Issue 20  |  June 2010

Forest Whittaker to star in Criminal Minds spin-off?

Forest Whittaker (The Lat King of Scotland) is reportedly in talks  with CBS network to star in a spin-off of popular cop drama Criminal Minds. The spin-off should air later in the US later this year. The move is not a first for Whitaker, who starred in two series of The Shield between 2006 and 2007.

Via Screen Rant

Wyclef’s Yele gets new accountants

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The foundation of Wyclef Jean said Friday it has hired a new accounting firm after the Haitian-born rapper acknowledged the organization had made mistakes.

The announcement came hours before Jean was to headline a globally broadcast concert called “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief,” in which donations would flow through to charities including his own.

The finances of The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc., also known as Yele Haiti Foundation, were questioned last week after it was revealed the charity had paid Jean to perform at fundraising events and bought advertising air time from a television station he co-owns. Performers from Friday night’s telethon — including Jean, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and others — weren’t being paid for their services, according to Carole Robinson, a spokeswoman for MTV Networks, which helped organize the event. The concert was being shown on major broadcasting networks in the U.S. and Canada, cable networks around the world and on the Internet, with a reach of some 640 million homes worldwide.

On Wednesday, the 37-year-old Grammy-winning artist told talk show host Oprah Winfrey that his foundation has been poorly run in the past. “I think we have learned from our mistakes,” he said. “In moving forward, I think we’re going to be stronger than ever.”

The new accounting firm, RSM McGladrey, will administer donations being pledged to Haiti relief through Jean’s foundation.

Jean had been urging followers to text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to his foundation in support of Haitian earthquake victims. More than $2 million was pledged in two days. The foundation said Friday that any funds it receives related to the Haiti earthquake will be used solely to help earthquake victims, while funds to pay for overhead will be raised separately. It said a plane laden with emergency supplies will leave for Haiti on Saturday from Miami.

Yele Haiti is also retaining the services of accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, which last August filed three years of overdue tax returns for the foundation. Tax experts say it is not illegal for charitable organizations to pay for the services of board members as long as they are paid market rates. But the practice is in stark contrast to the free services being offered by performers for Friday’s fundraising event.

According to an IRS tax return from 2006, the Yele Haiti foundation paid $250,000 to buy airtime from Telemax S.A., a for-profit TV station in Haiti that is majority owned by Jean and business partner Jerry Duplessis, who is also on the foundation board. Part of that money went to pay for a concert in Haiti put on by Jean himself, said foundation president Hugh Locke.

Another $160,000 that year was spent on a concert in Monte Carlo that Jean participated in, of which $75,000 paid for backup singers and $25,000 went to Jean through Platinum Sound Recording Studios Inc., a company he owns with Duplessis, Locke said. Yele Haiti took in $1.1 million in total revenue that year.

John Colombo, a University of Illinois law professor specializing in tax-exempt organizations, said tax laws permit such fees. “If you told me the organization raised $1 million and it all went to him, then I would have some issues,” Colombo said. “Paying him an arm’s length salary for services he actually performed just isn’t a problem.”

But Alvin Brown, a tax lawyer who runs the site IRSTaxAttorney.com, said such transactions were “scary” and “could be viewed as fraud.”

Donations raised in Friday’s telethon will be split between Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation, and the newly formed Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation.

Viewers are being urged to text “GIVE” to 50555 pledge $10 to those groups, or buy songs, albums and videos from the event from Apple Inc.’s iTunes store, the proceeds of which will be donated in their entirety to the participating charities.

Mo’Nique wins Screen Actors Guild Award for role in ‘Precious’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — While Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock’s chances for Academy Award gold were advanced with their trophies at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the blockbuster “Avatar” may have felt a touch blue.

The computer-assisted performances in James Cameron’s “Avatar” didn’t make the cut for SAG nominations. But the groundbreaking sci-fi film remains a strong best-picture contender for the Oscars in March.

For Bridges of “Crazy Heart,” Bullock of “The Blind Side” and for SAG supporting-acting honorees Mo’Nique of “Precious” and Austrian actor Christoph Waltz of “Inglourious Basterds,” there’s reason to suspect the Oscar ceremony will be a happy rerun of Saturday’s SAG Awards and last Sunday’s Golden Globes.

All four were recognized at the Globes, as well, while “Avatar” was named best drama and Cameron won as best director.

He will face competition from director Quentin Tarantino, whose “Inglourious Basterds” won the SAG Award for best ensemble performance, which can be a precursor to the top Oscar award. Last year, SAG’s movie cast award was presented to “Slumdog Millionaire,” which went on to win the best picture Oscar.

Actors in two highly critically acclaimed films went home empty-handed, including “Up in the Air” star George Clooney and the film’s supporting actresses, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. The cast of the Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” also lost out.

Clooney, however, was lauded by SAG President Ken Howard for helping organize Friday’s telethon to raise money for earthquake-devastated Haiti, a rare reference to the tragedy.

Two honors not shown in the telecast went to stunt ensembles for the film “Star Trek” and the TV show “24.”

‘Hope For Haiti Now’ Sets New Record For Money Raised By Disaster-Relief Telethon

As donations continue to pour in from around the world, “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief” announced on Saturday (January 23) that it has raised more than $58 million to date — a new record for donations made by the general public through a disaster-relief telethon. The preliminary figure includes donations made via phone, online and mobile, and does does not include donations by corporations and large private donors, or iTunes sales figures, all of which are still being calculated.

Read the full story at MTV

Video: Jay-Z, Rihanna and Bono performing “Stranded” at the Telethon

Kerry Washington: The Sundance Interview

As the 2010 Sundance Film Festival begins, Kerry Washington’s accomplished the the indie cred-burnishing feat of having two buzzy films here. The first is Tanya Hamilton’s Night Catches Us, where Washington reunites with her She Hate Me costar Anthony Mackie in the story of two ex-Black Panthers, and the second is Rodrigo Garcia’s female triptych Mother and Child, which made its well-received debut in Toronto last fall and costars Annette Bening and Naomi Watts.

