“You should thank me for participating in this extremely transparent attempt to be more likable in the public eye,” the comedian said at the taping, which wound up on the cutting room floor.
Comedy Central / Via giphy.com
Comedy Central via justinbw.tumblr.com
Mark your calendars for Dec. 3, 2015.
Mary Evans and Ronald Grant via Everett Collection
The Wiz will be NBC's next live televised production, the network announced on Monday. The telecast, airing in December 2015, will be produced by Cirque du Soleil with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron returning to executive produce. The duo was also behind NBC's The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood in 2013, and Peter Pan Live! starring Allison Williams late last year. Zadan and Meron are working to revive The Wiz on Broadway for the 2016-17 season.
"We love this yearly tradition and we're more excited than ever to not only bring another Broadway musical to America's living rooms, but also see it land on Broadway as well," NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt said in a statement. "It's a natural next step for our live musical events ... Cirque's incredible imagination will help bring the fantasy world of Oz vividly to life and give this great show a modern spin on the age-old story we all love."
The Wiz, which originated as a Tony-award winning play in 1975 and was then adapted into a film in 1978, is about a girl living in Harlem named Dorothy. In the original movie version, she was played by Diana Ross, the Scarecrow was played by Michael Jackson, the Tin Man was played by Nipsey Russell, the Cowardly Lion was played by Ted Ross, and Glinda the Good Witch was played by Lena Horne.
No cast members for NBC's The Wiz Live! have been announced.
What Bat Channel did you watch? And at which Bat Time?
From left to right: the cast of Empire; its creators, writers, and executive producers.
Frank Micoletta / FOX
My black actor friends and I sometimes joke that it would be easier to become the first black woman on the Supreme Court than a successful black actor. At least the career path to becoming a Supreme Court justice is a little bit more cut-and-dried. The path to success as an actor is nonlinear and nonsensical, shrouded in secrecy and marked by well-meaning friends and family who love to offer career advice. Why can’t you be on Love and Hip Hop? That’s my show! Don’t you know Tyler Perry?
There is no such thing as a lifetime appointment for any actor. But for black actors, the obstacles we face in auditions don’t magically disappear on set.
I’ve been a professional actor since 2001. I don’t pay the bills by waitressing or bartending, but I’m not wildly successful, rich, and famous either. Most people don’t see those of us in the middle, who look forward to episodic season every fall, who do the Master Cleanse to get ready for pilot season, who go on auditions, and who live their lives as regular people who happen to be actors. Add being a black woman to that mix and you have a whole other dimension of insanity.
I can’t tell you how many auditions I have been on where the character is so obviously written for a white woman. One referred to her blonde hair and lack of a tan, no lie. I called my agents like, Really? The onus is on me, the actor, to go into the audition rooms and make them see the character another way — black. And keep in mind that actors are perhaps the least powerful part of the television production process. But like an anti-racism acting Care Bear, I’m supposed to act so amazingly well, be so pretty, so dazzlingly, so indisputably wonderful, that stars and rainbows and sunshine issue forth from my magical being and make them see a black woman in this role.
So let’s say that my little rainbow trick works and the producers and writers and casting directors all look at each other and go, “She’s not what we envisioned but DID YOU SEE HOW DAZZLING SHE WAS?!?” It’s a wonderful feeling, for everyone. Agents and managers are happy. The powers that be are happy. And as the actor, I’m simply ecstatic.
But then I get on set and I’m the only black face to be seen. No other black actors, no black producers, and no black writers. The onus is still on me to show how the character in their imaginations would be as a black woman.
About five years ago, I was hired to be a play a bartender in a comedy series. Even though it was a supporting role, the producers had wonderful ideas and storylines for the character — including a romance — and everyone seemed to think I was perfect for it.
So when we started filming, I looked forward to each script, whipping open my laptop, devouring every line. But every time, I was disappointed, as it became clear I was the taciturn type of bartender. Here’s your drink; exit stage left. Somebody on set asked me how long I’d been an extra.
