ABC 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
Good Black News
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
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
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
article by Whitney Friedlander via Variety.com
The DJ that has brought dance music fans songs including “Feel So Close” and “We Found Love” is making a move towards the small screen. According to Variety.com, HBO is developing a half-hour comedy with Calvin Harris that takes place in the world of electronic music entitled Higher. Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh on board to write the pilot, with a starry lineup of executive producers including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay Z, James Lassiter, Tyran Smith, Miguel Melendez, Mark Gillespie and Dean Wilson, along with Harris.
No word yet on the plot of Higher, which will hail from Overbrook Entertainment, Three Six Zero Group and Marcy Media. Jay-Z and Will Smith have previously collaborated on the Broadway production Fela, and are also teamed on forthcoming feature musical Annie.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
No word yet on the plot of Higher, which will hail from Overbrook Entertainment, Three Six Zero Group and Marcy Media. Jay-Z and Will Smith have previously collaborated on the Broadway production Fela, and are also teamed on forthcoming feature musical Annie.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Lauryn Williams and Lolo Jones have been selected for the U.S. bobsled team that will compete in next month’s Sochi Olympics. They are now positioned to join a group of eight other Americans who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Games. Williams is a three-time summer Olympian who helped the U.S. win a gold medal in the 400-meter relay at the London Games. Jones is a two-time veteran of the summer games in the 100-meter hurdles, missing out on gold in Beijing after a late stumble.
Jones, Williams and Aja Evans were the three women chosen out of a six-woman pool for the push athlete spots, that word coming at a team meeting where half the candidates saw their Olympic dreams realized and the other half saw them come to a quiet end. “I was definitely very nervous entering the room,” Jones said. “I’m usually used to looking up at a screen after I cross the finish line to see the results. You’re just like anxious, armpits are sweating, don’t know what’s going to happen.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEJJFIM1m44&w=560&h=315]
The stars of the Miami Heat and head coach Erik Spoelstra joined Michelle Obama at the White House to help promote her “Let’s Move” campaign.
LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen were on hand to film a short video, encouraging viewers to eat healthy. The group eats apples and drinks water throughout the promo, which is capped off with the first lady dunking a mini basketball into a hoop held by James.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Members of a national transitional council chose the female mayor of Central African Republic’s capital to lead the country out of chaos Monday, as a top U.N. official urged the international community to keep the nation from “crossing the tipping-point into an all-out sectarian conflict.” At two meetings in Brussels, international donors pledged a total of $496 million in humanitarian assistance and European Union foreign ministers took a first step toward potentially deploying hundreds more troops to reinforce French and African peacekeepers to secure the lawless and violent country where nearly one million people are displaced.
Bangui Mayor Catherine Samba-Panza was chosen as interim president after two rounds of voting, becoming the first female leader in the country’s history. She beat out Desire Zanga-Kolingba, the son of a former president in Monday’s runoff. Samba-Panza, dressed in a bright pink suit jacket, thrust her arms into the air in victory. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described the 59-year-old Samba-Panza as a “very remarkable woman.”
Samba-Panza, a longtime corporate lawyer in the insurance industry who took over the mayor’s office last June, now will be tasked with organizing national elections before the end of 2014, a job critics say may be nearly impossible given the amount of looting and destruction to administrative buildings throughout the country. She also faces the enormous task of stemming anarchy and bloodshed that has left an untold number dead since a March 2013 coup. An armed Christian movement known as the anti-Balaka arose in opposition to the mostly Muslim Seleka rebellion that seized power then.
“I call on my children, especially the anti-Balaka, to put down their arms and stop all the fighting. The same goes for the ex-Seleka — they should not have fear. I don’t want to hear any more talk of murders and killings,” she said. She urged the 100,000 people sheltering near the airport — nicknamed with bitter irony the “Ledger” after the town’s sole five-star luxury hotel — to return home. “I’m also calling on the international community to help us quickly restore order in our country which today is on the brink of chaos,” she said.
