Names and faces
Sterling Brown and Chadwick Boseman have high praise for professional football players who take a knee in protest of President Donald Trump. The actors — both starring in the upcoming film Marshall, about Thurgood Marshall — commended players in the National Football League who sat, knelt or raised their fists in defiance during the national anthem on Sunday. The players responded after Trump said anyone who knelt during “The Star-Spangled Banner” should be fired, using a profane term to describe such a player. Boseman, who plays Marshall, the first black person to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, called the players “patriots.” “America is always being born out of being revolutionary,” said Boseman, whose roles have included Jackie Robinson in 42 and the Black Panther in the Marvel movies. Brown, who recently won an Emmy Award for best actor in a drama for his role on This Is Us, said Trump has been divisive. “I believe that this president has sort of brought a lot of ugliness to the surface,” said Brown, adding, “We can no longer remain silent.”
A digital series starring late comedy legend Don Rickles debuted online Monday. The 13-episode show Dinner with Don, produced by AARP Studios, features Rickles interviewing celebrities such as Jimmy Kimmel, Snoop Dogg, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese at his favorite restaurants in Hollywood. Rickles, known as the grandmaster of insult comedy, died ixnxAxpril of kidney failure at age 90. Dinner with Don also has interviews with Amy Poehler, Zach Galifianakis, Paul Rudd, Sarah Silverman, Billy Crystal, Rich Eisen, Vince Vaughn, Marisa Tomei, Jonathan Silverman and Judd Apatow. It is available on the studio’s YouTube channel.
Memphis native Justin Timberlake returned to his home state for one of his few performances this year and declared his love for Tennessee. Timberlake performed on Saturday in Franklin at the Pilgrimage Festival, a 3-yearold music festival that he now co-produces and that is close to his current home in Middle Tennessee. He surprised the crowd by reuniting with country star Chris Stapleton and his wife, Morgane, after their breakout performance with Timberlake on the 2015 Country Music Association Awards.