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There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that, if we want to get to the bottom of the disability issue in Hollywood, we can do it in three easy-ish steps. The bad news is that all three steps are related so we kind of have to tackle them all at once. It’ll be a whole process that takes time and effort and a reasonable amount of good-faith commitment, which is not something we’re all always good at. I think it’s worth doing, though. I’m admittedly a little biased because I have a disability (spinal cord injury, wheelchair, the whole deal), but it can work out for you, too. It would mean fewer groan-worthy plots and fewer stale tropes and more cool, original stories about slices of life you might not be familiar with. That’s a good thing. Cool things are good. Let’s make more cool things.

I’m going to lay out the three steps here. They’re a little obvious if you think about them for more than 30 seconds, but not so obvious that they’ve been addressed and fixed yet, today, in 2020. They’re nothing particularly new, either. Other groups have dealt with the same issues over the years, and have started to make real progress, with more voices getting a chance to speak in more places. There’s a template here. There is a structure to build around. It’s just a matter of wanting to do it.

Let’s start at the top, with the big and notable one, then work our way through from there.

We need more disabled actors playing disabled characters

The last time a full accounting of this was done, back in 2018, an advocacy group found that almost 90 percent of disabled characters were played by non-disabled actors. There’s a long history of this in television and film, one that has traditionally been met with critical acclaim. Think of all the actors who have won awards for playing a character with a disability of some kind. (Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Jamie Foxx in Ray, etc.) And think of other meaty roles that have gone to big-name able-bodied actors. We’re going on 20 years of X-Men movies, with Charles Xavier in every one of them, and the role has, to date, been played by Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy.

The whole discussion really bubbled up a few years ago when The Upside came out. The Upside stars Bryan Cranston as a quadriplegic millionaire who hires an ex-con played by Kevin Hart as a home health aide. Cranston was asked about his decision to take the role and, in an interview with Sky News, explained the situation like this:

“As actors, we’re asked to be other people, to play other people. If I, as a straight, older person, and I’m wealthy, I’m very fortunate, does that mean I can’t play a person who is not wealthy, does that mean I can’t play a homosexual?

“I don’t know, where does the restriction apply, where is the line for that? I think it is worthy for debate to discuss those issues.”

There are fair points in here. Acting is about becoming another person, temporarily. Bryan Cranston has not, as far as any of us know, cooked and sold large quantities of methamphetamine throughout the scenic American Southwest, but he sure as hell pretended to do that very well for almost a decade on Breaking Bad. This one is a little different, though. Able-bodied actors have more choices available to them, whereas an actor who uses a wheelchair only has a shot at this kind of role, what, every two or three years? Or, to put in another way: Bryan Cranston has the option of playing a character who flings an entire pizza onto his roof, while an actor with the same disability as his character in The Upside does not, at least not without an extensive amount of CGI.

Cranston also pointed out that casting the award-winning star of Breaking Bad as the lead in the movie was in large part a business decision, as there really aren’t any disabled actors right now with the kind of Above The Title clout to sell a multimillion-dollar studio production. This is also fair, but also kind of the point. It creates a tricky cycle to break out of, one where these roles have to go to big-name actors, who are all able-bodied, which means no big star-making turn for a disabled actor, which puts them at a disadvantage the next time a role like this comes around, which means it will probably go to an able-bodied actor again, which… and on and on forever.

This brings us to our second issue.

We need more cool and/or fun disabled characters in movies and television shows

One thing that you’ll notice not long after you start paying attention to these things is that characters with disabilities often fall into one of these four categories:

• Wealthy person
• Person with a superpower
• Inspirational figure who teaches an entire town the meaning of Christmas or whatever through an upbeat, positive attitude
• Miserable depressed person who may or may not be considering suicide

Sometimes they fall into multiple categories. Charles Xavier is a billionaire with superpowers. The character in The Upside was a wealthy depressed person who became a wealthy inspirational person. The character in another movie, Me Before You (played by able-bodied actor Sam Claflin), was a thrill-seeking millionaire playboy who was so sad about becoming disabled that he opted for assisted suicide over the objections of his girlfriend, played by Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke. This last one was an extra bummer because, while suicide in the disabled community is a real issue, it would be nice if this was one of many, fully-rounded portrayals of the community instead of one of a very limited number of high-profile examples. I would love to see more people in wheelchairs on television and in movies. I do not want to watch like 20 percent of them contemplate taking their own lives. I would rather watch them, like, chilling out at a barbecue. Or stealing priceless jewels. Or chilling out at a barbecue after stealing priceless jewels.

