NEW YORK (AP) — When the Oprah Winfrey Network series “Queen Sugar” debuted in 2016, Cierra Glaude worked as a first team production assistant, an early riser who is responsible for keeping track...
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the five teens wrongly imprisoned for the assault on a Central Park jogger has a memoir coming out in the spring.
Grand Central Publishing announced Monday that it...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The campaign to reinstate affirmative action in overwhelmingly Democratic California had money, momentum and big-name backers, including Black celebrities Issa Rae and Ava...
NEW YORK (AP) — Filmmaker Ava DuVernay will be honored next month by MacDowell, which is presenting its inaugural Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award to her media company and arts collective...
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
NEW YORK (AP) — If not for the coronavirus, Oprah Winfrey says, she would be out in the streets and marching with the Black Lives Matter protesters.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Colin Kaepernick is joining with Emmy-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay on a Netflix drama series about the teenage roots of the former NFL player’s activism.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — John Legend, Gabrielle Union and Ava DuVernay are some of the many black cultural leaders who have signed a letter to fight against racism, promote equal pay and ask industries...
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay has been elected to the film academy’s Board of Governors for the first time.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its new members...
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein has sued Netflix and film director Ava DuVernay over her portrayal in the streaming service's miniseries about the Central Park Five...
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the former “Central Park Five” is teaming with an acclaimed children's author on a young adult novel with a personal theme — being wrongfully sentenced to prison....
LOS ANGELES (AP) — To separate filmmaker and TV producer Ava DuVernay’s trenchant, history-driven projects, including “Selma” and “When They See Us,” from her new romantic drama series is to sell...
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Cicely Tyson doesn’t quibble with those who marvel at her long life and career, now in its eighth decade. The acclaimed actress said she doesn't take her staying power for...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Netflix will make its presence felt at next month's 51st NAACP Image Awards.
The streaming giant on Thursday emerged with a leading 42 nominations, including for Ava...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Producers Guild of America will honor Octavia Spencer for her work behind-the-camera at its 2020 awards show.
Spencer, who was among the producers of last year's best...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Reaction to the death of Oscar-nominated actress Diahann Carroll, who died Friday at age 84.
"She was a mentor, trailblazer and dynamic talent that single handed...
NEW YORK (AP) — Diahann Carroll, the Oscar-nominated actress and singer who won critical acclaim as the first black woman to star in a non-servant role in a TV series as "Julia," has died. She was...
NEW YORK (AP) — The searing TV series on the plight of the Central Park Five created a memorable Emmy moment Sunday when the five exonerated men stood and were honored at the awards...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cicely Tyson will join the cast as a series regular in Ava DuVernay's new romance anthology series on OWN, "Cherish the Day."
NEW YORK (AP) — "Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay says she hasn't been in touch with friend Linda Fairstein since the former "Central Park Five" prosecutor was dropped by her publisher,...
NEW YORK (AP) — Former "Central Park Five" prosecutor Linda Fairstein is condemning how she's portrayed in the Netflix series "When They See Us," writing that the program is "full of distortions...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael B. Jordan told the men known as the Central Park Five Friday that he cannot watch footage of the new series "When They See Us" without getting emotional and feeling like...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Netflix is made for bingeing, but filmmaker Ava DuVernay thinks that audiences should watch her Central Park Five miniseries "When They See Us " at their own pace.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aliyah Royale imagined her TV series debut might be a comedy. Instead, she plunged into an emotionally demanding role in a police-shooting drama that brought the 19-year-old...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — To say filmmaker Ava DuVernay is a busy woman is an understatement, but when Turner Classic Movies called and asked her to curate the channel's "The Essentials" series, she knew...
BOSTON (AP) — The Latest on court proceedings in the college bribery scandal (all times local):
9:40 p.m.
Netflix officials decided to move the release date of a film starring Felicity...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — By the time filmmaker Ava DuVernay got to Vanity Fair and Lancome's Women in Hollywood pre-Oscars event Thursday night, she had already been to two other events that day. Not...
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Amandla Stenberg brought the audience to their feet as she talked of being protected by the ancestors.
KiKi Layne evoked tears as she talked about having the...
NEW YORK (AP) — "VH1 Trailblazer Honors" will pay tribute to Academy Award-nominated director Ava DuVernay to kick off Women's History Month.
The 46-year-old's screenwriter includes the films "Selma," ''13TH" and "A Wrinkle In Time." The 2018 fantasy movie made her the highest-grossing female black director in domestic box office history.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The NAACP Image Awards will be televised live for the first time from the Dolby Theatre.
NAACP and TV One officials announced Thursday that the 50th awards ceremony will be televised on the cable network at the venue in Hollywood, California, on March 30. The event will spotlight the contributions of the NAACP and the organization's impact on the community.
