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Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Ron Simons has died at the age of 63

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NEW YORK (AP) – Ron Simons, the actor who became an completed film and stage producer, winning 4 Tony Awards and having several movies chosen at the Sundance Film Festival, has died. He was 63 years old.

SimonSays Entertainment, his New York production company, said Simons died on Wednesday but didn’t provide a cause or other details.

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the unexpected death of our beloved, blessed and extremely valued friend, Ronald Keith Simons” – Production Company he wrote in an announcement on Facebook.

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Simons won Tonys for producing “Porgy and Bess” with Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” starring Jefferson Mays, “Vanya and Sonia, Masha and Spike” with Sigourney Weaver and ” Jitney,” with John Douglas Thompson.

He also co-produced (*63*) with Forest Whitaker and “The Gin Game” starring Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” an all-black production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a reissue of the novel “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” and the original work ” He thinks about the coloured man.”

Actor Ron Simons attends the opening night of New Directors/New Films 2013 “Blue Caprice” at the Museum of Modern Art on March 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo: Robin Marchant/Getty Images)

In 2022, after the first full season since the death of George Floyd reignited the conversation about race and representation in America, Simons was glad to see Broadway offer one of the most diverse Tony offerings up to now.

“I can guarantee you I have never seen so many people of color represented in all the categories of the Tony Awards,” he told The Associated Press. “I was encouraged and impressed by that.”

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On the film side, Simons produced “Night Catches Us” starring Kerry Washington, Anthony Mackie and Wendell Pierce, “Gun Hill Road” starring Esai Morales and Judy Reyes, “Blue Caprice” starring Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond, and “Mother George” with Danai Gurira.

Simons, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MFA from the University of Washington, was a product manager at Microsoft when he decided to vary his life and pursue a profession in the entertainment industry.

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He began as an actor, performing in regional theaters including the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival and Classical Theater of Harlem.

He appeared in the movies “27 Dresses” and “Mystery Team”, in addition to on the small screen in “The Resident”, “Law & Order”, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order: SVU”. “

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Entertainment

Ten years after #oscarssowhite, Hollywood can still do better – and scape

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This time ten years ago all of us gathered around our laptops or smartphones and curled up. Really hard. We made available tweets that made us laugh the loudly in our group chats, and a few of us tried to give you how one can join the fun.

“#Oscarssowhite, which they asked to touch my hair”, April Reign, creator of hashtaga, Tweet in 2015.

We laughed since it was fun. We laughed harder since it’s true.

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Tweet Reign was in relation to the ACADEMY AWARDS-who emit this Sunday at ABC and Hulu-I stormed on all white lists nominated on the screen, and the shortage of colourful individuals who weren’t included.

During the yr, which was given by World World Ava Duvernay, many award observers assumed that not less than we might hear the name of David Oyelowo. He gave so well the well -known southern term and drew Martin Luther King Jr., although he was a British, Oyelowo transformed into MLK. He survived us back to 1965, when Selma, Alabama, became a battlefield within the fight for equality.

It was a phenomenal film and a pointy reminder of how far we got here – and this a part of the story was not so way back.

DuverNay knew what she had. Before releasing it, a movie was displayed before it was released, and I do not forget that by sending her e-mail to her message a few capability after I returned to my hotel room, adding that she would should change her phone number. I also remember how a white colleague turned to me when the inscriptions appeared within the film and said: “Oh, she knows what she has.”

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It was so good.

For this reason, a few of us dared to dream that DuveNay – who quickly became a toast of the town, before her film got here to the cinemas at Christmas in 2014 – will join this exclusive brotherhood referred to as directors who were nominated for the ACADEMY Award.

But none of this stuff happened. Instead, we saw the white stream of actors and actresses in a way – each when it comes to supporting and leading nominations – nominations.

However, when those hashtagted tweeth got here on-probably the most fiercely funny than the one before him, every part in fast succession-we mowed so hard.

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We laughed until we stopped laughing.

And then matters were activated.


Director Barry Jenkins (Center) speaks after winning the Academy Award for one of the best picture, since the host Jimmy Kimmel (on the left) looks at 89. Oscars on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood.

So two things can be real at the identical time.

We can effectively listen to the shortage of diversity, the shortage of creative work that isn’t coping with and a protracted story not listening to stories that aren’t the narrative of the mainstream (read: white), and also do not receive work that needs to be covered.

In this special season I liked Eddie Redmayne’s performance within the performance of Michael Keaton in Redmayne devoured his role because the good and inspiring Stephen Hawking and Keaton? Come on, man. I loved, loved, I loved the work by which Keaton devoted himself as a washed actor from Hollywood. I’m lucky to work with ABC News to enable you cover the academy awards, and one thing I speak each time it’s used is what number of Hollywood sees movies about myself. Voters eat it. Academy members love this when the actor and director enliven the story that appears to be such a well -known industry that literally evaluates the work – whether it means a fictitious performance, as within the case of Keaton’s film this yr or a non – –tym movie on a legend reminiscent of Lucille Ball (2021) or Steven Spielberg, who gave us a movie from 2022.

