Tom Joyner Signs Off!
Tom Joyner, host of the beloved Tom Joyner Morning Show, has signed off after 25 years. The iconic radio host, who was heard every day by millions of listeners, has retired. At his peak, Joyner said he was pulling in $14 million a year.
“Twenty-five years ago, there was no template for a syndicated urban radio show and we worked hard to prove that we could successfully produce and market a national platform that would entertain, inform and empower African-American listeners,” he said in a statement.
Joyner, 70, plans on devoting his time fully to his Tom Joyner Foundation. He has raised more than $60 million to support Historically Black Colleges. In his next chapter, he said he wants to continue that and concentrate on “putting (money) in the hands of college students to help their tuition at HBCUs.”
Kim Kardashian Does Blackface…
Kim Kardashian West must have an obsession with having darker skin. She appears darker on a new magazine cover of 7Hollywood magazine, in a holiday-glam photo shoot wearing a strapless dress by designer Thierry Mugler.
Her stepsister, Kendall Jenner complimented Kim on the photos, but many others on social media found the images distasteful.
“Why was it necessary to make her look Black on this cover?! Why?!,” one Instagram user wrote. “This is not even her natural shade at all.”
Some others online accused the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star of cultural appropriation and suggested that, in at least one of the images, she was wearing blackface.
Of course, this is just one of many blackface accusations Kim has come under fire for. There was the backlash from Kim’s KKW beauty ads, when Kim posted a much darker illustration of herself on Twitter, and the time she put corn rows in her hair. We were past due for another infraction.
Cosby’s Rep Calls Murphy “Hollywood Slave”!
Eddie Murphy hosted Saturday Night Live after 35 years and Andrew Wyatt, the publicist for Bill Cosby, was not laughing.
Murphy kicked off his opening monologue talking about his new baby, his 10th child: “But if you would have told me 30 years ago that I would be this boring, stay-at-home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would’ve took that bet. Who is America’s Dad now?!” Murphy cracked with a spot-on Cosby impression.
Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, hit back on Instagram, saying the actor and comedian, “broke color barriers” in the industry so that Murphy and others could thrive. “One would think that Mr. Murphy was given his freedom to leave the plantation so that he could make his own decisions, but he decided to sell himself back to being a Hollywood slave,” Wyatt said.
After Wyatt’s rant on Instagram, he invited Murphy to sit down for a conversation “to discuss how we can use our collective platforms to enhance Black people rather than bringing all of us down together.”
Paula Patton To Star As Josephine Baker
Paula Patton has optioned film and television rights to Josephine Baker’s Last Dance, a novel by Sherry Jones, with the aim of starring in and producing an adaptation.
Jones’ biographical novel was published in December 2018 by Simon & Schuster imprint Gallery Books and praised for capturing a journey of heartbreak and empowerment.
Originally from St. Louis, Baker famously moved to Europe where she had a long and successful career as an all-around entertainer. She was also an undercover agent for the French resistance during World War II and later a civil rights activist with the NAACP when she returned to the U.S later on.
“Josephine Baker had an incredible life and was a remarkable woman,” Patton said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s been a childhood dream of mine to play such an inspirational person and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to tell her story.” A search for writers to adapt the material is underway.
The Million Dollar Club!
Many A-list movie stars have jumped to television and now are making $1 million per episode. They have been able to cash in largely because of the rise of streaming services. Productions are now more expensive than ever, and often driving those costs are the A-list stars who can help promote a project in the crowded peak TV age.
Among those raking in the bucks are Kerry Washington, Reese Witherspoon for Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, Jennifer Aniston for Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, Nicole Kidman in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, Steve Carrell in Netflix’s Space Force, and Jeff Bridges in The Old Man on Hulu.
Showtime Networks entertainment co-president Gary Levine said that the “dramatic salary inflation” is part of how new streaming services have plotted to “try to buy their way into the business.” Previously, networks shelled out $1 million per episode only after a show had launched and been successful – Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and Game of Thrones are examples – but it’s now a starting rate.
Lee Daniels Goes Country!
Lee Daniels has landed another project at ABC, this time teaming up with country-music star Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line.
The two will executive produce Moss Landing, a drama set in a small Florida coastal town. The potential series would follow the sweeping love story of disgraced country star Marion James and Sky Miller, and African American gospel and soul singer.
The show would unravel the mysteries of their troubled pasts and follow Marion and Sky through the highs and lows of rebuilding their lives and the love that binds them together — all set to genre-blending musical numbers.
Moss Landing is the second ABC project from Daniels and 20th this development season.
Daniels is currently executive producer on Empire, co-created with Danny Strong, which is in its sixth season on Fox. Kelley, a Florida native, is a member of the Nashville-based music duo Florida Georgia Line. Their first studio album, Here’s to the Good Times, was the sixth best selling album of 2013.
