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Even though Game of Thrones is over and we all know that BRAN STARK had the best story – lmao – I guess the actors were still contractually obligated to show up for this year’s Comic Con to do something resembling a victory lap. The problem was that few people considered the final season a victory, and showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were too chickensh-t to actually come to Comic Con and get yelled at for their sh-tty writing and condensed storylines. So the actors had to show up and defend Benioff and Weiss’s sh-tty work. Controversy ensued. Some stories from the GoT Comic Con panel:

Maisie Williams on whether anyone helped Arya kill the Night King. From THR: Williams also weighed in on the theory that Jon Snow encouraged Arya to kill the Night King by distracting the ice dragon. Where does Williams land on that theory? “She did that on her own. If we’re going to give credit to anyone, it’s Melisandre. She knew what she had to do to put the mission in Arya’s head. This is the first time Arya has fought and had something to lose in so long. If we’re going to put it to anyone for getting Arya’s head back on track, it was Melisandre and the ‘brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes’ [prophecy].” I love that she said that.

Isaac Hempstead-Wright on whether Bran was secretly evil: “I think it’s quite cool that it’s slightly ambiguous. I’ve heard [theories] that Bran is the Night King, or whatever. Is he really a bad guy all along? That’s one of the cleverest things about the ending. It doesn’t conclude everything neatly. It’s left totally open. The kingdom is in total disarray, Arya’s starting her own journey, Sansa is queen, Bran is king, and they are storylines that could warrant their own spinoffs — but they don’t. They’re unfinished. It’s almost as if the world of Game of Thrones still exists in the ether. It’s quite nice that it’s not finished conclusively and it allows you to read into it — like the Evil Bran theory.” Bran is possibly evil, but he still does not have the best story.

Conleth Hill slams the backlash. Hill played Varys and Hill never seemed pleased with the sh-t that went down in the final season, but now he’s claiming the backlash was all media-created. He told the audience, “We’re very grateful for your fandom over the years and I think this is the reality rather than a media-led hate campaign.” It’s literally NOT media-led. Fans were incredibly disappointed and the media covered their disappointment.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was booed. Nikolaj called Jaime and Cersei Lannister’s deaths “great” and “perfect for that character’s ending,it made sense to me.” People booed him.

#GameOfThrones‘ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau says that it was perfect for his character to “end in the arms of Cersei.” The #SDCC crowd disagrees pic.twitter.com/CSCi9F6abE

— Variety (@Variety) July 20, 2019

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Out at Caltech, with champion Olympic Skier Lindsey Vonn!! Thank you and the @lindseyvonnfoundation for providing scholarships and amazing experiences for our Alexa Café girls! #lindseyvonnfoundation #idtech #caltech #techcamp #scholarship #fun

A post shared by iD Tech (@idtech) on Jul 17, 2019 at 12:02pm PDT

In February 2018, Lindsey Vonn won her third Olympic medal, the bronze in Downhill. She said that would be the last time that she competed in the Olympics as it was too physically strenuous for her. In February she announced that she would be retiring after completing her two fnal races at the 2019 World Championships. Lindsey made history when she won the bronze in downhill: She became the oldest woman (at 34) to earn a medal at a world championships, and was the first female racer to medal at 6 world championships.

Though she may have retired from ski racing, Lindsey’s not going anywhere. A documentary, Lindsey Vonn: The Final Season, will air on HBO in November, and a memoir, Rise: My Story, will be released next year. In more exciting news, her foundation is working to help girls learn about and succeed in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math):

While champion skier Lindsey Vonn is no longer hitting the slopes professionally after announcing her retirement earlier this year, she has something new she is championing.

The former alpine ski racer is now helping young girls become more involved in STEM education through the Lindsey Vonn Foundation. Vonn’s organization recently donated full scholarships to 22 girls to attend a camp with iD Tech, which offers week-long summertime STEM classes for children. Alexa Café is the organization’s camp just for girls.

“At tech companies, it’s a heavily male-dominated occupation and we really want to do things for girls and young kids where there’s a gap,” Vonn, 34, tells PEOPLE. “I’ve always been passionate about my foundation and now that I’m retired I have — maybe not as much time as I had expected — but I still have more time now than I did before. And for me, I want to be involved in every camp.”

“It’s not just my name, it’s me and I want to be involved with these kids and I want to help them on a personal level,” she adds.

