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Meghan McCain Is Calling On The FBI To Free Britney Spears From Her Conservatorship: ‘This Is A Human Trafficking Issue’

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ABC

In a passionate plea on Thursday morning, The View‘s Meghan McCain called on the FBI to essentially bust down doors and free Britney Spears from her conservatorship. McCain’s comments were in response to Spears’ explosive court testimony that she is forced to have an IUD in place to prevent pregnancy and is repeatedly prescribed questionable amounts of psychiatric medications to keep her compliant and working so her family can live off her financial empire.

During her remarks, McCain praised the #FreeBritney movement while accepting blame for being part of the media that has been “brutally unkind” and didn’t listen to Spears. “I actually believe this has reached the level where the FBI needs to be involved and extradite her from her home, away from these people at this very moment, because these are people that can continue the abuse in realtime,” McCain said.

After stating that Spears is “ostensibly a slave,” McCain went so far as to call the situation a human trafficking issue to bolster her claim that the FBI needs to get involved. Via Mediaite:

“I am sadly not surprised by this, but it’s much more extreme than I ever could have possibly imagined. I feel horrible for her,” McCain said. “I hope to God they get her out of this environment and this situation today. I think it is at that level, and if this were any other person not named Britney Spears, this is a human trafficking issue, and it should be treated as such.”

McCain’s thoughts were echoed by her co-hosts on The View including Sunny Hostin, who is an attorney and called Spears’ conservatorship “unprecedented” and “highly unusual.”

(Via The View on Twitter & Mediaite)

Azealia Banks’ Historical Response To Candace Owen’s Inane Juneteenth Comment Is A Complete Shutdown

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Love her or hate her, sometimes Azealia Banks is the only woman for the job at hand. Sometimes she’s off on her own planet, trying to discredit Megan Thee Stallion’s shooting claims, or literally boiling her dead cat, but sometimes she’s right on the money. And today’s job at hand? Speaking truth to Candace Owens, the insistently right-wing, Conservative pundit — who also happens to be a Black woman — who tends to make claims like using “they/them” pronouns is “poor grammar,” or declaring the recognition of Juneteenth as a national holiday an extension of “segregation.”

Juneteenth was, rather famously, the day that African-Americans in Texas were liberated after they were purposely kept ignorant of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and remained in slavery for more than two years after the practice was outlawed. But Owens is, for some reason, against making it clear that Black Americans weren’t really free on the 4th of July back in 1776 and recognizing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, like the Senate just unanimously agreed to do. So, Banks broke down for her just what a day in the life for a Black woman in America would’ve been like back then.

“According to this logic, on July 4, 1776, you would still be enslaved,” Banks wrote as the caption on a screenshot post of Owens’ tweet. “Most likely on the verge of starvation due to all of America’s food supply having been prioritized for the war, while you hand sew American flags and struggle to wet nurse some depressed 24-year-old white widow’s sickly child until your nipples are chapped and dry. Whereafter, you will be whipped by her 80-year-old uncle for your own malnourishment and inability to produce milk, then sent to toil over a wood-burning stove — blistering your hands while [being] forced to make a peasantly meal of biscuits and gravy.

You will be watched closely by her irate, sunburned and whisky soaked 80 year old uncle to be sure you do not sneak a single biscuit or fingerful of roux to yourself. after you’ve watched everyone eat, you will be sent to do the cleaning up. Your last task will be brushing the stressed and balding white widows hair to prepare for her sleeping bonnet, a deep rest in her comfortable canopy bed. Next your final descent down the stairs and out the back door where you proudly sleep on a bed bug infested pile of hay in a 6×4 cabin you share with 4 other slaves. Happy Independence Day @realcandaceowens.”

What else is there to say?

John Legend Shows Support For Chrissy Teigen After Her Lengthy Apology For Old Tweets

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For the past month, Chrissy Teigen has been in the dog house of the internet after drawing ire for past tweets in which she bullied Courtney Stodden. After maintaining and understandably quiet online presence since then, Teigen wrote a lengthy post about the situation yesterday, and husband John Legend has offered a reaction.

Legend shared Teigen’s post and added a caption of his own: He quoted a line from the post — “We are all more than our worst moments” — and appended four heart emojis.