The study by the advocacy group touched on this part of the problem, too. From a write-up in the New York Times:

The research, covering about 280 network and streaming shows from 2018, found that roughly half featured characters with physical, cognitive or mental health disabilities. Yet, the report said, “even where disability is present in television and films, it is almost always portrayed as an undesired, depressing and limiting state.”

Actor Micah Fowler, star of the short-lived sitcom Speechless and a disability advocate, touched on the issue recently, too, in an interview where he discussed the difficulties of finding work as an actor with cerebral palsy.

Too often, there are misrepresentations of people with disabilities in the entertainment industry: characters viewed as tokens of inspiration or pity and characters viewing their disability as a reason to end their life. The more people see us, the more people see us. Not as tokens of inspiration or pity, not as suicidal, but as people who can contribute to society and live happy, successful and fulfilled lives.

The solution here is simple enough: More roles, better roles, many of them smaller at first so a disabled actor can get the part and build the kind of name recognition it takes to land a bigger one down the line. Regular dudes and women who happen to have a disability. A paralegal on a lawyer show. A funny stoner in a Seth Rogen movie. A member of a criminal organization that is trying to steal priceless jewels. Whatever. Create a pipeline for disabled actors. Put them in a position to steal scenes so the people watching will go to IMDb after those scenes to learn their names. That way, when it comes time to cast the next Charles Xavier, or maybe the leader of a criminal organization that is trying to steal priceless jewels, these actors have their foot already in the door. Or a wheel in the door. There’s something in the door. That’s the point.

But creating good and well-rounded disabled characters requires another step. This brings us to…

We need more people with disabilities on the creative side

Get more people with disabilities on the creative side of things, behind the scenes. Hire writers with disabilities for television shows, seek out disabled voices, get more stories straight from the people who live them, stop making every character in a wheelchair an inspirational brain genius who may or may not have a death wish. The other two issues are the big flashy ones, but this is the one that makes fixing those possible. At the very least, talk to people with disabilities before you try to create your characters, consult, and maybe write in a few roles for extras with disabilities just to get people on the set to get the experience. Baby steps are okay for now, as long as they’re steps.

Either that or we let me write myself into John Wick 4 as a very cool disabled assassin named, like, Lance Mojito. That would solve a lot of these problems. And I would like it. So, that’s worth considering, too.

Heading into Orlando, the Memphis Grizzlies were one of the league’s darlings, a supremely talented up-and-coming squad looking to secure what they anticipate to be the first of many playoff appearances for years to come. Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and things have taken a rather grim turn.

Calling it a brutal start for the Grizzlies would be a massive understatement. In their opener in Orlando, they dropped an overtime heart-breaker to the Blazers, the team best-positioned behind Memphis to nab that eighth and final playoff spot in the West during these final eight seeding games.

They followed that up with another two-point loss to the Spurs on Sunday, despite a 25-point, nine-rebound, nine-assists night from Ja Morant. Then on Tuesday, just as they didn’t think things could possibly get any worse, Jaren Jackson Jr. suffered a devastating knee injury in a loss against the Pelicans — another potential playoff usurper — that will keep him out for the remainder of the season.

Portland followed that up with a big win over the Rockets, 110-102, to move within one game of the No. 8 seed, and Memphis only further hastened their demise by dropping their fourth straight game in Orlando on Wednesday, a 124-114 loss to the Jazz. They’re now 4-11 since the All-Star break, the second-worst record in the league during that period.

The loss of JJJ is, without a doubt, a crushing blow to this team, as they’ve relied heavily on his production as the second-year big man was averaging just over 25 points per game in the bubble before his injury. Together with Morant, the athletic wunderkind and presumptive Rookie of the Year, they’d shown flashes of brilliance that point to great things to come for one of the NBA’s most talented young duos.

To pull themselves out of this funk they’ll need Morant to return to his Rookie of the Year form — his performance against Utah was a hopeful sign as it was his most efficient outing after a dismal shooting start to the bubble — and see others step up in a major way. Dillon Brooks has to be more efficient, as the Grizzlies leading shot-taker (but not always their top shot-maker), Jonas Valanciunas needs to be a factor inside, and Brandon Clarke must emerge from being a hyper-efficient role player to a major contributor capable of giving them major minutes. Maybe most importantly, they have to figure out how to find balance between offense and defense, as thus far in the bubble they’ve been unable to score when their defense plays well or get stops when they themselves are scoring.

