According to Deadline.com, NBC is looking to remake one of the most successful female-led series in TV history – Murder, She Wrote – which ran on CBS from 1984 to 1996 and stared Angela Landsbury as amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The new version will star Academy Award-winner Octavia Spencer, and is being reimagined as “a light, contemporary procedural in the vein of Bones or Fargo, which follows a hospital administrator and amateur sleuth (Spencer) who self-publishes her first mystery novel. Set in a day where sensational headlines inundate the news, this woman’s avid fascination with true crime leads her to become an active participant in the investigations.” Former Desperate Housewives executive producer Alexandra Cunningham is writing and will executive produce with David Janollari.
Murder would mark the first series regular role for Spencer, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Help. She previously worked with NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt and Janollari on the 2001 Sci Fi Channel series The Chronicle, which the two executive produced and she recurred on. Spencer’s involvement in Murder, She Wrote stems from an exploratory meeting she took with Greenblatt. “I’ve always considered myself an armchair detective and in a recent meeting with Bob Greenblatt, he asked me what type of character would be able to lure me to TV. Naturally, I said ” J.B. Fletcher” meets “Colombo”… And here we are,” she said.
“I’m ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with Dave Janollari again, and Alex Cunningham a brilliant writer who shares my love for all things mysterious and Angela Lansbury.” Cunningham also spoke of her and Spencer’s shared passions. “Octavia and I are both huge true crime buffs, amateur criminologists, and fans of Angela Lansbury,” she said. “To get the chance to reimagine Murder, She Wrote for a dynamic and multi-faceted actress like Octavia is a thrill and a pleasure.”
Spencer recently wrapped production on Black And White opposite Kevin Costner and is about to begin filming the James Brown biopic Get on Up while also promoting her debut novel, Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Posts published in “Entertainment”
The King of Pop still reigns.
According to Forbes magazine, the late Michael Jackson has earned more money in the past year than any other musician — dead or alive. Between June 2012 and June 2013, Jackson’s estate earned $160 million. This surpassed the second-place earner, MJ’s living rival Madonna, who made $125 million in that time span, by $35 million. “It’s the third time in the past five years that the top-earning celebrity in the world has come from the graveyard,” reports Forbes.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Jackson’s earnings come from ”two Cirque du Soleil shows — one that tours, one housed at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Vegas — and his half of the Sony/ATV song catalog, which includes his own hits as well as tunes like ‘When a Man Loves a Woman.’”
On the list of deceased earners, Elvis Presley comes in a distant second (with $55 million), followed by Peanuts creator Charles Schultz ($37 million), Elizabeth Taylor ($25 million), and Bob Marley ($18 million).
article via thegrio.com
It always seemed pretty straightforward. And horrifying. Early African-American history was the story of thousands of Africans who were captured, shipped like cargo to the New World and sold into slavery, mostly to work and die on Southern plantations. But Henry Louis Gates Jr. and PBS show us that history’s complexity in a beautifully done six-part, six-hour documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, which began on Tuesday night and continues weekly through Nov. 26.
Mr. Gates — the Harvard professor, author and critic — is highly visible, interviewing historians, talking to older black Africans who acknowledge that their ancestors became wealthy through the slave trade, chatting with contemporary black Americans over Hoppin’ John and iced tea, standing at seemingly innocuous city intersections where shameful history unfolded.
Everyone (you hope) knows that slavery existed at least as long ago as Ancient Egypt. Many are also aware that black Africans helped the white slave traders who arrived on their shores. But Episode 1 (“The Black Atlantic: 1500-1800”) delves deeper — in Sierra Leone, the Temne people would sell the Loko people, so they didn’t see it as turning against their own — and points out that Europeans invented the idea that skin color determined who was and was not enslavable. As Mr. Gates observes, “the dehumanization of an entire race” takes a while.
Monday night’s premiere of TLC’s highly anticipated VH1 biopic, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, netted this year’s highest rated cable original film with approximately 4.5 million viewers tuning in, according to a press release. The prime time premiere also made VH1 history by becoming the network’s most watched original film ever.
