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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Mallrats, Kevin Smith sat down with Entertainment Weekly to break down the making of his sophomore film, and how it went from a critical, box-office dud in 1995 to a beloved cult classic. While discussing the casting of the film, which included a revolving door of the hottest young actors in Hollywood at the time (“Reese Witherspoon came in on f—ing Mallrats, go figure.”), Smith revealed that one very specific actor was on Universal’s radar, and not in a good way. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? Guy by the name of Ben Affleck?

I remember Jim Jacks, the producer, said, “There’s a guy coming in today and I don’t want him in the movie.” I said, “Who is it?” And he goes, “Ben Affleck. He was in Dazed and Confused and he’s got a real potty mouth.” He goes, “There were a lot of ‘f—s’ and curses in that script already and then Ben threw in like hundreds more.” So, I said, “Well, there’s a lot of cursing in our script.” He goes, “Yeah, and if you bring this guy in, he’ll keep adding more curses, so I don’t want him in the movie, he’s got a potty mouth.” I said, “Okay.”

As Mallrats fans know, Affleck ended up in the movie and was a staple in Smith’s films until Jersey Girl became a box office and tabloid disaster in 2004. (Affleck had convinced Smith to cast his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. It was a whole thing.) However, at the time of the Mallrats casting, Affleck had just sold Good Will Hunting to Castle Rock, which presumably greased the wheels on getting him in the film. Except, at that point, Smith couldn’t help but wonder why Affleck even wanted the part.

“Why are you auditioning for this movie, man?” And he’s like, “I still want to act!” I was like “Alright, man, let’s see what you got.”

Despite Mallrats being an unfortunate dud for Smith following the indy success of Clerks, Affleck’s career continued to rise as he went on to become a blockbuster action star thanks to… Michael Bay’s Armageddon. Things worked out okay for everyone. That’s the point.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

This week, many members of the music community came together to remember the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Organized by the non-profit Demand Justice, the Honor Her Wish concert called on musicians like Hayley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Phoebe Bridgers, and more to come together and pay homage to the trailblazing justice.

Kicking off the Honor Her Wish concert, Miley Cyrus offered a heartfelt tribute to Ginsburg, detailing just a few of her major achievements:

“A few weeks ago, we lost an America hero, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was a trailblazer teaching us that we cannot stop fighting for justice and equality. Justice Ginsburg grew up during a time when women couldn’t sign her own mortgage and could be fired for being pregnant, yet the courts did not see or acknowledge gender discrimination. But Ruth saw it. And with time, as a young lawyer arguing before the Supreme Court, who went on to help start the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, she made others see it too. She was appointed to the federal bench and ultimately, to the Supreme court. With her brilliant dissents, which earned her the name The Great Dissenter, she helped us all understand how the law could better protect us and expand opportunities for everyone. From voting rights to LGBTQ rights, to fair pay for women, Justice Ginsburg fought hard to make our country a fairer and more equal place.”

For the performances, Williams tapped a handful of contributors to share a rendition of her Petals For Armor track “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris.” Bridgers also appeared on the livestream, opting to share a serene performance of her Punisher track “Graceland Too.”

Watch Williams and Bridgers perform for the Honor Her Wish concert above.

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

Kyle Burgess, 26, recorded a terrifying, six-minute encounter with a cougar (aka mountain lion, puma) on Saturday at Slate Canyon near Provo, Utah. The video shows the cat methodically following Burgess, eventually pouncing at him with her massive claws while hissing.

Burgess was on a ten-mile run through the canyon when he came across some wild kittens. But he soon noticed that they were wild mountain lion cubs and their mother wasn’t very happy about him being around.

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“I didn’t really know what kind of cubs they were or what animal they were,” Burgess told Fox 13. “Once I did realize what they were, I was like, that’s mom right there. I’m screwed.”

The mother then lunged out at Burgess and, in an attempt to save her cubs, followed him until she felt they were safe.

Cougar Attack in Utah | Mountain Lion Stalks Me For 6 Minutes!

www.youtube.com

In the video, Burgess yells at the cat attempt to scare her. “No! No! I’m big and scary! Go away! “Burgess yelled as she followed him down the path.

At about thee minutes in, the cat lunges and hisses at Burgess with its claws out. He screamed right back at the cat, making sure he never turned his back on her. At the end of the video, Burgess throws a rock at the cat and it quickly scurries away.

“Holy cow. Yeah, not going back that way,” a relieved Burgess said at the end of the encounter.

People can’t imagine living through such a scary situation. “I think I had a heart attack watching. My heart was racing so fast. I can’t imagine this happening to me in real life,” Brenda Raffin said on Facebook.

Others are criticizing those who say the cougar was stalking Burgess. “The selected headlines are fear-mongering junk ‘a cougar stalked a man for 6 minutes…’ No. ‘A cougar pushed back a perceived threat to her babies for 6 minutes,'” Blair Brown wrote.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources praised Burgess for correctly handling the potentially deadly situation.

