WIRED’s Paris Martineau joins the show to explain all the ways Facebook tracks your activity across Instagram and the rest of its apps.
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Friday, August 30, 2019
Alice Marie Johnson, freed from prison, promotes Kim Kardashian shapewear line on Instagram
Alice Marie Johnson, who Kim Kardashian West helped get out of prison, has popped up on Instagram hawking the reality TV star’s new shapewear line.
Johnson looks into the camera wearing a black sculpting bodysuit from SKIMS and says the shapewear makes her feel “free.” She calls Kardashian West her “war angel” who did not let anything stand between her and Johnson’s freedom.
The Memphis grandmother was a first-time offender when she was sentenced to life plus 25 years in a cocaine conspiracy case. Her sentence was commuted last year after Kardashian West visited the White House to plead for her freedom.
Johnson kicked off a campaign for SKIMS that will feature 25 other real women who will speak to how SKIMS “empowers them to feel the best versions of themselves.”
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Thursday, August 29, 2019
For first time, astronomers catch asteroid in the act of changing color
Last December, scientists discovered an “active” asteroid within the asteroid belt, sandwiched between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The space rock, designated by astronomers as 6478 Gault, appeared to be leaving two trails of dust in its wake — active behavior that is associated with comets but rarely seen in asteroids.
While astronomers are still puzzling over the cause of Gault’s comet-like activity, an MIT-led team now reports that it has caught the asteroid in the act of changing color, in the near-infrared spectrum, from red to blue. It is the first time scientists have observed a color-shifting asteroid, in real-time.
“That was a very big surprise,” says Michael Marsset, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). “We think we have witnessed the asteroid losing its reddish dust to space, and we are seeing the asteroid’s underlying, fresh blue layers.”
Marsset and his colleagues have also confirmed that the asteroid is rocky — proof that the asteroid’s tail, though seemingly comet-like, is caused by an entirely different mechanism, as comets are not rocky but more like loose snowballs of ice and dust.
“It’s the first time to my knowledge that we see a rocky body emitting dust, a little bit like a comet,” Marsset says. “It means that probably some mechanism responsible for dust emission is different from comets, and different from most other active main-belt asteroids.”
Marsset and his colleagues, including EAPS Research Scientist Francesca DeMeo and Professor Richard Binzel, have published their results today in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A rock with tails
Astronomers first discovered 6478 Gault in 1988 and named the asteroid after planetary geologist Donald Gault. Until recently, the space rock was seen as relatively average, measuring about 2.5 miles wide and orbiting along with millions of other bits of rock and dust within the inner region of the asteroid belt, 214 million miles from the sun.
In January, images from various observatories, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, captured two narrow, comet-like tails trailing the asteroid. Astronomers estimate that the longer tail stretches half a million miles out, while the shorter tail is about a quarter as long. The tails, they concluded, must consist of tens of millions of kilograms of dust, actively ejected by the asteroid, into space. But how? The question reignited interest in Gault, and studies since then have unearthed past instances of similar activity by the asteroid.
“We know of about a million bodies between Mars and Jupiter, and maybe about 20 that are active in the asteroid belt,” Marsset says. “So this is very rare.”
He and his colleagues joined the search for answers to Gault’s activity in March, when they secured observation time at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Over two nights, they observed the asteroid and used a high-precision spectrograph to divide the asteroid’s incoming light into various frequencies, or colors, the relative intensities of which can give scientists an idea of an object’s composition.
From their analysis, the team determined that the asteroid’s surface is composed mainly of silicate, a dry, rocky material, similar to most other asteroids, and, more importantly, not at all like most comets.
Comets typically come from the far colder edges of the solar system. When they approach the sun, any surface ice instantly sublimates, or vaporizes into gas, creating the comet’s characteristic tail. Since Marsset’s team has found 6478 Gault is a dry, rocky body, this means it likely is generating dust tails by some other active mechanism.
A fresh change
As the team observed the asteroid, they discovered, to their surprise, that the rock was changing color in the near-infrared, from red to blue.
“We've never seen such a dramatic change like this over such a short period of time,” says co-author DeMeo.
The scientists say they are likely seeing the asteroid’s surface dust, turned red over millions of years of exposure to the sun, being ejected into space, revealing a fresh, less irradiated surface beneath, that appears blue at near-infrared wavelengths.
“Interestingly, you only need a very thin layer to be removed to see a change in the spectrum,” DeMeo says. “It could be as thin as a single layer of grains just microns deep.”
So what could be causing the asteroid to turn color? The team and other groups studying 6478 Gault believe the reason for the color shift, and the asteroid’s comet-like activity, is likely due to the same mechanism: a fast spin. The asteroid may be spinning fast enough to whip off layers of dust from its surface, through sheer centrifugal force. The researchers estimate it would need to have about a two-hour rotation period, spinning around every couple of hours, versus Earth’s 24-hour period.
“About 10 percent of asteroids spin very fast, meaning with a two- to three-hour rotation period, and it’s most likely due to the sun spinning them up,” says Marsset.
This spinning phenomenon is known as the YORP effect (or, the Yarkovsky-O’Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack effect, named after the scientists who discovered it), which refers to the effect of solar radiation, or photons, on small, nearby bodies such as asteroids. While asteroids reflect most of this radiation back into space, a fraction of these photons is absorbed, then reemitted as heat, and also momentum. This creates a small force that, over millions of years, can cause the asteroid to spin faster.
Astronomers have observed the YORP effect on a handful of asteroids in the past. To confirm a similar effect is acting on 6478 Gault, researchers will have to detect its spin through light curves — measurements of the asteroid’s brightness over time. The challenge will be to see through the asteroid’s considerable dust tail, which can obscure key portions of the asteroid’s light.
Marsset’s team, along with other groups, plan to study the asteroid for further clues to activity, when it next becomes visible in the sky.
“I think [the group’s study] reinforces the fact that the asteroid belt is a really dynamic place,” DeMeo says. “While the asteroid fields you see in the movies, all crashing into each other, is an exaggeration, there is definitely a lot happening out there every moment.”
This research was funded, in part, by the NASA Planetary Astronomy Program.
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Garcelle Beauvais joining cast of ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’
Garcelle Beauvais is taking her talents to the small screen and joining Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
The actress will be the first Black woman to be a part of RHOBH and it’s about time considering the show is gearing up for its tenth season. The network confirmed the news on Thursday and announced the addition of another new cast member, Sutton Stracke.
“I am excited and proud to be joining the cast of such a wildly popular and beloved show like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. As a working actor who has been in the industry for some time, it’s exhilarating to have the opportunity to delve into a new chapter in the entertainment spectrum. As the first African American Housewife in the Beverly Hills franchise, I am honored and humbled by this awesome opportunity to exemplify the fact that Black Girl Magic lives and thrives in every zip code!” Garcelle said in a statement to The Daily Dish.
