Feed aggregator

⚡ Quick Take

• The Vampire Lestat’s song “Black Licorice” is now streaming, and composer Daniel Hart told us about its unique origin story.

Almost every song featured on The Vampire Lestat this season is a brand-new song written for the vampire himself. But one song, featured in episode one, has actually existed for 16 years already. And that The Vampire Lestat song is “Black Licorice,” the latest The Vampire Lestat tune you can stream wherever you get your music. (“And you’d better,” the diva himself tells us.) It turns out, composer Daniel Hart had written “Black Licorice” way back in 2010. But when showrunner Rolin Jones heard it, he felt it was the perfect song for the season’s opener. Listen to “Black Licorice” below, and then check out everything Daniel Hart had to tell us about the bop and how songs moved around to create the perfect narrative accompaniments in The Vampire Lestat.

It turns out Daniel Hart was fated to write for The Vampire Lestat… So much so that he wrote a song for Lestat without even knowing it. In a conversation with Hart, we learned more about the process of fitting songs into The Vampire Lestat and the origin story of one in particular, “Black Licorice.”

In answer to whether any songs were cut or moved around, Hart noted, “Yes. There’s a song called “Big Bad Wolf” that we played last night at the premiere concert, and that song was originally written for episode one. It was written for the scene in which Lestat is on stage with the band, and then he has a sort of breakdown on stage in the middle of the song, and that song was intended to be the song for that scene. And somewhere along the way, [The Vampire Lestat Showrunner] Rolin [Jones] heard a song of mine that already existed called “Black Licorice” that I’d written in 2010, and he said, ‘Can we switch them out? Can we please switch them out? I want to use this one instead of that one.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s fine. What do I do with this other song that already exists’ He said, ‘Oh, we’ll find a place for it. We’ll find a place for all the songs,’ which mostly happened.”

RELATED ARTICLE

‘Your Biggest Fan’: THE VAMPIRE LESTAT’s Most Haunting Song

Hart laughs, confirming, “Most of the songs are in. Sometimes in different places than they were originally intended to be.” Listen, it’s all in the process, and, as Armand might say, you can’t script a hurricane, or, perhaps, Rolin Jones. In the end, we’re glad that we got both “Black Licorice” and “Big Bad Wolf” in The Vampire Lestat. By all accounts, The Vampire Lestat’s fans, the fledglings, are loving it.

AMC

The Vampire Lestat airs at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.

The Vampire Lesat “Black Licorice” Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I caught a real, live one
Didn’t blink, didn’t try to run
I caught a real, live one
Suckin’ on the sun

No time for glowin’ up
No time for throwin’ up
No time for vibin’ out
Your phone is blowing’ up
I caught a real, live one
No time for “I ride my stepbrother til’ he come”

[Chorus]
Doo, doo, doo, da, da, da
Don’t wanna smash your slack or be your morning star
Don’t wanna learn another TikTok dance
Wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
(Woo!)

[Verse 2]
Give me a million more screams
Keep ‘em scrollin’, rollin’
Fire emojin’ aubergines
Give me a million more screams, ha
And a million memes

I’ve been a bad boy
Deep down in my heart
I’ve kept a million dark secrets from the very start
Give me a million more screams
Means exactly what you think it means

[Chorus]
Doo, doo, doo, da, da, da
Don’t wanna smash your slack or be your morning star
Don’t wanna learn a fuckin’ TikTok dance
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!

[Violin solo]
Uh!
Uh, uh, uh, uh!

[Bridge]
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!

Rotem Rusak is Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She hasn’t stopped singing “Your Biggest Fan” by The Vampire Lestat since it released.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

The post THE VAMPIRE LESTAT: Daniel Hart Talks ‘Black Licorice’ Song Origin Story (Stream It Now) appeared first on Nerdist.

⚡ Quick Take

• A video explores if one were to drop a lightsaber vertically into the ground, would it just go straight to the center of the Earth?

Let’s say you’re a Jedi, and you dropped an active lightsaber straight into the Earth. Would it really just go all the way through to the center of the planet? Certainly, gags on shows like Rick & Morty and Robot Chicken have had fun with the idea. These are just the kinds of “science” debates that nerds love to have. Even when the science regarding anything in the Star Wars galaxy barely qualifies as science. But recently, YouTuber Rocket Riley decided to tackle the question head-on, with a video titled “What Happens If You Drop A Lightsaber Vertically?” So watch down below, and find out the answer.

The video pretty much destroys the fantasy that a lit saber would burrow itself down into the center of the Earth and somehow blow it up. For starters, the hilt and battery would melt long before the saber ever even got close to the planet’s core. Also, one lightsaber is not even close to the equivalent of a Death Star beam. Even though they both use kyber crystal technology. A Death Star’s destructive force is maybe the equivalent of a million lightsabers. So Earth (or any planet) would not go the way of Alderaan just because a lightsaber made it all the way down. But it wouldn’t make it all the way down anyway.

Lucasfilm

Most importantly, the Rocket Riley video explains that all lightsabers automatically turn off when dropped to the ground. If a Jedi (or Sith) throws it and it’s still on, it’s because the user is utilizing the Force to keep pressure on the hilt. Otherwise, it just shuts off the moment it leaves its owner’s hand. We know, that’s not as fun as a laser sword just melting through rock like butter. But those are the actual Star Wars rules. That Rick & Morty episode is still pretty funny, though.

