Entertainment

Every year, the NAACP Image Awards hand out the President’s Award, honoring an individual for their distinguished public service. Receiving that award this year are Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade.

“We’re thrilled to present this award to Gabrielle Union-Wade and Dwyane Wade who together have consistently utilized their platforms to advance social justice and raise awareness to the inequalities existing in our country,” Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, said. “We’re proud to recognize the couple’s tireless humanitarian work as they continue to advocate for equality and acceptance for all.”

Gabrielle has supported organizations and nonprofits like Van Ness Recovery House, Leap for Ladies and Deborah’s Place; via her Flawless hair care line, she’s formed the Lift As We Climb initiative to support and share more resources with Black-owned small businesses.

Dwyane co-founded the Social Change Fund United alongside Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, intended “to support critical and timely issues impacting the Black community,” per the site. He’s advocated for stronger gun control, donated money to the Parkland students’ March for Our Lives, and launched an art exhibit to honor the 17 lives lost at the high school shooting. Wade also launched the Spotlight On initiative, which highlights Chicago youth “who are actively changing the city for the better.”

Together, Gab and Dwyane have backed causes advancing racial justice and LGBTQ equality by donating to marginalized communities in need via their Wade Family Foundation. 

“This year’s recipients of the NAACP President’s Award are not just a timely signifier of the issues that matter most to the community; they are a testament to what is possible when one commits themselves to advancement in those areas,” said BET’s president and CEO Scott Mills.

The NAACP Image Awards will air February 25 at 8 p.m. ET on BET.

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Actor Justice Smith is used to dodging dinosaur-sized threats in the Jurassic World movies, but his newest film, Sharper, streaming Friday on Apple TV+, features no computer-generated menaces.

That said, he explains to ABC Audio, looming large in the film is a threat bigger than any dinosaur.

“In another interview, someone was like, ‘ … you ran from dinosaurs and dragons and Pokémon and stuff and, you know, there’s no like big bad guy in this.’ But the big bad guy in this is capitalism and corporate greed,” he explains.

The movie’s title refers to a slang term for a swindler; in the film, his character, Tom, finds himself the target of some pretty sophisticated ones. With billions of dollars at stake from the empire run by his cold father (John Lithgow), Tom soon finds out the hard way that he can’t trust anyone.

“I love how this movie shows how thrilling simple human interaction can be,” Smith continues. “You know, it doesn’t have to be surrounded by all this fluff. You know, it can just be our relationships on screen and still capture an audience.”  

Sharper also stars executive producer and Oscar winner Julianne Moore, The Tender Bar‘s Briana Middleton, and Marvel movie star and Pam & Tommy Emmy nominee Sebastian Stan.

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You can say he’s back. 

Keanu Reeves is fighting for his freedom — and pretty much everybody else, too — in the final trailer to John Wick: Chapter 4. 

As previously reported, the new film will have Wick given a chance to get the mysterious High Table’s target off his back — by facing It star Bill Skarsgård‘s Marquis de Gramont in single combat. 

Along the way, however, there’s lots of multiple combat, of course. Wick is shown dispatching all manner of black-clad baddies, from the desert on horseback to the streets of Paris, with a gunfight amid the notorious traffic that spins around France’s Arc de Triomphe.

It’s there we see the return of what the filmmakers dubbed dog fu: As in Chapter 3: Parabellum, a four-legged friend has Wick’s back.

“The only way John Wick will have peace, and freedom, is in death,” Saïd Taghmaoui‘s returning High Table leader known as The Elder tells Wick. 

“Yeah, not really,” Wick replies before offing him, too.  

The movie also stars Bullet Train‘s Hiroyuki Sanada, English singer/songwriter Rina Sawayama — who is seen getting a gnarly kill of a goon crawling up a staircase, with her on his back — and martial arts legend and Rogue One star Donnie Yen, shown wiping out enemies with a flurry of his katana.

John Wick: Chapter Four blasts into theaters March 24. 

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It’s a dream come true for Star Trek fans: The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation is back in the saddle one last time in the new and final season of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+. But is it truly the final frontier?

“The response has been dangerously encouraging,” says Jonathan Frakes, who plays Capt. William Riker, longtime#1 to Adm. Jean-Luc Picard. He tells ABC Audio for now he’s just savoring the moment with his castmates. “We love each other, and we know how to play with each other, and we have a good story to tell.”

Just don’t expect those feel-good vibes to move on-screen between Frakes and Patrick Stewart, who suits up once again as the title character. The good admiral and his former first officer’s friendship is put to the test this outing.

