Entertainment – Page 906

Questlove says Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee and his “awesome team” were assets in making ‘Summer of Soul’

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson admits he was “in panic mode” when he decided to put out his directorial debut Summer of Soul, a documentary-film which chronicles the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.

“I called Ava [DuVernay] up a lot,” Thompson reveals to ABC Audio. “Just to get names.. and know, “[Who] should I look for — a writing director, cinematographer?’ That sort of thing.'”

While the Roots drummer shares that he “called up” other directors like Ernest Dickerson and Spike Lee to get advice, he says he felt comfort in knowing that he “also had the right team.”

“I.. was fully transparent with them,” Questlove says. “Like, ‘Look, this is my first time driving this thing. If there’s anything you see that could put us in hot water or that you feel could be better, I’m wide open to it.”

Thompson says those helping him along the way included his “awesome team of producers” and editor, who he says understood the importance of capturing the essence of the music-centered film.

“So even… the rhythm that we used for this film was important,” Questlove notes. “We assembled the perfect team to help deliver this message to the people.”

Summer of Soul is available in theaters and on Hulu.

Tiger Woods opens up to Jada Pinkett Smith about parenting

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Tiger Woods is opening up about life and parenthood in his new series, A Round with Tiger: Celebrity Playing Lessons.

The first episode, which was filmed just one day before he was seriously injured in a California car crash on February 23, debuted Tuesday on Golf Digest and features Jada Pinkett Smith. The two engaged in a round of golf as they discussed an array of topics, including parenthood, where 45-year-old Woods shared what he’s learned from his daughter, 14-year-old Sam.

“I don’t like boys,” he joked, before adding that she’s “daddy’s little girl.”

“She’s definitely taught me how to be more patient,” he added. “I don’t ever want her to leave home.”

The five-time Masters winner is also father to 12-year-old son, Charlie, and revealed that he didn’t coach his son on how to play golf because he didn’t want him to feel any pressure. However, it seems even without the coaching, Charlie inherited some of his father’s skill.

“He just watches me do it, and then he kind of does it,” Woods said of Charlie, agreeing with Pinkett Smith that his son is “a natural.”

Woods also opened up about the discipline and resilience he practiced, stating, “I’m always fighting, you know, and I’m always trying to get better. That’s all I know. I feel like I’m never out of the fight, you know, in that regard. I’m always pushing.”

Woods is still recovering from his car crash injuries. Golf Digest begins the video with a title card the states it was released “with the blessing of Tiger and his guests.”

Khloe Kardashian opens up about discussing race with daughter True

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Khloe Kardashian is opening up about how she plans to discuss race with her daughter, True.

“I will be always learning and trying to do the best I can do as being her mom,” Khloe said in Monday’s episode of the Role Models podcast. “I’m obviously not a woman of color, but I do want her to be exposed to as much inclusion but variety as possible.”

Kardashian shares her three-year-old daughter with her ex-boyfriend, NBA player Tristan Thompson, who is of Jamaican descent. The 37-year-old reality star added that she didn’t want True “living in a bubble…because we do have this very privileged life, I want her to know all types of life and all types of living and be very aware of that.”

“I know some people get uncomfortable with talking to their kids about race, or they think, ‘Oh we live in a bubble, we never have to address that my child is Black.’ I mean, of course you do,” Kardashian went on. “You’re only setting them up, I think, for failure if you don’t talk about race and probably the things they’re going to endure once they’re in, quote, the real world.”

The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star added that the “beauty” of having sisters in the same situation is that they get to have some of those conversations together. Kim Kardashian has four mixed race children with Kanye West, and Kylie Jenner has a mixed race child with Travis Scott.

While Khloe admitted to not knowing exactly at what age she’ll have the conversation with True, she concluded by saying she wants True to grow up in “a world surrounded by love but still very aware that she is a woman of color.”

Aaron Sorkin and Paulina Porizkova call it quits

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Aaron Sorkin and Paulina Porizkova have broken up, the 56-year-old model shared Tuesday on Instagram.

“I’m so grateful for his presence in my life. He helped heal me and reclaim myself,” Porizkova wrote next to a photo of her and the writer/producer, with a broken heart emoji superimposed over it. “There truly may be no better man, no man who’s more genuinely ‘good.’ He’s brilliant and witty and funny and sexy. But it doesn’t matter how much we may wish we were birds of a feather — we’re still a duck and a goose.”

The announcement comes three months after the former couple confirmed their relationship on the 2021 Oscars red carpet.

Sorkin, 60, was previously married to Julia Bingham from 1996 to 2005, with whom he shares a 20-year-old daughter, Roxy.

Porizkova, tied the knot with The Cars frontman Ric Ocasek in 1989 before separating in 2017, two years prior to his death. They shared two children together, Jonathan, 27, and Oliver, 22.

As online commenters sour on her, Chrissy Teigen tells TMZ she could be cancelled “forever”

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Chrissy Teigen didn’t get a warm reception from folks online when she emerged from her self-described “cancel club” in the wake of her cyberbullying scandal.

The former model and cookbook author hit the streets of LA in a conspicuous equestrian outfit on Tuesday, and the one-time “Mayor of Twitter” wasn’t welcomed by commenters, to say the least.

Replies to a pic of her posted on the gossip site JustJared’s Instagram feed were overwhelmingly negative. “Does this lady not realize that the entire world sees how desperate she is for attention? It’s so obvious. No one in LA walks around in riding gear,” snarked one commenter, who got hundreds of likes.

“Is she still telling teen girls to kill themselves?” another wrote, referencing Teigen’s cyberbullying of Courtney Stodden when the model was 16.

“Ride out of town,” one said of her riding gear.

Meanwhile, Teigen herself spoke to TMZ videographers during that outing, vowing, “I have decided I’m not getting involved in anyone’s s*** ever again.”

She laughed when she was asked when she thinks she would be out of the “cancel club” she lamented being a member of, adding, “I don’t know, it could be forever. I have no idea. I don’t know.”

The comments come just days after Stodden herself laughed at a recent post from Teigen in which she lamented her plight. “Just be nice,” Stodden wrote in response.

Cannes Film Festival reportedly shelled out $1 million for COVID-19 tests alone

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Seemingly against all odds — with COVID-19 cases spiking in Europe thanks to the so-called Delta variant — the Cannes Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend with apparently no major outbreaks.

Variety is reporting that the organizers of the festival spent as much as a million dollars on COVID tests alone for its attendees coming from beyond Europe’s shores — European attendees could show their vaccine passport instead of undergoing testing and quarantine.

Celebrities like jury president Spike Lee, Matt Damon, and Bill Murray didn’t shy away from the festivities — which had the good fortune of wrapping up before stricter rules began clamping down again in France.

The festival’s artistic director Thierry Frémaux told Variety, “We managed to pull it through at the right time and in conditions that were almost normal thanks to a protocol that was intelligent and responsible.”

Frémaux said of the festival, which saw the controversial drama Titane being crowned with Cannes coveted Palm D’Or, “We had not imagined that the reunion would be so sumptuous.”

Michael B. Jordan weighs in on chances of Killmonger appearing in ‘Black Panther 2’

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Michael B. Jordan knows he cannot say much about the upcoming Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but that’s not stopping fans from asking if they’ll see him in the movie.

The 34-year-old actor appeared on the Jemele Hill is Unbothered podcast and chatted about the possibility of his character, supervillain Erik Killmonger, appearing in the sequel.

While Killmonger was fatally wounded in the first film, fans have been speculating that the crafty character managed to survive.

While Jordan was unable to provide a concrete answer if his character would appear in future films, he did remark, “If there’s anyone that’s going to figure it out, [Director Ryan Coogler] is going to figure it out.”

The Just Mercy star also revealed how Chadwick Boseman‘s death impacted the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor, who played T’Challa aka Black Panther, died at age 43 last year after a silent years-long battle with colon cancer.

“Having a tragedy we are all dealing with, like losing Chadwick, I think Marvel, [Kevin] Fiege, Ryan and everybody over there had to figure out what was next,” said Jordan. “I haven’t gotten the information, one way or another so I’m not sure. But, whatever it is, they’re the right people to figure it out.”

On the subject of grief, Jordan also opened up about his new Amazon movie Without Remorse, where he plays an elite Navy SEAL seeking to avenge the murder of his pregnant wife.

The actor says his co-star Lauren London was mourning rapper Nipsey Hussle, her boyfriend and father of their four-year-old child, when filming started.

Jordan applauded London for channelling her grief into a standout performance.

“It was very emotional,” he said. “She was really transparent… She’s very talented and has so much to give.”

Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Winston Duke says it was “emotional” even packing his bags for ‘Wakanda Forever’

July 20, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Winston Duke played M’Baku in Black Panther, and then in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, but he said he was emotional just packing his bags for his latest Marvel movie, the Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever.

The 6’5″ actor tells Collider that the very idea of returning to the fictional African nation without its king, the late Chadwick Boseman, gave him pause. “It was very emotional to read the script,” Duke admitted. “It was emotional to pack to go back to set. But we’re all a bit of a family now and we grieve together, and we’re making something really special.”

Written and directed by Panther‘s Ryan Coogler, the film is currently underway in Atlanta.

Previously, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige noted that Boseman’s role of King T’Challa will not be recast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Last month, at a fan event for Black Widow, Feige said working on the sequel is “clearly very emotional without Chad,” before adding, “We’re going to…make Chad proud.”

Incidentally, Boseman’s final performance in the role — voicing the character for Marvel’s animated What If…? on Disney+ — can be seen on August 11.

Duke can be seen next in the drama Nine Days.

Disney is the parent company of ABC Audio.

Watch trailer to Ryan Coogler doc ‘Homeroom’; Kerry Washington, Larry Wilmore’s ‘Reasonable Doubt’ lands at Onyx & more

July 20, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ryan Coogler‘s “inspiring and powerful” documentary Homeroom has released its first trailer.

Directed by Peter Nicks and executive produced by Coogler, the Hulu Original doc will premiere on both Hulu and in select theaters on Thursday, August 12. The film follows an Oakland High School’s class of 2020 as they confront an “unprecedented year” due to anxiety over test scores, college applications, the pandemic, and their attempt to defund the school district’s police force. Homeroom is billed as Nicks’ final chapter in a trilogy of films which include 2012’s The Waiting Room and 2017’s The Force. The three docs examine the relationship between health care, criminal justice, and education in Oakland, CA over the past decade. All three films will be available to stream on Hulu on August 12.

In other news, the Kerry Washington and Larry Wilmore-produced legal drama Reasonable Doubt has been scooped up by Hulu’s Onyx Collection, Variety has learned. The series, which was initially set up to be developed at ABC in 2019, follows Jax Stewart, a brilliant and fearless Los Angeles defense attorney, who has “questionable ethics and wild interpretations of the law.” According to Variety, the show has opened a writers room with an all-Black staff.

Finally, ViacomCBS has renewed their critically acclaimed original series, The Good Fight, for a sixth season on Paramount+. The first four episodes of the 10-episode Season 5 are currently available to stream, with new installments dropping every Thursday. The series, starring Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald, follows the lives and cases of a Black law firm in Chicago.

‘Black Widow’ star David Harbour wants to explore a Red Guardian vs. Captain America Cold War

July 20, 2021 by WDNY Radio

One of the highlights of Marvel Studios’ most recent release, Black Widow, was David Harbour‘s Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian. The Stranger Things veteran steals scenes as the former Soviet Union’s now-past his prime answer to Captain America, and the actor can’t get enough of the character.

In fact, Harbour said at a recent press conference that he’d love to see the two super soldiers duke it out in a throwback project set years ago.

“I do think that the classic Cold War thing is a really fun and funny dynamic between these two guys and the fact that they basically came up as nuclear warheads, like in an arms race together.” Harbour added, “I think it’s just a really great concept that could be explored further.”

Alexei isn’t only full of super soldier serum and vodka — he’s pretty full of himself, as well, which makes him less than reliable about his glory days as Mother Russia’s great protector. This tickled the man playing him. “[H]e has all these stories about his life and about what went on. And [it’s] questionable whether or not they’re real,” Harbour says. “And I like the explanation of like, what is real and what isn’t real, and how hard he had to construct these realities for himself and how durable those realities are.”

Black Widow is now in theaters and streaming via Disney+ Premiere Access.

Disney is the parent company of ABC Audio.

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