On top of poor play, the issue of morale might be one of the Grizzlies’ biggest threats to their dwindling playoff hopes. By their own admission, the young Grizz have ascribed to the growing perception that the cards have been stacked against them in Orlando from the beginning.

More specifically, there is a certain cynical contingent of NBA conspirators that look at the 22-team field and the play-in format for the final postseason spot and interpret it as being arranged specifically to give Zion Williamson and the Pelicans an ample opportunity to make the playoffs and thus add one of the most anticipated rookies in a generation to the coming postseason slate to help boost ratings for a league that has been hemorrhaging money for months now.

But New Orleans hasn’t done themselves any favors on this front, losing two out of their first three contests since the restart, although at just two games behind Memphis, they are still very much in the mix. And as if the Grizzlies needed any more bad news, the upcoming schedule won’t offer them too much in the way of consolation or reprieve. In their final four games, they face the Thunder, the Raptors, the Celtics, and the Bucks.

Memphis had little-to-no margin for error going into this, and a four-game losing streak to kick things off has assured the West of a play-in series and, possibly, one where Memphis is no longer the 8-seed or should this disaster continue not involve the Grizz at all. The Grizzlies are still a very young team, and there’s plenty of time for them to seize a place within the NBA’s hierarchy, but their prospects for the immediate future don’t look too promising after an ugly start in Orlando.

It was revealed yesterday that Migos member Takeoff is being sued by a woman for sexual battery, as she accuses him of raping her at a Hollywood party in June. Now, the rapper has issued a response, and he is denying the allegations.

Takeoff’s lawyer, Drew Findling, said in a statement to TMZ:

“We have reviewed the allegations and have similarly done our own due diligence. What has become abundantly clear is that the allegations made against Takeoff are patently and provably false. The claims and statements made regarding this lawsuit indicate that the plaintiffs’ representatives have not spoken with relevant witnesses or reviewed available evidence.

Takeoff is renowned for his artistic talent as well as his quiet, reserved and peaceful personality. In this instance, those known personality traits have made him a target of an obvious exploitative money grab. As his counsel, we are well aware and well versed on the importance of civil and criminal prosecution of true sexual assaults. This is not one of those situations.”

The woman, who filed the lawsuit anonymously as Jane Doe, claims Takeoff forced himself on her in a bedroom at the party. She also said she went to a nearby hospital the same day, where staff observed physical evidence of forced sex and notified the LAPD.

No one ever talks about it, because no one ever actually saw it, but the 2010 romantic-comedy Going the Distance is a really good romantic comedy. The cast was absolutely stacked, featuring Drew Barrymore, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Christina Applegate, Ron Livingston, Jim Gaffigan, June Diane Raphael, and Natalie Morales, among others. Charlie Day is absolutely fantastic in it, and as I wrote in my review at the time, “much of Going the Distance feels like an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia awkwardly stitched together with a rom-com.” It was not an insult.

Going the Distance opened with less than $7 million on its way to a piddling $17 million domestic run. Justin Long still attributes the dramatic downswing in his career to the failure of that movie, and director Nanette Burstein hasn’t made a feature film since. It’s a shame, too, because they — and writer Geoff LaTulippe — all deserved a better reception.

Ten years later, and Justin Long is now hosting a podcast, and on this week’s episode, Long had his old pal from Going the Distance on the show, Charlie Day. It’s a great episode, as the two ruminated at length about their time on the set of Going the Distance, as well as Charlie Day’s many successes since.

Over the course of the podcast, however, the box-office failure of Going the Distance came up, and as something of the face of that movie, Long obviously felt some responsibility for its failure (the reality is, romcoms were already on their way out, and if Netflix had been then what it is today, Going the Distance would have been a huge hit). The weekend after it bombed, however, Justin Long attended a Labor Day party at producer Adam Shankman’s house, where he ran into Adam Sandler.

The thing about Adam Sandler is, he knows how to make a hit romcom with Drew Barrymore. He’s made three: The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates, and Blended. He obviously knows a little of what he’s talking about, so when he tried to explain to Justin Long what went wrong, Long listened.

“Hey buddy,” Sandler said to him at the party. “I saw the movie you did there with Drew. And you were good, but your body, buddy. Your body. That’s not a comedy body.”

“What do you mean?” Long asked.

“Did you work out for that movie?” Sandler asked him, and Long said he had, because he was playing the lead and he wanted to look good opposite Drew Barrymore. “Yeah, yeah,” Sandler continued. “You shouldn’t [work out], buddy. No one wants to laugh at a guy who is ripped.”