The post Drop a Lightsaber Vertically, Does It Just Go on Forever? appeared first on Nerdist.

The annual list of All-Pacific Coast Athletic League baseball teams was released June 1, which included 14 players from the four high schools in Watsonville.

St. Francis High junior Nicky Fantl and sophomore Noah Magan both earned all-league first team honors in the Gabilan Division, while teammate freshman Angel Urabe Chavez and Monte Vista Christian junior Mikie Melenudo each earned second team honors.

Watsonville High senior Mathew Silva and junior Jeremiah Mendez, along with Pajaro Valley senior Steve Martinez each earned All-PCAL First Team honors in the Cypress Division.

Watsonville’s Brody Barto and Mauricio Estrada, and PV’s Roy Sanchez-Diaz each earned all-league second team honors.

St. Francis sophomore Jacob Fonseca, MVC junior Chris Bautista, PV’s JC DeLuna and Watsonville’s Timothy Ruelas each were named to the Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team in their respective division.

Below is a complete list of the 2026 All-PCAL baseball teams.

Pacific Coast Athletic League 2026 all-league teams Gabilan Division Individual Awards

Most Valuable Player: Matt Maxon (Sr.), Carmel

Co-Pitchers of the Year: Zach Gonzales (Jr.), Palma and Johnny Money (Jr.), Monterey

