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JAY-Z SPENT SEVEN YEARS PICKING THE HALFTIME ACT AND FINALLY PICKED HIMSELF
Jay-Z is headlining the Super Bowl LXI halftime show at SoFi on Valentine's Day 2027. His company has been choosing the performer since 2019, so this is the rare job interview where the candidate and the hiring committee were the same guy. The joke writes itself, and Goodell helped.
A24 BETS $200 MILLION ON ELDEN RING
The Wall Street Journal says Alex Garland's Elden Ring movie now costs A24 close to $200 million, roughly triple anything the studio has ever spent. A24 won't confirm it. We go through how the company that just cleaned up on a $10 million YouTuber movie ended up funding a FromSoftware blockbuster.
KID CUDI GOT SICK OF WAITING FOR A BASQUIAT MOVIE AND CAST HIMSELF IN ONE HE WROTE
Kid Cudi announced he wrote a Jean-Michel Basquiat biopic called Jean, and he's directing it, and he's starring in it. People had been telling him to play Basquiat for years and no studio ever made the call. So he made the call himself, posted the wardrobe test, and apologized in advance for the wig.
NATHAN FIELDER NEGOTIATED A KILL SWITCH TO BURY HIS ELIZABETH HOLMES DOC
Nathan Fielder was so sure nobody needed another Elizabeth Holmes project that he made A24 write him a kill switch so he could bury it. He did not use it. The thing opened to $15.6 million in 855 theaters and is now the highest-rated feature on Letterboxd, above Seven Samurai.
TAYLOR SWIFT SKIPPED THE CHIEFS GAME, EXCEPT SHE WENT TO THE CHIEFS GAME
A gossip columnist reported Taylor Swift was taking time apart from Travis Kelce and skipping Sunday's Chiefs game after he liked Shane Gillis's SNL monologue. She went to the game and sat in a suite with Caitlin Clark. Here's how a story sourced to nobody died in about seventy-two hours.
EPIC GAMES LET AI WRITE ITS WHOLE LAUNCHER AND IT SOMEHOW BEAT STEAM
Epic rebuilt the Epic Games Store launcher from scratch, had AI write the code, and announced it with the words "programming is hard." The speed numbers check out. The reaction from gamers did not go the way Epic hoped.
RJ MITTE, WALTER WHITE JR. ON 'BREAKING BAD,' DEAD AT 34
RJ Mitte, who played Walter White Jr. across all five seasons of Breaking Bad, died Monday in Brownsville, Texas at 34. His reps confirmed the death and said the cause was suicide. No jokes on this one, just what we know and where to call if you need it.
CHRIS HANSEN BOUGHT ADS TO HECKLE THE MOVIE ABOUT CHRIS HANSEN
A24 made a Robert Pattinson movie about Chris Hansen without asking Chris Hansen. Hansen's response was to buy preshow ad time on thousands of screens so he could greet the audience before his own biopic starts. He gave a D grade for Pattinson's performance on his podcast. The ad is him walking into a kitchen telling t
TAYLOR SWIFT'S CLEVELAND LOVE SONG IS NOW THE WORST-RATED TRACK OF HER CAREER
Taylor Swift put four bonus tracks on the deluxe Showgirl release and one of them is a love song about Travis Kelce's hometown. The internet spent a week deciding it's the worst thing she has ever recorded, and it is now her lowest-rated song on Album of the Year. Kelce went on his podcast and called it a banger, becau
ROCKSTAR IS SELLING A $400 GTA 6 COLLECTOR'S BOX WITH NO GTA 6 IN IT
Rockstar's $399.99 GTA 6 collector's box ships November 19 with sunglasses, a shot glass, a cartoon gator, and no copy of GTA 6. You still need another $80 to $100 for the actual game. Fans answered by 3D printing the gator for under two dollars, and Rockstar is somehow still in stock.
PEACOCK SOLVES THE O.J. CASE 32 YEARS LATE, TWO YEARS AFTER HE DIED
Peacock ordered a two part doc called OJ's Accomplice, premiering in December, promising real evidence that Simpson didn't act alone. It has Kato Kaelin, one of Nicole Brown Simpson's sisters, and an accomplice they won't name. We get into why a theory this old is suddenly a holiday release.
CONNECTICUT MAN PUNCHES A 4 YEAR OLD AT TARGET OVER POKEMON CARDS
A Pokemon restock at a Connecticut Target reportedly ended with a guy punching another shopper, who fell into a 4-year-old girl and hurt her elbow. The alleged puncher then fled the store and left his wallet behind. We get into the cart hidden in the men's clothing section, and why the arrest everyone is posting about
ED SHEERAN LOST ALL FOUR OPENING ACTS IN ONE DAY
Macklemore said "Free Palestine" on Ed Sheeran's tour, Robert Kraft got him pulled, and then every other opener quit in solidarity. Sheeran has a stadium date Saturday with nobody to open it. Macklemore is now donating his $1 million tour check to Palestinian aid groups and dared Kraft to match, so Kraft went to $2 mil
XBOX CALLS SONY BROKE AND STEALS THEIR DEV
PlayStation quietly killed Hideo Kojima's espionage game Physint in June over a swelling budget and missed deadlines. Three months later Xbox picked it up, plus the film and TV rights. Bloomberg got the internal reasoning, and it boils down to Sony not wanting to fund another game that ends up on PC anyway.
CHICAGO WAITED 14 YEARS FOR CHIEF KEEF AND GOT A WORK EMAIL
Chief Keef's first headline show in Chicago in 14 years got postponed 16 minutes before the scheduled start. His PR firm says the flight was running late and he'd have landed at the venue's curfew. Keef says a pilot got racist and canceled his plane, which no airline or airport has confirmed.
BAD BUNNY WON SEVEN EMMYS FOR THIRTEEN MINUTES OF WORK
Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show won seven Emmys on Saturday, the most any halftime show has ever won. In the top category it beat the Oscars, the Grammys, the Globes and the Tonys, which is four awards shows losing an award. He did not attend.