“He backed away. He didn’t go toward the mountain lion or her kittens,” Scott Root, DWR conservation outreach manager, said according to Fox News. “He stayed large, he stayed loud and he backed away from the area for quite a while. I think he did everything really well.”

The video is going viral because it’s thrilling and scary. It’s also a great opportunity to create awareness about how to handle a cougar encounter in the world.

Here’s what to do, according to Wild Aware Utah:

IF YOU ENCOUNTER A COUGAR

1. Stop. Never run from a cougar. Do not approach the cougar.

2. Maintain eye contact.

3. Pick up children and pets or keep them very close.

4. Stand up tall.

5. Do not crouch or squat.

6. Make yourself look bigger by raising and waving your arms or jacket above your head.

7. Talk firmly in a loud voice, back away slowly and leave the area.

8. Fight back if you are attacked! Protect your head and neck.

9. If you are aggressive enough the cougar will probably flee.

The Houston Rockets have been in the market for a head coach for some time now, as the team’s former coach, Mike D’Antoni, opted to walk away following the expiration of his contract at the end of the season. According to a new report, Houston’s search is not only moving along, but there is a candidate generating some amount of excitement right now.

Per Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon of ESPN, former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach and current Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Tyronn Lue has piqued the interest of the Rockets’ decision makers. The pair write that Lue “has gathered significant momentum” in the search, in part due to the fact that he had a meeting with the organization on Monday.

Clippers assistant coach Ty Lue’s candidacy for the Rockets’ head-coaching job has gathered significant momentum after a meeting with Houston’s ownership and management Monday, sources told ESPN.

The Rockets are competing with the Clippers for Lue and could try to extend an offer before Los Angeles has completed its search process, but that isn’t expected to happen before Houston meets with former coach Jeff Van Gundy this week, sources said.

Lue would be a fascinating hire for the Rockets, as his strengths as a coach are his locker room management and how he coaches up an offense. Both of these things would be really good in Houston — where, ESPN reports, “prominent players” support him, something that also applies to L.A. — with his offensive acumen being particularly interesting in a franchise that has a defined way of playing on that end of the floor. Houston is a tricky job due to the team’s cap situation and the dearth of long-term assets it has at its disposal following the Russell Westbrook trade last year, but for a team in win-now mode, hiring a guy like Lue seems sensible. The question may be what team Lue prefers between the Rockets and Clippers, as he’s the expected frontrunner in L.A. as well.

Fleetwood Mac have managed to keep themselves at least in the back of music fans’ minds over the decades, but the group is currently in the midst of their most significance pop culture relevance in a while.

Last month, a viral TikTok video — of Nathan Apodaca drinking cranberry juice while riding a skateboard and listening to the band’s “Dreams” — brought a lot of renewed interest to the group, which caused streams and sales of “Dreams” to skyrocket. These increased spins have now led to some honest-to-goodness chart noise: On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated October 17, “Dreams” (a former No. 1 single) places at No. 21.

This is the first time “Dreams” has been on the charts since its original chart run in 1977, over 40 years ago. The song just had its best weekly US streams and download sales totals ever, racking up 13.4 million streams (up 54 percent) and 22,000 downloads sold (up 197 percent).

The band’s Mick Fleetwood has expressed his gratitude to Apodaca, as he got the chance to speak directly to the new TikTok star last week, saying, “We owe you and it’s such a celebration of everything. It’s so joyous and fun and I was just lead right into it. […] I just want to say, outside of Fleetwood Mac, we owe you. It’s such a great story and so needed in days that are challenging. I’ve heard you speaking and I’m so happy to be a part of it. Congratulations on a wild, wild skateboard journey that has led us to talking today. I hope Stevie [Nicks]’s watching. She’s going to be overjoyed.”

Listen to “Dreams” below.

With the majority of movie theaters in the United States either closed or unpopulated due to the pandemic (as Stephen King tweeted over the weekend, “Saturday night, 7 screens, 4 total customers including me and my nephew. I feel terrible for the film industry”), Paramount Pictures has sold the rights to Coming 2 America to Amazon Studios. It’s yet another sign, along with Disney making streaming its “primary focus,” that the theater experience won’t go back to normal for some time, if ever again.

As for Coming 2 America, the sequel to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 comedy Coming to America was sold by distributor Paramount to Amazon Studios for “roughly $125 million,” according to Variety. “Final details are being hammered out, sources said, including two complex consumer marketing tie-ins with McDonalds and whiskey brand Crown Royal, which are expected to transfer over to Amazon Studios with the film.” The movie, like Borat 2, will likely bypass theaters entirely and debut on Amazon Prime Video.

In the sequel, Prince Akeem is set to become king of the fictional country of Zamunda when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America — a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. To honor the former king’s dying wish to groom his grandson as the crown prince, Akeem and Semmi set off to America. Murphy, Arsenio Hall, and James Earl Jones are reprising their roles. Additional cast includes Tracy Morgan and Jay Pharaoh.

If the McDonald’s “marketing tie-in” works out, can we expect some Travis Scott-style merch? I, personally, would love to wear McDowell’s breakfast boxers.

