Netflix announces date for Orange Is the New Black
Summer’s a great time to go outside. Or it’s a great time to stay inside and watch a ton of Netflix in air conditioning. The streaming service has announced a series of premiere dates that may make you choose the latter.
Orange Is the New Black will come back on June 12.
Empire’s Malik Yoba Mistakenly Out’s Jussie Smollet.
Empire, Empire, Empire. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you’re just not even alive. Malik Yoba, the former New York Undercover actor that now plays Vernon Turner on the hit Fox show recently outed his co-star mistakenly so it seems in an interview.
“I think that our show represents a huge opportunity to stay in the culture beyond entertainment value and there’s an intrinsic nature of you have the gay factor, right? So, obviously, Lee is gay. That was an important storyline for him. I think it’s important for people to see themselves. Even within the Black community. But if you aren’t really, really taking it off of screen and making it live in the community in a significant way…like I know Jussie, he is gay, and he’s very committed to issues around the LGBT community. He and I have a very close relationship.” ~ Malik Yoba
For those of you that aren’t aware, Jussie’s character in the show is gay. The relationship that Jussie’s character has with his father, played by Terrence Howard, highlights many of the issues that African American Gays endure in sports and entertainment, as well as in their personal lives.
Well, based on Jussie Smollet’s response, he may not be ready just yet to wave around the gay flag for the world to see.
In a satellite radio interview with Sway, when asked about his sexual orientation, Jussie responded as follows:
“I’m not willing to confirm or deny anything. I live my life. I don’t hide anything, I just don’t choose to talk about my personal life.”
My Two Cents
In 2015, we are all evolved enough to deduce what Jussie’s response means. Based on Jussie’s response in tandem with Malik’s statement, it is pretty much clear that Jussie Smollet is gay. What I take issue with, is the fact that Jussie plays a character who was designed to spread awareness and bury misconceptions about what is means to be a Black gay man in the entertainment industry and in American society as a whole. Lo and behold, the parallels between the character and his real life resemble so closely, that quite frankly there is no difference. To play a character that was designed to break down stereotypes and help foster acceptance, but to not be able to drink the very medicine that the character you’re playing is prescribing, rubs me the wrong way just a little bit. It registers in my mind as a tad bit hypocritical.
IN FAIRNESS TO JUSSIE, I definitely understand his predicament. We all evolve at different times in our lives and owe no one anything. Based on Jussie’s experiences and where he is in his evolution, I’m more than positive he has his reasons for answering the question the way he did. As Jussie’s “gay brother”, I support this brother in his response. However, if I had my way, I would have liked him to have taken that plunge and have had answered that question in a less evasive and vague manner. It would have made the character that he plays on Empire all the more impactful!
New Cosby show could debut as soon as next summer
Bill Cosby performs at the 7th annual ‘Stand Up For Heroes’ event at Madison Square Garden on November 6, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) — Bill Cosby could be returning to the NBC network with a new comedy as soon as next summer.
The series, described as a “classic, extended-family sitcom” with Cosby as the patriarch, is currently in the writing stage, NBC executives said at Sunday’s session of the summer TV critics’ tour. It was first announced in January.
Cosby, 77, has a long history with NBC, starting with the groundbreaking interracial secret agent adventure series “I Spy” in the mid-’60s. His seminal “The Cosby Show” became a smash hit 30 years ago and helped rescue a network then at the bottom of the ratings. It ran for eight seasons.
After that, Cosby headlined a sitcom at CBS, among other series.
If the new Cosby project isn’t ready for next summer, it could be a contender for fall 2015.
Another veteran NBC star, Michael J. Fox, returned to the fold last fall. But despite his breakout success in 1982 on “Family Ties,” ”The Michael J. Fox Show” proved to be a flop and was cancelled this spring.
NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt acknowledged his disappointment that the show didn’t click with viewers.
“We struggled and worked really hard to figure out how to bring an audience to that show,” he said. “We just found it very difficult to grow that show over all those months.”
Unlike the flamed-out Fox show, the upcoming Cosby venture will use multi-cameras and be filmed in front of a studio audience, a format that has lost ground at NBC, where single-camera comedies like “30 Rock,” ”The Office” and ‘Parks and Recreation” have thrived. Greenblatt said the network is trying to bring back this classic “multi” form, which goes back to “I Love Lucy” and the earliest days of network television (and which is going strong at CBS with shows like “The Big Bang Theory” and “Mike & Molly.”)
“There’s been a generation of writers and producers who have gone away from multi-cam, and we are trying to revitalize (that form),” Greenblatt said. “There was such cachet with ’30 Rock’ and ‘The Office,’ which reinforced single-camera as the ‘better’ form, and I hope we can balance the scales a little.