First Team

Matt Maxon (Sr.), Carmel

Alex Hirschfield (Jr.), Carmel

Dean Brian (So.), Carmel

Sean Carr (Sr.), Carmel

Matt Alioto (Sr.), Palma

Zach Gonzales (Jr.), Palma

Rocco Razzeca (Sr.), Palma

Jordan Quezada (Sr.), Hollister

Braden Barone (Sr.), Hollister

Ethan Sanchez (Sr.), Soledad

Noah Magana (So.), St. Francis

Nicky Fantl (Jr.), St. Francis

Johnny Money (Jr.), Monterey

Second Team

Kenny Sanchez (So.), Carmel

John Beretti (Sr.), Carmel

Wyatt Bakker (Sr.), Palma

Damien Lopez (Jr.), Palma

Dylan Rocchi (Jr.), Palma

Ami Lopez (Jr.), Hollister

Layton Smith (So.), Hollister

Evan Mendoza (Jr.), Hollister

Connor Rose (Sr.), Monterey

Angel Urabe Chavez (Fr.), St. Francis 

Zachary Velasquez (Sr.), Salinas

Juan Esparza (Jr.), Soledad

Daniel Valenzuela (Sr.), Soledad

Mikie Melenudo (Jr.), Monte Vista Christian

Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team

Michael Melnick (Sr.), Carmel

Aiden Veliz (Sr.), Palma

Aiden Velarde (Sr.), Monterey

Jacob Fonseca (So.), St. Francis

Gavin Rainey (Sr.), Salinas

Daniel Garcia (So.), Soledad

Chris Bautista (Jr.), MVC

Jordan Quezada (Sr.), Hollister

Elgie Bellizio All-Sportsmanship team

Soledad

Mission Division Individual Awards

Most Valuable Player: Angel Barajas, Alisal

Pitcher of the Year: Jacob Hall, Stevenson

Offensive Player of the Year: Brody Edmunds, Pacific Grove

First Team

Huck Blanton, North Monterey County

Cecil Short, Rancho San Juan

Brody Edmunds, PG

Jacob Hall, Stevenson

Angel Barajas, Alisal

Andrew Jeska, PG

Reggie Bell, Stevenson

Phinn Thomas, Stevenson

Brody Gates, NMC

Roman Garcia, Alvarez

Aiden Munoz, RSJ

GP Serato, Alisal

Fabian Gonzalez, Alvarez

Second Team

Josiah Ramos, Alisal

Jonah Karsa, Stevenson

Ryder Allen, NMC

Issac Ortiz, RSJ

Daniel Saldana, RSJ

Kenny Pajas, Greenfield

Issac Sanchez, PG

Julian Valadez, RSJ

Taj Davis, PG

Northrop Kirk, PG

Cody Victoriano, Alvarez

Xavier Estrad, Alisal

Julian Barajas, NMC

Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team

Francisco Hernandez, Greenfield

Kai Clarkson, PG

Brady Mugan, Stevenson

Benny Vera, RSJ

Fredy Torres, Alisal

Devin Pedersen, Alvarez

Jayden Harris, NMC

Elgie Bellizio All-Sportsmanship team

Pacific Grove

Cypress Division Individual Awards

Most Valuable Player: Josh Degroodt, North Salinas

Offensive Player of the Year: Jacoby Chavez, King City

Pitcher of the Year: Joel Pina, King City

First Team

Joel Pina, King City

Jacoby Chavez, King City

Joaquin Sabala, King City

Josh Degroodt, North Salinas

Julian Gabriel, North Salinas

Johnny Benabides, North Salinas

Markus Camacho, North Salinas

Mathew Silva, Watsonville

Jeremiah Mendez, Watsonville

Kaleb True, Marina

Noah Villalobos, Gonzales

Steve Martinez, Pajaro Valley

Gabriel Rodriguez, Seaside

Second Team

Roman (RJ) Ayon, King City

Dylan Conatser, King City

Pablo Aguirre, King City

Ernesto Aguirre, KIng City

Andres Cervantes, North Salinas

Izaiah Gonzalez, North Salinas

Esteban Solorzano, North Salinas

Brody Barto, Watsonville

Mauricio Estrada, Watsonville

Leonel Alvarado, Marina

Juan Arriola, Gonzales

Roy Sanchez-Diaz, Pajaro Valley

Gabriel Moulton, Seaside

Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team

Axel Chavez-Torres, King City

Julian Gabriel, North Salinas

Timothy Ruelas, Watsonville

Liam Sampaolo, Marina

Moises Castro, Gonzales

JC DeLuna, Pajaro Valley

Mason Flynn, Seaside

Elgie Bellizio All-Sportsmanship team

Seaside

The Trump family has come up with a new way to personally profit from the presidency. This time, the grift is centered around the Ultimate Fighting Championship cage fight on the White House lawn scheduled for President Donald Trump’s birthday on June 14. The “Trump Coins” website is currently selling UFC- and Trump-themed silver and gold coins. The site claims—without evidence—that the…

Source

I love Star Trek so much. I’ve watched most Trek series multiple times over the decades, and was shocked when, on my most recent watch of The Next Generation, I noticed something: High definition upscaling makes the show look way worse. Old-school 4:3 CRT television screens with their low resolution hid a lot of stuff, like tape on the Enterprise set doors that hid whatever names were stenciled on them for prior episodes, which are glaringly present on modern editions of the show. I’ve always been on the lookout for a way to capture the classic Trek feeling, and one … ahem … enterprising developer has done just that. Anthony Caccese, a principal product lead for enterprise platforms at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by day and a Raspberry Pi tinkerer by night, recently published an open-source project called 240-MP on GitHub. It’s a simple concept: Text-based menus that look like an old-school VCR interface, but with modern functionality and, most importantly, the ability to play local media files and Plex libraries on an old-school CRT TV. 240-MP runs on a Raspberry Pi, is based on the command-line media player MPV, and can play local files (either on the Pi itself, a USB drive, an external hard disk, or even a network share) or media from a Plex server, as Caccese built modules for both local and Plex-based playback. If you don’t happen to have an old CRT TV or monitor lying around, or the necessary Pi-compatible composite cable to connect your SBC to said TV, 240-MP will also work with a modern screen and an HDMI connection, too. One note on the composite vs. HDMI option, as noted in the setup instructions: You will need to update the config.txt file to support one or the other, so have your output chosen ahead of time. Once the system is installed, you can navigate around 240-MP with either a remote control or a keyboard, where you’ll see text menus for navigating around to different folders, choosing episodes or playlists, switching audio and subtitle tracks, looping playback, and the like. It might look like an old-school VCR interface, but with a lot more capabilities. Caccese has only tested 240-MP on a Raspberry Pi 4B, 3B+, and 3B, noting that he’s not sure it’ll work on other devices and has no plans to test other hardware, either. What will be coming in the future, Caccese said in an accompanying YouTube video, is modules to support other media playback software, like Jellyfin (a popular Plex alternative in light of that massive price hike), and RetroArch, a frontend for emulators designed to play old-school video games. “Please feel free to fork this repo, update any aspects and tailor things to your own use case; that's why the source is fully open and available,” Caccese noted on GitHub. Now if I could only find a working CRT TV to pair with my old Raspberry Pi, I could go on a hardcore 90s nostalgia trip and feel just like I did watching VHS tapes of Star Trek episodes I recorded from the TV when I was a kid. After all, streaming high-def remasters just isn’t the same. ®

⚡ Quick Take

• The Vampire Lestat will introduce Lestat’s vampiric mother, Gabriella. But will they keep their bizarre mother/son dynamic from the novels?

AMC’s upcoming adaptation of The Vampire Lestat will adapt Anne Rice’s second novel in her Vampire Chronicles series, with Sam Reid returning as the titular vamp, now a rock star. Joining him is actress Jennifer Ehle as his mother, Gabriella, a vampire herself. In Rice’s 1985 novel, she goes by Gabrielle, but the show’s producers decided to go with the Italian pronunciation, as the character was born in Italy. The character is a fan-favorite, although some racy scenes between Mama Gabriella and her son Lestat in recent The Vampire Lestat trailers have raised some eyebrows. But this problematic relationship actually has its origins in Rice’s books, even if the Interview with the Vampire TV series may be taking things a step further. Join us as we explore the complex bond between Gabriella and Lestat, whether it’s incestual, and all the other complicated nuances of turning your mother into a vampire.

AMCDo Lestat and His Mother Gabrielle Have an Incestuous Relationship?

In Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, Lestat’s relationship with his mother is complex. And that’s putting it mildly. While many have read an incestuous vibe between the undead pair, that is not literally the truth of Gabrielle and Lestat’s relationship in the books. And that’s for the simple reason that in Rice’s vampire mythology, her undead don’t have sexual intercourse. In Rice’s world, the blood exchange replaces food as sustenance, replaces drugs as hallucinogens, and replaces sex as pleasure (and procreation). So when Lestat and Gabrielle exchange blood in Interview with the Vampire‘s world, there’s an erotic charge in the text, but it’s not sex in the literal sense.

