Category: Culture

‘Tiger King’ villain Jeff Lowe says Netflix is dropping an extra episode

The ‘Tiger King’ saga isn’t over yet, according to Jeff Lowe.

Netflix docuseries “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” has become essential quarantine viewing in recent weeks, and given how many absurd twists and turns occurred in the unbelievable storyline, fans of the show were left with plenty of questions after finishing the final episode. According to one of the show’s many villains, current Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park CEO Jeff Lowe, Netflix will release an extra episode very soon.

Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, of all people, broke the news on Twitter. Jeff Lowe and his wife, Lauren, recorded a video for Turner and his wife Kourtney, and claimed that Netflix was coming to film at the Oklahoma zoo for an episode to be released “next week.”

Netflix has not announced any upcoming additional episodes – but did recently share a snippet of a recent interview with Joe Exotic from jail.

There’s obviously more from Joe that was not shown in the short video, and it would be kind of strange for Netflix to go to the lengths to film an interview to only release an 82-second Twitter video, so perhaps more Tiger King really is on the way.

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Lolo Jones hilariously one-ups Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Holland in handstand t-shirt challenge

Lolo Jones: handstand t-shirt challenge champ.

Three-time Olympian Lolo Jones is a rockstar who appears to be handling the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics relatively well, all things considered.

When USA TODAY Sports broke the news that the International Olympic Committee was planning to postpone the Games — one day before it officially did — because of the global COVID-19 outbreak, the American hurdler and bobsledder made a joke about ordering a pizza and delaying her retirement from the track for another year. And while quarantining, she’s been posting funny videos to social media about how she’s killing time and working out — like bench pressing her couch.

So not only did her boredom lead her to try the handstand t-shirt challenge, but she also one-upped the people who made the challenge go viral: Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal. The Spider-Man actor shared a video of him doing a handstand while putting on a shirt and challenged Gyllenhaal, among others, to do it. And he did.

But like an elite athlete, Jones took it a step further. She put on two t-shirts while upside down on her hands *and* did it while having a glass of wine.

Brava, Lolo.

Here are Holland’s and Gyllenhaal’s versions:

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The best ‘Tiger King’ memes from #DescribeTigerKingIn5Words

Twitter users summed up Netflix’s wild documentary series Tiger King perfectly.

Netflix’s true crime documentary series ‘Tiger King’ has taken over the internet, and if you haven’t seen the show yet, you’re missing out on one of the wildest, most unbelievable experiences you can possibly have watching television. Tiger King delivers so many absurd twists and turns, and offers a fascinating glimpse into a deranged world where seemingly every character is profoundly flawed in their own way. You really should go watch it right now.

On Saturday, fans of the show tried to best describe ‘Tiger King’ in just five words on Twitter in a hashtag challenge. Here are the best efforts:

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2020 NCAA Tournament Bracket: Vote in the Final Four

Iowa, San Diego State, St. Mary’s and Seton Hall are battling for a title.

We’ve reached the Final Four in our would-be 2020 NCAA Tournament bracket. We started last week to try and determine which team would have emerged from March Madness as the national champion, and the voting results have led to an entirely unpredictable Final Four.

In the Elite 8, Iowa upset Maryland in a stunner, as just a fraction of the Maryland fans who voted the Terps into the Elite Eight showed up for their regional final matchup. The Hawkeyes move on to face No. 2 San Diego State, as the Azetcs dominated top-seed Gonzaga.

On the right half of the bracket, No. 8 St. Mary’s continued its Cinderella run to the Final Four, but the Gaels now face their toughest test in No. 3 Seton Hall.

Voting for this round will conclude at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 7th. The final championship poll will be posted soon afterward.

No. 6 Iowa vs. No. 2 San Diego State

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No. 8 St. Mary’s vs. No. 3 Seton Hall

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Here’s how to do the ‘Which Character’ personality quiz everyone is taking

A few minutes of guaranteed distraction from coronavirus coverage.

