Viola Davis is ready to tell her story, in her own words.
On Tuesday, HarperOne announced that Davis’ forthcoming memoir, Finding Me, will be released on April 19, 2022 in partnership with Ebony Magazine Publishing. Described as a story of “overcoming,” Davis’ book will share details of her “incredible, inspiring life from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present-day career.”
“I’m an artist because there’s no separation from me and every human being that has passed through the world. I have a great deal of compassion for other people, but mostly for myself,” Davis says in a statement.
Davis’ recent Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom made her the most-nominated Black actress in the history of the Academy Awards. Already an Oscar winner for her starring role in the 2016 film adaptation of August Wilson‘s stage drama, Fences, Davis also won an Emmy for ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder, and Tony Awards for her Broadway performances of Fences and King Hedley II.
This year it was announced she’ll executive-produce and star in the Showtime anthology series First Ladies, where she will portray former first lady Michelle Obama. She’ll next be seen in The Suicide Squad, debuting in theaters August 5.
(WASHINGTON) — A fully vaccinated spokesperson for House Speaker Pelosi tested positive for COVID-19 this week after interacting with several infected Texas Democratic state legislators who traveled to the capital.
“Yesterday, a fully-vaccinated senior spokesperson in the Speaker’s Press Office tested positive for COVID after contact with members of the Texas state legislature last week. This individual has had no contact with the speaker since exposure,” Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill told ABC News.
“The entire press office is working remotely today with the exception of individuals who have had no exposure to the individual or have had a recent negative test. Our office will continue to follow the guidance of the Office of Attending Physician closely,” he added.
A fully vaccinated White House official also tested positive for COVID-19 off-campus, the White House disclosed Tuesday. News of both “breakthrough” infections was first reported by Axios.
“I will say that we — according to an agreement we made during the transition to be transparent and make information available, we committed that we would release information proactively if it is commissioned officers. We continue to abide by that commitment,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
At least six of the more than 50 Texas Democrats who fled Austin last week to block dual Republican-backed bills that would revise the state’s voting and election laws in ways voting rights advocates say would make it harder for Texans to cast a ballot have since tested positive for COVID-19 in Washington. The infections prompted a flurry of contact tracing on Capitol Hill and at the White House, where they have met with legislators and senior administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., on Tuesday suggested that House leaders could discuss “whether going back to [masks on Capitol Hill] work,” but added that the Office of the Attending Physician, who addresses the medical needs of Congress, “has not suggested” a return to the practice.
In a memo distributed to House offices on Tuesday, Attending Physician Brian Monahan did not announce any changes to House masking policy.
“Vaccinated individuals seeking to further reduce their risk of disease, or further reduce potential risk of transmitting disease to vulnerable household members, may consider additional protective actions such as wearing a well-fitted, medical-grade filtration mask when they are in a crowded or interior location,” he wrote. “Individuals have the personal discretion to wear a mask and future developments in the coronavirus Delta variant local threat may require the resumption of mask wear for all as now seen in several counties in the United States.”
Next year, Pearl Jam will finally be able to tour behind their most recent album, 2020’s Gigaton, but guitarist Stone Gossard is already looking ahead to the band’s next record, which he says may be a distinct left turn for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
Referring to some of the more unexpected moments from Gigaton, like “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” Gossard tells Kerrang!, “There’s some new territory there, and I think it bodes well for whatever comes next. I think we’re still scratching the surface in terms of what really could be significantly different sounding songs.”
“I guess I would probably compare [what I’m thinking of] to an OK Computer/Kid A moment, thinking about Radiohead’s transformation and the journey that they went on,” he adds.
Of course, OK Computer marked a huge change, stylistically, sonically and lyrically, for Radiohead, and the 1997 album is now hailed as one of the greatest of all time. But Gossard won’t go as far as to say the next Pearl Jam album will be that disruptive.
“It’s not going to be OK Computer, obviously, but a moment where we stumble onto something that is significantly different…that prospect always intrigues me,” he explains to Kerrang!. “I’d like to make another record that really shocks people – that makes them go, ‘Wow, that’s unexpected!’”
Pearl Jam’s 2021 concert schedule consists of several appearances at front man Eddie Vedder‘s Ohana Festival, which is running over two weekends: September 24-26, and October 1-2. Pearl Jam will headline the festival’s September 26 date, as well as both October dates.
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.
Two Bruno Mars concerts at MGM Park Theater in Las Vegas — part of Bruno’s ongoing residency in Sin City — have been called off for this Friday and Saturday due to “unforeseen circumstances,” reports theLas Vegas Review-Journal.
No reason was given for the scrapped shows; when the Review-Journal asked if the reason was COVID-related, a hotel spokesperson declined to give the paper any additional information.
Those dates have been rescheduled to August 27-28. Previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new dates, or fans can receive refunds through August 13. However, fans who purchased the Luxury VIP Experience “A Trip to Mars” must call to make other arrangements. Those packages, which include premium seats, hotel accommodations, special merchandise, food and beverage credits and other amenities, ranged in price from $2500 to $6529 — and they were all sold out.
Bruno has two shows scheduled for July 30-31 as well, but a source tells the paper that they’re now “up in the air.”
(NEW YORK) — The chief of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee addressed concerns of rising COVID-19 cases during a press conference on Tuesday and did not rule out the possibility of a last-minute cancellation of the games.
“We can’t predict what will happen with the number of coronavirus cases. So we will continue discussions if there is a spike in cases. I think that is all I can say at this juncture,” said Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto, in a response translated from Japanese.
Muto said the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee will continue to monitor cases and make decisions based on the current situation at hand.
“We agreed that based on the coronavirus situation, we will convene five-party talks again. At this point, the coronavirus cases may rise or fall, so we will think about what we should do when the situation arises,” Muto said.
As of Tuesday, Tokyo Olympic organizers said 71 people accredited to the games, including athletes in the Olympic Village, have tested positive for the virus just days ahead of the opening ceremonies set for Friday.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said last week there is “zero” risk of athletes in the village passing on the virus to Japanese citizens or other residents of the village, according to the Associated Press.
Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto recognized the public’s general concern over hosting the games during the Tuesday press conference.
“The problems [with the Olympics] have given rise to many people feeling discontent and anxiety about the Tokyo Games,” Hashimoto said in Japanese.
Hashimoto said “safety is paramount” and promised to give the general public of Japan a “sense of security” throughout the games.
At the beginning of the month, Japan announced a state of emergency due to large outbreaks in the greater Tokyo area, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Tuesday, the country reported 2,477 new cases.
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.
(NEW YORK) — A government agency is urging vacation rental companies to require owners to disable at-home elevators or make safety modifications following the death of a child in North Carolina earlier this month.
In a letter to Airbnb, Vrbo and others, The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said residential elevators “can pose a deadly but unforeseen hazard to children.”
“Small children can be crushed to death in a deadly gap that may exist between the doors,” the letter said.
CPSC said if the gap between the exterior door and inner door is too deep, a child can become entrapped between the two, resulting in serious injury and even death.
“Children, some as young as two and as old as 12, have been crushed to death in this gap, suffering multiple skull fractures, fractured vertebrae and traumatic asphyxia,” the letter said. “Other children have suffered horrific and lifelong injuries.”
The letter comes after a 7-year-old Ohio boy was killed in an elevator accident at a rental home in the Outer Banks.
CPSC said the gaps can be made safer by placing space guards on the exterior doors or by using electronic monitoring devices that deactivate elevators when a child is detected in the gap.
“These fixes are relatively inexpensive and can save lives,” the letter said.
The agency said companies should notify rentals about the potential hazard as well as require all hosts to lock outer access doors or disable at-home elevators until the hazardous gaps are remedied.
CPSC said the companies should also require elevator inspections at any listed homes in the future.
“By working together, we can stop these agonizing deaths and prevent further harm to children and families,” the letter said.
Neither Airbnb nor Vrbo immediately responded to request for comment.
Summer Walker took to Instagram Monday to share a preview of new music from her forthcoming album.
“Comment [with a broken-heart emoji] if you ready to smoke, cry & sing lol,” Walker captioned a video of herself playing a track in the studio.
Fans in the comments shared dozens of broken-heart emojis and commentary about the song, in which Walker sings about being hurt from a relationship that didn’t work.
“I’m freaking ready,” wrote one fan, while another said, “I’m ready, girl, even though I’m still rocking hard with the last album. I’m ready. Please keep the energy.”
Meanwhile, others are hoping the singer plans to follow up her 2019 debut album, Over It, and her 2020 EP,Life On Earth, with her sophomore album.
“So basically, we getting an album? Is that what you, saying,” asked one fan, while another said, “Release the album. We want the damn album.”
Many believe the song touches on Walker’s relationship with her daughter’s father, London On Da Track. Despite welcoming their daughter in late March, the two recently called it quits on their relationship.
“That music gone hit with or without a [man]. I love it,” one fan wrote, while another said, “Let me go ahead and pre-order my tears!”
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden welcomed the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the White House Tuesday, praising the team for helping the country get through the pandemic with some sense of normalcy, and trading some zingers with MVP quarterback Tom Brady.
As the event got underway, Biden gave a special shoutout to Chris Godwin, a wide receiver on the team and Delaware native.
“You know, born in Pennsylvania, raised in Delaware right come from, that’s a heckuva combination man,” Biden said.
He then took good-natured aim at Brady and coach Bruce Arians.
“You know, a lot has been made about the fact that we have the oldest coach ever to win a Super Bowl and the oldest quarterback to win the Super Bowl. Well, I’ll tell you right now, you won’t hear any jokes about that from me. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop. That’s how I look at it,” Biden, who at 78 is the nation’s oldest serving president, joked.
He thanked the players for giving Americans something to positive to root for amid hard times.
“And I hope you all know just how important it was for, after such a tough year for the nation. In the middle of a long, dark winter, every Sunday, people were able to sit down and watch you play. You created memories that helped folks make it through and believe that we could get back to normal again. And you did it as a team, trailblazer, including the first team with two women, full-time coaching positions,” Biden said.
He praised the team for helping with the vaccination effort at their Florida stadium, but also called out players who haven’t yet gotten their shot.
“Your stadium also became a lifeline for families in Tampa Bay this spring, administering nearly 200,000 vaccine shots. And y’all who don’t have a shot, man, get one, OK?” Biden said, drawing an “amen” from someone on stage.
Brady, who walked in to the event with Biden amid some questions about whether he would show up, then cracked some jokes of his own, with the president standing nearby.
“It didn’t look right there at one point. We were seven and five struggling a little bit, as the president alluded to, but we found our rhythm, we got on a roll, not a lot of people, you know, think that we could have won. And in fact, I think, about 40% of the people still don’t think we won,” said Brady, who has avoided questions about whether he ever supported Donald Trump.
“I understand that,” Biden said, smiling.
Brady, who noted he was a bit older than many of his teammates, also had a zinger about the former president’s preferred nickname for Biden.
“We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was. I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing, and they started calling me ‘Sleepy Tom.’ Why would they do that to me?” Brady said, as the crowd laughed.