Lindsey discussed with People a recent visit with one of the girls who had received a scholarship:

The former Olympian appeared at Caltech University on July 17 to visit one of the scholarships recipients, who developed an app to help people get affordable healthcare, inspired by her own family’s struggles.

“It was incredible to meet her, and see what she’s been working on, and her dreams and aspirations,” Vonn says. “She’s very much an inspiration to others as well, she’s someone that I’m really proud to have her represent our foundation.”

“They’re all creating different objects that they’re printing out on the 3D printer,” Vonn says of the camp. “We watched some kids building computers, which is just insane to me. And I can’t even begin to understand code, let alone how to build a computer.”

[From People]

I’m so excited that Lindsey’s foundation is working to get more girls involved in STEM fields. The article shared a statistic from the National Girls Collaborative Project: “Women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, but only 29% of the science and engineering workforce,” something Lindsey wants to help change for the better. The Pew Research Center found that, “Women remain underrepresented in engineering (14%), computer (25%) and physical science (39%) occupations.” The Center looked at the STEM workforce by analyzing Census data from 1990–2016, focusing on the reported jobs of anyone 25 and older who worked in one of 74 different occupations. The Pew article notes that 56% of women with STEM degrees have gone on to get STEM jobs. Hopefully, the work that Lindsey’s foundation is doing will lead to more women enrolling in STEM degree programs, and then choosing to work in a STEM field after graduating.

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??Peace, love, and iD Tech fun! We’re having a blast at our Emory camps! ?? .? .? .? #idtech #summer #courses #locations #bestweekever #bestsummerever #idtechcamps #gamedesign #summercamp #stem #camp #stemcamp #games #robotics #design #coding

A post shared by iD Tech (@idtech) on Jul 20, 2019 at 9:30am PDT

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We live. We laugh. We love. Thank you for making me so happy @subbanator #laughterislove #workhardhavefun

A post shared by L I N D S E Y • V O N N (@lindseyvonn) on Jul 13, 2019 at 10:59am PDT

Photos credit: WENN and via Instagram

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One of my favorite stories about Angelina Jolie was the one where she was credited for really putting the whole “celebrity appearance at Comic Con” thing on the map. Back in the day, Comic Con didn’t get as many A-listers stopping by to shill their movies. But Angelina decided to promote one of the Lara Croft movies by hiring a helicopter and dropping into Comic Con, Lara Croft-style, and stunning the Comic Con geeks. After that, Comic Con shifted and more and more A-listers would make time to go to Comic Con San Diego, and now it’s a huge thing.

Angelina made another (surprise) appearance at this year’s Comic Con. Lara Croft has come home to her OG nerd fandom! Or something, new generation, blah. Angelina came up the big Marvel Studios presentation for their “Phase 4” announcements, some of which we already knew, some of which were actually breaking news.

We knew Angelina Jolie had signed on to Marvel’s The Eternals. The gossip was that she would play Sersi, but as it turns out, that’s not the case. She’ll play Thena. Salma Hayek has been cast as Ajak. Richard Madden is Icarus, and the cast is rounded out with Kumail Nanjiani (Kingo), Lauren Ridloff (Makkari), Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos), Lia McHugh (Sprite), and Don Lee (Gilgamesh). Angelina told the Comic Con crowd: “I’m so excited to be here. I’m going to work 10 times harder because I think what it means to be a part of the MCU, what it means to be an Eternal, to be a part of this family, I know what we all need to do. We have all read the script. We have all know what the task ahead is and we are all going to be working very, very hard. I’m training. I am thrilled. Thank you so much.” Apparently, they’re already filming in London? It’s coming out next year!!

In addition to The Eternals news, Marvel also announced that Scarlett Johansson is for-sure getting a stand-alone Black Widow film (we knew that already), and apparently Natalie Portman is coming back to the Thor franchise in a big way. Portman has been added to the cast of Thor Love and Thunder as female Thor. But Chris Hemsworth is also coming back so I don’t know. What else? Elizabeth Olsen will be joining the Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, playing the Scarlet Witch. Basically, Marvel’s Phase 4 is all about the ladies. I’m sure there are some fanboys weeping about that already.