It’s good to have some distraction these days between all the incredibly sobering news about the coronavirus pandemic. As our quarantine days grow longer and longer, we’re all hunting for brief bursts of amusement. One of the things that seems to have caught fire recently is the “Which Character” personality quiz that’s showing up all over social media.

The quiz, created by the Open-Source Psychometrics Project, is an interactive way to determine your similarity with a list of fictional TV characters.  According to the creators of the quiz, it goes well above similar Buzzfeed type tests.

“This test was created by getting volunteers to rate the perceived personality of a variety of characters (currently 510). A user’s self ratings are compared against these profiles and the closest match is found,” the background information of the site explains.

Here’s how it works.

First, users need to pick between three different versions of the test. The recommended setting has 28 questions, while a random selection will give you 14. The complete version of the quiz has a whopping 121, but no one really needs to go that in-depth.

Again, per the website, the test is made of “pairs of adjectives with a slider between them.”  The next step is to just slide the bar towards the trait that most aligns with your personality.

That’s pretty much it. The really good thing about this quiz is that it doesn’t require any personal information from you at all. There’s no need to put in an email or even enter in a name to take it. And you can get your results right away.

Here’s the most important thing about the results. After taking the test, you’ll get an overall result that matches you with a character from across a wide range of pop culture options, but it will also let you filter by your favorite TV show. So, say, for example, you get someone random from the Last Airbender and you’re not totally pleased, you can use the drop down menu and pick from your favorite TV shows.

Really, who hasn’t wanted to see which Harry Potter or Simpson or MCU or Game of Thrones character they most represent?

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The Rock uses his ‘Moana’ song to teach his daughter how to wash her hands

SO ADORABLE.

Experts during the global coronavirus pandemic have been endlessly repeating the same advice: Stay home if you can, social distance, and wash your hands frequently.

Countless songs or portions of songs have been suggested for people to sing to ensure they thoroughly wash their hands for 20 seconds, from Happy Birthday (twice) to an excerpt from Hamilton. The possibilities are endless, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is here with another suggestion for people.

In a precious video he made with his daughter, “Baby Tia,” the wrestler turned actor sang a portion of the song, You’re Welcome, which was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and performed by The Rock in the animated movie Moana.

Tia, adorably and impatiently, demands her dad sing the song as he introduces the point of the video. Johnson — who also recently showed off his ability to eat a ridiculous amount of French toast — explains that you could sing the ABCs while washing your hands, but this is more fun.

In the video caption on Instagram, Johnson wrote:

Our sheltering at home, pre daddy’s shower ritual 👶🏽🎶

Before my showers now, Baby Tia (mama mia) demands I sing the rap portion of my song “You’re Welcome” from MOANA, while I wash her hands.
We realized a few weeks ago that the rap portion of the song is perfect timing when getting your little ones to have fun washing their hands.
Stay healthy and safe, my friends.
D
And gotta love how at the start of this vid, baby Tia is like, “just shut your mouth and sing daddy” 😂

Here’s the full version from the Disney movie:

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Tom Holland’s quarantine social media challenge looks incredibly hard

Probably best not to try this one at home!

People across the world have been hunkered down in quarantine for an extended period of time, which means boredom and anxiety have most certainly set in. To pass the time, there have been a flurry of coronavirus social media challenges. Those challenges range from the mundane, like shooting hoops with laundry, to the skilled, like showing off your dance moves =, to the downright ludicrous, like the handstand t-shirt challenge.

If the name wasn’t already a tip-off, the handstand t-shirt challenge involves putting on a t-shirt while doing a handstand and it sounds like a great way to get seriously injured. Marvel actor Tom Holland might have started it, I don’t honestly know.  He did post a video on his Instagram of him huffing and puffing his way into a t-shirt while upside down.

Now, this might be a gift for the Holland stans, but it’s also really freaking extra. Holland tagged his Spider-Man Far From Home co-star Jake Gyllenhaal in the challenge as well as Ryan Reynolds and a few others.

