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Following up on her 2023 Lifetime movies “Real Love” and “Strength of a Woman,” Mary J. Blige has signed on to executive produce multiple new projects for the cabler, beginning with “Family Affair” (working title). Inspired by Blige’s 2001 song of the same name, the movie will debut in 2025 as part of the network’s Voices of a Lifetime slate.

“Mary J. Blige’s Family Affair” will star Ajiona Alexus and Da’Vinchi, who reprise their roles from “Real Love” (and “Strength of a Woman.” Per the official logline, “Kendra and Ben move out of the city in hopes of finally building a life together. With all their family around and inserted in their lives, tensions rise as they struggle with fertility issues and Kendra tries to find her footing with Ben’s son Miles. Their relationship reaches a boiling point when Ben secretly helps his brother, and Kendra returns to the...

A number of networks, streamers and platforms have programming planned to celebrate Juneteenth National Independence Day, the federal holiday that commemorates the ending of slavery in the U.S.

From specials to live events and specially curated movies, Juneteenth programming begins Tuesday and extends through the month.

A rundown:

ABC News: World News Tonight. Good Morning America and GMA3 will feature Opal Lee, the “grandmother of Juneteenth” who advocated for making the date a federal holiday, including a sitdown interview with DeMarco Morgan. Taraji P. Henson and Patti Labelle celebrate Juneteenth on The View, with Kool & the Gang performing. Nightline will focus on the Black male vote in key battleground states, and the show has been featuring interviews with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-fl) and D.L. Hughley. ABC News Live’s Prime with Linsey Davis has a partnership with The 10 Million Names Project, spotlighting ichael Strahan’s ancestry that is...

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of May titles. The May 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals as well as numerous action, art house, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, Tubi engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library, which includes over 200,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of Tubi Originals, and nearly 250 Fast channels.

You can watch the Tubi May 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the Tubi site.

Tubi Originals

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Impact Network is rebranding from a faith and gospel-focused multiplatform channel to a family-friendly lifestyle entertainment channel focused on Black audiences.

Founded in 2010 by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson and wife Beverly Jackson, the 100% Black-owned independent network began as a channel airing sermons and religious talk shows. In 2022, with the appointment of Wayne and Beverly’s son Royal Jackson to chief creative officer, Impact Network moved into entertainment programming, including both scripted and unscripted titles with a strategic focus on religious content.

Now, Impact is shifting its lineup once more to encompass “family-friendly lifestyle entertainment, premium scripted and engaging non-scripted series in addition to programming initiatives around health/wellness/financial/cultural areas affecting Black communities.”

Among Impact’s new offerings are unscripted syndicated series licensed from Fox First Run, including “You Bet Your Life” with Jay Leno and Kevin Eubanks, “25 Words or Less” with Meredith Louise Vieira and “Divorce Court,...

After Cicely Tyson’s performance in the two-part CBS drama “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” earned her a spot in the very first Best TV Movie/Miniseries Actress SAG Award lineup, it took 26 years for another Black woman to be recognized by the organization for an actual miniseries. The subset started by Tyson in 1995 now includes five actresses, with the latest entrant being “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” cast member Niecy Nash-Betts. If she takes this year’s prize, Nash-Betts will be the fifth Black woman to ever prevail in this category and the first to be honored for a multi-part limited program.

Besides Tyson and Nash-Betts, the remaining three Black actresses who have been nominated by the Screen Actors Guild for their work on miniseries are Michaela Coel, Kerry Washington, and Cynthia Erivo. These five performances account for 24% of the 21 Black female ones ever recognized in this category,...

In the entire history of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, only Ian McKellen (as Gandalf) has accomplished the feat of winning twice for playing a single character in multiple films. After nearly two decades, the supporting actor (2001’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”) and ensemble (2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”) victor might soon be joined in this distinction by current supporting actress nominee Angela Bassett. Her “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” bid is her first individual film one from the guild and comes four years after she was honored as a member of the original “Black Panther” cast.

Bassett is now a four-time SAG Award nominee, having been recognized for her performances in the TV movies “Ruby’s Bucket of Blood” (2001) and “Betty and Coretta” (2013). Her supporting actress competition includes Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once...

Over the course of 27 years, a total of 16 individuals have each received solo and cast Screen Actors Guild Awards for a single film, with the most recent case having involved “Coda” supporting actor Troy Kotsur. This year, Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) and Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) appear primed for a dual face-off in the Best Supporting Actress and Best Ensemble categories, and either could plausibly take both prizes. If one of the sexagenarians does become the 17th entrant on said list, she will be the oldest performer in the group by a margin of four years.

Curtis and Bassett, who are both 64 years old, presently rank second and third on Gold Derby’s Best Film Supporting Actress SAG Award predictions list. The frontrunner is Kerry Condon, while the last two slots in our current top five are filled by Janelle Monáe and Jessie Buckley.

