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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
OBIT-COVID-19 - From YahooEntertainment: Country music's first Black icon, Charley Pride, has died of COVID-19.
MOVIES - From CNN: It is official, actor Harrison Ford will return for a fifth film in the "Indiana Jones" series, which began in 1981 with the Oscar-winning "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The film is due July 2022.
PIXAR - From Deadline: Pixar is working on an origin movie for "Buzz Lightyear," the space hero from "Toy Story." "Captain America's" Chris Evans will voice the lead role. The film is due in July 2022.
DISNEY+ - From Deadline: Whoopi Goldberg is returning for a third "Sister Act" film. Goldberg will reprise her role of Deloris Wilson for "Sister Act 3" and will produce the film along with Tyler Perry for Disney+.
DISNEY+ - From Variety: Disney+ announces 10 new "Star Wars"-related series and 10 new series from Marvel Studios.
BLM - From WebMD: In an article for "WebMD," college and pro basketball legend and champion, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talks about the health of African-Americans and the risks to that posted by the healthcare system.
STREAMING - From BleedingCool: Amazon is developing a TV series based on the 1997 teen horror flick, "I Know What You Did Last Summer." Craig Macneill will direct the series pilot.
STREAMING - From Deadline: Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes will play brothers in "True Story," a Netflix limited series drama. It written and executive produced by Eric Newman of "Narcos: Mexico."
TELEVISION - From Deadline: HBO has been working on a reboot of its vampire melodrama, "True Blood." Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (creator of "Riverdale") and Jami O'Brien (creator of AMC'S "NOS4A2") will write the pilot with O'Brien acting as the executive producer with Alan Ball, creator of the original series.
MOVIES - From IndieWire: The best undistributed films of 2020
OSCARS - From Deadline: Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher, and Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh have been announced as the producers for the 93rd Academy Awards, which will be held Sunday, April 25th, 2021.
WARNER MEDIA - From THR: Oscar-nominated director, Christopher Nolan, rips into WarnerMedia's announced plan to release its 2021 film slate on its streaming service, HBO Max, which Nolan calls "the worst streaming service."
STAR TREK - From Deadline: Actors who have starred in the "Star Trek" franchise, from the original series to the recent "Star Trek: Discovery," will hold a virtual fund raiser for U.S. Senate candidates from Georgia, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, on Sat. Dec. 12th, 2020.
MOVIES - From Deadline: Constantin Film has issued an apology for its film, "Monster Hunter," an adaptation of the popular video game. The film contains dialogue that was considered offensive in China, where the film has been a hit.
BOX OFFICE - From Deadline: The winner of the 12/4 to 12/6/2020 weekend box office is DreamWorks Animation's "The Croods: A New Age" with an estimated take of 4.4 million dollars.
MOVIES - From YahooEntertainment: Oscar-winning screenwriter Alan Ball wonders about the legacy of the Oscar-winning film he wrote, "American Beauty" (1999), because of the scandals related to the film's star, Kevin Spacey. Spacey won a "Best Actor" Oscar for his performance, but the last few years have seen Spacey beset by accusations of predatory behavior and sexual assault.
TELEVISION - From ShadowandAct: Oscar and Emmy-winning actress Regina King is producing "Slay," an African-American themed supernatural drama that is in development at The CW.
TELEVISION - From LATimes: Inside the TV networks' battle for Christmas movie supremacy
OBITS:
From TMZ: Character actor and occasional professional wrestler, Tom "Tiny" Lister, Jr. was found dead in his apartment, Thursday, December 10, 2020. Lister is best known for playing the character, "Deebo," in "Friday" (1995) and its sequel, "Next Friday" (2000). He appeared in numerous other films, including "The Fifth Element" (1997) and "The Dark Knight" (2008), to name a few.
From Deadline: The film and television actress, Natalie Desselle, has died at the age of 83, Monday, December 7, 2020 of colon cancer. Her best known film roles were in "B.A.P.S." (1997) and "Madea's Big Happy Family" (2010). Desselle made her television debut on a 1996 episode of ABC's former family sitcom, "Family Matters." Desselle was a main cast member on UPN's TV series, "Eve" (2003-06).
From Deadline: Film and television character actor and stage actor, Warren Berlinger, has died at the age of 83, Wednesday, December 2, 2020. He was known for playing next to bigger stars, including a role in the Elvis Presley film, "Spinout" (1966). Later in his career, he made numerous guest appearances on such TV series as "Happy Days," "Murder, She Wrote," and "Friends," to name a few. He began his stage career as a nine-year-old in the 1946 Broadway production of "Annie Get Your Gun," and he went on to perform on stage in "Blue Denim" and "Happy Time," to name a few.
From Deadline: The actor television actor, David Landers, has died at the age of 73, Friday, December 4, 2020. Landers is best known for playing the role of "Squiggy" on the former ABC sitcom, "Laverne & Shirley" (1976-83). He was also a noted voice actor who performed in multiple animated film and TV series.
