Chris Rock will return to the stage for his ongoing comedy tour this week, after being slapped by Will Smith on the Oscars stage Sunday night over a joke he made about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The on-screen altercation is one of the most dramatic unplanned events to occur in Academy Awards history, made even more peculiar by Smith accepting the award for best actor less than an hour after his outburst. However, the dramatic moment did seem to inspire some viewers to buy tickets to see Rock perform live; one secondary ticketing marketplace, TickPick, reports that they have sold more tickets to the comedian’s tour overnight than they did in the past month combined. They also claim that ticket prices have surged since Sunday night, going up from a minimum of $46 per ticket on March 18 to a minimum of $341.
Rock is set to perform six shows at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre from March 30 through April 1 before officially kicking off his Ego Death World Tour on April 2. While tickets for his Boston shows sold out quickly, there are still tickets available on resale sites such as Vivid Seats, Ticketmaster and Stubhub. The comedian will then travel to more than 30 cities for the North American leg of his tour, which marks the first time in five years that the comic will perform new material across the country.
“Lauded by peers and critics alike, Chris Rock is one of our generation’s strongest comedic voices,” Live Nation said in a statement. “With a career spanning more than three decades, Rock has enjoyed ongoing success in both film and television as a comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director.”
Rock currently has 38 dates scheduled for the tour, hitting major cities such as Las Vegas, Denver, Oakland, Seattle, New York, Chicago, and Toronto. After Boston, he’ll head to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City for two shows, before wrapping up at Los Angeles’s Dolby Theatre on Nov. 17th.
Source: Variety
Today we had a chance to interview screenwriter, producer, and actor, Rodney Barnes!
In case you aren’t familiar, Barnes has written and/or produced The Boondocks, My Wife & Kids, Everybody Hates Chris, and now is the head writer on HBO’s new show Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty!
In the interview below, we asked Barnes about these shows and we also asked about his upcoming projects that he has coming up with Netflix, plus what he thought about the plight of the comic book industry; especially since he has been a comic book writer for awhile with such brands as Marvel and Image Comics.
See the interview below;
Will Smith has issued an apology after slapping Chris Rock on the Oscars stage Sunday night.
“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” Smith wrote. “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
The post continued, “I would also like to apologize to the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to the Williams Family and my King Richard Family. I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us. I am a work in progress.”
The altercation happened when Rock took the stage to present the best documentary award and made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith being in a sequel to “G.I. Jane.” Pinkett Smith has been open about the fact that she has alopecia, which causes hair loss. Smith then ran on stage, slapping Rock and quickly returning to his seat. “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!” Smith yelled once he was seated.
The moment stunned viewers, who took to social media as it wasn’t immediately clear whether the altercation was a skit or not. Just a few moments later, Smith won the Oscar for best actor for his performance in “King Richard.” In his speech, he apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees, but did not address Rock.
“I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine a light on all of the people. Tim and Trevor and Zack and Saniyya and Demi and Aunjanue and the entire cast and crew of ‘King Richard,’ Venus and Serena, the entire Williams family. Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams,” Smith said.
During commercial breaks, both Smith’s publicist and Denzel Washington were seen talking to the actor. In his speech, Smith shared the advice Washington gave him: “At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.”
Smith continued, “I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people. I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse. You got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business you got to be able to have people disrespecting you. And you got to smile and you got to pretend like that’s okay.”
The morning after a raucous Oscarcast that saw Will Smith slap presenter Chris Rock in the face over his joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has issued another statement.
“The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show. We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.”
The follows a late night tweet by AMPAS following the altercation in which they posted, “The Academy does not condone violence of any form.”
That probe could see Smith ejected from AMPAS or suffer some sort of suspension from the organization and its events, including next year’s Oscars.
View co-host and Academy Governor in the Actor’s branch Whoopi Goldberg said today, “We’re not going to take that Oscar from him.”
“There will be consequences I’m sure, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going to do, particularly because Chris said ‘Listen, I’m not pressing any charges.’” added Goldberg referring to how Rock wasn’t pressing any charges against Smith with the LAPD.
“I think it was a lot of stuff probably built up,” Goldberg said today, noting that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have been the butt of jokes for various reasons for years, including previous jabs from Rock. “I think he overreacted…I think he had one of those moments where it was like G.D. it, just stop. I get it, not everybody acts the way we would like them to act under pressure. And he snapped.”