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By nature, I understand what voters love and I’m a reasonably good predictor of what can be nominated and what he can win. I actually have to literally turn off my ears after I hear people say things like “OMG! This trailer is so amazing! This movie should absolutely win an Oscar! ” NO. This isn’t how it really works.

Together with my other critics and reporters, and yes, voters, every season, I check tons of of films to seek out out and vote which ones needs to be considered one of the best.

In most cases I’m in place.

Sometimes I’m incorrect, like 10 years ago.

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Before 2015, we didn’t know much in regards to the voting body – we do not really have. We don’t understand how many citizens are generally and we do not really know their demographic makeup.

Sure, we all know voters, but this happens mainly due to #oscarssowhite, which mainly became a call to act. At that point, Cheryl Boone Isaacs was the president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences Picture Picture – the primary African American and only a 3rd woman who had this title – and almost seemed criminal that she must devour the growing critic of the academy.

The voting body didn’t develop into problematic when she was chosen in 2015, but decided to do something about it and develop a voice base, introducing more women, more people and introducing younger voters in a combination. The voting cap has long been underway in relation to membership, and Boone Issacs worked on its removal, which allowed her to announce who the brand new voters could be. And yearly people delighted who had just got a spot on the table, stunned that they weren’t invited to this event many years before their arrival.

To the surprise of nobody, the Oscar voters were mainly white and men. And Boone Isaacs, who said that the academy has already tried to unravel the issue with diversity, before the hashtag became popular, he managed a solution to change it.

Progress was made. She was in a position to develop the voting body – by doubling each Number of colours and women – And we began to see some changes, although most of us are still working, assuming how membership traditionally moves over the years.

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Before we reached the 2017 prize season, we saw a change. This yr, Barry Jenkins won for one of the best picture-so, it is a crazy confusion with the event. It was also a yr by which Viola Davis finally straightened her crown and grab one in every of these heavy statuettes for her work (where Denzel Washington was also nominated). Mahershala Ali gathered victory and we saw talents reminiscent of Ruth Negga, Octavia Spencer and Naomie Harris, also gain nominations. Howard University Alum Bradford Young Made History As the primary black cinematographer, which was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the science fiction Denis Villeneuve, ESPN was an awesome winner in 2017 with an ambitious multi -part document with a literal “process of centenary”, which was directed by Ezra Edleman and received the prize for one of the best documentary function. (And if you happen to hold the bookmarks, DuverNay received an Oscar nomination this yr for her influential document).

Was it #oscarssoblack this yr? I definitely felt prefer it.

But I do not think the unique hashtag or the conversation she caused would never talk only about black people. It was a possibility to unravel continuous failures that industry and voice organs (of which I’m a part of a couple of) appear to have. Latinos, Asians and islanders from the Pacific, native inhabitants and others weren’t invited to the Highfalutin party, but they deserved to be there because their stories mattered.

The real argument is that this conversation must happen long before voting voting. This must occur in rooms where the projects are greenish, and budgets are set for storytelling and providing extraordinary film sensations.

And then we’d like to be sure that these diverse stories are properly sold so that folks like me can say: “voters love this film that tells this unknown story” about something that all of us have to find out about.

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Fortunately, we’ve seen some progress within the last 10 years – and we can have fun it. Really. I used to be sent a rabbit hole after watching a traumatic, but thoroughly -made movie, an exhilarating and painful history of the Osage tribe, which was not enough about. And her fundamental actress, Lily Gladstone? Oblivion. We also had a support from Chloe Zhao, who became the second woman and the primary colourful woman who won one of the best director in 2021.

Yes, yes.

And yet Oscars are still so white.

So we keep watching. And we’re still loud and good after we indicate which projects are missing within the conversation. And nominated.

Ten years later I feel quite good where we’re, even though it is Still a variety of work. Colman Domingo is a licensed star; He was nominated for one of the best actor-last yr for the Biography Leader on Bayard Rustin, and this yr for a movie in regards to the prison rehabilitation program based on art. Zoe Saldana will most definitely select an Oscar for her wonderful work at Netflix’s, and Cynthia Erivo is again nominated for one of the best actress, this time for a wild musical. We were also presented to the film boldness of director Ramell Ross ().

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Hollywood can do better. Because he must. The work we see in cinemas and streaming must better tell the complete range of the story.

#Oscarssouniversal? Not yet. But that is the goal. Or possibly sooner or later we’ll get there soon.

