Lupita Nyong’o is popping up everywhere — and we love it! The 12 Years A Slave star has now landed a major fashion campaign. Miu Miu has tapped the Kenyan beauty along with actresses Elle Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen and Bella Heathcote for its Spring 2014 campaign. The images were shot by Inez & Vinoodh, as Nyong’o sported the Italian fashion brand’s signature quirky, bold threads.
“The actresses’ poses, full of personality, convey their diverse points of view, effortlessly translating the new spirit of the Miu Miu woman,” the brand stated. But the Golden Globe-nominated actress isn’t letting her style star status go to her head. “Being considered a fashion star is wonderful,” she told USA Today. “It’s definitely a bonus thing. It was in no way my agenda when I started.”
article via huffingtonpost.com
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The nominees for the 45th NAACP Image Awards were announced on Jan. 9, and 12 Years A Slave and Lee Daniels’ The Butler lead the pack with seven nominations each, including nods in the coveted Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture categories. Other multiple nominees include the Kerry Washington-starrer Scandal and Kevin Hart‘s BET comedy Real Husbands of Hollywood, each coming in with five nods in the television drama and comedy categories.
In addition to being nominated for her role as Olivia Pope on Scandal, Washington also received a nomination in the Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture category for her role in the film Tyler Perry Presents Peeples. Angela Bassett went one better and landed three acting nominations, for her film performance in Black Nativity, and her outstanding television work in Betty and Coretta and American Horror Story: Coven. Terrence Howard was the most-nominated male actor, grabbing dual nods for his performances in Lee Daniels’ The Butler and The Best Man Holiday.
In music, Robin Thicke garnered four nominations for Blurred Lines, including Outstanding Male Artist and Outstanding Album, while Janelle Monae was the most-nominated female artist, gaining honors in the Outstanding Female Artist, Outstanding Album and Outstanding Music Video categories.
The Image Awards are presented annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the group’s members select the winners. The 45th annual NAACP Image Awards is set to air on Feb. 22 on the TV One channel at 9 p.m. CT.
Check out the full list of nominations below:
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Outstanding Comedy Series
“House of Lies”
“Modern Family”
“Real Husbands of Hollywood”
“The Game”
“The Soul Man”
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Andre Braugher – “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
Cedric The Entertainer – “The Soul Man”
Don Cheadle – “House of Lies”
DuleHill – “Psych”
Kevin Hart – “Real Husbands of Hollywood”
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Aisha Tyler – “Archer”
Mindy Kaling – “The Mindy Project”
Niecy Nash – “The Soul Man”
Tasha Smith – “Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse”
Wendy Raquel Robinson – “The Game”
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Boris Kodjoe – “Real Husbands of Hollywood”
Jerry “J B Smoove” Brooks – “Real Husbands of Hollywood”
Morris Chestnut – “Nurse Jackie”
Nick Cannon – “Real Husbands of Hollywood”
Tracy Morgan – “30 Rock”
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Anna Deavere Smith – “Nurse Jackie”
Brandy Norwood – “The Game”
Nia Long – “House of Lies”
Rashida Jones – “Parks and Recreation”
Sofia Vergara – “Modern Family”
Outstanding Drama Series
“Boardwalk Empire”
“Grey’s Anatomy”
“Scandal”
“The Good Wife”
“Treme”
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
James Pickens, Jr. – “Grey’s Anatomy”
LL Cool J – “NCIS: Los Angeles”
Michael Ealy – “Almost Human”
Shemar Moore – “Criminal Minds”
Wendell Pierce – “Treme”
Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series
Chandra Wilson – “Grey’s Anatomy”
Kerry Washington – “Scandal”
Khandi Alexander – “Treme”
Nicole Beharie – “Sleepy Hollow”
Regina King – “SouthLAnd”
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Columbus Short – “Scandal”
Guillermo Diaz – “Scandal”
Jeffrey Wright – “Boardwalk Empire”
Joe Morton – “Scandal”
Michael Kenneth Williams – “Boardwalk Empire”
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Archie Panjabi – “The Good Wife”
Debbie Allen – “Grey’s Anatomy”
Diahann Carroll – “White Collar”
Taraji P. Henson – “Person of Interest”
Vanessa L. Williams – “666 Park Avenue”
According to Variety.com, NBC is back in the Rashida Jones business. The former Parks & Recreation star is returning to her single-camera roots with A to Z, a half-hour comedy set in the world of an online dating company that details the “A to Zs” of a relationship. The ensemble cast will navigate the complicated world of modern dating.
