Martin Luther King-Junior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Chris Rock has reportedly teamed up with director Steven Spielberg for a new Martin Luther King Jr. biopic.According to Variety, Rock is in final negotiations to direct and produce an adaptation of author Jonathan Eig’s biography King: A Life, while Spielberg will executive produce the project.

Well, this is interesting. Deadline reports that Universal Pictures has optioned the rights to adapt Jonathan Eig‘s Martin Luther King Jr.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “The Recruit” producer P3 Media has scored a seven-figure investment from Ready Entertainment, a company led by Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Bernice A. King, and Ashley Bell.

“This is a big day, and we’re here with gratitude and anticipation,” said Naseema Shafi, CEO of Whitman-Walker Health, addressing an audience of several hundred people at a ribbon-cutting for its brand new Southeast D.C. health center on Monday.Rows of chairs, with a rainbow-colored fan nestled on each seat, were spread across a lawn, dotted with wooden tables shaded by large umbrellas, facing the east side of the health care center.

EXCLUSIVE: In competitive bidding, A24 has acquired U.S. theatrical rights to Sing Sing, the Greg Kwedar-directed drama that stars Colman Domingo. The film premiered at Toronto to rapturous reviews and A24 is plotting a 2024 theatrical release. Deal is 7-figures.

The Gotham Awards said today that Rustin, director George C. Wolfe’s snapshot of the life of civil rights icon Bayard Rustin that stars Colman Domingo, will receive its Icon & Creator Tribute for Social Justice. The Netflix pic will be honored at the 33rd annual Gotham Awards on November 27 at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It’s not easy to upstage Martin Luther King Jr., but that’s exactly what leading man Colman Domingo does in “Rustin,” a movie named for the civil rights pioneer who gave King the platform to speak his most famous four words: “I have a dream.” That day, Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the man standing just over King’s right shoulder — quite literally, his right-hand man — was one Bayard Rustin.

Thousands of activists and spectators attended the 60th Anniversary March on Washington on Saturday, Aug. 26. Advocates and leaders from labor unions, faith communities, political groups, and community organizations traveled to the Lincoln Memorial at the historic site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech to call for a continuation in the fight for racial justice and equality.

Sixty years to the day after what Colman Domingo’s Bayard Rustin calls “an epic demonstration in our nation’s capital,” Netflix has dropped the new teaser for Rustin, the biopic about the activist and organizer behind the historic 1963 March on Washington.

. Directed by Tony and DGA Award winner George C. Wolfe, the Netflix film stars Emmy winner Colman Domingo as the queer Civil Rights activist who served as one of the main architects behind the August 1963 March on Washington.

Angelique Jackson On the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, Netflix released the trailer for “Rustin,” which explains how civil rights leader Bayard Rustin defied the odds to plan the historic event. “On Aug. 28, Black, white, young, old, rich, working-class, poor will descend on Washington D.C.,” Rustin, portrayed by Emmy winner Colman Domingo, says early in the clip, which chronicles the lead-up to the monumental march.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Emmys officially have a new date: Fox and the Television Academy were set to announce this morning that the 75th Emmy Awards will shift to Monday, January 15, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT.

The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The joint announcement was made by Fox, whose turn is to carry the ceremony this year, and the TV Academy.

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett will live forever! The singer took to social media to pen a heartfelt message to her friend a week after his passing. Gaga remembered their harmonious collaborations and deep friendship that captured the hearts of fans worldwide for years.As the world bid farewell to Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga took her time to grasp her loss and express her profound grief and love. In this poignant message, Lady, as Bennett used to call her, vividly portrays their extraordinary journey together.“I will miss my friend forever.

Lady Gaga paid a heartfelt tribute to her friend Tony Bennett in a lengthy Instagram post on Sunday.

Lady Gaga has paid tribute to her friend and collaborator Tony Bennett, following his death on July 21 at age 96. “I will miss my friend forever,” Gaga wrote in a lengthy Instagram post late Sunday night. “I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together.

Lady Gaga is remembering her friend, Tony Bennett, in a touching tribute.

Gizelle Bryant has announced that her father Curtis Graves has died.

who died last week, on what would have been his 97th birthday. “You only come across a Tony Bennett once in a lifetime,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said of the longtime New Yorker on Thursday.“It didn’t matter if you were young or old or somewhere in between, it didn’t matter if you were a friend of a fan, just about everyone loved Tony — and Tony loved just about everyone.”Schumer also noted that besides being an exceptional musician and accomplished painter, Bennett was “a very good human being,” as he served in World War II and marched with Martin Luther King Jr.

The Senate passed a resolution declaring August 3 as Tony Bennett Day, honoring the legendary singer who died last week at age 96.