Though Rock declined to file a report with the LAPD, the Fargo star actually has six months to change his mind. Under California law, an assault like what Smith conducted upon Rock could result in a maximum of six months behind bars and a $100,000 fine.
With Rock not filing a police report at present, it is unlikely the Academy could take any legal measures like that against Smith, though it is likely to be among the topics raised at the group’s upcoming board meeting where they’ll do their traditional de-brief of the ceremony.
It is clear in the aftermath of the incident, that several board members are very upset with what went down on Sunday night and how it was handled, or rather not handled. Despite some backstage consultations, the organization and producers decided not to remove Smith from the event and the Dolby Theater, we hear. In fact, the handwringing went on so long that over half an hour passed and Smith was back up on stage accepting his Best Actor award for his King Richard performance.
Source: Deadline
CODA‘s best picture win at the 94th annual Academy Awards provided the telecast with a never-before-seen visual: a Dolby Theatre full of celebrities waving their hands aloft in the American Sign Language sign for applause, and a pair of ASL interpreters onscreen — one onstage, translating the producers’ spoken acceptance speeches for the audience, and another standing just below the platform, signing those speeches for the benefit of the film’s deaf castmembers.
The first film to center deaf characters and receive wide distribution (Apple bought the feature for $25 million at Sundance last year) became the first such movie to net the Oscars’ big prize, in addition to best adapted screenplay for writer-director Sian Heder and best supporting actor for Troy Kotsur. The latter means that both parents in CODA are played by Oscar winners: Kotsur and co-star Marlee Matlin, who 35 years ago became the first deaf performer ever to win an Academy Award.
Last year’s supporting actress winner, Youn Yuh-jung, signaled Kotsur’s win by signing “congratulations” (other viewers interpreted that she tried to sign “Troy”) before uttering his name into the microphone. The Minari and Pachinko star then stayed onstage to hold Kotsur’s brand-new statuette, freeing him up to sign his acceptance speech with both hands. “I want to thank all the wonderful Deaf theater stages where I was allowed and given the opportunity to develop my craft as an actor,” Kotsur signed as his interpreter, Justin Maurer, audibly choked up off-camera. “This is dedicated to our Deaf community, CODA community, disabled community. This is our moment.”
Heder, who is hearing, also brought up an ASL interpreter when she accepted her Oscar for best adapted screenplay. And co-host Amy Schumer signed “I love CODA; it’s my favorite movie” during the opening monologue and “good night” at the end of the evening. The ceremony also featured a number of other accessibility accommodations for the in-house audience and those at home, and Liza Minnelli used a wheelchair to present best picture alongside Lady Gaga.
“I felt that American Sign Language and the talents of the Deaf community were truly acknowledged tonight on so many levels — the official ASL live stream, Amy Schumer’s use of ASL in her opening and closing remarks, Youn Yuh-jung’s signing of ‘congratulations’ as she announced Troy Kotsur’s win, and Sian Heder’s bringing her interpreter, Heather Rossi, with her onstage so that the world could see her acceptance speech translated in ASL,” Deaf advocate and film executive Delbert Whetter tells The Hollywood Reporter. “One of the more profound sights for me was was seeing nearly everyone in the audience doing the ‘deaf applause‘ on multiple occasions — witnessing industry leaders in the room fully embrace what is such a fundamental part of Deaf culture and ASL fills me with so much hope for the countless deaf and disabled filmmakers and performers who are out there waiting in the wings.”
Another medical condition played a prominent role in the most-discussed moment of the night: Will Smith slapping Chris Rock after the presenter made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. The actress has alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss, and some people on social media have called Rock’s comment ableist.
The night began with Ariana DeBose picking up her expected best supporting actress statuette, making West Side Story Anitas two-for-two at the Oscars. In January, DeBose told The Hollywood Reporter that she was initially hesitant to take on the role that made Rita Moreno the first Latina performer ever to win an Academy Award. “I don’t know if there’s space for my interpretation, because I would have to play her as a Black woman,” DeBose said then. But in taking up the mantle, DeBose has now become the first Afro-Latina Oscar winner.
“You see an openly queer woman of color Afro-Latina who found her strength in life through art, and that is what I believe we’re here to celebrate,” DeBose said onstage Sunday night before going on to quote one of West Side Story‘s most famous lyrics. “So to anybody who has ever questioned your identity or you find yourself living in the gray spaces, I promise you this, there is indeed a place for us.”
