97. AWARDS ACADEMENTS Sunday, March 2, on ABC and streams on the hul, starting with 19.00 is.
Entertainment
Brian McKnight Shuts Down Fans With Receipts As Proof Of Sold-Out Shows, Months After Nasty Remarks About His Elderly Kids

We have some excellent news for all of the loyal Brian McKnight fans living in Detroit!
More than three months after McKnight’s Motor City concert was canceled, the 55-year-old singer has informed his loyal fans that the concert might not be canceled entirely just yet.
Many suspected the cancellation was as a consequence of low ticket sales or the ridicule he received for his disparaging remarks about older children. But he says that is not true.

On September 1, McKnight shared the news together with his social media followers, explaining the actual reason the show was canceled. Towards the top of the two-minute, 41-second clip, McKnight said he needed to “quickly mention Detroit.”
“I love my fans in Detroit,” he said. “I’ve been playing there every year for 30 (years) and I sell out every time. But my last show was advertised on Facebook, and these bullies jumped into the comments and threatened me and the people who were coming.”
The “Back At One” singer said he and a promoter named Bill felt canceling the show was in everyone’s best interest, “choosing safety over money.” The Detroit show can be rescheduled for a later date in 2025.
The “bullies” McKnight refers to reportedly canceled his event due to the offensive comments he made about his 4 oldest biological children. He called them “the products of sin” and even implied that they were evil.

In a post on April 13, McKnight, who’s a Seventh-day Adventist, said, “To live a life you love, you must get rid of evil and negativity — even if that evil and negativity are related.”
One fan called McKnight’s video a disownment of his children, to which McKnight quickly responded, “1. God didn’t talk about children being a product of sin, which these are. 2. I didn’t raise them, their mothers did. 3. Get the whole story before you quote the Bible. 4. Remove your inaccurate negativity from my page and try to be happy.”
Brian McKnight was exposed by his eldest son, who called them “products of sin.”
Everything you do, your kids and notes, may be used against you in the long run. Now I understand why his ex-wife left him. Children mustn’t clean condoms at any age. 🤦♀️ photo:twitter.com/HEaiENpIvJ
— Yetunde Folarin (@xxyettymamaxx) April 24, 2024
Many fans were disgusted by McKnight’s response, and the drama together with his children ultimately affected his tour. Not only did fans vow to not go to his Detroit show, but his D.C. show, originally scheduled for July, was also postponed until November.
But within the Sept. 1 video, he does greater than just report on Detroit. He also calls out news outlets for reporting rumors about his family drama and being “desperate for clicks,” and assures viewers that he still has a variety of devoted fans.

Running the headline “Brian McKnight’s Ticket Sales Down as Fans Continue to Boycott His Music” and adding footage of his sold-out shows, McKnight said, “There are so many false narratives out there about my fans stopping supporting me. I wanted to acknowledge that just because something is reported on Instagram or YouTube doesn’t mean it’s true.”
He then read a letter from Rochelle Robinson, the mayor of Douglasville, a suburb of Atlanta, thanking him for coming to town to perform.
The letter reads, “As evidenced by the sold-out show, our citizens are huge fans and were excited when they heard you were coming to perform in our city. Thank you for choosing to be here and put on what I know will be a fantastic show,” before hanging up.
McKnight also took a moment to handle radio host and actor Rickey Smiley, who once put in his two cents with regards to “fatherless children,” within the words of McKnight’s oldest son.
“You are not being thrown away, you are not trash, you are being loved, you are being respected,” Smiley said in a social media post in May. “We are usually not here to try to exchange your father, which we are able to’t do, but we may be something for you. Just make certain you grow up and live your life and get the assistance and therapy it’s good to have the ability to maneuver on because words hurt.
He continued, “And she was in so much pain. You know, when you say things like that, it’s a death knell that can’t be turned back.”
I would like adult children #BrianMcKnight who was #disinherited know they’ve a variety of support here. You’re not thrown out.#RickeySmiley photo: twitter.com/rAtO1IH7aL
— Rickey Smiley (@RickeySmiley) May 6, 2024
In the clip, McKnight added that he desired to create a positive space on his platform called Fatherhood Fridays. He said, “I want my first guest to be Rickey Smiley, who is clearly father of the year. See, it’s easy to hit publish and spew out a one-sided, ignorant perspective, but are you manly and fatherly enough to come to my platform and talk? Come on, let’s talk, Rick.”
McKnight has five older children: Brian Jr., Niko, Brian, Clyde, and Braylinn. Brian Jr. and Niko are from his ex-wife Julie, to whom he was married from 1990 to 2003. Briana’s mother is Patricia Diver, and McKnight fathered Clyde with an unknown woman. His teenage daughter Braille is with a lady named Lori Beth, whom he rarely mentions.
McKnight’s three oldest children have publicly admitted that they were abandoned by the singer, but McKnight has vehemently denied this.
However, the “Anytime” singer has boastfully claimed to have stepchildren with current wife Leilani, while denouncing his older biological children. McKnight and Lelani now have a son, and last 12 months he announced that he had legally modified his name to Brian Kainoa Makoa McKnight Sr. to match his son — making him a junior, although his first son is already a junior.
On his social media profile, McKnights writes that he’s the “father of Julia, Jack, Kekoa Matteo, and Brian Kainoa Makoa McKnight Jr.”, deliberately isolating himself from any contact together with his 4 other children.
The “Anytime” singer also admitted that he “never liked anyone” before meeting his now-wife.
However, McKnight’s recent confession was not welcomed as fans reminded him of his behavior towards his children over the past few months.
“Nobody blows us away like we do? Is that true? That’s f—k!ng d—“Khead sat there and said his biological children were created from sin and that he never loved his wife. But at the identical time he loves, praises and takes care of one other man’s children,” one person wrote on Lipstick Alley.
“You can’t make this shit up. Hey Brian, book Madison Square Garden and let us know. Those little 4×4 bar room clubs that max out at 75 people don’t count, man.”
Other he said“this fool described his oldest children as ‘…born in sin…’ AT THE SAME TIME ONE OF THEM WAS UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY FOR STAGE 3 CANCER. And let’s not even mention how he described his daughter as promiscuous, knowing full well she was molested as a minor.” They continued, “Anyone who goes to this clown’s shows is either unaware of his trashy personality and behavior, or stupid.”
During the net disputes, McKnight’s 25-year-old son, Niko, revealed on the X show, he said he was attempting to develop their relationship while he was in hospital in April as a consequence of complications from cancer.
Niko claimed he asked his father to inform him he loved him, but said McKnight “couldn’t arbitrarily tell me he loved me. It still hurts so deeply.”
McKnight’s daughter, Briana, sued him in 2021 for defamation and invasion of privacy after she accused her of getting an inappropriate relationship with a member of the family. The case was settled in 2023.
Entertainment
Ten years after #oscarssowhite, Hollywood can still do better – and scape

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.
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.”
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.
We laughed until we stopped laughing.
And then matters were activated.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ().
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
Entertainment
The best moments of beautiful from the SAG 2025 awards – Essence

Valerie Macon/AFP by Getty Images
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.
Below, have a look at the best beauty from this 12 months’s SAG awards.
Zoe Saldana

Danielle Deadwyler

Cynthia Erivo

Keke Palmer

Fifth Brunson

Liza Colón-Zayas

Sheryl Lee Ralph

Nana Mensah

Adjoa andoh

Kerry Washington

Aisha Dee

Janelle James

Mychal-Bella Bowman

Entertainment
Usher to provide the address of the Emory University class start from 2025 graduates

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.
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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