“Already being intimately familiar with the spotlight of Hollywood, my journey of successes and trials has already been chronicled and shared with my many loyal supporters around the world. The continual encouragement, support and yes, even at times, criticism, have helped make me the dynamic woman I am today. I’m excited to share the many ongoing daily surprises, laughs and joys of being a working mother in today’s crazy world. The hustle is R-E-A-L! No games, all heart and a little dash of fashion-filled sass is what you’ll get when you step into my sphere…and I wouldn’t have it any other way!”
Garcelle Beauvais is booked and busy, and she will also appear in the star-studded sequel, Coming 2 America.
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Is Sasha Obama gearing up to attend the University of Michigan next week?
Sasha Obama is not doing the legacy thing by attending the alma maters of her famous parents as she takes the next steps in her education.
—PHOTOS: Check out all the famous faces cast in ‘Coming To America 2’—
The youngest Obama daughter chose the University of Michigan to attend college starting next Tuesday, according to The Detroit News.
Both Michelle and Barack Obama are Harvard law graduates and their oldest daughter Malia currently there as an undergrad student at the Ivy League institution. As an undergrad, her father attended Columbia University and mom went to Princeton University.
Sasha was reportedly spotted on campus surrounded by a security detail as she attended freshmen orientation like the rest of her peers.
The University of course refused to give out any info on if Sasha is a student or not.
Let’s just hope Sasha keeps some good friends around her who don’t try to sneak pics of her for the gram.
Her sister Malia’s been bombarded with people catching her out living life and enjoying herself while imposing on her privacy while at college.
Last year Malia was snapped sitting together and chatting in Soho with Rory Farquharson who was rumored to be her boyfriend.
—Woman makes salacious claim against Ilhan Omar in divorce filing—
Earlier this year, Sasha attended her high school prom, ahead of her graduation from the Sidwell Friends High School in June. Photos show the fresh-faced teen standing arm-in-arm with her date, Chris Milton, who wore a traditional black tuxedo.
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Paul Mooney cancels comedy shows after explosive sex allegations with Richard Pryor’s son revealed
Paul Mooney is stepping away from the limelight for a bit after explosive rumors that he had a sexual encounter with Richard Pryor’s son went viral.
—Robin Thede wants Black women to feel seen on ‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’—
Although the comedy legend has denied Richard Pryor’s former bodyguard’s claims that he had sex with a young Pryor Jr. way back when, and that Pryor put a $1 million hit out on him, Mooney cancelled his Atlanta Comedy Theater appearance Wednesday and Thursday, August 29 due to “health reasons.”
According to TMZ, a sign on door of the comedy venue reads: “ATTENTION!! Paul Mooney is NOT on show tonight due to health reasons. We will transfer purchase to Faizon Love or Donnell Rawlings. Let box office know.”
According to the outlet, Mooney’s pulled out of several appearances following the heat he’s gotten over the alleged sexual relationship with Richard Pryor Jr made by Rashon Kahn, Pryor Sr former bodyguard.
As previously reported, Mooney’s publicist, Cassandra Williams spoke about the statement saying, “There is no validity to Rashon Kahn’s statement as it relates to Mr. Paul Mooney,” according to TMZ.
—Catholic church paid Black abuse victims $235K LESS than white victims—
The development comes after an interview of Kahn, went viral on YouTube after it was posted by Comedy Hype on Monday, where he details the reason why the relationship between Pryor and Mooney ended.
Kahn, who has an upcoming book titled Everything Wasn’t Funny, states in the video that the two comedians “relationship became fragile because Paul Mooney had f****d Richard’s son by that time. He violated … Paul took advantage of the situation.”
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PR firm says ‘Every iota’ of Jussie Smollett hate crime claim is true
Jussie Smollett’s PR team says “every iota” of his account of being the victim of a racist, anti-gay attack in Chicago is supported by police evidence despite police repeatedly saying it was all staged.
A statement emailed Wednesday follows a city filing Monday defending its lawsuit seeking to recoup costs of investigating what it says was a January publicity stunt.
The statement says “every iota of information … Smollett has stated has been fully corroborated.”
The statement didn’t say what evidence allegedly backs Smollett’s claim that masked men hurling racist and homophobic insults beat him and looped a noose around his neck.
The city says GPS data, video and other evidence prove Smollett paid the men to fake a hate crime.
State prosecutors abruptly dropped charges against Smollett in March. A special prosecutor is investigating that decision.
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‘David Makes Man’ Episode 103 Recap: ‘MJB’
The third episode of OWN’s powerful new drama David Makes Man gave us a closer look at David and Seren and illuminates truths that are hard to swallow.
David (Akili McDowell) is haunted by his recent behavior, including getting into a fight with his best friend, Seren (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre) and his argument with an imaginary Skye (Isaiah Johnson).
In one particularly poignant scene, we see David meeting his therapist (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) and he has a hard time being honest at first. When the doc seems concerned about David’s home life, we see both sides of his personality presented in the background, having different reactions to each topic they tackle. Throughout the episode, this device recurs and gives us a clear understanding about how his two personas navigate life, process experiences, and where they coincide.
Dr. Woods-Trap (Phylicia Rashad) decided to force David to work with Seven on his project, in an effort to make sure the boys have moved passed their fight. Unfortunately for David, Seren insists the only way he will help with the project is if David agrees to spend the night at his house. David is hesitant for obvious reasons (he’s scared about Saren’s too touchy stepfather, Ray, but he reluctantly agrees after Seren reveals his tormentor is out of town on a work trip.
David is awestruck when he sees Seren’s big, beautiful house and fridge full of snacks. They’re having a good time until Seren’s scary AF mother walks in and begins to torment him, showing us that she may be even more of a predator than her sicko husband. Her tone is terrifying and she doesn’t even try to hide her abusive behavior in front of David and proceeds to make small talk with him as if she didn’t just show her true colors a moment before.
Later in the therapy session, the therapist lands on the subject of Skye, and this guy seems to be see right through David’s attempts to sugar-coat the trauma of the loss. All of David’s personalities speak in unison when he’s explaining what kind of force Skye was in his lie and it’s clear he’s the reason David has his heart set on going to the exclusive high school, Hurston.
Tarell Alvin McCraney, Phylicia Rashad, and Akili McDowell dish on David Makes Man
Miss Elijah (Travis Coles) remains one of the show’s most intriguing characters and we learn how close her friendship with David’s mother, Gloria (Alana Arenas) really is.
When David and Serena are about to go to sleep, David urges his friend to tell an adult what’s happening to him at home. It is then that we learn that the abused kid doesn’t believe his mother knows that he’s being molested by her husband, Ray, but we also see that he may be more tormented by her abuse than the things his stepfather does to him.
Later, we learn all about David’s father who was one of Gloria’s professors. We see a flashback of what happened when she brought their young son to his home to meet him and how she was rejected and humiliated by him and his wife. “And that’s the story of how I came to be without a father,” David says at the end of his project. “I’m not nothing.”
Damn right, David.
