Piece By Piece is a unique documentary, in that it tells the story of Pharrell Williams through Lego. But the legendary musician and producer behind “Happy,” “Get Lucky,” and “Drop It Like It’s Hot” didn’t mention the colorful bricks format when he and director Morgan Neville reached out for talking head interviews from the likes of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Snoop Dogg.
“We purposely did not tell anyone that that would be the finished product. We wanted people to just answer the questions and really give their full, unedited reactions to the opportunity to do the interviews,” Williams confessed to Variety. “Because if we would’ve said, ‘Okay, this is going to be in Lego,’ then people would have sort of curved what they were saying.”
He continued, “We didn’t want them to be influenced by what we wanted. We wanted the purest part. And I feel like part of the magic of what makes this film pop the way it does is because it’s so vivid and it’s not scripted.”
Outside of the three rappers listed above, Piece By Piece also features Gwen Stefani, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, and Pusha T.
Piece By Piece comes out in theaters on October 11. You can find out more here.
The NFL season is finally upon us, and that means fans will spend their Sundays (and Thursday and Monday nights) locked in for the next four months. One of the great things about sports is that fandom is often the same no matter who you are, and you can find some of the biggest stars from the world of music, sports, and entertainment losing their mind right alongside normal folks.
Sure, they get some perks like sideline passes and luxury suites, but the rollercoaster of emotions is all the same. With that in mind, we wanted to go through all 32 teams to identify their biggest and most prominent celebrity fan.
Atlanta Falcons: Ludacris
With respect to Usher, 2 Chainz, Jeezy, T.I., and the many other Atlanta-based artists that are also Falcons fans, Ludacris gets the nod here by being not just a star in the world of music, but also of film thanks to his incredible work in the Fast & Furious franchise. Also, no one else other than Luda has ever rappelled from the rafters for a pregame performance at a Falcons game.
NO ONE, circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills, and no one is a more famous Bills supporter than the legendary Chris Berman. Boomer narrated the Bills hype video a year ago and while there are some other celebs and artists that are Bills fans, like Benny the Butcher, Berman gets the nod.
Carolina Panthers: Stephen Curry
One of the easiest picks on this list, Curry grew up in Charlotte and is by far the most well-known fan of the Panthers. He famously grew close to Cam Newton during his time as the franchise’s signal caller.
Chicago Bears: Barack Obama
Do we really need to explain this one? Obama is a well-documented Chicago sports fan, and even hosted the 1985 Chicago Bears at the White House during his time in the Oval Office.
Cincinnati Bengals: George Clooney
Despite being born on the other side of the Ohio River in Kentucky, Clooney grew up in and around Ohio, and even got a few tryouts with the Cincinnati Reds. He never tried out for the Bengals from what we can tell, but he loves them nonetheless.
Cleveland Browns: LeBron James
Some people may quibble with this, as James pretty openly loved the Cowboys earlier in his NBA career. But he’s since denounced Dallas and fully embraced his hometown team.
Dallas Cowboys: Jay-Z
Hov is from Brooklyn, but he’s not a fan of the Giants or the Jets. Instead, he’s the son of a big Cowboys fan, and as a result, he was raised to be a Cowboys fan.
Denver Broncos: Kate Hudson
While Hudson was born in California, she spent her childhood in Colorado, and as a result grew up a huge fan of the Broncos. As she’s explained, she was a big fan of Peyton Manning before he joined the team in 2012, and was awfully excited when he became the team’s signal caller.
Detroit Lions: Eminem
Like most Lions fans, Eminem has seen some stuff, and he’s been a fixture at their games for years, even before they built themselves up into a Super Bowl contender. Now, they’re one of the best teams in the NFL, and you can usually bet that he’s at Ford Field when they’re playing.