Set in rural Mississippi during World War II, “Mudbound” focuses on two families—one white (the McAllans), and one black (the Jacksons)—who navigate life on a small farm and realize that not all battles ended with the war. Based on Hillary Jordan’s 2008 best-selling novel of the same name, the film, co-written by Virgil Williams and Dee Rees, progresses through different characters’ perspectives, giving the audience a chance to experience an intimate story about race, friendship, power and love. The film is anchored by a cast that includes Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan and music legend Mary J. Blige like you’ve never seen her before. The stellar ensemble also features Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Jonathan Banks and Garrett Hedlund.

Blige, a nine-time Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, disappears into her role as Florence, the matriarch of the Jackson family, who is fighting to ensure a safe future for her children.

Ruby Dee once said, “The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within — strength, courage, dignity.” The groundbreaking actress, who died Wednesday in New Rochelle, N.Y. at the age of 92, achieved that goal time and again throughout her career, which spanned over 60 years. Dee’s daughter, Nora Davis Day, confirmed Dee’s death to the Associated Press Thursday afternoon.

A pioneer of the civil rights movement, Dee (who was born in Cleveland, but grew up in Harlem) studied at the American Negro Theater in New York City, where she met her husband of 56 years,...

Last night, the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild awards were handed out, with American Hustle taking home the top award for Outstanding Performance By a Cast in a Motion Picture. Take a look at the full list of film and television winners below.

Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture

American Hustle

August: Osage County

Dallas Buyers Club

Lee Daniels' the Butler

12 Years a Slave

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Leading Role

Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club

Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave

Tom Hanks - Captain Phillips

Forest Whitaker - Lee Daniels' the Butler

Bruce Dern - Nebraska

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Leading Role

Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine

Meryl Streep - August: Osage County

Sandra Bullock - Gravity

Judi Dench - Philomena

Emma Thompson - Saving Mr. Banks

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Supporting Role...

Naketha Mattocks has been named VP Original Movies at Disney Channels, where she will oversee creative development for the Disney Channel Original Movie franchise, reporting to Evp Original Programming Adam Bonnett. She succeeds Svp Original Movies Michael Healy, who left the company in April after nearly 16 years and more than 90 Disney Channel movies to pursue other opportunities. The next installment in Disney Channel’s original movie franchise, Teen Beach Movie, premieres July 19. Mattocks comes from an independent film and television producer background. Last year, she was a consultant for Lifetime, where she served as an executive on such telefilms as Betty and Coretta, A Killer Among Us, Twist of Faith and House of Versace. From 2006-11 Mattocks was Head of Development for writer-director Gary Ross’s Larger Than Life and before that she was an executive for more than three years at Paramount Pictures, supervising development and production for Alfie,...

February is Black History Month and Movies On Demand are celebrating the struggles, the history, the talent and the beauty that are part of the African-American experience. Through Diversity On Demand‘s initiative, viewers will be able to learn more about African-American history throughout Black History Month as well as find and watch their favorite titles with the click of a button. Audience favorites, such as “The Help,” “Flight” and “Lincoln” will be available, as well as documentaries like “The Real Abraham Lincoln,” “The Curious Case of Curt Flood” and “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals.” The Lifetime films “Betty and Coretta” and “Twist of Faith” will also be available [ Read More ]

The post Win A February Movies On Demand Prize Pack From ShockYa! appeared first on Shockya.com.

Shadow And Act has learned that Wood Harris is actually Not playing Malcolm X in the upcoming Lifetime original movie project previously Betty And Coretta, which stars Angela Bassett, Mary J. Blige and Malik Yoba, as Coretta Scott King, Betty Shabazz and Martin Luther King Jr. respectively. The film centers on the relationship between Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King - specifically, it'll follow how they continue on as single mothers, after their husbands are assassinated - their husbands being Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. About a month ago, Wood Harris said in...

Here's you first look, although not a very good one, at Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige in the upcoming Lifetime original movie project previously titled Parallel Lives, but is now titled, Betty And Coretta. The image above was posted on Angela Bassett's Facebook fan page this afternoon, with the caption: Mary J. Blige and Angela Bassett in an exclusive set photo as "Betty and Coretta." Film premieres February 2013 on Lifetime! And with that, we can now say that the film will premiere on the Lifetime network in February 2013, something we didn't know before today. The film will center on the relationship...

Recapping what we already know... Angela Bassett, Ruby Dee, Mary J. Blige and Malik Yoba are already signed up to star in the Lifetime original movie project previously titled Parallel Lives, but now has the working title, Betty And Coretta. It's a project we've been tracking for about a year now, and it's finally heading into production. The film will center on the relationship between Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King - specifically, it'll follow how they continue on as single mothers, after their husbands are assassinated - their husbands being Malcolm X and Martin Luther...