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Wednesday, August 28, 2019
BLACK GLAM: Rebekah Aladdin on beautifying Black Hollywood
Johnny Wright is back with another installment of Black Glam and this time, he is sitting down with celebrity makeup artist, Rebekah Aladdin, to find out all about how she keeps Black Hollywood looking fab. Her long list of clients includes Lena Waithe, Winnie Harlow, and Kiki Layne among others.
The gorgeous guru who happens to have a twin sister keeps some of the most famous faces in Tinseltown looking flawless, but she didn’t set out on the path she wound up on. In fact, she has aspirations to become an architect and admits her first love is music. She decided to try her hand at doing makeup in the entertainment industry in hopes of meeting people who could help get her music career off the ground.
Black Glam: Johnny Wright peels back the curtain of Black beauty and fashion with industry experts
She has become a go-to makeup artist for celebrities who want to show off their natural beauty. “My specialty is natural glam,” she says.
Even though she started doing make up full-time just five years ago, she already has two Met Galas under her belt. She even managed to perfect two clients each time.
BLACK GLAM: Costume designer Brea Stinson reveals how she built her enviable empire
“My first Met Gala was with Lena Waithe and Winnie Harlow and it was also their first Met Gala as well,” she explained. “I did Kiki Layne and Lena [Waithe] this year.”
Find out how Rebekah Aladdin pulled it off and get her advice for aspiring makeup artists in the interview above.
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MIT’s fleet of autonomous boats can now shapeshift
MIT’s fleet of robotic boats has been updated with new capabilities to “shapeshift,” by autonomously disconnecting and reassembling into a variety of configurations, to form floating structures in Amsterdam’s many canals.
The autonomous boats — rectangular hulls equipped with sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware — are being developed as part of the ongoing “Roboat” project between MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute). The project is led by MIT professors Carlo Ratti, Daniela Rus, Dennis Frenchman, and Andrew Whittle. In the future, Amsterdam wants the roboats to cruise its 165 winding canals, transporting goods and people, collecting trash, or self-assembling into “pop-up” platforms — such as bridges and stages — to help relieve congestion on the city’s busy streets.
In 2016, MIT researchers tested a roboat prototype that could move forward, backward, and laterally along a preprogrammed path in the canals. Last year, researchers designed low-cost, 3-D-printed, one-quarter scale versions of the boats, which were more efficient and agile, and came equipped with advanced trajectory-tracking algorithms. In June, they created an autonomous latching mechanism that let the boats target and clasp onto each other, and keep trying if they fail.
In a new paper presented at the last week’s IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems, the researchers describe an algorithm that enables the roboats to smoothly reshape themselves as efficiently as possible. The algorithm handles all the planning and tracking that enables groups of roboat units to unlatch from one another in one set configuration, travel a collision-free path, and reattach to their appropriate spot on the new set configuration.
In demonstrations in an MIT pool and in computer simulations, groups of linked roboat units rearranged themselves from straight lines or squares into other configurations, such as rectangles and “L” shapes. The experimental transformations only took a few minutes. More complex shapeshifts may take longer, depending on the number of moving units — which could be dozens — and differences between the two shapes.
“We’ve enabled the roboats to now make and break connections with other roboats, with hopes of moving activities on the streets of Amsterdam to the water,” says Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “A set of boats can come together to form linear shapes as pop-up bridges, if we need to send materials or people from one side of a canal to the other. Or, we can create pop-up wider platforms for flower or food markets.”
Joining Rus on the paper are: Ratti, director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, and, also from the lab, first author Banti Gheneti, Ryan Kelly, and Drew Meyers, all researchers; postdoc Shinkyu Park; and research fellow Pietro Leoni.
Collision-free trajectories
For their work, the researchers had to tackle challenges with autonomous planning, tracking, and connecting groups of roboat units. Giving each unit unique capabilities to, for instance, locate each other, agree on how to break apart and reform, and then move around freely, would require complex communication and control techniques that could make movement inefficient and slow.
To enable smoother operations, the researchers developed two types of units: coordinators and workers. One or more workers connect to one coordinator to form a single entity, called a “connected-vessel platform” (CVP). All coordinator and worker units have four propellers, a wireless-enabled microcontroller, and several automated latching mechanisms and sensing systems that enable them to link together.
Coordinators, however, also come equipped with GPS for navigation, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU), which computes localization, pose, and velocity. Workers only have actuators that help the CVP steer along a path. Each coordinator is aware of and can wirelessly communicate with all connected workers. Structures comprise multiple CVPs, and individual CVPs can latch onto one another to form a larger entity.
During shapeshifting, all connected CVPs in a structure compare the geometric differences between its initial shape and new shape. Then, each CVP determines if it stays in the same spot and if it needs to move. Each moving CVP is then assigned a time to disassemble and a new position in the new shape.
Each CVP uses a custom trajectory-planning technique to compute a way to reach its target position without interruption, while optimizing the route for speed. To do so, each CVP precomputes all collision-free regions around the moving CVP as it rotates and moves away from a stationary one.
After precomputing those collision-free regions, the CVP then finds the shortest trajectory to its final destination, which still keeps it from hitting the stationary unit. Notably, optimization techniques are used to make the whole trajectory-planning process very efficient, with the precomputation taking little more than 100 milliseconds to find and refine safe paths. Using data from the GPS and IMU, the coordinator then estimates its pose and velocity at its center of mass, and wirelessly controls all the propellers of each unit and moves into the target location.
In their experiments, the researchers tested three-unit CVPs, consisting of one coordinator and two workers, in several different shapeshifting scenarios. Each scenario involved one CVP unlatching from the initial shape and moving and relatching to a target spot around a second CVP.
Three CVPs, for instance, rearranged themselves from a connected straight line — where they were latched together at their sides — into a straight line connected at front and back, as well as an “L.” In computer simulations, up to 12 roboat units rearranged themselves from, say, a rectangle into a square or from a solid square into a Z-like shape.
Scaling up
Experiments were conducted on quarter-sized roboat units, which measure about 1 meter long and half a meter wide. But the researchers believe their trajectory-planning algorithm will scale well in controlling full-sized units, which will measure about 4 meters long and 2 meters wide.
In about a year, the researchers plan to use the roboats to form into a dynamic “bridge” across a 60-meter canal between the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam’s city center and an area that’s under development. The project, called RoundAround, will employ roboats to sail in a continuous circle across the canal, picking up and dropping off passengers at docks and stopping or rerouting when they detect anything in the way. Currently, walking around that waterway takes about 10 minutes, but the bridge can cut that time to around two minutes.
“This will be the world’s first bridge comprised of a fleet of autonomous boats,” Ratti says. “A regular bridge would be super expensive, because you have boats going through, so you’d need to have a mechanical bridge that opens up or a very high bridge. But we can connect two sides of canal [by using] autonomous boats that become dynamic, responsive architecture that float on the water.”