When I was growing up in the New York City suburbs, a radio ad for the stage play The Diary of Black Men would come on almost every day. In it, a deep-voiced, dramatic black male intoned “How…do you love…a black woman?” over and over, like a mantra.
That’s kind of how I imagine TV writers (and, let's be real, most of them are white and male) trying to write my lines. How…do you write…for a black woman? Most white male writers don’t have a bunch of black women in their lives. Maybe a black guy friend. But a black woman whom they know kinda well? A real one? Just like a normal, everyday black woman who cracks jokes and has a personality, but isn’t just a stereotype of some black woman they saw on TV?
I can understand the challenge before them, really. Let’s say they write a particularly salty one-liner for a black woman. Is that gonna come out racist, the stereotypical “sassy black friend”? And, more important, who do they ask if it is racist? Their one black friend? Isn’t asking him extra racist?
All actors know that as soon as you’re on the show, your next job is to get to know the writers. You talk, you bond, and then one day you tell them a story about your life and discover they’ve put it in the script. I remember trying in vain to connect with the writers. During table reads, I would go up and talk to some of the writers, but they gave me the cold shoulder.
Since they don’t know me — or, I figured, anybody like me — I wondered how invested they would be in writing for my character.
Most of the time I would get a script the night before a table read with a few lines. Sometimes I actually had a part of the story line, but after the table read it was always cut. Naturally, I assumed it was cut because of my poor performance. I asked what I could do better. But I was always given the excuse of “real estate.” There were so many characters and only so much time, and they needed to focus on the other main, regular characters. Of course, real estate wasn’t a problem when they needed to write for a white guest star.
And then, one week, the writers forgot to put me in the first draft of the script altogether. It was part of my contract to be in every episode, so I was added in after the fact, when they realized my character literally didn’t have a single line. I think I ended up delivering somebody a beer.
My character’s utter lack of personality all season long didn’t stop the showrunner from feeding me the line, “What did you say, mothafucka?” while shooting footage for outtakes. “You know, really give it to him,” he directed. Oh, now you want me to be the extra-sassy black girl? That was just about too much to bear. I was not surprised when I was not asked back for Season 2.
During my season on the show, only one writer tried to initiate a conversation with me, about Antoine Dodson, the brother of a the alleged victim of a home intruder rape whose local news interview went viral in 2010. I looked to my right and my left and pointed to myself. Cliché, I know. I started cackling, summoning all my dazzle and thinking, This is it! They actually see me!
The writer awkwardly brought up that he had seen my audition tape, and how good he thought it was. He told me he was just a stand-up from Chicago trying to do the best job he could, and that he wished he could do more for my character. Then he mumbled something about Wanda Sykes and shuffled off. I was left singing “You can run and tell dat, run and tell dat” to no one in particular.
He was just one guy trying to make a difference in a room where nobody was on the same page. But the truth is, if you are a white writer who is tasked with the job of “writing for a black woman,” your first attempts will be clumsy at best. They might be — dare I say — racist.
The difference is that writers can afford to get it wrong, and try again. As an actor of color, I’m stuck doing my Care Bear song and dance. (Hence why I’m writing this anonymously.)
Lots of people are making a concerted effort to make television more diverse — and a handful of them are succeeding brilliantly. My only hope is that writers don’t fail their actors of color out of fear of failing. To that end, I want to let you in on a little secret: A surefire way to prove to yourself you’re not a racist is to stop being afraid of sounding racist. Instead, listen to feedback and be open to change. Too many writers don’t know where to start and so never do.
Who exactly are we rooting for on this show?
Dan Meth / HBO / Via BuzzFeed
Yes, we’re all very old now.
Released: May 5, 2000
Fun fact: Mel Gibson was apparently the original choice to play Maximus (Russell Crowe), but he passed on the part. At 43, Gibson didn't know if he could take on such a physically demanding role.
