Michelle Obama: First Lady of Comic Books, Volume Two

Posted by: Audiegrl

ABC/Karen Travers~Mrs. Obama may not have any superpowers in the comic book, but she has does have enough star power to warrant a sequel.

The second installment, “Female Force: Michelle Obama: YEAR ONE,” is scheduled for release on Wednesday. The comic sequel brings the First Lady’s story up to date, starting with her husband’s inauguration last January, and chronicles her transition into the White House .

“Even before the first issue on Michelle Obama, we realized we were following a dynamic, continuing portrait of history,” said the publisher of “Female Force,” Bluewater president Darren G. Davis in a statement. “I forsee several more chapters as she creates her own agenda and makes her own mark as a “female force.”

The first edition showcased Mrs. Obama’s biography, starting with her childhood in Chicago’s South side, her years at Princeton, and then her husband’s election to the presidency.

Now avid comic readers can learn more about Mrs. Obama’s first year in the White House: her travels around the world, including her pitch for Chicago’s 2016 Summer Olympics bid and her visit with the Queen of England, and the recent launch of her campaign to end childhood obesity.

“It’s been an unpredictable twelve months worthy of its own full-length, full-color comic book chronicle,” writer Robert Schnakenberg said in a statement.

Bluewater said that the first issue of Mrs. Obama’s comic sold out a week before it even hits stores.

Looking for more stories on the First Lady? Check out our brand new section: FLOTUS: All Things Michelle Obama

Update of Performers and Participants in the Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief Telethon

Posted by: Audiegrl

click here for video highlights from the show: 44-D

Friday’s multi-network “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief” telethon will feature Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jon Stewart, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Robert Pattinson, Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Muhammad Ali, former President Bill Clinton and more than 100 of the biggest names in film, television and music.

The telethon, will air commercial-free across MTV, VH1, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Centric, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, Epix, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health and Planet Green. Canada’s CTV, CBC Television, Global Television and MuchMusic also will air “Hope for Haiti,” as will BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International, making the event available in 640 million homes worldwide. ‘Hope for Haiti Now‘ will be the first U.S.-based telethon airing on MTV in China. The event will also be live streamed online across sites including YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo, Bing.com, BET.com, CNN.com, MTV.com,VH1.com, and Rhapsody and on mobile via Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and FloTV. Facebook and Twitter are the official social-media partners for the telethon.

All donations will benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti foundation. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme will also benefit from the telethon’s efforts, as aid will be split evenly among each organization’s relief programs for the ravaged island.

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A statement released Thursday detailed which musical artists would be featured from each location:

New York City, NY

• Wyclef Jean, hosting
• Madonna
• Sting
• Bruce Springsteen
• Mary J. Blige
• Jennifer Hudson
• Shakira

Los Angeles, CA

• George Clooney, hosting
• Justin Timberlake
• Christina Aguilera
• Alicia Keys
• Dave Matthews
• John Legend
• Stevie Wonder
• Taylor Swift
• Emeline Michel
• Group performance by Keith Urban, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow

London, England

• Beyoncé
• Coldplay
• Group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z and Rihanna

Port au Prince, Haiti

• Anderson Cooper, hosting

People can start donating even before the start of the 8 p.m. EST concert via phone and text.

The two-hour telethon will be shown on all the major networks and a host of other channels. It will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti.

“Hope for Haiti Now” will begin accepting donations at 12:00 p.m. ET/9:00 a.m. PT on Friday, January 22 via the following methods:

Online: www.hopeforhaitinow.org
Phone: 877-99-HAITI
Text: Text “GIVE” to 50555
Mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017

Haiti Relief Coverage Main Page

Colbert Skateboards With Congress (VIDEO)

Pez Museum, Gay Marriage and more…It’s highlarious

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The Wanda Sykes Show Premiere’s Tonight

Posted by Buellboy

Wanda Sykes promises to pull no punches on new show

McClatchy/Rick Bentley—Comedian Wanda Sykes says her talk-show topics will hit on everything from entertainment to politics.

Wanda Sykes has no problem speaking her mind, rattling off jokes or creating conversation.

Now, she’ll try to get others to be funny and interesting as she joins the world of late-night chatters when the weekly The Wanda Sykes Show launches at 10 p.m. Saturday on Fox.

Hosting a talk show is new for Sykes but the format is not. She got her start on HBO’s The Chris Rock Show, a talk show that had no restrictions because it aired on premium cable. The freedom was perfect for Sykes, who finds humor in everything from politics to sex — and talks about it frankly.

But even with the strict rules that come with network TV, Sykes doesn’t plan to pull any verbal punches.

“I believe Fox has given us the opportunity to put it out there. I mean, that’s what they want. They booked me to be me,” Sykes says.

The network does have a safety net. Like all network talk shows, The Wanda Sykes Show will be recorded in advance. How far in advance might change depending on how much has to be bleeped. Right now, taping the show on Saturday afternoons means Sykes can be topical with her material.

Sykes, a cast member on The New Adventures of Old Christine and Curb Your Enthusiasm, wasn’t looking to host a talk show when Fox contacted her. She especially wasn’t that interested in a network job because of the potential limitations in language and topics.

The Barack Obama campaign made her change her mind.

“I was like, ‘Wow, I really wish I had an outlet where I could go out there and just speak on this on a week-to-week basis and be current.’ And I thought, ‘You know what? This talk show … I can do that. I can do the things like we did on Chris Rock.’ And that seemed like what they were getting at, what they wanted. And so I’m like, ‘This is the time. This is the time to jump into it.’” Sykes says.