To reach that goal, the researchers are further developing the roboats to ensure they can safely hold people, and are robust to all weather conditions, such as heavy rain. They’re also making sure the roboats can effectively connect to the sides of the canals, which can vary greatly in structure and design.
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New science blooms after star researchers die, study finds
The famed quantum physicist Max Planck had an idiosyncratic view about what spurred scientific progress: death. That is, Planck thought, new concepts generally take hold after older scientists with entrenched ideas vanish from the discipline.
“A great scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it,” Planck once wrote.
Now a new study co-authored by MIT economist Pierre Azoulay, an expert on the dynamics of scientific research, concludes that Planck was right. In many areas of the life sciences, at least, the deaths of prominent researchers are often followed by a surge in highly cited research by newcomers to those fields.
Indeed, when star scientists die, their subfields see a subsequent 8.6 percent increase, on average, of articles by researchers who have not previously collaborated with those star scientists. Moreover, those papers published by the newcomers to these fields are much more likely to be influential and highly cited than other pieces of research.
“The conclusion of this paper is not that stars are bad,” says Azoulay, who has co-authored a new paper detailing the study’s findings. “It’s just that, once safely ensconsed at the top of their fields, maybe they tend to overstay their welcome.”
The paper, “Does Science Advance one Funeral at a Time?” is co-authored by Azoulay, the International Programs Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management; Christian Fons-Rosen, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California at Merced; and Joshua Graff Zivin, a professor of economics at the University of California at San Diego and faculty member in the university’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. It is forthcoming in the American Economic Review.
To conduct the study, the researchers used a database of life scientists that Azoulay and Graff Zivin have been building for well over a decade. In it, the researchers chart the careers of life scientists, looking at accomplishments that include funding awards, published papers and the citations of those papers, and patent statistics.
In this case, Azoulay, Graff Zivin, and Fons-Rosen studied what occurred after the unexpected deaths of 452 life scientists, who were still active in their disciplines. In addition to the 8.6 percent increase in papers by new entrants to those subfields, there was a 20.7 percent decrease in papers by the rather smaller number of scientists who had previously co-authored papers with the star scientists.
Overall, Azoulay notes, the study provides a window into the power structures of scientific disciplines. Even if well-established scientists are not intentionally blocking the work of researchers with alternate ideas, a group of tightly connected colleagues may wield considerable influence over journals and grant awards. In those cases, “it’s going to be harder for those outsiders to make a mark on the domain,” Azoulay notes.
“The fact that if you’re successful, you get to set the intellectual agenda of your field, that is part of the incentive system of science, and people do extraordinary positive things in the hope of getting to that position,” Azoulay notes. “It’s just that, once they get there, over time, maybe they tend to discount ‘foreign’ ideas too quickly and for too long.”
Thus what the researchers call “Planck’s Principle” serves as an unexpected — and tragic — mechanism for diversifying bioscience research.
The researchers note that in referencing Planck, they are extending his ideas to a slightly different setting than the one he himself was describing. In his writing, Planck was discussing the birth of quantum physics — the kind of epochal, paradigm-setting shift that rarely occurs in science. The current study, Azoulay notes, examines what happens in everyday “normal science,” in the phrase of philosopher Thomas Kuhn.
The process of bringing new ideas into science, and then hanging on to them, is only to be expected in many areas of research, according to Azoulay. Today’s seemingly stodgy research veterans were once themselves innovators facing an old guard.
“They had to hoist themselves atop the field in the first place, when presumably they were [fighting] the same thing,” Azoulay says. “It’s the circle of life.”
Or, in this case, the circle of life science.
The research received support from the National Science Foundation, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D.
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Melvin Gregg talks ‘Snowfall’ role and what he learned from John Singleton
Melvin Gregg has made quite the impact on this season of Snowfall, and theGrio caught up with 30-year-old actor who plays Drew “Manboy” Miller on the hit FX series to find out how he knew that life in front of the camera was his calling.
Gregg says he can relate to certain elements of his drug-dealing character.
“He’s kind of full of himself in the sense that he’s too confident at times when he shouldn’t be confident, but that’s part of his charm,” Gregg says of his character. “When I approach a character I try to find the parallels between myself and the character and I try to justify what they’re doing. I guess this character is me in another universe…he’s a lot like myself, but we are living under different circumstances so my actions are a little different.”
The Virginia native admitted that he had a little trouble nailing the L.A. accent for the role. He also discussed what he learned from the show’s late, great, co-creator, executive producer, and director, John Singleton, who died in April.
What we learned from John Singleton: Why Black men need to get serious about their health
“It was a blessing to be able to work with him. He was a great guy. I feel like he was a big part of the reason that I got this spot on this show…I don’t really look the part but John is really from that kind of community and I am too so I feel like he kind of saw that in me,” says Gregg. “He saw through the typical tropes of what this character is and he saw something in me that was different that he liked. Having his stamp is reassuring.”
Check out the full video interview above.
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Wendy Williams admits her husband fathered a daughter outside of marriage
Wendy Williams can endure a lot of things, surviving drug abuse and even relapses, but she admits that she can’t be a third or fourth wheel after learning her soon-to-be-ex husband fathered a baby with his mistress.
—Wendy Williams says she wasn’t fooled by ex-husband: She knew he was living a double life—
“Kevin had a major indiscretion that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. An indiscretion that I will not deal with,” Williams told The New York Times Magazine.
“I never thought that I would be in this position. I’m a very forgiving person, but there’s one thing that I could never be a part of, and that one thing happened.”
This is the steaming hot tea everyone’s been waiting for Williams to confirm – that her husband Kevin Hunter did indeed have a baby girl with another woman who has been identified in reports as Sharina Hudson.
But despite Hunter’s “dirty deeds” Williams defended him saying that while everyone wants her to hang him out to dry, she won’t do it, except behind closed doors.
“He will always be my family, because we have a 19-year-old son, and we were together for 25 years and married for 21. But there was no vacillating. I’m out. That’s all I can say. People want me to hate and scream and talk. I won’t. It bothers me that people say [Williams begins to cry] — it bothers me that people say, “Keep it as clean as you can, because you have a child together.” That’s not the main reason to keep it clean. The main reason I won’t talk badly about Kevin is that he was my first true love. I will not have people talk badly. I talk filthy about him, but that is when I get in my apartment and the door is closed and I am talking to myself in the mirror.”
In April, Williams filed for divorce from Hunter, removed him from her show as executive producer and dissolved The Hunter Foundation, the non-profit the embattled couple founded in 2014.
Sounds like Williams had a refuse to lose mentality. We wish her well on her way back to happiness.
The Wendy Williams Show returns for season 11 on Sept. 16.
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Leslie Jones leaving ‘Saturday Night Live’ to pursue exciting new projects
Comedian Leslie Jones is carving out a new path and stepping down from Saturday Night Live after five seasons.
— Leslie Jones blasts Sephora after her makeup artist left a store in tears after being mistreated—
The funny lady has made her mark garnering three Emmy nominations for her hilarious comedy sketches. Jones started as a writer for SNL in 2014 and parlayed her talent into a permanent position.
