Beloved Atlanta radio personality Wanda Smith has passed away on Saturday (Oct. 12), a day after her 58th birthday.
Rick Caffey, Senior Vice President and Market Manager for V-103, confirmed her death with condolences on the station’s Instagram account.
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of our cherished Wanda Smith, who brought so much joy to V-103 and the Atlanta community. Our deepest prayers and condolences go out to her family,” he captioned a photo of her smiling.
In addition to her radio career, Smith also added acting to her resume with Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail and Madea’s Witness Protection films. She also was widely known as a comedian with contributions to shows like HBO’s Def Comedy Jam and BET’s Comicview.
Staying true to her ATL hometown, she was also a regular performer at the Atlanta Comedy Theater.
Wanda Smith is survived by her husband, LaMorris Sellers, and their three children. Her cause of her death has not been disclosed.
The Humor Mill sends condolences to Wanda Smith’s loved ones.
Source: VIBE
Pack your bags, because we’re headed to the Sunshine State. HBO’s new late-night comedy series It’s Florida, Man premieres October 18.
Drawing inspiration from those wild “Florida Man” news stories we’ve all read, the premium cable channel’s new series will see a rotating cast of actors and comedians playfully reenact a series of true stories, as told by real-life Florida residents. Among the more than two dozen stars set to appear are Saturday Night Live’s Ego Nwodim, Anna Faris, Randall Park, Jake Johnson, Jon Gries, Sam Richardson, Juliette Lewis, and Simon Rex.
Per HBO, the show’s six-episode first season will cover a number of diverse topics, from mermaids to witches and extreme fantasies to feral bunnies.
In addition to its long-running late-night shows hosted by Bill Maher and John Oliver, HBO has long legacy of quirky late-night comedy fare that includes shows like The Kids in the Hall and Mr. Show With Bob and David. More recent years have seen entries like Los Espookys, High Maintenance, Fantasmas, and A Black Lady Sketch Show air in the channel’s Friday night 11 p.m. time slot.
It’s Florida, Man is created and executive produced by Mark Herwick for Range Studios, along with Jeff Tomsic (who also directs). Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones) and Brandon James co-executive produce for Rough House Pictures; Bryan Storkel serves as showrunner and co-executive producer.
The show premieres Friday, October 18 at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. New episodes will air weekly and will be available to stream on Max.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
A New Series Produced by HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios
The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Aaron currently stars as the lead in Jeremy Saulnier’s “Rebel Ridge” which debuted on Netflix on September 6th and was the #1 title worldwide on Netflix for three weeks in a row. In December, Aaron will take on the titular role of Mufasa in Barry Jenkins’ animated “Lion King” prequel for Disney.
Aaron was most recently seen leading the NatGeo series “Genius: MLK/X,” as civil rights leader Malcolm X, Garth Davis’ “Foe” alongside Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, Clement Virgo’s “Brother” and Barry Jenkins’ award-winning limited series “The Underground Railroad.” Aaron is currently filming “The Morning Show.”
He is represented by WME, Anonymous Content, Hamilton Hodell, Sloane Offer Weber Dern, and Narrative.
Director Michael Bay is in talks to direct Will Smith in the Netflix action film titled Fast and Loose.
Fast and Loose focuses on a crime boss who loses his memory after an attack and gradually learns that he was leading a double life as a CIA agent. Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Chris Bremner, and Eric Pearson worked on the screenplay.
The movie has been in the works since before Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars ceremony. THR previously reported that David Leitch had exited the project the week before the fated Academy Awards telecast to start work on The Fall Guy, the Ryan Gosling-Emily Blunt action-comedy feature that Universal released in May.
Producers for Fast and Loose include Leitch and Kelly McCormick for 87North, along with Smith. Robert Simonds and Noah Fogelson serve as executive producers for STXfilms.
Bay previously directed Smith in the 1995 action-comedy Bad Boys and its 2003 sequel. Smith and Martin Lawrence most recently played their characters from the franchise in its latest sequel, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which Sony released in theaters in June. That movie helped revive Smith’s standing as an in-demand film star following the Oscars fallout.
Shortly after the release of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which surpassed $400 million at the global box office, THR reported that Smith was in talks to star in Sony’s sci-fi feature Resistor. At the time, a director was not yet attached to the project that was set to adapt author Daniel Suarez’s 2014 novel Influx.
Other recent titles for Smith include 2022’s Emancipation and 2021’s King Richard, with the latter landing the star his first Oscar.
