Current Events
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Source: Getty Images / Ben Stiller / Sinners
Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s Sinners is without a doubt a hit, but based on a post from Variety, you would think otherwise, and Ben Stiller and everyone else on X see the jig.
Coogler’s 1930’s vampire flick that stars Jordan as two twins, Smoke and Stack, that return home to open up a juke joint, only to encounter a pack of blood sucking gouls took a significant bite out of the box office during its opening weekend, earning an impressive $61 million and dethroning A Minecraft Movie.
Variety, the well-established publication that reports on all things Hollywood, dropped a shady post on X, speaking about the film’s success, while also pointing out itit’still short of breaking even and returning a profit for the studio.
The tweet (yes, we still call them that) is hilariously still up and it reads:
“Sinners” has amassed $61 million in its global debut. It’s great result for an original, R-rated horror film, yet the Warner Bros. release has a $90 million price tag before global marketing expenses, so profitability remains a ways away.”
Ben Stiller Was Not Feeling Variety’s Shade Towards Sinners
The post, which was also slapped with a well-timed community note calling Variety’s headline misleading, sparked plenty of outrage, with some of Hollywood’s biggest names like Ben Stiller coming to the defense of the hit film.
In a quote reply, Stiller wrote, “In what universe does a 60 million dollar opening for an original studio movie warrant this headline?”
Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus) also chimed in on the matter, reminding folks that “It’s opening weekend…”
“I wonder if @variety covered Once Upon A Time in Hollywood – which made 10% less at the domestic box office on 10% more theaters prepandemic and at the same budget with a similar deal structure – in the same way,” Franklin Leonard, a film producer and creator of The Black List said on X.
The rest of the world who have been praising the film after seeing it in theaters have also been sounding off on Variety. You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
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Source: Tom Williams / Getty / Pete Hegseth
Pete Hegseth continues to drop top-secret information in Signal chats.
Trump’s DEI hire for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is embroiled in another scandal after details surfaced on Sunday of another Signal chat where he once again shared confidential attack plans.
A second unreported Signal chat is floating over Hegseth’s head where he shared more sensitive information about attacks on Houthi rebels, but this time he shared those details with his wife and brother, according to news reports.
Per The New York Times:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat.
Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.
Mr. Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not a Defense Department employee, but she has traveled with him overseas and drawn criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders.
Mr. Hegseth’s brother Phil and Tim Parlatore, who continues to serve as his personal lawyer, both have jobs in the Pentagon, but it is not clear why either would need to know about upcoming military strikes aimed at the Houthis in Yemen.
To make matters worse for Hegseth, unlike the last Signal chat, this one was created by him. Of course, this administration never takes responsibility or accountability for anything, and that behavior starts at the top.
Hegseth’s boss, Donald Trump, who will never admit that his administration is a sloppy mess, is standing by the Secretary of Defense, with the White House claiming that no sensitive information was shared, the same response they had the last time.
Social Media Is Clowning Pete Hegseth
Whiskey Leaks, aka Pete Hegseth, has been getting lit up on social media.
Senator Cory Booker wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Pete Hegseth is clearly ill-equipped to handle the role of Secretary of Defense. His repeated failure to follow basic operational security procedures jeopardizes the safety and security of our armed forces. He should resign. It is time for my Republican colleagues to do their constitutional duty and scrutinize his and the administration’s actions in oversight hearings.”
Another post read, “When Pete Hegseth sobers up he’ll be surprised to learn he was defense secretary.”
Damn.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Source: Liane Hentscher/HBO / The Last of Us / Pedro Pascal
Gamers have already experienced this controversial moment in video game history. Still, watching it unfold in HBO’s hit television adaptation of the iconic video game, The Last of Us, has hit even harder, leaving fans stunned.
Like watching the Titanic barrel towards a massive iceberg, fans of The Last of Us video game knew this day was coming and eagerly anticipated seeing how casual viewers would handle this moment that sparked plenty of discourse in the video game world when The Last of Us Part II was released in 2020.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Okay, if you moved past the spoiler warning, you no longer care about what is about to be said.
How Joel’s Time Came To An End In The Last of Us Season 2
At the end of season 1, we saw Pedro Pascal’s Joel slaughter a bunch of members of the Fireflies and including doctors who were about perform a fatal surgery on Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in hopes of turning her immunity to the fungal plague into a cure to end the Cordyceps brain infection that ravaged the entire globe, basically bringing civilization to a crashing halt.
Joel’s decision to save his surrogate daughter comes back to haunt him in season 2 with the introduction of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who just happens to be the daughter of the head surgeon he killed in season 1, and yes, she wants revenge, and she gets it brutally.
After Joel saves her from a horde of infected, she quickly realizes he is the man she has been searching for. She shoots in the knee with a shotgun before brutally beating Joel with a golf club, delivering the fatal blow in front of Ellie for a gutwrenching scene as she screams for surrogate dad to get up, before dragging herself over to his lifeless body.
