“The Quad” has been canceled at BET less than a week after the show’s second season finale, a spokesperson for the network stated.
Anika Noni Rose starred in the drama series as Dr. Eva Fletcher, the new president of the fictional Georgia A&M University. The historically black college struggled in Season 2, with Fletcher struggling to raise money for the nearly bankrupt institution. If she failed, the school would be forced to join Georgia’s largest, public and predominantly white university in order to keep its doors open.
In addition to Rose, the series stars Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Cecil Diamond, Peyton Alex Smith as Cedric Hobbs, Jazz Raycole as Sydney Fletcher, Zoe Renee as Noni Williams, Jake Allyn as Bojohn Folsom, Michelle DeFraites as Madison Kelly, and Sean Blakemore as Coach Eugene Hardwick. The series was created by Felicia D. Henderson and Rob Hardy, who served as executive producers. Henderson also served as showrunner.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1979 Comedic Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam Was Born
On this day in comedy on April 9, 1979, Actress, Keshia Knight Pulliam was born in Newark, New Jersey, 1979
Pulliam began her career at the age of nine months. She was featured in a Johnson & Johnson national print ad for baby products. At the age of three she appeared on Sesame Street in the challenging role of “Keshia”. However, she is best known as Rudy Huxtable, the baby girl on NBC’s smash hit 80’s sitcom, The Cosby Show from 1984-1992. During that fruitful period, she made her big screen debut in The Last Dragon in 1985 and in 1986 Pulliam became the youngest actress ever nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on The Cosby Show.
Keshia Knight Pulliam was not just relegated to being known only as little Rudy. She appeared in commercials and guest starred on other television shows. She was seen in the films, Polly, Polly Comin Home, Beauty Shop (with Queen Latifah) and Madea Goes to Jail. In 2002 she won the celebrity version of Fear Factor. She was big on winning celebrity versions of shows because she won the celebrity version of The Weakest Link, too. She’s done music videos (Chingy’s “One Call Away” and Tank’s “Can’t Make You Love Me”) and plays (Donald Gray’s The Man of Her Dreams). In 2007 Pulliam returned as a regular TV star in Tyler Perry’s House of Payne playing the part of Miranda Lucas-Payne.
In VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Kid Stars, Pulliam ranks #19 and she has three NAACP Image Awards (House of Payne) for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1998 ‘The Players Club’ Was Released By New Line Cinema
On this day in comedy on April 8, 1998, The Players Club was released by New Line Cinema
Ice Cube made his directorial debut in this comedy starring LisaRaye, Bernie Mac, Faizon Love, Jamie Foxx, Terrance Howard, Charlie Murphy, Alex Thomas, A. J. Johnson, Dick Anthony Williams, Monica Calhoun, Tiny Lister, Adele Givens, Michael Clarke Duncan and John Amos.
The story is centered on LisaRaye, who narrates. She tells how as a young, single-mother-to-be she had a put-your-foot down argument with her father and moved out of the house. She subsequently got a job as a shoe store employee barely making ends meets. Then she meets up with a couple of girls who set her straight. Why be that sexy and not get paid for it? She needs to be stripping.
LisaRaye reluctantly gets into the stripping game, working at the Players Club and pulling in undeclared cash. It’s all good until her younger cousin gets a job stripping. This relative is soon doing more than stripping. She’s getting drunk and doing private parties. LisaRaye knows how wild those private parties can be from personal experience and tries to warn her cousin, who doesn’t want to hear it. She’s going where the money is. All the while the club owner, (Bernie Mac) has his own problems. He owes $60,000 to a gangster and his time is up. He’s beat up and thrown into the trunk of his car. If two crooked cops hadn’t shown up and arrested him that would’ve been it. Once Mac is out of jail retribution takes place on both sides.
During all the club drama, LisaRaye seeks some normalcy by dating the DJ. She discovers that her cousin has been tricked into doing a private party thinking there would be other strippers there. It turns out she is the only stripper and she ends up beaten and raped by the guest of honor who was told she was “that” kind of girl. LisaRaye and the DJ (Jamie Foxx) go to see her and then proceed to the club where Foxx holds a gun on the two strippers who got LisaRaye’s cousin ambushed while LisaRaye fights one of them furiously. After beating her down and quitting, LisaRaye knocks the other in the jaw as she and Foxx exit. Their timing is perfect, because just then the gangster and his henchmen shoot up the club and destroy it.
