Steve Pond's Blog, page 2079
November 16, 2019
Will.i.am Confronted by Police After Onboard Incident With Qantas ‘#RacistFlightattendant’
Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am was met by five police officers upon disembarking a plane in Sydney, Australia, Friday following an incident with a Qantas flight attendant whom he called “racist.”
“I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney. I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced they worse service due to a overly aggressive flight attendant… I don’t want to believe she racist. But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour,” he wrote in a Friday tweet.
According to Will.i.am’s tweets, he couldn’t hear the attendant’s announcements over the PA system because he was wearing noise-canceling headphones.
Also Read: Will.i.am Sets Film and TV Production Deal With EntertainmentOne
“@Qantas I was making music wearing noise canceling headphones on the plane… I’m sorry i couldn’t hear the P.A…I complied when she’s tapped me on the shoulder to put my laptop away… It’s sad that your #RacistFlightAttendant sent the police…” will.i.am wrote.
I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced they worse service due to a overly aggressive flight attendant…
I don’t want to believe she racist.
But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour
— will.i.am (@iamwill) November 16, 2019
Tagging the airline, he went on to write, “@Qantas Your #RacistFlightattendant was beyond rude & took it to the next level by calling the police on me. thank god the other passengers testified that SHE was out of Control the police finally let me go. imagine if the police were as aggressive.”
He added, “I was intimidated by 5 police officers when I landed…for what? I put away my laptop when she asked…why would she feel threatened by me to call the police? What did I do wrong? I wasn’t out of hand.. I was polite & did what she asked… now you’re asking me to take abuse?”
Also Read: Supreme Court Justices Quiz Byron Allen's Lawyers on Legal Standards for Racial Discrimination Cases
In a subsequent tweet, the musician identified the flight attendant by name, prompting many on Twitter to lash out at her. Will.i.am very quickly called for that to stop.
“Please do not send Hate,” he wrote, addressing his fans. “This type of disrespect and name calling is uncalled for…I don’t support abuse & attacks like this…I hope that everyone can be more compassionate & understanding towards one another…because it was the lack of compassion that caused this.”
A Qantas spokesperson responded to the incident in a statement to The Independent: “There was a misunderstanding on board, which seems to have been exacerbated by will.i.am wearing noise cancelling headphones and not being able to hear instructions from crew. We completely reject the suggestion this had anything to do with race. We’ll be following up with will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour.”
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Kanye West Takes His ‘Jesus Is King’ Tour to 2 Houston Prisons (Video)
Kanye West’s “Jesus Is King” tour took an unexpected stop in Houston this weekend, where he performed tracks from his latest album for inmates at two prisons.
“What Kanye West does to inspire the incarcerated is transformative,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted on Saturday. “Saving one soul at a time. Inmates who turn to God may get released earlier [because] of good behavior & may be less likely to commit future crimes. It would be great if other artists followed Kanye’s lead.”
Last month, West released the album along with a short film featuring him and his Sunday Service gospel choir that screened in IMAX theaters. Together with Sunday Service, West first performed for a reported crowd of 200 inmates at a male correctional facility on Friday before heading across the street to perform at a women’s correctional facility.
Also Read: Behind the 'Jesus Is King' Film That Brought Together Kanye West and Imax
Here’s a snippet of Friday’s festivities:
“Say what you want about the man,” Harris County Sheriff’s Office Public Affairs Director Jason Spencer tweeted. “But @kanyewest and his choir brought some light to people who needed it today at the Harris County Jail.”
According to a tweet from Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, West started the show by declaring, “This is a mission, not a show.”
On this date, @kanyewest visits @HCSOTexas jail system. “This is a mission, not a show”- Kanye
— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) November 15, 2019
West is scheduled to speak on Sunday at Houston’s Lakewood Church, which is owned by TV evangelist Joel Osteen. TMZ reported Friday that the megachurch offered free tickets via Ticketmaster to the first 45,000 takers.
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Is There a New ‘SNL’ Episode Airing This Week?
Season 45 of “SNL” is now underway, returning at the end of September after that four-month summer hiatus. The most recent new episode, hosted by Kristen Stewart, featured the first cold open of the season that didn’t have any celebrity guests. The sketch didn’t suffer at all for that lack, though, as it saw Kate McKinnon brilliantly play Elizabeth Warren holding a town hall in which she took questions from wishy-washy audience members.
