Shocking allegations from Michael Oher … the former offensive lineman says the family who took him in, helped him become an NFL star and was later portrayed in the hit movie “The Blind Side,” lied to him, never adopted him and screwed him out of…

No one loves a good Instagram dance video more than Britney Spears. The popular singer often drops multiple clips of herself cutting a rug each week, but not all of them attract the level of attention she got over the weekend. That’s because the pop legend purchased a stripper pole a few days ago and uploaded footage from her first time using it on social media. Not surprisingly, it went over very well with fans.

Her post, which also includes a brief description of what’s going on and some emojis, has already been liked more than 500,000 times and shows no signs of slowing down at all. You can check out Britney Spaers doing her pole dancing thing below…

Many fans are focusing on the raw sexuality of her musical choice with Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer,” but Spears actually has a personal connection with the band. Back in 2009 when she was getting ready to go on tour, she shared rehearsal space with the band, as they prepared for their own worldwide journey. They could reportedly each hear what the other was up to, and by all accounts, they mingled and got along really well for weeks while they worked in close confines.

Britney Spears is never very far away from the news given her worldwide fame and personal life many love to gossip about, but even by her standards, there has been a lot of news rolling around about the pop star over the past few days. Her kids moved to Hawaii alongside her ex-husband and their step-mom just in time for the tragic fires. Thankfully, they’re okay. Her rather aggressive comments about how much she hates Botox went super viral, and now, there are stories about her considering an interview with Oprah. Throw in her forthcoming book, which has been the subject of censorship rumors, and it’s been an even louder news cycle than usual. 

Despite all that noise, it’s likely Spears will stay silent on most of the stories because that’s just what she does. She’s acquired a reputation for being open and honest, but that’s both true and misleading. She’s very candid when she chooses to speak on a subject, whether it be her relationship with her family, her time under a conservatorship or whatever else, but a lot of the time, she just ignores all of the whispers and focuses on her own life and the things she can control.

It’ll be interesting to see whether this is the first of many pole dancing videos we’ll get from Spears or whether this was one-off excitement from buying something new that’ll quickly end up in the basement never to be seen again. 

Many TV and film productions are currently paused, as the WGA writers and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue. However, not every series is halting work at this time. Many reality and game shows are still in production, and that includes Jeopardy!, which has Ken Jennings holding down the fort as host. In recent weeks, viewers pressured Jennings to take a break after co-host Mayim Bialik stepped away, and one fan just called him out on social media. Jennings ultimately clapped back to explain why he's still hosting the show, and his answer invoked Alex Trebek. 

Ken Jennings is not a part of SAG-AFTRA like co-host Mayim Bialik, but that hasn't stopped people from coming after him with brutally honest thoughts for sticking with Jeopardy!. One even went so far as to claim that he's doing something that the late host Alex Trebek would never approve of and that he would “turn over in his grave” because of it. Jennings, who seemingly always has the answer to a question or assumption, responded to the commenter by highlighting a specific statement in an article: 

That clap-back wasn't answered in the form of a question, but that's still a direct way to shut someone down. As noted, Alex Trebek worked during the writers strike that took place from 2007 to 2008. So one may be able to surmise he wouldn't chastise his successor for doing the same thing. (Though is should be mentioned that the actors weren't on strike during that period in the 2000s.) Additionally, it looks like the show is doing what it can to respect the rules of the strike.

Jeopardy! is one of a handful of shows that will return this fall and continue producing first-run content alongside other game shows or unscripted programming (albeit with some big changes). There are also some scripted shows on the 2023 TV schedule, as some managed to wrap filming ahead of the strikes. 

Ken Jennings isn't the only person working in Hollywood, but the spotlight has definitely been on him more than others after he stepped in for Mayim Bialik by hosting the rest of Season 39. Actors like Wil Wheaton took to social media to call out the game show host due to how he readily took over Bialik's duties: 

It's worth noting that whether or not Ken Jennings is doing right by the strike or doing what Alex Trebek would've done are two different conversations. With that being said, it's clear that the host is doing what his predecessor did under similar circumstances. It's up for the court of public opinion to decide what's what after this strike matter is resolved but, until then, it seems Jennings is staying put on the game show. 

Jeopardy! airs on weekdays nationwide in syndication, so readers will can check their local listings to find out where and when to find it. Season 40 is set to premiere on September 11.

Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant is back in action … about a month after PUMP closed down, the famous eatery appears to have found a new home just a few doors down. Lisa’s iconic PUMP Restaurant Lounge signage popped up Monday in West Hollywood,…

After 2016’s Suicide Squad was much reviled by fans and critics alike, rumors swirled about what happened to what was teased to be a great movie. Over the years, rumors about studio interference on the film have swirled, with many of the actors from the movie admitting they shot a lot more footage than what ended up in the theatrical cut. Director David Ayer has gone as far as to say that the studio ripped up his entire movie. This has prompted fans to champion the “Ayer Cut” of the film, as in the intended cut that the director wanted to release. Ayer added fuel to the fire recently when he released a behind-the-scenes photo from the DC film. 

In a recent Twitter post, Ayer shared a close up picture of Karen Fukuhara as Katana from the film wearing the character's iconic mask. One of the major criticisms for the film was the actress’s lack of screen time, but the photo shows that Ayer probably had bigger intentions for the character's role. You can see the post below:

While Katana was probably in the intended Suicide Squad Ayer film a lot more than she ended up being, this can be said for many characters. Jared Leto got a lot of heat for his over-commitment to the gangster clown Joker role, but according to the Oscar winner, he was supposed to be in the film a lot more than he ended up being. Margot Robbie, who played Harley Quinn, has co-signed the notion, admitting a lot of what the Birds of Prey star filmed was cut. 

It is unclear if fans will ever really get the Ayer Cut that they hope for. Warner Brothers already funded the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which was a four hour version of the maligned 2017 Justice League that was taken over by Joss Whedon. Fan support ended up helping the release of Zack Snyder’s cut, and it’s considered to be a major improvement to the original. While precedent is there, it may create an unnecessary pattern of subsequent releases that WB doesn’t want to be bogged down by, especially as they try to reset the DCEU with a new cast. In addition, they made a different movie called The Suicide Squad in 2021 directed by James Gunn, that was very well received. 

Even if fans never do get the Ayer Cut, the director’s intentions and love for the characters is clearly there. He has a great track record of critically acclaimed action films like Fury and End of Watch so hopefully he gets another stab at a DC film with some of these characters. Katana looks incredible in the image he posted, and maybe he could help a stand alone film of the character under James Gunn’s reimagined DCEU. In the meantime though, fans will continue to campaign for their beloved Ayer Cut. 

You can revisit David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which is streaming now with a Max subscription. For more information about other films within this universe planned for release, check out our upcoming DCEU movies guide. 

The pro-wrestling world is buzzing right through 2023, and only a handful of major upcoming WWE events are left in the year. Fans seem to be satisfied with most of the content they've seen on their TVs lately, but there are more than a few missing superstars they'd like to check out in the near future. Fortunately, it sounds like Bray Wyatt is one of those major faces who may be on their way back, though the recent update on Wyatt's status — which came from his father and former WWE superstar, Irwin R. Schyster — has me a little confused. 

Mike Rotunda, more commonly known as IRS during his WWE days, is the father to both wrestling superstars Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas. Given the personal connection, he may know more than most about the mysterious reason behind Wyatt's absence, which has been speculated on ever since he was surprisingly pulled from WrestleMania 39. Sportskeeda had a chance to catch up with the former superstar, who dropped a brief but surprising statement to make about his son's current position: 

Mike Rotunda's comments about Bray Wyatt came on the heels of reports that Wyatt was gearing up to return but was battling a life-threatening illness and waiting on clearance from doctors. It's unknown if Rotunda was referring to the claims of Wyatt suffering from an illness, especially since he corroborated other assertions that the star would be back in the company soon. 

This lack of answers feels reminiscent of the last time Bray Wyatt was absent from the WWE and was unexpectedly released from the main roster following months of speculation. That's not to say that this is the same kind of situation or will end in a similar way. However, there does always seem to be an air of uncertainty surrounding Wyatt that's proven to be as enigmatic as his in-ring persona. If alleged health issues aren't the true cause of his absence, one can only imagine what truly is.

“The Eater of Worlds” will face an uphill battle upon returning to the WWE, as his short return didn't grant much time to establish his latest persona. Opinions on his MTN Dew-themed match with L.A. Knight were mixed, and wrestling devotees never saw the end of his feud with Bobby Lashley. 

If he truly is returning soon, he's heading into a landscape that's entirely different from the one he left. L.A. Knight, for example, is one of the most popular superstars in the WWE, and Bobby Lashley is working on a new faction with the Street Profits. Neither man seems like the best opponent for a superstar looking to prove himself, so how will the the company handle Bray Wyatt's return? Hopefully, we'll learn in time and crystal-clear details on his condition will surface — from his dad or other verified sources.