Bay’s most recent project as director was the 2022 Universal movie Ambulance, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Also known for his work on the Transformers franchise, Bay previously helmed Netflix’s Ryan Reynolds-led action flick 6 Underground that hit the streamer in 2019.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Jamie Foxx is back at the mic after his recent health scare.
“It was an excruciating time to be able to open those wounds every single day for three nights,” Foxx told CBS Mornings’ Gayle King in a backstage video posted by King and the Oprah Daily account to Instagram on Monday. Foxx and his team were celebrating the final night in a three-date run of his new comedy special, “What Had Happened Was,” which was taped in Atlanta for Netflix.
“It was excruciating because the worry is what gets you,” Foxx continued. “We’ve got a great show in the room, but we don’t know what they may laugh or what they may not laugh at. Any comedian will tell you that’s the thing, the worry is the thing. Usually, when you do a stand-up special, you go out for a year and a half and work every nook and cranny, then you tape it. You don’t just show up in Atlanta and turn the camera on.”
Foxx was admitted to the hospital in April 2023 after experiencing what his daughter Corinne described as a “medical complication.” He remained out of the public eye for a month, finally breaking his silence in May with an Instagram post in which he simply stated he was “feeling blessed” by “all the love” from fans.
Various celebrity friends of Foxx like Martin Lawrence (“I hear he’s doing better”) and Kevin Hart (“a lot of progression”) shared updates on his condition over the ensuing months, but Foxx himself remained elusive. He described this special in Sept. 2024 as a way to “share his journey through a serious health scare, and after attending, King told Foxx that she’d “never seen a show where were laughing and crying at the same time.”
Reps for Foxx did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.
“It’s a personal journey,” Foxx told King, vowing, “I am never going to go through this again. My next jokes will start out, ‘knock, knock. I’ll do an hour and a half of ‘knock, knock’ jokes.” He closed out the video with a toast to this message: “Let’s sit back, watch it, and build toward a newer, brighter and healthier future.”
Foxx began opening up about his health scare in July 2023, saying he “went to hell and back,” and chose to remain private during the experience because he “didn’t want [fans] to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through.”
In Dec., Foxx shared that “six months ago, I couldn’t actually walk,” joking that he “saw the tunnel; I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel too, I don’t know where I was going. ‘S—, am I going to the right place?'” Finally, in June he shared that just before the incident, he “had a bad headache” and “asked my boy for an Advil.” Next thing Foxx knew, “I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything.”
Foxx will return to the big screen on Jan. 17, 2024, with Netflix’s Back in Action. He will share that return with Cameron Diaz, who retired from acting in 2018. Details about Foxx’s Netflix comedy special have not yet been released.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans, Jr. will get a chance to pay tribute to their old gigs on In Living Color and New Girl by featuring special appearances by Tommy Davidson and Lamorne Morris on their new CBS comedy Poppa’s House.
In an episode planned for February, Morris — who starred opposite Wayans, Jr. on New Girl — will play Todd, a buddy from film school who tries to cajole Wayans, Jr’s character into coming back to the magical world of filmmaking.
In the same episode, Davidson — who worked with the senior Wayans on In Living Color — will play Jarnold, Poppa’s (Wayans) work acquaintance who he’s ridden within the elevator for years. They don’t know much about each other, except that they have a great rapport in the elevator, teasing other office workers.
Poppa’s House, which premieres Oct 21, features Wayans as a legendary talk radio host and happily divorced “poppa” who finds himself still parenting his adult son (Wayans Jr.), a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.
Morris, who recently won an Emmy for starring in Fargo, plays Garrett Morris in Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night. He’s also set to star in Amazon’s Marvel series Spider-Noir opposite Nicolas Cage and Brendan Gleeson as the iconic Robbie Robertson. He’s represented by CAA, Entertainment 360, and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light.
Davidson, who’s also appeared in The Ms. Pat Show, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and The Neighborhood, is repped by Innovative Artists.
CBS Studios produces Poppa’s House. Dean Lorey is exec producer alongside Wayans and Wayans Jr. Andy Ackerman directed and exec produced the pilot, while Kameron Tarlow is the producer at Wayans Jr.’s Two Shakes Entertainment overseeing the project. Michael Petok also serves as EP. Kevin Hench exec produced and co-wrote the pilot.
Source: Deadline
It’s official: “Abbott Elementary” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” are indeed plotting a crossover episode, as has been hinted at in recent, cryptic social media posts by “Abbott” star/creator Quinta Brunson and “Sunny” star/co-creator Rob McElhenney.