(Via Variety)

Lauv and Conan Gray are undoubtedly two break-out artists taking over Gen Z-centric pop music. This year, Lauv debuted his shimmering debut album How I’m Feeling and just a few weeks later, Gray did the same with his record Kid Krow. Now teaming up for the first time, the singers dispel two-faced people in their buoyant collaboration “Fake,” which arrives alongside a vibrant video.

Directed by Jason Lester, the visual follows Lauv and Gray as they move through a busy day of staged photo shoots. The duo don neon polyester clothing and dance around various sets while coordinating pillow fights and dodging confetti bombs.

Speaking about the track, both Lauv and Gray described how the song came about, saying it was born out of a conversation about two-faced people. ‘We wrote ‘Fake’ the first time I met Conan and it’s one of my fav songs ever,” Lauv said. Gray added: “Lauv and I wrote ‘Fake’ while we were just hanging and ranting about those two faced people everybody knows. Those people who say one thing and do the other, people who constantly talk trash about their own friends. We wanted to make something fun you can scream in the car to, a song to flip a bird at those types of people.”

Watch Lauv and Gray’s “Fake” video above.

Today, Tory Lanez appeared in Los Angeles County court (by phone) for an arraignment regarding him being charged with shooting Megan Thee Stallion, and there were some noteworthy developments.

TMZ reports that Lanez’s attorney, Shawn Holley, requested a continuance, which was granted, so Lanez did not enter a plea. That said, it wasn’t like nothing happened. The judge issued a protective order against Lanez, so he must now legally stay at least 100 yards away from Meg and not contact her. Additionally, the judge also ordered that Tory surrenders any guns he owns.

The rapper’s bail was set at $190,000, which Lanez will post via a bondsman present at the hearing. Immediately after the hearing, Lanez took to Instagram to share a photo of himself, which he captioned, “Happy camper.”

This news comes on the same day that Meg published a New York Times op-ed in which she references the shooting. In the piece, titled “Why I Speak Up For Black Women,” Meg wrote, “I was recently the victim of an act of violence by a man. After a party, I was shot twice as I walked away from him. We were not in a relationship. Truthfully, I was shocked that I ended up in that place. My initial silence about what happened was out of fear for myself and my friends. Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment. The way people have publicly questioned and debated whether I played a role in my own violent assault proves that my fears about discussing what happened were, unfortunately, warranted.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

McDonald’s hit a home run with its Travis Scott meal, leading the way for the fast-food giant to collaborate with another popular artist in J. Balvin. But while the meals are a source of confusion for some folks — including the McDonald’s employees who have to hawk the variations on their usual menu items — there are some who apparently feel the gimmicky meals are too mundane to warrant the hubbub. Enter Diplo, who posted his vision of his own meal and apparently thought adding barbecue sauce to the french fries just wasn’t weird enough.

“Coming soon,” he tweeted ominously, sharing a photo of a monstrous sandwich alongside a description that makes it sound more stomachache-inducing than hunger-satisfying. The “Diplo Mad Decent Breakfast Meal” apparently consists of a Fillet-O-Fish sandwich inside an Egg McMuffin with extra sauce. This concoction purports to only be 965 calories, which was fans’ first indication that ol’ Thomas might just be having a laugh.

Eagle-eyed fans were quick to point out that the whole screenshot looked quite PhotoShop fresh, but that didn’t stop them from joining in on the joke. As one account gibed, “Travis Scott: I ADDED BACON TO A BURGER I’M AMAZING! Diplo: Hold my beer.”

Enjoy some of the best replies below and McDonald’s: You know what to do. Let’s get WEIRD.

The Senate confirmation hearing on President Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett started in Washington on Monday, but on Tuesday, things took a turn to a galaxy far, far away. On a day full of talk about the original intent of the U.S. Constitution and the concept of court-packing, it was a reference to Star Wars that got many people talking.

Tuesday’s session discussed the conservative bent to Coney Barrett’s beliefs and judgments, including her belief that the constitution cannot be interpreted outside of its writers’ original intent. Many on the left have criticized that belief, and the issue of court-packing raised eyebrows. Pitched by some Democrats as a way to balance what would be an extremely conservative court by increasing the number of seats on it, the move is one that presidential candidate Joe Biden has refused to comment on ahead of the election but what some liberals hope Democrats would embrace after the election.

Mike Lee, a senator from Utah who is attending the hearings less than a fortnight after contracting COVID-19 as part of the White House superspreader event, was highly critical of the idea and said the Supreme Court could soon look like the Galactic Senate from Star Wars.

While those scenes from the Galactic Senate in the movies were not the most interesting while it was in session, you have to admit that it was a pretty cool visual. There was also a fun force lightning fight in there (thanks to Yoda) in the later prequels, so perhaps this outlandish concept isn’t nearly as dire as Lee hopes it would be.

Still, there were plenty of Star Wars parallels to be found and jokes to be made by people reacting to the quote.

Apparently this isn’t the first time Star Wars has been mentioned during the hearings, either.

It seems unlikely that court-packing would lead to hundreds of Supreme Court justices, of course, but it’s fun to think about for a bit.