In the Medium post, Teigen addresses the “old awful (awful, awful) tweets” and the “crushing weight of regret for the things I’ve said in the past” she is experiencing. She also addresses Legend and her family, writing:

“John tells me almost every day how much our daughter Luna reminds him of me. Every day, I try to make sure she’s all the best parts of me, all the things I aspire to be all the time, but fail at sometimes. And we preach kindness to her and Miles every chance we get. Will they eventually realize there is some hypocrisy there? I certainly do. But I hope they recognize my evolution. My goal is to be so good that my kids will think this was all a fairy tale. Not the fake good. The good that has the best intentions, the good who wakes up wanting to make her friends, family, her team and fans as happy as possible. The good who will still f*ck up in front of the world but rarely, and never not growing only more good from it.”

She goes on to conclude, “We are all more than our worst moments. I won’t ask for your forgiveness, only your patience and tolerance. I ask that you allow me, as I promise to allow you, to own past mistakes and be given the opportunity to seek self improvement and change. Phew. A lot, I know. Thanks for listening.”

Read the full post here.

Quavo Went Onto ‘First Take’ And Continued His Beef With Kendrick Perkins

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ESPN

Migos are making the media rounds in anticipation of Culture III, which drops on Friday. One such cameo was Quavo heading onto First Take, which included a pretty fun wrinkle: an interaction between himself and Kendrick Perkins.

Perkins and Quavo have been butting heads ever since the latter dropped Quavo Huncho, which included the line “Get no playin’ time, Kendrick Perkins” on the track “Fuck 12.” Perkins, as you might guess, didn’t particularly enjoy this, and over the years, he’s made this point clear. The latest example of this came over the weekend, when Migos performed at the Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul fight and Perkins tweeted the following…

A few days later, the two had a back-and-forth after Quavo used a picture of Perkins and a fist emoji to promote the new album.

This set up the two going back-and-forth on First Take, and while the show usually relies on debates over random sports things to get people on set riled up, it legitimately seemed like Quavo and Perkins were going at one another over this.

Anyway, if Migos decide to delay Culture III at the last minute, we can all assume it is because there’s going to be a line making fun of Perk on it. Unless, of course, that already exists.

Trevor Noah Had An Amazing Response To Learning That Jay Z And Beyonce Actually Know Who He Is

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Comedy Central

Celebrities, they’re just like us! They, too, get excited when they learn that two of the most famous and brilliant people in the world actually know who they are. That’s what happened to Trevor Noah the other night when he went to Barclays Center to see the playoff game between the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks. The Daily Show host and sporadic Ted Cruz sparring partner was casually sitting courtside when who should show up but former Barclays stake holder Jay Z and his wife, Beyonce, who is also very popular.

A Getty photojournalist just happened to snap the meeting of the minds, catching Noah and Beyonce mid-fist-bump. Noah made sure to post that pic to his Instagram feed, complete with a gushing, fanboyish, pinch-me-is-this-real? caption:

“I’ve thought of every possible caption for this picture but really what can I write? You’re at the @brooklynnets game, the King of Brooklyn walks in with his wife @beyonce and then they both fist bump you. You try to act cool but then later you see a picture of the moment and you realise that this life is insane!!! What a privilege and magical moment to experience in life. And even though magic happens to me every day, I hope the little South African boy inside of me never stops reminding me that I’m living a dream.”

Who among us hasn’t been sitting courtside at an NBA playoff game and traded fistbumps with Jay Z and Beyonce? Many were quick to congratulate Noah on the honor, though in the comments, Daily Show colleague Jordan Klepper took some jokey umbrage with one detail of his caption: him referring to Jay Z as “the King of Brooklyn.”

Instagram / @TrevorNoah

“To be clear, I live in Brooklyn,” Klepper wrote. “Is the Jay Z is King a totally settled thing?”

Anyway, it’s great to know one of the world’s most powerful power couples watches The Daily Show.

New York Mayoral Candidate Andrew Yang Apparently Struggled To Name A Jay-Z Song During His ‘Ziwe’ Interview

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@zwie on Twitter

Ziwe Fumudoh sat down with former presidential and current New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang this week, and those who assumed the result would be bad news for Yang were apparently very correct according to the first clips from Ziwe.

Ziwe, whose Showtime series has garnered a reputation for putting celebrities on the hot seat and asking some very leading questions, asked Yang on Twitter earlier in the week he would appear on the show. “You would be an iconic guest,” she wrote on Twitter.

Those who knew her work pretty plainly thought this would be a tough interview for Yang, who has stumbled in his mayoral campaign in recent weeks. By Thursday night, however, Wall Street Journal reporter Katie Honan had reported Yang would indeed appear. And on Saturday, Ziwe posted a clip from the episode that involved New York legend Jay-Z. The clip, which cuts off after about 30 seconds of awkwardness, includes Ziwe asking Yang what his favorite Jay-Z song is with him unable to name a single one.

