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Queen Latifah Produces “Single Ladies” Series for VH1

By goodblacknews on October 20, 2010
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VH1 can’t get enough ‘Single Ladies’

Queen Latifah project expands from film to series

VH1 has decided to go steady with “Single Ladies,” taking the original film exec produced by Queen Latifah and expanding it into a weekly scripted dramedy series, the network’s first.  Starring Stacey Dash, LisaRaye McCoy and Charity Shea as the title characters, the “Single Ladies” pic will now become the premiere of the series, launching in July 2011. Eight ensuing episodes have been ordered.  “It’s a great swing for us to take, and one we’re really excited about taking,” VH1 exec veep of original programming and production Jeff Olde said. “We are developing other scripted projects that we feel are traveling a lane that would be complementary to this. … (but) this is really our focus, and I think it’s going to be a really easy shift for our audience.”

Set in Atlanta, the “Single Ladies” pic completed filming this summer, with the series now scheduled to begin shooting before the end of the year. DB Woodside is part of the principal cast, with Latifah now scheduled to make a guest appearance in the series. Lauren London, Eve, Common, Chili, and Kim Porter also appear in the film.  Speculation that the film could serve as a backdoor pilot began nearly a year ago (Daily Variety, Feb. 5). Olde said that VH1 was prepared to hold off on its series order until after the film premiered next summer, but reaction to the film and its characters was so positive in test screenings that the network felt confident moving forward.  “As we started showing it around, (viewers) would actually be mad at us if we just showed the movie,” Olde said. “That was the thing we kept hearing: ‘What happened next?’ “

Shakim Compere and Shelby Stone are exec producing with Latifah for Flavor Unit Entertainment, alongside fellow exec producers Maggie Malina, Stacy Littlejohn and Tamra Davis. Davis directed Littlejohn’s script. “My partner Shakim and I are excited to collaborate with VH1, as they have a similar vision on how to bring this show to life,” Latifah said.  “I think ‘Single Ladies’ will really fill a hole in what is needed on television today.”

Read more: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118025884.html?categoryid=4027&cs=1#ixzz12r755PPF
Visit Variety.com to become a Variety subscriber.

TNT Renews Jada Pinkett Smith's "Hawthorne"

By goodblacknews on September 15, 2010
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via tnt.tv

TNT has written a prescription for a third season of the powerful medical drama HAWTHORNE, starring and executive-produced by Jada Pinkett Smith (Collateral, The Matrix trilogy). TNT has ordered 10 new episodes of the hit series, which is slated to return in 2011. Created by Emmy® winner John Masius (St. Elsewhere, Providence, Dead Like Me), HAWTHORNE premiered in summer 2009 and ranked as one of ad-supported cable’s Top 5 new series of the year. In its second season in summer 2010, the series continued its success, averaging 3.7 million viewers and ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 Tuesday program among women 25-54.
“With its memorable characters, powerful performances and moving storylines, HAWTHORNE takes us on a dramatic journey through the world of a hospital on the brink of collapse,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president and head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “This series has performed extremely well among our key demos and proven itself to be a great summer series. We are very excited to continue working with Jada and HAWTHORNE’s outstanding production team and cast.”
HAWTHORNE stars Pinkett Smith as Christina Hawthorne, an impassioned Chief Nursing Officer struggling to whip a failing hospital – and her personal life – into shape. Michael Vartan (Alias) co-stars as Dr. Tom Wakefield, who has a complicated personal relationship with Christina. The series also stars Suleka Mathew (Men in Trees), David Julian Hirsh (Lovebites), Christina Moore (90210), Vanessa Lengies (American Dreams) and Hannah Hodson (The Ron Clark Story).
HAWTHORNE comes to TNT from Sony Pictures Television in association with Overbrook Productions and Jamie Tarses’ FanFare Productions. The second season of HAWTHORNE was executive-produced by Pinkett Smith; Glen Mazzara (The Shield, Crash, Life); Jamie Tarses (My Boys, TNT’s upcoming series Franklin & Bash); Masius; and Miguel Melendez.
article via deadline.com

TNT Renews Jada Pinkett Smith’s “Hawthorne”

By goodblacknews on September 15, 2010
Media_httpicdnturnerc_dzkyg
via tnt.tv

TNT has written a prescription for a third season of the powerful medical drama HAWTHORNE, starring and executive-produced by Jada Pinkett Smith (Collateral, The Matrix trilogy). TNT has ordered 10 new episodes of the hit series, which is slated to return in 2011. Created by Emmy® winner John Masius (St. Elsewhere, Providence, Dead Like Me), HAWTHORNE premiered in summer 2009 and ranked as one of ad-supported cable’s Top 5 new series of the year. In its second season in summer 2010, the series continued its success, averaging 3.7 million viewers and ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 Tuesday program among women 25-54.

