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The voter fraud hearing witness who’s come to be known as “Giuliani’s wine lady,” aka Melissa Carone, has had a big week. And it’s been a big week for us, too. We learned Carone, whose unhinged testimony catapulted her to social media infamy, has a bizarre history with the law. We learned that, according to her at least, she wasn’t allegedly drunk during the hearing. We learned that she used to dance at a strip club actually called Bada Bing. And now it turns out she believes one of the battier current conspiracy theories: that COVID-19 was invented in a lab. Oh, the Obamas did it.

As per Newsweek, Carone sat down for an exclusive interview posted on the belong to — of course! — Sarah Palin, the late John McCain’s notorious (and partially forgotten) former running mate, from the more simpler times of 2008. One Kevin Scholla spoke with Carone about her being the target of derision and not a little bit scorn, to which Palin, too, can relate.

“This is what they do to Trump,” Carone said. “It’s not going to work with me. I won’t back down because I am very religious and I know God is watching over me. This started with COVID.” Carone then went next level. “The Obamas funded that Wuhan lab to make COVID. Then the impeachment process.”

She kept going. “They’ve used every avenue possible to cheat, they used Dominion,” she said. “Dominion software was created to cheat. I have a binder from Dominion that proves this. There’s so much more that will be exposed.”

Mind you, none of this is original nonsense. These are all moth-ridden Trumpist conspiracy theories, all of them easily and repeatedly debunked.

Interestingly, though, the interview mysteriously vanished from Palin’s site. Luckily, it was documented in full at Archive.org, though it mostly finds her again parroting far right talking points: the line about Trump being ahead early in the evening, before absentee votes were counted; that Republican governors not overturning the election are “RINOs”; that there’s more coming out, just you wait.

The article concludes by whipping out a term you may not have heard in the last 12 years: “Mama grizzlies everywhere have a new champion. She’s the Mama Wolverine, Mellissa Carone [sic]. And she’s not going away.”

Ordinarily we’d say her 15 minutes of fame are about to end. But the Trump era GOP always needs more like her.

(Via Newsweek)

The Dallas Mavericks plan to part ways with veteran guard J.J. Barea later this week — just one week after signing him to a one-year deal — ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported Wednesday. Barea recently signed a one-year deal worth the veteran’s minimum of $2.6 million. According to MacMahon, the Mavericks knew they would release Barea, but team owner Mark Cuban wanted to “reward” the longtime player for his service.

Dallas had 16 players under contract — one more than the regular season roster limit — including six guards, which was why they reportedly chose to release Barea. In parting ways with Barea, the Mavericks prioritize developing young players like Jalen Johnson and Trey Burke, and focus their efforts on improving defensively. In 2019-20, the Mavericks were an elite offense, but ranked 18th in defensive rating. Mavs Moneyball reported that Barea himself had a defensive rating of 116 and a box plus/minus of -1.4, meaning he was allowing 116 points per 100 possessions and the team was 1.4 points worse per 100 possessions with him on the floor.

Barea began his NBA career as an undrafted rookie in 2006 before signing with the Mavericks, and he went on to spend 11 of his 14 seasons in the league in Dallas. The 5’10 guard was an integral part of the Mavericks’ 2011 NBA Championship winning season, leading the team’s comeback against the Miami Heat. Down 2-1 in the series, Barea started the next three games and averaged 13.3 points and 4.7 assists alongside Jason Kidd to help take down Miami and win the title. Barea also ranks fifth in in Mavericks history for most games played, having made 637 appearances.

After returning from an Achilles injury, Barea made 29 appearances last season and averaged 7.7 points and 3.9 assists while playing around 15.5 minutes per game, proving that he can still be productive off the bench. Throughout his career, Barea averaged 8.9 points and 3.9 assists per game, mostly coming off the bench for the Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, for whom he played from 2011 to 2014.

ESPN reported that the 36-year-old is still eager to play in the NBA and has hopes to find a spot on a team this season. With valuable NBA Finals experience and great veteran leadership, Barea would be a worthy asset for a few NBA teams.

The Mavericks will debut their full roster in their first preseason game coming against the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 12. Dallas’ first game of the regular season is against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 23.

At the end of the week, Jack Harlow will share his debut album That’s What They All Say. Its release follows his monster hit “What’s Poppin,” whose remix peaked at No. 2 on the singles chart. That remix will also appear on Harlow’s new album, but there’s one problem: It features, alongside DaBaby and Lil Wayne, Tory Lanez, whose become persona non grata in the music world after shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot. After people took umbrage with Harlow not deleting Lanez from the track, Harlow felt compelled to explain his decision.

