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Queen Latifah hit the stage at the 97th Academy Awards with a live performance, paying tribute to the late Quincy Jones through a performance of “Ease on Down the Road.”

Jones died in November, and Latifah’s performance honored the Grammy-winning producer and film composer who collaborated with Michael Jackson. Throughout his career, Jones won 28 Grammy Awards, six of them for the 1990 album “Back on the Block.”

Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg took the stage for a “The Color Purple” reunion that then led into Latifah’s performance. Jones composed the score for the 1985 film, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. “The man, our beloved Q, had an equally powerful impact on the world of film as a composer and producer,” Winfrey said.

Goldberg emphasized Jones’ notable film achievements. “When we talk about Black excellence, we’re talking about Quincy,” Goldberg said.

“In 1967, Quincy Jones was the first Black...

Gene Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner for “The French Connection” and “Unforgiven,” and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday afternoon in their Santa Fe, N.M. home. The office of Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed their deaths to Variety after midnight Thursday. There is no immediate indication of foul play, per authorities, though the Sheriff’s office did not immediately provide a cause of death. Hackman was 95. Arakawa was 63.

On Wednesday, Sheriff’s deputies visited the home of Hackman and Arakawa, who married in 1991. The couple was found dead, alongside their dog.

“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant,” the sheriff told the Santa Fe New Mexican. The statement came before authorities had positively identified the pair, per the publication. “I want to assure the community and neighborhood...

Warning: Spoilers for Paris Has Fallen below!If Paris Has Fallen's second season wants to tie back into the movie series, then it should bring back newly minted action hero Aaron Eckhart as President Asher. The three Has Fallen movies have grossed over $520 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), but in a bold move, the TV spinoff has virtually zero connection to them. It has no cameos or references and instead focuses on new protagonists trying to stop terror attacks in Paris. While a cameo for Gerard Butler's Banning was rumored when it was announced, the star doesn't actually appear in the show.

Paris Has Fallen's ending leaves the door open for another series - and suggests the story will be moving to Africa. The show has received an impressive 88% on Rotten Tomatoes too, and appears to have been a streaming hit across the world. The next...

Rashida Jones read from the speech her late father, Quincy Jones, was set to deliver upon receiving his honorary Oscar at the Motion Picture Academy’s annual Governors Awards.

The ceremony took place last night, Nov. 17, two weeks after Quincy’s death at the age of 91. Rashida, joined on stage by several of her siblings, accepted the prize on her father’s behalf, saying the acclaimed musician, producer, and composer “was really excited to attend tonight” and, “I want you to know that he is here, very much here.”

Rashida...

Legendary music producer and composer Quincy Jones, who amassed 28 Grammy Award wins across his multi-decade career, died on Sunday at the age of 91.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the Jones family said in a statement obtained by our sister site Variety. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him. He is truly one of a kind and we will miss him dearly; we take comfort and immense...

Quincy Jones, the legendary record producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose contributions to contemporary music spanned over seven decades and multiple genres such as jazz, pop, and hip-hop, has died at the age of 91.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” Jones’ family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Jones was one of the most celebrated icons in the music industry, garnering a record 80 Grammy nominations and 28 wins, including three Producer of the Year honors and two Album of the Year and Song of the Year awards each. His most recent win came in 2019 when Quincy, the semi-autobiographical documentary written and co-directed by his daughter Rashida Jones, took home Best Music Film.

As a producer and arranger,...

Paris Has Fallen is taking the action franchise in a new direction, and there's a perfect cameo role for Gerard Butler's Banning. The Has Fallen movies cast Butler as Mike Banning, a veteran Secret Service agent tasked with saving the day against any number of terrorist threats. The original entry Olympus Has Fallen competed against White House Down in 2013, with the former emerging as the winner at the box office. The resulting franchise has proven a reliable one for Butler, with 2019's Angel Has Fallen even attracting some of the best reviews of the series.

The next installment Paris Has Fallen is the first television series for the property and follows Tewfik Jallab as a French protection officer and Ritu Arya as an MI6 agent trying to thwart a series of attacks. Butler is attached to the show as producer, and while there are rumors he could make a cameo,...

Quincy Jones, the first Black producer to be nominated for best picture, and legendary casting director Juliet Taylor will receive honorary Oscars at this year’s Governors Awards, announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Wednesday. Screenwriter and director Richard Curtis will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will be bestowed with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. The statuettes will be presented at the 15th annual ceremony on Sunday, Nov. 17, in Los Angeles.

“The recipients of this year’s Governors Awards have set the bar incredibly high across their remarkable careers, and the Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to recognize them with Oscars,” said Janet Yang, Academy President. “The selection of Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli is a testament to their success as producers of the fan-favorite Bond series and their contribution to the industry’s theatrical landscape.

For only the second time in its 15 year history there is no actor among the honorees for this year’s select group receiving the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Governors Awards. The AMPAS Board Of Governors have chosen to give Academy Honorary Awards to music legend Quincy Jones and veteran Casting Director Juliet Taylor, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to British writer/director Richard Curtis, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The awards ceremony, always a highlight in the very long Oscar season will take place on Sunday November 17, 2024 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood.

