


Singer Monica performs a tribute to Whitney Houston during BET Awards 12, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on July 1, 2012. UPI/Jim Ruymen Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson and Usher are to lead the lineup of performers for a Whitney Houston tribute to tape in Los Angeles next month, CBS announced. Houston accidentally drowned in a hotel bathtub last February after using drugs shortly before she was to attend the Grammy Awards ceremony. She was 48.
Nicole Ari Parker has been cast as a lead in the NBC drama pilot for the thriller, The Secret Lives Of Husbands And Wives, which centers on “a murder and the secrets and lies within a tightly woven group of three suburban couples and their families exposed in its aftermath,” says Deadline.
Nicole Ari Parker has been cast as a lead in the NBC drama pilot for the thriller, The Secret Lives Of Husbands And Wives, which centers on “a murder and the secrets and lies within a tightly woven group of three suburban couples and their families exposed in its aftermath,” says Deadline.
Kelly Rowland is back flexing her acting skills with a new role in an original BET pilot “What Would Dylan Do.”
Executive produced by Warren Hutcherson (‘The Bernie Mac Show,” “Men Of A Certain Age”) and Julian Breece (of the web series “Buppies”), the show will feature the singer as an “L.A.-based struggling relationship blogger” named Dylan, who lives with the girls while attempting to get her life together.
Also set to star in the show is Brandon Scott of “Grey’s Anatomy,” as Dylan’s ex-fiancée.
If the show is picked up, it will join BET’s fall line-up with “The Game,” Gabrielle Union’s “Being Middle of Nowhere,” and Larenz Tate’s “Gun Hill.”
A dance class at the school in 2011. (Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times)The Harlem School of the Arts, a community arts school that has faced major financial hurdles in the last few years, has received a grant of more than $5 million from the Herb Alpert Foundation that will allow the school to retire its debt, restore its endowment and create a scholarship program for needy students.
Brandon J. Dirden, left, and Jason Dirden in “Topdog/Underdog.” The actors are brothers both in real life and in the play, in Red Bank. (T. Charles Erickson)
Brandon J. Dirden, left, and Jason Dirden in “Topdog/Underdog.” The actors are brothers both in real life and in the play, in Red Bank. (T. Charles Erickson)There is a gunshot in “Topdog/Underdog,” the shining first production of Two River Theater Company’s 2012-13 season. Maybe you don’t expect it because of all the comedy. Maybe you do expect it because the gun has been too visible onstage not to play an important role. I was pretty sure I knew what lay ahead, but it was still a shock. Cheers to Jason Dirden, the shooter, and to Suzan-Lori Parks, the playwright, who also directed.