Encanto‘s Yvett Merino became the first Latina producer to win an Academy Award with the movie’s animated feature win. “I am so proud to be part of a film that puts beautiful diverse characters front and center,” said the longtime Disney Animation Studios employee of Encanto, which had not one but two songs performed during the ceremony, chart-topper “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and best song nominee “Dos Oruguitas,” which was sung in Spanish by Sebastián Yatra.
Other Oscar winners from historically excluded backgrounds included The Power of the Dog‘s Jane Campion, who in 1994 became the first woman to receive a best director nomination and now is the third woman to win; Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson for best documentary feature Summer of Soul; and King Richard star Smith for best actor.
“This is not about me, this is about marginalized people in Harlem that needed to heal from pain,” Thompson said. “But just know that in 2022, this is not just a 1969 story about marginalized people in Harlem.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to Variety that Chris Rock has “declined to file a police report” following an altercation with Will Smith at the 94th Academy Awards. Smith took to the stage during the 2022 Oscars and slapped Rock after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.
A full statement from the Los Angeles Police Department reads: “LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program. The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.”
While presenting best documentary feature at the Oscars, Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head by comparing it to the look of Demi Moore in the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane.” Rock said he couldn’t wait to see Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia, star in “G.I. Jane 2,” which led Smith to go up on stage and slap Rock. Smith returned to his seat and shouted, “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!”
Smith won best actor for “King Richard” following the incident and issued an apology in his tearful acceptance speech. The actor said, “I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine a light on all of the people.”
In between the slap and his best actor win, Smith met with Denzel Washington. The “Glory” and “Training Day” Oscar winner offered Smith the following advice: “At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.”
Pinkett Smith announced last year she shaved her head after struggling with alopecia. After Rock made his “G.I. Jane” joke, Jada was seen not laughing and rolling her eyes. The actor wrote on Instagram last year, “Now at this point, I can only laugh… y’all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia…Mama’s gonna have to take it down to the scalp so nobody thinks she got brain surgery or something. Me and this alopecia are going to be friends … period!”
Source: Variety
Elle Johnson (Bosch) has been tapped to write, executive produce and serve as showrunner on A Soldier’s Story, a limited series adaptation of the award-winning A Soldier’s Play, which has been in development at Sony Pictures Television with the play’s Tony winner David Alan Grier attached to star and executive produce.
Grier, who won the 2021 Tony Award for his role as Sgt. Vernon Waters in the Broadway play, will play the character’s father in the series adaptation, which spans multiple wars and several decades and centers on Sgt. Vernon Waters and the emotional impact he is subjected to as a soldier in the 1940s.
The Pulitzer-winning A Soldier’s Play, written by Charles Fuller, is set at a Black army base in the segregated Louisiana of 1944. Sergeant Waters has been murdered, and Army captain Davenport – played by Blair Underwood in the Broadway play — arrives at the base to investigate the crime, which might or might not involve the local KKK or even the many Black soldiers who openly despite their hated sergeant.
Bernie Cahill and Jon Kanak of Activist Artists Management, approached Sony about developing the series alongside Grier, executive produce alongside Grier and Johnson. Charles Fuller, who wrote the original play, will also serve as an executive producer.
The play was first produced Off Broadway in 1981 by the Negro Ensemble Company in a staging that included young Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson.
A Soldier’s Play was adapted to the big screen with the 1984 film, also titled A Soldier’s Story, which was produced by Sony Pictures TV sibling Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Norman Jewison from a script by Fuller and starred Grier in a different role, one of the young soldiers in the murdered sergeant’s company, as well as Adolph Caesar as Sergeant Waters and Denzel Washington, both reprising their roles from the staging. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Fuller and Best Supporting Actor for Caesar.
The play finally made its Broadway debut in the recent Roundabout Theater Company production, which received seven Tony Award nominations last year, winning two, for Best Revival and Featured Actor for Grier.
Johnson was writer/executive producer on Prime Video’s Bosch, based on the Michael Connelly detective novels. In 2021, Johnson won an NAACP Image Award as co-showrunner and executive producer on Netflix’s limited series Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker which starred Octavia Spencer. Johnson is also the author of a debut memoir, The Officer’s Daughter, published by Harper Collins.