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Miranda Lambert dropped a new single last week. The single is called “It All Comes Out in the Wash,” and you can hear the sh-t below. It’s awful. It’s a bad song, Miranda’s voice sounds particularly nasal, and the lyrics are just terrible. “You got frisky with your boss at the copy machine / You drunk dialed your ex-husband, don’t remember a thing…” Um-hm. I’m sure Miranda’s gotten frisky with a lot of bosses. Here’s the song:

Before the single dropped, Miranda used Brendan McLoughlin, her husband of about six months, to promote the song. She posted this video of shirtless Brendan doing laundry and you can see all the hashtags.

“It All Comes Out In The Wash (board)”. Tomorrow 6am ET #putthatsuckeronspin ???????? house husband shirtless promo vol 1. #NYPD #ihadto #hotcop #NEWSONG #yourewelcome pic.twitter.com/48WgwOIsyu

— Miranda Lambert (@mirandalambert) July 17, 2019

The vibe I’m getting is definitely that Miranda has gone for something new with this relationship – she’s always seemed very controlling, but she’s taken it to a new level with Brendan. She’s the sugar mama to this young, hot guy, and she wants to show him off. She wants to show off what she bought, basically. Which also means that Brendan’s “hot cop” days are on hold. How could Brendan work a full-time police job when Miranda needs him to sit around and amuse her? People reports that Brendan has taken a leave of absence from the NYPD.

Miranda Lambert‘s husband Brendan McLoughlin has taken a leave of absence from the New York Police Department, PEOPLE confirms. A representative with the NYPD’s Office of the Deputy Commissioner Public Information tells PEOPLE that “Police Officer Brendan McLoughlin is on an authorized leave of absence.”

“The Department has rules and procedures governing leaves of absence by members of the service and complies with applicable law,” the rep adds of McLoughlin’s time away from his job.

Though the NYPD could not discuss specifics of McLoughlin’s situation, officers can take leaves for various reasons, many of which are personal in nature.

[From People]

What do you think? Do you think it really is a temporary thing so that Brendan can, like, travel with Miranda and hang out while she’s on a promotional tour? Or do you think he’ll quit his job at some point soon because Miranda is his sugar mama? Messy, so messy.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

I haven’t really been paying much attention to this A$AP Rocky situation, so I had to do some research. Basically, earlier this month, Rocky and his crew were in Stockholm, Sweden, and they ended up in some kind of confrontation with a couple of Swedish guys. TMZ claims that there were translation issues, but the Swedes claimed Rocky broke their headphones or something. Words were exchanged and the confrontation turned into an actual beatdown, mostly with Rocky and his crew beating the sh-t out of the Swedes. The Swedes went to the cops (snitches!) and an investigation happened, and long story short, A$AP Rocky was arrested just days after the fight and he has been sitting in Swedish jail ever since. He had to cancel his Swedish concerts while sh-t gets sorted out.

In the weeks that followed Rocky’s arrest and detention, he’s become something of a cause célèbre with members of the music industry and prominent African-American politicians speaking up on his behalf. Rocky has been detained for weeks now, and there’s some question about the state of the jail in which he’s being held. And the whole reason he’s being detained is because he’s been deemed a “flight risk,” because duh, he’s an American citizen and he could just fly the f–k out of Sweden. So add to everything else, Rocky’s case is increasingly becoming a sensitive international diplomacy situation too. Enter Kim Kardashian and Kanye West:

Thank you @realDonaldTrump , @SecPompeo, Jared Kushner & everyone involved with the efforts to Free ASAP Rocky & his two friends. Your commitment to justice reform is so appreciated ???? https://t.co/Ym1Rzo5Z6c

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 18, 2019

It’s little surprise, is it? Kanye knows A$AP Rocky, Kim has a direct line to Jared Kushner, so of course calls were exchanged and Rocky’s situation was brought to Trump’s attention. Apparently, Kanye called:

Just spoke to @KanyeWest about his friend A$AP Rocky’s incarceration. I will be calling the very talented Prime Minister of Sweden to see what we can do about helping A$AP Rocky. So many people would like to see this quickly resolved!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2019

So Kanye West called up Donald Trump and asked him to intervene on Rocky’s behalf, and TRUMP DID IT. The Trump Administration actually got in contact with the Swedish prime minister about this local Stockholm assault situation. This is not the way any of this is supposed to work. But here’s the kicker: Trump’s call made it WORSE. Soon after Trump’s tweet and presumably after his call, the Stockholm court granted the prosecutor’s request to extend Rocky’s detention (to July 25th) and the prosecutor still doesn’t have to indict Rocky until then. So Trump got nothing for his effort. So this is what he tweeted:

Just had a very good call with @SwedishPM Stefan Löfven who assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly. Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail, or an alternative….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2019

Donald Trump is personally going to pay A$AP Rocky’s bail? My lord. I hope Ava DuVernay makes a miniseries about this mess too.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.