Ben Queen is writing and executive producing A to Z alongside Will McCormack and Jones, who is also an EP on the project. Warner Bros. TV and Le Train Train are producing the project.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
A new musical inspired by the rap songs of the late Tupac Shakur is heading to Broadway. Holler If Ya Hear Me is scheduled to open at the Palace Theatre in New York on June 19, with preview performances set to begin on May 26. Holler isn’t a biographical account of Shakur, who was killed at the age of 25 in 1996 following a shooting in Las Vegas. Rather, the musical production will use the rapper’s lyrics to tell a story of contemporary inner-city lives.
Among the producers of the musical are Afeni Shakur, the rapper’s mother; movie and TV producer Eric L. Gold; and Chunsoo Shin, the prominent Korean theater producer who recently collaborated with the La Jolla Playhouse on another musical, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Kenny Leon (Steel Magnolias, A Raisin in the Sun), will direct Holler, which will feature a creative team that includes Wicked choreographer Wayne Cilento. Rumors of the Shakur musical had been circulating for months, though no official announcement from producers had been made until Wednesday.
article by David Ng via latimes.com
According to Variety.com, Zoe Saldana has been hired to star in NBC’s four-hour miniseries remake of the classic 1968 horror film, Rosemary’s Baby. Saldana will play Rosemary, the iconic young wife and would-be mother who, with her husband, moves into a Paris apartment building that has a dark, storied past. After finally getting pregnant, she becomes increasingly suspicious that both her husband and their mysterious neighbors have ulterior motives about the future of her child.
NBC announced the Rosemary’s Baby miniseries in December, with Lionsgate TV attached to produce. Joshua Maurer, Alix Witlin and David Stern are executive producing with Saldana, Cisely Saldana and Mariel Saldana. “Zoe has proven that she is one of our most gifted actresses and we think she has the perfect combination of spirit and gravitas to take on the title role from Ira Levin’s infamous novel,” said Quinn Taylor, Executive Vice President, Movies, Miniseries and International Co-Productions, NBC Entertainment. “With Zoe leading the cast under the direction of Agnieszka Holland, this reimagined event mini-series is off to a great start.”
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
According to Variety.com, NBC sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live added Leslie Jones and LaKendra Tookes, two comedians who recently auditioned for the program, as writers for the late-night series. Earlier this week, the show announced Sasheer Zamata, a veteran of improv troupe Upright Citizens Brigade, would begin as a featured player as of its January 18 broadcast.
The two new writers took part in auditions recently held in different parts of the U.S. with the express purpose of finding a female African-American to join the show’s cast of “Not Ready For Prime Time Players.”
While the current cast of Saturday Night Live includes two African-American men – Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah – it has not had an African-American woman in the cast since Maya Rudolph, a comic actress of mixed heritage, was in the cast between 2000 and 2007.
The show has not featured many women of color during its history. Yvonne Hudson, an African-American woman, was a featured player during the program’s 1980-1981 season. Danitra Vance, SNL‘s first African-American female full cast member, joined the show for its 1985-1986 season, part of show creator Lorne Michaels’ return to the program after an absence of several years. Ellen Cleghorne joined the cast from 1991-1995.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
The two new writers took part in auditions recently held in different parts of the U.S. with the express purpose of finding a female African-American to join the show’s cast of “Not Ready For Prime Time Players.”
While the current cast of Saturday Night Live includes two African-American men – Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah – it has not had an African-American woman in the cast since Maya Rudolph, a comic actress of mixed heritage, was in the cast between 2000 and 2007.
The show has not featured many women of color during its history. Yvonne Hudson, an African-American woman, was a featured player during the program’s 1980-1981 season. Danitra Vance, SNL‘s first African-American female full cast member, joined the show for its 1985-1986 season, part of show creator Lorne Michaels’ return to the program after an absence of several years. Ellen Cleghorne joined the cast from 1991-1995.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
In her first screen starring turn since the ferocious portrayal as an abusive mother in 2009′s Precious won her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, Mo’Nique has joined Isaiah Washington in the Patrik-Ian Polk-directed Blackbird, an adaptation of the novel by Larry Duplechan. Washington took the lead in this indie last fall off his starring role as the DC sniper in Blue Caprice earned him a Gotham Award nomination. The film just shot in Hattiesburg, MS.