In season 45, Alec Baldwin has made two appearances as Donald Trump thus far, in the premiere episode and in the cold open on October 26, when he shared the stage with Darrell Hammond, the former “SNL” cast member who played Trump on the show for years. Baldwin popped up less often in season 44 than he did in the previous two seasons, when he would appear as Donald Trump in the cold open most weeks. It’s tough to guess how often we’ll see him this year, but he’s shown up in two of the four episodes so far.
This week, on Saturday, November 16, there WILL be a new episode of “SNL.” This week’s episode will be hosted by Harry Styles, who will also perform as the musical guest. It’s usually pretty rare for “SNL” to have hosts pulling double duty, but Styles will already be the second of the year, after Chance the Rapper. This episode will air live coast-to-coast, as is almost always the case for a new episode these days.
Also Read: 'SNL': Darrell Hammond Returns as Bill Clinton, Attends a Trump Rally (Video)
While season 44 saw “SNL” seemingly tire of doing political commentary late in the season, season 45 has seen it return its politics-heavy form. Every cold open this season has been political, and each has featured some surprise celebrity cameos. Including, perhaps most shockingly, Darrell Hammond’s brief appearance — Hammond was devastated three years ago when it picked Baldwin to play Trump over him. We’ve also seen Lin-Manuel Miranda and Billy Porter feature in one cold open, and Matthew Broderick in another.
The start of the 45th season of “SNL” is not that different from how season 44 began — though later in the season it shied away from the political stuff in favor of general pop culture jokes.
Last year, the Season 44 premiere was eventful for a number of reasons. Matt Damon appeared as Brett Kavanaugh in the cold open. Musical guest Kanye West wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat on stage and giving a pro-Donald Trump speech that didn’t air. Cast member Pete Davidson addressed West’s pro-Trump speech during the “Weekend Update” portion of the Oct. 6 episode the following week.
The political bent did, of course, continue throughout the season. Ahead of the midterm elections, we got a cold open sketch that parodied Fox News’ hysterical coverage of the immigrant caravan ahead of this week’s midterm elections. The sketch saw cast member Kate McKinnon playing “Ingraham Angle” host Laura Ingraham, with guest appearances by Kenan Thompson as right-wing former sheriff David Clarke and Cecily Strong popping up as “Judge” Jeanine Pirro. The three took turns spouting false narratives about the caravan and presenting videos of things like a mob of Black Friday shoppers and crabs scrambling around on a beach as being footage of the caravan.
We’ve been surprised to see Robert De Niro pop up fairly regularly as special counsel Robert Mueller — he showed up in two episodes late last season and has returned for several more episodes as Mueller in the past couple months, such as when he bid farewell to Kate McKinnon’s still tremendously impression Jeff Sessions impersonation after Sessions was fired as Attorney General.
Alec Baldwin’s most recent appearance, his sixth time this season portraying Donald Trump, came in a sketch mocking the way the Mueller Report was initially filtered by Attorney General William Barr and Trump himself.
In the previous two seasons of “SNL” you’d have been hard pressed to find many cold open sketches that dodged the political happenings of the week, but lately the show has been delving more into general pop culture stuff and — aside from eternally mocking Trump — even taking more of a neutral stance in its political sketches. Recent examples of such apolitical sketches include a parody of that infamous R. Kelly interview on CBS News, and the previously mentioned Julian Assange prison sketch — while Assange is certainly a political figure, the sketch was just for lulz, not for making political statements.
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‘The Crown’ Refresher: Here’s Where We Left Queen Elizabeth II Ahead of Season 3
“The Crown” finally returns after a very long hiatus on Sunday with the premiere of its third season. And because it’s been almost two years since Season 2 of the royal drama dropped on Netflix, we’re sure even the most diehard fans have forgotten what happened on the most recent episode.
But don’t worry, TheWrap has compiled a refresher to get you all caught up with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and their regal brood before the new episodes launch.
(Here’s your reminder that the second season marked the final performances of Claire Foy as Elizabeth, Matt Smith as Philip, Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, and all of the rest of the Seasons 1 and 2 cast who were replaced for the time jump that hits the series for Seasons 3 and 4. Now you’ll have Olivia Colman as your queen, Tobias Menzies as her prince and Helena Bonham Carter as her sister.)
On the Season 2 finale, titled “Mystery Man,” Elizabeth finds out she’s pregnant with her fourth child just as scandal his her nation once more and rumors spread that Philip has had an affair. The couple fight it out at Balamoral Castle, where Elizabeth confronts her husband about his possible infidelity without directly accusing him of having been unfaithful. And he tells her: “I know exactly what my job is. Your father made it perfectly clear: You are my job. You are the essence of my duty.”
