T’Challa is back, the GOP protects Trump and more on this Tuesday morning. Check out what’s trending in news:
– Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, has confirmed that there will be a Black Panther sequel. There are no details but Feige says, “One of the favorite pastimes at Marvel Studios is sitting around on Part One and talking and dreaming about what we would do in Part Two. There have been plenty of those conversations as we were putting together the first Black Panther. We have ideas and a pretty solid direction on where we want to head with the second one.” (Entertainment Weekly)
– Is it a coincidence that the Republicans view of the Russia investigation perfectly aligns with Trump’s? Republicans broke with the House Intelligence Committee, announcing that Vladimir Putin was not trying to help Trump win the 2016 election. Despite evidence from the intelligence community, Republicans are shutting down the year-long investigation after saying they found no evidence of collusion. (CNN)
– National Geographic is reckoning with its past with an issue devoted to race. Editor-in-Chief Susan Goldberg wrote in the April issue’s editor letter, “[U]ntil the 1970s National Geographic all but ignored people of color who lived in the United States, rarely acknowledging them beyond laborers or domestic workers. Meanwhile, it pictured ‘natives’ elsewhere as exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages—every type of cliché.” (NPR)
– Vince Staples took to Twitter on Monday to call out Russell Crowe for allegedly assaulting rapper Azealia Banks. Staples tweeted, “I wonder when y’all gonna make a YouTube about Russell Crowe from the Gladiator spitting at Azealia Banks? He can’t come to the norf and Fantasea 2 about to drop so we should talk about it.” He later added, “Yall let Russell Crowe spit at Azealia Banks but if Tylerr Perry spit at Taylor Swift it would be no more Medeas movies. Lol but im serious.” (Twitter)
– Dawn Richard and Aubrey O’Day have reportedly patched things up. The two reportedly met up in Los Angeles, but there are no further details about what happened. Hopefully, the two have reconciled and we’ll be getting new Danity Kane music soon. (That Grape Juice)
– Tyra Banks is gearing up for the Life Size sequel by turning the film’s hit song “Be A Star” into a club banger. Banks is excited to remix the song, saying “I’d love to find a top producer that everybody knows, like a household name, to do the music and a beautiful sound technician to auto-tune the hell out of my voice. We’re going for club banger as opposed to nursery school rhyme this time!” (Entertainment Weekly)
– Chadwick Boseman once got the opportunity to study in Oxford thanks to Denzel Washington, now the actor has finally gotten the chance to thank Washington for the chance. Boseman says when he met Washington at the Black Panther premiere and thanked him, Washington joked, “So that’s why I’m here? You owe me money! I came to collect.” (MadameNoire)
– BET has found its Whitney Houston for The Bobby Brown Story. Rosewood‘s Gabrielle Dennis will play the diva in the upcoming two-part miniseries set for September. (Deadline)
– Jurnee Smollett-Bell is making it clear that without women of color, there is no Time’s Up. Smollett-Bell revealed during a panel at SXSW that she was harassed on set before she was even a teenager, sharing her own experiences in the industry. She told the audience, “Enough is enough. We can’t allow this to continue. This is about power and shifting the balance of paper.” (Deadline)
Hulu has landed the Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon-led Little Fires Everywhere, based on Celeste Ng’s book of the same name. The streaming giant has ordered eight episodes of the series, which currently does not have a release date. (Shadow And Act)
