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The ladies of HBO’s Betty are glorious to behold in action during their new series. Let me back up a moment to properly introduce them. In 2018, filmmaker Crystal Moselle — director of the Sundance-acclaimed documentary The Wolfpack — brought the world a narrative feature called Skate Kitchen. The movie revolved around an introverted teen skateboarder, Camille (Rachelle Vinberg), as she navigated friendship within a group of NYC skateboarders, portrayed by a real-life gathering of female skaters known as the “Skate Kitchen” group. Their adventures, although fictionalized, represented an authentic portrait of the group’s culture and presence, which resonates on social platforms and inspired HBO to continue the characters’ stories within a six-part TV series.

The young women of Betty — including not only Rachelle Vinberg but Ajani Russell (as Indigo), Dede Lovelace (as Janay), Nina Moran (as Kirt), and Kabrina “Moonbear” Adams (as Honeybear) — are a trip to behold. As they glide through streets that make up the male-dominated world of NYC skateboarding, the diverse group comes together amid occasional clashes while navigating life’s challenges and, somehow, allowing us all to absorb some coolness while watching. Rachelle and Ajani (who, like the rest of the principal cast, are actual Skate Kitchen members) were gracious enough to speak with us by phone about continuing the group’s legacy with the Betty series.

Enlighten me here, ladies. There are so many shots of you (in both Betty and Skate Kitchen) where you’re skating down New York City streets, weaving in and out of traffic. Do you guys really do that on any given day?

Rachelle Vinberg: Oh, heck yeah. Remember recently, Ajani, when we were skating, and I almost died? No wait, it was you that almost died, and then [drivers] were like, “Why do you guys have to go so fast?” We almost got hit by a car. It was a weird day in Union Square. It’s very true. I think that happens more so when you’re in a group, and that’s what you do. It can be dangerous, and it’s a little scary because you try to keep up with everybody else, and you’re all super excited with the adrenaline rush.

Ajani Russell: Crystal loved the very natural moments. She’d be like, “Okay, go skate and do your thing, and we’ll follow you guys around.” The cameras have to be able to keep up. The guy on the skateboard, his name is Joey, he’s our skate cam, he’s really amazing. Luckily, he’s a good skater, but I remember when we were filming the TV show, and someone was trying to skate with the camera, I think it got dropped. Maybe it was during a photoshoot that [my character] did, but you gotta be careful with that camera.

Rachelle: Yeah, the camera got dropped on me once. It was weird, it was crazy.

The skating is real, but there are lots of movies and TV shows that try to capture youth culture. Do you guys feel pressure to be authentic in your portrayal?

Ajani: I think that just us being given the platform for our experiences, we wanted to be authentic because it is our story, and we want our ideas to come through clearly. I feel like that’s such a driving force for our motivation, and we are friends and hang outside the Skate Kitchen work. Because we’re so close and got to know each other so well before we started working together, it just contributes to the authenticity of the project.

Rachelle: I definitely agree, and I want to be authentic, and Crystal does, too. That’s why she had us be consultants on the show, so we actually had a voice, and we could say, “Maybe this is a cool idea, but it wouldn’t be realistic.” We were very quick to say that, and a lot of times, we’d say, “Just so you know, that’d never happen.” And then most of the time, they’ll think of something that’s real that would happen within this world, and we’re very well-versed in this world because we’re a part of it.

Your roles obviously weren’t intended to match up to your real personalities, but what do you love most about your characters?

Ajani: I love how imaginative and creative that Indigo is. She finds herself in a lot of tight and tricky situations, but she doesn’t panic over it too much. She just sees a problem and tries to fix it, and I love also how much she cares about her friends. She loves them almost to a fault. She’d risk everything for the people that she loves and gets a little carried away sometimes.

Rachelle: Now that I think of it, I think that Camille is a little bit like the opposite when it comes to that. She’s a little bit selfish. One thing that I like about her is that when she’s trying to navigate through situations, it’s kind of like she’s not trying to be bad or anything, but it happens because she doesn’t have the best intentions all the time. But I guess I like how she just can’t really get away with that shit. She has a conscience, and she’s not very good at lying. It’s just funny and relatable.

Now that you have followings, do you feel more pressure when you go skating?

Rachelle: Yeah! I do, for sure. I’m trying to get over it.

Ajani: No, I don’t really feel very pressured. It doesn’t really affect me.

Rachelle: That’s good, I want to get to where I’m like that more. I think for me, it’s more like I’m going to the park and owning who I am and not thinking, “I suck.” But that’s like the Camille in me.