We knew it was coming, but man, it still hit like a ton of bricks.
Showrunners Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann Didn’t Want To Torment Fans
The Last of Us television show is a rare gem, as it has rich source material to draw from in the game; for the most part, it perfectly mirrors the game with some slight changes made to the story.
Like in this season, Abby is not muscular like she is in the game, much to the chagrin of some purists, but Dever still plays the role with the same anger, and Joel’s death in the show was more brutal than it was in the game, and this was done on purpose.
In an interview with Variety, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann explained why they wasted no time when handling Joel’s death in the show.
They admitted they had thought of every possible scenario. Still, Druckmann explained from a storytelling perspective that Joel’s death happening early made sense “because this is the inciting incident for this story.”
Mazin and Druckmann also wanted to address the elephant in the room, Joel’s death, because it has been looming over the show since season 1, and they felt they had an obligation to spare fans from any more torment.
“There’s a danger of tormenting people,” Mazin told Variety. “It’s not what we want to do. If people know it’s coming, they will start to feel tormented. And people who don’t know it’s coming are going to find out it’s coming because people are going to talk about the fact that it hasn’t shown up yet.
“Our instinct was to make sure that when we did it, that it felt natural in the story and was not some meta-function of us wanting to upset people.”
Social Media Reactions To The Last of Season 2’s Heartbreaking Moment
As expected, the reactions to Joel’s gruesome death were those of shock, and mostly people who knew it was coming were still left reeling after watching Pedro Pascal take a golf club and plenty of punches to the face.
We’re not sure if those people who were tuning in to watch Pedro Pascal will stick around, but if this one post on X, formerly Twitter, is an indicator, HBO and The Last of Us might be in trouble.
But we don’t think last night’s episode will be the last time we see Pascal’s Joel. Remember, we got a whole five years of time we need to catch up on.
Damn Joel, we hate it had to be you.
You can see more reactons to the episode in the gallery below.
1. If you hate her, that means she’s doing a phenomenal job
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Getty Images / Ryan Coogle / Gillian Anderson / The X-Files
Ryan Coogler has set the world ablaze with his phenomenal vampire flick Sinners, and is now looking forward to his reboot of The X-Files, in which he hopes will feature one of the OGs from the original show.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Last Podcast on the Left, the Black Panther director discussed what’s next on his plate and revealed that it was the X-Files reboot.
“I’ve been excited about that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it,” Coogler said about his “X-Files” reboot. “Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f—ing scary. We’re gonna try to make something really great, bro, and really be something for the real ‘X-Files’ fans, and maybe find some new ones.”
To get folks even more excited about his take on the iconic Fox show, he revealed that he’s “spoken to the great Gillian Anderson,” adding, “She’s incredible. Fingers crossed there.”
In the show, Anderson plays FBI Agent Dana Scully, who is initially very skeptical of her partner, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), but eventually becomes a believer in his conspiracies after experiencing them firsthand. At one point, she is abducted and offered to aliens.
Gillian Anderson Already Expressed Optimism That She Wants To Return
Speaking on the Today show, Anderson expressed optimism about returning for the reboot. “It’s so funny because for most of my life, since I have finished ‘The X-Files‘, every interview I do, people have asked and the answer has always been, ‘Nope, not going to happen, not going to happen,’” Anderson said. “Now, Ryan Coogler, who is the director of ‘Black Panther’ — brilliant, brilliant director — has approached Chris Carter to say that he wants to do a take on it, and I cannot think of a better way around for a reboot to happen.”
She continued, “Whether I am involved in it is a whole other thing. I’m not saying no. I think he’s really cool and I think if he did it, it would probably be done incredibly well. And maybe I’ll pop in for a little something something.”
Now, if Coogler can both Anderson and Duchovny back, he’s got another hit on his hands.
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Source: Ethan Miller / Getty / Travis Scott / WrestleMania 41
Travis Scott might want to stick to his day job because professional wrestling just isn’t working out for him, according to WWE fans.
Some celebrities, such as Bad Bunny, have had a significant impact on storylines leading up to the WWE’s largest pay-per-view events. Unfortunately for Travis Scott, the writing was on the wall with his involvement in the Cody Rhodes/John Cena feud, which sadly flopped; the rapper didn’t help sell it at all.
Travis Scott is best known for crafting hits in the studio, but as we found out during the Elimination Chamber PPV he isn’t good at pretending to deliver them in the wrestling ring when he apparently “accidentally” injured Rhodes, rupturing his eardrum after pimp slapping the professional rapper.
Things didn’t get better for Scott when he showed up at WrestleMania 41 to interfere in night 2’s main event featuring Cena and Rhodes for the WWE Undisputed Championship.
