“Hollywood” Star Patti LuPone for Variety’s “Power of Women” Issue!
“Hollywood” star Patti LuPone covers Variety’s “Power of Women” issue photographed Sophy Holland by and styled by Ryan Young.
One when the theaters will be able to reopen: LuPone says that when “Company” shuttered, its producers told her they would be performing again within two to three weeks.
“Now they say Broadway will be shuttered until Labor Day,” says LuPone, who has been busy social distancing at her home in rural Connecticut. “Well, we all know that’s not true. I think it’s going to come back at the earliest in January and maybe not even then. It’s very, very depressing and very worrisome.”
On moving to Ireland: “This country is doomed,” says LuPone. “I think it is a failed experiment. I don’t see us pulling ourselves out of this. I think we’re heading into either fascism or a dictatorship. I think Trump will win a second term, and I think I’ll move to Ireland.”
LuPone has an EU passport, and the actor fell in love with Ireland while shooting “Penny Dreadful” in the country. She has been looking at property to buy.
“I have a finite amount of hours left in my life,” says the 71-year-old performer. “I want to be able to look at nature and go, ‘Oh right. That’s what it’s all about.’”
Get more at Variety!
Former Atlanta Cop Charged With Murder In Death Of Rayshard Brooks!
The Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks, a Black man, has been charged with felony murder.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced on Wednesday that now-former officer Garrett Rolfe would be charged with 11 counts, including felony murder and three counts of aggravated assault.
“We concluded and considered it that Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat” during the 41 minutes that he spoke with Rolfe and another cop, Howard said.
Within two days of the incident, Rolfe was let go from the Atlanta Police Department and the other officer, Devin Brosnan, was placed on administrative duties. Brosnan has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault and has turned state’s witness. Arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for both men.
Last Friday, police found Brooks, 27, sleeping in his car, which was blocking a Wendy’s drive-thru. Body camera video of the officers released by the department shows Brooks at first cooperating with police. But when the officers attempt to arrest him for drunk driving, he can be seen resisting and wrestling with them.
The video shows Brooks grab a Taser from one of the officers before fleeing. Three gunshots can be heard, although the video didn’t capture the sight of Brooks being fatally shot.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said Brooks was shot twice in the back. His death has been listed as a homicide.
Additional video footage reviewed by the DA’s office, including Wendy’s surveillance cameras, shows Rolfe kicking Brooks as he lies bleeding on the ground. Brosnan stood on top of Brooks’ shoulders after the shooting, Howard said.
Rolfe, who had been on the force since 2013, had 12 disciplinary complaints, all with notes that no action was taken.
Since late May, protests have swept across the country demanding police reform following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis. After Brooks’ death, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned.
If convicted, Rolfe could face life in prison or the death penalty.
#RHOA: Eva Marcille Tells ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta,’Goodbye says her ‘time is up’!
The model and actress, who’s been on the Bravo reality dramafest for three seasons, announced her exit Tuesday morning during her gig on the “Rickey Smiley Morning Show.”
“I appreciate the bond of friendship that I’ve made with my castmates and strong personal relationships I have with numerous executives and producers of Bravo,” she said. “I am thankful for the opportunity I was provided. However, after speaking with my family and representatives, I believe that what I hope to accomplish for the culture and community will be better served by focusing on other opportunities.”
In January, the “America’s Next Top Model” winner was announced as the newest member of the black-focused nationally syndicated radio show, hosted by comedian Smiley.
Thousands of Americans alleviate their mortgage burden with this little known federal program
"I look forward to serving the community on Ricky Smiley Morning show and finding other ways to be a voice during this transformational time during our country for people of color," she continued.
The Los Angeles native joined the hit franchise in 2017 as a “friend of the Housewives” but quickly proved herself to be a main player and was promoted to full-time cast member in season 11.
“The time that I spent on ‘Housewives’ I enjoyed myself. I cried, I laughed, I obviously fought,” she said. “Most importantly, I made some great friendships with some beautiful women.”
The 35-year-old married mother of three said she plans to move forward by focusing on her family. She has a daughter Marley Rae, 6, (with former R&B bad boy Kevin McCall) and sons Michael Todd, 1, and Maverick, 8 months (with husband, attorney Michael Sterling).
"I believe my time is up. I have a 6-year-old daughter and two young boys still in diapers. They are 24 hours a day and there is a lot of work to be done. I decided to spend my time and energy focusing on my kids and my community," she said. "And not so much reality show business."