Alfred A. Knopf/Innovation Comics

Having said that, AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe does not adhere to Rice’s rules in this way. The vampires in the series do have sex in human fashion, and are particularly horny in fact. One scene in the trailer for The Vampire Lestat shows Gabriella definitely touching her son, in an area where a mother should never touch her adult child. But this is clearly after she’s become a vampire. So does human morality even apply to them anymore? After all, is it any worse than, say, murdering people every night?

To recap, Lestat and Gabrielle have not been officially incestuous in the world of The Vampire Chronicles yet, although their relationship is blurry. But the series may be about to change all of that. Despite the lack of incest, though, Lestat and his mother plainly have always had a very complicated bond, going back to their human days.

The Mortal (and Miserable) Life of Gabrielle de Lioncourt

We are introduced to Gabrielle via the perspective of her son, Lestat. The Vampire Lestat explains how he was born Lestat de Lioncourt, the son of a country lord in the Auvergne in France. Although his father had a large and ancient estate, he’d run out of money years prior. A boorish man, he married a young girl named Gabrielle from Italy, hoping the dowry would help replenish his wealth. In The Vampire Lestat, we learn that Gabrielle was miserable in her life in the castle and hated her cruel husband. She bore him several children, only three of whom lived to adulthood. She had nothing but disdain for her eldest sons, who took after their awful father. But Gabrielle had a special place in her heart for her youngest, Lestat, who was sensitive and smart, and loved the arts.

AMC

When Lestat was 21, around the year 1780, his mother became ill with consumption. Knowing she was dying, she gave him her precious jewels and told him to sell them. She then told him to use the money to run away from home with his lover, Nicolas, and pursue his dream of acting in Paris. Although he was reluctant to leave his dying mother, it was her final wish that he escape and be happy. What Gabrielle didn’t count on was Lestat becoming a vampire while living in Paris.

How Lestat’s Mother Became a Vampire in The Vampire LestatAMC

When Gabrielle knew the end was near, she decided to make one last trip before she died. She went to Paris, hoping to say farewell to her son in person. Lestat was a vampire now and revealed his true nature to his mother. He had never made another vampire before, but asked her on her deathbed if she was willing to become his fledgling. Knowing she would die otherwise, Gabrielle eagerly said yes, and Lestat became the vampiric father to his human mother. Who, in a way, was now his daughter. Vampire family trees are complicated things, folks!

RELATED ARTICLE

Anne Rice’s Queer Supernatural World Was a Gift

Gabrielle’s personality shifted almost instantly. Where Lestat only hunted evil doers (most of the time) Gabrielle killed anyone she wanted, with little moral compunction. As she saw it, as a vampire,  she was higher on the food chain. She also began dressing as a man and wearing her long hair in a braid. She always felt powerless as a woman while mortal, uncomfortable in her own body, especially as the laws of the time required her to be subservient to men. And in particular, her cruel husband. Gabrielle, who insisted Lestat call her that name from now on, as “Mother” seemed inappropriate, also had little interest in the human world.

Gabrielle Becomes a Cold and Deadly Immortal

In The Vampire Lestat, Gabrielle constantly talked about hunting bears and other animals in the forest, and simply disconnecting from human life and returning to nature. Lestat, in contrast, remained very connected to humanity. He loved human art, and music, loved performing on stage for humans. He had no interest in living in a forest or jungle. When the ancient Vampire Armand blew up their lives in Paris, Lestat and Gabrielle left and wandered Europe and parts of Egypt for a decade. But even from the start of their journey, Gabrielle would vanish for weeks and months at a time. Although Gabrielle still loved Lestat, their bond was breaking. Things came to a head when Lestat learned she kept the news of their mortal family’s deaths from him, and he told her to leave him for good.

How Lestat and Gabrielle Reunite after 200 YearsAMC

Lestat would lose all contact with Gabrielle for almost two centuries. When he became a rock star in the 1980s, Gabrielle learned her sire/son was alive and well. When Lestat threw his big Halloween Night concert in 1985, the vampire community attacked the show, and Lestat and Louis had to escape. Gabrielle then pulled up in a sports car and rescued her son/father and his lover from the undead mob. Gabrielle tells Lestat that she imagined their reunion a hundred different ways over the centuries. And she never thought it would involve her saving him from a vampire gang at a rock concert.

RELATED ARTICLE

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE’s Overwhelming Queerness Is Revelatory and Queer People Deserve It

After the events of book three, The Queen of the Damned, the surviving vampires form a coven on the luxurious Night Island, belonging to Armand, off the coast of Florida. But as she was known to do, Gabrielle quickly grew restless and wandered off into the world again. Gabrielle would pop in and out of Lestat’s life, making cameos in Rice’s subsequent novels. But she never had a book of her own, and Anne Rice said she never wanted to write one. She said Gabrielle was too cold for her to ever write from her perspective. But as of Rice’s final novel, Blood Communion, Gabrielle and Lestat were on good terms, promising never to go no-contact again.

