Charlaine Harris of True Blood fame is back with another intrigue-filled drama set in a small town in Texas
We caught up with HBO’s “Insecure” cast Natasha Rothwell, Catherine Curtin, Prentice Penny and Yvonne Orji at the season 2 premiere block party in Inglewood, California.
The season premiere of Last Chance U hit Netflix yesterday. GQ magazine and show producer Condé Nast Entertainment held a prescreening event on Thursday, the eve of the premiere at The Tribeca Grill in downtown NYC to celebrate the release of the second season.
In case you missed the first season, Last Chance U is a dramatic and heartfelt docuseries featuring the football team of the Eastern Mississippi Community College, the Lions. The existence of the team was introduced to America after a GQ magazine writer wrote a feature about the team in 2014 after a record number of division 1 athletes had got their start with the team.
Many of the young men of the binge worthy doc have a checkered past and the show highlights the ups and downs they face while chasing their dreams. But the show offers many comic reliefs and teammate quarrels that move the show along.
Stars of the show Coach Davern Williams formally of the New York Giants and academic advisor Brittany Wagner showed up to the premiere with the teams running back Isaiah Wright.
Wright took his first plane ride to the Big Apple in order to attend the premier event. He told the audience it was a “struggle” making it to the team, but because of the show he has gained fans from around the world.
“I have people that text me from Spain, Brazil, and France,” said the running back. “They ask me how can I change from playing soccer to padded football and I tell them, I don’t know.”
The crowd rings out in laugher but quiets down just as he says, “All I can tell them is if you have a dream, chase it”.
We attended an early screening of Brillo Box (3¢ off), directed by Lisanne Skyler at Christie’s Auction House. It will air on HBO on August 7.
Joe Mande is a stand-up comedian, and writer for such shows as ‘Parks & Recreation’ and ‘The Good Place.’ In this interview, Mande talks about his new Netflix special, his comedy mixtape, the Cannibal Cop, and being called an “internet troll.”
HBO hosted a thoroughly lit VIP block party in Inglewood, CA to celebrate the second season of hit series ‘Insecure’.
Show creator and star Issa Rae headlined the star-studded event, which featured surprise music performances, tons of delicious food and drank, and local storefronts reimagined as the show’s set pieces.
The show centers on Issa, a smart, sarcastic and scattered non-profit employee and fledgling rapper. She’s surrounded by an equally neurotic group of friends and lovers, each full of charm and grade A clapbacks.
This cast has rapport in spades. From the moment they arrived on the carpet, they were all laughs and inside jokes.
“Issa is just…amazing. Whenever we go out and do press and all that jazz, it’s like ‘I know I saw you yesterday girl but, how you doin? You look bomb!’,” said co-star Yvonne Orji, who plays Issa’s best friend Molly.
Photo: Ryan Bergeron (Knockturnal)
A screening of the first episode turned into a damn-near party. It opens with a soon-to-be legendary dating montage, in which Issa is increasingly exasperated by her boring af partners.
The humor only ramps up from there. The audience stood up at several points and yelled at the screen throughout. It was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Also, you don’t want to miss the ending of this one. Legendary.
Three burgeoning music superstars came through and delivered incredible performances: Oakland’s Kamaiyah, a XXL 2017 freshman, Ty Dolla Sign, an LA native and stellar showman, and SZA, she of the critically acclaimed Ctrl album.
Kamaiyah delivered the laid-back, wordplay-laden set we needed to kick off the day. She was fly as hell and is clearly on the rise. I hear her music everywhere.
Ty – one of my very favorite singers – came through and killed a sexy and bombastic set of hits. The crowd swelled as he burned through songs, pausing every so often to nail a classic r&b vocal riff.
SZA closed out the night with one of the best sets I’ve seen. She was at once sinewy and brash and performed with a freedom you rarely see. Aplomb for days.
Also, her stage banter was hilarious. I keeled over laughing at several points, especially when she’d go into a series of non-sequiturs, obviously just blurting out whatever came to mind.
Lastly, her album is my most played this year. By a mile.
The event ended with Issa, Yvonne and the show’s producers onstage with SZA. They thanked everyone for coming, but really we should’ve thanked them. This was a hella good day.
