The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Cicely Tyson joins cast of Ava DuVernay series on OWN
Cicely Tyson will join the cast as a series regular in Ava DuVernay’s new romance anthology series on OWN, “Cherish the Day.”
The network said Tuesday that the 94yearold legend will play Miss Luma Lee Langston, a star of stage and screen in decades past. She joins previously announced leads Xosha Roquemore and Alano Miller.
The series, which premieres in 2020, will chronicle the lives of one couple per season, with each episode spanning a single day. It’s DuVernay’s second series on OWN since the creation of “Queen Sugar.”
Roquemore plays Gently James, Luma’s livein assistant who is encouraged by Miss Luma Lee to strike up a romance with Evan Fisher, played by Miller. DuVernay is the creator and executive producer.
Trial starting in defamation lawsuit against author Sparks
The trial is getting underway in a lawsuit that accuses novelist Nicholas Sparks of defaming the former headmaster of a private Christian school he founded in North Carolina.
Saul Hillel Benjamin accuses Sparks of telling Epiphany School parents, a job recruiter and others that Benjamin suffered from mental illness.
Benjamin’s lawsuit alleges that the author of “Message in a Bottle” and “The Notebook” defamed him and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Benjamin was in the headmaster’s position for less than five months and says he was forced out.
Rep: Kpop superstar group BTS will take break, but brief
A representative for Kpop superstar group BTS said Tuesday the boy band is taking a break, but it will only be brief.
BTS’s rep told The Associated Press that the sevenmember group will take a “welldeserved vacation.” It was recently reported that BTS will head on an “extended” hiatus, but the group’s rep said that’s not the case.
“It has been widely reported that BTS will be taking a hiatus. To clarify, BTS will only be taking a brief, but welldeserved vacation,” the group’s rep said in an emailed statement. “We want to assure all of the BTS ARMY, fans, friends and the media that the group is excited to get back on the stage very soon for their scheduled stadium tour. More exciting BTS news and events to come!”
BTS’s agency Big Hit Entertainment said a concert Sunday in Seoul was the group’s last scheduled performance before members take “vacations” for the first time since their 2013 debut.
The agency didn’t say when BTS will start performing again. The company’s website said BTS is scheduled to perform in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Seoul in October.
BTS has a large international following and was the first Kpop act to debut atop the Billboard Album chart last year with “Love Yourself: Tear.”