Anne Rice’s Tragic Inspirations for the Vampire Gabrielle, Lestat’s Mother

Anne Rice went on record several times saying that her characters helped her work through her own personal tragedies. Her daughter Michelle’s death from leukemia at age 6 inspired her to create the child vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire. And Rice was at least partially working through the death of her mother with the creation of Lestat’s mother, Gabrielle. Rice’s mother, Katherine O’Brien, was ahead of her time, and named Anne “Howard” when she was born, not believing in gender specific naming conventions. But her mother also suffered from alcoholism and died from its complications at age 42, when Anne was only 15. Lestat saving his Gabrielle’s life and giving her a new one was Rice using writing to fictionalize saving her own unconventional mother via supernatural means.

Is the Vampire Gabrielle a Trans Character?AMC

Fans have often cited Gabrielle as being extremely trans-coded. In The Vampire Lestat, she often lamented being forced to endure the trappings of being a woman, especially as an 18th-century woman. When she becomes a vampire, she dresses in masculine clothing and often passes as a man in a crowd. However, she never changes her pronouns, and Lestat always refers to her as “she.” But were she created today, it’s very possible Anne Rice would have written Gabrielle as a trans man. Perhaps we will see the series pick up these threads to weave a beautiful, representative story.

Gabrielle Becomes Gabriella in AMC’s The Vampire Lestat

We haven’t seen much of actress Jennifer Ehle as Gabrielle, now using the Italian pronunciation of her name, Gabriella, in The Vampire Lestat so far. She only appears at the end of episode one. However, from the way Lestat is frantically texting her to large bouts of silence, we do get the idea that her relationship with him is not really one of warmth and compassion. As Anne Rice would say, a distinct coldness emenates from the way she only appears when Lestat has literally hit rock bottom.

In The Vampire Lestat trailers, we’ve seen Gabriella in 18th-century flashbacks dressed in period costumes, and some scenes of her at Lestat’s concerts in the modern day. Gabriella seemingly presents as female in the modern day, but looks can be deceiving. She may very well identify as a trans man post-vampirism. And we hope so.

Of course, her one-episode appearance did involve her fully kissing Lestat… and not in a motherly way.

AMC

The Vampire Lestat has definitely taken the novels’ incestuous subtext to another level, and now it is just plain text between mother/child Gabriella and child/father Lestat. And while incest is shocking, to be sure, the more important consequences come as a part of the emotional toll the relationship and its dynamics take on Lestat.

We’ll have to wait and see where this relationship goes as The Vampire Lestat continues airing.

Interview with the Vampire seasons one and two and The Vampire Lestat are now streaming on AMC and AMC+.

Originally published March 4, 2026.

The post IWTV: Lestat’s Complex (Icky?) Bond with Mother Gabrielle, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

⚡ Quick Take

• Doctor Who’s cancelation means we won’t get a pay off to the Billie Piper cliffhanger
• The Doctor Who cliffhanger was never going to work.

Any time a beloved cult-favorite TV show gets unceremoniously canceled draws the ire of fandom. Star Trek ceasing production earlier this year certainly saw fans fuming. But Doctor Who fans have a bit more of a reason to freak out. Today’s announcement that the BBC was parting (of the) ways with showrunner Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf Productions, and that the Christmas-turned-Easter special would not happen, sent fans. It positively sent them! (Yes, I am 42, how did you know?) Not least sent because the BBC has no replacement in place. When/if Doctor Who returns in several years time (presumably) with a new production company, showrunner, and lead actor, it’s a near-certainty the show’s big Billie Piper cliffhanger will never see resolution.

Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but…good. It was never going to pay off anyway.

BBC/Bad Wolf Studios/Disney+

For some context, the second of two Disney+ seasons of Doctor Who ended with the surprise (and if reports are correct, very last minute) departure of Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. This came about so last minute that Davies didn’t have time to find a new fulltime Doctor before the finale and regeneration scene were to air. So, in a very typically RTD move, he went for shock and spectacle. The Fifteenth Doctor regenerates into…Billie Piper?!

Piper, of course, played Rose Tyler, the first companion of the revived series in 2005 opposite Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. That character, and her relationship with the Doctor (romantic or otherwise) still routinely ranks at or near the top of people’s favorite Doctor/companion pairings. She as much as Tennant is synonymous with a particular era of Doctor Who. The resolution to this cliffhanger, we heard, would occur in the 2026 Christmas special. Well.

BBC

This caused quite a lot of both ker and fluffle in fan communities. Debates raged about whether this meant Billie would be the for-real-for-real Doctor, even if just for a single special, or if this would be a weird regenerative crisis, time warp, or some such mishigas. Davies had only just recently given an update on the status of the special, saying he had an outline and that the BBC was super into it, etc. This was very likely just spin at a time when the future of the special and show were in flux. But the big question remains: Even if Davies got to make the special, and even if we did get the explanation for why the Doctor was Billie Piper, would it really have satisfied people?

From his first tenure on the series in 2005-2010 up through the now-last episode of his second, Davies has always struggled to find a balance between genuinely good storytelling and boom-bam spectacle. He’s less concerned, often, with a cogent explanation for huge, wild, audience-shocking moments than he is with simply having them. He’s wonderful at smaller, quieter character moments. That’s where, I feel, much of his strengths as a writer lie. It’s the conversations, it’s the philosophical dilemmas. But when he wants to go big, he throws caution to the wind. Sometimes fans go with it, sometimes they don’t.