“I listened to a lot of hip-hop during like the 90s and 2000s,” Yang said when asked what he’s “vibing to” lately after a question about listening to rap music. She presses him, saying “I gotta know” what artists he likes, and he mentions Nas and Jay-Z after some hesitation.

“What’s your favorite Jay-Z song?” she asks. “I mean, he’s a New Yorker.”

Yang only says “yes” initially, and then there’s a long pause as he seems to think it over. “What is my favorite Jay-Z song?” he asks, as if to himself as well as anyone willing to give him the name of one to rescue him from the situation. Ziwe’s expression really says it all here.

@zwie on Twitter

The clip cuts off right as he says “it’s” after a full 10 seconds of contemplation or so. And while he may just have had a hard time coming up with his favorite, not simply struggling to come up with any songs at all, the awkward moment is the latest in a campaign that’s struggled to avoid them.

For Yang to have said yes to the interview means either no one on his staff knew what Ziwe’s deal was with these interviews, or he was simply not as prepared as he should be for the kind of questions she’d ask. But it’s also an own goal in several ways here: If Yang simply isn’t a Jay-Z fan, which is fine even for New York mayoral candidates, the easiest way to avoid falling into this trap is to not claim he spent a few decades listening to his music seconds before.

We’ll have to wait and see what he came up with when his interview on Ziwe airs on Sunday night.

The ‘Call Of Duty: Warzone’ Season 3 Trailer Features Everyone From Young Thug To Mookie Betts

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No video game took over in 2020 more than Call of Duty: Warzone, as the free-to-play battle royale became massively popular as it dropped right at the start of pandemic restrictions hitting in March and people finding themselves having to find ways to pass the time at home. A year later and Warzone is still plugging along and entering Season 3, which will see updated maps, weapons, and gear hit after they nuked Verdansk Island to end Season 2.

To celebrate the start of Season 3, the game brought together a number of their biggest celebrity players from the world of sports, music, and entertainment for a ridiculous two-minute trailer that was released on Thursday morning — along with a call to drop in to Verdansk84. The trailer, which you can watch in its absurd entirety above, opens with Young Thug leaping out of a building and grabbing onto a helicopter piloted by Gunna, who then blows up the building that Thug presumably rigged with charges. Jack Harlow, Saweetie, Swae Lee, and others from the music world are featured, along with Dennis Schröder, Jack Grealish, and Mookie Betts from the sports world — with Betts hitting a grenade out of the air with his rifle like a baseball.

In case there were any wonder if Call of Duty was still raking in cash thanks to Warzone, this trailer and all the celebrity cameos should provide the answer, but if it gets people to drop back in, that’s all they care about.

Dave Chappelle Is Launching His First-Ever Podcast, Along With Talib Kweli And Yasiin Bey

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“Last summer, Yellow Springs [Ohio] was what Hollywood is supposed to be,” says Talib Kweli about the much mythologized “Chappelle Summer Camp” of 2020, which has now given birth to Dave Chappelle’s first podcast. “What we realized is that Hollywood and all that stuff is fake. The real dopeness is where the people are. If someone like Chappelle says, ‘Well, I’m in Yellow Springs.’ Then that’s where the people are going to be.”

The show, co-hosted by Kweli and Yasiin Bey and called The Midnight Miracle, will air on the subscription podcast network Luminary, will reveal the inner workings of Chappelle’s covid rapid tested events (along with the even more legendary after-parties), held in Ohio through the summer and deep into the fall. The first episodes are set to drop “in the coming weeks” and will feature wide-ranging conversations as well as sketches, archival clips, and impersonations from Chappelle, along with a roster of his incredibly famous friends.

“The constant isn’t fame,” Kweli says, “it’s contributions to the culture. Chappelle, one of his many talents, is curating great rooms, so what people will hear on the podcast is essentially what they would hear if they were in the room with us. It’s very organic, very free-flowing, it’s non-linear… we just happen to associate ourselves with greatness.”

“The Midnight Miracle” was recorded in a retrofitted mechanic’s garage turned clubhouse, and the trio has already banked over 100 hours of content recorded with a jaw-dropping list of guests from Common and Tiffany Haddish to Questlove and Chris Rock (plus a soundtrack that includes Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, and D’Angelo).

As for where the seed of the show first blossomed, Kweli credits his longtime Black Star partner in rhyme, Yasiin Bey. The trio’s friendship has endured since the Chappelle’s Show days.