Where to watch: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes
DreamWorks Pictures / Via impawards.com
Released: May 12, 2000
Fun fact: Maureen is supposed to be the American Ballet Academy's prima ballerina, but she doesn't do much dancing on screen. That's because actress Susan May Pratt was the only cast member without any formal dance training.
Where to watch: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes
Columbia Pictures / Via fanpop.com
Released: May 19, 2000
Fun fact: Director Todd Phillips makes a cameo as the "foot lover on the bus." Phillips would, of course, go on to direct Old School and The Hangover films.
Where to watch: Amazon, iTunes
DreamWorks Pictures / Via imgkid.com
Released: June 2, 2000
Fun fact: Big Momma's House is one of only four movies to be released on Enhanced Versatile Disc, or EVD, a short-lived Chinese rival to the DVD.
Where to watch: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes
20th Century Fox / Via flickfacts.com
They danced, they sang, they took hundreds of fan photos and now we miss them even more.
The gang got together for this fabulous photo, which was posted to Tyler Hilton's (Chris Keller's) Instagram page. He wrote: "Let's do this again yall!! Best fans of all time. Best friends I could ask for. Been through a lot together! #OTHfam."
He was joined by Chad Michael Murray (Lucas Scott), Barry Corbin (Brian "Whitey" Durham), Kieren Hutchison (Andy Hargrove), Antwon Tanner (Antwon "Skills" Taylor), Lee Norris (Marvin "Mouth" McFadden), Hilarie Burton (Peyton Sawyer), Colin Fickes (Jimmy Edwards), Bevin Prince (Bevin Mirskey), Michael Copon (Felix Taggaro), Vaughn Wilson (Fergie Thompson) and Cullen Moss (Junk).
That was absolutely brutal. This post contains NSFW language.
Chris Pizzello / AP
Chris Pizzello / AP
Chris Pizzello / AP
Kevin Hart referenced Jenner’s reported transition on Monday night’s Comedy Central special. Jeff Ross and Will Ferrell also apparently made transphobic comments that didn’t air.
Christopher Polk / Getty Images
Hart said, "There were rumors that Justin [was] dealing with Kendall Jenner and that shocked me. I was like, 'What the fuck?' That's what I said, 'What the fuck?' I was like, 'You gonna deal with a Jenner, I thought it would be Bruce. That's what I thought."
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Matt Donnelly, a reporter for The Wrap, tweeted from the roast as it happened live, "Kendall Jenner if you and Justin Bieber get married who is going to give you away? Only man in family is Khloe Kardashian."
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
“You Bruce Jenner Hollywood hermaphrodites. That’s all you people are," Matt Donnelly also tweeted.
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
“Take care of yourselves.”
AMC
AMC
AMC
People are already turning on the new Daily Show host.
Byron Keulemans / Comedy Central
“Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me?” Wait but seriously, who will she be?!?
Disney
So we, two Disney fanatics, decided to dream-cast what is sure to be an EPIC film.
Disney
Disney
♫ Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me? ♫
Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Disney is adapting Mulan into a live-action movie, BuzzFeed News can confirm. Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek are writing the script, and Chris Bender and J.C. Spink are producing the new film, as The Hollywood Reporter first revealed.
The 1998 animated film — which tells the story of a young woman named Hua Mulan (voiced by Ming-Na Wen) who disguises herself as a man to go to war in her father's place — is the latest Disney movie to get the live-action treatment.
The studio's adaptation of Cinderella , starring Lily James, was released last month. And it recently announced a live-action version of 1991's Beauty and the Beast, set to be released in March 2017 and starring Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as The Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts.
A decade after Ugly Betty put her on the map, the 36-year-old actor is back doing what she does best on Weird Loners: making unlikable characters lovable.
Fox
"It's not a basic human right to be on a hit television show," said Becki Newton, former star of ABC's hit series Ugly Betty, followed by two more network comedies that were quickly canceled. "Most shows aren't hits. So I'm aware I've already experienced both extremes and now I'm getting to experience everything else in between."
