Bobby Rivers Dies: VH1 VJ, Food Network Host & Film Critic Was 70

Michaela Zee The African American Film Critics Association has announced the winners of the 15th annual AAFCA Awards, which honors outstanding achievement in film. “American Fiction,” “The Color Purple” and “Origin” all scored multiple honors, with “American Fiction” and “The Color Purple” leading with four wins apiece.

Ava DuVernay’s time-hopping drama Origin, debut filmmaker Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, and Blitz Bazawule’s musical take on The Color Purple lead the winners at the 15th annual African American Film Critics Awards. Scroll down for the full list. 

Michaela Zee Tom Shales, a Pulitzer-winning television critic at the Washington Post who spent nearly 40 years at the publication, has died. He was 79. Shales died Saturday at a hospital in Fairfax County, Va., from complications due to COVID-19 and renal failure, his caretaker, Victor Herfurth, told the Washington Post.

EXCLUSIVE: Sergio Lira, Lynette Coll and Cristobal Güell are launching Luz Films, a newly formed entertainment company founded with the mission of making Latino-focused prestige and elevated-genre content from diverse visionary creatives and producers in the film and TV space.

WHAS 11, a local ABC News affiliate, reported that Ferguson, 36, was booked and processed at a local corrections facility. The Post reached out to the Louisville police department for comment.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Eddie Cockrell, who reviewed films for Variety for many years and programmed for several film series, died of liver failure Dec. 29 in Sydney, Australia, according to his sister Ann. He was 67.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent A record 54 market premieres will be hosted at the Rendez-Vous showcase held by the French film promotion org Unifrance in Paris which will kick off Jan. 16 with the world premiere of Pascal Bonitzer’s “Auction.” The biggest film market dedicated exclusively to French movies, the Rendez-Vous in Paris will welcome 420 buyers from 50 countries and 47 sales companies.

EXCLUSIVE: The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) and the GRAMMY Museum have announced a year-long collaborative program to spotlight the intersectionality between music and content created for film, television, and multimedia platforms. This innovative initiative will be held at the GRAMMY Museum’s state-of-the-art facilities, in downtown Los Angeles at LA Live, designed to celebrate the fusion of music and storytelling.

Stuart Miller When George C. Wolfe was casting his civil rights movie “Rustin,” he got Colman Domingo for the titular Bayard Rustin, and then added Michael Potts and Glynn Turman in smaller, but crucial roles. “It was wonderful the way he got the band back together,” says Turman, who plays labor leader A.

Donald E. Wildmon, whose American Family Association led boycotts over sexuality and gay themes in American TV shows and in the arts, died on Dec. 28 in Tupelo, Miss. He was 85.

reportedly turned down the gig. And, former Globes hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reportedly said they were done. So, the job fell to Jo Koy.“This is my childhood dream,” Koy, 52, told USA Today.“I’m now living something that I would watch as a kid, something that indirectly inspired me to do what I do, seeing everyone from Bob Hope to Billy Crystal to Whoopi Goldberg [host] … Now, I’m in the captain’s seat and I’m loving it.”He told Variety about his plans, “I’m going to poke fun, but I want to do it in a way where we’re still celebrating.

The National Society of Film Critics 58th annual awards has honored Celine Song’s directorial debut Past Lives for its top prize, beating out runners-up Oppenheimer and The Zone of Interest for Best Picture.

Stuart Miller Da’Vine Joy Randolph had grown weary of scripts that offered her shallow or one-dimensional characters. “I’ve felt like I had to fight for fully realized characters with complexities or even start writing or producing myself,” she says. Then she was sent David Hemingson’s script for “The Holdovers,” for the role of Mary Lamb, who works in the cafeteria of a prep school for the wealthy, soldiering on even as she mourns the death of her sonin Vietnam. “I was so overjoyed to read this character, someone who was really struggling, but also trying to persevere in spite of her situation,” says Randolph, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for her performance in “Ghost: The Musical.” She has since appeared in everything from “Dolemite Is My Name,” “High Fidelity” and “Only Murders in the Building” to “The United States vs.

Joseph Lelyveld, who won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for his book, Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White, and was a former executive editor and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, died on Friday at his Manhattan home.

Mama June Shannon says her late daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell had one final wish — and it involved her daughter’s living arrangements.

Carmel Dagan Staff Writer English actress Glynis Johns, who played the daffy suffragette mother Mrs. Banks in the classic film “Mary Poppins,” died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles, her manager confirmed to The Washington Post. She was 100.

Love Is Blind contestant Renee Poche has filed a massive new lawsuit against Netflix and the show’s production company, Delirium TV! Viewers of the reality show might not remember

Queer Eye is set to lose one of the show’s key cast members after season eight.The rebooted US reality series sees the Fab Five – Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness, Karamo Brown and Tan France – apply their respective expertise to help improve the life of individuals across the US (and, for one spin-off, in Japan).The show, which first debuted on Netflix in 2018, is set to return for its eighth season in New Orleans on January 24, 2024.As confirmed in November 2023, Bobby Berk, the show’s expert on interior design, will make his last appearance on the show in season eight.In a post on X announcing his departure, Berk described the decision to leave the show as a “necessary one”.“It is with a heavy heart that I announce that season eight will be my final season on Queer Eye,” Berk wrote. “It’s not been an easy decision to be at peace with but a necessary one.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Mickey Cottrell, a veteran publicist for independent films known as a champion of filmmakers and actors, died Monday at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, his sister Suzy Cottrell confirmed. He was 79.

to US copyright law, works published between 1923 and 1978 are protected for 95 years following the date of publication. Disney has tried to prevent this from happening, over the years — in 1998, it lobbied for the Copyright Extension Act, which added 20 years, adding up to 95 years. That act would eventually be dubbed the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act.” “Ever since Mickey Mouse’s first appearance in the 1928 short film ‘Steamboat Willie,’ people have associated the character with Disney’s stories, experiences, and authentic products,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.