McElhenney revealed the news in a social media post, including a photo of him, “Sunny’s” Charlie Day and Brunson outside the Warner Bros. lot studio for “Abbott”:
On socials, McElhenney had teased that a “Abbott”/”Sunny” crossover would make sense, given that both shows are set in Philadelphia. And although “Abbott” is produced by Warner Bros. TV, the show airs on Disney’s ABC, while “Sunny” airs on Disney’s FX network, so such a crossover seemed in the realm of possibility.
Brunson had been coy about it at first, but earlier this summer, Brunson hinted to Variety’s “Awards Circuit Podcast that something was indeed in the works. Without specifying it, she had said a big crossover was happening — and when Variety suggested “Sunny,” she didn’t say no. “Deals are made. I want you guys to know that. I’ll say I’m really excited for it,” she said. “You want to find fun ways to shake things up without abandoning what you what you built. And I’m excited for this crossover of which I will not name with the other project.
“I’m excited to just shake things up in this way,” she added. “I love TV, everyone knows that, but I love TV moments, and I miss those big TV moments. I remember how exciting they were. Anything I can do with ‘Abbott’ to help keep that culture alive of fun TV, I will do. So I think this is going to be fun TV.”
The idea first hatched in February, when McElhenney referenced the famed “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” disaster of an event in Glasgow. “A lot of you are saying this feels like an episode of Sunny, but to me it feels more like an @alwayssunnt @AbbotElemABC crossover episode,” he wrote on X. Later, on Instagram, Brunson took a screenshot of McElhenney’s post and added, “Just say the word @robmcelhenney. I love you guys.”
Source: Variety
The TV network ALLBLK has announced its original feature film Operation: Aunties, starring Tisha Campbell, Melissa De Sousa, and Amayah Scott.
Directed by Wendy Raquel Robinson, the dramedy tells the story of a “longtime friendship that is tested when a risk-averse cryptocurrency expert and her retired detective best friend become vigilantes after discovering a cyber-crime syndicate in their city.”
The official synopsis reads: “After an attempted trafficking incident impacts her family, professor and blockchain expert Dr. Carol Cleavers (De Sousa) stumbles upon a dark web operation using new-age technology to assault and traffic women through a rideshare app. Knowing the feds won’t act fast enough, Carol teams up with her best friend, retired detective Sharon O’Hara (Campbell), and her niece Aminah James (Scott), computer hacker extraordinaire.”
Together, the three women embark on a mission that brings them face-to-face with danger.
Brett Dismuke, Head of Content ALLBLK & We TV, spoke about bringing the three seasoned actresses together for the “edgy action and laugh-out-loud comedy,” that tackles “real issues affecting our society today.”
“Melissa, Tisha, and Amiyah expertly bring these strong, Black female characters to life, showcasing resilience, empowerment, and tremendous heroism – keeping the laughs coming along the way, all of which resonate deeply with ALLBLK subscribers,” he said.
TJ Ali, writer and executive producer, added, “Black women are always saving the day. Our culture thrives because of the everyday change agent — those who consistently rise up and uplift our society. For me, those agents of change have always been women from across the diaspora.”
Dubbed Ali’s debut film on the network, she continued, “I’m incredibly proud to partner with ALLBLK, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Big Little Sis Media, and our incredible cast to bring this vision to life — a story for us, by us. The culture deserves to see our aunties as the vigilantes they already are — our heroes.”
Operation: Aunties has yet to receive a premiere date but will be available sometime in 2025 exclusively on ALLBLK.
Source: By Amber Corrine/VIBE
*VICE TV has announced “Black Comedy in America,” a new docuseries that explores the impact of Black comedy on American culture over the past century. The series will feature prominent figures such as Will Smith, Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Anthony Anderson, Marlon Wayans, Tiffany Haddish, and more.
The series premieres Tuesday, October 15 at 10:00 PM ET/PT on VICE TV. Per the news release, it explores the lore and legends of Black comedy and offers a definitive look at the history and impact of America’s most prolific Black comedians. Haddish will host with fellow comedians Chris Spencer and Ryan Davis.
Here’s the official synopsis: Black Comedy In America explores the comedic pioneers of film, television, and the standup scene, along with the humble beginnings and meteoric rises of the most powerful voices to ever enter Black comedy. The premiere begins with a rare sit-down reunion with The Original Kings of Comedy: Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley. The series also delves into the cultural impact of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Best Man, Def Comedy Jam, the wave of memorable Black sitcoms from the 70s, and influential household names such as Richard Pryor and Dave Chappelle. In addition, the show features a raw exploration of Jim Crow segregation with a nostalgic look at the foundations of the Chitlin’ Circuit, where Black comedy got its roots.
