Nick Cannon Posts HILARIOUS Response To Mariah Carey’s Engagement!
A couple of days ago we learned that Mariah Carey became engaged to billionaire boyfriend James Packer, and Nick Cannon, for one, is being a great sport about it.
Carey’s ex and America’s Got Talent host reposted a hilarious meme in which he is lying unconscious in a hospital bed as Kevin Hart hovers over him saying, “It’s just a ring, Nick.”
The meme is funny for sure, but the rock that now resides on Carey’s finger is in fact a whopping 35 CARATS, making it one of the biggest diamond rings on the planet.
By comparison, Kim Kardashian’s ring is 15 carats and Beyonce’s is 18, so Mariah’s new bling has them beat by about double.
Hell, a glimpse of that piece easily might’ve knocked me out, too.
But Cannon appears to hold no ill will toward the couple, and even offered his enthusiastic congratulations in the caption:
“Ha! This made me laugh out loud for real!!! HILARIOUS! #AllLove Congrats to @MariahCarey and James! May God Bless Your Future Union… #GreatPeople #GreatCouple”
Evidently, Cannon is staying true to his word that he’ll never diss his ex-wife.
“I will never say anything negative about @MariahCarey. We are forever a family rooted in love,” he said after the two split in 2014.
Carey and Cannon share custody of their four-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe and the four have spent holidays together since the divorce.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1971 Shawn Wayans Was Born!
On this day in comedy on January 19, 1971 Comedian, Actor, Writer, Producer, Shawn Mathis Wayans was born in New York City, New York.
Even though Wayans hailed from a family boasting comedy pedigree, he learned stand-up by playing small venues in the late 1980s in and around Hollywood. He gained his knowledge of film from studying his brother, Keenen Ivory; particularly on the set of I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, where Shawn Wayans had a small part as a pedestrian. So when FOX picked up Keenen’s creation, In Living Color, Shawn was ready to contribute to the groundbreaking sketch show and work alongside brothers Keenen, Damon, Dwayne, Marlon and their sister, Kim. He assumed the role of DJ SW-1 (the show’s spin master) and later became a featured player.
Shawn was as adept behind the camera as he was in front. He and Marlon created their own sitcom, The Wayans Bros which aired on the WB from 1995-1999. It was a popular entry for the new network and gave the brothers clout. Their next move was the big screen. They wrote, executive produced and starred in the 1996 hit Don’t Be A Menace In South Central
While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, a spoof of hood flicks. Film parodies were good for Team Wayans. Following several guest starring appearances on television (including Hangin with Mr. Cooper and voicing the character of Toof for brother, Damon’s animated series, Wayneshead) , Shawn Wayans struck gold with Marlon again as writers and stars of the smash hit, Scary Movie; a spoof of horror films. Keenen directed.
They had similar success with the 2001 sequel, Scary Movie 2 and kept the formula going with White Chicks (2004), Little Man (2006) and Dance Flick (2009).
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
www.darryllittleton.lol
Take a look at this clip:
On This Day In Comedy… In 1955 Comedian Paul Rodriguez Was Born!
On this day in comedy on January 19, 1955, Comedian, Actor, Paul Rodriguez is born in Mazatlán, Mexico.
Rodriguez was initially going to be an attorney, but decided on comedy instead (though that’s not much of a stretch). His career took off quickly with appearances in the films D C Cab and Quicksilver. If you missed him in either, no problem – he got his own sitcom, a.k.a. Pablo; an ABC series meant to pull in the Latin viewing audience. It did for seven episodes before it was canceled. So it was back to movies (The Whoopee Boys, Miracles, Born in East L. A., Made in America, Tortilla Soup, Rat Race, and Ali), TV guest starring roles (Tall Tales and Legends, The Golden Girls, Trial & Error) and album recordings (You’re in America Now, Speak Spanish).