The epilogue is that the cousin gets a job at the shoe store then moves back home to live with her mother. LisaRaye and Foxx are a happy couple (He’s a top DJ on the radio station and she’s a reporter). Bernie Mac was killed by the gangsters. The two strippers that got beat down go work at a new strip club and Bernie’s henchmen go to Freaknik.
On a budget of $5 million, The Players Club grossed $23,047,939 domestically and $213,546 internationally for a worldwide box office take of $23,261,485.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1995 ‘Bad Boys’ Was Released By Columbia Pictures
On this day in comedy on April 7, 1995, Bad Boys was released by Columbia Pictures
Starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, this buddy flick is Michael Bay’s directorial debut. The story centers around two narcotic detectives in Miami, Florida on a case. After $100 million of their seized heroin is stolen from the police vault Internal Affairs suspects it was an inside job and the narcotics division has a week to recover the missing drugs or they’re going to be shut down. Smith enlists one of his informants (Karen Alexander) to see what she can find out on the streets about a recent big robbery Alexander and her friend, (Tea Leoni) pose as escorts for a baller’s party. Things go south, and Alexander and the baller are killed. Leoni manages to escape but will only tell her tale to Smith. Unfortunately, he’s away when she calls into the station, but Lawrence is there and the police captain (Joe Pantoliano) talks him into impersonating Smith (since Leoni never met him) so she will cooperate. Lawrence does, and they meet up.
The conflict arises because Lawrence is married to a jealous wife (aren’t they all) and must now live Smith’s life for a while until they can bust the thieves. Smith returns to find out he now has to live Lawrence’s life. The problem is Smith is a happy bachelor with all kinds of women stopping through; women Lawrence must kick out, so he can continue his investigation and stay faithful to his wife. Needless to say, Smith is not happy living at Lawrence’s house. Meanwhile, the thieves realize Leoni saw the murder and now they’re after her. The chase is on, but after a series of near-death experiences and multiple gunfights the criminals are killed, order is restored and Lawrence cuffs Smith and Leoni up together, so he can go explain to his wife why he’s been running around with a white woman.
Bad Boys was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It featured the talents of Theresa Randle, John Salley, Michael Imperioli and Marg Helgenberger. Originally it was written for Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey. Then once the script was retooled, Arsenio Hall was approached to play the Will Smith role. Hall later admitted turning down that part was the worse career mistake he ever made.
Though it received mixed reviews, Bad Boys was a commercial success. On a budget of $19 million it made $65,807,024 domestically and $75,600,000 internationally for a worldwide box office gross of $141,407,024.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1968 Comedian, Writer, And Actor James Hannah Was Born!
On this day in comedy on April 4, 1968, Comedian, Writer, James Hannah was born in Chicago, IL
James Hannah was a writer’s writer. He left his native Chicago after a stint as quality control monitor for All Jokes Aside, Chicago’s premier black comedy club. James would listen to each act and then offer notes to improve that performer’s set. Whether they liked it or not most comedians tried his tweaks and found that James Hannah knew comedy. Once he’d established himself as a joke doctor he took his skills to Hollywood beginning as a staff writer for The Steve Harvey Show and from there the dominoes fell: My Wife & Kids, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Chris Rock’s, Never Scared, Weekends at the DL andTyler Perry’s, House of Payne as well as penning material for some of the top comedians in the industry.
Hannah was also a comedian’s comedian. His lists of credits include, Def Comedy Jam, Comic View, Bad Boys of Comedy, Laffapolooza, One Mic Stand and Martin Lawrence’s First Amendment. He was a yardstick and an uncompromising comedy personality. His Truthpaste on social media was an immediate hit as James sounded off on subjects many would go nowhere near. He was bold, fearless and scathing.
James Hannah’s influence was evident in his era. Many Chicago comedians, such as Deon Cole credit Hannah with getting them into comedy by example and in some cases by writing out their first successful bits and teaching them the art. His work ethic was legendary. While most staff writers pander to series stars, James would tell them that they were not funny and then show them how to be. He was a blunt, brutally honest, unparalleled humor mechanic.
