It’s downright shocking and sad that a movie about the devastating Flint, Michigan water crisis is here before the residents have clean and safe water available to them. Nevertheless, Lifetime’s new film Flint, which stars Queen Latifah and Jill Scott, and is based on Josh Sanburn’s February 2016 cover story for TIME magazine, “The Poisoning of an American City,” has just released its official trailer. Trailer released for Lifetime's Flint water crisis film starring Queen Latifah and Jill Scott https://t.co/kH0JHgROkq pic.twitter.com/cFpmFZClW4 — Shadow And Act (@shadowandact) October 24, 2017 Shadow and Act has the official synopsis of the film which is set to have its world premiere on October 28 th : “Flint” i s the gripping retelling of a crisis that shook a nation and shines a light on the whistleblowers who exposed the biggest environmental scandal of our generation. LeeAnne Walters (Brandt), Melissa Mays (Ireland) and Nayyirah Shariff (Scott) join forces after discovering that the drinking water in Flint, Michigan is contaminated, resulting in a slew of devastating medical problems for their families. When their claims go unheeded, they band together to expose the wrongdoings committed by their reckless, bean-counting government officials whose carelessness caused irrevocable harm to the lives of its residents. At press time, there has been no word if some or all of the film’s proceeds will go to aiding the victims of the Flint water crisis. Hopefully doing so is in Lifetime’s plans because it would be completely self-serving to make a movie about this tragedy and not try to help at all financially. Check out the full trailer BELOW: Check out today’s Top Stories here: Issa Rae And HBO Team Up For ’90s-Era, L.A. Drama Series Will Mary J. Blige Have To Pay Ex-Husband Kendu Issacs More Alimony?
Selena Gomez may not be that great at professional modeling (yet), but whatever. Some people are just talented at different things, and it’s important to play to your strengths. That’s why I write about T&A and not stocks or something. Anyway, here’s Selena thrusting her chest at the camera while not wearing a bra. So who cares if she’s not the best supermodel? She’s already one of the Top 5 Instagram models of all-time after this performance. Yow!
I guess Taylor Swift must’ve been getting jealous of all the attention I’ve been giving Selena Gomez lately, because she just dropped this teaser trailer for her new music video… which apparently is a thing artists do these days? Sorry, I’m getting sidetracked. The point is, Taylor’s in some kind of nude sci-fi bodysuit and it’s hot as hell. So I don’t know about you dudes, but I can’t wait to watch the full thing. I just have to remember to hit the mute button first. Oh. And lock the Starbucks bathroom door. That got me in a lot of trouble after her last video , and I’m already on my second strike.
Tessa Thompson is the star of the latest Marvel movie, Thor: Ragnarok where she plays Valkyrie. A superhero who selected by Odin to lead the Valkyrior. The fictional character is white in the comics, so naturally, fans hurled racist insults at Tessa. She took the high road on the matter online. didn't RT because I think the (understandable) bullying that happens as a result is pointless, when all said & done. BUT hi racists fans FU pic.twitter.com/l2F85n3fbE — Tessa Thompson (@TessaThompson_x) October 7, 2017 I sat down with her to discuss the racist haters. I also got an update on Creed 2 which isn’t being written by Ryan Coogler, and also hanging out among the Black Hollywood elite. Check out our interview and go see Thor: Ragnarok, November 3rd.