Scott made his way down the ramp to the ring, but this time Rhodes got the upper hand on the “SICKO MODE” crafter hitting him with his “Cross Rhodes” finisher and throwing him out of the ring.
That gave Cena enough time to hit Rhodes with the title, knocking him out and sealing the victory with a pinfall, becoming the WWE Undisputed Champion for the 17th time, a WWE record.
Social Media Body Slams Travis Scott & WrestleMania 41’s Lackluster Main Event
WrestleMania 41 was already facing negative press due to some controversial comments from Roman Reigns and Chief Content Officer Triple H regarding Donald Trump.
The lackluster main event didn’t help much, especially how things played out, plus Scott’s involvement, with wrestling fans taking to social media to express their disappointment.
“Travis Scott shit is STUPID,” Phase Hero host and producer, Brandon Davis, said on X, formerly Twitter.
Another post read, “Like what??? Why did Travis Scott have a 5 minute entrance in the middle of the match and WHERE IS THE ROCK????”
Welp, it looks like no one wants to see Scott in a WWE ring ever again.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. This fan didn’t get goosebumps seeing Scott
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Source: Getty Images / Roman Reigns / Donald Trump
WWE fans are losing their sh*t, and are outright disappointed in popular wrestler Roman Reigns throwing support behind the tariff abuser and divider-in-chief, Donald Trump.
Say it ain’t so, tribal chief, say ain’t it so.
That’s what wrestling fans are saying to Roman Reigns after he said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair that Trump was the “clear choice” when casting his vote in the 2024 election, despite him being a registered Democrat.
Per Vanity Fair:
Anoa’i is a registered Democrat, but he considers himself a centrist. In the most recent election, however, he says the choice was “very clear.”
“One person was giving us information. One person was answering questions, so it wasn’t that hard,” he says.
When I ask if that means that he backed Trump, Anoa’i pauses for a few seconds.
“I support our president. Trump is one of those guys where he’s got a vast history and a huge background. He’s been in entertainment. He’s been in big business, politics. At this point, I’m supporting a bright future for our country. Positive and competent leadership. For us to be what we’re supposed to be—to be a world leader and carry that respect and do what a world power like us should be doing.”
Reigns, real name Joe Anoa’i, did note that he isn’t totally onboard the MAGA train and that his support for Orange Mussolini isn’t unconditional. He does take issue with Trump going after political rivals, adding, “It’s like he needs that adversary,” while joking, “the world seems to be more like wrestling than any other form of entertainment.”
We wonder how he feels about the Trump administration sending people to El Salvadorian prisons by mistake, gross misuse of tariffs, and his administration’s attack on DEI, given that he is a person of color.
Social Media Is Superman Punching Roman Reigns
As expected, wrestling fans are BIG MAD and very disappointed in Reigns admitting to supporting Trump and have not been holding back in their criticism of the WWE superstar.
“fuck triple h, fuck donald trump, fuck roman reigns, fuck anyone defending this and especially fuck you hulk hogan,” one post on X, formerly Twitter said.
Another post read, “roman reigns is a trump supporter? THIS IS MY 9/11.”
Another user on X wrote, “finding out that Roman Reigns is a Trump supporter and one of the first things Trump did when he got back in office was cut funding for cancer research.. the jokes REALLY DO write themselves. just remember that wealth can’t buy health, look at Steve Jobs! just saying!”
Reigns’ support for Trump shouldn’t be shocking, especially regarding WWE wrestlers. The Undertaker and his fake brother Kane, whose real name is Glenn Jacobs, are both proud Trump supporters.
Linda McMahon, wife of disgraced WWE owner Vince McMahon, is the current Education Secretary in the Trump Administration.
What a damn shame.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Insanity
3. Make it, make sense
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Collin County Republican Party / Judge Angela Tucker
A Black judge has become the subject of harassment after some decisions made in a now high-profile teen stabbing case that is captivating the nation.
Judge Angela Tucker has received threats and had her private information released to the public after lowering Karmelo Anthony’s bond from $1 million to $250,000.
TMZ Sports reports that the Collin County Sheriff’s Office beefed up Tucker’s security following her decision on Monday.
Per TMZ Sports:
The CCSO said “court staff and concerned citizens” reported the menacing remarks made against the official … and now, its team of investigators, as well as the FBI are probing the matter.
Additionally, the CCSO told us it’s on the hunt for any party who has released private and personal information about the judge to the public.
“If the individual responsible is identified,” the CCSO said, “potential charges could include Unlawful Disclosure of a Residence Address or Telephone Number and Obstruction or Retaliation.”
The celebrity gossip site also notes that Tucker made her X page private following Monday’s hearing.
Her decision came after the 17-year-old’s attorney successfully argued that his $1 million bond was unnecessary because he does not have a criminal history.