Gyllenhaal took the bait and tied up his long hair so he could also show off his ripped abs and upper body strength.

Ryan Reynolds though had the most reasonable response, which was a decided “hell no.”

Anyway, the handstand t-shirt challenge should be left to trained actors or possibly skilled gymnasts, otherwise, it seems like a great way to take a trip to the emergency room.

The story behind the newest ‘The Challenge’ super-alliance, according to Johnny Bananas

Bananas and Wes … working TOGETHER? Here’s how it happened.

It was, up until Wednesday’s premiere of MTV’s The Challenge: Total Madness, the rivalry to end all rivalries.

Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio and Wes Bergmann have spent so many seasons going at each other, double-crossing and double-double-crossing and sneaking around to form alliances to battle.

Finally, in the first episode, we found out a big twist: the two of them are actually going to work together for the first time.

So how did THAT happen? In my recent Q&A with Bananas, he revealed that it was a fateful trip to the MTV Video Music Awards that sealed what ended up going down on Wednesday.

“After War of the Worlds 2 and he went home to Bear and got blindsided, and I got screwed by Team USA, we went to the VMAs and took a car together,” Bananas told For The Win recently. “I’m like, ‘for two of the smartest guys in the game, two of the most strategic thinkers, the fact that we’re doing this season after season, all we’re doing is maker their lives easier and our lives more difficult.

‘So, for once, why don’t we look at it as in War of the Worlds 1, you got me. War of the Worlds 2, I repaid the favor. Let’s go into this season with a clean slate.'”

This move had been in the mix, Bananas said, before War of the Worlds 1 after Bergmann returned after some time off.

“I felt like I stuck to my end of the bargain on that, he didn’t,” Bananas claimed. “I ended up being sent home on account of him. Last season, I wanted to return the favor and I did.”

It’s a smart call given how powerful and smart both vets are.

“When we go into a season focused on each other and only each other, you know who benefits? Everyone else. We’re making other people’s lives easier,” he said.

“This has allowed the new kids and some of the older guys who don’t have a lot in the tank,” he continued, “to sit back and not punch in for a week or two, because they know as long as Wes and I are there, we’ll be going at each other, everyone else can sit back and relax and let the bullets whiz over their heads. So we’ve been saying it for a few seasons now.”

There was skepticism, but Bananas hints there was a point where Wes could have “turned the tides” on him and didn’t.

“It’s a pretty amazing outcome when all is said and done,” he teased further. “You could not script the way this thing all pans out.”

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‘The Challenge: Total Madness’ power rankings after ep. 1

Here is who is on top so far.

When we last left MTV’s reality competition show The Challenge, a team made up of CT, Dee, Jordan and Rogan claimed victory after a wild season.

This time? It’s every competitor for his and herself in Total Madness, as 28 of the best vets and some very talented rookies compete for a million dollar prize while living in an underground bunker.

As always, we task our resident Challenge expert Charles Curtis to power rank each of the competitors after each week.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

This week: We got things kicked off with everyone meeting, getting through a first, tough challenge and the first elimination … with a twist.

1. Rogan

Is he the strongest player here? No. Is he the most politically savvy? No. But he’s coming in as a defending champion and he won the men’s heat of the Battle Lines challenge and he struck a deal with Kyle. Solid start.

2. Jenny

I told you all last season that she was among the best in War of the Worlds 2. Although she fell short, she started off this season with a win in Battle Lines and proof she’s a huge threat.

3. Johnny Bananas

A HUGE twist — he’s teaming up with Wes instead of going at him. Smart as heck by both players and now, we’ll see if they can use their combined smarts and strength to get far.

4. Wes

It was curious to see him blow up at Asaf calling out his name in nominations for elimination, but maybe it was just a bit of a show to cover up the fact that he and Bananas are a team. What should we call them? Banawes? Wesnana?

5. Jordan

Another defending champ who has his fiancee Tori there. If either of them win, they both win.