Source: Daniel Zuchnik / Getty Did you know Drumline was inspired by the life of super producer Dallas Austin ? Or that director Charles Stone III ‘s only major credits before shooting Drumline were for Paid In Full and the Budweiser “Whassup” commercial ? The Undefeated interviewed Nick Cannon , Orlando Jones , Zoe Saldana and more for an in-depth look at the making and legacy of the classic HBCU coming-of-age story. Here’s how far the studio went to make sure a White character was included: Jody Gerson (Producer): The studio kept focusing on a white character. That we had to have a white character to market the movie. Dallas Austin ( Executive producer film and soundtrack, music supervisor): I got a call from Fox. They said, ‘Dallas, we don’t know how to say this, but put white people in the movie.’ I said, ‘OK, how many white people do you want?’ They said, ‘We want somebody in the band. … We have to have a character, because now it’s turning into a black movie.’ Charles Stone III ( Director): The studio wanted a white character in the midst of this ensemble of color in order to support or give us the amount of money we wanted. We needed $20 million to make it. They were offering us $15 million. Dallas: First, it was a $13 million movie, which is a lot for an urban film, so to speak, at that time. I was trying to tell them, it’s not an urban film, it’s a story … it’s a team story. We started going over $13 million, because nobody knew what it was like to film 300-piece marching bands. Charles Stone III: In order for me to get the additional $5 million, I had to create a white character. Dallas: I said, ‘Let me see how a white kid’s story would be inside of a black marching band without making it ridiculous.’ I go to Morris Brown College one day, and I see this kid. He’s one of the cymbal players, a white kid with red hair. I said, ‘Where’d you come from?’ He said, ‘In Atlanta, down the street. I’ve always wanted to be in the band because I grew up in the neighborhood.’ We followed that story into GQ’s character. Jayson Flore (GQ): I got this appointment for Drumline … and Charles was like, ‘Hey, can you play the drum?’ … I wasn’t trained growing up, playing the drums, but I’m a musician. So I saw the question as, ‘Do you have rhythm?’ I’m like, ‘Fuck yeah, I got rhythm.’ It’s funny that I ended up getting the role where the guy has rhythm issues. Read the full feature here . Oral History of 'Drumline': 'In order for me to get the additional $5 million, I had to create a white character.' https://t.co/E6B1d6SOgF pic.twitter.com/h4WCpy4c2n — The Undefeated (@TheUndefeated) October 22, 2017
Source: Rick Kern / Getty Water is wet and Snoop Dogg doesn’t like Donald Trump . Plain and simple. Ever since the current U.S. commander-in-chief got elected, Snoop has raged an all-out campaign against him. Snoop is taking his campaign to a whole new level with his upcoming album Make America Crip Again . Snoop says the album is less about Trump and more about understanding the history of Black gangs. In a statement he said, “A lot of people glorify the gang-banging and violence but forget that in the beginning, the Crip’s main and sole purpose was to be the reflection of the Black Panthers. They looked after kids, provided after-school activities, fed them and stepped in as role models and father figures.” Though we understand where Snoop is coming from and look forward to the album, let’s not downplay all the times he dissed Trump this week leading to the album’s single release. Some highlights are below. 1. In light of Trump condemning athletes who kneel during the national anthem, Snoop brought up a strong point.
(Jason Mitchell, director Dee Rees, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige and Garrett Hedlund attend the ‘Mudbound’ Premiere on day 3 of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 21, 2017 in Park City, Utah. Source: Nicholas Hunt / Getty) Writer/director Dee Rees has been anything but predictable. She became a household name in 2011 with her first feature-length film Pariah , a gutting coming-of-age narrative about a young woman grappling with her sexuality. Then she turned around and took the small screen by storm with the triumphant story of iconic blues singer Bessie Smith in Bessie —which racked up more than one million viewers in its premiere. She even managed to helm a few documentary films and grace the director’s chair of the hit FOX series Empire in between projects. But even though her projects run the gamut, there is one recognizable theme that connects each of them, something we rarely see from other filmmakers. Rees boldly dismantles our most uncomfortable truths and interrogates why they remain hidden. Her latest drama, Mudbound , is no different. Set along an indistinct American South after World War II, the movie tells the story of a black family and a white family, whose disparate vantage points illuminate a racist society that has affected them both in deeply profound ways. They’re given equal agency and layers, and are written with the same level of compassion that seeps through