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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
TELEVISION - From Deadline: Actress Tina Louise remembers her fellow "Gilligan's Island" cast mate, Dawn Wells, who died of COVID-19 yesterday (Dec. 30th). Louise is now the last surviving member of the beloved 1960s TV series, which continues to gain new fans.
COVID-19-STIMULUS - From YahooFortune: Some people may have already started getting their $600 stimulus check Tuesday night, Dec. 29th.
COVID-19 - From WDSU: Congress-elect Luke Letlow, Republican from Louisiana, has died of COVID-19. The 41-year old had recently won Louisiana's 5th U.S. Congressional district seat, representing Central and Northeast Louisiana. He was slated to be sworn into office in Sunday, January 3rd, 2021.
MOVIES - From WeGotThisCovered: Director Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott Burns are developing a "philosophical sequel" to their now-prescient 2011 film, "Contagion."
STREAMING - From CBC: How the streaming wars will change movies in 2021
BOX OFFICE - From Variety: The winner of the 12/25 to 12/27/20 weekend box office is "Wonder Woman 1984" with an estimated take of 16.7 million dollars.
PIXAR - From VictoriaAdvocate: Meet Texas A&M graduate Cheyenne Chapel, a CG artist behind Pixar's new animated film 'Soul' which premieres this Christmas on Disney+.
KAREN ALERT - From TheGrio: A white woman assaults a black man and his son over her "stolen" iPhone. It turns out that she had left it in an Uber a day or so earlier.
From TheGrio: A California "Karen" with a taser demands that her black neighbors "act white."
POLITICS - From MSN: Mike Pence Cannot Block the Certification of Joe Biden’s Victory When the Senate Formally Counts Electoral College Votes on Jan. 6th, 2021.
COVID-19 - From Deadline: Actor Shemar Moore, star of CBS' "S.W.A.T.," has announced that he has COVID-19.
CELEBRITY - From THR: NBA champion and legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes about celebrities who basically destroy and hurt their careers via crazy social media commentary.
CULTURE - From TheRoot: The city council of Murdock, a small town in Minnesota, has given a permit for a hate-group to open a "whites-only" church, and now, people are fighting back.
BREAKING NEWS - From CNN: Nashville, Tennessee, police now believe this morning's explosion in the downtown area was "intentional."
CELERITY - From YahooReuters: Billionaire investor, Ron Burkle, has bought the late Michael Jackson's "Neverland" ranch for 22 million dollars, 78 million less than what was the 100 million asking price in 2015.
COVID-19 - From YahooNews: L.A. County hit another record with 148 COVID-19 deaths in a day.
BLM-COVID-19 - From YahooNews: A black female doctor dies of COVID-19 after complaining of racist treatment in her battle against the virus.
MOVIES - From Deadline: Warner Bros. has set the the theatrical release dates for three films. The "Mad Max" prequel, "Furiosa," gets June 23, 2023. The animated hybrid "Road Runner" movie, "Coyote vs. Acme," gets July 21, 2023. The movie version of "The Color Purple" musical gets December 20, 2023.
POLITICS - From CNN: Former Democratic presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, has filed papers to run for mayor of New York City.
POLITICS - From YahooNews: President Donald - unhappy, unleashed, and unpredictable.
POLITICS - From YahooFinance: The new stimulus checks will go out to fewer people ... in addition to being smaller.
SPORTS - From YahooSports: The Los Angeles Lakers get their 2020 NBA Championship rings.
CULTURE - From YahooNews: MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, upends philanthropy by giving away billions of dollars fast.
STREAMING - From CNN: Inside the 5,000+-pages long Covid-19 stimulus bill is a new law that punishes streamers that pirate large amounts of copyrighted content. Supposedly, the law specifically doesn't apply to people who use illegal streaming services or "individuals who access pirated streams or unwittingly stream unauthorized copies of copyrighted works," but is focused on "commercial, for-profit streaming piracy services" that make money from illegally streaming copyrighted material.
MOVIES - From THR: Indie filmmaker turned hit-maker, David Gordon Green, is in talks to direct Blumhouse and Morgan Creek Productions sequel to the 1973 movie sensation, "The Exorcist."
AWARDS - From ChicagoSunTimes: The Chicago Film Critics Film Association has named "Nomadland" its best film of 2020. The late Chadwick Boseman was named best actor for his performance in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."
ANIMATION - From Deadline: U2's Bono, Pharrell Williams, and Halsey will lend their voices to Universal/Illumination's "Sing 2."
BOX OFFICE - From Deadline: The winner of the 12/18 to 12/20/2020 weekend box office is "Monster Hunter" with an estimated take of 2.2 million dollars.