Monday Night Raw airs on USA Network on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET, and SmackDown is on Fox at the same time on Fridays as part of the 2023 TV schedule. Be on the lookout for Bray Wyatt's return in the near future, as a viewer can never truly predict when he may pop up. 

Jimmy Fallon gave Jonas Brothers fans quite the surprise at the band’s latest show … rocking the NYC crowd with a very impromptu karaoke performance. The “Tonight Show” host jumped on stage at Yankee Stadium Sunday night, clearly a shock to folks…

With his new film “Passages,” writer/director Ira Sachs forges a scorchingly sensual, exhilaratingly free, and brutally honest vision of romantic desire in all its raw, violent collisions. 

Tracing the combustible relationships between filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski), his longtime partner Martin (Ben Whishaw), and schoolteacher Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), with whom Tomas begins an affair after wrapping his new film in Paris, the film—a MUBI release; now in select theaters—is an often breathtakingly intimate exploration of love and power. And as Tomas draws Martin and Agathe into a chaotic, self-serving ménage à trois, fracturing his marriage and impacting others in his orbit, “Passages” emerges as a drama that, true to its title, is most precise in depicting the passionate uncertainty that so often swirls around lives and bodies in transition. 

For Sachs, “Passages” represents a leap forward. Across 30 years of filmmaking, his sharply observed, quietly controlled character studies—from feature debut “The Delta,” a languid portrait of queer yearning and repression set in his native Memphis, to “Keep the Lights On,” about a toxic decade-long relationship between two young men, and “Love Is Strange,” in which an older gay couple ties the knot—have studied love’s unpredictable nature and destructive outcomes. In “Passages,” perhaps the most liberated film that Sachs has made in its vigorous eroticism and forward motion, the director leaves ample space for three magnetic young stars of the European arthouse to fully embody their characters and fearlessly illuminate their inner cross-currents of pleasure, pain, and confusion.

Since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, “Passages” has stoked online discourse around portrayals of sexual intercourse on screen; when it received an NC-17 rating from the MPA, which MUBI rejected to instead release the film unrated and uncut, that conversation was again inflamed. Sachs has described the decision as homophobic, puritanical, and out of step with his film’s open depiction of sexual experience. 

In Chicago last week to discuss “Passages” following its opening-night screenings at the Music Box Theatre—where the film played earlier this year as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival—Sachs sat down with RogerEbert.com in the lobby of the Hoxton to discuss the importance of capturing sexual fluidity and why he considers “Passages” to be an action film. Additionally, he reflected on attending the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Peter Hujar: Performance and Portraiture” exhibit; Sachs plans to make a film about the influential East Village photographer, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” with Whishaw in the lead role, in New York City later this year. 

This conversation has been edited and condensed. 

There’s a fluidity to the three main characters of “Passages”—to their exploration of self and sexuality, their pursuit of intimacy and desire, even their individual minute-to-minute movements—that feels central to the film’s contemporary lens on relationships. Can you discuss that idea of fluidity? 

It’s a concept by accident, in a certain way. When I was writing the script with Mauricio Zacharias, my co-writer, we were potentially hung up on the idea of change, in terms of sexual identity, for the lead character of Tomas. At least the people I gave the script to were hung up on that idea, meaning that I had friends who said, “That’s not possible. Why would someone make that change?” And I was like, “It’s not a problem. I’m pretty certain.” And the film that we made was proof of that—not only that it isn’t unbelievable in the film but that [disbelief] is actually not present in the film because it’s a different generation than my own. 

The people reading the script were people like myself, who came from an age in which sexual identity was hard to claim, when there was a need to state it in a fixed form. That’s changed, in a lot of ways. I’m wary of the concept of progress, because I don’t see history as going in a consistently better direction, but around this particular question of sexual possibility and experience I feel that the film is testament to positive change. These actors also made that possible. They weren’t asking the same questions that I was, and in some ways that’s because that’s what they know, in their own lives and in their own communities.

You don’t spend much time with these characters debating or defining what they are to each other. 

What I intended to do was to make a film that exists frame-by-frame in the present. There’s almost no reference to the past, except through feeling. You know there is a past; you buy the elements of history that these characters have, but that’s conveyed through present-tense action. I consider “Passages” to be an action film. There is no room for the past in an action film. 

Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adèle Exarchopoulos are all extraordinary in the film and bring such presence to their performances. Watching the film, you feel such force and vitality from each of them on screen.  