“He is right!” Charlie Day agreed. “There is some truth to that, but,” he added, there is an exception to the rule. “Ben Stiller, he was always weirdly ripped. Anytime he popped his shirt off, you’d be like, ‘Wow, you’re in great shape, man.’ And he was always funny, in everything he ever did … but ultimately, Sandler is right. Cause I always thought, if I got really fat, it would help my career,” Day continued.

To wit, Day added, Rob McElhenney was “always a lot funnier,” in the season of It’s Always Sunny when he got really fat. “And then in the season when he got really ripped, he’s still very good. He’s just not as funny.” The reason why, Day added, is what “we like about funny people is that they make us feel better about the things we are insecure about ourselves.”

In other words, Fat Mac basically proves the Adam Sandler rule of comedy: Don’t get ripped.

Source: Life is Short with Justin Long

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Chicago trio Dehd released their third record Flower Of Devotion in late July, but there was a point in vocalist/bassist Emily Kempf’s life where she thought it would never happen — and it almost didn’t.

At 31-years-old, the amalgamation of Kempf’s life choices sank in. She looked back on all the years she has dedicated to being a musician but didn’t feel as though she had “made it.” “I’d just given up everything to be a musician and I thought maybe that I fucked up,” she says on the phone while unpacking a grocery delivery. Kempf had decided college wasn’t the right path for her, instead she wanted to travel and to explore her passions. But as she reflected on her twenties, Kempf was worried she made the wrong choice. “I’m not successful yet. Should I buy a house and get married and have a baby and go to college?’” she found herself wondering. “So I quit.”

Kempf traded in her graphic tees for starched, office-appropriate clothing that hid her tattoo-covered body. “I basically tried to conform,” she recalls, “which did not work out because I’m too punk.” Kempf persisted for a year in the corporate world before the disillusionment was too much to handle. Without music, her main driving force, her life felt purposeless. Kempf quit her corporate gig, boxed her business attire, opened a tattoo shop in Chicago’s East Humboldt Park, and once again realigned herself with music. Eventually, Kempf’s quarter-life crisis subsided and she realized “being in your thirties is literally the same as being in your twenties except you’re hotter and wiser.”

Kempf’s newfound self-assurance is clear on Flower Of Devotion. But returning to music wasn’t so effortless. Kempf formed Dehd in 2014 with guitarist Jason Balla and drummer Eric McGrady at the onset of her budding romance with Balla. After nearly five years, Kempf and Balla decided to amicably split ahead of 2019’s sophomore album Water. Understandably, navigating a breakup within the band was strenuous. “I wouldn’t recommend it but it is possible,” Kempf says with a laugh. But Kempf thinks focusing too much on their relationship does a disservice to Dehd’s music. “It’s not all about romance,” she says, adding: “Our songs transcend our relationship.”

It’s true that Dehd’s music isn’t about Kempf and Balla’s relationship alone, though their music wouldn’t be the same without working through the breakup. A reliance on communication is at the heart of Dehd’s dynamic, who fondly adopt the label “mutt rock” when speaking about their genre of indie music. Coined by Balla, the term encapsulates the scrappiness of their sound and nods to the way Dehd relies on equal collaboration between all three members to produce something that is more visceral than other indie rock groups. The result is a record that examines the interplay of Dehd’s overall experience with intricate relationships while oscillating between the themes of love, loss, and isolation.

Take their track “Loner,” a song that unpacks all those themes and one Kempf took the lead on writing. A warm-toned guitar undulates as Kempf comes to terms with being alone and seeks healing through detachment. “I want nothing more than / To be a loner,” Kempf howls during the chorus. Kempf explores the differences between being lonesome and being isolated in the song, something she’s been working through since leaving a recent relationship. She’s since realized comfortable solitude isn’t a breeze, rather, it takes a commitment to introspection.

Processing her emotions through lyrics, Kempf learned she can be her own best friend, her own partner, and her own parent. “I just want to be okay alone and happy with my sick ass life and not feel the pain of being lonesome,” she says. Still, there were times Kempf was struck with pangs of loneliness and needed a way to work through it. Kempf and Balla wrote “Haha” during a charged studio session when the two bounced ideas off of each other. The track juxtaposes lyrics about laughing through tears against an upbeat guitar that plays a classic ‘60s-sounding chord progression. The contrast is a tongue-in-cheek reminder that sometimes something is so painful that you can’t help but laugh at it.