“With its memorable characters, powerful performances and moving storylines, HAWTHORNE takes us on a dramatic journey through the world of a hospital on the brink of collapse,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president and head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “This series has performed extremely well among our key demos and proven itself to be a great summer series. We are very excited to continue working with Jada and HAWTHORNE’s outstanding production team and cast.”

HAWTHORNE stars Pinkett Smith as Christina Hawthorne, an impassioned Chief Nursing Officer struggling to whip a failing hospital – and her personal life – into shape. Michael Vartan (Alias) co-stars as Dr. Tom Wakefield, who has a complicated personal relationship with Christina. The series also stars Suleka Mathew (Men in Trees), David Julian Hirsh (Lovebites), Christina Moore (90210), Vanessa Lengies (American Dreams) and Hannah Hodson (The Ron Clark Story).

HAWTHORNE comes to TNT from Sony Pictures Television in association with Overbrook Productions and Jamie Tarses’ FanFare Productions. The second season of HAWTHORNE was executive-produced by Pinkett Smith; Glen Mazzara (The Shield, Crash, Life); Jamie Tarses (My Boys, TNT’s upcoming series Franklin & Bash); Masius; and Miguel Melendez.

article via deadline.com

5 Webcomics Created by African Americans

By goodblacknews on September 15, 2010

5 Webcomics Created by African Americans

by anjuan

July 29, 2010

5 Webcomics Created by African AmericansThe opening of the massive Comic-con convention last week provided days of comic book related news coverage.  However, few of the images from that event were of African Americans.  The dearth of African American perspectives in mainstream comic books inspired many black artists to create webcomics.  Webcomics are online sites that present a story in comic book form.  The success of Boondocks and the current global recession were motivators for many of these artists to try their hand at starting an online webcomic business.  These five webcomics present a sample of African American entrepreneurs who are presenting a different perspective on the web.
A Pug Named Fender
The LessonCreated by Houston based artist Fave, A Pug Named Fender chronicles the adventures of a pug as he enjoys the thrills of barbecue, music, technology, and other essentials that make life worth living.  This recently launched webcomic has already featured guest appearances by soul music artists like Questlove.  New episodes of A Pug Named Fender are posted every Tuesday and Thursday.
JOE!
#87. – Facebook Saga (Part 3)
Michelle Billingsly created JOE! to capture the life the title character, a rambunctious 10 year old.  This webcomic doesn’t just focus on Joe and has created a cast with well developed characters.  There is no regular update schedule, but new strips come out about twice a month.
Addanac City
AC Classic~ We’re Gonna Have To Let You Go
George Ford publishes Addanac City which depicts the shenanigans of Hank Addanac. It’s an interesting mix of Calvin and Hobbes and Phineas and Ferb.  Ford keeps a rigorous schedule of publishing seven comics a week that goes back to August 2008.  The cast is very diverse and both the writing and art show a high degree of quality.
Redux Deluxe
Introductions
Charles Arrington’s Redux Deluxe covers the adventures of three boys named CJ, Chris, and Rob as they try to retrieve a lost basketball from a neighborhood girl named Angela.  Containing many references to comic book and video game culture, new episodes of Redux Deluxe come out twice a week.
Company Man
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Phoenix artist Frank Jordan publishes a new Company Man strip five days a week.  I offers a humorous look at the lives of a diverse cast of characters.  The content of the humor make it a webcomic for mature readers.  The artists behind these five webcomics are using new media to present the diverse perspectives of African Americans through the comic art form.  Both the comic book and webcomic industries tend to be representative of white culture, and these webcomics offer a refreshing dose of color commentary.
via blackweb20.com

Oprah Kicks Off 25th and Final Season With A Bang!

By goodblacknews on September 13, 2010
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via cnn.com

Oprah Winfrey opened her talk show’s 25th and final season Monday with the surprise of a lifetime for her audience, a favorite tactic for the media maven. The 300 audience members will travel to Australia in December — courtesy of Winfrey — on an eight-day, seven-night trip that has been in the making for nearly a year, according to her production company, Harpo Productions. While there, the Sydney Opera House will be the site of a special “Oprah Winfrey Show” taping before thousands of Australian fans.
Monday’s surprise trip rivals one of Winfrey’s most famous episodes, when she gave away cars to each of her audience members to open her 19th season in 2004. She’s also known for giving away thousands of dollars in gifts to the lucky audience members who attend her annual “Favorite Things” show.
Winfrey announced last year that she would be taking her longtime talk show off the air.
“Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It’s the perfect number — the exact right time,” Winfrey said in a statement at the time.  Since then, the television mogul has said her show will go out with a bang. As of January 1, Winfrey will move on to her new OWN network, and as a result, she told TV Guide that she has different standards for her guests for the upcoming season. “This year will be about creating moments,” she said.
The premiere week of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” will feature an appearance by country stars Naomi and Wynonna
Judd; a return visit to Williamson, West Virginia, where Winfrey did an episode on HIV/AIDS in 1987, to talk with the guests of that show; a one-on-one with Bethany Storro, a victim of an acid attack caused by a stranger; and the announcement of Winfrey’s latest book club selection, according to a press release. The premiere episode is supposed to be filled with celebrity guests and a surprise musical performance. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” first hit national airwaves on September 8, 1986.
“I was beyond excited … and as you all might expect, a little nervous,” Winfrey said in her statement announcing the show’s last season. “I knew then what a miraculous opportunity I had been given, but I certainly never could have imagined the ‘yellow brick road’ of blessings that have led me to this moment with you.”  Winfrey told TV Guide, “the show hasn’t been a big part of my life. It’s been my life. I didn’t have children. I had the show.  “I don’t intend to be crying the whole season,” she told TV Guide. “The only time I get really emotional and nostalgic about the show is when I think about the viewers. Hopefully some of them will follow me to OWN, but I know not everybody will.”
But leaving behind “The Oprah Winfrey Show” won’t be the end of her entertainment career.  OWN, short for the Oprah Winfrey Network, is touted as “a multi-platform media company designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives.”  It launches on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel.

Elba Sleuths Out BBC Role

By goodblacknews on September 7, 2010


The Brit actor who’s just signed to play maverick cop Alex Cross in David Twohy’s Cross, stars in the 6-part BBC mini-series Luther playing another maverick cop (think Cracker meets Prime Suspect meets Wallender). Luther uses the Columbo trick of letting the viewer discover early on who the murderer is – the suspense comes from watching how Luther will catch the murderer. Brit TV reviewers agreed Elba saved a tired formula “pitched somewhere in that territory between fantasy and cliché that commissioning editors find so irresistible,” humphed the Guardian, while the Daily Telegraph said: “Luther lets Elba down”. Poor early reviews impacted ratings. From an audience of 5.8 million (24%) for its first outing, ratings fell to 3.1 million (12.3%) by episode five. Despite falling ratings, the Beeb announced at the Edinburgh TV festival it was commissioning Luther for a couple more two-hour specials. Luther premieres October 17.
via deadline.com

Happy Sixty-Ninth Birthday, Actor and Adoption Activist Taurean Blacque!

By goodblacknews on May 11, 2010
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Taurean Blacque (born Herbert Middleton Jr. in Newark, New Jersey, May 10, 1941) is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues. He also is a past national spokesman for adoptive services, having been one of the first single black men in the United States to adopt a child.

Before appearing on television, Blacque trained and performed at the New Federal Theater in New York, a theater founded to provide opportunities to minorities and women. Early in his acting career, Blacque began making guest appearances in sitcoms such as What’s Happening!!, Sanford and Son, The Bob Newhart Show,The Tony Randall Show, Good Times, and Taxi, and auditioned for permanent roles on others, including Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati, eventually played by Tim Reid.
In 1981 he joined the cast of the fledgling police drama Hill Street Blues, staying with the show throughout its run, which ended in 1987. While appearing on that show, he was nominated in 1982 for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, but lost to fellow HSB actor Michael Conrad, in the only year in which all the nominees in a category came from the same series. His theatrical career continued during his run on the show, winning him an NAACP Image Award of Best Actor (Local) in 1985 for his role in Amen Corner.  In 1986 his stage roles included the male lead in the musical Don’t Get God Started during its initial six-week summer run in Beverly Hills.
After Hill Street ended, Blacque moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to provide a better home for his children; in his new home, he has focused on theatrical work while making occasional guest appearances on television. Notable stage performances include Stepping Into Tomorrow with Yolanda King in 1987, and a 1988 revival ofCeremonies in Dark Old Men.  Television work included a pilot, Off-Duty, for CBS, in which Blacque once again played a police officer; the show was not picked up by the network. Blacque also had a small role in Disney’s animated film Oliver & Company.  In 1989, he portrayed Henry Marshall on NBC’s Generations.

Blacque initially was asked to serve as spokesman for the County of Los Angeles Adoption Services office though he had no adoptive children at the time. Upon looking into adoption, he was told that as a single black male, he was not eligible to adopt; however, he pressed on, eventually adopting ten children in addition to the two sons he already had. The adopted children included twin boys and a group of five children whose mother could not keep them due to her drug addiction. In 1989 he was asked by President George H. W. Bush to serve as a national spokesman for adoption.


article via www.wikipedia.com

Kerry Washington Repeats on People Magazine's "Most Beautiful" List

By goodblacknews on May 3, 2010
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Kerry Washington not only is a second-time “beautiful” selection for People, but she also did her photo shoot with no make-up and gives her parents credit for her beauty!  Watch video of her talking about this and more by clicking here:  www.people.com

Black Eyed Peas' 'I Gotta Feeling' Breaks Digital Sales Record

By goodblacknews on May 1, 2010

By Keith Caulfield, L.A.
The Black Eyed Peas continue to steamroll their way into the record books this week. The group’s “I Gotta Feeling” surpasses Flo Rida’s “Low” as the best-selling digital song of all time, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
SoundScan began tracking digital song sales in July of 2003, a little more than two months after Apple launched its popular iTunes Store.
Feeling,” which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last year, has now sold 5,561,000 million digital downloads, ahead of “Low’s” 5,536,000. The latter had been the biggest selling song since March 2008, when it trumped Soulja Boy Tell’em’s 2007 hit “Crank That.”
Presently, the Peas own two out of the top five best-selling digital songs in history. Its other ubiquitous 2009 hit, “Boom Boom Pow,” is in fourth place with 5,298,000. Behind Flo Rida is Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” (No. 3 with 5,364,000) and rounding out the top five is Gaga again with “Poker Face” (5,131,000).
Coincidentally, “Boom Boom Pow,” “Poker Face,” “Just Dance” and “I Gotta Feeling” ranked as the top four singles, respectively, on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart last year.

Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I Gotta Feeling’ Breaks Digital Sales Record

By goodblacknews on May 1, 2010

By Keith Caulfield, L.A.

The Black Eyed Peas continue to steamroll their way into the record books this week. The group’s “I Gotta Feeling” surpasses Flo Rida’s “Low” as the best-selling digital song of all time, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

SoundScan began tracking digital song sales in July of 2003, a little more than two months after Apple launched its popular iTunes Store.
Feeling,” which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last year, has now sold 5,561,000 million digital downloads, ahead of “Low’s” 5,536,000. The latter had been the biggest selling song since March 2008, when it trumped Soulja Boy Tell’em’s 2007 hit “Crank That.”

Presently, the Peas own two out of the top five best-selling digital songs in history. Its other ubiquitous 2009 hit, “Boom Boom Pow,” is in fourth place with 5,298,000. Behind Flo Rida is Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” (No. 3 with 5,364,000) and rounding out the top five is Gaga again with “Poker Face” (5,131,000).
Coincidentally, “Boom Boom Pow,” “Poker Face,” “Just Dance” and “I Gotta Feeling” ranked as the top four singles, respectively, on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart last year.