As an actress, Marcille starred in the films “The Walk,” “Note to Self” and “Sister Code.”
On television, she appeared on Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne” after garnering two NAACP Image Award nominations for her role as Tyra Hamilton on “The Young and the Restless” from 2008-09.
“I don’t need 50 jobs, I just need a couple of good ones,” she said.
“My question to myself is what is more important right now — is it the money or is it the movement and the culture and what I can impact?” she continued. “And to me, it’s a no-brainer.”
She said she has no hard feelings toward any of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast members and wished them well.
“I love every single one of those black women. They are all queens all in their own right,” Marcille said. “They are stars and I wish them the most successful season and transformational season 13 that the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ has ever seen.”
#MusicNews: Tweet Has a New Single Titled ‘I Admit It’!
Tweet has been hinting at having new music on the way ever since she appeared in BET's Finding webseries back in 2019. She then briefly made good on that promise by reviving her Tweet Tuesdays with a handful of tracks and yet another promise of more to come. That, however, was more than a year ago and the fans are getting anxious. Tweet heard their cry, though, and finally makes good on her promise with her new single "I Admit It."Tweet turns to Charlie Bereal once again for the production on this one. Her longtime collaborator crafts a smoothed-out modern R&B cut built around a wavy synth riff and slow, deliberate drums.
Tweet then adds in introspective lyrics as she speaks to her man and lets him know she has to move on. "You're not the guy, the one I dreamed of / I can tell 'cause I only give just enough / Say what I had to to save your feelings / But I don’t want to lie to you anymore," she sings. "So I'll just close the door and leave you alone / Please forgive me, I admit I’m wrong / I admit I’m wrong." It's an example of the blunt but real soul that we've come to expect from the singer.
LISTEN HERE
This new single seems to have ignited a fire within Tweet to get new music to the masses.
#HipHopNews: Teyana Taylor Reveals ‘The Album’ Tracklist!
After much anticipation, Teyana Taylor is set to release her third LP, The Album, this Friday aka Juneteenth.
Just days before it drops, the First Lady of G.O.O.D. Music has revealed the tracklist featuring some of her famous friends including Erykah Badu, Quavo, Big Sean, Kehlani, and Davido. Missy Elliott and Future join Teyana on “Boomin’,” while Teyana’s own daughter Junie appears alongside Rick Ross on “Come Back to Me.”
The 24 tracks also include her graduation anthem “Made It,” the Kanye West-produced “We Got Love” featuring Ms. Lauryn Hill, and “How You Want It? (HYWI?)” with King Combs.
Last week, Teyana revealed that she was pregnant with her second child while sharing the video for “Wake Up Love” featuring her husband Iman Shumpert. She also received her first nomination for Best Director at the 2020 BET Awards.
The Album marks the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s critically-acclaimed K.T.S.E., which was produced by Kanye. “This one is a little bit of everybody,” Teyana told Elton John on Apple Music last year. “I want to kind of explore a little bit more, get a couple more people involved, to really, really bring to life my vision, and not just be set on one set person, or one set sound.”
Additionally, she is the new face of M.A.C Cosmetics. She has teamed up with the makeup brand to launch a ’90s-inspired capsule collection later this year.
THE ALBUM TRACKLIST
1. “Intro”
2. “Come Back to Me” feat. Rick Ross and Junie
3. “Wake Up Love” feat. Iman
4. “Lowkey” feat. Erykah Badu
5. “Let’s Build” feat. Quavo
6. “1-800-One-Nite”
7. “Mornin'” feat. Kehlani
8. “Boomin'” feat. Missy Elliott and Future
9. “69”
10. “Killah” feat. Davido
11. “Bad”
13. “Wrong Bitch”
14. “Shoot It Up” feat. Big Sean
15. “Bare Wit Me”
16. “Lose Each Other”
17. “Concrete”
18. “Still”
19. “Ever Ever”
20. “Try Again”
21. “Friends”
22. “How You Want It” feat. King Combs
23. “Made It”
24. “We Got Love” feat. Ms. Lauryn Hill
Will Smith to Star in Antoine Fuqua-Directed Runaway Slave Thriller 'Emancipation'!
Variety has learned that Will Smith has been tapped to star in the film Emancipation, which will be directed by Antoine Fuqua. The script will be penned by Bill Collage, who helped write the screenplay for Assassin's Creed and Allegiant.