Jones, however has got some other gigs to focus on like her upcoming Netflix comedy special she’s filming Sept. 10 in Washington, D.C., according to reports.
The highly anticipated special is slated to air in 2020.
Jones will also be starring in The Angry Birds Movie 2 as Zeta an evil villain.
—Leslie Jones calls out Kevin Hart for fake female support—
Eddie Murphy to host SNL for first time in 35 years
While there seems to be a changing of the guard at SNL, an oldie but goodie, comic Eddie Murphy will hit the stage to host for the fist time in 35 years.
On Monday, the NBC comedy show announced that on December 21, Murphy will return as a guest host, something he hasn’t done since 1984, USA Today reports.
Murphy has been making his way back into the limelight and is currently filming a Coming 2 America sequel in Atlanta. He also revealed recently to Jerry Seinfield on a segment of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee that he plans on hitting the standup comedy circuit and getting back into his groove.
SNL returns Sept. 28 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
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University removes ad with crime tape around Black student’s neck
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has apologized for an ad that depicts a black criminal justice student with crime scene tape wrapped around her neck.
UWM has taken down the poster ads, designed to promote the criminal justice program after some pushback from alumni, students and others online. Some considered the ad racially offensive.
Student Nate Rosek tells WTMJ-TV that someone should have reconsidered the depiction.
The university in a statement said the police tape was a prop used to add interest to the photos. The ad campaign included students of different races and ethnicities.
The school says it did not intend to offend or diminish the impact of violence in the community.
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Now free from legal limbo, Meek Mill eyes prison reform
Rapper Meek Mill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge Tuesday in a deal that resolves a 2007 arrest that has kept him on probation or in prison for most of his adult life.
The negotiated plea comes after an appeals court threw out his conviction last month over doubts about the arresting officer’s credibility. The 32-year-old rapper, born Robert Williams, is now free of a criminal justice system he hopes to reform.
“I know this has been a long road for you and hopefully this will be the end of it,” Judge Leon Tucker told him.
Williams has called the 12-year ordeal “mentally and emotionally challenging,” but said millions of people face the same issues.
“I know you probably got family members in jail, people going through the same thing as me,” Williams told a small crowd as he left the courthouse. “I will continue to do what I do with the reform movement and help the people that helped me.”
He took up the cause after clashing repeatedly with the trial judge who ordered 10 years of probation and sent him back to prison in 2017 for technical violations. He spent five months locked up before the Pennsylvania Superior Court granted him bail and removed her from the case.
District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office supported Williams’ appeal and said it could not call the former officer to testify after the department found he’d stolen money on duty and lied about it. The officer, Reginald Graham, has denied the allegations.
Still, Krasner could not ignore the fact that Williams acknowledged having a gun, though he denied pointing it at police or selling drugs.
Krasner has overseen an office that has backed more than a dozen exonerations but said this is not that type of case. It is one in which Williams was guilty of a gun crime, but was excessively punished, Krasner said.
“Just as Mr. Williams has evolved in the last 10-plus years, the criminal justice system also needs to evolve,” he said.
Kahsim Buey, 23, listened to his music growing up in North Philadelphia and listened in court Tuesday as he entered his plea. Buey, who spent time in a youth detention center at 14, recently became the first in his family to graduate college and hopes to become a lawyer.
He believes that judges often believe police over defendants.
“Just like the Meek situation. His voice was little at the beginning, but now his voice is big because of the person he is,” Buey said. “I’m very happy for Meek today.”
Buey, a law intern, said he was pulled over by police this month for allegedly running a red light on his bike. The officer searched his drawstring bag for a gun, he said.
“They know our voice is little, so they mess with us,” he said. “That’s why I want to become a lawyer.”
In 2015, a federal jury rejected a lawsuit Williams filed against a Philadelphia police officer over what he called a racially motivated, 10-hour traffic stop that led him to miss the launch party for his 2012 debut album, “Dreams & Nightmares.”
His follow-up albums include the chart-topping “Dreams Worth More Than Money” and last year’s “Championships,” which includes performances from Jay-Z, his mentor, and former girlfriend Nicki Minaj.
On July 24, just hours before the Pennsylvania Superior Court threw out his conviction, Meek Mill and Jay-Z announced they were launching a new label and starting a $50 million criminal justice reform group.
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Beyoncé’s music director on ‘Homecoming’ Emmy nod : ‘It feels good’
In true Beyoncé fashion, when her music director learned he earned his first-ever Emmy nomination for his work on the pioneering project, “HOMECOMING: A Film by Beyoncé,” he was too busy to celebrate — because he was focused on producing the superstar’s next album.
Derek Dixie has worked with Beyoncé for almost a decade, rising through the ranks from assisting the music director to eventually holding the title himself. His first credit as an MD for Beyoncé was her first concert since giving birth to Blue Ivy in 2012, where former first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters Sasha and Malia were among the attendees.
Now, Dixie is competing for outstanding music direction — shared with Beyoncé — at the Emmy Awards, slated for Sept. 22 (the creative arts Emmys, a precursor to the main ceremony, takes place Sept. 14).
“It feels good obviously. I haven’t really digested it completely yet,” Dixie said in a phone interview with The Associated Press from Los Angeles. “My family’s looking at me like, ‘Wow, my son is Emmy-nominated, my brother Emmy-nominated, so that part of it is really good. Like, I’ve kind of accomplished something for the home team and for the family.”
When the Emmy nominations were announced in July, Dixie was adding the finishing touches to “The Lion King: The Gift,” released days after the nominations were revealed. The Beyoncé-curated album was inspired by the 2019 film version of “The Lion King,” where the singer voices the character Nala.
Though Dixie came on Beyoncé’s team in music direction, he’s also produced, engineered and arranged songs for the singer.
“Just being on the road all the time, sometimes you might have to record an idea or something and need somebody to hop in there and record something quick. And I had those skills,” said Dixie, who also produced songs on Beyoncé’s epic “Lemonade” album, earning him his first-ever Grammy nomination at the 2017 awards show. “I think it’s segued from the live world into the studio world in my case.”
For “HOMECOMING,” which captured Beyoncé’s brilliant and trailblazing 2018 Coachella performance that highlighted black college culture, Dixie said they planned months ahead of the performance, first by trading ideas over the phone. Then he went into the studio with a small band to churn out more concepts (the final performance included more than 100 performers onstage, including a full marching band, majorette dancers and steppers).
“Once she honed in on the HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) idea … it was a machine after that. It was just months and months of prep work, making it sound authentic,” he said. “She has tons and tons of classic records that when putting the show together, you have to maintain the classic feel of the record but make it feel like you’re in a stadium at homecoming.”
Beyoncé’s Coachella performance marked the first time a black woman headlined the famed festival and made the singer just the third woman to score the gig, behind Bjork and Lady Gaga. And it made history: “HOMECOMING” earned a whopping six Emmy nominations, including four for Beyoncé, giving the 23-time Grammy winner a good chance to snag her first-ever Emmy.