Netflix has released images from the upcoming biopic “Rustin,” including several photos of Emmy-Award-winning actor Colman Domingo, who identifies as gay, who plays Bayard Rustin, the openly gay civil rights titan.

interview with Rolling Stone, adding they bonded during the election and Trump’s win broke her.Jackson, who plays Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has paired up with Larson several times, including alongside Larson’s Carol Danvers in “Captain Marvel” and “Kong: Skull Island,” which Jackson said was where the two first bonded because they both had bad experiences on set.“We became great friends during that particular experience because we were having such a hard time,” Jackson noted.Jackson, who was an Usher at Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral in 1968, went on to describe what his life was like growing up as a black man and how growing up in the ’50s and ’60s he experienced difficult things but can see the world hasn’t really changed.“The world seems to be in as hard a place as it’s always been. As a child of the Sixties, watching what happened at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and seeing the police beating those demonstrators — and those were young white kids — I learned there’s a certain kind of thing that the powers that be don’t want us doing.”The actor opened up about his views on the 2020 George Floyd protests and how they resembled a modern version of the Vietnam War uprisings during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Addie Morfoot Contributor When the American Film Institute announced last year that it was merging AFI Docs, the organization’s annual Washington, D.C., documentary film festival, into the Los Angeles-based AFI Fest, Jamie Shor called Sky Sitney.Shor, president of PR Collaborative, and Sitney, director of the film and media studies program at Georgetown, had both previously worked for AFI Docs. Shor’s publicity firm had done work for the former festival, previously known as Silverdocs, while Sitney served as AFI Docs festival director from 2005-2014.“Sky and I were both thinking to ourselves that Washington, D.C., was not going to have a doc presence,” says Shor.

Christian nationalism. “One thing we have found is the bill always comes due,” he said, mentioning Fox News having to pay $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems over lies the network told about the company after the 2020 Presidential election, and far-right radio show host Alex Jones, who was ordered to pay $965 million for the conspiracy theories he spread about the deadly Sandy Hook shooting of 2012.“You always have to pay the bill. Dominion taught us that.

John Legend shared that Harry Belafonte had a profound impact on his life both professionally and personally.

Thania Garcia Hollywood is mourning Harry Belafonte, the Calypso singer, award-winning performer and activist, who died on April 25 of congestive heart failure at age 96. The Caribbean-American entertainer is lauded as one of the most versatile recording artists of the 1950s and was one of the first Black leading men in cinema. He also had a fierce commitment to activism throughout the 60s and participated in numerous protests and marches including the Freedom March on Washington in 1963 (alongside his friend and actor Sidney Poitier) where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. Tastemakers like Berry Gordy, Tony Bennett, Oprah Winfrey and more paid their respects and celebrated Belafonte’s work, calling him a “trailblazer” and “great entertainer.”

Rita Moreno Harry Belafonte, who passed away today at the age of 96, was not only a Tony-, Grammy- and Emmy-winning singer and actor, he was a vitally important activist who brought many top Hollywood actors to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legendary march on Washington in 1963. Below, his longtime friend, EGOT-winning actress, singer and dancer Rita Moreno, remembers that day, and more. Harry Belafonte was the reason that a planeload of movie stars showed up for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in August 1963. The trip came about at his behest. Harry wanted very much for Dr. King to understand that there were people in Hollywood who really cared, people who were emotionally involved in politics and cared for the welfare of people of any color.

Martin Luther King Jr. (including speaking at the 1963 March on Washington) and other pivotal faces of the civil rights movement, standing up for migrant farmworkers, working in support of LGBTQ, or becoming a voice in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, Belafonte forged a strong commitment to activism. In fact, in 1968, Belafonte became the first Black person to helm a late-night talk show when he hosted for a week.

Singer, actor and staunch civil rights activist Harry Belafonte as died aged 96, it's been announced.

Harry Belafonte died on Tuesday, April 25. He was 96.

Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has passed away. He was 96.

Harry Belafonte, the legendary singer known for hits including “Banana Boat (Day-O)” and “Jump in the Line,” has died. He was 96.According to a statement from Belafonte’s team, the singer died of congestive heart failure, at his home.

Carmel Dagan Singer, actor, producer and activist Harry Belafonte, who spawned a calypso craze in the U.S. with his music and blazed new trails for African-American performers, has died at his Manhattan home, according to the New York Times. He was 96.An award-winning Broadway performer and a versatile recording and concert star of the ’50s, the lithe, handsome Belafonte became one of the first black leading men in Hollywood. He later branched into production work on theatrical films and telepics. As his career stretched into the new millennium, his commitment to social causes never took a back seat to his professional work.An intimate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he was an important voice in the ’60s civil rights movement, and he later embarked on charitable activities on behalf of underdeveloped African nations. He was an outspoken opponent of South Africa’s apartheid policies.

The director and subjects of Kokomo City are expressing shock over the death of Rasheeda Williams, one of the trans women featured in the award-winning documentary, who reportedly was shot to death in Atlanta Tuesday night.

EXCLUSIVE: The Daily Show has been ticking along nicely with its phalanx of guest hosts including Chelsea Handler, Leslie Jones and Kal Penn.

Dawn Porter Dawn Porter is a filmmaker whose latest project “The Lady Bird Diaries,” an all-archival documentary about Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the United States, will debut at the SXSW Film Festival. Her four-part docuseries “Supreme” explores the history of the United States Supreme Court and the legal battles that have shaped America. Porter’s other projects include the next installment of the civil rights series “Eyes on the Prize” for HBO. Throughout the month of February, Variety will publish essays from prominent Black artists, artisans and entertainment figures celebrating the impact of Black entertainment and entertainers on the world at large.