Month: January 2017

By the looks of this image, we’re in for a treat when “Ocean’s Eight” hits theaters on June 8, 2018.

Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures released the first photo from the all-female “Ocean’s” spinoff on Monday morning ― and it’s got us more than excited to see what writer and director Gary Ross cooked up.

The picture features Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter and Awkwafina looking chic as heck on the New York City subway. 

According to a press release, the film follows Debbie Ocean (Bullock) as she attempts to pull off the heist of the century at New York City’s star-studded annual Met Gala. Her first stop is to assemble the perfect crew: Lou (Blanchett), Nine Ball (Rihanna), Amita (Kaling), Constance (Awkwafina), Rose (Carter), Daphne Kluger (Hathaway) and Tammy (Paulson).

Reportedly, some men will make cameos, including Matt Damon and James Corden. Damian Lewis will also star in the film. 

Ross ― whose credits include “Seabiscuit” and “The Hunger Games” ― wrote the screenplay with co-producer Olivia Milch. Steven Soderbergh and Jon Kilik are producing, while Michael Tadross, Susan Ekins, Bullock, Diana Alvarez and Bruce Berman are executive producing. 

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Rihanna’s outrage at President Donald Trump’s order to restrict immigration and travel from several Muslim countries set off Azealia Banks. On Sunday, the rapper ignited a social media feud with Rihanna while declaring her support for Trump’s executive action.

After Rihanna tweeted on Saturday that she was disgusted by the ban, calling Trump an “immoral pig,” Banks fired back.

She wrote in a series of now mostly deleted Instagram posts that Trump’s move was a “precautionary measure” because U.S. policies have created animosity in the Middle East. She directly addressed Rihanna, demanding that she and other celebrities “stop chastising the president” while reiterating her view that the U.S. faces threats from abroad because of U.S. military activity there. 

In a post that is no longer visible, Banks added “that as an American who enjoys her safety and overall ability to maintain a certain level of ignorance as pertains to the world outside of our borders, I am 100% shook about open borders and would be reallllllllllllly scared for my self and my family if any parts of that war began to become real on this soil.”

Rihanna responded, of course.

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Imagine “Hidden Figures” winning Best Picture. Imagine seeing such unbridled joy on the faces of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe, the first women to headline a No. 1 movie for two consecutive weeks since 2011. 

It could happen! On Sunday, “Hidden Figures” won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, bolstering its path to Best Picture. 

After “Moonlight” swept the Gotham Awards in November, I optimistically wondered whether Barry Jenkins’ movie could also land the Oscars’ top honor. It seemed like the socially conscious antidote to the charming levity of “La La Land,” our presumed front-runner throughout the season. Then the pastel musical swept the Golden Globes and became one of the most-nominated films in Academy Award history. It seemed unstoppable.

And yet, the last movie in the SAG Awards’ 23-year history to win Best Picture without being nominated for SAG’s Best Ensemble accolade was “Braveheart,” way back in 1996. “La La Land” would only be the second. So now I’m going to swap my “Moonlight” postulation for a “Hidden Figures” what-if. 

What if “Hidden Figures” wins Best Picture next month? 

I’m a “La La Land” fan who is resistant to most of the movie’s so-called backlash, but Hollywood has the chance to honor a story that speaks to our country’s inclusive values. It’s clear from the fiery SAG speeches that the industry opposes the Trump administration’s hateful rhetoric and policymaking, and honoring a movie like “Hidden Figures” or “Moonlight” is a tiny way to promote diversity as a tenant of American culture. 

The massive box-office haul for “Hidden Figures” helps this hypothetical seem like less of a pipe dream. Theodore Melfi’s dramedy about three black, female NASA mathematicians during the 1960s Space Race crossed the impressive $100 million threshold in domestic grosses this weekend. “La La Land” did too, actually, but it took a much longer rollout to accomplish the same feat. 

One strike against a potential “Hidden Figures” victory is the Producers Guild of America, which handed “La La Land” its top prize on Saturday. The PGA is another helpful Oscar precursor, but keep in mind the actors’ branch represents the largest contingency of the Academy’s nearly 7,000 (newly diversified) voters. 

Of course, Oscar campaigns are largely about narratives, and “La La Land” still has the benefit of being the well-made escapist fare that many desire right now, as well as a love letter to the navel-gazing Hollywood. But if enough Academy voters want to make a statement about the need for inclusive storytelling in Trump’s America, “Hidden Figures” could be their ticket. Even though “La La Land” remains the front-runner, this SAG recognition bodes well. 