On Wednesday (July 12th), Power creator Courtney Kemp, along with executive producer Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, and cast members Lela Loren, Naturi Naughton, Rotimi and Jr Ramirez arrived at New York City’s The Paley Center For media to screen upcoming episode four of the season. Cast members Omari Hardwick, LaLa Anthony and Joseph Sikora were not in attendance. Following the screening, Kemp along with the cast members in attendance participated in a Q& A moderated by Essence editor Cori Murray.
In speaking about fans negative response to Lela’s character Angela, Kemp and Loren said:
Courtney Kemp: For me the vitriol that comes at Angela is actually based I think because a lot of it is women, it’s not men. It’s women who to me who have internalized misogyny, they use words like homewrecker when in fact he took the vows, they also blame Angela for things she couldn’t possibly know. And I find that to be that kind of irrationality is about something that is like ‘how dare she use her own mind? How dare she step out of line? How dare she not hide things for him? If he killed Greg if he had done it he should go to jail.
Lela Loren: The thing about Power is that it is set up like a horror movie where the audience gets to be five steps ahead of the characters. So Angela didn’t see the scene where Mike Sandoval murders Greg so you guys get to sort of get to be waiting for her to figure it out, when is she gonna figure it out. I think we can trust Angela is thorough as..
When asked what was the most wtf moment they encountered on social media Rotimi who portrays Dre responded:
Rotimi: The one thing I saw was who do you hate more A,B,C or D and I was A., and it was like wait what are they doing. But it was also like okay the character has arrived. So it was like a blessing to see that. But it was like damn can he just try to be great. So that was my moment.
Will Tommy break this season, and have a heart?
Courtney Kemp: He always has a heart. Tommy ‘s always loving. He actually leads with love. He loves Tasha, he loves Ghost, he loves those kids. When he was down for Holly he loved her. I think actually he is the most loved based character on the show.
Does 50 Cent contribute to the writing of the show?
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Courtney Kemp: The journalism background helps, because basically I’ve been doing now a six year profile of 50 Cent. I would get on the phone he talks I listen and I type my notes or I handwrite and I just listen. I think the triumph of this show has been taking this brain and putting it onscreen. And I just was able to take the 50th Law and different aspects of who he is and put them together and also take different parts of him and make them women. Everybody on this panel has said something 50 Cent said one way or another.
Power creator Courtney Kemp discussed late actor comedian Charlie Murphy’s work ethic on set:
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Courtney Kemp: He didn’t tell us what it really was. So those of us who were producers thought it was something else going on entirely, something that didn’t require him to need a ton of rest. So he was on set working and didn’t let any of us know. And he was dedicated. Just dedicated.
Will Tasha and Angela become friendly and work together to get Ghost out of jail?
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Naturi Naughton: I would never use the word friendly because we don’t have to be friends to make things happen. Strategy is beyond liking it’s behind friendship it’s survival. For my character in short, Angela is trying to survive too in her own right. She’s like ok what do I need to do, I mean I still don’t trust her and of course she’s going with my husband there’s this whole history, but I’m over that now.
Lela Loren: I think also the thing with Angela’s selfishness is she wants to follow what she loves. So many women have affairs they want what they want but don’t want the damage that occurs with it. Angela is selfish enough to do it, even though she doesn’t wish ill upon Tasha but she is still selfish enough not to keep her boundaries up. With that said there is on Angela’s part when it comes to Tasha a respect and a I don’t want to see your family go down either.
50 Cent speaking on Kanon and Tariq’s connection:
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50 Cent: It’s just at that point where kids want to be adults and Kanon is providing that to Tariq, in a different way, treating him like an adult. If you want to buy things, buy things with your own money .I’m not saying that you should let kids rob houses to do it but I’m giving him his own money.
What surprised you about your characters this season?
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JR Ramirez: Julio is very methodical this year. I feel like because Ghost is in jail and Tommy is a crazy loose cannon I’m distro now, so he’s pretty much ahead of all the distribution she he’s pretty much methodical about his every move. He’s slowly coming to realize he doesn’t have many friends in these streets and these streets aren’t as loyal as they should be.
Rotimi: What surprised me is just how smart he is. This year like they show just how manipulative he is. And I’m starting to see he’s like a baby Ghost. So being that he has those mannerisms it’s cool to watch, and I love the fact that the fans are learning that with him.
Photo By Dimitry Loiseau
John Singleton is one of the most important American filmmakers of the last 50 years.
“To be or not to be, that is the question.”
“Will is not what you think of when you think of William Shakespeare.”-Laurie Davidson