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William Shatner’s Late 1970s Rendition Of Elton John’s ‘Rocketman’ Is Finding New Life After He Blasted Into Space

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“And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time” could be a way to describe William Shatner’s wait to actually head into space (at age 90) after his (for all practical purposes) lifelong run as forever Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame. And on this fine Wednesday morning, William Shatner actually made good on his reputation by blasting into space (for real) on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ anatomically-shaped rocket. The pop-culture institution and three other passengers finally ended up on the New Shepard vessel, in which they glided into the very edge of space before making a safe touchdown on planet Earth.

Following Shatner’s return to civilization, CNN reports that he grew very emotional after his sub-orbital journey (which included a few minutes of weightlessness). He told Jeff Bezos, “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine.” And it seems that Shatner fans, as well, are feeling similarly. In fact, this day has seen Shatner’s late 1970s Saturn Awards rendition of Elton John’s “Rocketman” go viral. Decades later, the clip’s still as funny and bizarre as ever while featuring a smoking, tuxedo-adorned Shatner — multiple versions of him, even — doing the spoken-word thing. Can we consider this “singing”? Probably not. “Dancing,” though? For sure.

The clip began to heavily circulate during blast-off time, and for good reason.

Congrats to William Shatner, and welcome back to civilization.

People Lost Their Minds After Dolly Parton Responded To A Tweet From The ‘Ted Lasso’ Account

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It’s been a bit of a bumpy season for Ted Lasso. The feel-good (but not that good) show about an upbeat (but anguished) soccer coach amassed a ton of Emmys, including star/co-creator Jason Sudeikis. But the new season, which is still rolling out, has been hotly contested, and there’s been talk of a backlash, then a backlash to the backlash, then a backlash to the backlash to backlash, etc. But there’s one person who seems very pro-Ted Lasso: Dolly Parton.

It all started when a fan, dealing with the headache that is air travel, tried to overcome his frustrations by asking, “what would @TedLasso do?” The show’s Twitter account — which sometimes trades in motivational sloganeering — responded by asking a similar question of a real-life public figure.

“That’s funny, when it comes to small talk I often ask myself what would Dolly Parton do?” the account posted. “Start with the 9 to 5 and end with God Only Knows.”

The post didn’t tag the legendary country singer-songwriter and actress. But she found it anyway and responded.

You’re too sweet, @TedLasso!” Parton wrote, adding, “I heard you left some @AFCRichmond tickets at will call under my name?” (That’s a reference to the team Lasso coaches.)

Twitter can be a hellscape of fury and paranoia, but sometimes you get a beloved musician trading jokes with a fictitious character. And people ate it up.

Some imagined Parton going on Ted Lasso.

Which she apparently watches.

And it came on the same day Parton gushed about Lil Nas X covering one of her most cherished songs, “Jolene.”

To sum up: Twitter — sometimes it’s good.

Electrolemon’s Latest (And Final?) Gravity-Defying ‘September’ Video Stars Earth, Wind & Fire Themselves

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It’s September 21! Happy birthday and congrats to everyone who made it to today — it’s been a rough year, huh? Fortunately for us, comedian Demi Adejuyigbe, better known as Electrolemon, is back with his latest video celebrating the occasion, set as always to the funky tune of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”

This time around, he goes for absolute broke, weaving in a goofy storyline about the musical Grease, performing a gravity-defying dance on the ceiling with a glittering disco ball, and having a blowout party in the front yard before hopping into a hot rod and soaring off into the sky. And even after all that, he saves the best for last, filling the credits sequence with video shout-outs from the band themselves, who congratulate him on his biggest and final “September” video.

… Wait, WHAT?!?!

Yup, that’s right. This is the last one — as he jokingly alludes to at the beginning of this year’s clip, he’s done this for a long time (to the point of feeling obligated to top himself every year) and he’s probably run of inspiration on this particular gag. We wish him well and thank him for his service, because these things have really brought a lot of hope and love into the world — especially as each one is accompanied by a charity drive for worthwhile causes.

This one is no exception. This time around, Demi is raffling off a painting of the Sept. 21 jersey he displays in the video, with proceeds going to Imagine Waterworks, West Fund, and Sunrise Movement. You can find out more at each respective website or at sept21st.com.

Watch “9/21/21” above.

Electrolemon’s Latest (And Final?) Gravity-Defying ‘September’ Video Stars Earth, Wind & Fire Themselves

by

It’s September 21! Happy birthday and congrats to everyone who made it to today — it’s been a rough year, huh? Fortunately for us, comedian Demi Adejuyigbe, better known as Electrolemon, is back with his latest video celebrating the occasion, set as always to the funky tune of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”

This time around, he goes for absolute broke, weaving in a goofy storyline about the musical Grease, performing a gravity-defying dance on the ceiling with a glittering disco ball, and having a blowout party in the front yard before hopping into a hot rod and soaring off into the sky. And even after all that, he saves the best for last, filling the credits sequence with video shout-outs from the band themselves, who congratulate him on his biggest and final “September” video.