Emancipation is based on the true story of Peter, a runaway slave who embarks on a tortuous journey to the Union Army. In pursuit of his only chance at freedom, he must endure the punishing Louisiana swamp and outwit cold-blooded hunters. Production is expected to begin early next year.
However, that timetable ultimately depends on when Smith and Fuqua can complete their current projects that were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith was filming the biopic King Richard, where he portrays Richard Williams, father and coach of tennis legends, Venus and Serena. Meanwhile, Fuqua was involved in post-production for Infinite, a film starring Mark Wahlberg as a man who realizes that his visions are actually memories from his past.
Last year, Smith signed on to star in the Netflix film The Council, where he will portray legendary New York City crime boss Nicky Barnes. The feature finds Smith reuniting with Peter Landesman, who wrote the script for Concussion.
Queen Latifah Speaks Let ‘Gone With the Wind’ Be Gone Forever!
Queen Latifah is opening up about how she feels about the 1939 movie, Gone With The Wind, which gained a lot of attention over the weekend with its racist undertones.
The 50-year-old actress, who played one of the stars of the film, Hattie McDaniel, in Netflix’s Hollywood, shared that the movie should be gone.
“Let Gone With the Wind be gone with the wind,” Queen shared in an interview with Associated Press.
She went on, opening up about how Hattie wasn’t even allowed in the theater for the Oscars, where she won Best Supporting Actress. Hattie became the first Black woman to ever win.
“They didn’t even let her in the theater until right before she got that award. Someone came outside and brought her into the auditorium. She wasn’t even allowed to sit in there. And then she had to read a speech that was written by a studio. You know that’s not what the hell she wanted to say,” Queen added.
She continued, “Then after that, all she could do was play the same kinds of roles. …So the opportunities at that time and the way that those in power in that business were relegating us and marginalizing us and not allowing us to grow and thrive after that was just terrible. And a lot of that is still around today.”
Over the weekend, HBO Max pulled the movie from its streaming service after it was called out, and now, the network has plans to return the movie there, with an introduction from Black film scholar Jacqueline Stewart.
Lecrae Responds to Backlash Over Louie Giglio 'Blessing of Slavery' Comments!
Lecrae wants to make one thing very clear: He did not condone a white pastor's recent comment about the "blessing of slavery."
The Christian rapper received backlash this week after an on-camera conversation with Chic-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy and Atlanta megachurch pastor Louie Giglio. During their sit-down, Giglio shared his thoughts on white privilege and how we should rebrand the term to avoid triggering white guilt.
"We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do, and we say 'that was bad,' but we miss the blessing of slavery that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in," Giglio said. "And so a lot of people call this 'white privilege' and when you say those two words it’s like a fuse goes off for a lot of white people because they don’t want somebody telling them to check their privilege."
He then continued his argument by speaking directly to Lecrae: "I know that you and I both have struggled in these days with 'hey if the phrase is the trip up, let's get over the phrase and let's get down to the heart, let's get down to what then do you want to call it,' and I think maybe a great thing for me is to call it 'white blessing'. That I'm living in the blessing of the curse that happened generationally that allowed me to grow up in Atlanta."
Lecrae responded to the criticism on social media Tuesday, insisting he was not OK with Giglio's remarks and had a separate conversation with the pastor to express his disapproval.
"First of all, I want you to know I wasn't OK with it. Even as I sat there, I was very uncomfortable and I was processing on, like, 'Oh man, how do I — what do I say in light of this?' It's been a lot of times where as I've navigated white supremacy or racial injustice where I been trying to figure out where I wanted to lash out, honestly, in anger," he said. "... I ended up having a conversation with him subsequently. You know, right after we talked and then I talked to again last night and let him know my views and my perspectives. Obviously, I wasn't OK with it. And we can't just be virtual signaling and just doing this because it's the 'in' thing to do to talk about race on platforms. And I didn't have any ulterior motives, other than to help and articulate some of what's going on in our world ..."
Hear Lecrae's full response below.
Hmmmmmmmmmm! The Pastor has since apologized!
Jessica White Reacts To Nick Cannon Getting His Baby Mama Brittany Bell Pregnant!
Nick Cannon seems to have found himself a ride or die in Jessica White.
Nick Cannon’s baby mama, Brittany Bell, has confirmed that she is pregnant with their second child, which comes on the heels of his girlfriend, Jessica White, confirming that they’re in a relationship. In a message posted on her Instagram Story, the model wrote, “Unshakable love. Will be with him always. I suppose and stand by mine for life.” This comes on the heels of criticism that Cannon is still with his baby mama.
