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Finally, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson opened up regarding the disappointing fight of his son Raja vs professional wrestling veteran Syko Stu that trended on social media. The MMA great livestreamed last weekend, and not at all shy of the issue, he discussed it directly from the heart, genuine and unbridled, and clearly torn between fatherhood and the public eye.

A Suffering Father

“It is difficult for me this weekend to discuss it,” Rampage said, plainly irritated. “I feel bad anything did occur with Psycho Stu. I do not condone the conduct of my son at all. Very unfortunate.”

The UFC legend said that if he had been there, perhaps all of this could have been prevented. But he wasn’t, and he now gets the cold harsh reality of his son’s actions. “You’re proud of your kids sometimes, not proud of them sometimes. You’re still the dad at the end of the day,” he summarized the impossible situation he now finds himself in.

Fighting Against Rumors, Racism and Clics

It hurt Rampage more that there had been the fight at all, and more that the web had misrepresented it. “I see many others cutting idiot siht for click bait… promulgating lies that aren’t even close to correct, for cash,” he shook his head at the circus.

But he was not only outraged at the clout hunters. He criticized the racism circulating in the commentary on the event. “A lot of racist people showing their colors,” he said. “It’s not right. It’s crazy.”

A Surprising Olive Branch In spite of all that, Rampage wasn’t simply attacking or irritable. He had a lot more to say than you would have anticipated, saying he would indeed want to dine with Syko Stu one day. “Hopefully one day I can meet him. Shake his hand. Have a man-to-man with him,” he said.

It was a rare moment of candour and vulnerability for a fighter who preferred knocking guys out as opposed to exposing himself.

Stuck in the Middle

Once the livestream concluded, Rampage breathed heavily as if drained from the burden of it all. “Whatever I say, there are gonna be haters and they are gonna spin my message,” he confessed. “I said it myself, I didn’t go. I learned at the same rate as everyone else.”

It comes down to this: he doesn’t like the way Raja does things, but he won’t stop from being his dad. As much as the world of the web wants to spin its yarns, Rampage needs to deal with far greater adversity than any foe he has ever known, how to father with the world keeping its eyes.

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Issa Rae is back with a new book that gives a candid look at some of the lessons she’s learned thus far in her career in Hollywood.

On Tuesday, Aug. 26, the 40-year-old writer and producer released “I Should Be Smarter By Now,” a collection of six essays chronicling her career highs and lows, including how a risky move nearly left her flat broke.

“My impulsivity, the character trait I’ve benefited from and paid dearly for, is both a gift and a curse,” the “Insecure” alum wrote, per US Weekly. “The gift is that I can be fearless in the pursuit of anything I want to achieve. If I want something, I’m going to be active and go after it. The curse is, of course, that I don’t properly think through the consequences of my actions.”

The best example of how her impulsivity, combined with her being a self-described “underthinker,” has led to learning experiences she could recall almost cost her “every single dollar” she had ever made in her life. 

The “Little” star recalled how, in 2014, when she and ColorCreative partner Deniese Davis first launched the company, they did so by attempting to produce three TV pilots without secured funding. Rae reached out to a “rich ex” who initially promised to invest a third of what they needed. However, the two ended up fighting, leading the ex to ultimately leave them high and dry. 

“The real mistake was not pulling the plug when I knew I didn’t have the money and that all of the costs would be falling on me,” wrote the “Barbie” actress. 

She needed $150,000 and had roughly half of that at the time, thanks to her advance for her first book, “Adventures of an Awkward Black Girl.” 

She added, “Most of it was in my savings — it was all the money I had ever made in my life up until that point.”

In the end, Rae and Davis managed to shoot all three pilots with Rae as the main financial backer; however, they didn’t find homes for them. 

Although the gamble may not have yielded immediate success, it laid the groundwork for ColorCreative to grow and for Rae to refine her business instincts.

Alongside that story, the Emmy nominee delves into topics such as creativity, collaboration, and resilience in essays titled “The Business of Being Me,” “Playing Well with Others,” “The Geography of Creativity,” “I See You Seeing Me,” “The Art of Strategic Procrastination,” and “I Almost Know What I’m Doing.” Rae describes the collection, released in partnership with Amazon Prime and Audible, as a way of sharing the messy, unpolished truth behind her success. 

“This collection is part confession, part reflection and part ‘here’s what I wish I’d known,’” Rae told People magazine in June ahead of the release. “But mostly it’s just me being honest about the weird, wonderful journey from having big dreams to making them a reality.”

In a post announcing the release on Instagram, Rae wrote, “My new book, “I Should Be Smarter By Now” is officially out today! If you’re dreaming about OR in the midst of building something — I wrote these stories for you.”

