Page 27 - Florida Sentinel 1-6-17 Online Edition

Entertainment
True Story: Movie ‘Hidden Figures’ Finally Let’s The World See Who Was Behind NASA’s First Orbit Around Earth
Snoop’s Bodyguard Tackles Man Who Got Too Close At Ricky Harris’ Funeral
Kim Burrell’s Appearance On ‘Ellen’ Cancelled Due To ‘Gays Are Perverts’ Sermon
It took longer than ex- pected, but you knew it was going to happen. Gospel singer Kim Burrell‘s scheduled ap- pearance on The Ellen De- generes Show has been canceled.
On Dec. 30, a clip of Burrell spewing homophobic rhetoric during a sermon in Texas quickly went viral and was met with heavy backlash. “That perverted homosexual spirit, is a spirit of delusion and confu- sion and it has deceived many
KIM BURRELL
men and women,” said Bur- rell, along with plenty more homophobic rhetoric.
Almost immediately, people were calling for her scheduled appearance on Ellen for Jan. 5, as part of the promotion for the forthcoming Hidden Fig- ures movie (she appears on the soundtrack), to be canceled.
Ellen Degeneres, who is openly gay, revealed that Bur- rell wouldn’t be seeing any parts of her show’s stage via Twitter.
“For those asking, Kim Bur- rell will not be appearing on my show,” she tweeted.
Late comedian Ricky Har- ris’ all-star send-off on Tues- day (January 3) was marred by a funeral home fight.
A bodyguard working for Snoop Dogg had to tackle an unnamed man who charged at the rapper as he waited to view his dead friend’s body at the Long Beach memorial in Cali- fornia.
Actress and comedienne Sherri Shepherd was at the funeral when the violence kicked off and the distraught star posted video of her reac- tion on social media.
“Somebody came in the fu- neral home and went towards Snoop and Snoop’s body- guard tackled him... and then it
Ricky Harris died of a heart attack last week. His service was Tuesday. Sherri Shepherd posted a video after fight at funeral. Snoop responds too.
was just a big fight,” she said. Harris. I can’t believe this... “It is so disrespectful to Ricky This is ridiculous.”
Tariji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monet star in movie about the Black women behind the first human orbiting the earth.
On February 20, 1962, as millions watched, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. As with every NASA mission before or since, his solo voy- age was the result of a mas- sive coordinated effort; however, that effort went far beyond the Mission Control Center in Houston.
Behind the Mercury space- craft’s flight was a team of en- gineers, physicists, and human “computers” whose work largely went unno- ticed—and now, in the movie Hidden Figures, they’re fi- nally getting the big-screen credit they deserve.
For many boys and girls watching Glenn’s landing, the national heroes at NASA didn’t look like them. Women
and people of color—like the trio that Hidden Figures chronicles, Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jack- son (Janelle Monáe)— might have played significant roles in space flight, but in the 1960s their stories simply weren’t told.
Writer, Margot Lee Shetterly’s book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathe- maticians Who Helped Win the Space Race, which was optioned for a film before it was even published.
Hidden Figures opens this weekend.
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