each of the performances. So much so that the question is no longer about who is oppressed and who is the oppressor. It presents a more complex narrative that explores the effects of war across racial lines—through these two families whose steadfast hope is destroyed once they’re shown how little their world has changed when their loved ones return from battle and are unable to navigate the harsh realities they once could. The story opens with the McAllan family, Laura (Carey Mulligan) and Henry (Jason Clarke), a young couple who have recently arrived from Memphis with dreams of more land and a better life for his growing family. But as soon as they get there, with his spiteful father Pappy (Jonathan Banks) in tow, both husband and wife learn that they haven’t moved any further away from struggle. They have to get the house out of the clutches of the swindler they bought it from; their once promising land is actually infertile; and Laura is stuck in a house with a dutiful yet loveless man and his oppressive father. They can only anticipate that the return of Henry’s brother, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund), and the conclusion of the war, will help them realize a new reality for themselves. Just miles down the road is the Jackson family, headed by Florence and Hap (Mary J. Blige and Rob Morgan). They’re sharecroppers on the McAllan land who become the white family’s natural default for any extra support they need—for the land or otherwise. Florence takes care of the little McAllan kids when they get whopping cough. Hap has to help out with labor on the land. And their young boys are often beckoned for additional sets of hands. But they have their own aspirations to consider, keeping a happy home in the midst of racial hierarchal, buying their own property, and paving the way for their children to have a freer life than they have. Inversely from the McAllans, their struggle is dictated by everything and everyone around them, and their home is filled with joy and the security of love. So when their oldest son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) goes off to fight in the war, they are comforted by the hope they’ve instilled in his heart, and that he’ll come back to a more possible future for himself. The core of the film is what happens when both men return home to a society that has remained remarkably stagnant, and try to navigate the overwhelming desire to be the face of change in a world that wants anything but. Rees, along with the heartbreaking performances of Hedlund and Mitchell, delivers a searing portrayal of post-traumatic stress in a society that failed (and still fails) to acknowledge. The sleepless nights, the alarming recognition that despite the lives they saw wasted on the battlefield—their own just merely escaping—they are still an N-word and a white drifter; a man who can’t even walk through the front door of an establishment without putting his life at risk and the other who tries to drink the memories of war out of his mind every day. Rarely in the black community do we see images of mental health, and even more rarely do we see it in male characters, who are more often portrayed like Hap—who’d rather walk around on a broken leg than have his wife take his place out in the field. It’s the film’s audacity to portray black male vulnerability especially in a historical context that admonished it which makes Mudbound that much more impactful. That and how director/co-writer Rees refuses to back down on present either family’s narrative as a deficit to the other—despite how easy it would have been to do so. Compelling, heartbreaking, and bold, Mudbound is an absolute must-see. DON’T MISS: ‘The Real’ Host Jeannie Mai Is Divorcing Her Husband Mississippi School To Swap Confederate Leader’s Name For Barack Obama’s Did Wendy Williams Fire Staff Who Leaked Cheating Rumors About Her Husband?
(Jason Mitchell, director Dee Rees, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige and Garrett Hedlund attend the ‘Mudbound’ Premiere on day 3 of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 21, 2017 in Park City, Utah. Source: Nicholas Hunt / Getty) Writer/director Dee Rees has been anything but predictable. She became a household name in 2011 with her first feature-length film Pariah , a gutting coming-of-age narrative about a young woman grappling with her sexuality. Then she turned around and took the small screen by storm with the triumphant story of iconic blues singer Bessie Smith in Bessie —which racked up more than one million viewers in its premiere. She even managed to helm a few documentary films and grace the director’s chair of the hit FOX series Empire in between projects. But even though her projects run the gamut, there is one recognizable theme that connects each of them, something we rarely see from other filmmakers. Rees boldly dismantles our most uncomfortable truths and interrogates why they remain hidden. Her latest drama, Mudbound , is no different. Set along an indistinct American South after World War II, the movie tells the story of a black