Louis Gates-Junior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

NEW YORK -- Author, playwright and longtime champion of multiculturalism Ishmael Reed is receiving a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to literature.Reed is among this year's winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, given for work that “confronts racism and explores diversity," the Cleveland Foundation announced Tuesday. Percival Everett's novel “The Trees” won for fiction and Donika Kelly's “The Renunciations” was cited for poetry.

Michael Douglas.During a recent episode of the PBS show “Finding Your Roots,” which examines celebrities’ ancestral backgrounds, Douglas learned, much to his astonishment, that he’s related to another famous actor.After the program produced all that it could via “paper trail,” it turned to genetics and compared Douglas’ DNA with other guests who had previously appeared on the show.Host and educator Henry Louis Gates Jr. had Douglas flip a page of a book to reveal the identity of his relative. He was astounded to find a photograph of Scarlett Johansson.“Ahh! Are you kidding?” the 79-year-old exclaimed.

It seems talent runs in the family for actor Michael Douglas. During a recent episode of the PBS show "Finding Your Roots," which examines celebrities' ancestral backgrounds, Douglas learned, much to his astonishment, that he's related to another famous actor. After the program produced all that it could via "paper trail," it turned to genetics and compared Douglas' DNA with other guests who had previously appeared on the show.

Alanis Morissette has discovered that her great-uncles died in the Holocaust while appearing as a guest on Finding Your Roots. A synopsis for the PBS show, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., reads: “In each episode, celebrities are presented with a “book of life” that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover secrets about their lineage.”Morissette was one of the guests on the first episode of the show’s 10th season which aired on Tuesday (January 2).

just found out that she is related to another person who is very famous on this planet (no, it's not , although that would be iconic). The Oscar-winner is distantly related to star (and three-time Oscar nominee) Edward Norton. Roberts and Norton discovered they are connected in the season premiere of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr, which aired on Tuesday, January 3.

NEW YORK -- The founder of Audible Inc., a leading force in the booming audiobook industry, will be honored in May at PEN America's annual gala.Don Katz has been named the literary and human rights organization's Business Visionary Honoree for “his transformative contributions to the world of literature and audio storytelling.”Katz founded Audible in 1995 and guided it through a time of extraordinary growth and change, with digital technology helping audiobooks become one of publishing's most profitable and imaginative formats. Audible, purchased by Amazon.com in 2008, is both a top distributor and producer of audio works, including audio-only releases by Robert Caro, Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor.The 70-year-old Katz is also an award-winning author and journalist whose “Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America” was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.“Don Katz’s unwavering devotion to the written and spoken word has revolutionized the form that merges them," PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement Friday.

Selome Hailu HBO has announced that the documentary “Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches” will debut on Feb. 23 at 9 p.m.. The network revealed the air date in an announcement on Tuesday.In the film, Denzel Whitaker, Jonathan Majors, Nicole Beharie, Colman Domingo and Jeffrey Wright will each perform one of the seminal anti-slavery activist’s speeches.André Holland will read excerpts from Douglass’ autobiographies.

Jodie Foster hit the red carpet for the 2021 PEN America Literary Gala.

Nigeria to help present an award to the author, scholar and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr.“It means a great deal to Skip Gates and to PEN America that Wole Soyinka has decided to join us for what will be an unforgettable occasion,” PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement Wednesday. “Wole Soyinka is a giant in world literature.

now a federal holiday, commemorates the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas — the last Southern holdout state — on June 19, 1865. Whether you want to learn more about historical events or acknowledge the day with other programming that’s thematically connected, there’s plenty to watch.

LL Cool J is planning a significant expansion of his Rock The Bells direct-to-consumer business. The actor and rapper has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round for Rock The Bells, led by Raine Ventures.