Rodriguez was no one trick pony. In 1988 he hosted the epitome of Americana, The Newlywed Game for a season. He hosted El Show de Paul Rodriguez for Univision from 1990 to 1993. He directed himself in the film A Million to Juan and did voiceover work for King of the Hill, Dora the Explorer and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. His second album, Cheese and Macaroni was released in 1997 and he produced and starred in The Original Latin Kings of Comedy movie in 2002. In 2009 he did the Paul Rodriguez: Comedy Rehab movie and Paul Rodriguez: Just for the Record, a comedy documentary in 2011. From 2010 to 2011 Rodriguez hosted two seasons of Mis Videos Locos as part of MTV’s Latin programming.
Paul Rodriguez’s a businessman as well as a comedian. He is part owner of the Laugh Factory in Hollywood and has farming interests in Central Valley. His activism is renowned: charity shows to benefit causes of the Latin community, his 1995 comedy special shot at San Quentin State Prison, his chairmanship of the California Latino Water Coalition.
Comedy Central ranked Rodriguez #74 on its 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Standups of All Time and he won the NCLR Bravo Awards “Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Variety or Music Series / Special” for his work on Latino Laugh Festival in 1996.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
www.darryllittleton.lol
Check out this clip:
WATCH: Marlon Wayans Talks ’50 Shades’ And The Oscars On The Breakfast Club!
Funnyman Marlon Wayans recently visited The Breakfast Club to discuss his newest film FIFTY SHADES OF BLACK slated to release January 29, 2015. Marlon Wayans sat down with the popular morning show and shared his inspiration behind creating FIFTY SHADES OF BLACK, going out for the role of Richard Pryor alongside cast mate Mike Epps and diversity issues surrounding the Oscars.
Watch the interview below and watch;
The American Black Film Festival Announces It’s Television And Film Nominees!
The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) has announced the 2016 ABFF Honors’ television and film nominees. ABFF Honors is an annual gala saluting excellence in motion pictures and television. Its mission is to celebrate Black culture by recognizing individuals, movies and television shows that have had a significant impact on American entertainment, as well as those who are proponents of championing diversity and inclusion in Hollywood.
“I have always believed that the Black artists in Hollywood would be more empowered if they were more committed to supporting one another, attending celebrations of their culture and relied less on mainstream validation of their work. I hope that the success of ABFF Honors will change things,” said Jeff Friday, President and CEO, ABFF Ventures and Creator of ABFF Honors, maybe speaking directly to the #OscarsSoWhite protests.
Mike Epps will host this year’s ceremony on February 21 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
The winners of both the television and film categories will be determined by the 2016 ABFF Honors Awards Jury, a blue ribbon panel of actors, filmmakers, film critics and entertainment diversity executives.
To qualify for nominations, a film must feature a lead actor of African descent and have had a U.S. theatrical release in 2015.
Television nominees must feature a lead actor of African descent or be created by a person of African descent. The show must also have had a U.S. season premiere in 2015.
And the nominees for “Television Show of the Year” are:
– “Being Mary Jane” (BET)
– “black-ish” (ABC)
– “Empire” (FOX)
– “How to Get Away With Murder” (ABC)
– “Power” (STARZ)
In addition to recognizing the top television shows and films of the year, ABFF Honors will also pay tribute to film legends, along with today’s creative forces, who together inspire the filmmakers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Honorees this year include Diahann Carroll, who will be presented with the Hollywood Legacy Award, and producer Will Packer will receive the Distinguished ABFF Alumni Award. The Excellence in the Arts Award and Rising Star Award honorees will be announced in the coming weeks.
ABFF Honors is produced by ABFF Ventures (a partnership between Film Life and Black Enterprise) in association with de Passe Jones Entertainment.
Regina Hall To Star In Hulu Comedy Pilot Titled ‘Crushed’!
I’ve learned that Regina Hall is set as the female lead in Crushed, a single-camera comedy pilot at Hulu from Peeples writer-director Tina Gordon Chism, Lionsgate TV and Homegrown Pictures.