She also announced that she will embark on a six-city book tour, starting Sept. 8 in Philadelphia and stopping in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit. 

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As a Black man who grew up fantasizing on panels of manga and seasons of survival show episodes, I will only say this here: Netflix low-key chucked the gauntlet when they dropped the Alice in Borderland Season 3 trailer. Whereas Seasons 1 and 2 kept me walking back and forth in my living room like I was playing the Spades of the Ace of Swords game, Season 3 is coming to take my edges, my sanity, and my Netflix subscription from me again.

The Setup: Love, Separation, and Good Old Madness

September 25 is marked in red ink in my calendar, because Arisu and Usagi are together again at last, but only to pull each other out of the other’s hands like an anime tradition of ripping out hearts. Usagi’s kidnapped and dragged back to Borderland and left out in the cold by a creepy professor who’s obviously missed his therapy appointments, and Arisu’s doing what he does best: he’s going to risk everything to save her. But this time, here’s the thing: they’re not even playing together. Each of them is teamed up with new characters, new betrayals, and new carnage.

As Kento Yamazaki (Arisu) so eloquently expressed, the distance is “different atmospheres and character dynamics,” aka actor lingo for: do not distance yourselves from one another, someone’s gonna receive an L. Tao Tsuchiya (Usagi) meanwhile took out her trauma kit and re-watched Seasons 1 and 2. Sis essentially said, I’m gonna be suffering again so y’all can suffer along with me.

The Games: Flaming Arrows and Killer Dice Flaming

Let’s discuss these games because whew, they aren’t holding back anything this time. Yamazaki was losing his mind over an shrine clip of blazing arrows raining down like a lunatic on Apollo himself. If you’ve ever read Haro Aso’s manga, believe me when you say that moment is the stuff of legend. When they do it with the Japanese VFX team, it’s going to get crazy. “Rewind five times just to catch a breath” levels of crazy.

And then there’s that dice game that they’re causing such a ruckus over in the trailer. Tsuchiya hyped it up as that point of madness that pushes everyone crazy. Seeing grown-ups roll rainbow dice and running away from trouble? That’s the zany casino vibes for me.

The Joker card is looming on the horizon, and if you are a Borderland lore veteran, that is the ultimate proving grounds waiting. This ain’t kiddie play, this is mind games with glittering dice and flaming skies.

The Images: Painting of Pain Overall

They release the main promo and it’s stunning. Arisu and Usagi are hunched together in the middle, the Joker card grinning like the devil at their shoulders. There’s a swirling black hole whirlpool at their feet that’s hissing essentially “don’t get too comfy.” Casting an aura of apprehension around them, the rest of the cast is strained, panicky, or simply deadly. Banda’s dark energy alone could fuel an entire season.

This is no ordinary poster. This is an elegant invitation to trauma.

The Bigger Picture: Love, Death, and the Black Man Sitting on His Couch

Now, I’m a Survival Horror addict like everyone else, but Alice in Borderland never cut deeper for the sake of it. Those games were increasingly about stripping you down to yourself when the world ceases to make sense anymore. Arisu’s stubborn effort to save Usagi, Usagi’s strength and PTSD, every new character with issues of his own, that’s why the show works. It’s not who lives and who doesn’t, it’s why in the first place.

Season 3 will make that question harder than ever before. Can one remain human when death is just around every turn of a dice? Do you lose yourself completely?

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Snoop Dogg was shocked to see LGBTQ representation in Pixar’s children’s film “Lightyear.” However, media personality and LGBTQ advocate TS Madision recently questioned the root of the rapper’s strong reaction. 

“Snoop Dogg has historically been an advocate against censoring, and his fame is based on expression,” Madison told TMZ hosts on Monday. “So my question is, Snoop. You have music videos with women dancing and kissing other women, dancing naked. So why is displaying lesbian behavior in your music videos appropriate? And you are afraid to answer the questions from your grandchildren?”

Earlier this week, the California rapper recalled how the appearance of a same-sex relationship between character Alisha Hawthorne and her wife, in the 2022 “Toy Story” spinoff, inspired some awkward questions for his grandson. 

“They’re like, ‘She had a baby — with another woman,’” the rapper recalled in a recent podcast appearance. “Well, my grandson, in the middle of the movie is like, ‘Papa Snoop? How she have a baby with a woman? She’s a woman!’”

“It fucked me up,” Snoop said. “I’m like, scared to go to the movies. Y’all throwing me in the middle of shit that I don’t have an answer for… It threw me for a loop. I’m like, ‘What part of the movie was this?’ These are kids. We have to show that at this age? They’re going to ask questions. I don’t have the answer,” he added. 

