Kevin Hart to host MDA telethon
Kevin Hart will host the return of a popular telethon once spearheaded by the late Jerry Lewis to fight muscular dystrophy.
The Muscular Dystrophy Association announced Wednesday that Hart will host the MDA Kevin Hart Kids Telethon. The two-hour, star-studded virtual fundraiser event will air Oct. 24.
Celebrity guests will include Michael B. Jordan, Eva Longoria, Jack Black, Usain Bolt, Josh Gad and Jillian Mercado, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a child.
Hart said the telethon’s return is an “incredible opportunity” to bring back the work of Lewis, who helped make the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon a television tradition for decades. Lewis, who died in 2017, stepped down as host in 2011, and the association held its last telethon three years later.
The October show will benefit the association’s work and Hart’s Help From the Hart charity.
Nyong’o says Boseman’s ‘power lives on’:
Lupita Nyong’o has written a stirring tribute to her late “Black Panther” costar Chadwick Boseman., calling him a man whose power will “reverberate for generations.”
“I write these words from a place of hopelessness, to honor a man who had great hope,” the actress writes in the message posted to her social media accounts Tuesday. “The news of his passing is a punch to my gut every morning.”
Nyong’o says she was struck by his “quiet, powerful presence” and an energy that seemed immortal, which manifested itself through his carefully chosen words.
She says Boseman
“cared so much about
humanity, about Black people, about his people” and that “his power lives on and will reverberate for generations to come.”
LaBelle, Knight to square off:
The organizers of Verzuz said Tuesday the next installment of the viral Instagram Live series will pit Patti LaBelle against Gladys Knight. The two R&B icons will go head to head on Sunday.
LaBelle and Knight, both 76, are from a generation ahead of Verzuz’s typical demographic. Sunday’s Verzuz battle won’t be the women’s first collaboration. In 1991, the singers recorded “Superwoman” for Knight’s “Good Woman” album and “I Don’t Do Duets” for LaBelle’s “Burnin’ ” album.
DeGeneres’ show to return:
Amid accusations of a toxic workplace, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” will return for another season with its star.
“I can’t wait to get back to work and back to our studio. And, yes, we’re gonna talk about it,” host Ellen DeGeneres said in a Tuesday statement announcing the talk show’s return, referring to the workplace scandal.
The daytime talk show will return for season 18 on Sept. 21.
Actress Tiffany Haddish will join the host for the premiere. Actors Kerry Washington and Alec Baldwin and entertainer Chrissy Teigen also will appear during the series’ first week back.
Sept. 10 birthdays: Actor Philip Baker Hall is 89. Actor Tom Ligon is 80. Singer Jose Feliciano is 75. Actor Judy Geeson is 72. Guitarist Joe Perry is 70. Director Chris Columbus is 62. Actor Colin Firth is
60. Director Guy Ritchie is
52. Actor Ryan Phillippe is
46. Ballerina Misty Copeland is 38. Actor Hannah Hodson is 19.