I think most Game of Thrones fans – fans of the TV series – can say openly that the last season was utter trash. The storylines were bad, but how we got there was even worse. The lack of character development, particularly for the female characters, was awful. Instead of showing us Daenerys’ descent into madness, they just showed her looking depressed or upset a few times, then had Tyrion and Varys and even Jon mansplain how she was unhinged and hysterical. We were supposed to be devastated by the burning of Kings Landing – I thought it was a horrifying yet logical political move to ensure that no one f–ked with her. I could go on and on about what was wrong, honestly, and I still haven’t fully processed Jon’s actions, his assassination of Dany, his imprisonment and his banishment. It made no sense.

But here’s the thing: I don’t blame the ACTORS for that sh-t. I blame David Benioff and Dan Weiss, I blame producers who didn’t stop them from ruining the final acts, and I blame HBO too. But mostly Weiss and Benioff. Still, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau says that the now-former castmates are stressed out about all of the criticism:

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has revealed that some of the Game Of Thrones cast were left ‘upset’ by the backlash the final season received. The Danish actor, 48 – who played Jaime Lannister on the popular HBO fantasy series – confessed that a series of ‘vicious’ comments over the ending of the eighth and final series left certain cast members devastated. Speaking at the Game of Thrones convention in Nashville, Nikolaj was candid about the reaction to the show’s finale.

He revealed: ‘Every season has been intense in terms of the attention and discussion, but it was extraordinarily intense for a final season. And we have this WhatsApp group, the actors, and I saw some people getting a little upset because some of the stuff is vicious, and if you make the mistake of start reading all that sh-t, because if you guys get really angry about something – I’m sure you did, some of you – so you write to each other and go, ‘F***ing a**holes. This is so not what would happen! They ruined, they butchered George’s (R.R. Martin’s) world!’ It’s just fun for you, but of course some got a little upset.’

He explained further: ‘There was that weird feeling of, “What the hell? We worked so hard.” I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry, by the way. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying how it was to get through that whole thing.’

However, Nikolaj looked on the positive side of the situation by declaring he ‘loved’ how intense the response was.

‘We’re so lucky to be part of a show where people love the show so much, that they care so much about it that you also get upset when it doesn’t go the way you want it to. That’s fantastic, and I love it, and I love that there was an online petition to have it rewritten,’ he concluded.

[From The Daily Mail]

What was sort of interesting about The Last Watch – the behind-the-scenes documentary about the last season – was that it was clear from the table reads that many of the actors were not happy at all. Even in the promotional interviews done by Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Conleth Hill, Nathalie Emmanuel and more, it’s clear that many of the actors were legitimately torn up about how the last season was handled. It’s not their fault! I think most fans know that too. But it’s possible that it all gets mixed up when fans actually meet one of the actors, and the fans vent their frustrations. Honestly, if I met Emilia Clarke, I would want to vent about how Dan and David did Dany dirty.

Photos courtesy of HBO/GoT.

Do we really need to thank Justin Bieber for this? I’m not thanking him for this. How do you feel about popsicles? I love popsicles – just the icy kind, not the bullsh-t with the cream inside, what is wrong with people, nobody needs cream in their popsicles. Anyway, when I was growing up, we’d fight…

Do we really need to thank Justin Bieber for this? I’m not thanking him for this. How do you feel about popsicles? I love popsicles – just the icy kind, not the bullsh-t with the cream inside, what is wrong with people, nobody needs cream in their popsicles. Anyway, when I was growing up, we’d fight…

Do we really need to thank Justin Bieber for this? I’m not thanking him for this. How do you feel about popsicles? I love popsicles – just the icy kind, not the bullsh-t with the cream inside, what is wrong with people, nobody needs cream in their popsicles. Anyway, when I was growing up, we’d fight…

Do we really need to thank Justin Bieber for this? I’m not thanking him for this. How do you feel about popsicles? I love popsicles – just the icy kind, not the bullsh-t with the cream inside, what is wrong with people, nobody needs cream in their popsicles. Anyway, when I was growing up, we’d fight…