COVID-19 - From ScienceMagazine: Mutant coronavirus in the United Kingdom sets off alarms but its importance remains unclear
LGBTQ - From TheMirror: Comedian and actress, Eddie Izzard, reveals her prounouns - "she" and "her."
MOVIES - From Deadline: Universal Pictures has landed the rights to an adaptation of the graphic novel, "The Electric State," with Millie Bobby Brown attached to star and Joe and Anthony Russo ("Avengers: Endgame") on board to direct. The Russos will also produce through their AGBO banner.
BLM - From WashPost: The Rev. William H. Lamar IV is the pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. that was attacked on Sat., Dec. 12th, 2020 by members of the racist group, the "Proud Boys." The "Boys" were in Washington for a pro-Trump rally/riot. Rev. Lamar wrote an opinion piece for the "Washington Post" entitled "My church will replace our Black Lives Matter sign. Will America replace its racist myth?" One of the quotes is "...that White men can employ violence to take what they want and do what they want and call that criminality justice, freedom and liberty."
OBITS:
From Deadline: American choreographer, actor, and dancer, Adolfo Quiñones, who was better known as "Shabba Doo," has died at the age of 65, Wednesday, December 30, 2020. A dance pioneer, Shabba Doo was a member of "The Original Lockers," innovators in the dance style known as "locking." However, Shabba Doo was best known for playing the role of "Orlando" also known as "Ozone," in the 1984 break-dancing films, "Breakin'" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo."
From Deadline: The actress, Dawn Wells, has died at the age of 82, Wednesday, December 30, 2020 of complications of COVID-19. Welles was best known for the role of "Mary Ann Summers" on the late CBS sitcom, "Gilligan's Island" (1964-67). Over a six-decade career, Wells appeared in numerous television series, including "77 Sunset Strip," "Bonanza," and the soap opera, "The Bold and the Beautiful."
From Deadline: Television writer and producer, William Link, has died at the age of 87, Sunday, December 27, 2020. Link was best known for co-creating the TV series NBC's "Columbo" and CBS' "Murder, She Wrote." Link and his long-time writing partner, Richard Levinson, won two Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama." Link was nominated for the Emmy nine other times.
From Deadline: Veteran television and film animator, Tuck Tucker, has died at the age of 59, Tuesday, December 22, 2020. Tucker was best known for his work on Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Hey Arnold!" However, he had numerous credits, including on "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy," to name a few.
From CNN: Former Major League Baseball pitcher, Phil Niekro, has died at the age of 81, Saturday, December 26, 2020. He was known for his "knuckleball" pitch, and his 318 career wins is the most by a knuckleball pitcher. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. Phil and his late brother, Joe Niekro (also an MLB pitcher), had 539 career victories between the two of them - the most combined wins by brothers in baseball history.
From CNN: Former pro basketball coach and player and NBA champion, K.C. Jones, has died at the age of 88, Friday, December 25, 2020. Jones won 8 championships as a member of the Boston Celtics (1959-66). He won two as a Celtics assistant coach (1972, 1981), and two more as the Celtics head coach (1984, 1986). In 1955 and 1956, Jones won two NCAA championships with his future Celtics teammate, Bill Russell, as members of the University of San Francisco men's basketball team. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame - Class of 1989.
From Deadline: Rapper, songwriter, and recording artist, John "Ecstasy" Fletcher, has died at the age of 56, Wednesday, December 23, 2020. Fletcher was best known as a member a co-founder of the pioneering rap group, "Whodini," which was among the most commercially successful of the early rap groups, having multiple albums certified gold or platinum.
From Variety: Broadway actress and recording artist, Rebecca Luker, has died at the age of 59, Wednesday, December 23, 2020, following a battle with ALS. She was a three-time Tony Award nominee ("Showboat," "The Music Man," and "Mary Poppins"). She performed numerous Broadway-related recordings, but also recorded four solo albums.
From NFL: Former NFL linebacker, Kevin Greene, has died at the age of 58, Monday, December 21, 2020. Greene started his career with the Los Angeles Rams, and he played three seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a member of the Steelers team that lost Super Bowl XXX. As a coach, Greene won a member of the 2010 Green Bay Packers that won Super Bowl XLV. Green was inducted into the "Pro Football Hall of Fame" in 2016.
From Deadline: Country singer-songwriter, K.T. Oslin, has died at the age of 78, Monday, December 21, 2020. A late bloomer, Oslin had a string of hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her 1987 album, "80s Ladies," topped the "Billboard" Country LP chart. Oslin won three Grammy Awards including the 1989 award for "Best Country Song" for "Hold Me."
From Deadline: American stage and television actress, Peg Murray, has died at the age of 96, November 29, 2020. Murray won a Tony Award for her performance in the original Broadway production of "Cabaret" (1966). Her TV credits include the daytime soap operas, "Another World" and "All My Children."