The project, written by Chism, was originally developed for HBO two years ago. Recently greenlit to pilot by Hulu, it centers on an African-American family who stumbles into a successful wine business in Napa, with Hall playing Celia, sister to Will. The comedy is described as a fish-out-of-water story following the family’s unorthodox approach to wine making and their unique life style. Chism is executive producing alongside Stephanie Allain. C. Deneen Brown is co-producing.
Chism made her directorial debut with Tyler Perry/Lionsgate’s Peeples, starring Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington. She also wrote the scripts for Drumline and ATL. She is repped by ICM Partners.
Ally McBeal alumna Hall has starred in a number of successful comedy feature franchises, include Scary Movie, The Best Man and Think Like a Man. She will next be seen in Barbershop: The Next Cut. Hall is repped by ICM Partners and Principato-Young.
Lionsgate TV has been an early Hulu adopter, coming on board to produce one of the streaming services’ first breakout original comedy series, Deadbeat.
At Hulu, Crushed joins comedy pilot Future Man, from Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sony TV.
LL Cool J Receives A Star On The Hollywood Walk of Fame!
Every musical genre needs a ground zero. It may not be its exact point of origin, but it’s the time and place at which all of the possibilities and future branches seem to coalesce, with the following decades left to add footnotes. Rock and roll has Sun Studio in Memphis. Punk rock has CBGB. And for hip-hop, though the genre might have its official birthplace at Kool Herc’s 1520 Sedgwick Ave., its commercial watershed can be traced to the NYU dorm room of Rick Rubin, where in 1984 the enterprising young producer, his business partner Russell Simmons and a teenage Queens rapper named LL Cool J fully launched Def Jam Recordings.
Following the 1985 release of the Platinum-selling “Radio,” LL’s debut and Def Jam’s first full-length pressing, Rubin would go on to produce for acts as varied as Slayer, the Beastie Boys, the Dixie Chicks, Metallica and Adele. Simmons would develop a vast, multifaceted empire that established the gold standard for hip-hop entrepreneurship. And LL would release seven more Platinum albums, star in several films and long-running TV shows, win a pair of Grammys and will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Jan. 21.
Now 48, LL still remembers Rubin’s old phone number and the address of his college dorm room. He got them from the back cover of T La Rock’s “It’s Yours,” the Rubin-produced 1984 single, which was the first recording to sonically capture the rough-edged, beat-heavy primacy of NYC street rap onto record. “Radio” went one step further, stripping hip-hop of the last vestiges of its disco roots. With nothing but a beat and LL’s inimitably charismatic delivery, it launched the 17-year-old as the genre’s first crossover sex symbol and bona fide pop star, his Kangol hat becoming just as distinctive a fashion accessory as Run-DMC’s Adidas.
If LL’s name no longer provokes the sort of immediate reverence that rap nerds hold for his Golden Age contemporaries like N.W.A, Eric B & Rakim, or onetime labelmates the Beastie Boys, it’s possibly just because his career has extended long enough for him to be taken for granted. Even considering his longevity, it’s remarkable how many landmarks LL can claim for his genre. He took part in one of hip-hop’s highest-profile battles, with Kool Moe Dee. He staged hip-hop’s first comeback act with 1990’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” His track titles have been referenced in song by everyone from Jay Z to Mos Def, the Notorious B.I.G. and Sonic Youth, and he gave Rock the Bells, long hip-hop’s premier annual festival, its name. For a genre in which debut records often serve as de facto greatest hits albums, LL’s ability to transcend the decades is much easier said than done.
“There’s a tension, sure,” LL says of hip-hop’s youthful obsession. “The difference with hip-hop is that, relatively speaking, it’s still a very young genre, especially compared to jazz, rock and roll, country. So the tension comes in when people start asking if it’s possible to grow up and mature and be an adult and still do hip-hop. So many guys are nervous about the idea of doing it. A lot of guys who worry, if I’m not doing a song that 14-year-olds like, then somehow it’s not relevant. I don’t think that’s true. The music is growing, the industry is maturing, and you have to be like fine wine and just keep doing it from the heart.”