BBC/Bad Wolf Studios/Disney+

I’ve seen some fan sentiment today that express feelings of betrayal that, it appears, the Billie Piper cliffhanger not only won’t have a pay off but ultimately didn’t have a pay off in RTD’s mind when it happened. I think very likely Davies just thought he needed something so we’d get the mere semblance of continuity. The Doctor wouldn’t simply regenerate with no clear path forward. At the very least, Davies could buy himself some time while the BBC and Disney figured out their next moves.

I won’t call this a mistake necessarily, but it’s definitely indicative of Davies’ M.O. When in doubt, do a weird thing! He’ll figure it out later! I have no doubt he would have come up with some kind of explanation that, at least for the purposes of a single special, would have worked out okay. Piper was Rose Tyler’s memory within the Doctor, or the Doctor found a weird middle-moment between regenerations where they needed a screensaver face or something. It would have been what it was always meant to be: a placeholder.

Warner Bros.

Whether that special was going to be good or suck is kind of irrelevant. It wasn’t going to be a new status quo, nor would it likely have much impact on anything going forward. Billie did her pal Russ a solid. We got a face rather than just a glow of yellow. It was basically Davies’ version of the Looney Tunes short Duck Amuck. It was him saying “ain’t I a stinker?” before we got a “That’s All Folks!”

Whatever happens next with Doctor Who, whether it’s a clean break, a reboot, or even a continuation that simply ignores the Piper of it all, it was never going to be more than a stop-gap. So, why not just pretend it didn’t happen?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

The post DOCTOR WHO’s Billie Piper Stunt Was Never Going to Pay Off appeared first on Nerdist.

It’s time to grab your whip and fedora because Nerdist’s Adam Murray is diving deep into the adventures of Indiana Jones! From his iconic movies to his early years in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and all the books, video games, and comics in between!

00:00 – Intro
04:49 – Chapter One: Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
53:02 – Chapter Two: Book Adventures
01:06:05 – Chapter Three: Temple of Doom
01:17:46 – Chapter Four: Raiders of the Lost Ark
01:33:47 – Chapter Five: The Last Crusade
01:51:02 – Chapter Six: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
02:00:54 – Chapter Seven: Dial of Destiny

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

#Nerdist #indianajones #stevenspielberg

The post The COMPLETE Indiana Jones Timeline appeared first on Nerdist.

Anthropic's newly released Claude Fable 5 generative AI model is trying so hard to be safe that it's hurting its own userbase. Customers attempting to use the AI knowledge regurgitator are reporting that the model is refusing to answer harmless questions, an issue that has annoyed security researchers following past model releases. Anthropic warned that it had tuned Fable 5's guardrails conservatively: "they’ll sometimes catch harmless requests, though they trigger, on average, in less than five percent of sessions," the company said, promising to "reduce false positives as quickly as we can." The company did not immediately respond to a request to quantify model refusals. So it's unclear whether the actual false positive rate is greater or less than five percent. But with an estimated 18 to 30 million users worldwide, even a small percentage of thwarted users makes a racket. Mike Famulare, principal research scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling, part of the Global Health Division of the Gates Foundation, reports (#66657) that Claude Fable 5 balks at inputs like "Hello." "In Claude Code, Fable 5's input safety classifier emits a model_refusal_fallback (silent switch to Opus 4.8) on the first turn of essentially every session on my account — including a session whose only user input is the word hello!. No repo content, no tool calls, and no file reads are in context when it fires." He is not the only frustrated customer. Many other bug reports have been filed in Anthropic's Claude Code GitHub repo since Fable 5 debuted. These include: [Bug] Fable 5 model safety filters causing false positives on benign messages #66587; Fable 5 refuses to assist with 'Application Security Architect resume' editing #66655; and [Feature Request] Allow Fable 5 usage for non-research lab management systems #67062, among others. On social outrage site X.com, Derya Unutmaz, an immunologist and professor at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, notes, "The word 'cancer' is flagged as a biosecurity risk by Claude Fable 5!" Similar complaints show up in Reddit threads. Fable 5 is unusual because Anthropic has chosen to conceal safety interventions that try to block rival frontier model development. The classifiers designed to catch cybersecurity, biology and chemistry, and distillation attempts fall back on the latest Claude Opus model and the user gets notified. But the counter-competition surveillance, per the company's system card [PDF], "will limit effectiveness through methods such as prompt modification, steering vectors, or parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT)." "Prompt modification" without notice is functionally a man-in-the-middle attack, though one that Anthropic estimates "will impact ~0.03 percent of traffic, concentrated in fewer than 0.1 percent of organizations." As developer Clay Merritt fumes, "Anthropic’s Fable 5 silently sabotages its answers when it detects AI/ML work. No refusal. No notice. Purposeful degradation invisible to the user." Anthropic expects cyber defenders and critical infrastructure providers to use its Claude Mythos 5 model, which shares the underlying model of Fable 5 but without the same safeguards. Doing so, however, requires participating in the company's Project Glasswing program or the trusted access program that's being rolled out for select biology researchers. Devon (last name withheld by request), founder of Abliteration.ai, a service that assists with model abliteration (guardrail removal), told The Register in a phone interview that while there's some degree of fearmongering and marketing hype coming from the big AI labs, it's also fair to say that there are legitimate concerns about how frontier models get used. "Anthropic's making a big bet on their brand that people will trust their brand so much they'll just deal with [refusals]," he said. "But in the long term, people are not just going to accept these companies that centralize control over their lives and what they can have information about." ®

Companies are burning through exorbitant sums of money to keep pace in the AI arms race. Debt is climbing.