Prosecutors argued for the $1 million to stay in place, claiming it was the standard for murder cases in Collin County.
Tucker also ordered Anthony to wear an ankle monitor and remain confined to his home.
The case has become a polarizing one after Anthony allegedly stabbed Austin Metcalf in a dispute over a seat on April 2.
There has been plenty of discourse surrounding the case, specifically the argument around Anthony’s inability to use the argument of self-defense when people like Kyle Rittenhouse could.
We expect this case to cause plenty of division as it plays out in the court.
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Spotify is a dominant force in the music and audio streaming space and owns a large market share of users who enjoy the service. On Wednesday (April 16), however, Spotify found itself trending on X after users complained of the service going dark on them and sparking complaints.
As of this writing, Spotify still appears to be down, and neither the Web nor mobile versions are working. We even tried the desktop app, and that too was not responsive. Taking a look at Downdetector, it appears the service went out around 8 AM ET this morning with nearly 50,000 users reporting an outage.
Via the Spotify Status account on X, the service’s teams are aware of the issues and have posted a message.
“We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!” read their reply on X.
In the comment section of Downdetector, some are reporting limited functionality, but overall, most are saying that all forms of the service are inaccessible at the moment.
While the company addresses the issue and gets the fix going, we’ve scoured X for some replies regarding the outage of the audio streaming service. According to some of the replies we’ve seen, some people felt inconvenienced by the service interruption.
Check out those replies below.
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Photo: SOPA Images / Getty
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Source: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty
Bernie Sanders’ surprise appearance at the Coachella festival was cheered and jeered by some on social media.
As the Coachella music festival took place last Saturday night (April 12), singer and songwriter Clairo took the stage alongside Democratic Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost of Florida. Moments later, Frost introduced Senator Bernie Sanders to a surprised crowd.
https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1911268414456549619
“I wanted to thank Clairo for allowing me to get up here and to thank this guy, you may or may not know him, but Maxwell Frost, he’s a member of the United States Congress, the youngest and in my view one of the best members,” Sanders began. “I’m not going to be long but this is what I want to say. This country faces some very difficult challenges, and the future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation.”
Sanders spoke about the need for those in the crowd to fight “for economic justice, social justice, and racial justice.” As he mentioned President Donald Trump in his remarks, the crowd booed lustily. “I agree,” Sanders replied. “He [Trump] thinks that climate change is a hoax. He is dangerously wrong. And you and I are gonna have to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and tell them to stop destroying this planet.” He would close his remarks by praising Clairo for her support for women’s rights and the Palestinian people of Gaza.
Sanders’ appearance occurred on the same day that he and Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared at a rally on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in Los Angeles. The 83-year-old independent senator representing Vermont has appeared at Coachella before, introducing Run The Jewels before their set in 2016.
The surprise showing by Sanders received detraction from users on social media, particularly on X, formerly, Twitter. Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro called Sanders out in a post, blaming him for divisiveness in comparison to Trump’s appearance at a UFC fight the same night bringing “people together automatically and they spontaneously started patriotically cheering “USA” in unison.”
Many more applauded Sanders’ outreach to the Coachella crowd, feeling it was another good move by Democratic politicians and those aligned with them to rally support from the public. “I expect to see more organic engagement like this from Dems this year as they work to rebrand,” said writer Rachel Janfaza.
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Source: Kick / Adin Ross / Drake
Drake has another album on the way, and according to the Canadian musician, it’s got some bops on it, but fans are asking him to take a break.
Hopping on Adin Ross’ Kick stream Sunday night, Drake announced to the MAGA-loving streamer’s Kick audience that he has another solo album on the way.
Surprised at the revelation, Ross further expounded by asking Drizzy if it was a solo album, and Kendrick Lamar’s favorite punching bag responded yes.
Drake added that the forthcoming project has “slaps” while thanking fans for support for his latest music, which is more than likely his latest song, “Nokia,” which is currently racing up the charts.
The visual for the record, which some believe was Drake’s way of trolling Kendrick Lamar, was the greatest gainer on Urban and Rhythmic radio this past week.
While Drake is excited to flood streaming services and airwaves with more music, folks on X want Drizzy to take some time and chill because they are tired of hearing from the artist.
“Keep it bro no one will be listening,” one person on X, formerly Twitter, wrote.
Another user wrote, “Another 19 track snooze fest to keep inflating streaming numbers.”
“I hope it’s better this last weak album he did with PND. That was trash,” another post read.
Well damn.
Also, during the stream, Ross asked Drake if he would ever get in the boxing ring with the rapper responding “No” but asking the streamer, “Who do you want me to— I don’t even have to ask.”
We all know Ross was asking about Kendrick Lamar without having to guess. Drake did say he would rather fight someone behind closed doors at a gym or something close to that.
Welp.
You can see more reactions to Drake being on Adin Ross’ stream below.