Line notes

97. AWARDS ACADEMENTS Sunday, March 2, on ABC and streams on the hul, starting with 19.00 is.

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Kelley L. Carter is a senior entertainment reporter and host of one other act in andcape. It can play any episode of the American version of the office, it can sing the song Fight University Michigan State University at command and may be very immune to Hollywood Hotness.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards – Essence

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Valerie Macon/AFP by Getty Images

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The invented “actor” character comprises each a mask of comedy and tragedy – no less than, as shown in 13 brown trophies nowadays 31. Annual Awards of the Guild of Actors. It takes place at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles, Sag Awards is the only prize program that honors the achievements of the actors, celebrating the most convincing film and tv performances last 12 months.

However, the night began on the red carpet. Szoe Siedaña – who won the excellent performance of the actress in the supporting role – under the influence of a ballet, with a lightweight pink lip and smoked eye. Equally classic, Danielle Deadwyler with repaired her micro-pallets with a French accent with rolled up mini bangs and orange shadow shadows. Meanwhile, Cynthia Erivo maintained her manicure from the night of Naacp Image Awards, but she become a silver, shiny look of the eye.

Keke Palmer directed Jessica Rabbit in red lipstick and Ginger Bob, a color that the first time she made her debut during the New York Fashion Week. Pixie crosses Quint Brunson and Janelle James continued the short trend, while the light pink lipstick on Adjoa Andoh and Kerry Washington predicts a favourite shade of Spring. To close the carpet, blushes Sheryl Lee Ralph, raised by the brushwood cheekbones pulled out shades from her blueberry lips as the most juicy appearance of the night.

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Below, have a look at the best beauty from this 12 months’s SAG awards.

Zoe Saldana

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Zoe Saldana during the thirty first SCREEN ACTORS Guild Awards took place at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)

Danielle Deadwyler

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California – 23 February: Danielle Deadwyler takes part in the thirty first annual Guild Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo Frazer Harrison/Wireimage)

Cynthia Erivo

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California – 23 February: Cynthia Erivo participates in the thirty first Guild Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Keke Palmer

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California – 23 February: Keke Palmer participates in the thirty first annual Guild Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Fifth Brunson

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Quinta Brunson during the thirty first Screen Actors Guild Awards took place at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

Liza Colón-Zayas

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California-23: Liza Colón-Zayas takes part in the thirty first annual Guild Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Sheryl Lee Ralph

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California – 23 February: Sheryl Lee Ralph participates in the thirty first Guild Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Nana Mensah

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Nana Mensah during the thirty first Screen Actors Guild Awards took place at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

Adjoa andoh

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California – 23 February: Adjoa Andoh attends the thirty first annual Guild Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Kerry Washington

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Kerry Washington during the thirty first SCREEN ACTORS Guild Awards took place at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)

Aisha Dee

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California – 23 February: Aisha Dee takes part in the thirty first annual Guild Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Janelle James

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Janelle James during the thirty first Screen Actors Guild Awards took place at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

Mychal-Bella Bowman

The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards
Los Angeles, California-23: Mychal-Bella Bowman takes part in the thirty first Guild Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo of Emmy McIntyre/Wireimage)

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Usher to provide the address of the Emory University class start from 2025 graduates

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It seems that there will not be much that Usher Raymond IV – Better, known to the world, simply as a USher – no. He can sing. He can dance. He can sing and dance while skating. He works. Sells Las Vegas residences. Performs philanthropic work.

And also performs the completion addresses. Usher was utilized by the University in its own yard. May 12 Usher will provide the address at Emory University 180. Ceremony of graduation and shall be awarded with an honorary doctorate in humanitarian letters from the institution. This will not be the first Usher Rodeo with an honorary doctorate; In 2023 Berklee School of Music in Boston He awarded the International Superstar with distinction. He also gave comments then.

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Usher will not be alien to Emory University. His non-profit, New Usher Lookwhich according to the website“He transforms the lives of malnourished youth through a comprehensive program that develops passion, global leaders”, has established cooperation with Emory’s University’s University Goizueta Business School in a 400-hour program helping to prepare teenagers for faculty. Apparently, non-profit influenced over 50,000 students.

“I spent my life following my spark – my passion – and trying to support young people when they find and follow their own passions. I am excited that I have the opportunity to talk to these amazing Emory students who graduate and prepare for imprint in the world – said Usher in Billboard statement.

Usher is one of the most successful musical acts in history, selling over 80 million records, winning many Grammy awards and has toured throughout the world since his profession in the mid -90s. His album “Confessions” from 2004 is the second best -selling album from 2000 and is taken into account by Rolling Stone as one of the best albums of all of all of all.

YES!

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(Tagstranslate) graduation

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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