In addition to outstanding music direction, Beyoncé is nominated for outstanding directing for a variety special (shared with Ed Burke), outstanding writing for a variety special and outstanding variety special (pre-recorded), where she is nominated as the film’s performer and executive producer (she shares the nomination with fellow EPs Erinn Williams, Steve Pamon and Burke). “HOMECOMING” also earned nominations for outstanding production design for a variety special and outstanding costumes for variety, nonfiction or reality programming.
“I don’t think you can survive in her circle without being the hardest working person in the room,” Dixie said of working for Beyoncé. “I say, ‘Always be the hardest working person in the room and always hire the hardest working person in the room.’ Because you have to have that because that’s who she is. That’s what she’s going to do.”
“I think it’s a blessing and just like any situation you have your stresses and you have your chaos that exists,” he continued, “but because of who she is as an entertainer and as a person, you kind of find that fuel to keep going one more day.”
And for those who hope to work for Beyoncé one day, he has some advice: “Be ready to work. Yes. That’s it. The glamour part comes later but the work part is definitely real.”
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HBCUs hope gift from NBA star Steph Curry sparks a golf resurgence
Ernie Andrews looks out to the grounds of Washington’s historic Langston Golf Course and shrugs at the fact that fewer young black golfers are coming out to play these days.
As a black man and longtime pro at a place that was once one of the few courses in the U.S. where African Americans were allowed to play, Andrews is hoping a gift from NBA star Stephen Curry to re-establish a golf program at prominent and historically black Howard University is the start of an upward trend.
“This is a great sport, and we have too much tradition as a people trying to get into the sport to lose it now,” Andrews said.
Curry’s gift to Howard in Washington is bringing new attention to golf at historically black colleges and universities and spotlighting the harsh budget constraints that they face in keeping their programs alive.
Black colleges and universities are a crucial pipeline to increasing diversity in golf at a time when few African Americans are playing the sport at the college and professional levels.
Only about 300 of the NCAA’s more than 10,000 college golfers are black, according to association data. And just three African American golfers are on the PGA Tour: Tiger Woods, Harold Varner III and Cameron Champ.
More than half of the collegiate black golfers compete at HBCUs, but those programs are constantly struggling for survival. Only about a quarter of the more than 100 HBCUs have golf teams, said Craig Bowen, president and founder of the Black College Golf Coaches’ Association.
Howard abandoned its golf program in the 1970s before Curry, a two-time NBA MVP who has won three championships with the Golden State Warriors, intervened last week. He donated some of his fortune toward a six-year deal to help the school relaunch its men’s and women’s teams for the 2020-21 academic year.
Jackson State University in Mississippi made history in 2007 by becoming the first HBCU to compete in the NCAA Division I golf tournament. But the university suspended its men and women’s golf teams a decade later when it faced a budget crisis.
Some HBCUs struggle to find black golfers and end up fielding teams with white players, and the programs are among the first to get targeted during budget crunches.
“It’s not football or basketball generating dollars, and they don’t want to go out and spend money and actually have to go out and raise money for golf,” said Bowen, who used to coach golf at Chicago State and Benedict College in South Carolina, which are both HBCUs.
Many believed that Woods’ barrier-shattering ascent that started with his historic 1997 win at the Masters — at a club that once banned black golfers — would usher in a new generation of African American players on the PGA Tour.
But those projections didn’t materialize, in part because of the deep challenges that young African Americans still face when it comes to taking up a sport that requires considerable expense and travel to play at a high level.
“A lot of my golf organizations and clubs are really being challenged in attracting young people,” said Debert Cook, publisher of the African American Golfer’s Digest.
Curry, who has long been known as a passionate golfer, made the announcement about his Howard donation at Langston Golf Course, one of the few U.S. golf courses to allow African Americans when it opened in 1939. The course was home to the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin Golf Club, the nation’s first for African American men and women.
African Americans made steady progress in golf after Langston Golf Course was built, culminating with Woods’ domination of the sport in the early 2000s.
In 1964, Althea Gibson, a tennis pioneer who also played golf professionally, became the first black woman to play in the LPGA Tour. And Charlie Sifford joined the PGA Tour in 1961 after years of the organization’s whites-only clause that kept out golfers of color.
Andrews said young golfers still have to fight the perception that it’s “a white man’s” sport. He hopes that a resurgence of HBCU golf will help bring more African American youth into the sport.
Golf is a great way to teach discipline and perseverance, he said, as well as an avenue into the corporate world for students who may not otherwise have a way in.
“We use golf, but the real teaching is about life,” Andrews said.
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Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Brely Evans talks groundbreaking role on ‘Ambitions’ and repping for real women
Brely Evans has been heating up the small screen on OWN’s addictive drama, Ambitions. theGrio sat down with the actress who plays Rondelle Lancaster to find out why she’s so passionate about the role.
“She is the mother, auntie, best friend, woman in the neighborhood that you want on your team. She is feisty, she is dramatic, she is on fire,” she says.
“She is the voice to the voiceless. She puts her life in front of things she believes in. She is a lover of family and friends. It has been amazing playing this role…she’s a whole person.”
Evans says she relates to her character’s passion for justice and finds herself in similar predicaments in real life as the ones her character navigates on the show.
5 reasons OWN’s sexy new series ‘Ambitions’ is your new guilty pleasure
“When I first read for the role, I knew her,” she explained. “She has a boldness and a big personality and I think that would be me too.”
Brely Evans is well aware that she’s repping for the real-looking women of the world in a way that we’re not used to seeing on television. Her character is curvy, sexy, attractive to men, and her life and storyline doesn’t revolve around her weight.
“I have been getting feedback from people loving Rondelle in a special way and I think it’s because they are getting to see the curvy girl in a whole other light. This is the girl who has men that are attracted to her. This is the girl who can stand up when something needs to be said…This woman is living. Rondelle is getting to show life in real curves and it is a beautiful thing. I’m giving a voice to every day women,” she said.
“I’m gonna get to explore the full rainbow of Rondelle. You guys are going to get to go on a journey with this woman… I get to explore every facet and I’ve never really had that opportunity in other roles I have played,” she continued. “I had to go to some dark places and I had to connect in a way that I haven’t done before.”
She also explained how her role opened her eyes to the real-life issue of gentrification currently affecting the country.
Check out the full interview above.
Watch Ambitions on Tuesdays at 10/9c on OWN.
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Health, wealth, and cities
Cities have wealth disparities: Picture fancy downtown condos and trendy shopping areas in contrast to, say, streets with rundown housing and boarded-up shops. Cities also have health disparities: People who live in well-off parts of metro areas are less exposed to many of the pollutants, risks, and stresses that lead to long-term health problems.