Green Bay Packers: Lil Wayne
Weezy’s rooting interests are famously all over the place. In the NFL, that means he supports the Green Bay Packers, to the point that he once did a spin on Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” ahead of the Packers’ matchup with the Pittsbugh Steelers in the Super Bowl. You can probably guess this, but the title of that track: “Green and Yellow.”
Houston Texans: Paul Wall
Paul Wall loves all things Houston, which includes being the most prominent supporter of the most recent franchise to join the league — the Texans played their first game on Sept. 8, 2002, and less than 18 months later, The Iceman dropped his debut studio album, “Chick Magnet.”
Indianapolis Colts: Rob Lowe
No, this is not a Parks and Rec bit, and yes, he has a team and doesn’t just wear that NFL hat everywhere. Lowe loves the Colts, and famously sent some tweets back in 2012 about how he heard Peyton Manning was going to retire. This, of course, did not happen, but Manning got cut by the Colts not long after and freed up a path for him to join the Broncos.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Lil Duval
There are a handful of celebrities the internet will tell you have ties to the Jaguars (Bill Murray, somehow?) but no one is more vocal or visible about their Jags fandom than the comedian and artist who shares a name with the county they play in — where DUUUUVVVAAAALLLL is the rallying cry.
Kansas City Chiefs: Taylor Swift
Do we really have to explain this one? While folks like Rob Riggle and Paul Rudd are well-documented Chiefs fans, Swift has constantly been at their games since her relationship with Travis Kelce began. It’s gone pretty well for the Chiefs, which one the Super Bowl last year.
Las Vegas Raiders: Ice Cube
You can say other people on this list are more famous than Ice Cube, but you can’t say that anyone on here is more closely tied with a team than Cube is with the Raiders. He vocally and prominently supported the team during their time in Los Angeles in the 1980s and ’90s, and he’s been the most famous face of Raider Nation ever since.
There are a lot of celebrities that make their way to Rams games in L.A., but Lamar’s been around the team for some time and you’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger star in the world of music this year after his victory lap around Drake over the summer. Way back in 2016, Lamar and ScHoolboy Q went out to Rams training camp to run some routes and have some fun.
Miami Dolphins: DJ Khaled
The Miami-based artist and producer loves all of South Florida’s teams, and has some 1-of-1 Dolphins Jordan 11s to show his fandom.
I honestly don’t know which of them is the more famous one at this point, so I’ll just lump them together. Pats owner Robert Kraft has made friends with many celebrities, but no one has deeper ties to the Patriots than the Boston natives.
New Orleans Saints: Emeril Lagasse
With respect to Harry Connick Jr., in this house we stan the original celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse. The New Orleans native makes a mean bowl of gumbo and loves his Saints.
New York Giants: Tracy Morgan
The Giants have a number of famous fans, as you’d expect for a team representing New York, but no one is a bigger fan of the G Men than comedian Tracy Morgan.
New York Jets: Adam Sandler
The Sandman loves his Jets, and to be honest, he’s a perfect avatar for Jets fandom. No one does over-the-top frustration on screen better than Sandler and that’s how every Jets fan feels every season.
Philadelphia Eagles: Bradley Cooper
There are a number of options here, from Philly rapper Meek Mill (although he loses some points for his friendship with Pats owner Robert Kraft) to Miles Teller, but Bradley Cooper gets the choice here. He’s become a rabid Eagles fan and said he’d rather see the Eagles win a Super Bowl than win an Oscar.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Snoop Dogg
It seems like Snoop has the incredible ability to support every team in every sport at all times. But he’s been a Steelers fan since the 1970s, dating back to when he’d watch them battle the Raiders on TV.
San Francisco 49ers: Kamala Harris
The Niners have a ton of prominent fans — E-40, Julia Roberts, Saweetie, Andy Samberg, etc. — but none of them are currently running for President of the United States. Kamala Harris, however, is, so she gets the nod here.