From CDC: The Centers for Disease Control has a "COVID Data Tracker."
From YahooNews: Why does COVID-19 kill some people and hardly affects others?
From YahooNews: Yahoo has a dedicated page of links updating news about COVID-19.
From Deadline: The news site "Deadline" has a dedicated page for news about coronavirus and the film, TV, and entertainment industries.
From TheNewYorker: The venerable magazine has a dedicate COVID-19 page free to all readers.
From YahooNews: Re: the federal government's response to COVID-19: What if the most important election of our lifetime was the last one - 2016?
From YahooLife: What is "happy hypoxia?" And do you have this COVID-19 symptom?
From JuanCole: Remember when President Donald went crazy and suggested that we ingest household cleaning supplies and UV light to fight COVID-19. Here is the video and commentary from Juan Cole.
From TheIntercept: The federal government has ramped up security and police-related spending in response to the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic, including issuing contracts for riot gear, disclosures show. The purchase orders include requests for disposable cuffs, gas masks, ballistic helmets, and riot gloves...
From TheAtlantic: The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying. The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.
From ProPublica: Hospital's Secret COVID-19 Policy Separated Native American Mothers From Their Newborns
From TheGuardian: More than 20 million Americans could have contracted COVID-19, experts say.
From RSN/WashPost: The COVID-19 mutation that has taken over the world.
7/13 - From YahooSports: Maybe a pandemic means that there will not be college football this fall.
7/13- From YahooNews: The CDC adds four new symptoms (including nausea and purple or blue lesions on feet and toes) to the list of COVID-19 symptoms.
7/19 - From YahooFinance: Harvard Public Health professor Dr. Howard Koh says the U.S. "needs to regroup" to find COVID-19.
7/22 - From YahooNews: A public health employee predicted Florida's coronavirus catastrophe — then she was fired.
7/22 - From YahooLifestyle: Florida mom loses son, 20, to coronavirus, and then days later, her daughter.
7/23 - From TheWrap: The site has a list of movie and TV stars, entertainment and sports figures who have tested positive for COVID-19
From Bloomberg: Will the COVID-19 pandemic turn Millennials into socialists?
7/27 - From CNN: Chief of critical care at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center, Dr. Joseph Costa, passes away due to Covid-19 complications... after treating the hospital's sickest COVID-19 patients. He was 56 and leaves behind family, including a husband of 28 years.
7/31 - From Slate: COVID-19 is airborne - for reals!
8/9 - From YahooAFP: According to the real-time tally kept by John Hopkins University, the United States has hit 5 million cases of COVID-19.
8/16 - From Truthout: COVID Deaths Continue to Surge in Countries Led by Far Right Authoritarians
9/19 - From WashPost: U.S. coronavirus death toll reaches 200,000
9/23 - From CNBC: Mark Cuban, who owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and star of ABC's "Shark Tank," suggests that every household in American get a $1000 check every two weeks for the next two months.
11/7 - From YahooNews: "It's a slaughter," doctors say of new coronavirus wave.
11/13 - YahooNews: "We blew it": U.S. reaches 'explosive' COVID-19 spread as virus is nearly impossible to control, experts say.
11/29 From LATimes: California sets record with most COVID-19 hospitalizations since pandemic began
12/6 - From YahooNBC: President Donald has announced that his lawyer, former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giulani, has tested positive for COVID-19.
BLACK LIVES MATTER:
From RSN: Judge's Blistering Opinion Says Courts Have Placed Police Beyond Accountability
From TheGuardian: Yusef Salaam, one of the "Central Park Five," says in an interview, "Trump would have had me hanging from a tree in Central Park."
From NPR: Prosecutors' plea deal required drug suspect to name Breonna Taylor a "co-defendant."
From ChicagoSunTimes: Rev. Jesse Jackson: America has millions of people in poverty because Americans choose not to demand the policies that would lift them out of poverty.
From APNews: No one will be held accountable for the killing of Louisville African-American resident, Breonna Taylor.
From Channel4: Revealed: Trump campaign strategy to deter millions of Black Americans from voting in 2016
From GuardianUK: California is going to consider paying reparations to the descendants of African slaves after adopting a landmark law to study and to develop proposals around the issue.
From TheRoot: What to Do When Your Country Turns Into a Dumpster Fire
From Vox: It's True: 1 in 1,000 Black Americans Have Died in the Covid-19 Pandemic
From CBS: Breonna Taylor's boyfriend certain cops didn't identify themselves
From DonaldTrump: Well, because it has been in the news a lot lately (via Ice Cube and Li'l Wayne), here is "The Platinum Plan." It is impressive, but no Republican Congress would go along with even 10 percent of this plan which is basically a long list of promises to the Black Americans - individually and as a group.
From Truthout: Yes, 55 Percent of White Women Voted for Trump. No, I’m Not Surprised.