The health issues are easier to overlook, partly because they are less visible. We don’t necessarily see the factors that create health inequities, such as particulates from freeway pollution that settle in low-income neighborhoods, the lead pipes causing cognitive problems in people who drink from them, the added stress of being poor, or the lack of access to health care that exacerbates other problems for low-income people.
Still, the health gap in cities is real and demands significant scholarly attention. Enter Mariana Arcaya, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP). Arcaya is a specialist in urban health issues, with a broad research portfolio.
Arcaya has studied the health effects of efforts such as the federal Moving to Opportunity program, which relocated families within metropolitan areas (with mixed health effects). She has also examined issues as diverse as the health impact of foreclosure, the considerable prevalence of posttraumatic stress among New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and even the impact of public transportation on health.
“The human body is so sensitive to environmental and social conditions,” Arcaya notes. “The neighborhoods people live in help determine what we’re exposed to.”
Arcaya has also found that families in Moving to Opportunity program were less likely to move if they already had a sick child. Thus low-income families were, to an extent, trapped by health problems in economically deprived neighborhoods, which themselvs can harm health.
But if Arcaya’s research interests are complex, the moral foundations of her work are simple.
“We should be aiming for cities that are supportive of human health for everyone, rich or poor, and of any race or ethnicity,” says Arcaya.
“All kids should be born into a society where everyone has a fair shot of growing up healthy,” she continues. “When you’re saddled from the beginning with avoidable health problems caused by where you live, those can limit your potential, and that’s unfair.”
That ethical vision has long motived her work, since her days as a school student. Now, for her research and teaching, she has just been awarded tenure at MIT.
“What I’m doing is what I always thought I wanted to be doing,” Arcaya says. “I’m interested in how inequality in place-based opportunity follows people throughout their lives and sets people on different paths, in part by affecting their health.”
Arcaya, who grew up just outside of New York City, has long had a keen interest in environmental issues — “I ran for president of my middle school on basically an environmental platform,” she says, laughing — and in college at Duke University she majored in environmental science and policy. There, she learned about the health problems that environmental degradation can cause — but not necessarily about what to do in response. So she earned an MCP at MIT, from DUSP, focusing on city planning and health.
“A lot of the health problems I was studying stemmed from the built environment, and the way we disregarded the value of the natural environment,” Arcaya says. “I came to MIT to focus on the equity implications of trying to enact change: How do you intervene in a positive way?”
After completing her MIT master’s thesis, Arcaya then earned a PhD at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which helped build her public health knowledge and sharpen her scholarly tool kit. At this point — having studied the environment, cities, and health — Arcaya went on the academic job market, while starting a family. She joined the MIT faculty in 2015.
“I gave my job talk eight months pregnant, took advantage of parental leave after the birth of my second child, and bring my kids to work if they’re sent home from daycare sick,” Arcaya says. “Lots of working parents deal with everything from pregnancy discrimination to a lack of paid parental leave, which is simply wrong. I’ve only been able to do my job because I’ve had the benefit of an incredibly supportive environment and great policies.”
Arcaya has been engaged in multiple ambitious projects during her time at the Institute. Over the last couple of years, she has also intensified her interest in setting up long-term study programs that aim to reveal new, in-depth information about cities and health.
One of these, the Healthy Neighborhoods Study, is an in-depth quantitative and qualitative look at nine neighborhoods in Boston, taking what Arcaya calls “a resident-centered approach” to identifying public health problems.
Another is a long-term study of mothers in New Orleans recovering from Hurricane Katrina, extending some of Arcaya’s earlier work about posttraumatic stress. In this project as well, Arcaya and her research partners are collecting information about the life tradeoffs Katrina survivors have made, to understand what Arcaya calls the “realistic complexity” of the issue.
“Disasters have always been a part of life, but the severity and number are expected to go up,” Arcaya says. “What are we going to do about that? How can we expect individuals to respond, and how can we adapt?”
And as income and wealth inequality rises in the U.S., Arcaya has also become an advocate urging urban planners and scholars to develop studies that will further explore the inequities of urban conditions.
“We have become increasingly unequal socioeconomically in this country, which compounds some of the new and worsensing environmental threats we face,” Arcaya says. “That needs to factor into our research on neighborhods and health. Good planning may be one of the most effective public health tools we have.”
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Serena Williams shows no mercy against Maria Sharapova winning US Open game one
Serena Williams’ was back in her element playing like a champ and she beat Maria Sharapova handily during the first round of the US Open on Monday.
—Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka top Forbes list of highest paid female athletes—
Williams who recently had to retire from a match because of back spasms, seemed to be in optimum condition this go-round, finishing the game 6-1, 6-1, The Daily Mail reports.
“Obviously I am going against a player who has won five Grand Slams, every practice after the draw was super intense,” said Williams. “When you play her have to be super focused. She gets momentum and gets going, it was a fun match. The body is good, my back is a lot better, I’m excited.”
Williams was determined not to let her opponent get a win, making her victory the 19th time in a row she has dominated Sharapova.
“Every time I come up against her,” Williams said, “I just bring out some of my best tennis.”
Celebrities like Spike Lee were on hand at Arthur Ashe stadium to watch Williams serve up a butt whooping to Sharapova.
Williams is now readying to play Game 2 against Caty McNally as she seeks her 24th Grand Slam title.
—What made Serena Williams stop playing in the middle of an important match?—
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Meek Mill seeks end to 2007 drug, gun case in Philadelphia
Rapper Meek Mill is due in court Tuesday to learn if Philadelphia prosecutors will drop a 2007 case that’s kept him under court supervision for more than a decade.
The 32-year-old has spent about two years in prison over a drug and gun conviction overturned this year because of credibility concerns about the arresting officer.
He’s now working with Jay-Z and others on a campaign to promote criminal justice reform.
Testimony from the 2008 trial shows the teenager born Robert Williams acknowledged having a gun but denied pointing it at police or selling drugs.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court overturned the felony conviction last month and removed the city judge who sent Williams back to prison over minor probation violations.
District Attorney Larry Krasner could also choose to retry the case or seek a plea agreement.
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WATCH: Missy Elliott delivers mind-blowing performance at VMAs
The 2019 MTV VMAs went down in New Jersey on Monday night and featured a show-stopping performance from this year’s Video Vanguard Award recipient, Missy Elliott.
The iconic rapper performed a carer-spanning medley of her hits including “Lose Control”, “Get Ur Freak On”, “Pass That Dutch”, and “Work It.”
She even brought out a grown-up Alyson Stoner, who danced in many of Missy’s videos when she was just a kid.
PHOTOS: Lizzo, Lil Nas X, and more serve big, bold looks at the MTV VMAs
FOREVER WORKING IT @AlysonStoner #VMAS pic.twitter.com/BOxYVJUbUg
— Video Music Awards (@vmas) August 27, 2019
Missy Elliott brought the house down with her power-packed performance, proving her talent and her hits are timeless.