James Hannah died from an aneurysm on February 10, 2014, but his comedic phrasings will live on forever.
Against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, the sexual assault retrial of Bill Cosby will get underway Monday in suburban Philadelphia with a new jury, a new defense team, and a new cultural awareness of the slew of rich, powerful, and famous men who have been accused of sexual misconduct.
Cosby is — so far at least — the only major Hollywood entertainer to face a jury in this heated atmosphere, and the retrial is likely to serve as a bellwether of how the justice system deals with such accusations. The once-revered star is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault — he has pleaded not guilty.
Cosby’s first trial ended in June when a jury deadlocked on all charges after more than 50 hours of deliberations. He is now facing a new jury — seven men and five women — selected last week in Montgomery County, just outside of Philadelphia. Two of the jurors are black.
Opening statements are set for today, though a court filing late Friday could put a snag in the schedule. Defense lawyers asked the judge to replace one juror who, according to the defense motion, made it clear to other prospective jurors that he has “a fixed opinion about Mr. Cosby’s guilt in this case.”
They also asked for other jurors to be questioned about what they heard. The juror — identified only as Juror 11 — could be replaced by one of the six alternates also selected last week.
Cosby, now 80, is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, then the operations manager of Temple University’s women’s basketball team and now a massage therapist living in Canada. Cosby, a Temple alum who had been a major booster of the university, has maintained that their sexual encounter was consensual.
Constand is one of some 50 women who have accused the iconic comedian of drugging and then assaulting them — but she is the only one whose allegation became the focus of a criminal charge. The charges were filed just days before Pennsylvania’s 12-year statute of limitations was due to expire.
Though he was known as “America’s Dad” from his years on “The Cosby Show,” which aired from 1984 to 1992, his image crashed in 2014 as the women went public with their claims.
While the retrial is likely to be largely a repeat of the first trial, there are some key changes.
After the mistrial in June, Cosby switched lawyers. His team is now led by Los Angeles defense lawyer Tom Mesereau, who successfully defended Michael Jackson against child molestation charges back in 2005.
The retrial is likely to be longer — perhaps up to a month — and Cosby’s defense is expected to mount a more vigorous attack on the credibility of Constand, portraying her as a greedy and lying woman who framed Cosby to get a big-money civil settlement.
Last week, Judge Steven T. O’Neill ruled that the amount of that civil settlement, which has remained confidential for years, may be disclosed to the new jury. He also tentatively allowed the testimony of a woman who has told the defense that Constand once remarked that she could say she had been sexually assaulted by someone in order to get a financial settlement.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are poised to call five other women who say that Cosby sexually assaulted them. In the first trial, the judge allowed only one other woman to testify.
But perhaps the biggest change of all is the cultural atmosphere created by the growing list of famous entertainment and media figures – including veteran Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein – whose careers have been derailed by allegations of sexual misconduct or harassment.
The big question, of course, is how that atmosphere will affect the outcome of the case against the once-beloved entertainer.
Tracee Ellis Ross, Tiffany Haddish, Yara Shahidi, Featured In New Single Released By Drake!
Drake dropped a new song Friday night, a Lauryn Hill-sampling smooth groove called “Nice for What.” Along with the song came a video that features 20 famous (and kind-of famous but fabulous) women, most of them actresses or musicians: Olivia Wilde, Misty Copeland, Issa Rae, Rashida Jones, Jourdan Dunn, Tracee Ellis Ross, Tiffany Haddish, Yara Shahidi, Zoe Saldana, Letitita Wright, Bria Vinaite, Emma Roberts, Syd, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth and Victoria Lejonhjarta. All are filmed separately.
Directed by 22-year-old Toronto native Karena Evans — who also helmed Drake’s clip for “God’s Plan,” which featured him giving away $1 million to various people and organizations in need — the clip doesn’t have a plot, just Drake performing while the ladies groove.
The song samples “Ex Factor,” one of the most popular tracks from the 1999 classic “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Drake previously sampled Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing),” from the same album, on his 2014 song “Draft Day.”
Drake announced the single was coming during a quick surprise appearance at a Toronto concert by Majid Jordan Thursday night,adding that his new album is nearly finished.
