Culture

Twitter recently made something of an example of rapper Talib Kweli, permanently banning him from the platform after “repeated violations of Twitter rules." The ban comes as a report in Jezebel describes how Kweli spent pretty much the entire month…

On Tuesday, Disney announced the fairly shocking decision to premiere its live-action Mulan remake as a home rental. After months of attempting to outrun the pandemic with persistent delays, the film will be available to stream on Disney+ starting…

The news is flooded with talk of Trump banning TikTok and Microsoft potentially buying a stake to keep the app on American phones. Meanwhile, Instagram rolled out its own short form video feature, Reels, on Wednesday in an attempt to win over a…

When the pandemic began, there was a tendency among masochists to revisit films like Contagion or Safe to brace for the worst. Now it’s clear that the ruling party will allow COVID-19 to ravage unabated until a vaccine arrives, my appetite for doom…

Zac Efron doesn’t say much except “Dude” and “Wow” in his Netflix docu-series Down to Earth. It’s a mostly innocuous show. If you’re the type of person who’s into the actor’s buff, scruffy bro-dude schtick and you like glossy travel content with a…

On Friday night, President Trump abruptly announced his plan to ban TikTok in the United States. “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “Soon, immediately. I mean…

The internet loves schadenfreude. Ellen DeGeneres’s empire may be crumbling, amid news that WarnerMedia is investigating her talk show for fostering a hostile work environment. Provided her critics succeed in cancelling DeGeneres, everybody online…

Nothing’s getting in Jake Paul’s way. Last month, the YouTuber-turned-boxer hosted an irresponsible, mostly maskless rager at his Calabasas mansion. After seeing countless videos of party-goers dancing in close quarters and dangling from a…

Certain people imagine Britney Spears as a forlorn pop princess in a gilded tower, guarded by an evil patriarch controlling every aspect of her existence. Since 2008, amidst the fallout of her well-chronicled troubles — shaving her head, the trips…

If you can remember back to last October, there was a minor outcry over Netflix testing the option to change playback speed on the app. Judd Apatow said, among other things, “don’t fuck with our timing.” The Incredibles director Brad Bird expressed…

Daniel Ek, Spotify’s bald CEO who always appears to be clutching an invisible orb in photos, had a harsh assessment for artists this week. If you want to make a living in the streaming-ravaged music industry without touring, he suggests, simply…

Following reports of a toxic workplace rife with intimidation, racism, and bullying, former employees have now accused executive producers on The Ellen DeGeneres Show of “rampant sexual misconduct and harassment.” A new report from BuzzFeed News…

Beyoncé has released her highly anticipated new visual album, Black Is King. Available to stream as a Disney Plus exclusive, the film serves as a refashioned companion to last year’s soundtrack The Lion King: The Gift. She’s said that it “reimagines…

Stars are in lockdown, just like us! And delightfully, that’s led to a glut of great celebrity quarantine content. David Lynch is hunkered down in LA reporting the daily weather. Patrick Stewart performs one Shakespeare sonnet a day over on…

Almost as swiftly as the novel coronavirus wafted its way across the globe, false information about the crisis wormed its way onto timelines. You might not believe the craziest claims — covid-19 is, in fact, not spread through 5G — but there’s…

On Thursday, Oprah Winfrey announced that Breonna Taylor will be featured on the cover of September’s Oprah Magazine. Winfrey has been on every O Magazine cover since its inception — sometimes with another star in her orbit, like Michelle Obama or…

In the immediate aftermath of protests against police brutality and racial injustice, the entertainment industry began a reckoning with racist power structures and celebrating Black stories in all genres. Now, Netflix has announced plans to add…

The pandemic has activated some nostalgic impulses, from all the Zoom TV reunions to social media users exposing their favorite high school albums. These are ideal conditions for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater to mount a comeback, as it plans to remaster…

AMC Theaters and Universal Pictures have been bitterly feuding throughout the coronavirus pandemic. But now the two entertainment behemoths have buried the hatchet and inked a deal that should help studios and cinemas alike navigate the…