That’s exactly the kind of movie I wanted to make. It’s funny because, when I was young, I used to obsessively consider John Cassavetes as an inspiration. And, at some point, the actor Eric Bogosian, who was my boss [when I was working as an assistant as a Yale sophomore,] advised me to stop watching Cassavetes’ movies. And I did. Except for “Opening Night,” I’ve not returned to them in 25 years. But in thinking about “Passages,” now that it’s done, I think a lot about the role of the actor in a Cassavetes film. 

Part of that is that, [with “A Woman Under the Influence,”] you mostly talk about Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, and Peter Falk. You don’t talk about Mabel, one of the characters. You talk about them as people you know because you feel that you’re watching stories being told that are also documents of those performers. And I think that’s the feeling that we achieved in “Passages” as well. Franz has said that what he likes in the movie is that it seems to be about both of them. At certain moments, it’s about Tomas. And at other moments, it’s about Franz. You’re watching them both, and there is space for that.

One early sequence in “Passages” where you feel that continuum between actor and character has Rogowski and Exarchopoulos dancing in a club. It’s very sensual, how Tomas and Agathe move and study one another, but you also sense the intensifying of their desire. What’s the secret to a sequence like that, where bodies are in motion, minds are at work, and you convey both without dialogue?

One of the hardest places to shoot is a nightclub, partly because your nemesis is dialogue. How do you keep them dancing and hear the dialogue? In dancing and in sex, and in other scenes—specifically, I’m thinking of the making of Tomas’ film-within-the-film, and parts of the scene with Agathe’s parents—you can see actors who are extraordinarily sharp with improvisational skills. 95% of “Passages” is scripted, but 5% is not, and that 5% leaks into the rest of the movie. Part of what you’re seeing in the dance scene is people telling stories without words, which is what you’re also seeing in the bedrooms.

Also, the scenes in the bedrooms—except for the middle sex scene between Tomas and Agathe—are single takes. There are three sex scenes, and the middle one is constructed through images, whereas the other two are single shots. What you’re seeing in the dance club scene is also the power of editing. I can tell you that, until almost the very last pass of the film, we didn’t tell the story as well of them seducing each other as we did in the final cut. It’s about what moment is narrative but purely visual, so it’s about montage in that scene. 

Tomas is successful as a filmmaker, and he’s married to Martin, but he’s constantly calling out for a kind of attention he’s not receiving. He’s jealous and insecure, with this desire to draw others in but no real consideration of what to do with them once he succeeds.

My own relationships are flashing before my eyes! Happily, not my present one. [laughs] I wouldn’t say I’ve known a long list of people like that, but I know the person you’re talking about. Probably, I can also be that person, but not consistently—in specific moments. 

Tomas, as well, becomes that person in key moments of action or inaction—such as the scene you mentioned with Agathe’s parents, where he could meet them halfway in this critical moment for their potential family but instead rejects their questioning of him and retreats from the table.

That’s a moment where he can’t conquer the rules of the world. Usually, he can squirm out of those rules. In that situation, he has no way out, so he has to leave the table. There’s no way to move the chess pieces toward victory. And victory is really important for him. It’s what he’s after, from start to finish: to win. [pauses] That also seems really personal. [laughs] But my mother isn’t that way. She doesn’t need that. My mother’s also not ambitious. 

I think all of this is connected to ambition. The flip side of need is productivity. You’re doing something because you need something, though need is not the sole reason why someone creates. To me, what I missed most during the pandemic, and what became clear to me, was that if I didn’t continue to be creative—which, I worried during the pandemic, was disappearing, along with the end of other things—I would feel completely disconnected from myself. I felt lonely, because I didn’t have any conversation with myself about the creation of art. I had intimacy during the pandemic, with my husband and with my kids, but not with myself.

These characters are caught up in their relationships throughout the film but not as often alone with their thoughts, at least that we see. Tomas finds those moments of solitude while riding his bicycle, and in one remarkable scene, we study his features as he speeds through the city.

Throughout the film, bicycle riding is a place of reverie. It’s a pause between conflict and connectedness to some place in which he’s technically alone. And yet, the camera can watch. That’s one great thing that the camera can do: watch people when they’re alone. It’s a great oxymoron. In my films, often, there are moments like that. In “Love is Strange,” there’s a scene with a teenage kid crying in a stairwell. He’s just left Alfred Molina’s apartment, he’s alone, and he breaks down, but we’re there. That’s what the camera can do. You can be there when you’re not there. The camera’s there with the characters in the sex scenes, but it’s also not there, because you’re not allowed very close. 