Starring Keke Palmer (as Chilli), Lil Mama (as Left Eye), and Drew Sidora (T-Boz), the Charles Stone III-directed film focused on the group’s humble beginnings in Atlanta and their meteoric rise to pop culture fame. Last week T-Boz and Chilli made a special appearance on HuffPost Live, where they opened up on preparing the girls for their respective roles in the film.
“We spent so much time with the girls. We hung around them. They spent the night, you name it,” Chilli disclosed. “We did everything, because we wanted to really, almost overly prepare them for their role so that they could really deliver and they really did.”
Catch a special re-airing of “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story” Sunday, October 27th at 8pm on VH1.
article via huffingtonpost.com
“We spent so much time with the girls. We hung around them. They spent the night, you name it,” Chilli disclosed. “We did everything, because we wanted to really, almost overly prepare them for their role so that they could really deliver and they really did.”
Catch a special re-airing of “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story” Sunday, October 27th at 8pm on VH1.
article via huffingtonpost.com
Charlie Parker started playing as a boy, when his mother gave him a saxophone to cheer him up after his father left. He went on to spearhead a musical revolution.
Charlie “Bird” Parker was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. In his brief life, Parker created a new sound on the alto saxophone and spearheaded a revolution in harmony and improvisation that pushed popular music from the swing era to bebop and modern jazz.
In Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker, scholar and author Stanley Crouch tells the story of Parker’s early years and his rise to prominence. But Crouch says he didn’t want to tell the same old story of young black musicians overcoming obstacles.
“These guys, they thought about life,” he says. “Oh yes, they thought about being colored, but they also thought about life. And people came to hear you because you played life. It wasn’t because you played, ‘Oh, I’m just a poor colored man over here, just doing some poor colored things. I’m thinking about my poor colored girl and how the white man is not going to let us blah blah.’ That wasn’t what they were playing.”
‘I Put Quite A Bit Of Study Into The Horn’
Crouch’s book opens with a triumphant moment in Parker’s career. It’s February 1942 and the 21-year-old alto player is on the bandstand at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, performing with the Jay McShann Orchestra for a live radio broadcast. He steps up to solo and Crouch explains what happens next:
When the band started throwing up stock riffs behind him, Parker sidestepped the familiar shapes, issuing his responses from deep in left field.
… Each chorus was getting hotter; it was clear, from the position of his body and the sound of his horn, that Charlie Parker was not going to give in. All the nights he had worked on it, the flubs, the fumblings, the sore lips, mouth, and tongue, the cramped fingers — they all paid off that afternoon. Suddenly, the man with the headphones was signaling McShann, Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Keep on playing!
In 1980, the late pianist and bandleader Jay McShann described how Parker’s sound grabbed him the first time he heard it. “One particular night, I happened to be coming through the streets and I heard the sound coming out. And this was a different sound, so I went inside to see who was blowing,” he said. “So I walked up to Charlie after he finished playing and I asked him, I said, ‘Say man,’ I said, ‘where are you from?’ I said, ‘I thought I met most of the musicians around here.’ Well, he says, ‘I’m from Kansas City.’ But he says, ‘I’ve been gone for the last two or three months. Been down to the Ozarks woodshedding.’ “
Kerry Washington is having a banner year – and to add to the distinguished success she has earned, the Hollywood star has now been named the new face of Neutrogena. Washington has been appointed as an official creative consultant for the beauty brand and she will be featured in ads that are expected to run in early 2014. As part of her new venture, the Scandal star will join other famous faces like Gabrielle Union and Jennifer Garner in promoting the brand. However, Washington will be more involved in Neutrogena’s product development and feedback.
“For me, the creative consultant role is also fun because I get to bring my fans on this adventure with me,” Washington said, according to the Huffington Post. “They know that I’m not just telling them that I’m passionate about a product because I have to say that contractually. They know that I have a voice in the company and that I’m discovering and learning more about skin health all the time and giving the company feedback,” she added.
Aside from her latest business partnership, Washington has attracted millions of fans this year after her hit show Scandal has soared in ratings and recently returned to TV with its third season. The actress has also racked headlines for being named the year’s best-dressed woman by both Vanity Fair and People – not to mention the several magazine covers she has graced including Glamour, Elleand Essence.