Seattle Seahawks: Will Ferrell
While he is a California native, Ferrell grew close to now-former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll during his time at USC. And if there are any questions about his bona fides as a Seattle fan, Ferrell answered them when he made clear that he is still upset they did not give the ball to Marshawn Lynch.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Hulk Hogan
The most famous fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is Hulk Hogan.
Tennessee Titans: Ed Sheeran
“How in the world did Ed Sheeran become a Tennessee Titans fan?” Well, good news! The answer to that is right here. The short version is he moved to Nashville when he came over to the States and adopted the Titans, but we can also pretend he was just a huge Steve McNair and Eddie George guy.
Sydney Sweeney’s fast-moving career has been chaotic for the past few years, but lately, she has purposefully been taking a breather another busy stretch. That time off has included posting a “thirst trap” and, presumably, hitting the gym hard (to get jacked, obviously) for upcoming filming on her boxing movie. This film will be a biopic of prizefighter Christy Martin, the pop-culturally dubbed “Female Rocky” boxer who ruled the 1990s welterweight circuit, and a clue indicates that the movie will arrive before Euphoria‘s third season, which will be filming at a later date. Sorry, Syd’s upcoming projects do not include that rumored Glen Powell re-teaming for The Running Man remake.
Sweeney also insists that her Barbarella reboot will surface, but before that happens, she will be getting into the ring in fighting shape, so let’s get down with what we can expect.
Plot
Getty Image
Christy Martin in 2003 prior to fighting Laili Ali in Biloxi, Mississippi
Christy Martin’s story will not be a straightforward trajectory to victory. A casting notice reveals the film’s working title, Apopka, which suggests that her personal life will be a significant part of the story. Indeed, Apopka is the Florida city where Martin was shot in 2010 by her then-husband and manager, Jim Martin, who shot and maimed his wife after she informed him that their marriage was over. Despite being a champ in the ring and Don King’s first female signee, Christy endured years of emotional and physical abuse by Jim, who was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 25 years.
Filming will reportedly take place in late September through mid November, and the film will be directed by David Michôd (Animal Kingdom, War Machine, Hesher), who cast Sweeney after seeing her true-crime turn in HBO’s Reality. For her part, Sweeney has years of experience in kickboxing and is “itching” to “transform my body.” She also called this role “physically and emotionally demanding, there’s a lot of weight to carry. But I love challenging myself.”
Martin has spoken about her domestic abuse ordeal, and both CBS News and The Guardian have reported at length about her physical injuries, as has ESPN, which has (you were warned) an incredibly graphic description along with an account by Christy’s mother about her arrival at the hospital:
Joyce says that when she was at last able to lay eyes on her daughter, it took her breath away. “She had tubes running everywhere, stitches all over her head, on her face. It’s something you never forget.”
Joyce was relieved when she learned Martin was able to speak. The first thing her daughter said to her? “I told you he was crazy, Mom.”
Earlier in their marriage, Jim had punched Martin in the mouth so hard her tooth pierced through her lip. The day it happened, Martin went to the bathroom to clean herself up. As she blotted her face, a few spots of blood dripped onto an obscured section of the wall. Martin decided to leave them there. For years, she’d carefully clean around the bloodstains, taking care not to erase them. Proof of life.
For the upcoming Black Bear and Anonymous Content film, Mirrah Foulkes and Michôd co-wrote the script, and Michôd summarized his approach to the film:
“The film is about Christy as a young gay woman in small-town West Virginia in the 1990s. She came from a relatively conservative family and wasn’t allowed to be who she was so she used boxing as a vehicle to express herself and her rage. She had to make some dangerous and fundamental compromises in her life, the most important of which was marrying an incredibly dangerous man.”
Cast
Sweeney as Martin is the only role that has been publicly confirmed. The actor who will portray Jim Martin hasn’t been disclosed, and ideally, we’ll also see a Don King portrayal.
Release Date
With filming scheduled to be complete before the end of 2024, we can bet on a 2025 arrival, likely with festival premieres leading up to the main event. Should we guess fall-winter 2025? Sure.