You have to go back to the 4th Governors Awards in 2012 to find a group that did not include at least one actor among its recipients. That year the honorees were documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, director/stuntman Hal Needham, AFI founder and producer/filmmaker George Stevens Jr.,...

Betty Anne Rees, who portrayed tough women who weren’t very nice in The Unholy Rollers and Sugar Hill, two 1970s offerings from the B-movie factory American International Pictures, has died. She was 81.

Rees died Monday at her home in Hemet, California, after a series of falls and a possible stroke, her niece, Kathleen Loucks, told The Hollywood Reporter. She also was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s.

The Ohio native played Janet Ingram, the secretary for Fred MacMurray’s Steve Douglas, on the last of My Three Sons’ 12 seasons in 1971-72. (Abby Dalton was Janet on an episode three years earlier.)

In The Unholy Rollers (1972), directed by Vernon Zimmerman, Rees portrayed Mickey Martinez, a star of the Los Angeles Avengers roller derby team who does not get along with popular new player Karen Walker (1970 Playboy Playmate of the Year Claudia Jennings).

The film, executive produced by Roger Corman...

Photo: Emma McIntyre (Getty Images)

Despite two historic strikes, shifting release schedules, and the ongoing risk of coronavirus, Hollywood had a lot to celebrate at tonight’s 96th Academy Awards. If there was a message to take away from this year’s awards season, it’s that 2023 was a very good year for movies.

Is this now an age of TV caution? A brace of big swings at this week’s London TV Screenings belie that trend, and few come bigger than the English-language action thriller “Paris Has Fallen,” which Studiocanal launches at this week’s London TV Screenings.

Like other major Ltvs plays, it takes a mainstream genre – such as, elsewhere, the historical drama (“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light”), true crime (“A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story”) and the bio – and aims to elevate them to another level.

This is Studiocanal’s biggest TV production of 2024. “‘Paris Has Fallen’ has ambition, scale and production values that I haven’t see in so many series,” says Anne Chérel, EVP global sales and distribution at Studiocanal.

Such scale comes with its backers. Produced by London-based Studiocanal production company Urban Myth Films (“War of the Worlds”), Studiocanal and Millennium and Butler’s G-Base,...

Rwanda’s government has commuted the sentence of Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” and was convicted on terrorism charges in 2021.

Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told The Associated Press on Friday that the 25-year sentence was commuted by presidential order after a request for clemency. Rusesabagina, a U.S. resident and Belgian citizen, is expected to be released on Saturday, she said.

“Rwanda notes the constructive role of the U.S. government in creating conditions for dialogue on this issue, as well as the facilitation provided by the state of Qatar,” Makolo told The AP.

The U.S. designated Rusesabagina as “wrongly detained,” and said that “the reported lack of fair trial guarantees calls into question the fairness of the verdict.” The civil rights activist denied all the charges and refused to take part in the trial that he and his supporters called a political sham, Reuters reported.

The Duke was top! The legendary jazz composer/musician/orchestra leader Duke Ellington made Oscar history 49 years ago when he became the first Black nominee for composing. He contended for Best Score (Musical) for the 1961 romantic drama, “Paris Blues.” It was just Ellington’s second scoring gig. Two years before, producer/director Otto Preminger hired him to do the music for his controversial courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder.” The Duke also did a cameo in that picture.

The newest addition to the roster of Black composers who reaped Oscar bids is Jon Batiste, who shares his nomination for “Soul” with Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. Also cited this year is Terence Blanchard (“Da 5 Bloods”). He was nominated two years ago for his work on another Spike Lee film, “BlacKKKlansman.”

These nominees owe a tip of the hat to Ellington and several other trailblazers: Calvin Jackson, who contended as part...

Comic Book Reviews: DC Round Up Week 08-03-2016

When I first started writing reviews for Lrm I stated I would stick with all the DC Rebirth Issues until at least issue 6 before considering any to drop. So far, I’ve pleasantly been surprised by my complete interest in All the Rebirth Titles thus far! We are approaching issue 4 for most of the newly revamped series, with still many more trickling in that show promise. As the first “wave” of books get closer to issue 6, I’ll do a quick rundown on those series and try to help new readers choose which books might be best for them. Until then, be sure to sound off in the comments on how you’re liking (or disliking) the DC Rebirth!

Aquaman #4

Story: Dan Abnett Art: Philippe Briones Colors: Gabe Eltaeb

Review: Aquaman has become a sort of love hate series for me in this DC Rebirth.

Christmas is supposed to be a time of giving, peace and good will towards men. But in Hollywood, its also a time for death, destruction and nearly every form of mayhem. Throughout the 80's 90's and (soon to be history) 00's more and more action films seem to take place during “the most wonderful time of the year”. Whether it be a heist, monster invasion or assault by pirates, so much onscreen action occurs on this jolly day that it's a miracle ole Saint Nick isn't killed in the crossfire. Here are just a few action films where Christmas is actually the last thing on the minds of characters fighting for their lives.Batman Returns (1992) Set during the Christmas season where a tree lighting ceremony in Gotham City serves as a battleground for the struggle between Batman (Michael Keaton), The Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). The film opens...