Nick used to be married to Mariah Carey once upon a time, and the couple is parents to twins, Monroe and Moroccan. Their divorce was finalized in 2016, and since then, Nick has been fairly hush-hush about his love affairs, aside from having a son with Brittany Bell in 2017.
Back in March, the radio show host was trying to shoot his shot with singer Amara La Negra on air, but it now appears as though Nick is a taken man. Supermodel Jessica White has gone public with their alleged relationship with a saucy pic on IG. The black and white snap involves Nick looking dapper in a three-piece suit and bowtie with the model behind him wearing… nothing. She has wrapped herself around her man and has placed her left hand on Nick’s nether regions as if to state her claim.
Another photo from the same shoot has the pair donning the same attire, with The Masked Singer host placing his hands on his woman’s hips and her covering her breast with her own hand. “Always been the love of my life always will be. REAL love can never be broken. You are me and I am you for eternity. @nickcannon you are a king always remember that s***,” read the romantic caption written by the model who has previously dated John Legend, Trey Songz, and Ryan Phillippe.
The comment feature on the post (which has almost 21,000 likes) has been disabled, but fans took to Twitter instead, where they commended Nick on his choice of partner and seemingly gave the relationship their approval.
San Antonio Spurs President And Coach Gregg Popovich Calls Out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell For Being Intimidated By Donald Trump Amid Colin Kaepernick National Anthem Kneeling Protests!
In 2016, NFL player Colin Kaepernick began to kneel during the national anthem at football games to raise awareness about police brutality and oppression against African Americans and people of color.
During a rally in Alabama back in 2017, #DonaldTrump, in response, referred to Kaepernick and players, who also chose to kneel in protest, a “son of a bitch.”
”Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now,” Trump stated. “Out! He’s fired. He’s fired.”
After the protests during the 2016 season and Trump’s public criticism, Kaepernick was blackballed from the league; he hasn’t had a job since. But, earlier this month, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a video-statement admitting that league’s response to Kaepernick’s protest was wrong.
Now, as a result, NBA head coach #GreggPopovich is calling Goodell out over his initial handling of Kaep’s movement, revealing that when Trump made his remarks disapproving kneeling in 2017, Goodell became intimidated.
“[Roger] got intimidated when Trump jumped on the kneeling [and] he folded,” Popovich revealed during an interview with the New York Times.
He continued, calling the American flag “irrelevant.”
“A smart man is running the NFL, and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great— all the people who fought to allow [Colin] Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice,” Popovich stated. “The flag is irrelevant. It’s just a symbol that people glom onto for political reasons.”
Cardi B Reveals Her Updated Peacock Tattoo!
After debuting a massive floral tattoo last month, the rapper has revived her old peacock tattoo. Tattoo artist Jamie Schene helped bring Cardi’s 10-year-old tat back to life, while adding more colorful florals and a butterfly. She shared the impressive results with her millions of followers on Instagram.
“So after ten years I gave my peacock tattoo a makeover,” Cardi captioned a side-by-side photo of the ink, which covers her right hip, ass, and thigh.
The painstaking process took seven days to complete. “This whole week I been takin hours of pain getting tatted,” said Cardi, who revealed the most sensitive part of the body. “Did you guys know that this part of the body, the stomach, hip part, it hurts the most like it literally takes your breath away.”
The tattoo artist also gave Cardi props for withstanding the pain. “Thanks for the trust @iamcardib You’re strength and determination is inspiring. (Getting tattooed for 7 days in a row is no joke),” Schene commented on Instagram.
Cardi has been adding to her tattoo collection during quarantine. She recently showed off her giant floral tattoo, which wraps around the other side of her body, and took over 60 hours to complete.
T-Mobile Outage Sparks Rumors Of Nationwide DDoS Attacks!
On Monday, it was widely reported that a number of services in the U.S. were experiencing outages that some suspected could have been the result of a DDoS attack, short for a distributed denial-of-service attack. A DDoS attack attempts to take down servers by flooding them with traffic.
People began noticing that they were unable to make phone calls or send text messages and took to social media to express their frustrations. Shortly after, it appeared that there were outages across multiple carriers, social media platforms, and cable providers.
T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Fortnite, Facebook, Instagram, Comcast, and Chase Bank were some of the services that reported outages.
The fans were flamed on the DDoS outage when an account associated with Anonymous, @YourAnonCentral, posted on Twitter that it was an attack from China since things were not well between North and South Korea.
“The source of the DDoS attack on the United States is currently unknown. We speculate it may be China as the situation between South and North Korea is currently deteriorating,” the Anonymous tweet read.
However, the actual reason was much less dramatic than the rumors swirling around. It was actually not a DDoS attack from China, but an issue with T-Mobile’s network.
T-Mobile’s CEO Mike Sievert issued a statement to T-Mobile’s website on Monday night, acknowledging the outages and that they were being worked on.
“T-Mobile has been experiencing a voice and text issue that has intermittently impacted customers in markets across the U.S.,” the statement said. “This is an IP traffic-related issue that has created significant capacity issues in the network core throughout the day.”
Sievert went on to say that hundreds of their engineers and vendor partner staff were working on the issue and would continue to do so. Services were fully restored as of early Tuesday morning.
The reason why Instagram, Facebook, Chase Bank, and other services were reportedly down was because of T-Mobile users not being able to access them, so it wasn’t that they were down but that a specific subset of users could not access them and it spread across social media like wildfire.
MTV cuts ties with Alex Kompothecras, will minimize his role on ‘Siesta Key’!
“Siesta Key” is saying “adios to” Alex Kompothecras.
The MTV hit announced Tuesday night on Twitter that it was severing its ties with Kompothecras, 25, going forward, and that it would be “editing the current season to minimize his presence.”
Recently resurfaced Instagram posts captured the star using a racial slur in a comment and engaging with racist content posted on the app.
The show’s third season launched Tuesday, and Kompothecras’ airtime was limited to a single shot of the back of his head, according to Us Weekly. MTV apparently also cut down the premiere from its originally promoted two-hour runtime to 54 minutes.
Kompothecras and girlfriend Alyssa Salerno welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Alessi, last Thursday. Monday, fellow “Siesta Key” star Chloe Trautman said that, while she wished Kompothecras the best, she also “[hopes] this baby changes him.”
But, she added, “I don’t think it’s going to, and I think Alex is a horrible human being.”
Anna Wintour's Horrible Treatment of Beverly Johnson Has Been Exposed!
Last month longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour's former BFF Andre Leon Talley announced his new memoir would be taking Anna to task for her icy demeanor and mistreatment of Black creatives [click here if you missed that].
Another fashion insider recalls Anna Wintour's horrible treatment of Beverly Johnson, the first African American model to make the cover of Vogue...
From Page Six
...the supermodel’s former publicist James Hester told Page Six he had to fight tooth and nail to get Johnson invited to the mag’s 100th anniversary party in 1992 — and even then Wintour snubbed the model at the bash.
“Beverly made history as the first African American model to grace the cover of Vogue and they refused to invite her. It was a momentous occasion and obviously a huge moment in Beverly’s life. They kept saying, ‘We’ll get back to you’,” Hester said, “So, I had to get creative. I was working with C&C Music Factory and they were huge at the time, producing for Mariah Carey. I made a deal that they would dj for free and [“Deeper Love”] singer Deborah Cooper would perform in exchange for coverage in the magazine,” Hester told Page Six. “Anna Wintour gets the message, and I deliver them. I go back and I make another deal and said, Beverly Johnson would really love to be invited, and they finally agreed.”
Author Hester attempted to introduce Johnson to Wintour at the event. “I go up to her, and tell her I organized the music. I then asked, ‘Do you know Beverly Johnson?’ She said, ‘Yup,’ and walked away,’” he said.
Wintour did, however, include Johnson in the party coverage, but not in the way they hoped. “There was a double-page spread with a collage of pictures. Beverly’s picture was in there with her head cut off. [Wintour] has been awful to the black community,” he said.
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s father dies from COVID-19 complications!
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Monday announced the death of her father due to complications from COVID-19.
In a statement, Omar said Nur Omar Mohamed died Monday. She gave no additional information.
“No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew him,” Omar said in her statement. “My family and I ask for your respect and privacy during this time.”
Since her election in 2018, Omar has been at the forefront of promoting progressive policies, including the defunding and reconstruction of the Minneapolis Police Department.
AND FINALLY FROM “THE CRAZY PEOPLE SHOPPING AT WALMART” FILES
‘THE BUBBLE’
I guess even Bubble Boy’s technology has improved a bit over the last 20 years. Still pretty dumb looking though.
HAVE A GREAT DAY ALL!!!
EFREM
No comments:
Post a Comment