C.J.Walker Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Christine Holder and Mark Holder are no longer executive producers of the new CBS drama series East New York, from Warner Bros Television.

EXCLUSIVE: Zero Gravity Management has signed Arthur de Larroche, the writer, director and producer behind acclaimed indies Remy & Arletta and Clairevoyant. Reps for the filmmaker there will include Cameron Cubbison and Elissa Friedman.

BreAnna Bell Erica Campbell, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Israel Houghton, Tamela Mann, David Mann, Naomi Raine, Loretta Devine and Michelle Williams will appear in Season 2 of BET+’s “Kingdom Business,” Variety has learned. After an intense finale cliffhanger, the second installment picks up with Denita Jordan (Yolanda Adams) tries to protect her kingdom after going through tragedy.

Angelique Jackson Amblin Partners has secured the film rights to “Confessions in B-Flat,” with Academy Award-winning actor and producer Octavia Spencer, four-time Oscar-nominated producer Kristie Macosko Krieger and Aimee Carpenter set to produce. The 2020 novel, from Essence bestselling author Donna Hill, tells an emotional love story set amid the Civil Rights Movement, following two young people, Anita and Jason, who meet and fall in love despite their clashing political beliefs. Maya Dunbar (“Ordinary Joe,” ‘Bluff City Law”) is adapting the book for the screen. Spencer is producing the adaptation via her Orit Entertainment production company, with Carpenter producing under her Marcy Place Productions banner. Executive producers are Brian Clisham and Tara Taylor, with Liz Pelletier serving as co-producer. Jeb Brody, Amblin Partners’ president of production, and Mia Maniscalco, SVP of creative affairs, will oversee the project for the studio.

Blair Underwood (American Crime Story), Victoria Pedretti (You), Isha Blaaker (The Flight Attendant) and Finn Wittrock (Ratched) are among the final major additions to Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay’s latest film Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, based on the bestseller of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson.

EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Hunt is set to direct Deadmen from a script he also wrote. In addition, the filmmaker has inked with Zero Gravity Management for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: J. Alphonse Nicholson (P-Valley) has signed on to star alongside Neal McDonough and Casey Cott in the sports drama Black Spartans from writer-director Ben Cory Jones (Insecure), which is set to shoot in Atlanta this fall.

EXCLUSIVE:  Seoul Street is adapting Suzanne Park’s best-selling novel Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous for the big screen.

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Bellamy, the actor and stand-up comic best known for his cult comedy classic How to Be a Player, has signed with Buchwald for representation.

CBS has had a busy week of picking up drama pilots.

Marg Helgenberger will reprise the role of Supervising Judge Lisa Benner in OWN TV’s All Rise for Season 3. The network revealed the new season will premiere in June.

Frankie Faison (The Wire), Jayme Lawson (The Batman), Tosin Cole (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Kevin Carroll (The Leftovers), Sean Patrick Thomas (Barbershop), John Douglas Thompson (Mare of Easttown) and Roger Guenveur Smith (Self Made: Inspired by the Life Of Madam C.J Walker) will join Danielle Deadwyler, Whoopi Goldberg and Jalyn Hall in Chinonye Chukwu’s feature Orion Pictures release, Till about Emmett Louis Till. The movie is currently filming in Atlanta.

EXCLUSIVE: Octavia Spencer has signed with CAA for representation in all areas including her production company ORIT Entertainment, which she runs with partner and producer Brian Clisham and Head of Production and Development Stephanie Kluft. Bryan Lourd will lead the team.

The Coldest Game Set during the Cuban missile crisis, a troubled math genius is drafted to play in a US and Soviet chess match.It’s so far from fun and games, as a deadly game of espionage ensues.

Octavia Spencer grew up with the legacy of Madam C.J. Walker, a businesswoman and philanthropist who built an empire selling cosmetics and grooming products to Black women.

Denise Petski Senior Managing EditorDozens of 2020 Primetime Emmy nominees are celebrating their first-ever nods. They include Cate Blanchett for her work in Mrs.

Angelique Jackson When adapting the story of Madam C.J. Walker, America’s first Black female self-made millionaire, into Netflix’s limited series “Self Made,” co-showrunner Elle Johnson knew that there was one thing the team must get right — the hair.“This was something that myself, the other co-showrunner Janine [Sherman Barrois] and Nicole [Jefferson Asher, series writer] were all really concerned with,” Johnson says.

Danielle Turchiano Senior Features Editor, TVAlthough they are set a century apart, both Netflix limited series “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J.

The production company founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter has signed a two-year long scripted deal with ABC Studios.

Amid the George Floyd protests, many people are looking for as many ways to support the black community as possible. One way to do that? Shop brands created and run by people of color.

By Jenelle Riley

New to Netflix or an existing subscriber but not really sure what to watch amid this 21-day lockdown? No need to worry as we’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled a list of five exciting series’ to watch on the streaming platform. From the award-winning true tale Unbelievable to the brand new season of fan-favourite Ozark, here are five shows worth checking out on Netflix right now.

Netflix’s “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker,” the story of America’s first self-made female millionaire, takes place between 1908 and 1918. But the music, instead of focusing on the early jazz that might be expected, runs the gamut from ragtime to hip-hop.

NEW YORK -- Madam C.J. Walker may be one of America’s most successful “pull yourself up by your own bootstrap” stories, but many have never heard of her. However, that’s changing, thanks to the recent release of a Netflix limited series starring Octavia Spencer.

Up until recently, most of the people deemed worthy of drawn-out biographical explorations have been white, but it's a new day in Hollywood. In theaters, films like Hidden Figures (2016) and Harriet (2019) brought stories about lesser-known African American heroes from out of the shadows, and with Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, Netflix does the holy work of making the self-made millionaire the TV star she should have been long before now.

Over the weekend, a new miniseries arrived on Netflix and instantly became the talk of the town. The online streaming platform dropped a new show called Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.

Octavia Spencer is no stranger to playing inspiring women, and in her new miniseries, she's portraying a real-life icon.

Finding the look for Netflix’s new four-part series “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” was something costume designer Karyn Wagner describes as “being in heaven, and a smorgasbord of design.”

Octavia Spencer initially appears as Madam C.J. Walker — the legendary turn-of-the-century hair entrepreneur and America's first self-made millionairess of any race — as a boxer in the ring.