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Taraji P. Henson spoke with conviction Sunday night after it was announced that “Hidden Figures” won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. 

The film, which has received much acclaim including an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, tells the little-known stories of three black women ― Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson ― who played pivotal roles in NASA’s successful attempt to put astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Henson, who portrayed Johnson, accepted the award alongside her castmates and delivered a stirring speech about the movie’s purpose.

“This film is about unity,” Henson said. “The shoulders of the women that we stand on are three American heroes: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. Without them, we would not know how to reach the stars.”

“These women did not complain about the problems, the circumstances, the issues,” she continued. “They focused on solutions. Therefore, these brave women helped put men into space.” 

Henson spoke with full confidence as she concluded with a message of unity and understanding. 

“This story is about what happens when we put our differences aside, and we come together as a human race,” she concluded. “We win. Love wins every time … They are hidden figures no more!”

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Challenging Meryl Streep for best speech of the season, Mahershala Ali delivered passionate words about his Muslim faith at Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards. Winning for his performance in “Moonlight,” Ali spoke of the need to avoid persecuting those who are different, a timely topic given Donald Trump’s recent executive order banning Muslims and Syrian refugees from entering America. 

“My mother is an ordained minister,” Ali said. “I’m a Muslim. She didn’t do backflips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago. But I tell you now ― you put things to the side, and I’m able to see her and she’s able to see me. We love each other. The love has grown.”

Watch Ali’s full speech below. You won’t regret it. 

Here’s the full transcript:

I think what I’ve learned from working on “Moonlight” is we see what happens when you persecute people. They fold into themselves. And what I was so grateful about in having the opportunity to play Juan was playing a gentleman who saw a young man folding into himself as a result of the persecution of his community and taking that opportunity to uplift him and to tell him he mattered, that he was OK, and accept him. I hope that we do a better job of that.

We kind of get caught up in the minutia and the details that make us all different, I think there’s two ways of seeing that. There’s an opportunity to see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique, and then there’s the opportunity to go to war about it, and to say that that person is different than me and I don’t like you, so let’s battle.

My mother is an ordained minister. I’m a Muslim. She didn’t do backflips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago. But I tell you now ― you put things to the side, and I’m able to see her and she’s able to see me. We love each other. The love has grown. And that stuff is minutia. It’s not that important.

I’m going to thank Tarell Alvin McCraney for his courage. I’m going to thank Barry Jenkins just for your insight, your brilliance and your direction, and just the collaboration, that opportunity, I’ll always hold that close to me. I want to thank my fellow cast mates. Any one of those young men could be up here holding this, I’m telling you. It’s beautiful work. Plan B, A24, thank you. Peace and blessings be upon you.

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Viola Davis took home the Screen Actors Guild Award on Sunday for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her stunning work in “Fences,” but not before she delivered a few powerful words onstage. 

Davis, whose portrayal of Rose Maxson in the film has earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award, made sure to take a moment to thank August Wilson, the black playwright who wrote “Fences.” In doing so, she praised him for placing a man of color at the center of the narrative, making sure his story was told. 

“What August did so beautifully is he honored the average man who happened to be a man of color,” Davis said. “Sometimes we don’t have to shake the world and move the world and create anything that is going to be in the history book. The fact that we breathe and live a life and was a god to our children. Just that means that we have a story and it deserves to be told.”

Davis, who was nominated for the SAG Award alongside Naomie Harris for “Moonlight,” Nicole Kidman for “Lion,” Octavia Spencer for “Hidden Figures” and Michelle Williams for “Manchester by the Sea,” didn’t stop there. She went on to explain that Wilson’s work resonates with her because she sees characters in the film as a reflection of her own family members and others who look like them. 

“We deserve to be in the canon, in the center of any narrative, and that’s what August did,” she said. “He elevated my father, my mother, my uncles who had eighth and fifth grade educations and he encapsulated them in history. Thank you, August. Thank you.”

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Celebrities initially came out to the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards to celebrate the amazing performances television and film had to offer this year. But, thankfully, they ended up using the stage to spread a message of hope in a time of sorrow. 

Actors, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the cast of “Orange Is the New Black,” took the time to call out President Donald Trump’s executive order, aiming to block the entry of Syrian refugees and impose a de facto ban on travelers coming from several Muslim-majority countries.

