January 27, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

NETFLIX/David Lee(NEW YORK) — Chadwick Boseman was honored Tuesday when it was announced the Black Panther star earned a posthumous nomination for the 2021 Independent Spirit Awards for his final movie role.

Boseman, who died in August after a four-year silent battle with cancer, last starred in the Netflix hit Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which has earned him a nod for best male lead.

The 43-year-old actor joins a category populated by Riz Ahmed for The Sound of Metal, Steven Yeun for Minari, Rob Morgan for Bull and Adarsh Gourav for The White Tiger.

The 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards airs Thursday, April 22 at 10 p.m. ET on IFC.

Boseman’s Ma Rainey role also earned him a posthumous nomination for best actor at the IFP Gotham Awards, which he lost to Ahmed.

The late actor has also generated Oscar buzz for his final movie role, where it is expected he will earn a posthumous nod for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor.

People reports that the last actor to be posthumously nominated for Best Actor was Massimo Troisi in 1995.  Should Boseman be nominated in the latter category, he will join Heath Ledger and Ralph Richardson — both of whom were posthumously honored in 2008 and 1984, respectively.

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 27, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Leon Bennett/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Don’t mess with Brandon Thomas Lee — that is, unless you want to risk getting beaten with a golf club.  

On Monday, the 24-year-old son of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee shared a video of him confronting an intruder who entered his Malibu home. 

As the unidentified man tries to explain himself, Brandon can be heard yelling from behind the camera to leave the property as he wields a golf club in his hand.

“This guy full on BROKE INTO MY HOUSE and then sneaks up on me in my kitchen, starts screaming at me, and after tries to tell me that he thought I was a lawyer he knew…. so I had to show him my good ol 7 iron,” he captioned the clip.

The Hills: New Beginnings star has garnered over 134,000 views on the video since he posted it to Instagram. 

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 27, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

USPS(WASHINGTON D.C.) — The are the droids you’re looking for. 

Your mail will soon feature characters from a galaxy far, far away thanks to a new line of stamps coming from the United States Postal Service.

In an official release, USPS confirms that their latest collection of stamps will salute the droids of Star Wars, like C-3PO and R2-D2, just in time for Star Wars‘ 50th anniversary.

Of course, the beloved BB-8 from the latest Star Wars trilogy will make an appearance, alongside other fan favorites IG-11, the bounty hunter-turned Baby Yoda’s protective nurse droid from The Mandalorian; plucky C1-10P, or “Chopper” as he’s known from Star Wars: Rebels; the reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO from Rogue One; D-O from Star Wars: The Last Jedi; the strong-willed L3-37 from Solo; as well as the fan favorite GNK “GONK” power droid and the 2-1B surgical droid seen throughout the Star Wars universe.

In addition to the droids, backgrounds of each of the 20 stamps will pay tribute to some of the most famous settings in the Star Wars universe, such as the floating Cloud City that can be found above the planet Bespin from The Empire Strikes Back, and of course, the corridors of the iconic Millenium Falcon.

USPS says their new collection of stamps honors Lucasfilm’s legacy and its parent company, Disney, for its outreach efforts in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) community.

Most notably is Disney’s partnership with FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a global nonprofit that aims to inspire children from pre-K to grade 12 to consider a career in STEM. 

The program partnered with the Walt Disney Company’s “Star Wars: Force for Change,” giving FIRST the ability to reach even more young individuals.

USPS will release more details regarding its new Star Wars-inspired stamps, including their release date, at a later time.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

By Megan Stone and Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 27, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Netflix/David Lee(LOS ANGELES) — Spike Lee’s film, Da 5 Bloods, starring Chadwick Boseman, has been named the Best Film of 2020 by National Board of Review.

On Tuesday, the NBR announced its 2020 award winners and Da 5 Bloods also won for Best Ensemble. 

Individually, Lee, 63, took home the award for best director and Boseman, who lost his battle with colon cancer in August, was also posthumously awarded the NBR Icon Award, an honor that celebrates the cinematic contributions that are meaningful to history, culture and excellence in motion pictures.

In a statement NBR President Annie Schulhof said, “The NBR is proud to honor Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee, and the film’s incredible ensemble cast, along with all of our 2020 awardees. Lee is one of our greatest filmmakers, a bold auteur with a cinematic vision and an astute perspective on human relationships, focusing at times on that intersection between the personal and the political.”

“Da 5 Bloods is not only a unique portrait of the experience and lingering trauma of Black Vietnam War veterans, but also a moving story of enduring friendship, a suspenseful jungle treasure hunt, and a powerful reckoning with the American dream,” Schulhof continued. “We are also honored to present the posthumous NBR Icon Award to Chadwick Boseman, an extraordinary talent who represented the best of what an actor could be no matter what the role.”

Da 5 Bloods follows four African American veterans — portrayed by Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr., who return to Vietnam and find the remains of their fallen squad leader, Boseman, and a buried treasure they left behind. 

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 27, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Randy Holmes(LOS ANGELES) — Kevin Hart has gone from finding himself stuck in a video game in the rebooted Jumanji movies to returning to the gamer world, in the big screen adaptation of the hit Borderlands video game series. 

The plot of Borderlands centers on the planet Pandora — no, not the Avatar one — where players hunt for a mysterious Vault and its jackpot of alien tech and other assorted treasures.

Horror director Eli Roth is helming the movie, with Oscar winner and former Thor: Ragnarok baddie Cate Blanchett already cast as Lilith, one of a rare race of super-powered women known as Sirens. 

And whereas Hart’s small stature was played for laughs in Jumanji, he’s actually leveling up in Borderlands, playing the game’s powerful ex-soldier turned-mercenary Roland. 

“I’m thrilled to be working with Kevin,” Roth said in a statement about the Lionsgate-backed project. “Borderlands is a different kind of role for him, and we are excited to thrill audiences with a side of Kevin they’ve never seen before.” 

Roth adds, “He’s going to be an amazing Roland.”

The three Borderlands games have sold some 66 million units worldwide, according to creator Gearbox Software, which is involved in the movie’s production along with Lionsgate.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.