In this interview, Kerry Washington speaks about her festival entries, the limits of control, and the challenges of her current Broadway stint in David Mamet’s Race.

Read the full interview on Movieline

Michael Jackson’s 3D image to be featured at Grammy Awards in star-studded duet

Michael Jackson’s 3D image will perform his “Earth Song” on CBS’s Grammy Awards show Jan. 31, accompanied by Smokey Robinson, Carrie Underwood, Usher, Jennifer Hudson and Celine Dion.

It has the potential to be “one of our most memorable moments,” perennial Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich said Wednesday, but it isn’t what he, Michael and everyone else had originally planned.

Read the full story at DailyNews

The Top 10 Raps about President Barack Obama

There are pre-presidential raps, presidential raps and, probably, post-White raps to come. The rap and hip-hop communities pride themselves on lyrics laced with real life, and no way could they ignore the first African-American to make a serious bid for the presidency and, now, the first one to become president of the United States.

As the campaign gained steam, some rappers, such as Atlanta’s Ludacris, hurled insults at President BushBush. Others, among them New York’s Nas, were more constructive and shrewd in their lyrics, analyzing what the election of the first black president meant to people living in poverty.

Not one rapper stands out as being the first to record a pro-Obama song, although Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am was among the first hip-hop celebrities to associate his name and brand with Obama. Ludacris and Common also released songs not too long after that.

Read the full story at AllVoices

Springsteen, Jay-Z, Urban Join Haiti Telethon

NEW YORK (AP) – The music world’s top stars are signing on for Friday’s “Hope for Haiti” telethon.

Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Keith Urban and Alicia Keys are just a few of the performers who will be featured, according to MTV Networks, an integral partner in the event.

People can purchase the night’s performances for 99 cents each through iTunes starting Saturday. A statement released Tuesday says all proceeds will go to Haiti relief.

Haiti was devastated and thousands of its citizens killed when an earthquake hit the Caribbean nation last week.

The “Hope for Haiti” benefit will be broadcast from New York, Los Angeles, London and Haiti. It will be televised on all the major networks plus several additional channels.

The show will be broadcast on MTV UK on 23 Jan, 1am (tbc)

Via CBS News

MLK biopic moves forward

DreamWorks Studios announced today it’s hired playwright and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood to write the Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic. It’s the first theatrical motion picture to be authorized by The King Estate to utilize the intellectual property of Dr. King to create the definitive portrait of his life. A native of South Africa, Harwood wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Pianist and received Oscar nominations for The Dresser and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Read full story on Deadline

Rihanna, Maxwell and Wyclef Jean in Oprah for Haiti

Rihanna and Maxwell are set to perform on a special episode about the horror and heartbreak in earthquake-ravished Haiti, airing Wednesday, January 20 in the US. Rihanna will perform a cover of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.

R&B star Maxwell joins Rihanna as a performer, while musician and Haitian-born Wyclef Jean will give an exclusive account of the devastation. He will also answer accusations facing his Yele Haiti foundation.

Promo trailer of this special episode:

Via Neonlimelight

Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera Lined Up For Haitian Relief Telethon

Performers Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Sting, and Bono are some of the more than 40 artists lined up to participate in the Hope for Haiti televised benefit for victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

The telethon, to be hosted by actor George Clooney and hip-hop star and producer Wyclef Jean in New York, is set to air on January 22nd on several broadcast networks. CNN newsman Anderson Cooper will also host segments from Haiti.

Clooney told AP on Sunday (January 17th) that songs from participating artists will also be available on iTunes, with proceeds going to the relief effort.

The benefit will raise money for such organizations as Red Cross, UNICEF, Oxfam America, Partners in Health and Jean’s Yele Haiti Foundation.

Via KBS Radio

Gabourey Sidibe interview for Precious

This is not what I’d planned on doing with my life at all!’ Gabourey Sidibe laughs, gesturing around the luxurious hotel suite where she is based for interviews during the London Film Festival. Before going to a film audition almost on a whim two years ago, the 24-year-old from Harlem had been working as a receptionist in order to pay her way through college. A psychology major, she had just enrolled for the third year of her degree course, but despite a cv that included only three minor parts in college theatre productions, she ended up cancelling her classes to play the title role in Precious, a film that was the breakout hit of Sundance at the start of 2009 and has since been rapturously received at festivals across the world, picking up three Golden Globe nominations, including best actress for Sidibe. ‘I’d never even fantasised about being an actress,’ she says. ‘So to get a role of such magnitude, and to have it do what it’s doing, it’s just… overwhelming.’

Read the full interview on Telegraph

Morgan Freeman on Black History Month

“You are going to relegate my history to a month? Which month is White History Month?” says Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman in this short video about the significance of Black History Month.

Listen to Corinne Bailey Rae’s The Sea

Two years after the death of her husband, Corinne Baileay Rae makes a return to the musical scene, with a new album The Sea. The album will be officially released on 1 february but you can get a first listen at NPR Music. click here to go the NPR Music page.

Spike Lee returns to New Orleans

One of the best-known documentaries about the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures in New Orleans is from Spike Lee. His four-hour film When the Levees Broke aired on HBO in 2006 and won several Emmys as well as awards at the Venice Film Festival. Now, more than four years after Katrina, Lee is returning to The Big Easy to shoot a follow-up film for HBO. The filmmaker is scheduled to start shooting this week in New Orleans, but also plans to spend time along the Gulf Coast, an area some critics felt he neglected in his original film.

Read full story at Cinematical