family and a white family, whose disparate vantage points illuminate a racist society that has affected them both in deeply profound ways. They’re given equal agency and layers, and are written with the same level of compassion that seeps through each of the performances. So much so that the question is no longer about who is oppressed and who is the oppressor. It presents a more complex narrative that explores the effects of war across racial lines—through these two families whose steadfast hope is destroyed once they’re shown how little their world has changed when their loved ones return from battle and are unable to navigate the harsh realities they once could. The story opens with the McAllan family, Laura (Carey Mulligan) and Henry (Jason Clarke), a young couple who have recently arrived from Memphis with dreams of more land and a better life for his growing family. But as soon as they get there, with his spiteful father Pappy (Jonathan Banks) in tow, both husband and wife learn that they haven’t moved any further away from struggle. They have to get the house out of the clutches of the swindler they bought it from; their once promising land is actually infertile; and Laura is stuck in a house with a dutiful yet loveless man and his oppressive father. They can only anticipate that the return of Henry’s brother, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund), and the conclusion of the war, will help them realize a new reality for themselves. Just miles down the road is the Jackson family, headed by Florence and Hap (Mary J. Blige and Rob Morgan). They’re sharecroppers on the McAllan land who become the white family’s natural default for any extra support they need—for the land or otherwise. Florence takes care of the little McAllan kids when they get whopping cough. Hap has to help out with labor on the land. And their young boys are often beckoned for additional sets of hands. But they have their own aspirations to consider, keeping a happy home in the midst of racial hierarchal, buying their own property, and paving the way for their children to have a freer life than they have. Inversely from the McAllans, their struggle is dictated by everything and everyone around them, and their home is filled with joy and the security of love. So when their oldest son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) goes off to fight in the war, they are comforted by the hope they’ve instilled in his heart, and that he’ll come back to a more possible future for himself. The core of the film is what happens when both men return home to a society that has remained remarkably stagnant, and try to navigate the overwhelming desire to be the face of change in a world that wants anything but. Rees, along with the heartbreaking performances of Hedlund and Mitchell, delivers a searing portrayal of post-traumatic stress in a society that failed (and still fails) to acknowledge. The sleepless nights, the alarming recognition that despite the lives they saw wasted on the battlefield—their own just merely escaping—they are still an N-word and a white drifter; a man who can’t even walk through the front door of an establishment without putting his life at risk and the other who tries to drink the memories of war out of his mind every day. Rarely in the black community do we see images of mental health, and even more rarely do we see it in male characters, who are more often portrayed like Hap—who’d rather walk around on a broken leg than have his wife take his place out in the field. It’s the film’s audacity to portray black male vulnerability especially in a historical context that admonished it which makes Mudbound that much more impactful. That and how director/co-writer Rees refuses to back down on present either family’s narrative as a deficit to the other—despite how easy it would have been to do so. Compelling, heartbreaking, and bold, Mudbound is an absolute must-see. DON’T MISS: ‘The Real’ Host Jeannie Mai Is Divorcing Her Husband Mississippi School To Swap Confederate Leader’s Name For Barack Obama’s Did Wendy Williams Fire Staff Who Leaked Cheating Rumors About Her Husband?
Jeremy Roloff is here with an update on his relatively new daughter. A few days after Ember Jean turned one month old, the Little People, Big World star first shared the following precious picture of his infant on Facebook: Altogether now: AWWWWW ! Jeremy also included a caption with the snapshot that gave fans an idea of both how he is doing and how Ember is doing. “The first month has been full of learning, and reacting. Haha,” Roloff wrote, referring (we think) to both Daddy and Daughter. He added: “Ember Jean has us on our toes and awake. (All night long) haha. We’re starting to learn her cries (I mean singing) and have been taking her on a lot of walks.” Concluded the TLC star, making a point to shower his wife with a compliment: “She’s starting to smile and loves tummy time. And this photo is by my beautiful wife!” Jeremy shared this picture and this message a week after Audrey Roloff did basically the same thing . “Our baby girl is 4 weeks old