While Madison acknowledges that the rapper’s music videos may have been geared towards adults, she emphasizes that kids see everything. Therefore, the responsibility of educating these babies falls on the parents, grandparents, and uncles.

“As a parent, you should also explain to your children that other things exist in the world outside of what you have deemed normal in your own home..” she added. 

“It’s rooted in a bit of homophobia because you’re never afraid to talk to your kids about having a little boyfriend or a little girlfriend at a certain age,” she continued. “I know that we’ve been conditioned to be able to, like, understand heteronormative activity. We’ve been conditioned because that’s all we see. We’ve always, as queer people, been pushed to the side and swept under. So it is time for us to have these uncomfortable conversations.”

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The grungy, sleazy queen of sidesplitting insanity is back and this time she rules LA, the city of angels.

The first look photos from HBO’s new scripted comedy series I LOVE LA, created by and starring Rachel Sennott, have been released. She’s clearly here to remind TV of its place and make it her playground. It premieres Sunday, Nov. 2 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Max. The eight-episode season premieres weekly to the Dec. 21 series finale, just in time for you to have a new holiday depression to blame things on instead of in-laws.

The Premise: Friendship, Sex, and Delusions of Stardom

At its center, I LOVE LA is a show about a cast of striving friends who fight their way through love and life in LA. Translation: a lot of cringeworthy hook-ups, disastrous auditions, too many oat milk lattes, and at least one crazy rooftop fight over a Silver Lake party house.

Rachel Sennott is Maia, the delicate fantasist who can’t “make it” and stay vertical. And, naturally, comedic wit Jordan Firstman as Charlie, Josh Hutcherson (aka Peeta from The Hunger Games) as Dylan, Odessa A’zion as Tallulah, and True Whitaker as Alani. That’s enough zaniness to explode a group message, but HBO had more tricks up its sleeve. Guest stars include Leighton Meester, Moses Ingram, Elijah Wood, Quenlin Blackwell, and others. Imagining Elijah Wood crashing a drum circle in Echo Park and that’s the level of enthusiasm.

Behind the Camera: A Murderers Row of Comedy/Layout Talent

Sennott not only directs but, as creator and executive producer, as well, although she’s assisted in the latter by Emma Barrie, Aida Rodgers, Max Silvestri, and Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers). The roster of directors is no less impressive, with Sennott herself, Scafaria, Bill Benz, and Kevin Bray at the helm. If there were ever promises that LA delusion could be filmable and side-splittingly hilarious, this is it.

First Look: Sunsets, Sweat, and Savage Humor

The first photos deliver what Sennott’s fans are already waiting eagerly for: rumpled hairdo, acerbic humor, and unashamed adoration of Angeleno teenage desperation and poverty. Photos propose rooftop shots under smoggy sunset skies, rager party sequences out of control, and group photographs that yell toxic but party.

If you’ve been holding out for the ultimate follow-up to Bottoms and Shiva Baby with more palm trees, more traffic, and more unabashed hot people, then you’re in luck.

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That Venus Williams lost her first Grand Slam match in two years — and what she says will be her last match of 2025 — didn’t really matter Monday night.

Certainly not to the thousands of supportive spectators in the Arthur Ashe Stadium seats who roared for her best shots and, in a way, for everything her career means to them, before sending her off the court with a standing ovation after a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 defeat against 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova at the U.S. Open.

The result also sure seemed beside the point to Williams herself, at 45 the oldest singles player at Flushing Meadows since 1981. She smiled and laughed and joked through her postmatch news conference — until, that is, a reporter asked something that made her think back to all of the injury and illness issues she dealt with for years.

“Oh, what did I prove to myself?” Williams began, repeating part of the question. “I think for me, getting back on the court was about giving myself a chance to play more healthy. When you play unhealthy, it’s in your mind. It’s not just how you feel. You get stuck in your mind too. So it was nice to be freer.”

As she spoke those last few words, Williams bowed her head and closed her eyes, which welled with tears. After several seconds of silence, the tournament moderator ended the Q-and-A session and Williams rose from her seat at the front of the room.

This was just the fourth singles match of a comeback that began in July after 16 months off the tennis tour, time marked by pain from uterine fibroids she had surgery for last year.

“My team and I, we worked as hard and as fast as we could. We literally took no days off. I haven’t gone to dinner. I haven’t seen friends. I haven’t done anything except train for three months as hard as I could,” Williams said. “From each match that I didn’t win, then I tried to go back and learn from that and then get better.”

