Names and faces

■ After holding “Emancipation” in limbo following Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards in March, Apple will release the film in December. In the fallout of the incident, the fate of “Emancipation” — a $120 million thriller about a runaway slave directed by Antoine Fuqua — had been uncertain. One of Apple’s most high-profile productions yet, the film had once been expected to be an Oscar contender this year. But an awards-season rollout of a film headlined by Smith, who the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years, has obvious complications. Nevertheless, Apple TV+ said Monday it will debut “Emancipation” on Dec. 2 in theaters and begin streaming it Dec. 9. Over the weekend, Apple and the NAACP held the first screening of the film in Washington as part of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Legislative Conference. Smith attended and spoke on stage after months of largely staying out of the public eye. The release of “Emancipation” will pose a big test of how eager moviegoers are for a movie headlined by Smith, who has generated more than $6.5 billion in worldwide box office. Still, the brief exclusive run in theaters will also mean “Emancipation,” like Apple’s best picture-winning “CODA,” will be seen primarily in homes. Regardless, the streamer isn’t shying away from its star. A black-and-white profile of Smith’s face, with a chain around his neck, adorns the movie poster. Smith plays a man named Peter who escapes from slavery in Louisiana. The film was inspired by the 1863 photos of a man known as “Whipped Peter” that first appeared in Harper’s Weekly showing a Union Army medical exam of a mutilated man. Smith resigned from the academy before he could be banned by the academy, but he remains eligible for an Oscar nomination.

■ Ringo Starr has tested positive for covid-19, forcing the former Beatle to cancel several concerts in Canada with his All Starr Band. Five concert dates through Sunday — in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Lethbridge, Alberta; and the British Columbia cities of Abbotsford and Penticton — will be rescheduled. “Ringo hopes to resume as soon as possible and is recovering at home. As always, he and the All Starrs send peace and love to their fans and hope to see them back out on the road soon,” the band said. The drummer-singer is 82. Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band — Toto’s Steve Lukather, Men at Work’s Colin Hay, Average White Band’s Hamish Stuart and Edgar Winter — previously were forced to cancel shows in New Buffalo, Mich., and Prior Lake, Minn.

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Starr