… Wait, WHAT?!?!

Yup, that’s right. This is the last one — as he jokingly alludes to at the beginning of this year’s clip, he’s done this for a long time (to the point of feeling obligated to top himself every year) and he’s probably run of inspiration on this particular gag. We wish him well and thank him for his service, because these things have really brought a lot of hope and love into the world — especially as each one is accompanied by a charity drive for worthwhile causes.

This one is no exception. This time around, Demi is raffling off a painting of the Sept. 21 jersey he displays in the video, with proceeds going to Imagine Waterworks, West Fund, and Sunrise Movement. You can find out more at each respective website or at sept21st.com.

Watch “9/21/21” above.

Octavia Spencer Has Apologized To Britney Spears After That Prenup Joke About Her Engagement

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Britney Spears has been through a lot. But things for her seem to finally be back on the up-and-up. Her lengthy conservatorship battle, which saw her trying to wrestle free from the legal clutches of her father, seems to be coming to an end. And she’s now engaged, having said yes to Sam Asghari, her boyfriend of four years. Fans are so protective of her, so adamant that she be happy again, that when Octavia Spencer made a joke in her Instagram feed, it did not go well.

When Spears broke the news of her engagement on Instgram, the Oscar-winning actress did like many: She left a comment. But she didn’t just congratulate her. She winkingly advised her, “Make him sign a prenup.” Spears’ base came for Spencer. And now Spencer had left a big apology for what she said.

“Y’all, a few days ago Sam and Britney announced their engagement and me being me I made a joke,” she wrote in her own Instagram post. “My intention was to make them laugh not cause pain. I’ve reached out to this lovely couple privately to apologize and now want to restore just a smidge of happiness they were robbed of. Britney’s fans have seen her through a lot of pain and she’s found happiness. We’re thrilled for her. So let’s show them love.”

Asghari responded to Spencer’s post, telling her there’s no ill will. “You are very kind to clarify but I have had no hard feelings whatsoever,” he wrote. “Jokes and misconceptions come with the territory.” As for his fiancée, well, she happily deleted her Instagram account the other day, though she says she’s just on a break.

(Via Variety)

Tucker Carlson Is Suddenly Nicki Minaj’s Biggest Fan After She Claimed Her Cousin’s Friend’s ‘Testicles Became Swollen’ After Being Vaccinated

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Fox News

Tucker Carlson is suddenly Nicki Minaj’s biggest fan—and all, appropriately, because of a pair of swollen testicles. On Monday, the “Bang Bang” singer posted a rather personal, and somewhat revolting, detail about her cousin’s friend who, if he exists at all, presumably was not consulted about having the status of his inflated and inoperable junk tweeted to nearly 23 million people:

“My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.”

Before reading that tweet aloud (which, trust us, is worth losing a piece of your soul to watch a Fox News clip), Carlson—who is definitely the kind of guy who has used the words “my Black friend” on occasion—had to explain who Minaj was to his audience, which is sort of like a twenty-something trying to explain TikTok to their grandparents.

“So Nicki Minaj is a huge rap artist. Not sure there’s much overlap between her audience and this one, but our producers assure us she’s one of the biggest in the world,” Carlson said, in what might be the understatement of the century.

While there’s nothing funny about COVID, the hilarity of the words “impotent” and “testicles became swollen” coming out of Carlson’s mouth was not lost on anyone, particularly given the graveness with which he read them. And the chyron certainly didn’t make it any less funny.

But the real kicker came in Carlson’s three-word response to the tweet, as reported by Mediaite: “Which seems sensible.”

Carlson promised to report more on the “big reaction” to Minaj’s tweet on Tuesday’s show. Which, we’re sort of looking forward to watching.

Meanwhile, who do you trust?

(Via Mediaite)

People Had A Lot Of Reactions To James Corden And Others Stopping Los Angeles Traffic For A ‘Cinderella’ Stunt

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James Corden is an oddly controversial public figure: an entertainer who seeks only to bring joy to the world. But sometimes he goes too far. (Then again, sometimes he gets texts from Tom Cruise about landing a helicopter in his yard.) An example of this happened recently, when he and three cast members from the forthcoming musical movie take on Cinderella — in which he plays one of the mice turned into a footman — ran into a Los Angeles street, all for a flash mob stunt meant to advertise the film. But for some, the move did the opposite of delight.