I’ve read that you were first struck by Franz Rogowski in Michael Haneke’s “Happy End,” in the scene where he mimics the choreography for Sia’s “Chandelier” music video. I remember seeing Rogowski in “Great Freedom,” as well, where he retains such individuality in his movements, in the liberations of his body, even within these constrictive spaces.   

He’s like Buster Keaton. And he’s a heartthrob, just like Buster Keaton. What a beautiful face! He also has something of Peter Lorre … In my collaboration with [director of photography] Josée Deshaies, all we were interested in was how bodies move through space. I’m not interested in trying to create metaphor, though films are always filled with metaphor. I’m not consciously using bodies to describe power. I’m just trying to be attentive. 

I went earlier to the Peter Hujar exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a New York photographer who died in the ’90s; David Wojnarowicz was his partner and then his best friend. It’s a small, beautiful exhibit. You learn a lot about Hujar. What I love about Hujar is that in his photography, he pays great attention. And part of what he’s paying attention to is how human shape conveys emotion. That’s what Josée was very engaged in for “Passages,” and it’s also something Franz Rogowski understands as a performer because he thinks of his body and acting as a form of sculpture, as living sculpture. He’s very thoughtful about the impact of his form.

Rogowski also fills out the extraordinary wardrobe that costume designer Khadija Zeggaï created in collaboration with you for his character—the sheer dragon-print crop top, a green sweater, and the snakeskin jacket.

I like the term “fills out,” because it’s partially about the strength of his body. He actually does fill those clothes. If skin was an option, I took it, on purpose, because it’s fun, and probably because I could, right? The power of a director, to make choices in which people reveal their bodies in certain ways that turn you on, is an interesting dynamic … Certainly, there were direct conversations around what the actors were comfortable revealing or exposing, but those weren’t very long conversations. Lines were drawn, and we proceeded from there. 

For some reason, I was obsessed with this sweater he wore that was bright orange that looks like the “Hot Lips” logo for the Rolling Stones. He dances in it at that bar after meeting Ahmad, [played by Erwan Kepoa Falé,] the writer, and you see it from the back. It’s a great color. There’s also another orange sweater he didn’t end up wearing that I was obsessed with.

I wanted to ask about this childlike quality of Tomas and his longing, this innocent impulsivity, that is often conveyed through those wardrobe choices, which are sometimes provocative but often cozy and domestic.  

That childlike quality is interesting to me, because it’s actually something that is really beautiful but also stunted and immature. It’s the combination that is very much Tomas—not so much Franz, but Tomas, in the sense that it’s the energy and impulsiveness of a child, which feels emotionally stunted in the figure of an adult. Something I realized, with my kids, is that empathy comes with maturity. You have to learn how to be empathetic. With Tomas, that maturity never comes.

“Passages” examines other imbalances in the relationships Tomas has with Martin, a wealthy gay man, and Agathe, a female school teacher. It’s also cruel the way Martin discards Ahmad, who is Black, and the film as a whole is sharp in applying these lenses of gender, race, and economic status to consider the love triangle through.

The two men discard Agathe very violently at the country house. To me, that scene is from a horror movie. As we shot it, we were all aware of how violent it was. I thought of [Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s] “Fox and His Friends,” about another couple. Our film has that portrait of gay misogyny, whereas in “Fox and His Friends,” the object of desire is another man. 

I’m curious about class, because there’s an important class distinction between the two men and the woman in this film. “Passages” was inspired by Luchino Visconti’s last film, “The Innocent,” about an aristocrat with a mistress and a wife. It’s about money and power. I don’t think of Martin and Tomas as aristocratic. They seem to have come to their power through their lives. They don’t seem born to the manor, which is an important distinction. It’s different from Visconti’s film, with Visconti also being an aristocrat himself. Class also has financial history, and I’m not sure if you can pinpoint the history of the characters in this film. 

I’m currently reading Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire, which I recommend if you ever want to read a funny, modern, plot-driven 19th-century novel. It spans six volumes, but the first one is called The Warden. 19th-century novels understood that money was a character in every single situation. People were never distinct from their financial history and experience. There’s no way to describe a character without understanding their relationship to money. I feel like there’s this weird erasure of that in contemporary cinema.

For the younger generation depicted in “Passages,” you could say, financial success no longer holds this ultimate value. The fulfillment they desire comes more from interpersonal relationships and sexual freedom.

That’s right. And that’s America, isn’t it? That, in some ways, is the history of this country, though I didn’t make the film there. It’s interesting how that idea plays out in this European context.