ShowBiz Minute: Hyland, Time’s Up, Markle
Ava DuVernay, Reese Witherspoon, Geena Davis and Kerry Washington are among the Hollywood figures teaming up to mark the one-year anniversary of Time's Up with a celebrity auction to benefit the group's legal fund.
The Time's Up campaign kicked off at the Golden Globes in January. To date, the legal fund has raised more than $22 million.
NEW YORK (AP) — Ava DuVernay is making a multipart documentary on Prince for Netflix with the support of the late musician's estate.
The director on Tuesday confirmed Twitter reports late Monday that she's working on the film. The documentary will be made with extensive use of Prince's archives and will span the artist's entire life.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Filmmaker Ava DuVernay has checked off another milestone for black female directors. This week her film "A Wrinkle in Time" crossed the $100 million mark domestically, a first for a black woman. The film got a late-game boost playing as a double feature at drive-in theaters with the record-breaking "Incredibles 2" this past weekend.
CANNES, France (AP) — The leaders of the Cannes Film Festival have signed a gender equality pledge promising to make their selection process more transparent and to push their executive boards toward gender parity.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Time's Up campaign is taking aim at R. Kelly over allegations he has sexually abused women.
The organization devoted to helping women in the aftermath of sexual abuse issued a statement Monday urging further investigation into Kelly's behavior, which has come under closer scrutiny over the last year as women have come forward to accuse him of everything from sexual coercion to physical abuse. Kelly has denied such charges.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kristen Stewart and Ava DuVernay will serve on the Cannes Film Festival jury that will choose this year's Palme d'Or winner, the French festival announced Wednesday.
The French film festival Wednesday announced the jury that will serve under Cate Blanchett. Also joining them are filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, French actress Lea Seydoux, Chinese actor Chang Chen, French director Robert Guediguian, Burundian singer Khadja Nin and Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev.
NEW YORK (AP) — Ava DuVernay's "A Wrinkle in Time" may have disappointed at the box office, but she's already booked another big-budget project.
Warner Bros. said Thursday that DuVernay will direct "The New Gods," a DC Comics property created by the famed comic book artist Jack Kirby. It's an elaborate science fiction work, part of Kirby's "Fourth World Saga," about two warring alien planets. It debuted in 1971.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Director Ava DuVernay is scheduled to be a guest at the 20th annual Ebertfest next month in Illinois.
The University of Illinois said Monday that the Oscar-nominated director of "Selma" and "A Wrinkle in Time" will attend the film festival in Champaign honoring the late movie critic, Roger Ebert.
She'll bring her film "The 13th," which was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — T'Challa still rules the box office four weeks in, even with the fresh rivalry of another Walt Disney Studios release in "A Wrinkle in Time."
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Storm Reid tried to play it cool when Ava DuVernay told her she'd gotten the lead role in Disney's "A Wrinkle in Time," but it wasn't long before the tears started flowing.
"I flipped out," says Reid, now 14 and in the ninth grade.
Go ahead, pick your favorite young, villain-vanquishing fantasy heroine. Meg Murry probably came first.
Katniss Everdeen? She arrived in 2001. Hermione Granger? That was 1997. Elphaba, the green girl from "Wicked"? 2003. But Meg, the reluctant, bespectacled heroine of Madeleine L'Engle's classic "A Wrinkle in Time," has been with us, and on the shelves of middle-schoolers, since 1962.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "A Wrinkle in Time" director Ava DuVernay insists she didn't consciously assemble three of the entertainment industry's most successful and entrepreneurial women to play the celestial, all-knowing "Mrs." characters in Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling.
"I guess I'm attracted to that kind of energy: Like-minded take over the world-ness," DuVernay said.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ava DuVernay didn't pick up a camera until the age of 32.
It's an extraordinary fact, considering the trajectories of most Hollywood directors. Orson Welles filmed "Citizen Kane" at 25. Steven Spielberg was 27 when he made "Jaws." A 23-year-old John Singleton directed "Boyz N the Hood."
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The speeches by the recipients of Essence magazine's 11th annual Black Women in Hollywood Awards have a theme: We are here, and we will be seen.
"Black Panther" and "The Walking Dead" star Danai Gurira, "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Westworld" actress Tessa Thompson, Emmy-winning writer and actress Lena Waithe and comedian Tiffany Haddish were recognized by the magazine Thursday in Beverly Hills, California.
‘Wrinkle in Time’ cast celebrate world’s ‘multicolored glory’
DuVernay: ‘There’s still a lot of work to do’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jubilant Ava DuVernay was named entertainer of the year at an NAACP Image Awards ceremony that focused on the black community's power to create change.
DuVernay lauded other black artists from the stage as she accepted her award Monday night, naming writers and directors such as Shonda Rhimes, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Kenya Barris and "Black Panther" Ryan Coogler.