Footage disseminated on social media Saturday showing Corden, star Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, and Idina Menzel dancing and singing in traffic to Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud,” in costumes as their characters. (Porter plays the gender-neutral fairy godparent while Menzel is the evils stepmother). And what better way to make the throngs aware of this than to stop traffic in one of the most car-clogged cities on earth?

Indeed, rather than charmed, some people on social media found themselves livid. They pointed out that Corden and company probably made people late for work.

Others questioned the logic of the happening in the first place.

And there were lots of movie and TV jokes.

For what it’s worth, Cinderella — which comes a mere six years after Disney’s live-action stab, which starred Lily James and Cate Blanchett — hits Amazon Prime on September.

Kanye West Promises To Never Back Down From ‘Nerd Ass’ Jocks In A Cryptic Group Chat Message

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The process leading up to the release of Kanye West’s Donda just got a little bit more interesting. On Saturday, the rapper posted a screenshot of a cryptic text message he sent to a group chat with eight other people, one of which included Pusha T. The message found the Yeezus rapper preparing for a battle of some sort.

“I live for this,” Kanye wrote. “I’ve been f*cked with by nerd ass jock n****s like you my whole life. You will never recover. I promise you.” Kanye sent the message at 12:28 pm on Saturday, and while it’s unclear who the rapper is targeting, fans certainly have their theories as to who he’s talking about.

Many believe that Drake is at least one of the “nerd ass jock n****s” Kanye is referring to. The rapper’s Instagram post came hours after Drake’s guest verse on Trippie Redd’s “Betrayal” was released. On the track, Drake raps, “All these fools I’m beefin’ that I barely know / Forty-five, forty-four (Burned out), let it go,” seemingly referencing Kanye and Pusha’s age, both being 44.

Drake adds, “Ye ain’t changin’ shi*t for me, it’s set in stone / Rollin’ stones, heavy stones (PinkGrillz) / Precious stone, let me make my presence known.” Fans believe that the group message screenshot is a warning of some sort of retaliation Kanye has in store for the diss.

You can read the group chat text message in the post above.

A Botched Cher Tweet Led To Utter Chaos (From Herself And Others), And People Couldn’t Handle It

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Cher’s already thrown her support behind Britney Spears during her conservatorship fight, and she did so again on Thursday night over a report that Jamie Spears would be stepping down. Before that happened, however, the legendary singer and actress had a slip of the fingers, and all hell broke loose. This turned into a rare moment of real fun on Twitter, so we must talk this out.

Things were going well, given that Cher had been previously tweeting about an HSN (Home Shopping Network) appearance. When all was said and done, however, Cher popped onto her phone and simply tweeted, “I had a great time on H.” Oh no.

So, very clearly, this was a typo, yet Cher’s immediate replies turned into a mixture of people playing along and/or wondering what the heck was going on (especially since Cher’s former husband, Gregg Allman, was a heroin addict, and Cher is anti-drug and even campaigned against marijuana use in the 1960s).

Very quickly, Cher realized what had happened, but (like a champ) she did not delete her erroneous tweet. Instead, she explained (in her frequent ALL-CAPS fashion) that she’d pushed send too early. Then Cher communicated that the camera work on HSN was less than desirable, and had ‘MADE ME LOOK LIKE’ she had… eaten a turkey? Alright.

Cher then lamented losing all her ‘CRED’ over a ‘MANGLED’ tweet. The Oscar winner then declared a divorce from grammar, so please lighten up, everyone.

Fair enough. And here’s the aforementioned support for Britney Spears, even though her dad hasn’t stepped away from the conservatorship quite yet. Cher ‘COULDN’T HAPPIER 4 HER IF I WAS TWINS.’ Same, Cher!

Kanye West Didn’t Release ‘Donda’ After His Listening Event And The Internet Isn’t Surprised

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In recent years, Kanye West has proven himself untrustworthy when it comes to doing things on time. He routinely misses scheduled release dates for his albums and that spirit of tardiness even carried over to his failed presidential campaign. So, when a release date for West’s upcoming album Donda was “confirmed” earlier this week for July 23 (aka today), it remained to be seen if the project would actually come out on that day.

Typically, albums are released at midnight on their release date, so it seemed like West’s huge listening event at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium (which was of course delayed by a couple hours) would be a perfect lead-in to Donda‘s debut on streaming platforms. However, both fans who stayed up for the anticipated midnight release and those who expected to wake up to Donda this morning were left disappointed but not surprised: As of this post, Donda is not available on streaming platforms.

As it became clear that Donda isn’t out yet, the album title became a trending topic on Twitter as fans shared memes. These posts expressed disappointment, sadness, and bemusement as fans kicked themselves for not expecting a delay.

There are still plenty of hours left in this July 23, though, so Donda could still make its announced release date. As the world waits to see if that actually happens, check out some of the reactions to the album’s delay below.