story about seeing two men kiss when he was a kid and his dad said, “Joey, it’s simple. They love one another.” He said that kids don’t just randomly decide to be transgender, and he also pointed to the high incidences of transgender women of color being murdered.

“I promise you,” he said, ‘There is no reason to suggest that there should be any right denied your daughter…that your other daughter has a right to be and do. None. Zero.”

Biden was the one who pushed the Obama administration to come out and publicly endorse same-sex marriage after he did so himself in a Meet the Press interview in 2012—a moment that was unplanned by either the White House or Biden himself.

“When I get asked a direct question, I give a direct answer. I come out of civil rights movement, there’s not a way I could sit there and be asked about the civil rights issue of our day and not be silent,” BIden said about the interview, according to McClatchey D.C. Three days after that Meet the Press aired, President Obama announced that he supported legalizing same-sex marriage as well, and the rest is history.

However, as with all civil rights, who is in power can make or break whether such rights are upheld. For many LGBTQ families and people who care about everyone enjoying the same rights, hearing Joe Biden so swiftly and surely state that he would undo the discriminatory practices of the Trump administration was reassuring.

Americans came around to the idea of gay marriage largely thanks to the actions taken by Biden when he was in the White House before. Perhaps people will come to a more compassionate understanding of transgender issues if he gets his chance there again.

It’s not often that you hear a Beastie Boys song in advertisements, and there’s a good reason for that. In his will, the late Adam Yauch (aka MCA) declared, “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, in no event may my image or name or any music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes.” So, the group’s songs don’t pop up in commercials much, but it does happen every now and then. Viewers of Sunday’s Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns game may have noticed that “Sabotage” could be heard during an ad for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

The ad was thematically appropriate, too, as it was focused on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted live music venues. It features Joe Malcoun — owner of Ann Arbor, Michigan venue the Blind Pig — discussing how shutdowns have impacted his business.

A Biden campaign spokesperson noted the group has “never licensed music for an ad until now,” but they were cool with “Sabotage” playing in the Biden ad “because of the importance of the election.” That part about the group having “never licensed music for an ad until now” isn’t quite accurate: “Sabotage” has appeared in ads for both Star Trek Beyond and Destiny 2, for example.

Watch the ad above.

2020 has been unexpectedly prosperous for Fleetwood Mac. The band is one of the most beloved groups of their era, yes, but nobody could have seen their revival coming, especially since it came courtesy of a guy drinking cranberry juice while riding a skateboard and listening to their song. Alas, that’s 2020 for you, and that viral TikTok video propelled “Dreams” (once a No. 1 single) back onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Now, Rumours, the legendary album from which “Dreams” originated, is back on the charts as well, and it’s really high up.

On the Billboard 200 chart dated October 24, Rumours is No. 7 (up from No. 13 last week), which puts it in the top 10 for the first time since 1978, 42 years ago. After the album’s release, it spent 31 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, which is a record number of weeks atop the list for an album by a duo or group. So, with its 32nd week, Rumours extends that lead. The last time Rumours was in the top 10 was on the February 18, 1978 chart, and the last time it ranked at No. 7 or higher was on the February 11, 1978 chart (on which it was No. 7).

The band shared the news and offered a simple reaction, writing on Twitter, “What a week! Thank you all.”

The band has fully embraced Nathan Apodaca’s viral moment by participating themselves, as Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood have both made response videos.

Drake, being one of the biggest stars on the planet, has naturally also the subject of plenty of odd rumors over the years. One of the oddest — and most embarrassing for him, although it brought no small amount of joy to his detractors — was the 2015 accusation made by Meek Mill on “Wanna Know” during the height of their feud. “You let Tip homie piss on you in a movie theater, n****, we ain’t forget,” Meek jabbed at the time, referring to T.I.’s nickname.

And while there wasn’t much more context than that, the story became such a subject of fascination among fans online that TMZ even ran a post about it, digging up the tidbit that the alleged incident supposedly took place at a private screening of Takers early in Drake’s career. Eventually, though, Drake overwhelmed the negative press as he usually does, but the tale does pop back up from time to time from commenters looking to — ahem — take the piss out of the star’s success.

However, on T.I.’s new album The L.I.B.R.A., there’s a nostalgic track dedicated to his late friend Terrance “Cap” Beasley, who was apparently killed in prison late last year, called “We Did It Big” on which T.I. refers to the incident and confirms that it was Cap who did the deed. “Caught a body, spent millions appealin’ your case / While I’m fightin’ my own somehow got you home,” he reminisces. “So drunk in LA, end up pissin’ on Drake.”