Trailer
Since filming is around the corner, we will make do with two interviews, including Sweeney telling Women’s Health that it’s important to stay fit because it’s “really fun to be able to kick a guy’s ass.”
The second interview includes Sweeney’s statements on overcoming her past body dysmorphia, and (whether or not she realizes it), there’s some serious role-model-ing going on here.
Netflix has released the first teaser trailer for one of the year’s most critically-admired films. Directed by Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez is a crime musical starring Zoe Saldaña as a lawyer in Mexico who is hire by a cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) to help fake her death so that she can finally embrace her true gender identity. The film, which earned an 11-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, also stars Selena Gomez.
“I was very nervous because this is a project that is unlike anything I’ve ever done before,” the singer and Only Murders In The Building star told The Hollywood Reporter. “Even though I have such a small part, it’s such a big and special project that I feel so lucky that I was able to be a part of it. I felt better after the premiere, less nervous.”
You can watch the teaser above.
The female leads of Emilia Pérez — Karla Sofía Gascón, Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, and Gomez — shared Best Actress at Cannes, with Gascón also becoming the first trans performer to win the award at the festival. “Women together — that’s something we wanted to honor when we made this award,” Barbie director and 2024 Cannes jury president Greta Gerwig said of the split honor. “Each of them is a standout, but together transcendent.”
Emilia Pérez comes to select theaters on November 1 and begins streaming on Netflix on November 13.
It’s been quite a year for Kendrick Lamar. “Not Like Us,” one of his many Drake diss tracks, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “The Pop Out — Ken & Friends” show was a one-of-a-kind California performance. He’s even working on a movie with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
Really, the only blemish on Lamar’s 2024 is the time he confused Haley Joel Osment for Joel Osteen. On “Euphoria,” he raps, “Am I battlin’ ghost or AI / N**** feelin’ like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a film called A.I. / And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him.” One is an acclaimed actor and the voice of Sora in the Kingdom Hearts video games (Osment); the other is a shady televangelist (Osteen). But The Sixth Sense and A.I. Artificial Intelligence actor thinks the mix-up might have been on purpose.
“I think he’s too precise,” Osment told the Associated Press at the premiere of Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut Blink Twice (via Billboard). “I don’t know for sure and I’m not gonna assume that he knows my exact name, but the way I’ve heard people talk about that and certain analysis that I’ve read about it, I think that it’s an intentional scrambling of my name and that other guy’s name. Because Kendrick’s too precise to just make a mistake like that.”
Or maybe the simplest explanation is the correct one: Kendrick really did confuse the two. Here’s another way to tell them apart so this doesn’t happen again: no one ever found bags of money in Haley Joel Osment’s church.
Reggie Watts is the former bandleader/in-house musician for both Comedy Bang! Bang! and The Late Late Show, a comedian with a new special available to stream on Veeps, a musician, a writer, an improviser, and creative force of nature. Pushing back on the expected is Watts’ forte, crafting 2024’s most unique special, a comedy and music filled period piece set in the hopeful pre-internet mid-’90s.
Below, in our latest quick check-in with the most interesting voices in comedy culture, Watts talks about the benefits of growing up in the tech/social media pre-dawn, who he’s listening to, his comedy and music heroes, what he’d tell young comics about finding their own unique voice, and not being afraid of failure.
What was your first concert?
My first concert was Fugazi in Missoula, Montana.
What are the last 3 records you bought or albums you listened to?
Gosh, that’s a really good question. I’ve been listening to the song “My City” by Juliet Mendoza on repeat. The Marias Submarine, that’s an amazing album. And “Flight FM” by Joy Orbison.
Who are the artists across comedy and music that you grew up loving?
There are so many. I grew up with a lot of Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. I loved watching them when I was younger. Carol Burnett, Prince, Michael Jackson, Ministry, The Smithereens, just so many.
As an improviser, is there still a fear of failure when you are on stage, and if so, how do you use that energy?