Ajani: I was never a park skater to begin with. When I started, I had a few bad experiences in a skate park, so I kind-of avoided them and still do, to this day. I like street skating where I can skate alone or be with my friends, but I don’t have to be around skater…. boys, specifically.

Rachelle: I realized that I don’t actually like to go to parks a lot. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s because I’m feeling nervous.

Speaking of nerve-inducing, injuries do happen. Rachelle, you’ve actually experienced the dreaded “credit-carding” trauma and, later, portrayed that injury during Skate Kitchen. Have either of you been through even worse?

Rachelle: [Laughs] Well, credit-carding definitely makes you go through a lot. That, and hitting my head. I don’t like to think about getting hurt because it’s just scary. Like breaking an arm or getting all kinds of hurt. Ajani were you there when [our male friend] hit his head and started bleeding?

Ajani: Yeah, he was bleeding out his nose and even convulsed a bit, and then we rolled him over. And then we cleaned up the blood because we didn’t want the skateboarders to skate through the blood.

Rachelle: And who cleaned up the blood?

Ajani: The girls. The boys were all skating through the blood. I used my shirt, and then I threw it out. Well, there were some dudes who were helping. But I’m always afraid of messing up my face. As a model, you need a face. Gotta keep mine intact.

Should I even ask whether the quarantine atmosphere is affecting your skating right now?

Rachelle: Yeah, no one’s really able to skate right now with the parks locked up, the schoolyards locked up, that kind of thing.

Ajani: On the West Coast, it’s been…. yeah. Other than going to the store, I really don’t go outside very much, so I see a lot of walking around, and I’m not used to seeing people walking in L.A.

Rachelle, you’re New York-based, but Ajani is bicoastal. How does the skate culture differ on each coast when there’s no pandemic?

Ajani: On the West Coast, the weather is nice most of the time, so skaters here are really lucky because they can go all year round, whereas with New York winters I find it difficult to skate. It rains a lot, and I don’t think there’s a single indoor park in New York.

Rachelle: Yeah, there actually is an indoor park coming, but there’s one other thing. Because there are winters, the New York roads are a lot crustier because of potholes and all of that. So I think that skaters in New York, they’re a little more raw, and they’re kind-of known for that, and it’s seen in their style as well. You can kinda tell where someone is from by the way that they skate.

Ajani: Yeah, their mannerisms are different.

Rachelle: In New York, they’re like, doing lowrides and going fast.

Ajani: More of a street-skating style there. In L.A., there’s more bowls and just more skate parks, and they’re bigger because there’s more space. Larger obstacles, and they’re very creative here, because skate culture’s so big here. In New York sometimes, there’s a skate park, but it doesn’t feel like there were necessarily many skateboarders that plan the skate park.

Rachelle: That’s a thing, but I feel like New York skaters are more creative because they have to work with what they have, and everything in California’s pretty perfect.

Ajani: Yeah, the sidewalks in California are all flat and smooth, because nobody uses them or walks on them. The ones in New York are so used and cracked and dismantled. You get better faster in New York because the learning curve is steeper. But then you won’t because of the weather!

Do you guys remember the moment when you found out the Betty show was going to happen?

Rachelle: Honestly, I remember Crystal telling us, “I don’t know if this is gonna happen, but they came to us, and they potentially want to shoot.” This was probably the fall of 2018. It all happened fast.

Ajani: It’s only been four years since we met. Barely, even.

Rachelle: No, it’s four years next month.

Ajani: Yeah, It’ll be our anniversary!

Aww, you guys are such good friends. Is it difficult to portray conflict between your characters?

Rachelle: Sometimes, but not a lot because there is real conflict a lot of times.

Ajani: Being very strong personalities, we’re all very stubborn. We realize that.

Rachelle: We’re very stubborn, strong, and opinionated, but we also definitely get over things pretty easily. We never actually want to fight, and we’re not like that to want to have conflict all the time.

HBO’s ‘Betty’ debuts on Friday, May 1 at 11:00 pm EST.

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Here are your quick, editorial-free NXT results for April 29, 2020. Tonight’s episode included Charlotte Flair defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Mia Yim and Keith Lee defending the North American Championship against Damian Priest. Make sure you’re back here tomorrow for the full Best and Worst of NXT review.

NXT results:

1. Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Tournament match: Isaiah “Swerve” Scott defeated El Hijo del Fantasma with a crucifix pin.

– In a promo from earlier in the day, Dominik Dijakovic took issue with Johnny Gargano’s words last week and challenged him to a match.

– During the commercials, El Hijo del Fantasma fought off the masked kidnappers again, this time inside the Performance Center.

