by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
SCANDAL - From Deadline: Jose Melina, a writer on Joss Whedon's late Fox series, "Firefly," joins the chorus of people criticizing Whedon's behavior towards the people with whom he worked.
MOVIES - From Variety: If the big-tent summer movies have to be moved again because of COVID-19, who will blink first: Disney with "Black Widow" or Universal with "F9?"
STREAMING - From Variety: The 2005 hit Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie film, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," will be transformed into an Amazon streaming TV series. Emmy winners, Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, will play the leads and executive produce the series.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: "CSI: Vegas," the sequel to the long-running, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," has added three new members to its cast. The series is close to a formal straight-to-series order from CBS. William Petersen and Jorja Fox are finalizing their deals to join the new series.
STREAMING - From BleedingCool: The "Chappelle Show" is streaming on Netflix again, and Dave Chappelle says that he has settled his dispute with ViacomCBS and paid him "millions of dollars."
SCANDAL - From Variety: Charisma Carpenter alleges Joss Whedon “abused his power on numerous occasions” while she performed on Whedon’s series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.”
POLITICS - From Nada: Sunday, February 7, 2021 was the end of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse’s term, according to the constitution. He refuses to step down...
ANIMATION - From Variety: HBO Max has ordered an animated series starring classic "Scooby-Doo" character, Velma Dinkley.
ACADEMY AWARDS - From Variety: More details about the 2021 Academy Awards are emerging, including that it will broadcast live from multiple locations.
MOVIES - From WeGotThisCovered: Neil Marshall, who directed the "Hellboy" reboot, says his next film will mix elements of "Alien," "Predator," and "Dog Soldiers."
STREAMING - From Deadline: Universal’s hit The Best Man movie franchise is getting a new installment as a streaming series. Peacock has ordered a 10-episode limited dramedy series The Best Man: The Final Chapters from the movies’ writer and director Malcolm D. Lee and former Insecure executive producer Dayna Lynne North. The core original cast will return.
ANIMATION - From Deadline: The Walt Disney Company is shutting down "Blue Sky Studios," the animation unit it acquired when Disney acquired 20th Century Studios and its assets. Blue Sky is best known for the "Ice Age" computer-animated film franchise.
MOVIES - From Deadline: Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith join Chris Pine in Hasbro/eOne and Paramount's "Dungeons & Dragons" film.
MOVIES - From BleedingCool: Director Tate Taylor says that he has an idea for a sequel to his hit horror film, "MA," and that star Octavia Spencer is on board.
ANIMATION - From Deadline: Fox Entertainment has given a formal series order to a new animated series from Dan Harmon ("Rick & Morty") and the Fox-owned animation studio, Bento Box.
STREAMING - From Deadline: Michael B. Jordan and his Outlier Society production company has signed a TV deal with Amazon. Part of that deal is a Muhammad Ali TV series.
BOX OFFICE - From Deadline: The winner of the 2/5 to 2/7/2021 weekend box office is "The Little Things" with a estimated take of 2.1 million dollars.
MOVIES - From VanityFair: Cathy Yan, who directed last year's "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)," has announced that her next film is "The Freshening." The film "will ponder a medically-induced post-racial world."
SPORTS-CELEBRITY - From YahooSports: During his acceptance speech after winning the 2020-21 NFL MVP award, Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, announces that he is engaged to marry acclaimed film actress, Shailene Woodley.
MOVIES - From TheBeat: On February 9th, 2021 at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, an online event being held on Zoom by the University of Pittsburgh Libraries will give fans of George A. Romero a chance to peek inside the George A. Romero Archival Collection!
OBITS:
From YahooEntertainment: American businessman, magazine publisher and adult entertainment media mogul, Larry Flynt, has died at the age of 78, Wednesday, February 10, 2021. Flynt was best known for creating the monthly pornographic magazine, "Hustler," which began publication in 1974 after being expanded from the "Hustler Newsletter," which promoted Flynt's clubs.
From RollingStone: African-American singer, Mary Wilson, has died at the age of 76, Monday, February 8, 2021. Wilson was a co-founder of the legendary girl group, "The Supremes." She appeared on all 12 of the group's Billboard #1 hits.
From ExtraTV: Former college and NFL football player and actor, Mike Henry, died at the age of 84, January 8, 2021. Henry played football at USC, before being drafted into the NFL by the Pittsburgh Steelers. After playing 3 seasons with the Steelers, Henry played three seasons for the Los Angeles Rams. Henry's big break in acting came when he starred in a trilogy of mid-1960s "Tarzan" films, but he declined to continue the role in a subsequent television series. Henry may be best known for playing the role of "Junior Justice" in the "Smokey and the Bandit" films.
From CNN: Former American professional boxer, Leon Spinks, has died at the age of 67, Friday, February 5, 2021. Spinks was best known for defeating Muhammad Ali in February 1978 in a 15-round split decision match to become the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion. In the September 1978 rematch, Ali would defeat Spinks. Spinks won the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He was also a U.S. Marine from 1973 to 1976.