In concert with his pin-up good looks, LL was also the first rapper to breach the pop charts with a full-on love song, 1987’s brazenly sentimental “I Need Love” off his second album. The heartstrings-rending rap ballad has become such a staple of the genre that there’s essentially an entire Grammy category dedicated to it, but at the time it was about as daring a move as a subculture known for bluster and machismo could countenance.
“I don’t have to be a juvenile to make cool records. I don’t have to be on the pop charts to be relevant. I’m a cool artist because I’m LL Cool J.”
LL COOL J
“Rick and I had, not exactly a falling out, but a total disagreement about that song,” LL remembers. “He was like, ‘Man, if you’re so confident about it, why don’t you put it out first.’ Back then, people really had this idea that if you were from the hood making rap records that you’ve gotta do nothing but edgy stuff. People are a little more comfortable now with the idea of a rapper being a creative artist, but back then, they didn’t look at us like that. It was like, if you’re not drinking Ol’ English and screaming, what are you even doing? How dare you talk about some sensitive stuff?”
The song reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and became one of the earliest Top 10 hip-hop hits in the U.K. — breaking open a foothold for LL’s follow-up loverman tunes “Around the Way Girl” (No. 9 in 1990) and “Hey Lover” (No. 3, 1995). As successful as this side of the rapper proved, it also forced him to face that hurdle that has bedeviled crossover rappers ever since: Maintaining his lyrical cred while still servicing the pop charts.
“I could show you every record where I had real aggressive songs — maybe it just came across that way because of what the hits were,” he says. “I love aggressive music. But radio was so different at that time, that the labels started catering more to my ballads after ‘I Need Love.’ I had the harder records still, but they were servicing more of the softer, ‘Around the Way Girl’ side of things.”
But if he ever ran the risk of being grouped into the Tiger Beat crowd, LL’s most iconic televised performance made sure he’d be remembered for the unblinkingly intense live performer he is. Taken from the first hip-hop installment of MTV’s “Unplugged” series, LL’s live rendition of “Mama Said Knock You Out” became a staple of the channel, with the shirtless, sweaty, screaming LL giving suburban America a taste of just how powerful and immediate rap could be when stripped down to its most basic level, his hardest-working man in hip-hop aura nodding to James Brown, from whom the head-knocking beat of “Mama” was taken.
BIGGER AND DEFFER: The rapper, performing in Philadelphia in 2012, has long maintained a steady performance schedule in addition to his film and TV work.
OWEN SWEENEY/SHUTTERSTOCK
LL makes the comparison explicit. “My thing has always been not to see how profound I can be,” he says, “or to make my songs sound like an audiobook. I’m not making literature. The idea was to make something you could feel. You think about someone like James Brown, he was never about songwriting per se, it was about vibe, and what the music makes you feel.”
A career as long as LL’s could hardly be expected to be free of missteps: Some fans were wary of his embrace of the then-dominant gangsta rap aesthetics on 1993’s “14 Shots to the Dome,” and more recently, his collaboration with Brad Paisley for country-rap hybrid “Accidental Racist” accidentally raised the hackles of the Internet’s outrage machine.
Yet both clearly came from the rapper’s desire to try something new, and it’s that impulse that saw him notch his first No. 1 single 17 years after his debut, with his first No. 1 album coming only two years earlier.
LL professes little desire to chase trends as he enters his fourth decade in music. After 12 studio albums with Def Jam, he released 2012’s “Authentic” through indie outfit S-BRO Records, and he clearly finds a degree of freedom in his elder statesman status.
“People back in (the 1980s) really had this idea that if you were from the hood making rap records you’ve gotta do nothing but edgy stuff.”
LL COOL J
“If I put out more music, it’ll be just because,” he says. “It’s not to try to compete. I don’t have to be a juvenile to make cool records. I don’t have to be on the pop charts to be relevant or be a cool artist. I’m a cool artist because I’m LL Cool J and this is what I do. And that’s just coming from a place of confidence, not hubris or arrogance.