“Passages” is now playing in select theaters, via MUBI.

“Telemarketers” deserves your time for being that rare bird of documentaries: a filmmaker’s personal story captured over many years (in this case, 22), fueled by the need to get a bizarre experience on camera. The footage can be molded into a narrative later. Years before he was a documentarian, Sam Lipman-Stern recorded his time working for a New Jersey telemarketing agency in the late 2000s, sitting in a cubicle with a headset, raising money for shady charities and the employer who pocketed most of the funds, known then as Civic Development Group. 

Lipman-Stern’s footage, and the new interviews here with co-workers that are like a class reunion, keep the story’s view eye-to-eye and nonjudgmental, which is essential. “Telemarketers” is all lived-in experience from a world you probably didn’t imagine was on the other end of the line. With material that only someone in Lipman-Stern’s chair could capture, the three-episode Max docuseries puts scammers into full humanizing color, whisking us to a messed-up-but-functional Oz for hustling scumbags who needed a job. The term “scumbags” is used with love in this saga. 

As the former employees who speak here tell it, every day was a new adventure in their workplace, and every other person was a drug dealer. CDG used to recruit from halfway homes, and they’d hire ex-convicts who only needed to be able to read scripts and use rebuttals. It didn’t matter if the place became unsafe or too raucous; it was just about hitting quotas. Lipman-Stern has plenty of footage of himself on the line, lying to people who think they’re giving to charity; there’s also clips of co-workers drinking, showing their butts, or doing drugs. We glimpse this greasy gold in the excellent first episode, an introduction to a batch of memorable faces and names (“Mr. Smythe”). They’re all so charismatic and wonderfully weird that you could almost forget they were helping their employers steal.

The telemarketers say they were at the “bottom of society,” but they’re wrong: they weren’t as low as those behind the scams enacted by CDG and copycat companies who used the same scripts and tactics. The calls would be made in the name of charities (for veterans, cancer patients, families of police, etc.), and the money would rarely go where it was originally stated. But companies like CDG were only acting as a third party. A larger scam arises in the middle of “Telemarketers,” but it’s best revealed within the story, to most feel the whiplash of irony and jaw-dropping greed.

Since he first put CDG antics videos on YouTube, Lipman-Stern’s documentation has wanted to demystify and destroy this workplace. As the timeline of “Telemarketers” presents his own growth from CDG and beyond, Lipman-Stern uses his experience and footage to seriously dig into this scam and its participants. But he couldn’t do this without his energetic best friend and co-worker, Pat Pespas. In the not-so-glory days, we see Pat snort coke before making calls, and he’s often referred to throughout the journey as “Pat F**kin Pespas!” (with a warm tone). If executive producers Josh and Benny Safdie would be perfect to adapt this story, so would executive producer Danny McBride to play Pespas, a one-of-a-kind fixture we see in so many different somber shades. Pespas is a loved legend in this world, a driven, passionate guy who can be his own worst enemy. In its nuanced way of embracing its subjects, “Telemarketers” gets a heavier layer in presenting a friendship with an addict over some rocky years. 

Pat and Lipman-Stern seek more information and justice against their employer’s employers, beginning a wayward, years-leaping journey that makes up the second half of “Telemarketers.” Pat even goes back undercover to the world of telemarketing and goes “Michael Moore style,” confronting complicit figures in public who won’t return Pat and Lipman-Stern’s calls. It’s part of the comedy and its character study, with Pat donning a golf cap and sunglasses. Still, it’s not the best resource for narrative momentum. Sometimes the adventures of Pat and Sam (and co-director Adam Bhala Lough, who joins later in the shoot) have the air of simply futzing around and seeing just how many people won’t speak to them. But beholding the dedication and specific knowledge of those trying to challenge the system is what counts most here.

As much as you want “Telemarketers” to have a more direct focus for its David v. Goliath exposé, it’s not about that, and sometimes that is frustrating. But because we see it all with such humanizing honesty, Lipman-Stern’s intricate care for this world and its greatest injustices becomes our own. By the end of Lipman-Stern’s journey, “Telemarketers” has given scumbags like Pat an authentic voice, and it’s not trying to rip you off. 

Full series screened for review. The first episode of “Telemarketers” is now playing on Max, with new episodes on August 20 and 27th. 

It was a big ol’ family reunion of sorts at Drake’s most recent show in L.A. — with Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Bad Bunny and Tristan Thompson all spending some QT. Kim, Kendall and Bunny apparently had unlimited access at the show, bouncing…