today!!! I feel like we just came home from the hospital yesterday… wow,” wrote Audrey as a caption to a photo of her bundle of joy last Sunday. The first-time parent went on to say that Ember “eats and wiggles by day, and eats and cuddles by night. She likes to pull out our hair, does not like footie pajamas (she kicks her feet right out of the legs), she loves the bath, and she prefers sleeping up right or on our chests.” Also: ‘She smiles a lot and we swear it’s intentional. Some “firsts” include: first time to the farm, first mule ride, and first public blow out.” Prior to this post, Audrey had been a tad quiet on social media. Considering how often Zach and Tori Roloff talk about life with their baby son online, followers had been curious and concerned over Audrey’s silence, eventually learning she has been suffering from some postpartum depression . She’s been experiencing a lot of pain while breastfeeding due to a condition known as mastitis, and she’s just struggling a bit in general with a baby who rarely sleeps. “The pain that I’ve experienced while breast feeding has been comparable to unmedicated labor contractions,” she admitted a couple weeks ago, adding: “Inevitably, all of this has left me feeling like I am failing my baby, frustrated, discouraged, and heart ached.” Thankfully, Audrey has a loving and helpful husband at home, along with strong faith and the right attitude overall. “But even though the tearful sleepless nights persist, so will I,” she also wrote. TLC has not yet announced a return date for Little People, Big World – but new episodes will focus on Jeremy and Audrey’s journey to parenthood. We admire how candid Audrey has been throughout the process and we’ll keep her in our thoughts over the next few weeks. It really can be challenging to become a parent, as you’re suddenly in charge of a helpless tiny person’s well-being 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But it’s so very much worth it in the end. Hang in there, Jeremy and Audrey. View Slideshow: Ember Jean Roloff: All Her Precious Pictures!
Jeremy Roloff is here with an update on his relatively new daughter. A few days after Ember Jean turned one month old, the Little People, Big World star first shared the following precious picture of his infant on Facebook: Altogether now: AWWWWW ! Jeremy also included a caption with the snapshot that gave fans an idea of both how he is doing and how Ember is doing. “The first month has been full of learning, and reacting. Haha,” Roloff wrote, referring (we think) to both Daddy and Daughter. He added: “Ember Jean has us on our toes and awake. (All night long) haha. We’re starting to learn her cries (I mean singing) and have been taking her on a lot of walks.” Concluded the TLC star, making a point to shower his wife with a compliment: “She’s starting to smile and loves tummy time. And this photo is by my beautiful wife!” Jeremy shared this picture and this message a week after Audrey Roloff did basically the same thing . “Our baby girl is 4 weeks old today!!! I feel like we just came home from the hospital yesterday… wow,” wrote Audrey as a caption to a photo of her bundle of joy last Sunday. The first-time parent went on to say that Ember “eats and wiggles by day, and eats and cuddles by night. She likes to pull out our hair, does not like footie pajamas (she kicks her feet right out of the legs), she loves the bath, and she prefers sleeping up right or on our chests.” Also: ‘She smiles a lot and we swear it’s intentional. Some “firsts” include: first time to the farm, first mule ride, and first public blow out.” Prior to this post, Audrey had been a tad quiet on social media. Considering how often Zach and Tori Roloff talk about life with their baby son online, followers had been curious and concerned over Audrey’s silence, eventually learning she has been suffering from some postpartum depression . She’s been experiencing a lot of pain while breastfeeding due to a condition known as mastitis, and she’s just struggling a bit in general with a baby who rarely sleeps. “The pain that I’ve experienced while breast feeding has been comparable to unmedicated labor contractions,” she admitted a couple weeks ago, adding: “Inevitably, all of this has left me feeling like I am failing my baby, frustrated, discouraged, and heart ached.” Thankfully, Audrey has a loving and helpful husband at home, along with strong faith and the right attitude overall. “But even though the tearful sleepless nights persist, so will I,” she also wrote. TLC has not yet announced a return date for Little People, Big World – but new episodes will focus on Jeremy and Audrey’s journey to parenthood. We admire how candid Audrey has been throughout the process and we’ll keep her in our thoughts over the next few weeks. It really can be challenging to become a parent, as you’re suddenly in charge of a helpless tiny person’s well-being 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But it’s so very much worth it in the end. Hang in there, Jeremy and Audrey. View Slideshow: Ember Jean Roloff: All Her Precious Pictures!
