*“Angela Davis must go free. Black people will be free. I’ve been locked up. And I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace.” I thought of Aretha Franklin’s words each time I was at one of her concerts. The last being at the Universal Amphitheater in 2005. Her words were not just the obligatory and hyperbolic spiel about the black struggle when she spoke to Jet Magazine in December 1970. This was at the height of the Black Power movement. She was even then a living, breathi
Nearly five years after Paul Walker’s death, his brothers say they’re open to playing his character again in the “Fast and Furious” franchise.
Producers asked Caleb and Cody Walker to fill in for their brother and help complete “Furious 7” after he died in a fiery off-set car crash in November 2013.
His face was digitally superimposed onto his brothers’ performances for scenes that Walker had not yet shot and in a modified ending in which his character Brian O’Conner drives off into the sunset.
Celebrities are reacting to the death of Aretha Franklin.
The “Queen of Soul,” whose impassioned, riveting voice made her a titan of American music, died Thursday morning at her home in Detroit of pancreatic cancer, her niece Sabrina Owens confirmed to The Detroit Free Press. She was 76.
Here’s what stars are saying about the late legend.
President Trump called Franklin “a great woman, with a wonderful gift from God, her voice.” He added, “She will be missed!”
Donald J. Trump ✔@real
She is both a 20th and 21st century musical and cultural icon known the world over simply by her first name: Aretha. The reigning and undisputed “Queen Of Soul” has created an amazing legacy that spans an incredible six decades, from her first recording as a teenage gospel star, to her most recent RCA Records release, ARETHA FRANKLIN SINGS THE GREAT DIVA CLASSICS.
Her many countless classics include “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Chain Of Fools,” “I Never Loved A Man (The Wa
Over the years, Aretha Franklin remained involved with the Detroit church her father pastored.
New Bethel Baptist Church is where Franklin got her start on the church stage.
“Singing all of her life. She’s always been on stage, she’s always singing the gospel of truth to the people of God,” said Pastor Robert Smith, Jr.
Smith says the singer contributed to the church in many ways.
“Without Aretha, the church wouldn’t still be here,” he said. “She’s the one who kept it alive these past 30-someth
As a black woman, Lupita Nyong’o knows just how important it is to speak up about her hair.
“My hair is something that, historically, has been shunned,” the “Black Panther” actress told Net-a-Porter for the magazine’s fall fashion issue. “I mean, how often do you hear, ‘You can’t get a job with hair like that’?”
Nyong’o, 35, told Net-a-Porter’s Carolyn Kormann that she still hears that microaggression often.
“Natural, African, kinky hair ― it’s often been painted as uncivilized or wil
Fifty years ago, Charlie Brown lost his beach ball.
It was found and returned to him by a boy named Franklin, and the two proceeded to build a sandcastle together.
The simple encounter of two boys on a beach was how cartoonist Charles Schulz introduced the first black character in his widely read comic strip, Peanuts. It was July 31, 1968 — just months after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination — and the newest member of the Peanuts gang was a big deal.
It was especially defining for a 6-ye
Octavia Spencer's next project is a literal rags-to-riches story. The Oscar winner will executive produce and star in "Madam C.J. Walker," a limited series on Netflix that tells the true story of the woman who went from washing clothes to becoming one of the very few African-American female millionaires of the early 20th century.
Ms. Walker was born in Louisiana in 1867 to two former slaves. She was orphaned at 7 and married at 14. She washed clothes for $1.50 a day, until the birth
LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s barbershop-set talk show The Shop is coming to HBO.
The premium network has ordered a handful of episodes of the program, which first bowed in 2016 on James’ Uninterrupted digital site.
The first episode for HBO was shot last week in Los Angeles at West Hollywood’s Barber Surgeons Guild, and is set to bow Tuesday, Aug. 28, at 11 p.m. ET
Kyrie Irving doesn’t have to worry about free agency until next summer, though he’s got plenty to keep him busy for now.
There’s a movie to promote and a knee to mend. He hopes he’s good on screen, but wants to be better than ever on the court.
“Now becomes the real climb to Mount Everest, back to the top,” Irving said Monday. “So I’m just taking my time.”
The Boston Celtics All-Star is hoping he can start playing again in a couple weeks. But he’s staying patient in his rehab from late-season
The $180 million figure is good for eighth all-time for an opening weekend box-office take. Incredibles 2 edges out Captain America: Civil War in this respect, which is now ninth all time with $179.1 million. It might be needless
In the war for talent, Apple has just scored a major victory.
The tech giant and eventual streamer has inked a multiple-year content partnership with Oprah Winfrey. Under the pact, terms of which were not immediately available, Winfrey and Apple will create original content that will be released as part of the latter’s lineup of content. Sources say the pact includes everything from film, TV, applications, books and other content that could easily be distributed on Apple’s all-encompassing plat
Tracee Ellis Ross arrives for the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. (Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Tracee Ellis Ross never got an answer for why an episode of “Black-ish” that covered the NFL kneeling protest was pulled – a situation she describes as “frightening.”
ABC shelved the politically charged episode in February without providing an explanation as for why.
“The details of why the epis
Lucasfilms’ standalone Han Solo origin pic is faltering at the global box office, where it will top out in the $400 million range.
To borrow one of Han Solo’s lines from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, “that’s not how the Force works!”
It’s an apt way to sum up the troubled performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story. In one of the biggest box-office surprises in recent times, Solo is badly underperforming and will become the first of the Star Wars movies made by Disney and Lucasfilm to lose money.
Wa
There was Shonda Rhimes. Then it was Ryan Murphy. Now? Barack Obama is heading to Netflix.
Former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have signed a multi-year agreement with Netflix to produce films and series, Netflix announced in a press release. Yes, your new favorite show may be executive produced by Obamas.
“One of the simple joys of our time in public service was getting to meet so many fascinating people from all walks of life, and to help them share their experiences with a wider
After three weekends in theaters, “Avengers: Infinity War” is now the biggest superhero release of all-time after making $61.8 million domestically this weekend and opening to $200 million in China for a global weekend total of $343 million. With a global total of $1.6 billion, the film has passed the $1.51 billion made by the first “Avengers” in 2012, and later this week will pass “Jurassic World” to become the biggest summer release of all-time.
Domestically, “Avengers” performed above analy
Walt Disney’s Q2 2018 earnings on Tuesday smashed Wall Street expectations and confirmed what film-goers already knew: Marvel’s “Black Panther” was a massive, hulking winner for the Mouse House. The movie has now generated more than $1.3 billion at the box office, driving profits for Disney’s Studio Entertainment division up 29% to $847 million.
But there was a dark cloud in Disney’s film business in the quarter: “A Wrinkle in Time.” As Disney’s earnings release states, “The increase in theatr