Their drama seemingly ends when Elizabeth tells Philip she’s willing to “look the other way” and he tells her he doesn’t want her to.
Meanwhile, Margaret and her new husband Lord Snowden a.k.a. Antony Armstrong-Jones (played by Mathew Goode on Season 2, and replaced by Ben Daniels for Seasons 3 and 4) are parents to two children by the end of the episode and living in a renovated apartment in Kensington Palace. And the cracks in their young marriage are already beginning to show.
On the political side, the episode sees the October 1963 resignation of Elizabeth’s third prime minister, Harold Macmillan. Macmillan stepped down after John Profumo, a member of his cabinet, had an affair which led to a major security breach. Elizabeth appoints family friend Alec Douglas-Home as prime minister, which is not something that pleases her subjects very much.
By the episodes end we’ve reached 1964 and the queen has gives birth to Prince Edward, her youngest child. The baby is baptized and the entire royal family sits for a portrait session which ends with the photographer reciting this line from Shakespeare’s “Richard II”: “This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”
“The Crown” Season 3 launches Sunday on Netflix.
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Disney+ Vows to Fix ‘The Simpsons’ After Fan Outcry Over Cropped Jokes
After much fan outcry, Disney has announced that plans are being made to allow Disney+ users to watch classic episodes of “The Simpsons” in their original aspect ratio format.
When the new streaming service launched this past Tuesday, one of the big perks offered was the first 30 seasons of “The Simpsons.” But “Simpsons” fans complained that dozens of visual gags had been cropped out by switching older episodes from their original 4:3 ratio to a 16:9 widescreen ratio. “The Simpsons” didn’t actually make that jump until midway through their 20th season in 2009.
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All the classic Simpsons episodes on Disney+ are in cropped widescreen format — this means you miss out on tons of great visual jokes, like how Duff, Duff Lite and Duff Dry all come from the same tube. pic.twitter.com/cTy9adulFl
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) November 12, 2019
my favourite thing about old episodes of the simpsons is that lisa doesn't have a body, which was a bold choice in the 1990s for a cartoon character. pic.twitter.com/1QWJ6aeD9z
— Willow Catelyn Maclay (@willow_catelyn) November 12, 2019
In a statement, Disney+ said that the decision was made to switch the episodes to widescreen “to guarantee visual quality and consistency across all 30 seasons.”
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The statement reads in full:
“We presented ‘The Simpsons’ in 16:9 aspect ratio at launch in order to guarantee visual quality and consistency across all 30 seasons. Over time, Disney+ will roll out new features and additional viewing options. As part of this, in early 2020, Disney+ will make the first 19 seasons (and some episodes from Season 20) of ‘The Simpsons’ available in their original 4:3 aspect ratio, giving subscribers a choice of how they prefer to view the popular series.”
The option to allow users to switch to 4:3 for pre-2009 episodes will roll out early next year.
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‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ in Works at Bravo
Bravo is adding a 10th version of their runaway hit reality series “The Real Housewives” that will take place in Salt Lake City, the franchise’s executive producer and host Andy Cohen announced at the network’s first ever BravoCon this weekend.
“We’ve always tried to choose a city that has completely unique personalities and we also try to throw a little curveball now and then. Pick somewhere you weren’t expecting,” Cohen said.
“You didn’t see it coming but I have to tell you, in Utah, you have the majesty of the mountains, the Mormon religion, an exclusive community of people who have very successful businesses who live in their own universe,” he added. “It is gorgeous and I think you’re going to be really surprised and intrigued by the group of women we’ve found.”
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Since its launch with “The Real Housewives of Orange County” in 2006, Bravo has launched versions of the show in New York, Atlanta, Beverly Hills and other U.S. cities. Only two versions — Miami and Washington D.C. — have been canceled, while “Orange County” has reached 14 seasons. Other countries have created their versions of the show in places like Sydney, Vancouver, Bangkok, Athens and Johannesburg.
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“‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ takes viewers into an undiscovered world that is about so much more than religion, although the Mormon church is undeniably ingrained in the culture,” the official announcement of the new series reads. “In the majestic mountains of Utah is a hidden social circle made up of successful women who have created their own paradise filled with luxury homes, shopping sprees and multi-million-dollar businesses and brands.”
“Here perfection is not an aspiration, it’s a mandate. They hold themselves and each other to an extremely high standard and never hold back when things go sideways, but lord knows they are always there for each other when they need it most.”
An official premiere date for the show has not been set.
