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The trailblazing film and television career of the late John Singleton will be celebrated at his alma mater, the University of Southern California.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts announced Tuesday that it is hosting “John Singleton: A Celebration,” a yearlong tribute to the filmmaker, who passed away in April 2019 at age 51.

The events will include a special screening series of his most notable films, featuring conversations with cast and crew members. Screenings will take place on the USC Campus, and are free and open to the public, with RSVP required on the USC School of Cinematic Arts website.

Singleton made history with his 1991 debut film, Boyz N the Hood. At age 24, he became the youngest person, and the first African American, to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Singleton was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

A screening of Boyz N the Hood will kick off the tribute on Friday, September 9. Director Robert Townsend will moderate a conversation with selected stars from the film.

The cast included Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Angela Bassett, Regina King and Laurence Fishburne.

The next movie in the series will be Poetic Justice on September 21, followed by Higher Learning on October 12, Rosewood on November 9 and Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson on November 30.

The celebration will continue into 2023 on January 25 with Baby Boy, 2 Fast 2 Furious in February and concludes with Four Brothers on March 22.

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Madam C.J. Walker, the first self-made female millionaire in the United Stats, is being honored by Mattel as the next female role model to be featured in Barbie’s line of Inspiring Women dolls.

Walker made her fortune beginning in 1910 in Indianapolis by developing a line of haircare products and cosmetics designed for Black women. In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Madam C. J. Walker commemorative stamp as part of its Black Heritage Series.

The Madam C.J. Walker doll features a rendition of the entrepreneur holding her original product, “Wonderful Hair Grower.”

Walker’s great-great granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles worked with Mattel on the collaboration and introduced the doll in an Instagram video. 

“As a collector of Black dolls, I can tell you this really makes my heart sing!” she commented. Bundles is elated that Walker follows other trailblazing women in this special Barbie collection.

“I love that she joins Ida B. Wells, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Sally Ride and Eleanor Roosevelt,” added Bundles, who wrote the 2001 biography On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker.

The Barbie Inspiring Women Series pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time; courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.

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Kandi Burruss is the latest star of the Real Housewives franchise to say one of her children is a victim of  online bullying.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member says her daughter Riley, 20, has been unfairly ridiculed on social media.

“I despise it. It bothers me so much,” Burruss tells People. “Everybody already knows that Riley dealt with her weight issues growing up in the public eye. People would make comments on her body, and say things about her personal look and it really boils my blood.”

“You can deal with anything for yourself, but you don’t want your kids to be bullied online,” the 46-year-old entertainer adds. “It’s just really terrible.”

Several Real Housewives stars, including Garcelle Beauvais from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, have condemned online hate against their kids.

Kandi say she’s reached out to Garcelle as Jax, one of her 14-year-old twins, has faced racist online comments.

“The people who watch our show and who are on our show, sometimes they take things too far, and it’s not cool. It’s crazy,” Burruss continues. “This is a TV show at the end of the day.”

“Words definitely matter,” she says. “I’ve seen one of my kids definitely get bullied multiple times.”

Burruss says last week “somebody was posting that [Riley] was pregnant and she was so upset about it.” Riley responded on TikTok that the rumor was false.

Bravo, the network behind the Real Housewives shows, issued a statement blasting the online harassment Jax was receiving.

“We are shocked and appalled at the social comments directed at Garcelle’s son,” the statement read. “We urge our viewers and social followers alike to refrain from targeting our cast and their families with hateful rhetoric.”

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Lil Nas X wants his fans to know he’s mean and nasty after a story got out about him doing something nice.

Pop Crave shared a fan’s story about meeting the rapper at the VMAs over the weekend. The person identifies themself as someone who works “low level in the entertainment industry” who scored not-so-great tickets to the ceremony.

The person left after Nicki Minaj performed due to the “long drive home,” but the Prudential Center elevator accidentally dumped them off on the wrong floor, which they assume was a “high security” area.

“Lil Nas X appeared out of nowhere as I was trying to find the exit,” the fan’s story continues. “I’m a shy person so it took a lot for me to approach him and I didn’t want to be annoying but it’s my birthday and this opportunity seemed once in a lifetime.”