Laughing through tears is cathartic but at the end of the day, being committed to close relationships is the most gratifying experience of them all. Dehd’s album title, Flower Of Devotion, imagines interconnectedness through a metaphor of a garden. If nurturing a relationship is akin to tending a garden, the feeling of being in love is when that first flower, the flower of devotion, unfurls its petals to bloom and signals the rest will follow. While the idea originated as a romantic love, their album title continued to blossom as an analogy for the platonic love of their tight-knit friendship. Kempf, Balla, and McGrady are all devoted to each other and to their music, and that loyalty has persisted in the face of personal grief, failed relationships, and even briefly quitting music.

Flower Of Devotion is out now via Fire Talk. Get it here.

A Charlie Kaufman movie starring Wild Rose and Chernobyl breakout Jessie Buckley, Harry Potter alum David Thewlis, Toni “I Am Your Mother” Collette, and Landry from Friday Night Lights? [Extremely Al Pacino in Jack and Jill voice] Don’t mind if I do.

Based on Ian Reid’s book of the same name, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is about a girlfriend meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time, while she’s privately, well, thinking of ending things. It’s like a Kaufman’s spin on Meet the Parents, except instead of that darn cat, there’s a wet dog that won’t stop shaking itself dry. There’s a lot of weird stuff that happens in the trailer above, and the movie is going to lead to a lot of uncomfortable conversations between couples, but that dog is the most unsettling thing I’ve seen in a movie all year. Even more than all of Trolls World Tour.

Watch the surreal trailer above. Here’s the official plot summary:

Despite second thoughts about their relationship, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) takes a road trip with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm. Trapped at the farm during a snowstorm with Jake’s mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis), the young woman begins to question the nature of everything she knew or understood about her boyfriend, herself, and the world.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things premieres on Netflix on September 5.

In early March, concert giant Live Nation made the decision to postpone all of their upcoming tours, a call that came as the coronavirus pandemic was starting to pick up steam on a global level. While that was probably the right thing to do for the sake of people’s safety and containing the virus’ spread, the move hurt the company financially. The impact was major: Last financial quarter, the company’s revenues dropped by a staggering 98 percent.

Financial results for the quarter than ended on June 30, 2020 show that the company posted a net revenue of $74.1 million, which is 98 percent lower than the $3.16 billion they posted in the same financial quarter in 2019. Overall, the company experienced an adjusted operating loss of $431.9 million, compared to the $319.3 million gain they had in Q2 of 2019.

The difference in the amount of events they held in this past quarter of 2020 versus the same quarter in 2019 is also drastic. Globally, the company hosted 10,252 events in Q2 of 2019, while that number descended all the way down to 131 this year, a drop of about 99 percent. The numbers are similar in just North America, dipping from 7,213 down to just 24.

Live Nation said in a statement, “Over the past three months, our top priority has been strengthening our financial position to ensure that we have the liquidity and flexibility to get through an extended period with no live events. Our expectation is that live events will return at scale in the summer of 2021, with ticket sales ramping up in the quarters leading up to these shows.”

Meanwhile, the company recently announced plans to host a drive-in concert series.

It’s not often you hear about an actor retiring from the profession after starring in a movie that made $133 million at the box office ($135 million? Sure, happens all the time, but rarely $133 million), but that’s exactly what Cameron Diaz did. Following roles in 2014’s The Other Woman, Sex Tape, and Annie, Diaz stopped appearing in movies. This was by choice. “I started [experiencing fame] when I was 22, so 25 years ago — that’s a long time,” she said last year. “The way I look at it is that I’ve given more than half of my life to the public.” The There’s Something About Mary and The Mask star opened up about her decision in an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow, and revealed that she has no regrets.

When asked what it’s like to “walk away from a movie career of that magnitude,” Diaz replied, “Like peace. A peace in my soul because I was finally taking care of myself.” She continued, “It’s a strange thing to say, I know a lot of people won’t understand it, I know you understand it, but it was so intense to work at that level and be that public and put yourself out there. There’s a lot of energy coming at you at all times when you’re really visible as an actor and doing press and putting yourself out there”:

“I stopped and really looked at my life. When you’re making a movie… they own you. You’re there for 12 hours a day for months on end you have no time for anything else. I realized I handed off parts of my life to all these other people. I had to basically take it back and take responsibility for my own life.”