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Former DNC Chair Donna Brazile Tells Bill Maher She Hopes Roger Stone ‘Roasts In Hell’
Donna Brazile did not mince words when it came to Roger Stone’s conviction during her appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” saying that she hopes Donald Trump’s friend “roasts in hell.”
Brazile made the fiery comments on the show’s “Overtime” post-show on YouTube when Maher asked his panel whether they think Trump will grant Stone a presidential pardon. Stone was found guilty on Friday on seven federal criminal charges, including witness tampering and obstruction of justice, and could face up to 20 years in prison.
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“Well he’s going to be sentenced February 6th, I hope he roasts in hell, that son of a bitch,” Brazile said as Maher jokingly told her to calm down.
“[Stone] “worked with WikiLeaks to destroy not just Democrats, but to destroy our democracy, so I hope he roasts in hell, and I wish I’m at the sentencing hearing cuz I’m going to wear the best looking red dress I could and say go to hell. Not jail,” she continued.
Brazile, who became chair of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election, accused Stone and Wikileaks of working to “destroy Hillary Clinton.”
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“I have a lot of love, I’m going to have to work really hard I’m forgiving him,” Brazile said, but added that “they threatened us they went after us and he understood what was at stake, and you saw the testimony said, they were gleeful. Screw them, bunch of bastards. They were gleeful.”
Watch Brazile’s outburst in the clip above.
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A List of Things That Happened in ‘AHS: 1984’ That Didn’t Make Any Sense at All
(Spoilers ahead for the entirety of “American Horror Story: 1984”)
Well, “AHS: 1984” sure was a whole thing. Just a whole thing. I can’t say I’m overly upset that this unhinged and wildly uneven season is over, but I can’t quite move on with my life just yet.
Before I can forget all of this ever happened, I have a laundry list of things that happened in “AHS: 1984” that were super irritating and frustrating to watch, and I feel like I’m gonna go crazy if I don’t try to share this madness with our dear readers. So let’s do this. I have 18 items right now. I’ll probably add some more because I keep thinking of new ones.
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1. They forgot to do a climax, as the season finale was really just an epilogue with occasional goofy flashbacks explaining what happened back in the day.
2. Why was Dylan McDermott even in this when his character served no real plot purpose?
3. The Night Stalker (Zach Villa) could not have possibly murdered Mr. Jingles’s wife.
4. Remember when there was a whole thing about Margaret (Leslie Grossman) being a devoted Satan worshipper? They just kinda stopped talking about that.
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5. Speaking of Satan, why was he resurrecting the Night Stalker over and over? What could possibly have been the point of that, since he never actually appeared to enact any kind of plan or play any kind of key role in much of anything.
6. Rita/Donna (Angelica Ross) and Brooke (Emma Roberts) looked exactly the same 30 years later.
7. There was no actual “final girl.”
8. In the first episode, they ran into that mysterious 1970 camp counselor (Lou Taylor Pucci) in the road outside camp. Then it was revealed that Margaret killed him in the road. Then all the later episodes established that you have to die within the property line of the camp, which they also establish does not include the road. And yet that guy kept coming back as a ghost like he had died on the property, even though he hadn’t.
9. Back at the beginning of the season we learned that Xavier (Cody Fern) was at camp because he was trying to avoid this guy who had forced him to do gay porn. And then that guy showed up at camp, to try to make Xavier do more gay porn, while Xavier protested that he didn’t enjoy it because he isn’t gay. And then that guy died, never came back as a ghost, and that whole thing was never mentioned again. Nothing related to Xavier’s sexuality is even alluded to.
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10. In the early episodes of “AHS: 1984,” everybody had a story like that, something they were trying to escape by going to Camp Redwood. But none of their character arcs were given any closure so I’m not sure what the point was supposed to be.
11. played Brooke’s dad for one scene — the bloody wedding — and had no lines and was never mentioned again.
12. In the third episode, Chet and Ray fell into a pit filled with spikes. I guess Margaret might have put it there, but until all the murders started happening it sure seemed like she was gonna play it straight with the summer camp. So I don’t know why she would have put a giant spike pit at the summer camp for children.
13. Ditto for the net trap that Brooke gets stuck in.
14. Speaking of which, I don’t understand anything about Margaret. She bought the camp and wanted to do summer camp. But she was worshipping Satan and wanted to do evil things? Literally nothing about that character tracks. Which is saying something for “AHS”
15. At the end of the eighth episode, Mr. Jingles (as a ghost) was killed and woke up next to his dead little brother, who is also a ghost. And then his mom (Lily Rabe) was also there, and she told Jingles: “You brought him back to me, and I am eternally grateful.” I might think she was referring to how he killed her in 1958 and made it so they could hang out as ghosts, but literally one episode earlier she was screaming at him about how she hasn’t seen him since he died.