All 20 NBA teams playing today will wear special shooting shirts in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. The NBA announced their “Dream Big” campaign earlier this month to celebrate MLK Day and Black History Month.
A video featuring Chris Bosh aired during four nationally televised games today, as well as during games aired on NBA TV. Original content and interviews will run on air and digitally on NBA.com until the end of February.
The shooting shirt for MLK Day features the “Dream Big” logo on the front. The shooting shirt for Black History Month was created in collaboration with Miami Heat guard Ray Allen. The shirt will feature four prominent African-Americans, Dr. King, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman and Bill Russell, in the NBA logo on the front and the “Dream Big” logo on the back.
The NBA’s “Dream Big” campaign is also designed to reach children and educate them on the history of African-Americans. The league is teaming up with EverFi, an educational technology company, launch digital curriculum in 30 schools across the country during February. The curriculum is focused on the extensive contributions by blacks.
“The ‘Dream Big’ campaign honors African-Americans for their countless contributions that have opened doors for people around the world,” said Saskia Sorrosa, NBA Vice President of Multicultural/Targeted Marketing in a press release. “With the the NBA’s young and diverse fanbase, we felt it was important to creat a program that would engage kids by educating them about black history to positively impact the future.”
Keep an eye out for the new shooting shirts today and throughout the month of February.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
On March 22, 1956, the 27-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was having a horrible day. He’d just been convicted for his role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and sentenced to pay $1,000 or spend 386 days in jail. After the ruling and motion to appeal, he walked out of the courthouse a temporarily free man, but his spirit was shaken.
All of a sudden, his wife Coretta rushed at him, threw her arms around him, and kissed him in front of about 300 people who’d gathered outside. The biggest smile ever captured on King swept across his face, and his eyes lifted to the heavens with the giddiness of a young man in love.
In the photo that caught this moment, we see a side of him that sometimes gets lost in our remembrances. For all the important things that Dr. King would go on to do in his life, that day he was just a regular young man whose rough day was made better by a little sugar from the one he loved.
Remembering King as a man, not just a legend
Today, the nation pauses for a moment to pay homage to the legacy of Dr. King. During his less than fifteen years in the national spotlight, he became the voice and embodiment of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Our perception of him is deeply influenced by the iconic pictures and films of King delivering powerful speeches, leading marches in the Deep South, and with his hand outstretched towards the sea of people at the 1963 March on Washington.
These many images and the society-shifting changes that his efforts helped bring about have elevated him to a heroic status with a larger-than-life character. This deification pushed him into a place in our memories that sometimes feels beyond our reach of comprehension as fellow mortals.
First Lady Michelle Obama spent Friday, January 17th – her actual birthday – out of sight, with no public appearances, except the tweet of a photo of herself holding up her AARP card. She tweeted, quote, “Excited to join Barack” in the 50-plus club today . “check out my @AARP card!”
But last night, January 18th, Beyoncé and Stevie Wonder rocked the White House at a star-studded, late-night dance party celebrating Obama’s 50th, two guests told the Chicago Tribune today. President Barack Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha joined family friends, elected officials, entertainers, athletes, business executives and big donors at the gala, which kicked off Saturday and lasted until the wee hours Sunday morning, the sources said.
The event was closed to the press, and the White House did not release a guest list or any other details. But two guests spoke to the Tribune on condition of anonymity, describing a bash at which a deejay kept people on the dance floor in the East Room until after 3 a.m. Washington time. VIP guests, according to sources, included political luminaries Bill and Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, national security adviser Susan Rice, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Democratic National Committee official Donna Brazile.
Other high-profile guests included Sir Paul McCartney, Magic Johnson, Chicago-born actress/singer Jennifer Hudson, singer Janelle Monae, actor Kal Penn, TV personality Al Roker, actress Ashley Judd, tennis great Billie Jean King, retired Olympic figure-skater Michelle Kwan and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, the sources said.