At a press conference this afternoon, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he is concerned about inflation rates after new data showed the consumer price index at a three-year high of 4.2 percent.

“I love the inflation,” Trump said. In Februrary, before the US began bombing Iran, inflation was at 2.4 percent. Trump predicted that inflation will “come down like a rock” once the war is over.

Q: Are you concerned about the latest inflation numbers that came out this morning?TRUMP: No, I love it. I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over — do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil? You know who doesn't know? Iran until right now.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-10T16:08:03.927Z

Meanwhile, Trump suggested that the US has been ferrying oil out of the Strait of Hormuz. “We’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil,” Trump said. “Every night…now I’m going to tell you because they just figured it out. It was very hard for me, I wanted to say it so badly, but I didn’t want to ruin it. But millions of barrels of oil has come out, and that’s why it’s at 85, $90 a barrel instead of 250.”

About an hour later, he reiterated this point via social media post: “Last month, I directed our Great U.S. Military to execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through the Strait of Hormuz.”

When the war is over, “You will see oil drop to where it was before,” Trump said at today’s press conference.

It’s not clear when that will happen, though: today, Trump also vowed to continue attacking Iran. “We’re going to be attacking them…very hard,” he said. Almost 3,500 Iranians have been killed in the US and Israel’s war on the country since February 28.

Inflation continues to rise, according to a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report, due in no small part to President Donald Trump’s chaotic and unpopular war with Iran—but the orange dictator doesn’t seem bothered. In fact, Trump seems over the moon about it. During an Oval Office press conference on Wednesday, when asked about the terrible inflation numbers, Trump responded by saying, “I love it.”…

Source

A cartoon by Drew Sheneman. Related | Americans don’t want a data center in their backyard…

Source

North Koreans hackers posing as remote IT workers and recruiters remain a major threat to U.S., European, and Asian companies, accounting for about half of all attacks over the past 12 months.

Wing is expanding into seven more U.S. cities through its partnership with Walmart.

Delaney Hall has been many things: a jail, a halfway house, a rehabilitation facility. For the past year, however, it’s been something more fraught: an ICE detention center and the site of ongoing clashes between federal law enforcement and protesters. Reporters aren’t allowed in, health inspections are rare, and congressional oversight has been obstructed—as my recent interview with Rep. LaMonica McIver revealed. She’s now a year into a battle against criminal charges stemming from her attempt to inspect the facility.

So much of what we know about the inner workings of Delaney Hall comes from the letters that detainees have smuggled out with allegations of wormy food, denied medical care, and unsafe working conditions. In December 2025, 41-year-old Jean Wilson Brutus, died inside.

With Delaney Hall now thrust into the national spotlight, there’s still so much we don’t know. That’s why I wanted to talk to two reporters who have been watching this closely.

I sat down with journalist Amanda Moore and my colleague Sophie Hurwitz, both of whom have reported from outside Delaney Hall for Mother Jones.

I asked them how this place became a flashpoint, what protesters and detainees are demanding, and who is ultimately to blame.

WATCH:

Republican operatives are growing increasingly desperate in the Senate race in Texas, where they’re pushing false, offensive, and contradictory attacks against James Talarico—who they fear could become the first Texas Democrat to win a Senate race in more than 30 years. The latest comes from a Trump-aligned super PAC, which is running a gross and deceptive AI-generated deepfake ad in which…