“We’ve all fallen out with people,” Stewart explains to ABC Audio. “We’ve all said things that we regret afterwards. And there’s no reason why Jean-Luc Picard shouldn’t say them because he’s human. And this is one of the best aspects of Picard for me, that he becomes increasingly human.”

Other returning cast members include LeVar Burton as Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, a role he originated back in 1987 when Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted.

Thirty-six years ago, the original Star Trek was at one of its high points thanks to a successful run of films, so the pressure on this crew of newcomers was enormous.

“Now, we are in a position to shepherd in the next generation of storytelling,” Burton says. “Who gets to do that? You know? We’re pretty lucky.” 

Episodes of Picard season 3 are now streaming on Paramount+.

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On Thursday’s installment of Live with Kelly and Ryan, Ryan Seacrest made the surprising announcement that he was leaving the show he’s co-hosted since 2017. He will “pass the baton” to frequent guest host, and Kelly Ripa‘s real-life husband, Riverdale actor Mark Consuelos.

Calling the news “bittersweet,” Seacrest said the “tough, tough decision” was “something that [Kelly] and I have been talking about for a long time…”

He continued, “What I plan to do is once American Idol starts from Los Angeles later this spring, I’ll head out to the West Coast and host that show,” adding he’ll return to fill in as a guest host on occasion.

Seacrest noted, “Working alongside Kelly over the past six years has been a dream job and one of the highlights of my career. She has been an amazing partner, friend, and confidant, and although we will always be a part of each other’s lives, I will miss our mornings together.”

Saying he and the crew have “made memories to last a lifetime,” Ryan added, “I’m excited to pass the baton to Kelly’s ‘real’ husband, Mark.”

Consuelos has been married to Ripa since 1996, and they have three children: 19-year-old Joaquin, Lola, 21, and Michael, 25. Mark, who previously worked with Kelly on All My Children, often fills in for Seacrest on the morning show.

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Regina Hall‘s 2023 is off to an exciting start. 

The actress and producer kicked off the year by unexpectedly going viral after she accepted an award on Kevin Costner‘s behalf at the Golden Globes last month. She struggled to maintain a straight face as she laughed her way through the script, which explained Costner’s absence was due to the California storms.

The moment made headlines and when speaking with ABC Audio while promoting her new partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey, Hall admitted the response surprised her, saying she “just had a live reaction reading the teleprompter.”

“Sometimes things that people write are funny, you know, And you just. Yeah,” she explained. “You’re in the moment, but it was a good night.” 

Also coming up for Hall, is the highly anticipated sequel to the 2017 comedy Girls Trip. Last month writer/director Tracy Oliver shared hopes of setting the new film in Ghana. So what other details can Hall share?

“You know what? It’s not even I can’t say much. I will be honest. There’s just I don’t know that we necessarily at this point… I mean, I do know but we don’t necessarily know the details,” she says. “I read about Ghana the next day like everyone else, and I was like, ‘Oh, okay.'” 

Hall, who starred alongside Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish in the film, added, “But I will say this. We’re excited to reunite.”

“I think it’s really important for us to make sure that it’s something that the fans will be really excited about,” she continued. “But I wish I had more details. I mean, I know it’s all of us. I guess that’s a detail. And I heard we’re going to Ghana.”

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Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirk is returning to AMC in the drama series Lucky Hank, which debuted its first full-length trailer on Wednesday. The series, from the executive producers of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, stars Odenkirk as “an English department chairman at an underfunded college” who “toes the line between midlife crisis and full-blown meltdown, navigating the offbeat chaos in his personal and professional life – oddly proving tantrums get better with age,” according to AMC. Lucky Hank — also starring Hanna‘s Mireille Enos, Sara Amini, Diedrich Bader, Suzanne Cryer, Olivia Scott Welch and Cedric Yarbrough — premieres March 19… (Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

A live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon — from Dean DeBlois, who wrote and directed the animated trilogy — will fly into theaters in 2025, according to Variety. The fantasy series — which includes 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon, 2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 and 2019’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World — has grossed more than $1.6 billion worldwide and spawned the TV series DreamWorks Dragons, Rescue Riders and The Nine Realms, as well as theme park rides and the live show, How to Train Your Dragon on Ice…

Comedy Central released a first-look trailer and announced the guest lineup for Andy Samberg‘s adult animated series Digman! on Wednesday. Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, Daniel Radcliffe and Kyle Mooney are among the stars who will appear, in addition to the previously announced cast, which includes Melissa Fumero, Tim Meadows and Tim Robinson. Digman! — the first series written and produced by the Saturday Night Live alum, who also voices the titular character — is “set in a world where archaeologists are massive celebrities and the coolest people on the planet,” per the cable channel. Digman! launches March 22… (Trailer contains censored profanity.)

The SAG Awards on Wednesday announced the first round of presenters for the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Andrew Garfield will be presenting this year’s SAG Life Achievement award to Sally Field. Additional presenters include Jessica Chastain — who is also a nominee for her performance in George & Tammy — Emily Blunt, Don Cheadle, Stranger Things‘ Caleb McLaughlin, Paul Mescal, Emily in Paris‘ Ashley Park. More presenters will be announced in the coming week. The SAG Awards will be broadcast live on Netflix’s YouTube channel Sunday, February 26 at 8 p.m. ET from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles…

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Harlem is back!

Season 2 of the comedy series is in full swing, with episodes airing weekly on Prime Video. It’s been over a year since viewers last saw ambitious gal pals Camille, Tye, Quinn and Angie — played by Meagan Good, Jerrie Johnson, and Grace Byers, respectively. So what’s everyone up to now?

“Well, we can say that the show picks up exactly where we left off. So we don’t, you know, fly over that moment and go a year later. It’s like we’re right in the moment of the shenanigans,” Good tells ABC Audio.

While the first season was about establishing the characters, the actress shares that in season 2 “we get to really see them live life.”

“Not always in the perfect way. Sometimes in a very messy way,” she continues. “And we get to see their failures and their triumphs and the things that they experience in life that we all experience that for some reason often aren’t depicted on television or movies or they’re just touched upon, but not really gone into.”

Good adds, “And then there’s also just a lot of crazy and amazingness and messiness, but goodness and heart, too.”

In addition to exploring the characters deeper, this season introduces some familiar faces as guest stars, including Lil Rel Howery, Sherri Shepherd, and more. As for other stars the cast would love to make an appearance on the show, that list includes some pretty A-list names.

Johnson’s pick — Angela Bassett. “Angela [can] play my mother so we can be face to face,” she said.

For Good, she’d love to see Halle Berry make an appearance, “I want Halle to play my big sister.”

Catch up the first four episodes of Harlem season two on Prime Video now, with new episodes released on Fridays. 

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Just in time for Valentine’s Day week, Cara Delevingne wants to take you on an intimate journey with her new six-part Hulu docuseries Planet Sex.

The series explores a lot of subjects — from sexuality to gender roles to monogamy, to name a few — and Delevingne tells ABC Audio that people will be able to identify with a lot of people in the show.

“I think the conversation around sex and gender and sexuality is really hard,” she tells ABC Audio. “…I think there wasn’t enough representation for a lot of people’s stories and what they go through.”

Although the 30-year-old actress — who identifies as bisexual and pansexual — portrays herself as a confident woman, she’s experienced a lot of shame surrounding her own sexuality and expressed that you can have shame and be confident.

“I’m good at putting on a face and I’m good at smiling when I feel like dying…but…You never know how someone feels deep inside,” she shares. “That’s also what the show, I hope teaches people is that deep down, someone may…seem happy and everything’s fine. And actually they’re really suffering.”

What Delevingne hopes people take away from the series is “that it’s okay…to explore constantly…the more we can communicate the way we feel, the less we are likely to struggle alone.”

There’s a lot to learn from the series, which even taught Delevingne a few things: “[T]here is so much that we are still lacking in terms of how people discriminate others and what beauty is to people,” she adds. “I didn’t realize that the more that you see people from around the world, the more that you see people who don’t look like you, the more that you find things beautiful, which is interesting.”

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A new teaser for the live-action film The Little Mermaid is here.

On Wednesday, Walt Disney Studios released the new look at the highly anticipated film starring Halle Bailey, who transforms into Ariel.

“Just 100 days until it arrives in theaters!” the announcement read.

In September 2022, Bailey told Good Morning America at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, that the upcoming film is a “twist on Ariel’s strength and powerfulness.”

“She’s just so strong in this film and I’m so grateful to play her,” she added.

Bailey, one half of the singing group Chloe X Halle, was cast in the role in July 2019.

Also starring alongside Bailey in the Rob Marshall-directed film is Javier Bardem as King Triton, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian and Awkwafina as Scuttle.

The Little Mermaid premieres in theaters on May 26.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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