Johnson is repped by CAA, Alex Hertzberg and Adam Burger at Atlas Literary, and attorneys Bruce D. Gellman and David Hiller at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman. Grier is repped by Innovative Artists, Activist Artists Management, and Ziffren Brittenham. Fuller is repped by A3 Artists Agency.
Source: Deadline
Thanks to a couple of social media posts, we discovered the news that actor and comedian Mike Epps is set to debut a new comedy special on Netflix titled Indiana Mike on March 29th!
Check out the post below;
A world premiere musical stage adaptation that reimagines the hit 1983 Eddie Murphy-Dan Aykroyd comedy Trading Places has cast Freestyle Love Supreme‘s Aneesa Folds in the role that made Murphy a Hollywood superstar, with Bryce Pinkham (Broadway’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) in the Aykroyd spot.
With a book by Reno 911! actor and writer Thomas Lennon, direction by Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, A Soldier’s Play) and music and lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (Broadway’s First Date), Trading Places will debut at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre on May 25, running through June 26.
“I am so excited to come home with this world-class cast and creative team and a new musical that I know will resonate and be embraced by the Atlanta community,” said Leon in a statement. “With Trading Places, we’re exploring the idea of what would happen if we all traded places with someone else, even for a day, literally putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. It’s relevant; it’s uplifting; everyone will feel heard and represented. And you’re going to laugh, a lot! It’s the perfect play for right now.”
With a cast and creative team largely made up of Broadway stalwarts, an eventual move from Atlanta to New York is certainly under consideration. In addition to Folds and Pinkham, the cast includes Marc Kudisch (Girl From the North Country) and Lenny Wolpe (Bullets Over Broadway) as Mortimer and Randolph Duke (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy in the movie), and McKenzie Kurtz (Frozen), Josh Lamon (The Prom), Don Stephenson (Trouble in Mind) and Joe Montoya, who plays Phil, the musical’s apparent reinterpretation of the movie’s Ophelia (played by Jamie Lee Curtis).
The film, directed by John Landis from a screenplay by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod, made a big-screen superstar of Murphy, who played a broke con man named Billy Ray Valentine who, as a social experiment, swaps places with Aykroyd’s wealthy commodities broker.
For the musical, Billy Ray has been reimagined as Billie Rae. Folds, who also used the name Young Nees when she appeared as part of the cast of Broadway’s Freestyle Love Supreme, co-created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, can currently be seen as Danya in Miranda’s film adaptation of tick, tick…BOOM!
The musical’s creative team also includes choreography by Fatima Robinson (whose film credits include Dreamgirls and Coming 2 America 2), scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, lighting design by Adam Honoré, sound design by John Shivers, and costume design by Emilio Sosa. The musical is produced by special arrangements with Marc Madnick and Michael Cassel Group.
Source: Deadline
If you thought Mike Tyson was a badass before, wait until you see how he handled himself when a guy pulled a gun within 15 feet of him — let’s just say you can call him Cool Hand Luke.
TMZ obtained this insane video of what we’re told was a small comedy show Tuesday night on a rooftop bar in Hollywood, and MT was in attendance with a few friends.
At first you see Mike seated calmly at his front row table taking in the show — but the whole thing was interrupted by a random guy who approached Mike and co. and attempted to chat him up, disrupting a comedian’s set and everyone’s good time.
While you can’t hear exactly what was being said in the footage, eyewitnesses tell us the man was actually challenging Mike to a fight — suggesting he wanted to elevate his “status.”
Mike, of course, kept it chill and didn’t engage with the man … mostly just letting him talk. Eventually, though, another man intervenes and tells the dude to scram. We’re told this was actually the host/MC of the night.
That pissed off the guy challenging Mike … who threatened to shoot the host, and then pulled out a gun from his waistband and cocked it in front of everyone. Naturally, everyone gasped and started ducking under tables.
Luckily, he never fired, put the gun away and almost immediately regretted it. He once again approached Mike, and asked him not to call the cops. Once again, Mike just sat there in relative silence, heard the guy out and in the end, embraced him.
Mike actually hugged the man, at which point he finally left without further incident. We’re told people started to trickle out after that with some trepidation — not knowing if the dude was lurking somewhere down below in the streets. After a bit of time, Mike departed too.
We checked with the authorities … LAPD says they were never called. As for Tyson? Yeah, he did his best Paul Newman impression. Ice cold, Iron Mike.
Source: TMZ