“I don’t think I’m God,” he replied. “I don’t have no room to judge anybody. I wasn’t there when this and that happened, I don’t know anything.” He also added that there is “a certain integrity you have to keep as an artist” and that there are “three sides to every story.” He also spoke about “cancel culture,” saying he “hate[s] the pack mentality” that’s behind it and it’s “just a lot of judgment and laziness.” He added, “People aren’t perfect bro. I feel like people should be able to recover from their mistakes.”

Harlow also discussed the criticism he’s faced in his career, saying that most of it comes from white people. “I remember saw somebody talking bad about me online, and you know you see that kind of stuff all the time, but I saw somebody really think piece it up,” he said. “Got really analytical and tried to shred me… and you know, it was just another white guy.”

You can watch Harlow’s full interview on Power 106 above.

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

When the Clippers landed both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the summer of 2019, they instantly become one of the top two or three contenders in the NBA. In many people’s estimation — including and especially their own — they were the runaway favorites to win the title last season.

As we are all aware — and as the Lakers are fond of reminding us — the Clippers suffered a spectacular meltdown in the second round, blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Nuggets and sending their organization into something of a tailspin this offseason as they scrambled to figure out what went wrong and get back on track.

It’s hard to isolate one specific cause, but in general, the Clippers never recaptured the chemistry they’d developed the previous season, despite all their declarations that they were the team to beat in the West. LeBron, in particular, seems to believe that all the trash talk eventually caught up with them when it came time to own it.

Here’s what he said on the Road Trippin podcast.

“I couldn’t believe it. To this day, I still can’t believe it,” LeBron says in the video. “Obviously, the better team won. That’s what happened. But still, because all the sh*t-talking that they were doing all year – and exclude Paul and exclude Kawhi. Even exclude Trez. Obviously, we know who the sh*t-talkers was. And put themselves in a position to get what they been talking sh*t about all year, and I just couldn’t fathom the part or come to the realization that that they did not seek that opportunity when it was right there.”

LeBron pretty clearly appears to be alluding to Patrick Beverley, who had a lot to say all season long and throughout the Bubble, right up until things started going South.

Even though we didn’t get to see the L.A. rivalry play itself in Orlando, there’s no doubt that there will be plenty of intrigue between them throughout next season as the Lakers look to defend their crown and the Clippers try to prove that what happened in the playoffs was somehow an aberration.

Six years ago today, J. Cole released his third album 2014 Forest Hill Drive. While the rapper is currently at work on his upcoming sixth album, The Fall Off, he opted to honor the anniversary with a video for his new song “Fire Squad,” The video finds Cole in a deserted area, discussing his rise to fame and claiming he’s one of the best rappers in hip-hop.

The video arrives after people were left disappointed after rumors that Cole’s sixth album would arrive on December 9 proved to be false. Had it arrived as planned, it would have been Cole’s third album to arrive on that day. The rumor about Cole’s sixth album’s December 9 release began after Zane Lowe announced on his Apple Music show that a big artist would release their album on that day. People believed Cole was that mystery act, but they quickly discovered they were wrong.

This is not the first time this year that fans believed they would receive an album from J. Cole. Back in July, EarthGang’s Olu said that he was preparing to release his sixth album in the near future, but the pandemic caused him to delay it. Days later, Dreamville co-founder Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad refuted the claim, saying simply, “There is no Cole album coming out soon.”

You can watch the “Fire Squad” video above.

At this point it seems like the best choice is to fully lean into the absurdity of everything as we claw our way out of the weirdest, if not the worst, year in recent memory. And from that perspective, Lifetime’s new Kentucky Fried Chicken mini-movie—yep, you read that right—totally fits the bill.

I mean, Mario Lopez playing a sexy Colonel Sanders in a murderous love triangle romance thriller plot seems right on schedule, doesn’t it? We did the whole “Tiger King” thing early in the pandemic, so it’s high time for another “What did I just watch?” guilty pleasure.

Lifetime’s “A Recipe for Seduction” is clearly a marketing ploy for KFC, but who cares. The trailer is deliciously wonderful and horrible, leaving me unable to look away long enough to roll my eyes at its ridiculousness. Like, I don’t want to admit that I actually want to watch this because I’m not a fan of humiliation, but at the same, I totally want to watch this.

I mean, come on. Watch this trailer and tell me you know exactly how to feel about it. You can’t. Because psychology or something.