The first to take on the issue was Ashton Kutcher, who opened the award show with a pro-immigration message that had the crowd roaring. 

“Good evening, fellow SAG-AFTRA members, and everyone at home, and everyone in airports that belong in my America,” he said. “You are a part of the fabric of who we are. And we love you and we welcome you.”

After his on-air statement, Kutcher took to Twitter to explain why he felt the need to speak out. 

“If standing for the America that doesn’t discriminate makes me a left wing actor who is out of touch. Fuck it,” he tweeted. “As an American I respect my president but I do not respect this policy. #ABetterWay. I believe in protecting borders. I believe is enabling safety and security but we do so with honor. We are Americans. #ABetterWay. This isn’t no nonsense policy this is no sense policy. #ABetterWay.” 

Earlier on Sunday, Kutcher shared his outrage over what is happening in the country on social media, explaining that his wife, Mila Kunis, came to America on a refugee visa.

Let’s hope more public figures spread the word and try to make a difference. 

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WASHINGTON ― Last week, as hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied against the inauguration of Donald Trump, many of the top contenders to lead the Democratic Party were nowhere in sight.

Instead, six of the seven candidates for chair of the Democratic National Committee were attending a retreat of top party donors in Florida. The lone exception was South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who joined the women’s march in his hometown in Indiana.

A week later, and with another wave of protests erupting, those DNC officials made sure to place themselves squarely on the vanguard. Two top contenders for the post ―Buttigieg and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez ― both rushed to the airport in Houston to join the masses demonstrating against Trump’s executive order outlawing refugees and visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. The next day, Perez was at the airport in San Francisco, protesting once more, and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn) ― as the first Muslim-American to serve in Congress ― was on CBS’s “Face the Nation” attacking Trump and joining protesters at the airport in Minneapolis.

Nine days into his presidency, Trump has unleashed a wave of angst and opposition far greater than anticipated. But as the evolving travel schedules of the prospective party chairs illustrate, Democratic officials are still sprinting madly to catch up.

“These are not the standard activists. This is finally the awakening of what I’d call the first global generation. These are people whose principles Trump’s victory has thrown out the window. They feel left behind by their own country and finally they are going to do something about it,” said Howard Dean, the former DNC chair who has been privately encouraging Senate leadership to more forcefully oppose Trump. “And if Democrats don’t take the leadership of this, they won’t have the opportunity to do so later on.”

There is little dispute that the backlash against Trump has engendered a tremendous opportunity for the Democratic Party. But from the onset, there’s been confusion and disagreement over what the best posture should be. Elected officials settled on a hybrid approach: firm opposition to much of Trump’s agenda, with a notable willingness to compromise on select issues like infrastructure. For the base, such nuance glossed over the unique moral threat that Trump represented. Resist isn’t a hashtag for them; it is the cause. 

Right now we’re sort of rudderless from the Democratic Party perspective.
John Garrity, who attended an anti-Trump protest in Washington, D.C.

So when the DNC candidates showed up at the Florida fundraiser instead of marching in D.C., they faced blowback for misguided priorities. And when Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) ― two progressive stalwarts ― voted to move forward with Dr. Ben Carson’s nomination for secretary of housing and urban development, they were charged with helping legitimize Trump.

When Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) held a spaghetti dinner this past weekend in Providence, approximately 1,000 people showed up to urge him to oppose Trump’s policies and his cabinet nominees. (Whitehouse had voted to confirm Trump’s CIA director, Mike Pompeo.) 

 The progressive group Democracy for America, which endorsed both Warren and Brown for reelection before the Women’s March, got complaints from its members who were disappointed over the Carson vote.

“That certainly serves as a warning shot to anybody who’s up for reelection in 2018. The Democratic base is watching, and they do not want to see Democrats aiding and abetting or appeasing or voting for any of Trump’s nominees. They want to see them actually stand up and be strong. If they do that, they’re going to be rewarded. If they don’t, then they’re not. And it’s really that straightforward,” said DFA Executive Director Charles Chamberlain. 

And as the second wave of protests erupted over the weekend, activists began more forcefully airing their frustrations that elected officials weren’t doing enough.

“Honestly, as someone who’s worked for elected officials before, I don’t have a lot of hope for Democrats,” said Arona Kessler of Fairfax, Virginia, who marched from the White House to the Capitol on Sunday to protest the executive order on refugees. “His nominees are getting confirmed with Democratic support, so that’s all you need to know.”