I don’t really have a fear of failure when I’m onstage but I do have a fear of letting an audience down if I’m not connecting to them and I think I like using that as my energy source. And the constant newness is what’s exciting and new for me onstage.
What was behind the decision to base this latest special in the ’90s?
Yeah, I just wanted to base it in the ’90s because I wanted to recreate some of the hopefulness that we felt in the mid-90’s about the future and about the internet and just the absurdity of pretending it’s another time period on stage.
What are the bits from ‘90s culture that you think have had the most influence on your work and on culture in general?
I think the counterculture movement of the ’90s — especially growing up in Seattle — [has] always had a big effect on how I’m perceiving the world and how I’m creating things. I think just the camaraderie that I had with my friends back then kind of motivated me to always put friendship first. And just the ability to have the freedom to think and do what I want to do.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of being someone who has lived pre-internet and within the internet era?
Well, I think there’s really only benefits. You know, I got to live my childhood and teen years with no phones but with computers and computer games and things like that because the internet thankfully came along after high school. It really allowed me to have a normal, organic, human based upbringing. And then the internet came around at exactly the right time, for me, and I loved the expansion of the technology and where it’s gone since. I think I’ve experienced the perfect technological curve in my lifetime.
What advice do you have for aspiring comics and performers when it comes to experimentation and expectations?
I think just try not to self analyze. Try not to just do the things that people expect from you. I think it’s important to kind of adopt like a “fuck it” kind of attitude. As long as you’re caring about your audience, that’s really the main thing. Just have a good time with it.
Who is your dream collaborator and why?
Dream dead collaborator would probably have to be Prince — I would’ve loved to do something with him. I don’t know if our styles would have matched because he definitely seems pretty… writer-ly and structure-ly and super rehearsed but I bet you he could definitely get on board with where I’m coming from.
Dream alive collaborator I think would be Björk. I think she’s just a polymath, you know? She does so many things, she’s multimedia and I think she just has a vision for all forms of media that she’s involved in and I really like that.
Check out Reggie Watts’ special, ‘Never Mind,’ on Veeps here.
In a cover story for Rolling Stone, rapper Ice Spice talked about how SpongeBob SquarePants — both the unstoppable Nickelodeon series and the endlessly optimistic character — has inspired her work ethic.
“I think I learned a lot from that show,” she said. “He never wanted a day off, even when Mr. Krabs would tell him, ‘Go the f*ck home.’ He’d be like, ‘No, I need to work.’”
So that’s what SpongeBob characters are saying under the dolphin noise.
Later, Ice Spice discussed the response to the cover artwork for her upcoming album, Y2K! (here’s something to make you feel old: the first SpongeBob SquarePants episode aired seven months before the turn of the millennium).
“Throughout my entire career, I don’t think I’ve ever had a moment of strictly praise. I think, through it all, there was always a lot of hate,” she said. “And I kind of appreciate that, because I find that when people are only love, they’re not as real. I don’t dwell on how people are perceiving me, whether it’s negative or positive, because that’s really what you sign up for when you put yourself out there on a public platform. It’s for people to make their opinions about you.”
Kendrick Lamar was already one of the greatest rappers of all-time before he came after Drake. But following “Euphoria,”“6:16 In LA,” and “Not Like Us,” well, he’s still one of the greatest rappers ever, and also one of the funniest. “Why you trollin’ like a bitch? Ain’t you tired? / Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor” gets me every time. Lamar’s pairing with the South Park creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, on a feature-length film seemed like an usual pairing when it was announced in 2022, but not so much anymore.
Here’s everything we know about The Untitled South Park Guys and Kendrick Lamar Project, which is what I’m calling it until an official title is revealed.
Plot
The Untitled South Park Guys and Kendrick Lamar Project is an original live-action comedy that will “depict the past and present coming to a head when a young Black man who is interning as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum discovers that his white girlfriend’s ancestors once owned his,” Entertainment Weekly reported in 2022. The script is from long-time South Park writer, producer, and voice-of-Towelie, Vernon Chatman. (He also created MTV2’s Wonder Showzen and Adult Swim’s The Heart, She Holler.)