2. Candice LeRae defeated Kacey Catanzaro. LeRae entered with a new theme, new gear, and a new entrance video that dubbed her “The Poison Pixie.” Johnny Gargano gave her a complimentary ring introduction and remained at ringside during the match. LeRae pinned Catanzaro with a new finisher called “The Wicked Stepsister” for the win and put her opponent in the Gargano Escape after the match.

– Backstage, Damian Priest cut a promo about his upcoming match with Keith Lee.

– Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher entered the arena and Riddle surprised Thatcher with a game show segment, The Newly-Bro-ed Show. With Byron Saxton as the host, Riddle and Thatcher played The Newlywed Game, soundtracked by canned laughter and applause. Thatcher didn’t really get it. The game was interrupted by an attack by Imperium’s Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel. They posed over Thatcher with the tag belts after beating him up.

– An ad about WWE’s relationship with the Make-A-Wish Foundation aired.

– Adam Cole revealed that William Regal set an NXT Championship defense for him next week against Velveteen Dream. He cut a promo about how he still doesn’t think Dream is worthy.

3. NXT Women’s Championship match: Charlotte Flair (c) defeated Mia Yim by submission, tapping her out with the Figure Eight. Io Shirai confronted Flair after the match.

– Another apocalyptic vignette played for Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux. Their arrival was promoted for next week.

– We learned that also next week, Finn Balor will address the attack on him.

4. Dexter Lumis defeated Shane Thorne by knocking him out with the kata gatame choke.

– Backstage, Keith Lee cut a promo on Damian Priest.

5. Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Tournament match: Drake Maverick defeated Tony Nese with a bulldog off the top rope.

– Flair vs. Shirai, Gargano vs. Dijakovic, and Cole vs. Dream were promoted for next week.

6. NXT North American Championship match: Keith Lee defeated Damian Priest, pinning him with two Spirit Bombs.

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Here are your quick and dirty, editorial-free AEW Dynamite results for April 29, 2020. The show featured the Semi-Finals of the TNT Championship Tournament, a tag team grudge match, and more. Make sure you’re here tomorrow for the complete Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite column.

AEW Dynamite Results:

— The show opened with a video package about the Cody Rhodes vs Darby Allin match.

1. Cody Rhodes defeated Darby Allin to advance to the Finals in the TNT Championship Tournament. Allin hit the Coffin Drop, but Cody rolled him forward so his shoulders were on the mat and got the pin.

— There was another Scorpio Sky video package, focusing on how he joined SCU.

— MJF appeared from home, saying that his hangnail was healed, but while preparing to come back to AEW Dynamite he nicked his neck shaving. He was wearing a cervical collar.

2. Wardlow defeated Musa. Wardlow pinned Musa quickly after an Airplane Spin.

— In a new Bubbly Bunch, Sammy Guevara was gloating about having the best Flim Flam dance. Ortiz said that Chris Jericho won last week, but Santana disagreed. Jericho announced a Manitoba Melee, which led to a montage of a bunch of wrestlers and other people (including Vickie Guerrero, Kevin Smith, Gabriel Iglesias, and Lou Ferrigno) fighting each other over FaceTime.

3. The Best Friends (with Orange Cassidy) defeated Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian (with Penelope Ford) in a No-DQ match. Chuck Taylor pinned Jimmy Havoc after an Awful Waffle onto a pile of chairs.

— In a video segment at her dental office, Doctor Britt Baker introduced her makeup artist, who she called Reba, but her real name is Rebel. Then Britt talked about how some people can’t be role models, using photos of Tony Schiavone to illustrate her points.

4. Shawn Spears defeated Baron Black. Spears used a Sharpshooter, and Black tapped out.

— Marko Stunt was interviewed backstage. He said he knew that a lot of people don’t think he belongs, but even with Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy unable to be here right now, he wants to prove himself.

5. Brodie Lee defeated Marko Stunt. Lee pinned Stunt after a Powerbomb.

— By a graffiti-covered wall in the desert, Jon Moxley talked about the things he’s thankful for. Then he promised to be at AEW Dynamite next week.

6. Lance Archer defeated Dustin Rhodes to advance to the Finals in the TNT Championship Tournament. Cody Rhodes came out and considered throwing in the towel for his brother, but Dustin didn’t want him to. While they were arguing, Archer pulled Dustin back into the ring and repeated slammed his head against the mat before pinning him.

Two of the Bay Area’s premier artists have found themselves at odds after a case of hurt feelings led “F*ck It Up” rapper Kamaiyah to vent to her followers Instagram Live in the wake of Kehlani’s album announcement for It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. During the livestream, Kamaiyah called Kehlani’s Bay Area’s origins into question, telling her fans, “I don’t f*ck with her at all–at all. She know why. That’s that.”