As for her new deal with Neutrogena, Washington says it’s almost like a perfect fit. “I never wanted to partner with a company where I felt like I was losing myself and my sense of authenticity,” she told People. ”This is really about working with a company I respect and admire.”
article by Lilly Workneh via thegrio.com
Usher Raymond is on double movie duty with his credit as executive producer of the upcoming education documentary Undroppable, as well as his role in Hands of Stone as legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. The project, written and directed by Jason Pollock, will explore the dropout epidemic in the U.S. educational system with direct feedback from American students. The film will be supported by a social media/video campaign that will allow them to discuss the issues they face in school.
Raymond will executive produce with Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber‘s manager) who introduced him to the project, as well as Adam McKay, Sharon Chang, Alex Soros andJohn Powers Middleton. “I knew Usher was very passionate about the issue of education, so I felt this was a great project to bring him into,” said Braun. “His expertise will be invaluable as we continue this film and movement.”
Undroppable will be completed this year for a 2014 release.
article by via uptownmagazine.com
Born on October 18, 1951 in Port Huron, Michigan, University of California, Berkeley graduate Terry McMillan‘s life-long interest in books and storytelling led her to publish her first book, Mama, in 1987 and her follow-up effort, Disappearing Acts, in 1989.
Her work is characterized by relatable female protagonists, received national attention in 1992 with her third novel, Waiting to Exhale, which remained on The New York Times bestseller list for 38 straight weeks. In 1995, Forest Whitaker directed a film version of Exhale starring Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Lela Rochon and Whitney Houston. In 1998, another of McMillan’s novels, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, was made into a successful movie starring Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs. McMillan’s novel Disappearing Acts was subsequently produced as a feature on HBO, starring Wesley Snipes and Sanaa Lathan. She also wrote the bestseller A Day Late and a Dollar Short, soon to be adapted into a Lifetime movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. The Interruption of Everything was published on July 19, 2005. Getting to Happy, the long-awaited sequel to Waiting to Exhale, was published on September 7, 2010, and her latest novel, Who Asked You? was recently published this fall. To learn more about McMillan and her work, visit her website, terrymcmillan.com or follow her on Twitter at @MsTerryMcMillan.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
In the midst of ongoing debate about diversity (or the lack thereof) on the cast of Saturday Night Live, comes the news that Scandal star Kerry Washington will be hosting the show for the first time on November 2nd.
Although best known for her dramatic film roles in Django Unchained and Save The Last Dance, Washington has shown her comedic chops in movies like Peeples and I Think I Love My Wife. SNL, which is currently in its 38th season, has been under fire for not featuring any people of color among its six new cast members.
Black comedian Kenan Thompson, a veteran of the show, has argued that producers have had trouble finding African-American women who are “ready” to perform on SNL.
Washington will be joined by musical guest Eminem, making his sixth appearance on the show.
article via thegrio.com
According to Variety.com, Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced an eclectic lineup of nominees for 2014 induction today, including rap acts LLCoolJ and N.W.A., disco band Chic and New Orleans funk group the Meters.
Other newly-anointed candidates include Chicago’s blues-rocking Paul Butterfield Blues Band, British hard rock act Deep Purple, U.K. singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, blue-eyed soul duo Hall & Oates, costumed Detroit metal act KISS, Seattle grunge icons Nirvana, Minneapolis’ shambolic punks the Replacements, vocalist Linda Ronstadt, singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, pathfinding guitarist Link Wray, Brit prog-rock kings Yes, and ‘60s British Invasion group the Zombies.
Stevens, LL Cool J, Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, KISS, N.W.A. and the Meters are all repeat nominees; it is the first time in the running for the remainder of the field. Gabriel is already a member of the Rock Hall via his association with Genesis, inducted in 2010. The induction ceremony is set for April in New York, and will be presented on HBO in May.
Inductees are select by a panel of 600 music biz authorities, including musicians, execs and writers. Beginning today through Dec. 10, fans can vote online at rockhall.com/vote; the top five vote recipients will constitute a “fan’s ballot” counting toward the final vote tally.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson