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"Ride Along" Tops Box Office for 2nd Week in a Row with $21.2M Take

By goodblacknews on January 26, 2014

Kevin Hart and Ice Cube
According to Variety.com, while Lionsgate’s I, Frankenstein failed to spark audience interest, delivering only an estimated $8.3 million in three days, the domestic box office still saw signs of life, thanks to solid holds from such films as the Kevin Hart/Ice Cube comedy Ride Along and the Mark Wahlberg-starrer Lone Survivor, which led with $21.2 million and $12.6 million, respectively.
In its second outing, Ride Along fell just 49%, lifting its Stateside totals to a sizable $75.4 million; while Lone Survivor, which dropped just 43% in its fifth frame, reached $93.6 million domestically.
The full list of this weekend’s Top 10 follows below:
Film (Weeks in release): 3-day gross*; Locations; Per-theater average; Cume*; Percentage change

  1. Ride Along (2): $21.2; 2,759; $7,670; $75.4; -49%
  2. Lone Survivor (5): $12.6; 3,162; $3,985; $93.6; -43%
  3. The Nut Job (2): $12.3; 3,472; $3,547; $40.3; -37%
  4. Frozen (10): $9.0; 2,757; $3,277; $347.8; -23%
  5. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2): $8.8; 3,387; $2,598; $30.2; -43%
  6. I, Frankenstein (1): $8.3; 2,753; $3,006; $8.3; –
  7. American Hustle (7): $7.1; 2,304; $3,082; $127.0; -28%
  8. August: Osage County (5): $5.0; 2,411; $2,091; $26.5; -32%
  9. The Wolf of Wall Street (5): $5.0; 1,804; $2,772; $98.0; -29%
  10. Devil’s Due (2): $2.8; 2,544; $1,081; $12.9; -67%

article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Born on This Day in 1892: Pioneering Aviator Bessie Coleman (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on January 26, 2014

Bessie Coleman
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot license.  Coleman was born in Atlanta,Texas, the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers George, who was part Cherokee, and Susan Coleman.
In 1915, at the age of 23, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers and she worked at the White Sox Barber Shop as a manicurist, where she heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I about flying during the war. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator would train her either. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckEiKzCBqc&w=560&h=315]
Coleman raised money, studied French, and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920.  She learned to fly in a Nieuport Type 82 biplane, with “a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat in front of the pilot and a rudder bar under the pilot’s feet.”  On June 15, 1921, Coleman became not only the first African-American woman to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and the first American of any gender or ethnicity to do so, but the first African-American woman to earn an aviation pilot’s license. Determined to polish her skills, Coleman spent the next two months taking lessons from a French ace pilot near Paris, and in September 1921 sailed for New York. She became a media sensation when she returned to the United States.
To learn more about Coleman’s life and career, click here or watch the Smithsonian Channel video above.
article via wikipedia.com

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Team with Scholastic to Create A Holiday Children’s Book for 2014

By goodblacknews on January 26, 2014
The “Queen of Christmas,” known for her best-selling holiday digital single “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” makes it no secret that she loves the holidays, and is preparing to release the couple’s first book in fall 2014 — just in time for the holiday season.
The celebrity couple have paired up with children’s book heavyweight Scholastic Press to publish the festive picture book, Roc and Roe’s Twelve Days of Christmas. The book, which is a spin on the classic Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” will feature the couple’s twins Moroccan “Roc” Cannon and Monroe “Roe” Cannon. The illustrations will be handled by New York Times best-selling artist AG Ford.
The Carey-Cannon clan say they are “excited to work with the Scholastic team on our Roc and Roe picture book and we can’t wait until this holiday season. ”
“It’s been such a fun and collaborative process and we are thrilled to be working with Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey on this exciting project. Roc and Roe’s Twelve Days of Christmas is the perfect book to read with your little ones—an adorable spin on a classic tale, sprinkled with humor and heart,” said Ken Geist, VP and editorial director for Scholastic Press Picture Books.
This will be the first book for both Carey and Cannon, but knowing her love for Christmas this may not be her last festive collaboration. In the meantime, Carey is preparing her new album The Art of Letting Go to be released this spring. Cannon serves as the host of America’s Got Talent.
article by M.L. Ward via uptownmagazine.com

Library of Congress Acquires Papers of Legendary Jazz Drummer Max Roach

By goodblacknews on January 25, 2014
From Max Roach’s archive: a contract for a 1956 club date; an undated photo of Roach, at right, with Art Blakey, center; a 1964 letter from Maya Angelou. Lexey Swall for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Max Roach, the great drummer and bandleader and paradigm-shifter of jazz, though he disliked that word, never finished an autobiography.  That’s a shame. He died in 2007 at 83, and his career spans the beginning of bebop, the intersection of jazz with the civil rights movement, free improvisation, and jazz’s current state of cross-disciplinary experiments and multimedia performances. Inasmuch as jazz is about change and resistance, he embodied those qualities: He fought anything that would contain or reduce him as an artist and a human being. He would have been well served by his own narrative, set in one voice.

Max RoachBut Roach was archivally minded, and, when he died, he left 400 linear feet of his life and actions to be read: scores and lead sheets, photographs, contracts, itineraries, correspondence, reel tapes and cassettes and drafts of an unfinished autobiography, written with the help of Amiri Baraka. On Monday, the Library of Congress will announce that it has acquired the archive from Mr. Roach’s family and that it will be made available to researchers.

“What I think he would hope people would see,” said the violist Maxine Roach, his daughter from his first marriage, “is that there was a lot about his life that was difficult, you know? The struggles. A lot about economics, and jazz as a word that we didn’t define ourselves.” (Roach felt that it was a pejorative term; he preferred to call it African-American music.)  “But aside from all of that,” she continued, “I hope that people see his excellence and his mastery of his skill, which helped him rise in this country that’s been so hard on black men especially, and how he went through it and what price he paid.”

ASU Expels Fraternity Over MLK Day ‘Black’ Party

By goodblacknews on January 25, 2014
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(Photo posted on Twitter)
It’s officially over for Arizona State University and Tau Kappa Epsilon.  The university formally cut all ties with the frat days after it hosted an MLK Day party that played up on racial stereotypes and sparked outrage among civil rights leaders, the Arizona Republic reports.
ASU released a statement on Thursday night saying that the frat has been notified that its recognition as a chapter at the school has been permanently revoked, according to the site. This means that the 65-year-old chapter will no longer be affiliated with the university, will no longer be listed on the university website and cannot recruit members or hold meetings on university property, the Republic notes.  According to the newspaper, officials from the university are still examining the situation and deliberating how to handle the individual cases of student discipline.

Over the long holiday weekend, members of the organization thought that it would be fun to put on an MLK Day party, where the theme was to “dress black.” Photos from the event made their way onto various social media, showing attendees dressed in basketball jerseys, throwing up gang signs and holding “watermelon” cups.

Wheelchair-Bound Fashion Editor Jillian Mercado Stars in Diesel's New Campaign

By goodblacknews on January 25, 2014

Cover girl: Jillian Mercado (right), a 26-year-old fashion editor, stars in Diesel's new spring campaign
Cover girl: Jillian Mercado (right), a 26-year-old fashion editor, stars in Diesel’s new spring campaign 

Diesel’s artistic director Nicola Formichetti has cast a wheelchair-bound fashion editor and blogger in its spring 2014 campaign.  Jillian Mercado – a 26-year-old New Yorker with Dominican roots who suffers from muscular dystrophy – stars in the label’s ‘We Are Connected’ campaign.  The campaign sees her posed alongside visual artist James Astronaut in a denim dress, bright red lipstick and her signature platinum blonde hair, making it clear how Formichetti consciously decided to feature, rather than hide her electric wheelchair in the photo.
She told MailOnline that she hopes the ad “gives hope to people who are maybe saying, ‘My life is over’ because they are disabled. You can totally do it, nothing should be stopping you.”  The campaign – photographed by the acclaimed duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin – will run in the March issues of magazines including Vogue and Interview, and will also be displayed on the walls of every single Diesel store worldwide.
Mercado first met Formichetti through a shoot produced by We The Urban magazine, where she works as the executive editorial director.  A few months later, she saw that his assistant put out a casting call for young, culturally-representative models to join Diesel as a campaign ambassador. Miss Mercado and her friends decided to enter the lot as a ‘joke’ she said.

Model citizen: Miss Mercado says that those in similar physical situations should not let their disabilities affect their success and dreams
Model citizen: Miss Mercado says that those in similar physical situations should not let their disabilities affect their success and dreams

But then, “a few weeks later I got an email from the casting agency that said ‘Hey can you send us more pictures? We are kind of interested in having you in the campaign.'”  Out of disbelief, Miss Mercado responded with an assortment of Facebook and Instagram photos.  Following a few days of deliberation, she was chosen to star in the campaign among 23 tastemakers hailing from her own generation.

Jesse Owens Biopic Hires British Actor John Boyega As Its Leading Man

By goodblacknews on January 24, 2014

John Boyega
British Actor John Boyega to play Jesse Owens in biopic “Race.” (Jeff Vespa/WireImage)

According to Variety.com, British actor John Boyega will portray Olympic athlete Jesse Owens in the biopic Race, with shooting set to start in May in Berlin and Montreal. Stephen Hopkins (Judgment Night, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) who will direct from a script by Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel, said, “John Boyega is definitely one of the most exciting young actors working today and I am thrilled to have him on board to play the iconic role of Jesse Owens in Race.” 
The 21-year-old Boyega stars in Malik Vitthal’s inner-city drama Imperial Dreams, which premiered Jan. 17 at the Sundance Film Festival. He debuted in feature films in 2011′s Attack the Block and appeared in 2012′s Half of a Yellow Sun opposite Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor.  

Race will focus on how Owens, the son of an Alabama sharecropper, shattered Adolf Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by winning a record four gold medals in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the long jump and the 400-meter relay. Owens’ victories are considered among the greatest atlhetic feats of all time.  Hitler had insisted Jews and Blacks not be allowed to participate in the games, but relented when threatened with a boycott. He shook hands only with the German victors on the first day of competition and then skipped all further medal presentations.
Shooting locations include the actual Berlin Olympic stadium where Owens won the four gold medals. Producers are aiming for a release in the spring of next year.  Race is supported by the Jesse Owens Foundation, the Jesse Owens Trust and the Luminary Group, and has been been in development for the past two years.  Race is a different project from the Disney biopic about Owens, which has Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen) attached to direct.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Comedy Based On Kevin Hart’s Life Gets Cast-Contingent Pilot Order at ABC

By goodblacknews on January 24, 2014

kevinhartABC has given a cast-contingent pilot order to a multi-camera comedy from hot actor-comedian Kevin Hart and former Community executive producers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan.  The untitled Kevin Hart project is based on Hart’s life and stand-up. Written by Goldman and Donovan, it takes a candid look at the post-divorce life of a couple trying to forge a friendship for the sake of their kids, despite differences.
20th Century Fox TV is producing, with Hart, his manager Dave Becky, Goldman and Donovan executive producing. If the project goes forward, Hart likely will play a recurring role. Hart is one of the hottest comedy talents at the moment. Following the breakout success of his 2013 movie Think Like A Man, his latest feature comedy, Ride Along, broke box-office records with a huge Martin Luther King weekend opening.
article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com
 

PBS' "American Masters" to Profile Alice Walker

By goodblacknews on January 24, 2014
American Masters - Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
Alice Walker at the London premiere of American Masters “Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth,” in London. PBS will commemorate Black History Month with programs including a profile of “The Color Purple” author Walker. The Walker profile will air Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/PBS, Brenda Lawley)
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — PBS will commemorate Black History Month with shows including a profile of The Color Purple author Alice Walker.
The public television service announced Tuesday that the program about Walker will air Feb. 7 as part of the American Masters series.
Other PBS shows marking Black History Month in February include American Promise, a coming-of-age documentary about two young men, and a documentary about a Mississippi state commission that investigated foes of segregation.
American Promise airs Feb. 3 on the POV showcase. Spies of Mississippi will air Feb. 10 on the Independent Lens program.
To mark Black History Month online, PBS.org will offer Behind the Lens, about photographer Eunique Jones Gibson‘s portrayals of prominent African-Americans as youngsters.
article via bigstory.ap.org

Bill Cosby Returns to NBC for Family Comedy

By goodblacknews on January 22, 2014
Bill Cosby
(Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

NBC is re-teaming with Bill Cosby and producer Tom Werner on a family comedy.  While there is no pilot order and no studio is attached, NBC has confirmed that they are hiring writers and Cosby would star “as a patriarch in a multigenerational family.”  The Cosby Show, which Werner produced through his production company with Marcy Carsey, ran from 1984 to 1992 on NBC. The sitcom Cosby, which the comedian developed with John Markus and also costarred actress Phylicia Rashad, ran from 1996 to 2000 on CBS.

Partnerships with 1980s and ’90s TV stars seems to be a theme at NBC, where The Michael J. Fox Show is fairing okay in ratings. (Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing on ABC is doing better). The Cosby news happened a day after NBC announced it was scrapping its Murder She Wrote reboot with Octavia Spencer.
article by Whitney Friedlander via Variety.com