Executive producer Eddie Feldmann says the show will look at what has happened in the world through Sykes’ eyes.

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In an interview, Sykes explains the show’s premise to Zap2it:

Q: Will anything be off limits?
A: No. I told the writers as long as it’s relevant, if I can see why we are doing it, it has to be grounded in reality, let’s not be mean-spirited. I’m not going to just call somebody fat.

Q: What’s the format?
A: I am going to do a monologue. It will be the big story – whatever the hot story is everyone is talking about this week. I have a sidekick, Keith Robinson. We have been friends for over 20 years. He’s a very funny comic who opened for me on the road. The audience can see me with my real friends. He pushes my buttons.

Q: So you can riff on anything from reality shows to philandering politicians. Then what happens?
A: Then it’s just a big hodgepodge. We’re calling it “Wandarama.” That will be video clips and photos, doing all of the stories of the week, then a three-minute produced piece, a man-on-the-street or correspondent. This weekend I went to Adultcon, the convention for the porn industry, asking them to go green. What’s wrong with a solar-powered vibrator?

Q: What is your goal for the show?
A: To be funny, to have people talking about it. Do people still say “water cooler”? I would love water cooler. Of course, now you just go online. I would love it to be a show people are looking forward to and say, “I can’t wait for next Saturday.”

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Jon Stewart Hits Fox for Ignoring Gay Rights March After Aggressively Promoting 9/12 March

ThinkProgress/Amanda Terkel —During the tea party protests and the more recent 9/12 march, Fox News argued that it was justified in covering them incessantly because the network doesn’t “pick and choose these rallies and protests” — it covers them all. At the same time, it slammed other networks for not giving enough coverage to the right-wing rallies. But as Jon Stewart noted on The Daily Show last night, Fox ignored the weekend’s National Equality March, whose turnout was comparable to the 9/12 March. “You didn’t even send your own camera crew?” exclaimed Stewart. “You have a Washington bureau! Tell them to go to the window and point the camera down!”

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‘Daily Show‘ Destroys CNN For Fact-Checking ‘SNL‘ Instead Of Their Guests

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Sarah Silverman’s “Sell the Vatican, Feed the World”

Warning–Funny as hell, but NSFW

Wanda Sykes: I’ma Be Me: Behind The Scenes

Posted by Buellboy

Emmy® Winner Wanda Sykes Returns to HBO for Her Second Stand-up Comedy Special

HBO—Longtime HBO favorite Wanda Sykes will return for her second solo special on the network, it was announced today by Nancy Geller, senior vice president, HBO Entertainment. To be taped before a live audience at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. this August for October debut, the special will feature the outspoken comic performing material featured in her current national stand-up tour.

“Wanda Sykes is one of the sharpest, smartest comics around, and we can’t wait to hear what she has to say in this provocative new special,” noted Geller.

Sykes has been an HBO mainstay for many years. The Emmy®-nominated “Wanda Sykes: Sick and Tired,” her first solo special on the network, debuted in 2006. As one of the writers on “The Chris Rock Show,” she shared a 1997 Emmy® for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program and also won Emmys® in 2002 and 2004 for her humorous commentaries on “Inside the NFL.” Her first book, “Yeah, I Said It,” was published In 2004.In addition, she has appeared frequently on Larry David’s hit HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and will be featured on the new season of the show, which kicks off Sept. 20.

Named one of Entertainment Weekly’s “25 Funniest People in America,” Sykes recently hosted the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, and will launch her own late-night network show this fall.

Go behind the scenes on Wanda Sykes new comedy special. The special premieres Saturday, October 10 at 10pm. For more information, log onto HBO.com.

Reviews

HuffPost Review: Wanda Sykes’s ‘I’ma Be Me‘

Meet RhythmDB…

RhythmDB

RhythmDB wrote and produced the original song “I’ma Be Me” for Wanda Sykes HBO special. He also wrote and produced the first full length Solo CD “LushTECH” which will be released and available for purchase in October. This collection of original electronic, dance & chillout songs will take you around the world featuring seven different vocalists singing in languages including Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, French, Portuguese, Hindi, & Engllish. RhythmDB’s writing and producing the original music and theme for an upcoming FOX TV show coming in November.

If you get a chance, check out his music @ www.RhythmDB.com

Movie News: Marlon Wayans Replaces Eddie Murphy in Richard Pryor Biopic

Posted by Audiegrl

EW/Nicole Sperling—Funny man Marlon Wayans is in advanced discussions to play one of comedy’s most iconic figures in the biopic Richard Pryor: Is it Something I Said for Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Prods. and Sony Pictures. The project has been written and will be directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls). Eddie Murphy was originally attached to star in the project, but he dropped out over conflicts with Paramount Pictures, which was previously on board to finance the film.

While Wayans is primarily known for his comedic roles in Wayans Bros.’ movies such as Dance Flick and White Chicks, he received critical acclaim for his dramatic turn in 1999’s Requiem for a Dream. Sources tell EW.com that Wayans fought for the role, blowing the producers away with a 13- min screen test where he “transforms into Pryor.” The movie depicts Pryor’s controversial brand of comedy and his battle with drugs and is currently budgeted at $20 million. Chris Rock, Pryor’s widow Jennifer Lee Pryor and Mark Gordon are also lined up to produce.

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