While Drake never quite responded to the initial story, maybe he’ll speak up in his own defense now that it’s resurfaced.

Listen to T.I.’s “We Did It Big” from The L.I.B.R.A. (The Legend Is Back Running Atlanta) above.

Jeremy Strong is Succession‘s Emmy-winning number one boy. He’s also the number one reason to watch The Trial of the Chicago 7, Aaron Sorkin’s new movie about a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters who are put on trial for allegedly inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It’s a serious movie, but Strong, who gives a wonderfully blissed out (read: he’s freaking high, man) performance, found a way to keep things light on set. Like Dr. Melfi before him, he brought a fart machine to work.

“We’re in the courtroom for many, many, many months. It was a long trial, and trials are boring, and [the defendants] found ways to amuse themselves. And this, for me, was one of the ways I found to amuse myself — and to also get under the skin of Judge Hoffman, who to [defendants] Jerry and Abbie and Bobby and the rest of the men represented everything that was despicable and odious and bigoted and authoritarian in American government,” he told Vulture. Judge Hoffman is played by Frank Langella — that’s Oscar nominee Frank Langella — so please remember that for the next part:

“So I planted a fart machine in the judge’s dais where he couldn’t find it. I would set it off sometimes before a close-up, and it would really piss him off. His face turned red. Those are the takes we used in the film. It was great — there was real, palpable tension in the room when that happened. I got in trouble sometimes with Aaron and the producers, but I kind of felt like… if I’m Jerry Rubin, and I’m not in contempt of some court, then I’m not doing my job.”

This is only good kind of method acting. I bet that’s his own egg, too.

(Via Vulture)

John Oliver knows that keeping one’s eye on the ball leads to great rewards. In 2020, however, the attainable balls are scant, which is why it’s been delightful to see Oliver getting all worked up about his “dream” come true — and even mentioning it while wearing a hoodie at the Emmys. The afterglow of statuette gold didn’t completely measure up to his ultimate quest of having a sewage plant in Danbury, Connecticut named after him, and now it’s happening.

Yes, Oliver made good on Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton’s news that the Last Week Tonight host would show up in person to accept this honor. Yes, Oliver was thrilled to cut the ribbon after the Danbury city council voted almost unanimously to officially rename the facility as the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant. Here’s the photographic proof, straight from Boughton, who called this a “great and glorious visit by Mr. John Oliver.”

Later, Oliver did throw on a suit to make things a little fancier.

The Danbury News-Times quotes Oliver’s joyful event reaction, which managed to be a profound statement:

“[T]hink about it, this place takes the worst that humanity can produce, and transforms it into something that we can live with. And now more than ever, there’s something inspirational in that, because at the end of this awful, awful year, what could be more important than evidence that, if we want to, we can come together, overcome our differences and sort our [expletive] out.”

It’s the end of a fantastic (mock) feud but the perfect tribute to the dumpster fire of 2020. Previously, Boughton called the host “full of crap.” That only prompted Oliver to want more, so he opened his wallet and made a $55,000 donation to the city. He then faux-raged in front of his HBO audience in August, “Listen, I didn’t know that I wanted my name on your sh*t factory… But now that you floated it as an option, it is all that I want.”

The local Fox 61 affiliate is reporting that, following Oliver’s $55,000 donation, other donors have piled on to the tune of $60,000 more and counting. Finally, some good news!

(Via Danbury’s News-Times & Fox 61)

Last week, Showtime made the surprise announcement that Dexter is returning for a new limited series from original showrunner Clyde Phillips. With that information out in the open, Dexter fans immediately wondered how this new story arc will address the controversial lumberjack ending, and Phillips is starting to provide some answers.

While sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 Podcast, Phillips confirmed initial reports that the revival will pick up after the season eight ending, which means that the limited series won’t be rewriting the infamous finale. “We’re not going to betray the audience and say, ‘Whoops, that was all a dream,’” Phillips said. “What happened in the first eight years happened in the first eight years.”

However, Phillips states that Dexter star Michael C. Hall wasn’t “completely satisfied” with the ending, and they now have an opportunity to “make that right.” Via NME:

“10 years, or however many years, have passed by the time this will air, and the show will reflect that time passage,” Phillips continued. “In so far as the ending of the show, this will have no resemblance to how the original finale was. It’s a great opportunity to write a second finale for our show, and Showtime was very gracious about that.”

However the limited series decides to clean up the lumberjack ending, our own Dustin Rowles writes that true Dexter fans aren’t going to be satisfied with this revival unless the serial killer character finally gets what’s coming to him. Dexter has to be caught or killed, and he also suggests a few other modifications that would please fans of the original.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)