At the lowest end of Newton's professional career sits Love Bites, an NBC comedy created by Cindy Chupack (Sex and the City) that was derailed by real-life pregnancies (Newton's), contract woes (Jordana Spiro's), and endless retooling (the network's) before debuting in June 2011 to less than 3 million viewers (a series high).
At the other end sits Ugly Betty, a full-fledged cultural phenomenon that premiered to 16 million viewers in 2006. Over the course of its four seasons, the series drew big-name guest stars (like Lindsay Lohan, Victoria Beckham, Salma Hayek) and won three of the 19 Emmys for which it was nominated. Newton played Mode magazine's fast-talking, slow-thinking receptionist Amanda Tanen, who — along with Michael Urie's Marc St. James — became a fan favorite on the Silvio Horta-created dramedy, thanks to the charming aloofness and endless effervescence she brought to the campy show.
"I started out playing the nastiest, sluttiest, most inebriated person on TV and I loved it," Newton told BuzzFeed News of her breakthrough role, as she leaned back in her chair at Le Pain Quotidien in Los Angeles. "The messiness of someone makes them more real to me. It's not how nice and sweet they are, it's how much they fumble."
ABC, via deeperthantherabbithole.tumblr.com
The New York Police Department confirmed to BuzzFeed News that a complaint was made against the famous producer.
Harvey Weinstein in 2014.
Christopher Polk / Getty Images
Harvey Weinstein is under investigation for allegedly groping a woman Friday night in New York City, a spokesman for the New York Police Department confirmed Monday to BuzzFeed News.
A complaint against Weinstein has been filed, police said, and the investigation is ongoing. The NYPD referred BuzzFeed News to the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which declined to comment.
The allegation was first reported by the New York Daily News , which identified the woman who made the report against Weinstein as 22 and Italian. The woman — who "didn't know who he was until he approached her" — reportedly told police Weinstein "touched her private area and her breasts."
According to The Hollywood Reporter , the woman made her report at 8:30 p.m. on March 27, "roughly two hours after the alleged incident." The NYPD declined to confirm these details.
A spokesperson for The Weinstein Company didn't immediately return a request for comment.
According to reports, the incident occurred at Tribeca Film Center in Manhattan. But a woman who answered the phone at the venue Monday said she didn't know of any events held at Tribeca Film Center on the night in question. The nearby Tribeca Cinemas was hosting the Colombian Film Festival from March 24 to March 29, and according to a report on the festival by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo , The Weinstein Company was present at the festival and met with some of the filmmakers. But the festival director told BuzzFeed News that this was just "gossip."
"Unfortunately that's not true," Juan Carvajal said in an email, "No one of the Weinstein company went to our festival." A representative for Tribeca Cinemas also said Harvey Weinstein wasn't at the theater Friday night.
Should charges be brought against Weinstein, groping is considered a misdemeanor.
Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross on Black-ish.
Kelsey Mcneal / ABC
It’s no secret that television is more diverse than ever, with more roles written exclusively for non-Caucasian actors and more actors of color cast in traditionally white roles. In tandem with the so-called pendulum of ethnic casting, I’ve witnessed a more subtle (though also long overdue) change: the acceptance of natural hair on actresses of color.
It wasn’t always this way. Hollywood taught me to hate my tiny, kinky corkscrew curls long before I started working there. I grew up in the South during a time when natural hair was considered “nappy,” and my mother would religiously take me to the salon every six weeks to get my kinky new growth smoothed out. I genuinely didn’t know any other way. I’d never seen a sophisticated lady with natural hair before. I wanted to look like Tyra Banks, Gabrielle Union, and Tia and Tamera Mowry, who all had long, straight, luxurious locks.
When I moved to Los Angeles at age 15, I was lucky to become a series regular on the Nickelodeon show Just Jordan. At the time, my hair was shoulder length, pressed, and my own. Producers decided my character needed the classic long hair extensions and, to a certain extent, they were right. My character was a model, and an African-American model in 2006 wouldn’t have had any look but that. Even at my auditions, everyone’s hair looked the same: silky-straight and Europe-grown.