Parts of Yellowstone National Park closed after massive supervolcano beneath it melts roads
Tourists at Yellowstone National Park are being barred from areas of the park because the massive underground supervolcano beneath it is melting the asphalt roads.
“It basically turned the asphalt into soup. It turned the gravel road into oatmeal,” Yellowstone spokesman Dan Hottle said. In particular, Hottle said that the road between the park’s most popular attraction, Old Faithful, and Madison Junction has been dangerously compromised.
Park officials also asked tourists not to hike into the affected areas, as the danger of stepping through what appears to be solid soil into boiling-hot water was “high.”
“There are plenty of other great places to see thermal features in the park,” park spokesman Al Nash told The Weather Channel. “I wouldn’t risk personal injury to see these during this temporary closure.”
It is not known when the road, which services the three million people who visit the park every year, will be reopened.
The last time the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone actually erupted was 640,000 years ago, U.S. Geological Survey records show.
Late last year, geologists discovered that the supervolcano was more than twice as large as previously thought.
“We found it to be about two-and-a-half times larger than we thought,” the University of Utah’s James Farrell told National Geographic. “That’s not to say it’s getting any bigger,” he added, “just that our ability to see it is getting better.
Mom Murders Son, Posts Photos of Dead Body on Facebook
A New York woman is accused of murdering her child and then posting pictures of the corpse on her Facebook page.
Nicole Kelly, 22, from Queens, New York told police, “I reached my breaking point, I didn’t want him anymore” when questioned about the child’s death. Police have charged her with second degree murder for the death of her 11 – month-old son, Kiam Felix, Jr. The father of the child has not been charged with any crime.
Officials say Kelly, a former home health aide, suffocated her son by wrapping him in a bed sheet until he was unable to breathe. Kelly then left Felix unattended for half an hour to die. The father of the baby, who doesn’t live with Kelly, arrived at the home later and got into a shouting match with Kelly.
“I’m not waiting for the f****** ambulance, he’s not breathing!”, he shouted according to one of Kelly’s neighbors. Both parents took the baby to Elmhurst Hospital, where baby Felix was pronounced dead.
Teen Sentenced To 23 Years In Prison For Fatal Shooting Of Police Dog
A South Florida teen has been sentence to 23 years in prison for the fatal shooting a police dog during a burglary, reports The Palm Beach Post.
Ivins Rosier, 17, was handed his sentence Friday by a Palm Beach County judge after being tried as an adult. Back in May, he was convicted of animal cruelty, armed burglary and shooting into an occupied building. He previously declined a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for 20 years.
Authorities say Rosier, who was 16 at the time, was one of three teens who broke into the home of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Boody in November 2012. During the incident, a 5-year-old German Shepherd named Drake who lived in the home was shot several times. The retired K-9– who suffered broken limbs, bullet wounds in his head and jaw, massive blood loss and lethal damage to his esophagus– had to be euthanized five days later.
Circuit Judge Robin Rosenberg said she handed down a tough sentence as she was bound by sentencing guidelines. Rosier has a history of criminal behavior which includes juvenile charges of grand theft, battery, lewd and lascivious molestation and false imprisonment.
98-year-old San Francisco woman who’s NEVER missed a month’s rent booted from her home of 50 years
At 98-year-old, Mary Phillips spends most of her time in the San Francisco apartment she’s lived in for 50 years. But now with the city’s real estate market booming along with its tech industry, the building’s owners see dollar signs and are trying to evict her.
‘I’ve been very happy here,’ she told KRON 4. ‘I’ve always paid my rent, I’ve never been late.’
Phillips is in danger of being booted because the building’s owners, Urban Green Investments, are attempting to temporarily shut down the rental property so they can then sell it at a profit.
Mary Phillips, 98, is in danger of being kicked in the street by the building owners hoping to flip the property without any current tenants
In recent years the Bay Area real estate market has exploded leading to property owners nearly doubling evictions as they seek to sell and cash in
Such deals are increasingly common in San Francisco under the Ellis Act.
The company did not respond to interview requests, though this is the second time this year it’s drawn controversy for abusing the controversial law, as reported by NBC Bay Area.
Phillips’ neighbor, Sarah Brant, told reporters that the company tried to buy tenants out but with one big catch.
‘The letter was very clear that they would offer a buyout to each unit so long as we got everyone, which of course is our wonderful Miss Phillips, out of the building within three months,’ she said. ‘And that is just not possible.’
Building sold under the Ellis Act could be reopened with rents as much as four times higher as previous tenants were paying.
Though Mary is rarely able to go out in her older years, she says the apartment’s view lets her have some contact with the outside world
In 2012 through September there were 104 units evicted in the city under the Ellis Act. This year for the same period the number has nearly doubled to reach 200.
