Black Theater Coalition (BTC) And AMC Networks Partner For Fellowships In Production and Casting

The 2023 class of mentees for the Black Boy Writes & Black Girl Writes Mentorship Initiative was announced today. The mentees are presented by writer Mike Gauyo (Insecure, Ginny & Georgia), in partnership with Stage 32, and with support from Culture Creative Entertainment, M88, and Final Draft.

Toni Collette is stepping out for the premiere of her new movie!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor National Public Radio is suspending all activity on Twitter effective immediately, after the public radio broadcaster said the Elon Musk-owned platform’s “government-funded media” label on its account falsely implies NPR is not editorially independent of the U.S. government. Last week, Twitter added a label to NPR’s primary account that says it is “US state-affiliated media,” which CEO John Lansing slammed as “unacceptable.” The social network later modified that to say NPR is “government-funded media.” According to NPR, on average, less than 1% of its annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies and departments.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are back from their beach vacation and we have a rare new photo of them out in public together!

MGM+ has given the green light to Hollywood Black, a documentary series from director Justin Simien that aims to serve as “a definitive chronicle of a century of the Black experience in Hollywood.”

Buckingham Palace has revealed an official emoji to celebrate the upcoming coronation of King Charles and the Queen Consort, Camilla. The colourful cartoon motif depicts the 17th century jewelled solid gold St Edward’s Crown with purple velvet cap – the regalia which will be used to crown the King on May 6.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Apple TV+ thriller “Suspicion” is set to hit the sales block in Cannes at this year’s MipTV market. Keshet International has revealed that the eight-part series starring Uma Thurman will headline its drama slate at the spring TV market in France, which kicks off on April 17. The Israeli TV distributor will shop linear rights for the series. Apple TV+ commissioned Keshet U.K. to produce “Suspicion,” which is based on the popular Israeli series “False Flag” and launched on the service in February 2022. Its sales foray marks one of the rare instances where an original on a streamer (that’s still available globally on the platform) has been sold on the open market for linear rights.

Elon Musk’s Twitter had pledged to remove the blue ticks from all legacy accounts on April 1, but it appears few have met that fate.

Charna Flam A roof collapse at the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, Ill. left at least one concertgoer dead and dozens more injured on Friday evening. The Apollo Theater was hosting “The United States of Terror” tour, headlined by four heavy metal bands — Crypta, Revocation, Skeletal Remains and Morbid Angel. After Crypta’s set, the venue made an announcement that the show would need to take a brief pause before Morbid Angel took the stage, due to the ongoing extreme weather conditions. Minutes after the initial announcement, the full roof collapsed on top of the concertgoers, per the New York Times. The venue was hosting roughly 260 patrons. More than 40 people were hospitalized, with five people suffering severe injuries. At least one person died in the incident. Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle reported that two of those impacted are suffering with life-threatening injuries.

Elon Musk announced earlier this month, all “legacy” verified accounts will lose their blue check. Henceforth, only people who pay $8 a month to subscribe to “Twitter Blue” will receive one.This change also comes with further inconveniences for previously verified users who won’t sign up.

EXCLUSIVE: Venice Film Festival, Netflix and The Gotham Film & Media Institute are teaming up on a program of movies at iconic New York venue, the Paris Theater. Scroll down for program lineup in full.

Twitter users can expect another string of shake-ups as some features for non-paying accounts will soon be scrapped.

Erykah Badu has called out for those on the right-wing for racism in their criticism of the “woke” slogan.Though the word has its roots in a 1960s essay by William Melvin Kelley, it was brought to modern public consciousness through Badu’s 2008 song ‘Master Teacher’ and her discussion of it on social media.Speaking on MSNBC, Badu remembered: “I tweeted it about this group that was detained, Pussy Riot. “I said ‘free Pussy Riot’… After that, ‘woke’ took off.”After being shown a number of clips from interviews and speeches where the term “stay woke” is used, Badu was asked about the term being co-opted by the right-wing, to which she responded: “I think they mean ‘Black.’ Yeah.

Jameela, 37, and her boyfriend James, 34, looked stylish in matching black outfits while they walked around New York City as they held hands.The presenter and activist wore a black sequined jacket with matching trousers that glistened in the daylight. She wore a black hoodie under her impressive jacket and paired the outfit with some black lace-up trainers, topped off with some circular sunglasses.

Marta Balaga New York-based conglomerate Big Media has signed with RCTV International Corp. to become the exclusive distribution partner to parent company RCTV’s catalog for FAST and AVOD platforms worldwide.   Under the terms of the agreement, Big Media will distribute over 7,000 hours of telenovelas to streaming platforms around the world. It will also serve as the exclusive distributor of RCTV’s catalogue for all forms of broadcast in Europe and Asia.  “Our partnership with RCTV International is one of the most significant in our company’s 14-year history. RCTV’s catalog of telenovelas is unparalleled, both in terms of quality and quantity,” said Juan Fernández, Big Media’s head of Latin America and Spanish-speaking U.S. distribution. 

Gwen Stefani has taken to social media with an adorable pregnancy tease following the conclusion of her husband Blake Shelton's US tour – but it's not what anyone expected.Rather than teasing any news relating to her own health, the 'Rich Girl' singer who recently wowed fans in a black leather outfit, took to her Instagram story to share a picture and video of a pregnant cat. Gwen was celebrating this feline's special newsFans have been wondering whether Gwen might announce that she is expecting a fourth child, her first with her husband Blake Shelton, for many months.

Ryan Reynolds has taken to Instagram once more since the birth of his and Blake Lively's fourth child to issue a passionate plea to their fans.Writing in a post as well as on his Instagram story, the Deadpool star – who shares three daughters with Blake as the gender of his fourth child remains a secret – asked for fans to come along and support the Wrexham women's soccer team as they prepare to take on another match on Sunday. Ryan loves supporting his Welsh soccer teamThe 46-year-old actor wrote: "Let’s fill the stands with the spirit of ‘78 and belt it out for these heroes," in reference to the amazing year the Wrexham's men's soccer team had in 1978, and which has become an inspirational year for fans ever since.Both Ryan and his friend, Wrexham co-owner and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney have confirmed that they will be attending the game on March 26.

American Music Awards will take a one year sabbatical, Variety has learned. Following news announcing that the Billboard Music Awards would be moving their date to Nov. 19, 2023, typically a Sunday held for the AMAs, it left parent company Dick Clark Productions no choice but to bump the AMAs to 2024, when it could take the May slot previously held by Billboard. Multiple sources say that neither has a broadcast partner and producer Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Corp. (parent company of Variety and Billboard) had to make the decision of which show to throw its weight behind. Since PMC owns Billboard, insiders suggest that the thinking was to promote its own brand. Chatter among music industry professionals is that the AMAs, which launched in 1973, was becoming stale.

France has announced a measure banning all recreational apps from the work phones of the country’s 2.5 million civil servants. The move, seemingly sparked by recent concerns over TikTok, also impacts a raft of other social media and content platforms.

WWE star Alexa Bliss underwent a medical procedure after being diagnosed with skin cancer.