The fan recalled, “I said (awkwardly) ‘Montero?’ He said ‘yeesss?’ I said ‘I’m not supposed to be here I’m sorry but can I get a picture with you?’ He said laughingly, ‘Yes but tell me I look classy.’ (He was in his VMA outfit.)”

The fan praised Lil Nas X and the two posed for the photo, but the Grammy winner “suggested we change the lighting so the pics would be better.”

“It was really nice. We took a bunch of cute pics,” the fan added, calling the “Industry Baby” rapper a “genuinely nice person.”

Lil Nas X caught wind of the tale and retweeted it to his page. “this is not true,” he wrote, “i am very mean in person. i once slapped a fan for singing the lyrics to industry baby wrong.”

He also jokingly shared an image of a person praying and wrote, “When you beat the nice person allegations.”

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Congratulations to Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd and his girlfriend, Victoria Kristine, who announced they are expecting their first child together.

Swae hosted an outdoor, jungle safari-themed baby shower for Victoria over the weekend, and she posted a series of Instagram photos on Tuesday.

She wrote, “Our little wild one is on the way.” Kristine also posted shots from a maternity photo shoot in which she’s covered in pearls. “Kill ‘‘em with elegance and grace,” she penned in the caption.

At the event, Lee surprised his lady with a brand new Land Rover. “Thank you baby daddy,” Victoria captioned a video on her IG Stories displaying her present.

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In the new satirical comedy Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., Sterling K. Brown plays Lee-Curtis Childs, a pastor at a Southern Baptist megachurch trying to rebuild his congregation after a huge scandal.

The film is not afraid to dive into deep topics – sexual impropriety, hypocrisy and pride, to name a few – and Brown tells ABC Audio he knows that will possibly upset some people. And that’s OK.

“I’m somebody who’s grown up in the church, has a deep affinity for it, but I feel like there’s some critical thought that could be examined,” Brown says. “Nothing is perfect, everything can be looked at further.”

One of the biggest topics the film handles is marriage. Specifically, Brown says, it asks “what constitutes the breaking of a covenant” and “when is the right time to be out” of a marriage.

Regina Hall, who plays Brown’s wife, Trinity, in the film, agrees, saying that marriage is “defined in this movie specifically, as, ‘are you a Christian?’ And, if so, ‘how much you are willing to endure?'”

“Trinity is a Christian,” Hall says. “She just has to endure Lee-Curtis. That’s a bit of a measure on her Christianity.”

Brown says he was – at first – a bit hesitant to take on a role some might find controversial.

“Not enough to not let me do it,” he says. “But, yeah. I hear my mom’s voice all the time … my mama will ask with every role that I do, ‘Now how does this honor God?’ And I’ll be like, ‘Well, Mama, God made us. And he made each and every one of us and God didn’t make no mistakes.’”

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is in theaters everywhere and streaming on Peacock this Friday.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) While Will Smith‘s slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars is still echoing throughout the Fresh Prince star’s career, some fans are turning the tide in his favor, thanks to a joke Rock recently made at the expense of Nicole Brown Simpson.

As reported, Rock recently told a comedy show crowd that he was asked to host the upcoming Academy Awards again, but he turned it down, comparing it to asking “Nicole Brown Simpson to go back to the restaurant.”

A forgotten pair of Brown’s sunglasses led waiter Ron Goldman to bring them to the Brentwood, California home of O.J. Simpson‘s ex-wife — and the grisly 1994 murder of both of them.

Some took to Twitter to do a little smacking of their own of the comic. “#WillSmith should’ve slapped #ChrisRock even harder for the s*** he is spewing,” one Twitter user commented.

“Another woman serving as foils for #ChrisRock’s ‘jokes.’ Dear #WillSmith, all is forgiven,” opined another.

One tweeted a photo of Will slapping Rock with the caption, “This mf is tasteless classless and CORNY ASF and always has been #slap #ChrisRock #again.”

Another Twitter user offered, “Let’s get people to take turns slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars every year.”

Another fumed, “Can the academy suspend Chris Rock over his Nicole Brown Simpson remark?… I think I understand where Will Smith was coming from better.”

Smith was banned from all Motion Picture Academy events for 10 years because of the incident, for which he’s repeatedly apologized.

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