She hasn’t won a match at the U.S. Open in singles since 2019, when she got to the second round. Since then, Williams exited in the first round in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and missed the tournament in 2021 and 2024.

Being back in the arena meant so much to her — and to those watching.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a crowd that much on my side,” said Williams, who appreciated the backing and yells of “Let’s go, Venus!” that came from the stands even as she dropped 11 of the night’s first 13 points. “I knew going into this match that people in this stadium, people in the United States, people around the world, were really rooting for me, and that felt great.”

This event holds a special place in her career. Her first Grand Slam final came at the 1997 U.S. Open, when she was 17. She won two of her seven major championships there, in 2000 and 2001.

And it was at the U.S. Open more than a decade ago that Williams withdrew before she was supposed to play in the second round, revealing she had been diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an energy-sapping auto-immune disease that can cause joint pain.

Some thought she might leave tennis because of that, but she remained a leading figure — on and off the court.

“She’s such a legend of our sport,” 2023 French Open runner-up Muchova said, calling it an honor “to share a court with her.”

Muchova, a 29-year-old from the Czech Republic, made it to the semifinals in New York in both 2023 — when she lost to eventual champion Coco Gauff in a match interrupted by a climate protest — and 2024.

So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Williams started slowly. But with her fiance, Andrea Preti, leaping out of his seat after many points, Williams got back into the match, smacking vintage serves at up to 114 mph and finishing with just one fewer winner than Muchova.

In the third set, though, as the contest reached two hours, Muchova was simply too good.

Since making her professional debut in 1994, Williams has accomplished pretty much everything one can in tennis. There are the 14 Grand Slam trophies in women’s doubles alongside her younger sister, Serena, plus two in mixed doubles. The record five Olympic tennis medals. The time at No. 1 in the WTA rankings.

Both siblings transcended their sport and became much more than successful athletes. Serena, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, played her last match at the 2022 U.S. Open.

“She’s Venus Williams. She’s so iconic in so many different ways,” said Frances Tiafoe, an American player who won his first-round match in Ashe earlier Monday. “She’s won so much. And to see how much she loves game still at her age is amazing. It’s amazing to still see her out here.”

It’s unclear what the future holds. Williams said she doesn’t want to travel to tournaments outside the country; after the U.S. Open, the tour heads to Asia.

When she was asked at the Washington tournament why she was still competing, she offered a simple reply: “Why not?”

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Alex Eala signed her name into history books at Flushing Meadows as the first-ever player from the Philippines to win a Grand Slam singles match since the Open Era was introduced. The 20-year-old battled through an heart-thumping first-round match at the US Open, overcoming World No. 14 Clara Tauson of Denmark, in a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(11) epic that put the stands at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at full standing cheers.

For a nation whose tennis had already been eclipsed by basketball and boxing, Eala’s victory is more than just one match, it’s that one moment that brings the Philippines to the big stage of tennis.

Battle of Nerves and Resilience

The match played out just like one of those vintage Grand Slam encounters. Having pushed Eala around in the first set came the counterattraction of heavy serves and ruthless pressure by Tauson throughout the second to overwhelm. By the third, the impression was that the Danish giant was dominant, gliding along at 5-1.

But champions are forged in adversity. Behind the wall, to coin a phrase, Eala tapped into all the determination she had learned at the Rafa Nadal Academy. With the ear-piercing “Let’s go Alex!” chants of the growing, noisier New York crowd spurring her on, she fought her way back into contention.

At 6-5, even Eala was leading with match point, but Tauson took it into a tiebreaker. That was preceded by an 18-minute heart-in-the-throat of tension and shot-by-shot mastery. Tauson’s 12 service aces kept her moving, but Eala’s 49-reception points and rock-like defense made the difference.

Ultimately, at 12-11 in the breaker, long was hit by a Tauson forehand. Eala crashed down on the court, face into the blue hard floor, while the fans stood up with a standing ovation.

“Push the Limit”

Breathless in her post-match interview, Eala acknowledged the enormity of the occasion.

“Oh my God. It was so so difficult. She’s a huge player, a great player, and definitely not an easy draw in the first round,” she added. “I was just thinking to push the limit, physically, mentally, this was it.”

Her style of play was typical of her idol and teacher Rafael Nadal, whose academy has imparted that mix of ferocity and humility.

The Stakes Ahead

Apart from taking Eala to the round of 64, the victory also earns her a $154,000 (approximately ₱8.7 million) prize money. The US Open this year has the largest ever tennis purse of $90 million. She then will play either Spain’s Cristina Bucsa or American Claire Liu, a chance to continue her Cinderella story on tennis’s biggest stage.

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