A Recipe for Seduction | Premieres December 13th | Presented by Kentucky Fried Chicken | Lifetime

youtu.be

So, the first issue is that Colonel Sanders is hot. How is that even a thing? It’s ruining My second issue is that I want to know how this turns out. It’s only a 15-minute mini-movie, so it can’t be that complicated of a plot. And again, how is this even a thing?

The part that really cracked me up though, was the “Premieres December 13th at noon” part. At noon? Really? What kind of production makes a premiere at noon, for gracious sakes?

The “brought to you by Kentucky Fried Chicken” kind, apparently.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall at the marketing meetings where these mini-movie ideas came to fruition. Like, how did those conversations go? Was it just a bunch of goofy creative types talking about how they could make the silliest branded content ever, but not make it overtly silly, but still somehow make it overtly silly? And how did the filming of it go? The production quality is way up there. It probably took hundreds of people to make this “film.” Did they die laughing between takes? Was it just another job for them? Did they weep over what had become of their careers?

I mean, it looks like a soap opera mixed with a feature film mixed with an advertisement mixed with a parody. It’s either totally genius or totally not. I genuinely don’t know what to think or how to feel.

Maybe that’s what this movie/ad/monstrosity/delight is designed to do. Maybe it’s an emotional biproduct of this wonky, absurd year. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m going to pretend that I’m not going to watch it but will totally watch it when it comes out on December 13th. At noon. Brought to me by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

God Bless America.

Few people made more money in 2012 than when George Lucas sold Lucasfilm, which includes Star Wars, to Disney. The legendary filmmaker made over $4 billion in the deal, and he didn’t just use it for himself. He paid it forward, reportedly donating a good chunk of it to charity and using the rest to, among other things, fund numerous film restorations, helping to save film history. But he still forfeited one of his babies. And a new book, he confessed that the sale left him incredibly down.

This comes from /Film, which caught writer Paul Duncan tweeting out an extract from his forthcoming book The Star Wars Archives: Episodes IV-VI, 1977-1983, which is available later this week.

Duncan spoke with Lucas about the sale, as well as the making of the third trilogy. Lucas has long been on the record as not being a terribly huge fan of The Force Awakens, saying, “There’s nothing new.” He’s also lamented that they shot down his ideas for the next three films, saying that they “weren’t that keen to have me involved anyway.”

But here, the man who invented Darth Vadar et al. was even more melancholic about relinquishing the reins of one of cinema’s biggest franchises. For one thing, he was, at the time, ready to make that third trilogy he himself. But when Disney came calling, they caught him at an opportune time, at least for them.

“In 2012 I was 69,” he told Duncan. “So the question was am I going to keep doing this the rest of my life? Do I want to go through this again?” He pointed out that it “takes 10 years to make a trilogy,” and he admitted that he would have moved a little slower than Disney, saying he would “still be working on Episode IX” even now. On top of that he was also about to become a dad. “Finally, I decided I’d rather raise my daughter and enjoy life for a while.”

Lucas did entertain handing the actual writing and directing and all that to others, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep to himself, describing himself as “one of those micromanager guys” who would have been “frustrated” to be watching from the sidelines. So instead, he removed himself from the equation entirely.

The result hasn’t been an unqualified success, but neither has it been a disaster, yielding such high points as The Last Jedi (its loud detractors aside). And the world is almost certainly better with Baby Yoda — and a Star Wars-ified Werner Herzog — in it. Still, selling the franchise wasn’t easy then, and it’s not easy now.

“I’ve spent my life creating Star Wars – 40 years – and giving it up was very, very painful,” Lucas said. “But it was the right thing to do. I thought I was going to have a little bit more to say about the next three because I’d already started them, but they decided they wanted to do something else. Things don’t always work out the way you want it. Life is like that.”

(Via /Film)

Considering she’s been one of Donald Trump‘s closest advisor going all the way back to his 2016 campaign, the news of Kellyanne Conway signing a multi-million dollar deal for her upcoming memoir has members of Trump’s inner circles freaking out. Despite her seemingly unflinching loyalty to the president, there has been speculation for years that Conway and her husband, George (an outspoken critic of Trump), have been laying the groundwork for Kellyanne to cash in on her life after the administration. Publishing a book that lays bares the secrets of the past four years is definitely one way to accomplish that goal. Via Daily Mail:

She’s much less likely to pull her punches when it comes to former colleagues, our source predicts.

‘Of all the White House insiders, Kellyanne is going to write the most unvarnished, eye-popping account of her time working for the president,’ the insider promises. ‘She’s got some of us quaking in our boots.’

