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Saturday, October 5, 2019
Diahann Carroll, Groundbreaking Television And Broadway Star, Dead At 84
Sorry to read this. Back in the day... she was really hot.
This 1972 file image shows singer and actress Diahann Carroll. Carroll passed away Friday at her home in Los Angeles after a long bout with cancer. She was 84.Jean-Jacques Levy/AP
Legendary actress, singer and style icon Diahann Carroll died on Friday at her home in Los Angeles after a long bout with cancer. She was 84 years old.
Carroll's longtime manager, Ronni Lynn Hart, confirmed her death to NPR.
In her illustrious career, Carroll won a Tony Award and was nominated for an Oscar. But she is perhaps best known for making television history when she starred as the titular character on the NBC sitcom Julia, which debuted in 1968.
She's widely seen as the first black actress to appear in a lead role depicting a non-stereotypical character on television. Carroll portrayed Julia Baker, a widowed mother raising a young son.
In a 2008 interview with NPR's News & Notes, Carroll said she was "very proud" of that role.
"I look back with great pride," Carroll told host Farai Chideya.
"We've had major, major problems when we went on the air that I think were expressed by both communities, black and white. And we survived," Carroll said, adding: "I looked at it from time to time. And the quality is there, it's charming. And I thought the casting was excellent. So as a product, I think it's a good product. I'm happy to be there."
In that same interview, Carroll was asked if she took the role knowing how many would see her as a role model.
"No. No, I've never done that. I took it because of the work," Carroll said. "I took it because I liked the work. I think that's the way an artist should select a part."
Prior to that role, Carroll had made her name as a nightclub performer. She later would conquer Broadway and Hollywood in musicals like Carmen Jones and Porgy & Bess.
In the 1980s, she portrayed the role of Dominique Deveraux on the primetime soap opera Dynasty.
Actress Diahann Carroll seen here in 2016 at the ABFF Awards ceremony in Beverly, Hills, Calif.Richard Shotwell/Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Diahann Carroll was born Carol Diann Johnson in New York City in 1935. She took piano lessons regularly as a child and first began singing around age 6, as a member of the Tiny Tots choir in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.
As a teenager she became interested in fashion and at age 14, she sent a picture of herself to the fashion editor at Ebony. She later was one of four teenage girls to win a modeling assignment for Johnson Publishing, Ebony's parent company.
By the late 1950s, Carroll's acting career was on the rise. In 1959 she played the role of Clara in a film adaptation of Porgy and Bess starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge.
In 1962 she starred in No Strings, a Broadway musical where Carroll played a fashion model in Paris, a role for which she became the first African-American woman to win a lead actress Tony Award. In 1975 she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in a film called Claudine, which cast her as a woman struggling to raise six children in Harlem.
She appeared in various roles in television and film throughout the years, including 1997's Eve's Bayou, and recurring roles on the series Soul Food and Grey's Anatomy.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg says people will see this period in American history as 'an aberration'
US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said people will look back at this period of American politics as “an aberration”.
The 86-year-old judge made the comment during an event at Amherst College, Massachusetts, according to The Boston Globe.
Although she reportedly skirted around questions pertaining to the topic of Donald Trump’s possible impeachment during the event, when asked by Amherst College president Carolyn Martin how she thought historians would one day regard the current political climate, Ms. Ginsburg gave the brief answer of “an aberration”.
When did the soaring economy, the lowest unemployment rate (3.5%) since 1969, and the stock market at record highs become an aberration?
The judge also shared her broader thoughts on the status of American politics, and what she expects will happen in the future.
When asked about current extremist political movements, and how they may impact the United States, Ms. Ginsburg said: “The pendulum goes too far to the right, it’s going to swing back. The same thing too far to the left.
“I'm hoping to see it swing back in my lifetime."
As for whether she is hopeful for the future, she added: “Over the long haul, yes.”
Despite recent health problems, the iconic justice has been making numerous public appearances such as this.
In August, the Supreme Court revealed Ms. Ginsburg, a four-time cancer survivor, had undergone radiation treatment for a malignant tumor on her pancreas.
Since then, the justice has made more than 10 public appearances, CNN reported
The Supreme Court begins its new term next week.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Robert De Liberal sued by ex-aide for 'bullying and discrimination'
Boyfriend, girlfriend, assistant... you make the call.
Robert De Niro's former assistant has sued the actor for $12m, accusing him of "years of gender discrimination and harassment".
Graham Chase Robinson claimed the Raging Bull star was verbally abusive and subjected her to unwanted physical contact and sexually-charged comments.
In response, his lawyer said the allegations were "beyond absurd".
The case comes weeks after De Niro sued Robinson, accusing her of misusing funds and bingeing on Netflix at work.
Her legal documents, which were published by US media on Thursday, said he "concocted false allegations" designed to prevent her from taking action and to destroy her career and reputation.
She started working as the star's executive assistant in 2008 and said he referred to her as his "assistant" despite two subsequent promotions.
'Abusive and intimidating'
He communicated with her in a "hostile, abusive and intimidating" way, she claims, including making "vulgar, inappropriate and gendered comments" towards her.
Her case said: "He would joke with Ms. Robinson about his Viagra prescription. De Niro smirked to Ms. Robinson about his young paramour, who was around Ms. Robinson's age.
"De Niro directed Ms. Robinson to imagine him on the toilet. He told Ms Robinson that doing manual labor would 'make a man out of you.' De Niro suggested that Ms. Robinson could get pregnant using sperm from her (married) male co-worker."
He paid her less than a man, and asked her to do "stereotypically female" tasks like putting away his underwear, hanging up his clothes and vacuuming his apartment, she said.
The "gratuitous physical contact" involved him asking her to "scratch his back, button his shirts, fix his collars, tie his ties, and prod him awake when he was in bed", she said.
De Niro's lawyer told US media: "The allegations made by Graham Chase Robinson against Robert De Niro are beyond absurd."
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