“The reason I’m here tonight is because I’m back in the city finishing my album,” Drake told the audience. “I’ve got a new single dropping tomorrow night, too, just in case you got some free time.” He also said he’ll be playing live dates this summer, and talked briefly about how proud he is of Majid Jordan and the “OVO family.”
The MC hasn’t released a full-length album since 2016 or even an extended work since the “More Life” mixtape just over a year ago, but as always he’s been active: He dropped a pair of new songs in January — “God’s Plan” and “Diplomatic Immunity” — and appeared in Migos’ hilariously ’70s-retro video for “Walk It Talk It.” He also premiered several new songs in a surprise appearance at a pop-up party in Memphis.
Source: Variety
Chadwick Boseman Returns To ‘Black Panther’ Mode For ‘Black Jeopardy’ On SNL
Saturday Night Live returned from a holiday break with a strong combination of host and musical guest in Chadwick Boseman and Cardi B.
Boseman revisited his biggest movie, Black Panther, in two winning sketches. In the first, appearing with Chris Redd and Leslie Jones, he debates the use of the “Wakanda forever” salute by two white fanboys played by Beck Bennett and Pete Davidson. When they use it awkwardly to express their love of the movie, Redd and Jones cringe (“It’s like indigestion, only racial”), balking at the idea of the cultural appropriation. Eventually, though, a barter arrangement is worked out involving Drake and dabbing.
Boseman then stepped back into fully costumed T’Challa mode for the return of “Black Jeopardy,” a recurring sketch on which Tom Hanks had a memorable mark last fall. As host of the game show, Kenan Thompson anchors the concept. It slyly contrasts the broad stereotypes of African-American characters with the African values espoused by T’Challa, whose Wakanda nation in this setting has an especially Disney-esque sparkle. “This is the reason why your cable bill is in your grand mamma’s name,” Thompson says, reading one quiz answer. Boseman-as-T’Challa responds, “What is, ‘To honor her as the foundation of the family?’” Thompson shakes his head. “That’s really nice,” he smiles. “It’s wrong. But that’s really nice.” After another, similarly straight-arrow answer, Thompson decides to give him points even though the answer does not match what’s on his card. “Y’all must have no mean streets in Wakanda,” he marvels.
Source: Deadline
ABFF To Partner With TruTV For A Comedy Writers Competition
The 22nd Annual American Black Film Festival, (ABFF) taking place in Miami, Florida June 13-19, 2018, is thrilled to announce a new talent pipeline program, in partnership with truTV: the ABFF®truTV Comedy Writers Competition.
The first-ever ABFF® truTV Comedy Competition is searching for the next generation of comedic voices and will provide a unique opportunity for a content creator to develop a project with truTV. Each competitor will be required to submit a paper-developed half-hour comedic format (1-2 page document), consisting of a logline of the show premise, the type of format, the talent leading the show and the show overview. truTV is a comedy network, so it’s all about leaning into the comedy first. For inspiration, submitters are encouraged to research existing truTV original programming formats, including Impractical Jokers, Comedy Knockout, Hack My Life and Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks.
WATCH: ‘The First Purge’ Trailer Released!
Who knew the Purge could have been just a big, fun party? Don’t worry, it doesn’t stay happy and non-violent for long, as this first trailer for The First Purge gives a deathly blow by blow of how America’s deadliest holiday came to be.
Amidst a general backdrop of protest and division not unlike our current age, the Purge – a day when laws are unenforced and pent-up violence unleashed – is inaugurated. “Join The First Purge!” comes the voice of the New Founding Fathers of America from a public loudspeaker, while resisters chant “Do Not Purge!”
But the trailer shows the Purge organizers watching in dismay as citizens turn the planned event into some sort of celebration – a turn of events that doesn’t last for long, when soldiers dressed like civilians arrive to stir things up and get people purging.
Says Universal: Behind every tradition lies a revolution. Next Independence Day, witness the rise of our country’s 12 hours of annual lawlessness. Welcome to the movement that began as a simple experiment: The First Purge.
This time around, the cast includes Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez and Marisa Tomei.
The First Purge is directed by Gerard McMurray from a screenplay once again by creator James DeMonaco. The film is produced by Platinum Dunes’ Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and Michael Bay, Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum and Sébastien K. Lemercier.
Universal takes The First Purge to theaters July 4.
Take a look at the trailer above, and here is the newly released poster:
