20 minute read
Hollywood Buzz
HOLLYWOOD SPOT LIGHT
Chez Hadley
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Growing up we’ve all heard the fabled stories of Amazon warriors–all female armies whose mythical militaristic prowess was said to be marked by superhuman strength, speed and heightened intelligence. Coming to the big screen September 16th is a film that is inspired by an historical account of the amazon warriors who served the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin), which flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Woman King tells the story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected Dahomey with skills and a fierceness never before seen. The film follows General Nanisca (portrayed by Oscar winning actress Viola Davis) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life. Among the recruits is Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), based on the real life warrior of the same name believed to have been the last survivor of the Dahomey Amazons.
In the 126-minute film directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and filmed on location in South Africa, Nanisca and her recruits are made aware of a plot by white foreigners to colonize all of Africa. For Nanisca, there is but one choice, “fight or we die. We fight for our ancestors. We fight for the future.”
Davis enrolled in martial arts and weaponry training, plus weight training and sprinting for four hours a day, five days a week to take on the role.
John Boyega stars as the King Ghezo under whose rule, the Agojie became dominant. Rounding out the cast are Adrienne Warren, Lashana Lynch, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Jordan Bolger.
OUT THIS MONTH
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul • September 2
End of the Road September 9 (Netflix) The Woman King September 16 The Silent Twins September 16
HOLLYWOOD BUZZ
No Going Back for Chris Rock:
Chris Rock has confirmed that he will not be returning to the host the Oscar’s next year, having officially turned down an offer from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. At a recent appearance the 57-year old comic –who has hosted the show three times—told an audience, “He’s bigger than me,” The state of Nevada would not sanction a fight between me and Will Smith.” Rock will however be returning to help with the Everybody Still Hates Chris reimagining. Rock, who created and narrated the original Everybody Hates Chris, posted “can’t wait” on his Instagram account. Releasing on both Paramount+ and Comedy Central, the show will follow Chris Rock’s teenage years growing up in a workingclass family in 1980s BedStuy, Brooklyn and moves from live action to animation.
Viola Davis Has Found Her Place: Viola Davis, who is set to hit the big screen on September 16 in “The Woman King”, and already has five projects in the works including “Black Adam” with Dwayne Johnson and an untitled Harriet Tubman project, was recently tapped to star in Lionsgate’s Hunger Games prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”. The Oscar winner will play Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the head gamemaker of the 10th annual Hunger Games. Earlier this year, the 57-year old released her memoir, Finding Me. Of it, she said, “As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So, I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.”
All in The Family: Rarely do Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance get a chance to work together, but the talented husband and wife duo will get the opportunity to do just that as they release the first film under their deal with MTV Entertainment Studios under the banner of their company, Bassett Vance Productions. The film, Heist 88, was inspired by true events and tells the story of one of the largest bank heists ever to occur in the United States. Vance will “This character is inspired by a man who was able to convince a small group of young people who were at the lowest rungs of their bank to join him in committing one of the biggest crimes against the US banking system in this country’s history,” Vance said.
Coming Soon—The Weekend’s “The Idol”:
HBO has already released two teasers but have yet to release a date for the upcoming music industry series, The Idol, that was co-created, co-written, executive produced for HBO and will star The Weekend (whose real name is Abel Tesfaye). The series–also starring Lily Rose Depp, D’Vine Joy Randolph, Hank Azaria and the now deceased Anne Heche– follows a female pop singer who starts a romance with an enigmatic L.A. club owner who is the leader of a secret cult and will depict the classic Hollywood tale of sex, drugs and partying…In the meantime, Apple TV has released the trailer for Sydney, celebrating the life of Oscar winning actor, filmmaker and civil rights activist Sidney Poitier. Filmmaker Reginald Hudlin directed the documentary that was produced by Oprah Winfrey and features appearances by Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, civil rights leader/former Ambassador Andrew Young and Winfrey. The film was made in close collaboration with the Poitier family and will make its debut September 23 in theaters and on Apple TV+.
Briefly: It’s only been 28 years in the making but it appears that production on the long-awaited fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise is underway. Eddie Murphy will produce as well as return in the starring role of Axel Foley.
Footnotes
Sterling K. Brown
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri Age: 48 Big Break: “The People v. O.J. Simpson” Latest projects: “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” Sterling K. Brown gave up on his business degree and decided to dedicate his life to his acting craft after his freshman year at Stanford University. Brown performed in theater in New York, and later Los Angeles where he moved to get into acting for the small screen. He appeared in a string of T.V. shows before getting more extended roles on shows such as “Supernatural”, “Person of Interest”, and “Army Wives”. His portrayal of Christopher Darden in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” earned him an Emmy. He also became the first Black to win a Golden Globe for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in the “This Is Us”.
On the end of “This is Us”: After six years of being with people, they become your family. But when you see [them] pursuing opportunities and God opening up other doors for folks to pursue, you realize life goes on. You’re going to be alright. To quote the one and only William Hill, “You’ll see that endings aren’t sad…They’re just the start of the next incredibly beautiful thing”.
On what he liked most about Randall? I feel as if he was always giving 100 percent. I strive to be the kind of person who always gives 100%. I think sometimes when I’m sloughing off, it could fall down to about 89.2 percent or something like that, but I love his desire to give,–his desire to make his family first and foremost.
On “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul”: Being someone who grew up in the Black church, who has an affinity, and love and also a critique, there was an opportunity to show love and also say is the status quo something that needs to be reexamined? The way in which we deal with the LGBTQ community...prosperity preaching. Is this something we should accept as is or is it okay for us to take a more fine-tooth comb approach and look at it and say maybe some of these things are up for discussion and or change?
The best advice he’s received in his career: A teacher of mine in grad school said, “Be very careful about how you use your time. It’s the one thing you can never get back.” I find that invaluable. When you’re an actor there are a lot of people who are trying to have your time and innocuously so– like not even in a malicious sort of way. So every once in a while, you have to politely excuse yourself so you can go do your work and then come back and be a gracious human being.
When he first “caught the acting bug”: I discovered that I loved being on stage in high school. My first play was Godspell–I was a member of the ensemble. One night in particular, people were standing up and applauding. My buddy and I got up onstage and bowed, and we’re like, “We gotta keep doing this sh*t.” It was the first time I’d experienced a high outside of athletics... and this high was so pure–you get bit, and you just keep chasing that.
RedCarpet Style
REGINA HALL dazzled in this yellow creation from Aliette at “Me Time” premiere
JURNEE SMOLLETT sported a black lace flower patterned mini at “Dayshift” premiere
MEAGAN GOOD stunned in a flesh-colored Dolce & Gabbana dress at Dayshift premiere
GARCELLE BEAUVAIS paired a white silk blouse with black slacks and suspenders for “Dayshift”
MARSAI MARTIN sparkled in this animal print Dolce/Gabbana and feather heels for “Honk for Jesus”
Eye OnGospel
Maverick City Music, CeCe Winans Among Top Nominees for Dove Awards
Atlanta-based music collective, Maverick City Music, and Cece Winans were among top nominations for the 53rd Annual GMA Dove Awards, which will recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry when they are held October 18 in Nashville.
Maverick City Music earned seven nominations including “Song of the Year” (“Jireh”), Artist of the Year, Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year and Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year.
CeCe Winans, who earned five nominations, could become just the second Black solo artist – and the first Black female artist – to win artist of the year should she prevail in the category, which includes Maverick City Music. Winans also earned nods in the “Song of the Year”, “Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year” and “Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year category”.
“Congratulations to this year’s impressive list of Dove Awards nominees,” says GMA President, Jackie Patillo. “For the past few years, we’ve chosen a theme for each show that represents our community and why we celebrate. Today we announced this year’s theme, Sound of Heaven. Although our musical styles may be different, our mission is the same. Together we lift one voice — the sound of heaven.”
Others up for awards include Travis Green, Doe, Koryn Hawthorne, Trip Lee, Lecrae, Ricky Dillard, Tasha Cobbs Leonard and Jonathan McReynolds.
Erica Campbell Gets Positive About New Release
currently sits atop both Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart and the Mediabase Gospel Radio chart. "Positive" is the first single from the highly anticipated full length album scheduled for a Spring 2023 release through My Block Inc.
“I’m so excited because I really wanted this song to shift people’s mood,” the singer said in a video thanking fans for their support. “I wanted them to speak life over themselves and expect the great and know that there’s greatness inside of you. And you helped me do that! So thank you for helping me get positive to #1!” Erica’s intent for the song is quite clear in its lyrics, which she wrote alongside Juan Winans and Warryn Campbell (who also produced the song). “Positive” encourages listeners to lean into the assurance that comes from knowing that God is in control, even in uncertain times. While “Positive” is her first bow at #1 on Gospel radio as a solo artist, Erica is no stranger to that #1 spot. Her 2015 single “I Luh God” featuring Big Shiz topped Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart - a hybrid chart that includes radio, streaming and digital downloads. “Positive” entered that very same chart 12 weeks ago and remains in the Top 20. The song is also Erica’s latest single to crack the Top 10 on Billboard’s US Gospel Chart. ist, Erica Campbell also touches fans’ lives as the host of the nationally syndicated morning show Get Up! Mornings With Erica Campbell, which is heard in over 30 markets nationwide.
CeCe Winans Hits the Road
CeCe Winans recently announced that she will be hitting the road with her first national tour in over a decade. Sponsored by Compassion International, the tour will stop in 21 cities beginning in Indianapolis on September 21 and Winans promises to bring together church, community, and friends for an amazing, highly anticipated night of worship.
“This tour is going to be amazing,” says the 15 time Grammy award-winning Winans. “I can’t wait to share this experience LIVE with everyone across the country who has supported my career for all of these years, and those who will be hearing the new album for the first time.”
Winans will be sharing classics like “Alabaster Box,” “More Than What I Wanted,” and many other hits that have made her the best-selling and most awarded female gospel artist of all time. She is scheduled to be in Los Angeles on September 23rd. For more information, visit: www.cecewinans.com. Briefly: Last month, Atlanta megapreacher E. Dewey Smith was named the Stellar Awards’ “New Artist of the Year”, last month he was nominated for a Dove Award in the same category. It was one of two nominations Smith earned with with his chart-topping single, “Your Presence is a Gift” from his debut album, “God Period”. Though widely known as an incredible preacher, his success in music shows that it is possible to be both an artist as well as preacher and there’s no slowing him down yet! “God continues to manifest Ephesians 3:20 in my life,” Smith said. “He exceeds my wildest dreams! My prayer is that people will see my story and then passionately pursue everything that God has ordained for them.”
Little did Pastor Ivan Pitts know on the morning of February 24, 2022, that the events of the day would forever alter his life and what begin like every other day would end up with him in the hospital fighting for his very life.
Roughly an hour after leaving his home, the senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana was brutally attacked by a stranger in an act of senseless random violence.
Pitts, who is an avid runner and was training for an upcoming marathon, had just finished an eight mile morning run and was talking on the phone outside his home in Long Beach when— according to police reports— a man approached Pitts and allegedly attacked him. Pitts was able to fight the man off but not before receiving seven stab wounds— twice in the eye, four times in the back, and once in both the neck and shoulder area.
Though bloodied and gravely wounded the pastor was able to seek help from a group of construction workers congregating in a lot across the street who were able to take a picture of the alleged attackers' license plates and report it to police. The suspect’s car was found later in Huntington Beach and a man was arrested for the attempted murder of Pitts along with being connected to two other alleged stabbings that occurred earlier that morning.
Because it is an on-going criminal case, Pastor Pitts could not comment directly about the details of the incident, but was able to share with L.A. Focus his fourmonth long journey back to health along with the emotional toll the incident took on him.
“The doctors told me one knife wound missed my brain by less than a millimeter, and another stab wound missed my spine by less than an inch,” Pitts said. “They kept telling me that because I was in such great physi- cal shape, I was going to heal fine and kept repeating how lucky I was— but I didn’t feel so lucky at that moment.”
Along with the seven s t a b wounds, Pitts incurred two punctured lungs, two broken bones and his eye required reconstructive surgery because the tendon which allows you to blink was completely severed. He says his vision came back slowly and now is at about 85% of what it was but he’s unsure of how much better it will get.
He spent just under a week in the hospital, between the ICU and the surgery floor, then another six weeks in recovery from his home. Despite all the trauma, Pitts says he never let the situation bring him down or question his faith— in fact, his faith was strengthened.
“I was never depressed, and I never once asked, ‘why me?’”, says Pitts. “I felt this uncontrollable sense of gratitude and grace. Preachers and church folk talk about unspeakable joy— where the world doesn't give me the joy that I have so it can’t take it away— well, I experienced that. It was not something that came externally, it was something I felt and heard directly from God, and for me it just became clear.”
Pitts was even able to see the serendipitous circumstances of the attack as a blessing, something that his son helped put in perspective for him
“My son said something very powerful to me,” Pitts recalled. “Typically it’s my wife who runs on Thursday mornings, but on that particular Thursday she slept in because her running partner was out of town. So, my son says, ‘Dad, you were the right one to get attacked because you could fight this guy off. I don’t think Mom and her friend would have been able to.”
Pitts says it was the comfort of his immediate family that kept his optimism and faith sustainable in those tough first days home from the hospital.
“All three of my girls are in different parts of the world, but within 48 hours they were all home,” says Pitts. “And it was just being around my wife and my four kids at home that made me feel complete. And they were all talking about how incredible the support was that we were getting from everyone.”
Pitts says the outpouring of love and support was overwhelming.
“I started getting cards, emails, texts and gifts from literally all over the world, including Jerusalem and Africa,” says Pitts. “I got cards from people I haven’t seen in years! And everyone knows how big of a Lakers fan I am, even the Lakers sent me a care package. It was crazy!”
After seven weeks of recovery at home, Pitts was slowly able to make his way back to the pulpit. “People are saying that I sound different, like my voice sounds the same but there’s something internally that's different— a different inspiration,” says Pitts. “I think my motivation is different.
There’s more urgency, more resolve. I’m more committed to evangelism. “I’m usually not one of those pastors who go out and profess the visions the Lord has given him, but I do believe God spoke to me. He has reaffirmed my purpose and I trust God more.” Though many would be existentially burdened by the randomness of this kind of attack, Pitts sees his lack of knowledge of his attacker as by design. “I don’t know what happened to this young man— I don’t know what his childhood was like, what he’s been exposed to, if he has mental illness,” Pitt observed. “I don’t know anything about him and that’s by design. That way my testimony is pure. But if we lived in a world that was genuinely love-bound, where we genuinely walk like Christ, this may not have happened to me and it may not have happened to others.”
Pitts also believes in forgiveness and refuses to hold a grudge against the man.
“Forgiveness helps me in several ways. One is that ting back to running, getting back to church, and getting back to what I need to do because I’m not going to let anybody stop me from being me.
“If I don’t forgive him then I don’t have my humor anymore or my outgoingness, and I’m not going to love in church the same way. I still want to be able to give five dollars to someone on the street without fear or serve down in Skid Row and not be overwhelmed and consumed with fear. I want to be able to run in my neighborhood and not be so overwhelmed I can’t function. Forgiveness gives me my life back.”
Pitts also highlights another main point.
“Secondly, he didn’t know me. There’s no connection to me or anyone else he may have hurt— so that means there’s something seriously wrong with him.”
Pitts sees the possibility of jail time for this man as a way for him to get help and sincerely hopes he can be reformed.
“I really don’t want him to be the way he is,” says Pitts of his attacker. “When I face him, will my mind race? Of course, it will— and I don’t fully know how I will respond, but what I’m praying in my mind and heart to do now is be prepared to try to see beyond what he’s done and see that he is a child of God.”
While Pitts feels like he is in a good place spiritually and emotionally, the mental process of feeling safe in public spaces is something that will naturally take some time.
“I was a little jumpy after I started going out and about because there's homeless people all around. I don’t know if this man is homeless or not, but when random people approach, it still creates a knee-jerk reaction,” says Pitts. “My head is much more on a swivel than it has been in years and I don’t like that. For the last few months, I’ve been on high alert and I don’t want to go through the world constantly looking over my shoulder. Right now, I’m in the process of learning how to balance my fear with my peace. And I’m in a good place right now.”
To truly achieve peace Pitts advocates forgiveness to anyone who has been hurt by another person.
“Forgiveness means to wipe the slate clean,” says Pitts. “It does not mean that the person should not serve time or be let off the hook. It means that you owe me nothing. I’m free from trying to collect from you because what that guy tried to take from me, he can’t give it back. Only I can take it back.”
I was a little jumpy after I started going out and about because there's homeless people all around. I don’t know if this “ man is homeless or not, but when random people approach, it still creates a knee-jerk reaction. My head is much more on a swivel than it has been in years and I don’t like that. For the last few months, I’ve been on high alert and I don’t want to go through the world constantly looking over my shoulder. Right now, I’m in the process of learning how to balance my fear with my peace. And I’m in a good place right now.