But I hated the extensions. They looked lifeless and went down to my butt. Not much I saw on television was real and hair was no exception. I stared in the mirror for hours puzzled at who was looking back at me. When I voiced my irritation to one of the directors, I was quickly told to hush so I didn’t upset the hairstylist or producers. OK.
I’ve always felt more like an Erykah Badu than a Beyoncé. Thus began my quest to discover the roots of natural hair. The only information I could find on going natural was a handful of black hair care forums. There were galleries full of women flaunting their gorgeous, healthy, kinky curls. Who were these people? I’d never seen them before! Their hair looked so alive! My view of beauty was quickly changing. Instead of feeling like my extensions status symbol, I felt enslaved to an ignorant concept of beauty. What young woman doesn’t deeply desire to feel beautiful in her own skin and her own hair?
Without anyone’s approval, I began wearing my hair natural underneath my extensions. Six weeks came and went, no “fixing the fuzz” needed. After another six weeks, the fuzz began to form into tiny little curls. I loved these little things growing out of my head! They were so fascinating! Still, my lack of confidence wouldn’t allow me to take my hair out of the Weave Protection Program. The thought of being of so real made me feel vulnerable.
After having lost roles to white actresses that specifically called for a nonwhite actress — seeing a girl booked who was not at the all-black callbacks — I couldn't help but try to be like them. Especially when all the black girls getting booked had that Beyoncé look. I wanted to be marketable. I wanted to work on ABC Family, Disney, and The CW. (And, ahem, still do!) I wanted to fit in. So, confused as all hell, I kept the extensions in. Sometimes straight, sometimes curled, but always extra long and European.
I wasn’t fully able to shed the fake me until summer of 2013, when I was hired to portray a young Olympic runner on the USA show Necessary Roughness. The producers were based in Atlanta, where the show filmed, and I had auditioned in L.A. They had only seen me and my kinda-curly, wanna-be-natural-but-not-quite weave in the audition tape sent to them. The first morning I arrived on set in Atlanta, while getting my hair and makeup done, word came from the producers that, if I was willing, they’d like to see how I’d look without my beloved extensions.
At the time, the question felt like asking me to take a shit in public. But I enjoy taking risks, so off they came. And off they stayed. I’d kept my curls healthy under the extensions for all those years, and this was the moment they’d been waiting for. If you watch that episode you can witness the debut of my natural do, a puffy ponytail. I felt scared, exhilarated, and raw all at the same time. I felt so beautiful. There was no going back. Being natural meant so much to me. Being natural is me.
I’m a firm believer that we entertainers have serious real-world influence. The folks cast in your favorite TV shows and movies set standards of beauty, femininity, and masculinity in our society. Or, at least, as a young girl I wanted to emulate what I saw on television. Now, as a woman on the screen, I want the girls who see me to be comfortable in their own skin and in their own hair. Haters still gonna hate and trolls still gonna troll. One time an on-set hairstylist got nippy, telling me the producers would never have wanted me to show up with my hair in an afro. But the producer put her in her place, saying, “the wilder Chelsea’s hair, the better.” Now, I often see other actresses sporting coils and locs at auditions. I high-five them. I ask about their time in the Weave Protection Program and how long they’ve been out.
Once, as I walked out of a callback, I heard the producer say, “But what about that hair?” Good question. What about it? Change is natural, and so is my hair.
He made the joke at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.
Foxx said: "We have some groundbreaking performances here too tonight. Bruce Jenner will be here doing some musical performances. He's doing a his and her duet all by himself."
He followed the comment up by saying: "Look, I'm just busting your balls while I still can."
Kevin Winter / Getty
Who is Trevor Noah? The new Daily Show host has been a comedian for more than a decade. Check back here for updates throughout the day.
Getty Images
Comedy Central announced Monday, through the New York Times, that Trevor Noah will replace Jon Stewart as the host of The Daily Show.
"You don't believe it for the first few hours," Noah told the New York Times from Dubai, where he is currently on tour. "You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you're in a place where you can't really get alcohol."