Kamaiyah’s beef seems to stem from her verse — and that of Keyshia Cole, another Oakland resident — being removed from Kehlani’s hit song “All Me.” Kamaiyah admitted to feeling disrespected. “I feel like it never should have came out,” she says “I never wanted ‘All Me’ to come out and she wanted ‘All Me’ to come out… It was our song, we did a project together… if anything I was genuine. My problem came from the disrespect. It was out of hand. It was on some, ‘Oh you’re Black, you’re ghetto, you’re not tasteful.’”

Shortly after, Kehlani seemingly addressed Kamaiyah’s outburst on Twitter with a series of now-deleted tweets in which she appeared to take the high road. However, she quickly removed the tweets from her timeline, perhaps hoping to douse the speculation from curious fans. I’m still not speaking negatively on someone I once cared about,” she wrote. “That I have a matching tattoo with. That I respected and admired.”

She tried to explain the situation but also pointed out harmful retaliation from her former collaborator. “Business didn’t work out on a collaborative project,” She elaborated. “I withdrew and got a ‘green light’ on my family and friends. And it’s still love on this side. reached out countless amounts of times to be adults. to say ‘You have been around my child.’ Still met with internet antics, false rumors that don’t make any sense, and threats to my life. & me all of a sudden not being from the same city that I was from when we were cool.”

Kehlani also explained why the disagreement hadn’t been hashed out behind closed doors. Since no phone calls or texts have been answered in months, I’m responding here. You supposed to be happy — I’m very happy and about to drop a project I’m super proud of just like you did a few months ago.”

However, after deleting the above texts, she was questioned about the accusations Kamaiyah made during the Live alleging that Kehlani called her “Black, ghetto, and not tasteful.” She shot back, “Please do not take this bold ass lie and f*ckin run with it. Y’all KNOW this don’t even SOUND RIGHT. And this could really hurt my fans. Hurt my daughter, hurt my family members. Come on now. This is where I draw the line.”

Those tweets were deleted as well, but hopefully, the two Bay Area representatives can get on Zoom or something and settle this out of the public’s eye.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Transformers franchise has been in trouble for a while now, with the last full-on movie — 2017’s The Last Knight, which actually began in Medieval times with King Arthur — severely underperforming and the spin-off Bumblebee not doing too hot either. And yet as recently as January there was talk of two separate Transformers movies en route. Now, as per The Hollywood Reporter, an animated movie is in the works from people involved in two of modern movies’ biggest brands.

According to THR, Paramount Animation is working on a prequel, taking the franchise back to its animated roots. And to pull it off, they’ve tapped Ant-Man and the Wasp writers Andrew Barrier and Gabriel Ferrari to handle the screenplay. And to direct, they’ve named John Collier, co-director of the Oscar-winning Toy Story 4.

The Transformers franchise began life as an animated TV show that ran four seasons starting in 1984, although its real genesis lies in a line of Hasbro toys, the show largely existing to sell them. The first Transformers movie, called Transformers: The Movie, came in 1986 and while not a box office success, its position in screen history is sealed: It was the last screen work Orson Welles did before dying, with him heard not seen as villainous planet Unicron.

(Via THR)

It’s been six weeks since the NBA (and most other professional sports leagues) officially went on hiatus amid the COVID-19 outbreak, and despite some states now taking measures to reopen their economies and relax their social distancing protocols, the path to resuming the current season remains as murky as ever.

Commissioner Adam Silver has reiterated that the league will not return until the safety of the players, media, league personnel, and fans can be reasonably assured, which presents all sorts of logistical conundrums and no easy solutions. Plenty of ideas have been floated — some more feasible than others — and it’s clear that it’s going to require some creative problem-solving from everyone involved.

One possibility that has gained some traction is the idea of playing games in a single location that would reduce the amount of travel normally required. On Wednesday, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweeted that the league is considering the Disney World Resort in Orlando as one such location.

One possible playing ground for NBA if finishing season becomes safe for league and players: Walt Disney World Resort property in Orlando, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. League has kept different scenarios in mind.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 29, 2020

Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press went on to say that Disney President Bog Iger pitched the idea to league officials this week.

Disney’s Central Florida campus has been talked about for at least a couple weeks. https://t.co/PfDdyHYR4L https://t.co/zimPHF41f2

— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) April 29, 2020

Las Vegas has also been mentioned as a possible location. The key in this scenario would be finding a way to quarantine players and other team personnel in a single location in order to reduce the risk as much as possible. It would also require the adequate facilities in which to play the actual games — which the Wide World of Sports would have — as well as the space to house such a large contingent. Regardless, any such scenario is likely still relatively far down the road.