Combs helping fan who almost owed him $250K
Anderson to host strike-delayed Emmys ceremony
Anthony Anderson has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards, and now he’ll be presiding over January’s strike-delayed ceremony.
The Fox network announced Anderson will host the Jan. 15 ceremony, which honors the best shows, performances and other work on television.
The Emmys are traditionally held in September but have moved into Hollywood’s traditional awards season due to this year’s actors and writers strikes.
“Succession” is the leading nominee for its final season, with other HBO series like “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us” also receiving multiple nominations.
Anderson is a seven-time leading comedy actor nominee for his starring role in the ABC series “black-ish.” The show ended its groundbreaking eightseason run in 2022.
Oprah portrait unveiled at National Portrait Gallery
It seemed only fitting that Oprah Winfrey chose to wear a flowing, fulllength purple dress for her portrait unveiled Wednesday at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
She told the assembled crowd that she wore purple not because a musical remake of the movie that launched her career is coming out later this month: “I chose to wear the color purple because for me, that color has been seminal in my life.”
The painting by Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren shows Winfrey against the backdrop of a prayer garden at her home in California. She is holding a sprig from an olive tree.
Winfrey said her role in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film “The Color Purple” served as a foundation for her future.
She hosted “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for more than 25 years. “Oprah’s Book Club” helped make her recommended titles bestsellers.
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
The National Portrait Gallery said in a statement that her contributions to popular culture and her philanthropy earned her a place at the museum.
Country singer Luke Combs is making amends to a disabled Florida woman who sells tumblers online after she was ordered to pay him $250,000 when she got snared in a crackdown his lawyers launched against companies that sell unauthorized merchandise with his image or name on it.
Combs in an Instagram video posted Wednesday said he told his attorneys to remove Nicol Harness from a lawsuit they filed in an Illinois federal court and that he was sending her $11,000. She had sold on Amazon 18 tumblers she had made with his name and likeness for $20 each, grossing $360.
The singer, who recently topped the country charts with his remake of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” also said he would start selling his own tumbler with the proceeds going to pay Harness’ medical bills – she has heart disease and was recently hospitalized. He also said he would fly Harness and her family to an upcoming concert so he could meet her.
He said his lawyers were only supposed to go after big companies that sell unauthorized goods, not fans who have a little business on the side. Most of the 45 other sellers sued appear to be large operations in Asia, court filings show. Under U.S. copyright law,
Oprah Winfrey and artist Shawn Michael Warren pose together next to Warren’s portrait of her Wednesday.
sellers of unauthorized goods can be hit with stiff penalties and have their assets seized. They can also face criminal charges.
“This is not something that I would ever do. This is not the kind of person I am. I’m not greedy in any way, shape or form. Money is the last thing on my mind. I promise you guys that,” said Combs, a two-time Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year and three-time Grammy nominee.
Patterson awards $500 bonuses to bookstore employees
Six hundred employees at independent bookstores – from Chapter One in Victoria, Minnesota, to The Cloak & Dagger in Princeton, New Jersey – will be receiving $500 holiday bonuses from author James Patterson.
Employees were able to nominate themselves, or be recommended by store owners, managers, peers, community members and others.
“I’ve said this before, but I can’t say it enough – booksellers save lives,” Patterson said in a statement Wednesday. “What they do is crucial, especially right now. I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and their hard work this holiday season.”
One of the world’s most popular and prolific writers, Patterson has given millions of dollars to booksellers, librarians and teachers. In 2015, the same year he began awarding employee bonuses, he was presented an honorary National Book Award for “Outstanding Service to the America Literary Community.”
Patterson has even co-authored a tribute book, “The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians,” which Little, Brown and Company will release in April.