Here’s who won big at the 2019 MTV VMAs + complete winners list
Cardi B sang her praises as she presented her with the coveted Video Vanguard Award, adding another achievement to her long list of accomplishments. Earlier this year, she became the first female rapper to be inducted into the Songwriting Hall of Fame. In May, she was given an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music.
Check out her unforgettable performance:
“I promised I wouldn’t cry at this one because I cry at every award,” she said during her acceptance speech. “I have worked diligently over two decades and I never thought that I would be standing up here receiving this award and it means so much to me.”
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Queen Latifah returns to the rap game for VMAs finale
The 2019 MTV VMAs delivered tons of big moments and saved one of the night’s biggest surprises for last when Queen Latifah closed out the show with a return to her rap roots.
PHOTOS: Lizzo, Lil Nas X, and more serve big, bold looks at the MTV VMAs
In celebration of this year’s location of New Jersey, the icon was joined by Naughty By Nature, Wyclef Jean, Fetty Wap, and Redman, who all hail from the Garden State. Each artist performed their most iconic single, “Trap Queen,” “O.P.P.,” “Hip Hop Hooray,” and “Gone Till November” before Queen Latifah delivered a rendition of her own beloved chart-topper “U.N.I.T.Y.”
Here’s who won big at the 2019 MTV VMAs + complete winners list
Check it out:
While it was incredible to see Queen Latifah back behind the mic, it wasn’t the show’s only amazing moment.
Missy Elliott gave a career-spanning performance of her hits before receiving the Video Vanguard Award and several other Black women helped to make this year’s VMAs one of the best in recent memory.
WATCH: Missy Elliott delivers mind-blowing performance at VMAs
Lizzo was on fire when she took the stage to perform “Truth Hurts” and “Good As Hell” and spread her message of body positivity far and wide:
H.E.R. was awe-inspiring when she hit the stage to debut a brand new song, “Anti.”
Check it out:
Normani had all the right moves during her performance of her latest single “Motivation.”
ICYMI, here it is:
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Monday, August 26, 2019
Here’s who won big at the 2019 MTV VMAs + complete winners list
The 2019 Video Music Awards was full of big moments and big wins from some of our favorite artists.
This year’s VMAs was a vast improvement from recent shows and celebrated the diverse music scene in a major way and honored one of the most innovative musicians of our time, Missy Elliott with the Video Vanguard Award.
Lil Nas X took home Song of The Year for his record-breaking hit “Old Town Road” and Cardi B brought home a moon man for Best Hip Hop Video for “Money.”
Check out the full list of winners below:
MICHAEL JACKSON VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD
Missy Elliott
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Ariana Grande – Republic Records
SONG OF THE YEAR
Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records
BEST NEW ARTIST, presented by Taco Bell ®
Billie Eilish – Darkroom/Interscope Records
BEST COLLABORATION
Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Señorita” – Island Records
PUSH ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Billie Eilish – Darkroom/Interscope Records
PHOTOS: Lizzo, Lil Nas X, and more serve big, bold looks at the MTV VMAs
BEST POP
Jonas Brothers – “Sucker” – Republic Records
BEST HIP HOP
Cardi B – “Money” – Atlantic Records
BEST R&B
Normani ft. 6lack – “Waves” – Keep Cool/RCA Records
BEST K-POP
BTS ft. Halsey – “Boy With Luv” – Columbia Records
BEST LATIN
ROSALÍA & J Balvin ft. El Guincho – “Con Altura” – Columbia Records
BEST DANCE
The Chainsmokers, Bebe Rexha – “Call You Mine” – Disruptor/Columbia Records
BEST ROCK
Panic! At The Disco – “High Hopes” – Elektra Music Group
VIDEO FOR GOOD
Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records
BEST DIRECTION
Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records – Directed by Calmatic
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Taylor Swift ft. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco – “ME!” – Republic Records – Visual Effects by Loris Paillier & Lucas Salton for BUF VFX
BEST EDITING
Billie Eilish – “bad guy” – Darkroom/Interscope Records – Editing by Billie Eilish
BEST ART DIRECTION
Ariana Grande – “7 Rings” – Republic Records – Art Direction by John Richoux
BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
ROSALÍA & J Balvin ft. El Guincho – “Con Altura” – Columbia Records – Choreography by Charm La’Donna
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Señorita” – Island Records – Cinematography by Scott Cunningham
BEST GROUP
BTS
BEST POWER ANTHEM
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Morgan Freeman on playing POTUS in ‘Angel Has Fallen’
Morgan Freeman is currently starring in the action-packed thriller, Angel Has Fallen and the prolific actor is taking on the role of POTUS for the flick that also stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Gerard Butler.
Check out the official synopsis:
When there is an assassination attempt on U.S. President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), his trusted confidant, Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), is wrongfully accused and taken into custody. After escaping from capture, he becomes a man on the run and must evade his own agency and outsmart the FBI in order to find the real threat to the President. Desperate to uncover the truth, Banning turns to unlikely allies to help clear his name, keep his family from harm and save the country from imminent danger.
Jada Pinkett Smith discusses how a ‘conventional’ marriage to Will Smith would have killed her
The third installment in the Fallen series, Angel Has Fallen stands on its own as a psychologically tense, kinetic thriller that never lets off the accelerator from its opening killer-drone attack.
WATCH: Jada Pinkett Smith on fierce new role in ‘Angel Has Fallen’
Angel Has Fallen is directed by Ric Roman Waugh from a screenplay by Robert Mark Kamen and Matt Cook & Ric Roman Waugh, story by Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt, and based on characters created by Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt. Lionsgate and Millennium Media present, a Millennium Films/G-Base production.
Morgan Freeman set to star in sequel of ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’
Check out our exclusive interview with Morgan Freeman, above.
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Viola Davis will play Michelle Obama in Showtime series ‘First Ladies’
Viola Davis may be ready to bid farewell to her award-winning role on How To Get Away With Murder, but the actress has already lined up her next TV gig and it’s a big one.
According to reports, she has signed on to portray Michelle Obama in an upcoming series at SHOWTIME entitled First Ladies. The series id currently in development at the premium network and will be a one-hour drama written and executive produced by Aaron Cooley.
Variety reports:
The series will peel back the curtain on the personal and political lives of First Ladiesfrom throughout history, with season one focusing on Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford and Michelle Obama. “First Ladies” will turn it lens on the East Wing of the White House, as opposed to the West, where many of history’s most impactful and world changing decisions have been hidden from view, made by America’s charismatic, complex and dynamic First Ladies.
Viola Davis says she will only work with hairstylists who are familiar with Black hair
Viola Davis has been vocal about her desire to break down barriers in Hollywood.
“If you look to the past and look at storytelling where there’s a huge deficit in terms of our voice and our presence, that’s not a good place to start,” she said at Variety’s Inclusion Summit earlier this year. “What we have to fight for, and this is what I’m proud about with JuVee, is autonomy in storytelling and production and all of it. Don’t just tell me that the only way Viola can exist in the story is if a white person is leading the charge and I’m in the background.”
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