“This collection of comedians and their stories presents an expansive, yet intimate look at the setbacks, triumphs and cultural inroads blazed by the most incredible comedians the world has ever known” said Pete Gaffney, VICE Media’s President, Global TV. “We are glad to do our part in shining a light on these legends with a project that is both ambitious and historical.”
Produced by SMAC Productions and Haddish’s She Ready Productions, the 10-episode series brings together icons and respected figures for deep dives into what and who have shaped comedy culture over the past century.
Each episode includes in-depth interviews with Shaquille O’Neal, Marla Gibbs, Tracy Morgan, Craig Robinson, Coco Jones, George Lopez, Luenell, Rachel Lindsay, Taye Diggs, W. Kamau Bell, B. Simone, and many more.
“This docuseries will have you laughing from start to finish, but also learning the stories behind the careers of some of the most iconic comedians in Hollywood history,” said FredAnthony Smith, Vice President of Non-Scripted Entertainment at SMAC Productions. “It’s been a thrill to bring this historic project to life with VICE TV, and to showcase how Black comedy has been a light through difficult times, has shined a light on injustice, while highlighting what we all have in common.”
Per the release, Black Comedy in America is executive produced by Lee Hoffman and Shane Ertter for VICE TV, Constance Schwartz-Morini, Michael Strahan and FredAnthony Smith for SMAC Productions, and Tiffany Haddish and Vanessa Spencer for She Ready Productions. Chris Spencer and Leslie Small also serve as executive producers. The series is directed by Julian Gooden, Leslie Small, and FredAnthony Smith.
Watch the trailer above.
TVLine can exclusively reveal that Emmy Award-winning actor Glynn Turman (A Different World, The Wire, In Treatment) has been cast as Otis, father of Tichina Arnold‘s Tina Butler. He’ll appear as part of a two-episode arc during Season 7, and make his debut in Episode 6 (which is currently penciled in for early December).
CBS describes Otis as Tina’s “outgoing and likable father” who “drops by for a nice visit, and appears to be hale and hearty with good news: he has ditched his dreadful second wife, Loretta, and is a free man, ready to prowl. But upon close examination, all is not well. Otis can’t drive but insists on driving, he’s sneaking fried chicken, and his wife walked out because he refused to take good care of himself. It becomes clear that Loretta was the only person keeping Otis alive. What will the family do now?”
The website TVLine recently spoke with co-showrunner Mike Schiff about the importance of introducing Tina’s never-before-seen dad. “Of all the characters, Tina, over the past six seasons, is the person who seems to have had the least connections to anybody outside [of her immediate family],” he acknowledged. “There was the girl group [in Season 4], but family-wise, we haven’t seen anyone” — and Season 7 will remedy that.
“It turns out that when Tina’s mom died a few years ago, her dad Otis remarried a little quicker than she was comfortable with,” Schiff shared, “and she blamed the woman, who she insists took advantage of her father when he was at his most vulnerable. When Otis shows up without [Loretta], Tina is delighted… but it turns out that there is more to the story than she realized.”
Turman is perhaps best known to sitcom audiences for his role as Colonel Bradford Taylor in the NBC classic A Different World. He went on to portray Mayor Clarence Royce in the seminal HBO drama The Wire, and took home an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his work on fellow HBO series In Treatment.
The Neighborhood kicks off Season 7 on Monday, Oct. 21 (CBS, 8/7c). Arnold returns alongside fellow cast members Cedric the Entertainer (Calvin), Max Greenfield (Dave), Beth Behrs (Gemma), Marcel Spears (Marty), Sheaun McKinney (Malcolm), Hank Greenspan (Grover) and newly promoted series regular Skye Townsend (Courtney). The premiere will pick up shortly after the Season 6 finale, as Marty and Courtney return home with infant daughter Daphne, and new grandmother Tina discovers that “the baby apparently hates her,” per Schiff. “The baby is content with everybody else, but screams with her.”
Additionally, Paramount+ is in production on a Neighborhood spinoff, Crutch, starring Tracy Morgan. However, in a surprise twist, Morgan will not reprise his Season 4 role as Calvin’s wealthy brother Curtis. Instead, he’ll play a new character: Calvin’s cousin, Frank Crutchfield – or, as his friends call him, Crutch — “a Harlem widower whose empty nest plans are put on hold after his millennial son (Superior Donuts’ Jermaine Fowler) and free-spirited daughter (Snowfall’s Adrianna Mitchell) move back home,” according to the official logline.
No word yet on a release date.
Source: TV Line