“But (what’s great) is that the only thing that’ll stop me from making music is me. No one’s got a gun to my head now. There’s nothing stopping me from making music and working with the producers I want to work with. So if I don’t, it’ll only be my fault.”
Source: Variety
It’s Confirmed; Kevin Hart’s ‘Real Husbands Of Hollywood’ Renewed For Season 5!
Here is some news that we reported way back in October; it seems that BET is bringing back Real Husbands Of Hollywood for a fifth season. What is NOT being reported is that this is the FINAL season.
Check out the article below from The Hollywood Reporter;
BET is bringing back Real Husbands of Hollywood.
The Viacom-owned cable network has renewed its scripted, mockumentary-style series for a fifth season with star Kevin Hart signed on to return, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The news comes fresh of the season four return of the comedy on Jan. 5, which generated more than 1 million viewers when factoring in three days of DVR playback. Hart, who also exec produces, also recently took home a People’s Choice Award for his role earlier this month for favorite cable TV actor.
The series, which makes light of all things “housewives” and reality TV, counts Stan Lathan, Ralph Farquhar, Jesse Collins, Tim Gibbons, Chris Spencer and Dave Becky among its exec producers. Hart and Chris Spencer created the series, which is produced by HartBeat Productions and JSR Productions for BET Networks. The series also took home a NAACP Image Award for outstanding comedy series in 2014.
Season four guest stars have included Wayne Brady, Jackie Long, Chris Brown, Nia Long, Nene Leakes, Terry Crews, Paula Abdul and more playing exaggerated versions of themselves. Cynthia Kaye McWilliams co-stars as the husbands’ attorney.
Comedian Hannibal Buress Talks Bill Cosby ‘Rapist’ Routine!
Comedian Hannibal Buress saw his profile rise significantly with the general public in 2014 when his standup routine about Bill Cosby helped accelerate mainstream media coverage of sexual assault allegations leveled at the comedian by dozens of women.
But he downplayed the Cosby furor at the Television Critics Association press tour on Sunday where he was promoting his upcoming standup special for Netflix.
“I do a lot of other s—,” Buress said when asked if Cosby is still part of his routine. “It’s weird that it happened like that. I was calling a bunch of other comedians rapists and that was the only one people took seriously. …
That’s just one joke people took and really ran with it.”
Buress appeared with fellow comics John Mulaney and Patton Oswalt, who also have specials coming to Netflix.
Oswalt sought to counter the suggestion that Buress’ rising popularity hinged on the Cosby incident. “Hannibal was doing fine without that,” Oswalt said. “He’d be sitting here now if that had not happened. He was on a trajectory (already) as far as being bulletproof as a comedian.”
When pressed for a yes or no on whether he still treads on Cosby territory in his performances, Oswalt dove in with a response that got a huge laugh: “He’s doing a lot of Billy Crystal stuff … and it’s really dark.”
Buress called Cosby a “rapist” in a routine that slammed the veteran entertainer for criticizing aspects of black culture even as he faced allegations that he raped and drugged women over the years.
A cellphone video of Buress’ performance helped raise awareness of the growing storm surrounding Cosby. Last month, Cosby was charged with aggravated indecent assault in connection with a 2004 incident at his suburban Philadelphia mansion.
Source: Variety
WATCH: The First Trailer For Key & Peele’s Movie ‘Keanu’!
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have been working on a movie about a kidnapped cat, and today Comedy Central debuted the first trailer for the film — titled Keanu — to get you excited. Peele co-wrote the film with Alex Rubens, andKey and Peele’s own Peter Atencio directed. Finally, a film that combines two things America loves — action movies full of danger and suspense, and adorable kittens. The film hits theaters on April 29th.
Chism made her directorial debut with Tyler Perry/Lionsgate’s Peeples, starring Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington. She also wrote the scripts for Drumline and ATL. She is repped by ICM Partners.