Phillips has called San Francisco home in 1937 – the same year the Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic – but if she’s forced out of her apartment she’ll be forced to leave the city because rents have gotten so high.
‘Feel free to let Urban Green CEO David McCloskey, who’s evicting her, know what you think, ask him how he sleeps at night and if he’d put his grandmother on the streets,’ read a post on the Vanishingsf Facebook, followed by the company contact information for David@urbangreeninv.com and the office phone number 415-651-4441.
Mary’s situation, along with that of hundreds of other Bay Area residents, has led to public demonstrations
Protesters also showed up to support Phillips outside Urban Green Investments’ offices Wednesday, though the company has yet to respond.
And Philips says they’ll have to drag her out.
‘They’re going to have to take me out of here feet first,’ she said. ‘Just because of your age, don’t let people push you around.’
Stoners Who Stole Froot Loops From a School
According to the Hernando County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office, 18-year-old Logan Brown (left, trying not to laugh) and 20-year-old Christopher Ramos smoked some weed last week and “decided to go on an adventure.”
At around midnight on July 3, with Ramos in fatigues and a fishing hat and Brown in all black, they allegedly broke into a K-8 school in Spring Hill, Fla. Surveillance footage shows the two wandering through the halls and trying to open classroom doors.
EXPAND
And what luck! Police say the first open room the pair found contained stoner treasure beyond imagining: Froot Loops! They’re being charged with burglary for allegedly stealing the cereal, which is allegedly a great thing to eat when you’re high.
Although it wouldn’t be fair to stereotype these suspected adventurers, I imagine the the prosecutor’s case will consist of silently holding up their mugshots until the judge says, “You’ve made your point.”
[Photo: Hernando County Sheriff]
British mom of 3 young kids will leave family for U.S. prisoner she met online
Jennifer Butler is pictured with her small children, who will be leaving them behind in the U.K. to start her new life with American convict Christopher Mosier.
A British mom is leaving her kids to make a new life with a U.S. prisoner she met online.
Jennifer Butler is flying 5,000 miles from England to marry Christopher Mosier, 23, leaving her three young children — all under 10 years old.
She plans to set up a home with him when he is released on parole in September, leaving her kids with their dad, whom she split with in 2010.
“Some people might think I’m bonkers for falling in love with a prisoner. And not everyone will agree with our relationship,” Butler, 29, of Suffolk, explained.
“But Chris is a wonderful man. Sure, he made a few mistakes in the past, but everybody deserves a second chance.”
Jennifer Butler plans to leave her three children behind in the U.K. and marry Christopher Mosier, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence in the U.S. for an armed burglary.
The single mom started writing to Mosier in July 2011 after seeing his profile on the website writeaprisoner.com — a website that connects inmates with pen pals.
His profile revealed he had been sentenced to 15 years in 2009 for a violent burglary and drug charges.
Butler says she felt an immediate connection to him and was impressed by his honesty.
“I felt sorry for him being locked up, nobody to talk to except other prisoners. Of course, I didn’t condone his crimes. But he was still a human being, and deserved to have a friend,” she said.
They started writing up to three letters a week and developed a strong friendship, but in June 2013, Butler suddenly stopped receiving letters.
“I felt really sad that I hadn’t heard from him. That’s when I realized my feelings for him ran a lot deeper. I no longer saw him as just a friend anymore,” Butler says.
PRESS ASSOCIATION
Butler”s three children will remain in Britain while she moves to the U.S. to start a new life with her prisoner-love.
“Then a month later I received a letter from him. He told me that the prison had been on lockdown so he had not been able to get stamps to write to me.
“I realized I was in love with him and that letter made me admit it to myself. I couldn’t bear to lose him.”
Their relationship became more serious, and Butler even encouraged her three children, Tyler, 8, Tristan, 7, and Mia, 4, to write to him, too.
After saving from her job as a part-time sales assistant, Butler was able to afford a trip to Minnesota, where Mosier is serving his sentence.
Her first visit was in October last year. But Mosier had been in a fight with another prisoner and had lost his visiting privileges. They had to speak through a glass screen. “We weren’t allowed to touch because he was a maximum-security prisoner at the time,” said Butler. “We had a glass window between us and had to talk through a phone. When I saw him walking down the corridor I knew he was the man for me. We talked for four hours and it felt like I’d known him all my life.”
Butler insists she will be reunited with her children once she is settled in the U.S.
“He held my hand and said how much I meant to him and he got emotional. He never usually does,” she said.
“He then said he wanted to make me happy and asked me to marry him. I just broke down. I said of course I would.”
Mosier is up for parole in September, and the couple plan to marry when he is released.
Seven 