Mo’Nique is also executive producer with her husband, Sidney Hicks, through Hicks Media. Newcomer Julian Walker plays the star singer in the church choir who feels like a misfit in his high school and struggles with his sexual awakening and the realization he is gay, something that doesn’t land well in a religiously conservative small Mississippi town. This coincides with his younger sister going missing and his parents splitting up. Mo’Nique plays another character who’s not going to win mother of the year awards: the youth’s heartbroken mom, who blames her son’s lifestyle revelation for his sister going missing. Washington plays his supportive father trying his best to help his son’s transition to manhood.
“Blackbird is a film about the choices people are forced to make as they struggle to figure out how to be themselves,” Hicks said. “And why should just being who you are be a struggle? Since Mo’Nique won the Oscar, we have received a flood of scripts, but nothing captured our attention until Isaiah — who we have a high level of respect for — sent us Blackbird. We became instant fans of Patrik-Ian Polk and knew we had to get behind this important film.”
Polk is producing through Tall Skinny Black Boy Productions, Keith Brown through Kbiz Entertainment, Washington through his Coalhouse Productions, and Carol Ann Shine. Terrell Tilford, Gary L. Gray, Kevin Allesee, Torrey Laamar, Nikki Jane and D. Woods round out the cast. Worldwide sales for the film are being handled by Hicks Media and attorney Ricky Anderson of Anderson & Smith.
article by Mike Fleming Jr. via Deadline.com
According to the Los Angeles Times, Steve McQueen, the 44-year-old British director, garnered his first Director’s Guild of American Award nomination for 12 Years a Slave, an unflinching look at slavery in the U.S. McQueen is only the second black director to have received a DGA nomination in this category. Lee Daniels was the first to earn a DGA nomination for feature film for 2009’s Precious. McQueen received best director honors from the New York Film Critics Circle and is nominated for Golden Globe and Independent Spirit awards.
Other nominees include Martin Scorsese, who earned his ninth DGA nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street, his controversial dark comedy starring Leonardo DiCaprio about a hedonistic stockbroker. Scorsese, 71, received his first DGA feature nomination for 1976’s Taxi Driver, and won the honor for his 2006 crime film The Departed, which also starred DiCaprio.
Alfonso Cuaron, like McQueen, is also a first-time nominee, for his lost-in-space blockbuster Gravity. Cuaron, 52, was named best director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. for the thriller and is nominated for a Golden Globe Award. British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, 58, was nominated for Captain Phillips, a fact-based thriller about a container ship hijacked by Somali pirates. Greengrass is also nominated for a Golden Globe for his direction of the film. Rounding out the DGA feature nominees is David O. Russell for his Abscam-influenced con-comedy American Hustle. Russell, 55, was nominated in this category for 2010’s The Fighter. He is also nominated for a Golden Globe.
The winner will be announced at the 66th awards dinner on Jan. 25 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Alfonso Cuaron, like McQueen, is also a first-time nominee, for his lost-in-space blockbuster Gravity. Cuaron, 52, was named best director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. for the thriller and is nominated for a Golden Globe Award. British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, 58, was nominated for Captain Phillips, a fact-based thriller about a container ship hijacked by Somali pirates. Greengrass is also nominated for a Golden Globe for his direction of the film. Rounding out the DGA feature nominees is David O. Russell for his Abscam-influenced con-comedy American Hustle. Russell, 55, was nominated in this category for 2010’s The Fighter. He is also nominated for a Golden Globe.
The winner will be announced at the 66th awards dinner on Jan. 25 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
NBC has handed a series order to a half-hour comedy from The Office co-star Craig Robinson. Mr. Robinson centers on a journeyman musician who gets a job as a music teacher at a middle school. While teaching the kids everything from rock to the blues, he simultaneously learns how to put the school’s rules to the test. NBC has given the project a six-episode order.
Robinson will star in the comedy, which was initially ordered to pilot in early 2013. The Office showrunner Greg Daniels was attached to the laffer last year but has since departed Mr. Robinson. Universal TV and 3 Arts Entertainment will produce Mr. Robinson, with Mark Cullen, Rob Cullen, Howard Klein and Mark Schulman executive producing.
article by AJ Marechal via Variety.com
According to Variety.com, Sasheer Zamata will be the latest young comedian to join NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Zamata will make her debut as an SNL featured player on Jan. 18, the late-night program’s first live show of this new year. Zamata is a University of Virginia alumna and trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade.
Zamata will be SNL’s first black female cast member since the departure of Maya Rudolph in 2007. SNL and its producer Lorne Michaels came under fire in late 2013 over the cast’s lack of diversity, and the series poked fun at its own controversy during its opening segment when Kerry Washington hosted SNL in November 2013. News broke at the end of the year that SNL was holding auditions specifically to find black female cast members to join the program in 2014.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson