Source: Handout / Getty Michael Avenatti is going in for the kill. Reportedly, the outspoken lawyer is turning over yet another R. Kelly sex tape to authorities. Actually, it’s more like a sexual assault tape since the victim was reportedly just 14-year-old at the time the film was made. Reports TMZ : Sources familiar with the case tell TMZ … attorney Michael Avenatti will turn over a 55-minute VHS video Monday to Cook County prosecutors. We’re told the video shows R. Kelly having sex with the same 14-year-old girl depicted in the first video Avenatti obtained, which was shot in 1999. This second video was shot around 2000. We’re told, just like the first video, there are multiple references to the girl being 14 years old. Our sources say R. Kelly is repeatedly “coaching” the girl through various sexual situations. At one point, we’re told R. Kelly is seen choking the girl while having anal intercourse. Our sources also say there’s a part where he takes some sort of lotion and “sprays” it all over her face. We’re told he then chokes her, mounts her from behind and turns her face to camera for a reaction shot. Word is Avenatti is also seeking a third video. Also, he plans to go after R. Kelly’s “enablers” who have allegedly aided him in getting away with supposed abuses for over 20 years. R. Kelly has been indicted and charged with 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse. The R&B singer is still in jail as he scrounges up $1M bond. Keep his passport. — Photo: Chicago PD/Getty
Source: KIKA/WENN.com / WENN Regina King delivered a strong performance in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized this fact. King won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film and delivered a moving speech dedicated to her mother, noting that her love and support served as an inspiration. ABC7news.com writes : “Mom, I love you so much,” she said through tears. “Thank you for teaching me that God has always been leaning in my direction.” King won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in “If Beale Street Could Talk.” It’s the first Oscar and first nomination for King, who has won three Emmy Awards for her work on television. King also thanked author James Baldwin, whose novel is the basis for the film from director Barry Jenkins. “To be standing here representing one of the greatest artists of all time – James Baldwin. James Baldwin bursts this baby and Barry nurtured her, surrounding her with so much love and support. So it’s appropriate to be standing here because I am an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone,” King said.”God is good, all the time.” Regina King has come a long since 227 . Congrats. — Photo: WENN
Source: Dia Dipasupil / Getty Barry Jenkins Says He’s Not An Activist The 91st Annual Academy Awards are tonight and while we’re happy to see ‘Black Panther,’ Regina King, Mahershala Ali, ‘BlacKkKlansman,’ Spike Lee, Ruth E. Carter and Barry Jenkins nominated across a number of categories we’re convinced that ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ should have been recognized as a Best Picture nominee. In a year that saw a diverse range of black films – ‘Black Panther,’ ‘BlacKkKlansman,”The Hate U Give’ and ‘Sorry To Bother You’ were among our favorites – ‘If Beale Street Could Talk,’ was, as Regina King called it at one screening attended by our editors, ‘a visual symphony.’ The film truly struck a chord, pun intended, with our Sr. Director of Content Janeé Bolden, who spoke with Barry Jenkins in a one-on-one back in October, just before midterm elections, in a conversation that touched on the magnitude of reimagining James Baldwin for the big screen, the power of revealing the intensity of love between two dark-skinned lead actors and the importance of Regina King’s character as a symbol of black motherhood. The first question Janeé asked though, was about the music, which speaks so deeply to the emotions conveyed in the film that it may as well have been another character. Janeé Bolden: Can you talk about the score for the film and the song selection? The film was visually stunning, but the music played such an important role. Barry Jenkins: “Nicholas Britell who did the score for Moonlight did the score for this film. It’s interesting, we were in Belgium together at this composers conference at this music Q&A and this other composer said “Oh wait, you never heard Nick’s music before you did ‘Moonlight?’” I didn’t realize it, but it was like, no I didn’t — it was just a vibe. What happened was, as we watched, the film tells us what the music should feel like. We started out with this idea of jazz — you know brass, saxophone, French horn, things like that and as Nick started writing music in that way, we actually realized it wanted it to be strings but as brass compositions, so we organically began the film playing basically as a chamber orchestra but with jazz compositions, and by the end of the film we are playing with jazz instruments these orchestral compositions. It was a really organic process and what happens is, as you cut the film, when you watch it, the music is meant to feel like Tish is feeling, the way Fonnie is feeling, so a lot of the way the score ends and begins is dictated by the characters. And then with the needle drops, with the songs that play, I always just have in my head what the characters are vibing with. We’re just mixing and matching, put things in, you know Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Al Green, all those just things felt appropriate with the time period for these characters. Janeé Bolden: The film does a great justice to the book and I almost imagined that if James Baldwin could have seen this film he’d have been extremely happy with the result. Did you feel pressure to make the movie as Baldwin would have? Barry Jenkins: That was part of it for sure. Not that I was asking myself, ‘What would Jimmy do?’ in a certain way, but it was in the back of my mind. And just knowing how much of a cultural critic he was, how engaged he was, you know he wrote film criticism, he wrote about music, it was important for me to have a soundscape that reflected the things he listened to. He actually mentions a lot of music in the book. Music that I felt wasn’t the right fit for what we were doing, but it was a nice compass to have in my head. Not everything in the film is meant to be literally faithful to the book, but to be in the same spirit. Hit the flip for Jenkins’ take on Kiki Layne and the importance of casting a dark skinned actress for ‘Beale Street.’
Source: Marvel Studios / Marvel Studios “Black Panther” and Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” are two of the leaders of this year’s Oscar nominations with both films scoring a Best Picture nomination. The Academy is unveiled its 2019 list Tuesday morning at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, with Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross hosting. The 91st Annual Academy Awards will be held once again at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. The show will air live on Sunday, February 24, on ABC. Best Picture BlacKkKlansman Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Roma A Star Is Born Vice Best Director Alfonso Cuaron ( Roma ) Yorgos Lanthimos ( The Favourite ) Spike Lee ( BlacKkKlansman ) Adam McKay ( Vice ) Pawel Pawlikowski ( Cold War ) Best Actress Yalitza Aparicio ( Roma ) Glenn Close ( The Wife ) Olivia Colman ( The Favourite ) Lady Gaga ( A Star Is Born ) Melissa McCarthy ( Can You Ever Forgive Me? ) Best Actor Christian Bale ( Vice ) Bradley Cooper ( A Star Is Born ) Willem Dafoe ( At Eternity’s Gate ) Rami Malek ( Bohemian Rhapsody ) Viggo Mortensen ( Green Book ) Best Actress in a Supporting Role Amy Adams ( Vice ) Marina de Tavira ( Roma ) Regina King ( If Beale Street Could Talk ) Emma Stone ( The Favourite ) Rachel Weisz ( The Favourite ) Best Actor in a Supporting Role Mahershala Ali ( Green Book ) Adam Driver ( BlacKkKlansman ) Sam Elliott ( A Star Is Born ) Richard E. Grant ( Can You Ever Forgive Me? ) Sam Rockwell ( Vice ) Best Costume Design The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ( Mary Zophres ) Black Panther ( Ruth E. Carter ) The Favourite ( Sandy Powell ) Mary Poppins Returns ( Sandy Powell ) Mary Queen of Scots ( Alexandra Byrne ) Best Sound Editing Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man A Quiet Place Roma Best Sound Mixing Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man Roma A Star Is Born Best Animated Short Animal Behaviour Bao Late Afternoon One Small Step Weekends Best Live-Action Short Detainment Fauve Marguerite Mother Skin Best Film Editing BlacKkKlansman (Barry Alexander Brown) Bohemian Rhapsody (John Ottman) The Favourite (Yorgos Mavropsaridis) Green Book (Patrick J. Don Vito) Vice (Hank Corwin) Best Original Score Black Panther (Ludwig Goransson) BlacKkKlansman (Terence Blanchard) If Beale Street Could Talk (Nicholas Britell) Isle of Dogs (Alexandre Desplat) Mary Poppins Returns (Marc Shaiman) Best Documentary Feature Free Solo Hale County This Morning, This Evening Minding the Gap Of Fathers and Sons RBG Best Documentary Short Subject Black Sheep End Game Lifeboat A Night at the Garden Period. End of Sentence. Best Foreign-Language Film Capernaum (Lebanon) Cold War (Poland) Never Look Away (Germany) Roma (Mexico) Shoplifters (Japan) Best Production Design Black Panther (Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart) The Favourite (Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton) First Man (Nathan Crowley and Kathy Lucas) Mary Poppins Returns (John Myhre and Gordon Sim) Roma (Eugenio Caballero and Barbara Enriquez) Best Visual Effects Avengers: Infinity War Christopher Robin First Man Ready Player One Solo: A Star Wars Story Best Cinematography The Favourite (Robbie Ryan) Never Look Away (Caleb Deschanel) Roma (Alfonso Cuaron) A Star Is Born (Matty Libatique) Cold War (Lukasz Zal) Best Makeup and Hairstyling Border Mary Queen of Scots Vice Best Animated Feature Incredibles 2 Isle of Dogs Mirai Ralph Breaks the Internet Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Best Adapted Screenplay A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters and Eric Roth) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel and Kevin Willmott) If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty) Best Original Screenplay The Favourite (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara) First Reformed (Paul Schrader) Green Book (Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga) Roma (Alfonso Cuaron) Vice (Adam McKay) Best Original Song “All the Stars” ( Black Panther , written by Kendrick Lamar, Al Shux, Sounwave, SZA and Anthony Tiffith) Performed by Kendrick Lamar and SZA “I’ll Fight” (RBG, written by Diane Warren) Performed by Jennifer Hudson “The Place Where Lost Things Go” ( Mary Poppins Returns , written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman) Performed by Emily Blunt “Shallow” ( A Star Is Born , written by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt) Performed by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” ( The Ballad of Buster Scruggs , written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch) Performed by Tim Blake Nelson and Willie Watson [ twitter-follow screen_name=‘92qjamsbmore†]
Seeing a rodent near your school’s dumpster is one thing, but finding a rat in the vending machine is another level of cringe. That was the case for students at a Delray Beach high school in Miami who said they lost their appetite after finding a rat crawling among the snacks in a vending machine. A spokesperson for the Palm Beach County School District says the principal was immediately made aware and the vending machine was locked so students couldn’t use it. The vending machine company sent out an exterminator the next day; but let’s hope they did more than remove the machine. Everyone knows that where there’s one visible rodent, there’s many more you haven’t seen.
Source: Bennett Raglin / Getty Black Golden Globe Nominees It’s awards season! And we’re voting for everyone Black! The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Thursday its nominees for the 2019 Golden Globes. Films that featured a Black cast included Green Book that led in nominations with five. BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther , and If Beale Street Could Talk also received nods. Hit the flip to see all the Black nominations.
