In 2009, an unknown 47-year-old named Susan Boyle shocked the world with her breakout performance on Britain’s Got Talent. With a few short months, she had become a viral sensation, performed for President Obama, the Queen, and the Pope, and earned over $7 million. Recently, though, she seems to have completely disappeared. Here’s a look at the real reason we don’t hear about Susan Boyle anymore…
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made strides to become more diverse in recent years, but there’s a long road ahead to make up for the organization’s long legacy of exclusion.
Throughout its 90-year history, the Academy has not only failed to recognize the talent of many actors and actresses of color but awarded whitewashed roles in the industry.
Hollywood has consistently given diverse roles to white actors over the years; in fact, quite recently when Tilda Swinton was cast in 2016’s “Doctor Strange” as the Ancient One, a character who is Tibetan in the Marvel comics. And The Oscars haven’t helped alleviate this long-standing issue by rewarding this kind of whitewashing.
Several notable white actors have been nominated for an Oscar for portraying people of color through the years. Many of them have actually won.
Following a whirlwind night at the Oscars, Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes, Alex R. Hibbert, and Ashton Sanders have one more accolade to celebrate, thanks to Calvin Klein.
The Oscars host used his gig to poke fun at Mahershala Ali’s name and the name of his newborn daughter, and lots of people are getting pretty fed up with the joke.
As accounting crises go, it’s hardly the Enron scandal that brought down Arthur Andersen, but PricewaterhouseCoopers’ big “oops” moment at the Oscars could imperil its standing with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, branding experts say.
“This, fundamentally, isn’t that difficult a task. You just had to get the right name in the right envelope and hand it to the right person,” said Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
The Academy released a statement Monday night apologizing for the gaffe that saw Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway incorrectly award “La La Land” the Best Picture award — instead of “Moonlight.”
The Academy said it had been investigating the mistake and would “determine what actions are appropriate going forward.”
In honor of Black History Month, here’s a look at 14 people who broke color barriers to become the first Black Americans to achieve historic accomplishments in politics, academics, aviation, entertainment and more tangie
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Gordon Parks in Hollywood on April 4, 1968. Associated Press
Bill Paxton, the actor known for starring in films such as “Twister” and “Apollo 13,” died on Saturday due to complications from surgery, according to a family statement. He was 61.
“It is with heavy hearts we share the news that Bill Paxton has passed away due to complications from surgery,” a representative for the family told NBC News. “A loving husband and father, Bill began his career in Hollywood working on films in the art department and went on to have an illustrious career spanning four decades as a beloved and prolific actor and filmmaker.”
Paxton first got a start in the 1970s playing minor roles, but he won over audiences in the following two decades. The journeyman actor played notable characters in “The Terminator,” “Weird Science” and “Aliens” in the 1980s, and he grew to have a larger profile in the 1990s in films such as “Tombstone,” “Apollo 13,” “Twister” and “Titanic.”
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Actor Bill Paxton poses at the premiere of “She’s Funny That Way” in Los Angeles, California, Aug. 19, 2015. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Larry Coryell was such a distinguished and distinctive guitarist to call him underrated seems ludicrous.
But scrolling through about a dozen “best jazz guitarist” lists, I found the same legendary names over and over: Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, Kenny Burrell, Pat Martino, Charlie Christian, Grant Green, Bill Frisell, John Scofield, John McLaughlin and so on.
Perhaps his omission is because he directed his jazz fusion further toward rock ‘n’ roll than others, or perhaps because his style reflected a broad base of study with detours into blues, country, classical and other forms over a prolific recording career. But Coryell, who died Sunday at 73, belongs in such venerable company.
His connection to Texas is thin. He’s a Galveston native, born there in 1943. But Coryell’s family headed to the northwest and he was raised in Seattle. By 1965 he was in New York, and soon after working with the great drummer and bandleader Chico Hamilton. In 1968 he began recording as a leader and a year later issued “Coryell” and “Lady Coryell.” Both testify to a formidable rising talent.
The real world is pretty strange right now, and escaping from it, at least temporarily, is absolutely necessary. So why not pay a visit to an even stranger world with a good science fiction movie? Time travel, aliens, robots and more will take people away from politics, international relations and Russian intrigue — at least for a few hours
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Image Credit: YouTube
This movie never gets old, and no one is ever too old to watch it. Steven Spielberg’s film manages to be simultaneously heartwarming and just a little eerie as it tells the story of an alien who befriends a young boy.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Susan Boyle
Larry Coryell
Copyright: Michael Oswald
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