Lamar and Dave Free will produce The Untitled South Park Guys and Kendrick Lamar Project through their company PGLang, while Stone and Parker produce for Park County.
“I’m excited to announce that we’re going into production this summer on a [comedy] from the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,” Paramount film chief Brian Robbins said at CinemaCon earlier this year. “This script is one of the funniest and most original scripts we’ve ever read, and it’s certain to create some fireworks when it hits theaters on July 4, 2025.”
Parker and Stone are three-fourths of the way to an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). All they’re missing is an Oscar — could this be it?
Cast
It’s unclear if Lamar, Parker, or Stone will appear in the film, but don’t expect to see Kanye West or Barbra Streisand (what a movie that would be).
Release Date
The Untitled South Park Guys and Kendrick Lamar Project hits theaters on July 4, 2025, two days after the Jurassic World movie with Scarlett Johansson.
Trailer
There’s no trailer yet and won’t be for awhile. Until then, you can always watch Kendrick Lamar’s star-studded “Not Like Us” music video or maybe this ranking of every South Park song. I haven’t watched the whole thing, but if “Let’s Fighting Love” isn’t in the top 5, I revoke my endorsement of the video.
Elle does a video series called “Phoning It In,” where they get their celebrity guest to prank call some of their famous contacts. Billie Eilish is the latest participant, and her call to Tyler The Creator is pure gold.
The show gives Eilish some prank prompts to go with, but she got to do her own prank idea for Tyler. So, she decided to tell him she was calling him from the bathroom on a date because she pooped her pants.
Tyler was on one right away, as he answered the call, “‘Sup, gay man?” After Eilish fed him the poop lie, he quickly responded, “Fire. Honestly? Fire. You deserve it.”
Eilish, through laughter, told Tyler she didn’t know what to do and asked if she could go to his house. He eventually said yes before wanting to go over the poop story again. Eilish told him she thought it was a fart, and he replied, “Bro, you don’t… you don’t stop once you feel it?”
She then gave up the gag and told him he was being pranked. After some silence, Tyler responded, “That’s amazing. That’s the content that they’re doing for journalism now? Nice.” He added, “Look, I sharted like two months ago.”
The overall theme of that and Eilish’s other prank calls is the prank victims were all very kind. Margot Robbie was super supportive in trying to help Eilish find a new place to shoot a music video, her label head Justin Libliner looked out for Eilish’s well being when she told him she wanted to quit music, and Dakota Johnson did her best to help when Eilish wanted advice about being cast to play a baby in a movie.
The whole video’s pretty fun, so check it out above.
M. Night Shyamalan’s most childhood trauma-inducing film is Signs, but Drake is probably more traumatized by The Sixth Sense.
Kendrick Lamar referenced the 1999 film in two diss tracks against Drake. On “Euphoria,” he rapped, “Am I battlin’ ghost or AI? / N*gga feelin’ like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a film called A.I. / And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him.” (He meant Haley Joel Osment, who was a good sport about the whole thing.) Lamar also begins his No. 1 hit “Not Like Us” with “I see dead people.”
While promoting his new The Eras Tour-inspired film Trap, Shyamalan was asked about the feud. “We kind of lightly know each other, and I did know [he was a fan],” the director said of Lamar on the Way Up With Angela Yee podcast, according to Billboard. “He’s very gracious with me, and I love him.”
Shyamalan first learned about The Sixth Sense lyric from someone he works with. “The first song ends with it. So someone in the office was like, ‘Oh, Kendrick just dropped something and it references one of your [movies].’ I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ That was before everything blew up,” he explained.
If the feud with Drake continues, Kendrick should start referencing some of M. Night’s other films. Let’s see what he can do with Lady In The Water.