Diaz is living her best life in retirement — she’s married to one of the dudes from Good Charlotte and she started her own “clean” wine brand. She has no current plans to act again… until DreamWorks gives her a dump truck full of money for Shrek 5.

(Via People)

Back in early June, when the NBA announced that it would resume its season in a bubble location at Disney World in Orlando, there was plenty of skepticism. Cases of COVID-19 had continued to spike across the country, particularly in the state of Florida, where they were reporting record numbers of new cases on an almost daily basis.

Many questioned whether the NBA could adequately ensure the safety of its players, not to mention the scores of other league personnel and essential workers that would be required for such a mammoth undertaking. Even a considerable segment of the players expressed their apprehensions over the course of various Zoom calls within the union.

But, of course, when it came right down to i, just about everyone fell in line, save for a small handful of players who decided, understandably, that it wasn’t worth the risk to their health and their family. To the league’s credit, the safety protocols inside the bubble in Orlando are thorough and complex, to say the least. The players are tested daily (and must quarantine and miss any team activities should they miss a test). Upon arrival, they each received a personal health app device that requires them to fill out a questionnaire each morning and monitors their temperature and oxygen levels.

Players are also required to observe social distancing rules and wear masks in all common areas, and just about everyone, save for Dwight Howard and a few other apparent accidental incidents, has adhered to these rules and have done a good job of policing themselves — with some continuous reminders of protocols and punishments from the league. The league, in part, took many of its cues from the other pro sports bubbles that restarted prior to the NBA, like the NWSL, NHL, MLS, WNBA, and TBT, which have likewise seen success once settled in the bubble — the MLS’ two major outbreaks occurred as teams arrived and the bubble was yet to be sealed, with nothing but negative tests since.

For the NBA, their record, so far, has been pretty much pristine. The league announced on Wednesday that, for the third consecutive week, there were no positive tests among the 343 players in Orlando. The only two positive tests the entire time they’ve been in the bubble occurred upon arrival in Orlando last month, but those two players never made it past quarantine and did not expose anyone else there to the virus.

There were also two very high-profile cases early on of players breaking quarantine protocols to receive food delivery, but the only semi-controversy since then had to do with just how long Lou Williams spent at an Atlanta area nightclub after attending the funeral of close relative. But both he and Zion Williamson, who likewise left the bubble for a family emergency, have since returned and passed quarantine without incident to rejoin their teams.

In the event of any future positive tests inside the bubble, there are strict guidelines in place that will require said player to go into isolation until they are fully recovered and cleared by medical personnel. Overall, the league deserves credit for its success thus far, and the players deserve credit for abiding by the guidelines set forth by the Players’ Association.

Still, the proof is in the pudding for how the bubble works. There were a number of positive tests when the league began testing players in home markets, leading to facilities shutting down, but those were kept away from the bubble until they cleared a number of negative tests. The other soccer and hoops bubbles have proven the same, that testing and isolation is the solution to keeping the virus out, despite likewise seeing positive tests before arrival.

All of it begs the question of the NFL and MLB, which has seen two teams have to halt play due to outbreaks on the Marlins and Cardinals, who attempt to play without a bubble. Given the spread of the virus in the United States, allowing players to come and go from facilities with interaction with the real world is, sadly, downright dangerous and it seems like just a matter of time before positive tests arrive.

We are in the early stages of the restart, and for everyone in Orlando, consistency in regard to following these safety protocols is the only thing that will ensure that everyone remains as safe and healthy as possible over the next few months. But so far it’s off to a good start, and combined with the NHL, WNBA, MLS, NWSL, and others, the bubble concept appears to have been the correct one.

In recent days, there have been reports that Kanye West’s presidential campaign has ties to the Republican Party (despite his independent affiliation), as people said to be working on his campaign are members of the GOP. Other reports surfaced more recently saying that Donald Trump associates have worked to help get West on states’ Presidential ballots in an attempt to boost Trump’s re-election campaign. Now, the POTUS has addressed rumors that he himself has worked to help get Kanye’s name on ballots.

At a White House press conference last night, Trump said:

“I like him. He’s always been very nice to me. I like Kanye very much, but no, I have nothing to do with him getting on the ballot. We’ll have to see what happens. We’ll see if he gets on the ballot. But I’m not involved.”

Meanwhile, Kanye has actually been critical of Trump and his presidency in recent times. In his now-infamous Forbes interview, he suggested he was no longer supporting the President, saying, “I am taking the red hat off, with this interview. […] It looks like one big mess to me.” He did also offer praise for Trump, though, saying, “Trump is the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation.”