“We need leadership,” said John Garrity, of Washington, D.C, who also attended the march. “We need somebody to step up and really try and leverage the momentum that we’re seeing over the last couple of days. It’s incumbent for someone to step up and build off of what we’re seeing. Right now we’re sort of rudderless from the Democratic Party perspective.”

Matching the concerns of the protestors is a difficult task for a Democratic Party with no tools of political power, save the Senate filibuster that will force 60 votes for Trump’s legislative agenda. And while they were despondent over the likelihood of Trump’s Cabinet being confirmed, most protesters on Sunday said they recognized that there were few, if any, leverage points to stop those nominees.

But progressive groups that provide resources, donations and manpower to Democratic candidates all told The Huffington Post Sunday that their members now want uniform opposition to the nominees. MoveOn.org said it expects Democrats to do everything in their power to slow the nomination process and, by extension, much of the business in the Senate.

“After the last 72 hours, they expect Democrats to vote against every single nominee and resist and obstruct every single one of his legislative initiatives,” said Murshed Zaheed, vice president and political director of CREDO Action. Added Progressive Change Campaign Committee Co-Founder Stephanie Taylor: “Voting for Trump’s nominees at this point normalizes his hate-filled actions like the Muslim ban.”

For lawmakers more accustomed to the slow pace of governance, where opposition comes in the form of roll calls and procedural gamesmanship, it’s been an adjustment. But already, a more aggressive posture is apparent. On Sunday afternoon, congressional Democratic leadership announced that they’d meet at the steps of the Supreme Court Monday to demand that Trump withdraw his executive order.

Other Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, said they’d introduce legislation to rescind the ban, in addition to exploring filing an amicus brief in support of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has fought the executive order in the courts.

Lawmakers were conspicuous on Saturday and Sunday at the protests around the country, with even freshmen like Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) taking a prominent role, breaking with the tradition of new senators keeping low profiles. Other Democratic lawmakers directly confronted Customs and Border Protection officials to get access to detainees. 

Others who didn’t show up may feel the consequences. Zaheed, who was at the San Francisco airport, said protesters confronted Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) when he arrived, asking why other California elected officials weren’t there with him.

Senate Democrats will soon face a key test, when Trump nominates his choice to fill the Supreme Court seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Unless they change the filibuster rules, Republicans will need some Democratic votes to approve Trump’s pick. Progressives hope to turn the battle into a litmus test on Trump’s orders and to keep the party uniformly opposed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he will oppose any Trump pick that is out of the “mainstream,” but for many in the base ― and even more establishment types ― more may be needed, and soon.

“If the Democratic officeholders don’t start [showing fight] soon, then they are going to become irrelevant,” predicted Dean.

Travis Waldron contributed reporting.

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It was another memorable night in Hollywood on Sunday as SAG-AFTRA honored the best performances of the small and silver screen at the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards. Stars from television and film gathered at the Shrine Auditorium to celebrate and cheers to a successful 2016. 

Check out all the winners below:

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY SERIES

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Kerry Washington made a powerful statement in a small way at the 2017 SAG Awards on Sunday by wearing a safety pin on the sleeve of her gown. 

“I’ll be wearing one of these tonight. On my arm. To show solidarity. We will not stop fighting for our safety & the safety of our fellow citizens and human beings. #NoBanNoWall #safetypin” 

The gesture, which gained traction after Brexit in the UK, is supposed to show marginalized groups that they are not alone, and that they have an ally in the person wearing the pin. Washington’s choice is especially timely ― and important ― considering Donald Trump’s recent executive order that targets Muslims and refugees and his move to build a border wall between Mexico and the United States. 

Some of Washington’s followers praised her choice, writing, “I love you Kerry, thank you for making such a powerful difference,” and, “So much love for you @kerrywashington. Thanks for your support.” 

Others criticized her choice, saying things like, “Many marginalized people dislike the safety pin. They see it as trendy and trite. I’m just saying,” and “A pin ain’t gonna do nothing.” 

Kerry responded to critics of her safety pin on Twitter: 

The actress also opened the show with a powerful quote spoken straight to camera:

“A lot of people are saying right now that actors shouldn’t express their opinions when it comes to politics, but the truth is actors are activists no matter what, because we embody the worth and humanity of all people. This union helps me to do that. I’m Kerry Washington and I am an actor.”

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