Despite recently going against the current White House narrative by admitting that Joe Biden won the presidential election, Conway has remained in Trump’s good graces. On Tuesday, he gifted her with a posh seat on the board of visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy, according to Politico. However, that relationship could easily sour as more details of Conway’s memoir emerge. While demanding unyielding loyalty from others, Trump has shown time again that he will throw even his biggest supporters under the bus as evidenced by his latest tweets attacking Fox News.

(Via Daily Mail)

While the arrival of multiple COVID-19 vaccines has made people feel hopeful about the future, many are still leery about getting the shot.

A recent poll by Pew Research found that “60% of Americans say they would definitely or probably get a vaccine for the coronavirus if one were available today.” That figure is 9% higher than when the same question was asked in September.

Four in ten people (39%) say “definitely or probably would not get a coronavirus vaccine” although half of them say they may change their mind after the vaccine is widely administered.

If you’re feeling a little iffy about getting vaccinated it doesn’t make you an anti-vaxxer. It’s natural to be a little skeptical of something that was developed so rapidly. So, to ease your mind about getting vaccinated, our partners at Leapsmag spoke with Jennifer Haller, the first person in the U.S. to receive COVID-19 vaccine.

Jennifer is a mother of two from Seattle, Washington who was administered the vaccine back in March and, as you can tell by the video, she’s happy and healthy nine months later.

Jennifer received the Moderna vaccine which requires two shots administered four weeks apart.

After receiving both, Jennifer says she felt just like she has after any other vaccination. “I’ve had a flu shot before, I’ve had other vaccinations before, this is just another one of those,” she said. “Everything’s going to be fine. And it was.”

Jennifer didn’t know she was going to be the first person to receive the vaccine. She put two and two together after reading an AP report the night before her vaccination saying the first vaccine was going to be administered the next morning. Her appointment was at 8 am.

“I’m like, oh gosh, that might actually be me,” she said.

The only side effect she experienced from taking the vaccine was some soreness at the injection site after both doses. “Besides that, everything else felt very normal,” she added. “I’m feeling great. everything feels perfectly normal and my life is just as normal as everyone else’s is right now.”

Jennifer says that after receiving both doses, tests showed the vaccine was effective in creating COVID-19 antibodies. She says the first eight recipients of the Moderna vaccine all developed antibodies at the same level or above someone who has recovered from the virus.

She believes she was the right person to go first because of her attitude.

“To be one of the first, I think it really requires somebody like me who’s really positive, who expects good things to happen, and somebody who trusts science,” she said.

For Jennifer, stepping up to be the first was about more than just protecting her health and that of others.

“I want to stay conscious of the privilege I have in life and I want to use it to help others,” she said. “I’m very thankful that I have the opportunity to do that and I hope that it inspires others to consider the privilege they have in their lives and to look at ways they can use that as well to help.”

Jennifer hopes that people approach this as a health issue, not a political one. “It is not a political statement,” she said of getting vaccinated. “It’s not political, it’s about saving lives.”

For those who have decided against getting the vaccine, Jennifer suggests they reconsider.

“Science is real. It’s a fact. It works,” she said.

Chicago rapper G Herbo pled not guilty to federal charges of identity fraud today, according to the Chicago Tribune. Herbo, a pioneer of the Windy City’s 2010s drill movement is accused of using stolen IDs and credit cards to make charges for luxury services such as private jet trips and “designer puppies.” Appearing in court from his Los Angeles home via video conference, Herbo pled “not guilty” to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was freed after turning himself in earlier this week on an unsecured $75,000 bond.

Herbo will also be allowed to travel outside of California, due to a $25,000 cash bond posted by his manager Joseph “JB” Bowden, in order to visit his fiancee Taina Williams in New Jersey. Williams is four months pregnant with the couple’s child. A former girlfriend with whom Herbo also has a child (and a battery case against him) is listed as a witness in the case, but he was ordered not to speak with her about it.

Herbo faces up to six years in prison if he’s convicted, although his prior criminal history could result in additional enhancements. He was previously convicted of weapons violations in his home Cook County. Among those charged with Herbo are his crew members and fellow Chicagoans Antonio “T-Glo” Strong, Wright’s promoter and manager; rapper Joseph “Jo Rodeo” Williams; and alleged co-conspirators Steven Hayes Jr., Demario Sorrells, and Terrence Bender.

According to the indictment, which was unsealed last week, the group charged over $1 million of luxury goods to credit card numbers they obtained on the dark web. The news comes just as Herbo received renewed attention for his album PTSD, one of Uproxx’s Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2020, and his performance of the title track on The Tonight Show, as well as appearing on Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 list for 2020.