Names and faces
Rapper T.I. spent Christmas Eve spreading holiday cheer among some single mothers, helping them with their last-minute shopping for gifts. In a video T.I. posted on social media, the Grammy-winning artist, whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., entered an Atlanta-area Target on Sunday and called for all single mothers present to follow him.
He strolled through the store alongside several mothers, went to the cash register with them and then paid for their Christmas presents. T.I., 37, says he spent $20,000 within a 30-minute stretch. He had to leave after that because of a flight. This isn’t the first time T.I. has surprised shoppers by paying for their gifts. He appeared at metro Atlanta stores around Christmas in past years to help mothers in need, including making two different stops at Walmart stores in 2016. The rapper spent nearly seven months in federal prison in Forrest City in 2009 after pleading guilty to weapons charges when he tried to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers from undercover agents in 2007 after his best friend was killed.
Kenneth Branagh is teasing the return of “old friends” in his planned sequel to Murder on the Orient Express. Branagh is expected to both direct the film and reprise his role as the fancifully mustachioed lead character Detective Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile, another mystery based on an Agatha Christie novel, which screenwriter Michael Green will return to adapt. Branagh says he’s excited to gather an ensemble cast that could possibly include bringing back some “old friends” to explore “primal human emotions” like “obsessive love and jealousy and sex” that make for a “very dangerous atmosphere.” The tense whodunit Murder on the Orient Express featured an all-star cast including Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz and Michelle Pfeiffer. It was a global hit after its release in early November. Branagh says he was glad to see audiences responding to his quirky portrayal of Poirot and looks forward to seeing how that will evolve in the sequel. “One of the things that I liked — really loved doing here that the audience responded to was that Hercule Poirot, for all his intellectual power, got dragged into it, got dragged into feeling it. And I think it’s a hell of a trip, that trip down the Nile. So I think it would be great to see how he, how his heart, responds to that kind of intensity,” he said. Christie’s 1937 novel, Death on the Nile, was previously adapted into a 1978 film starring Peter Ustinov, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow and Maggie Smith. Branagh’s version is in the early stages of pre-production.