Source

They are angry at Redmond and will have their revenge. Nightmare Eclipse, the prolific bug hunter and possibly disgruntled ex-Microsoft employee, disclosed another zero-day vulnerability just hours after Redmond issued a record-breaking number of CVEs and fixes for June Patch Tuesday. The latest zero-day, RoguePlanet, targets Microsoft Defender and works against fully patched Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems, according to the researcher, who also released proof-of-concept exploit code for the security flaw. Assuming the attacker can win a race condition, this bug allows local privilege escalation and leads to SYSTEM-level control over an affected machine. Nightmare Eclipse (aka Chaotic Eclipse) is a disgruntled bug hunter with a deep understanding of Windows and an even deeper grudge against Microsoft. They claim to be an ex-employee, and accuse Redmond of ignoring vulnerability reports and refusing to communicate with them. "When I actively asked you to communicate with me, you refused, humiliated me and made sure to insult me in front of people," they wrote in an earlier blog post that also promised a “bone shattering” drop on July 14. "You defame me in public with your CVE-2026-45585 advisory even though you literally deleted the Microsoft account I used to report bugs to you with and I got zero pennies from doing so and I still happily did like an idiot," the post continued. Possibly as an outlet for this anger, and reportedly in response to Redmond's lack of action, Nightmare began releasing their findings to the public. RoguePlanet marks the seventh Microsoft zero-day that they found and disclosed - accompanied by either a PoC exploit or technical details - before Redmond issued a fix. Microsoft's initial response to those disclosures was widely interpreted as a threat of legal action, prompting massive outrage from the broader infosec community before Redmond sought to calm the backlash by stating it had "no intention to pursue action against individuals conducting or publishing security research." As of Tuesday, the previous six zero-days all have patches. Three of them, RedSun, UnDefend, and BlueHammer, came under attack soon after Nightmare published working exploit code for each and before Microsoft released security updates to address the flaws. The other three, YellowKey, GreenPlasma, and MiniPlasma, all have been fixed as of June’s Patch Tuesday. YellowKey (aka CVE-2026-45585) is a security feature bypass bug in Windows BitLocker. An attacker with physical access to the vulnerable system could bypass the BitLocker Device Encryption feature and gain access to the device's encrypted data. GreenPlasma (aka CVE-2026-45586) and MiniPlasma (aka CVE-2020-17103) are both privilege escalation flaws in the Collaborative Translation Framework (CTFMON) and the Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver that can be abused by an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally and gain SYSTEM access. When asked about RoguePlanet, a Microsoft spokesperson told The Register that the Windows giant is “aware of the reported vulnerability and is actively investigating the validity and potential applicability of these claims." The spokesperson continued: "Microsoft is committed to investigating security issues and updating impacted products to protect customers as soon as possible. Importantly, we support coordinated vulnerability disclosure, an industry standard that protects customers and supports the research community by ensuring their findings are thoroughly investigated and addressed before being made public." Soon after Nightmare published a PoC for RoguePlanet, the ThreatLocker threat intelligence team validated the exploit code and said that they were “actively assessing impact, affected systems, and additional mitigations,” promising to share more findings “as they become available.” Tharros Labs senior vulnerability analyst and long-time respected security sleuth Will Dormann said he tested the exploit code, too. “It's reportedly not 100% reliable, but it worked on the first attempt for me,” Dormann wrote. Nightmare, for their part, rolled back the promise of a “bone shattering” drop on July 14. “(Un)fortunately I will be unable to mass disclose zerodays in July 14th, RoguePlanet took way more time than expected and truly drained me,” the researcher said on Tuesday. “I might take a break but I can't say for sure what I will be doing for next month, maybe it's nothing, maybe it's smtg. But the big thing is not happening. I did not intend to spread a mass panic with that post and I apologize for doing so.”®

⚡ Quick Take

• Amazon is not making Prime Video the streaming home of Project Hail Mary. Instead it’s sending Ryland Grace and Rocky to MGM+.
• MGM+ is a streaming service that many fewer people have, so this news will certainly be disappointing to some.
• MGM+ does not come with a Prime Video subscription and must be purchased separately in order to stream Project Hail Mary.
• The cost is $7.99 a month or $61.99 a year. A free trial is available for those who want to watch Project Hail Mary but do not want to pay.

Chris Miller and Phil Lord’s Project Hail Mary was a smash hit with critics and audiences alike. The film earned rave reviews and cleaned up at the box office. Now Amazon is hoping it will help build its subscriber base for its other streaming service, because Project Hail Mary is not going to stream on Prime Video. Instead, Project Hail Mary is heading exclusively to stream on MGM+, a totally separate Amazon streaming site.

Amazon MGM StudiosProject Hail Mary Will Stream on MGM+

Amazon MGM Studios has announced its big screen adaptation of Andy Weir’s sci-fi novel will make a much less popular streaming platform its home in both the U.S. and internationally. Project Hail Mary is going MGM+.

No, MGM+ Does Not Come Free with Your Prime Video Subscription

You don’t have to look it up; we can answer your obvious question right now: No, you do not get MGM+ even if you already pay for Prime Video. MGM+ is a separate “premium linear channel and streaming service” also owned and controlled by Amazon.

How Much Do You Have to Pay for MGM+ In Order to Stream Project Hail Mary?

Prime Video subscribers can add it to their account for $7.99 a month or $61.99 a year.

There Is a Free Trial, We Guess!

Obviously, the whole point of releasing one of the year’s most popular films exclusively on a lesser-known platform is to get people to subscribe. This is about driving new subscriptions, because why not! Fortunately, you can still watch Project Hail Mary at home without adding to your already out-of-control streaming costs. Amazon offers a seven-day free trial option, so you can try MGM+ before you have to pay for it.

Amazon MGM Studios

There are certainly plenty of other shows, movies, and documentaries worth checking out on the service. But if you only care about astrophage, then seven days is plenty of time to watch (and rewatch)Ryan Gosling hang out with the most amaze amaze amaze-ing alien. And you don’t have to wait long to do that. Project Hail Mary arrives at MGM+ on June 18, 2026.

And, of course, you can already purchase a digital copy on Prime Video. That’s the Amazon streaming service you already pay for, despite it not getting all of Amazon’s best movies.

The post PROJECT HAIL MARY to Stream Exclusively on MGM+ and Not Prime Video appeared first on Nerdist.

Former Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway shared her thoughts on Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner to Fox News, and it was dripping with hypocrisy. “Is there a magic number in the scandelabra that would make you stop?” Conway asked. “Would it have to do with Nazis or putting upon women, perhaps underage women, but definitely women, not your wife of two years?

Source