“We speak often and the last few years we’ve spoken more, as we’ve gotten older,” Kweli tells us. “It was actually Yasiin’s idea to do this type of podcast, when he and Dave first heard people talking about my show, The People’s Party. [People’s Party is produced by Uproxx] Yasiin said to Dave, ‘you should be doing a podcast, too’ and Dave said ‘well the only way I’m doing it is if I do it with ya’ll,’ It was just that simple.”

“Making a podcast isn’t the obvious next move for me, but it’s the right one,” Chappelle said in a press release announcing the show. “The Midnight Miracle gives you a look into how me and my friends process the world around us, and I think it will change the way listeners think of what a podcast can be.”

Look for The Midnight Miracle to drop on Luminary in the weeks to come.

Usher Goes Viral After Reportedly Giving A Stripper Fake Dollar Bills With His Face On Them

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As of this post, Usher is the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter in the US, but not for a good reason: He stands accused of giving a stripper fake dollar bills with his face on them (as opposed to real money).

A Las Vegas-based dancer who performs under the name Pisces shared an image of three distinct Usher-themed dollar bills, in denominations of $1, $20, and $100. The bills promote Usher: The Vegas Experience, his upcoming residency that is set to launch in July, and were clearly designed to look like real money. Pisces asked a question on her Instagram Story, writing, “Ladies what would you do if you danced all night for usher and he threw this??” She added in another post (a screenshot from her private personal account), “& the money does not have a trade in value what so ever! Lmao don’t y’all think he should be blasted on social media for this sh*t?”

A friend of Pisces shared Pisces’ personal page posts and added, “My GF posted this !!! I’ve never seen this level of f*ckery!!!! exactly why we stay away from celebs most of the time they suck!!!!!!!! cheap asf. So disrespectful, this is foul! Working so hard to get nothing in return! This is a joke!! Their job is to entertain, take your cheap ass back home!!!!!”

Usher has offered what may be a response to the controversy (or at least shared a post that seems relevant to the situation): Last night, he shared a photo of himself wearing a bucket hat made of actual $1 bills.

Usher has indeed been getting “blasted on social media,” as Pisces attested he should. Check out some Twitter reactions to Usher’s alleged antics below, along with screenshots of the posts from Pisces and her friend.

@beel0ove/Instagram
@beel0ove/Instagram
@msgoodvibez/Instagram

The Guy Who Found Shrimp In His Cinnamon Toast Crunch Was Once A Rapper Named Hot Karl

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Whenever the internet latches onto a strange moment, it tends to get even stranger as more details emerge (and more racist, i.e. the “milkshake duck” effect, but thankfully, this isn’t about that). Case in point, the man who kidnapped the internet’s attention yesterday by tweeting about a bizarre discovery in his breakfast cereal turned out to have a truly fascinating past as a battle rapper — one that resulted in plenty of success outside of the music industry.

Jensen Karp, aka Hot Karl, may not be a household name to most, but in the LA battle rap scene — and in certain Hollywood television production circles — he’s kind of an underground legend. As Hot Karl, he was signed to Ice-T’s Rhyme Syndicate at just 11 years old, he entered Power 106’s Roll Call freestyle competition and held the title for 45 weeks while in college, and he signed to Interscope Records in the early 2000s, recording a debut with features from DJ Quik, Kanye West, Redman, and more which was never released. He wrote a memoir about it and shares his hip-hop knowledge as part of a trivia game. Oh, and he paid Chance The Rapper $5,000 to shoot a music video back in 2013.

Those experiences served him well in Hollywood, where after several gigs writing for WWE and VH1 and a truly fated radio hosting gig, he became executive producer of the short-lived celebrity rap battle show Drop The Mic, which famously featured battles between The Muppets’ Kermit and Miss Piggy, Randall Park and James Van Der Beek, and more, and helped launch the career of the white half of Blimes And Gab.

Users on Twitter were delighted to learn this info, but the “Hot Karl” trend was quickly taken over by teen fans of a gaming YouTuber named Karl Jacobs, who is apparently bad at taking selfies. I kid, teen girls, please do not murder me or perform witchcraft at me.

Karl Marx, the famed German philosopher who laid the groundwork for the modern conception of socialism, also got roped into the fun.

Knowing Karp, he’s likely enjoying all the shenanigans his tweets have caused because he’s a pretty funny guy, but hopefully, this thing doesn’t flatten his hard-won legacy down to just being “Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shrimp Guy” or “Danielle Fishel’s husband.” Oh yeah, that’s right: He’s also married to Boy Meets World‘s Topanga. I guess you could say he’s the real winner here.

Check out the reactions to “Hot Karl”‘s unlikely comeback above.