6. Fessy

Thanks to my interview with Johnny, I had my eye on the former Chattanooga Moc tight end. The fact that voters are already avoiding making enemies with him makes me think they’re worried about him, and they should be. He measured at 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds in college and he was on American Ninja Warrior. Plus, as someone who adopted the Mocs as his college football team, I’m biased.

7. Tori

Nearly won last year, comes in with Jordan as a force to be reckoned with.

8. Dee

I’m impressed. She was down to the final two in the challenge. After winning last season and proving her ex Rogan wrong, I have a feeling this is going to be a good year for her (although she’s sleeping in the bunk above Rogan’s, yeesh).

9. Ashley

As Wes pointed out, she’s gotten by some years by avoiding elimination. But I don’t think she’ll have a problem with the new rules twist that requires contestants to win an elimination in order to be allowed into the finals.

10. Nelson

I’ve always been convinced he’s been knocking on the door of winning a final. Maybe this is his year.

11. Jenna

Same with her.

12. Mattie

We know she has what it takes to get to a final.

13. Cory

I know he made a Tribunal purely because Rogan and Jenny chose him. But he was on his way to winning the challenge before T.J.’s tank rolled over his barrel.

14. CT

Now that he’s forced to go into elimination, will we see the CT of old completely dominate? We’ll see.

15 (tied). Swaggy C and Bayleigh

The two Big Brother rookies are a couple, and we’ve already seen how that helped in deliberations.

17. Bear

Oh, Bear. Already trying to canoodle with Kailah, who came into the house, er, bunker with a relationship.

18. Jay

Not the strongest of rookies. But he has a “red skull” now — which allows him to run a final if he makes it there — and that’s huge.

19. Kailah

I want to put her higher, but we’ve seen in previews that she hooks up with Bear. Maybe not the best idea?

20. Nany

Oof. One night she’s with Asaf, the next she’s watching him get eliminated.

21. Aneesa

Can you believe she’s never won? It’s kind of shocking. But she’s made two finals.

22. Kyle

I’m worried about him. Despite striking a deal with Rogan and with his ex Cara Maria not there this season, I just think he’s constantly got a target on his back, something CT noticed.

23 (tied). Kaycee and Jennifer

I didn’t see enough of the Big Brother winner and Amazing Race alum to get a sense of their skills.

25. Josh

We know he’s strong and can be a factor physically. But his political game has suffered. Let’s see what he can do this season.

26. Big T

We’ll see if she lasts longer than she did as a rookie on War of the Worlds 2, which was two eps.

27. Melissa

Not a great showing in the first challenge.

28. Asaf

A little something different in this season’s set of rankings: we’ll include a write-up the player(s) eliminated. And what a one-ep run for him. He canoodled with Nany, made some friends and was promptly eliminated by Jay in Air Strike that played to Jay’s strengths.

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Ina Garten is getting through coronavirus quarantine with a colossal cosmopolitan

The Barefoot Contessa is handling self-isolation with predictable verve.

We’re all getting through coronavirus self-isolation in our own special ways. For some people that means hunkering down and binging their favorite TV shows, or making time for daily walks, or just cooking a nice meal. For others, it might mean taking an extended cocktail break at pretty much any time of the day because we’re in the middle of a flipping global pandemic and all bets are off.

The later might be how the Barefoot Contessa herself Ina Garten is handling quarantine life.  Early Wednesday morning the beloved Food Network host posted a delightful video with the perfect recipe for a gallon of cosmos.  I’m not even exaggerating. Look at this pitcher. Look at that glass!

Ina, girl, is everything OK?

The recipe and video struck a chord with fans because, come on, who hasn’t been tempted to just pack it in and drown the day in fruity drinks.

Anyway, where is Jeffery. Is he there to help her drink some of this? Or maybe set up a virtual AA meeting? Honestly, the world is a garbage fire right now and we’re not getting back to normal any time soon. Make your cocktails. Drink out of your giant novelty glasses. As long as you’re staying home, no one really cares. If there was ever a time to drink up it’s now, so bottoms up.[vertical-gallery id=907334]