16. So, uh, why did any of this happen? Why is the camp like that? Everybody just kinda stopped wondering about it.
17. Finn Wittrock shoulda known better.
18. I mean come on
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Everything You Need to Know About The Crazy ‘Last Christmas’ Twist Ending, Explained
(Major spoilers ahead, obviously, for the ending of “Last Christmas”)
“Last Christmas” may not seem like much more than a bog-standard romantic comedy, but it really isn’t. What, did you think Paul Feig was gonna follow up the mind-bending “A Simple Favor” with something normal? Nope.
I should note before we get into this that I really enjoyed “Last Christmas.” So I’m not writing this as a way of mocking this movie. The twist we’re about to discuss is really wild mostly just because it defies your expectations about what a romantic comedy is and because most folks aren’t going to be coming into this thing expecting any kind of major twist. But, to me, “Last Christmas” isn’t just different from romantic comedy standards — it’s more than just a romantic comedy as well.
So let’s get into it. I’m gonna kinda talk through the plot of the movie now The story here focuses on Kate (Emilia Clarke), whose family moved to London in the late ’90s as refugees from Yugoslavia. As a result, they’re all kinda messed up and have a lot of emotional baggage. As Kate’s mom (Emma Thompson, who also co-wrote the film) notes early on, she has no social life because “all my friends were murdered.” Mom is also worried that they’re gonna get kicked out of the country because of Brexit, and Dad (Boris Isakovic) drives a cab all the time because just being around his family brings up a lot of trauma.
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In addition to all that stuff, Kate has some extra baggage she’s dealing with. As we learn midway through “Last Christmas,” she had a heart defect of some kind that put her in the hospital on the brink of death, until she received a new heart from someone who had died. Ever since, she says, something has just felt wrong. So she drinks a lot, eats unhealthy food, hooks up with a lot of random guys, and is just generally incapable of having a roommate without doing stupid things that get her kicked out. Kate also avoids hanging out with her family, though she eventually has to sleep at her parents’ house because otherwise she’d be homeless.
Kate also works at a Christmas store, run by a woman who goes by Santa (Michelle Yeoh). Santa notes that ever since Kate returned to work after her illness that she hasn’t been the same — she sucks at her job and forgets to lock up the store one night, which of course has disastrous consequences.
Enter Tom (Henry Golding), a random dude who catches Kate’s eye when he’s standing outside the store one day. The two start talking and they quickly become tight. Tom shows her around to various London spots she never knew about, and talks her through her emotional struggles. We only know about the whole thing with her heart because she told Tom about it.
After they hang out a few times — and after the store gets ransacked because she forgot to lockup — Kate realizes she needs to be proactive about getting her life together. Before, she was upset and vaguely suicidal in a “I’m on a quest to drink myself into an early grave” kind of way. Now, thanks to her therapeutic hangout sessions with Tom, which brought out an awareness of the growing frequency of her major screwups, she is no longer overly enthusiastic about the inevitable sweet embrace of death.
Also Read: Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding Meet-Cute (With Bird Poop) in 'Last Christmas' Trailer (Video)
Kate’s relationship with Tom is certainly emotionally intimate, but not really physically, though they do kiss a couple times. They never end up hooking up, though.
Let’s talk about the big twist now.
So it turns out that Tom is a ghost. A year before the events of the film, he was riding his bike in the street and got hit by a truck. And it’s his heart that is currently inside Kate’s chest. Yes, it’s that line from the song the movie is named after — “Last Christmas I gave you my heart.”
It’s not totally clear what the mechanics of the situation are, but the only way to interpret these events that feels internally consistent is that Tom really was a Christmas ghost who knows he’s dead and is trying to help Kate out as she struggles through everyday life. One night, for example, he brings her back to the apartment he lived in before he died, and earlier he made a comment about how he didn’t have a phone because he’d locked his in a cupboard — and that phone was still there a year later. A simple hallucination wouldn’t tell Kate where he lived or that his phone was in the cabinet.
Also Read: 'Last Christmas' Film Review: Holiday Rom-Com Brings Cheer, If You're Feeling Charitable
There’s also nothing that indicates that Kate had looked Tom up after she got out of the hospital and went on a tour of places he frequented.
So I think we have to take this story at face value, which I’m totally okay with — it’s a romantic comedy twist on “A Christmas Carol.” One that’s very sweet and deals with real human issues.
What I’m saying is it’s very nice.
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