Page 30 - Florida Sentinel 11-15-19

Entertainment
John Legend Is PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive 2019
'In Living Color' Actor Tommy Davidson Says Jada Pinkett Smith's Mom ‘Saved His Life'
JOHN LEGEND ON THE COVER OF PEOPLE
on the phone for a conversa- tion that Davidson said saved his life.
“What’s up are you alright?” Davidson recalled Smith asking. “And I was like, ‘Yea I’m alright.’ You said, ‘Hold on.’ And then bam, she took over.”
“I just came in with rein- forcement,” Banfield-Jones said. “Because by that time you had already been exposed to the program.”
Still, after recounting her own experience with substance abuse for “Red Table Talk” lis-
teners, Banfield-Jones ex- plained that Davidson “had- n’t hit rock bottom” prior to that Philadelphia show, but that it’s exactly what it would take for him to get better.
“I was a functioning addict just the same,” Banfield- Jones said.
“But it’s a process, it’s some- thing that had to take its hold,” Davidson said. “And I just want to thank you, because that saved my life. And that was one of the many things that happened that are the rea- son why I’m here.”
John Legend — a man so talented he became one of only 15 stars to achieve EGOT status last year — is making history yet again: the 40-year-old singer has now been crowned PEO- PLE’s Sexiest Man Alive.
After taking home his first Grammy in 2006 with his debut album Get Lifted, the star began a steady ascension to superstar- dom while using his voice for good. Unabashedly in love with his wife Chrissy Teigen and a doting father to their kids, 31⁄2- year-old daughter Luna and 18- month-old son Miles, Legend has become one of Hollywood’s
biggest stars while remaining as down-to-earth as ever.
So it’s no surprise that the Voice coach, whose deluxe edi- tion of A Legendary Christmas is available now, had a mix of emotions when he first heard about his latest title.
“I was excited, but I was a lit- tle scared at the same time be- cause it’s a lot of pressure,” the entertainer tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “Everyone’s going to be picking me apart to see if I’m sexy enough to hold this title. I’m [also] following Idris Elba, which is not fair and is not nice to me!”
Jada Pinkett Smith wel- comed her friend Tommy Davidson to the red table on Monday — for a difficult dis- cussion about surviving addic- tion, as well as how Smith’s mother helped save his life.
The 56-year-old comedian and In Living Color actor bared it all on the latest episode of “Red Table Talk,” discussing the rise and fall of his career and its relation to his substance abuse issues. He also recalled times when his Woo and Bamboozled co-star, Smith, was one of his closest confidants, but said it was ulti- mately the words of her mother, Adrienne Banfield- Jones, that pulled him out of the darkest time in his life, in 2005.
“In Philadelphia, I did a show. I was going onstage that night, my talent was gone,” Davidson explained in the episode. “The next day I didn’t want to go to a doggone AA meeting, but I went.”
It was then that Smith called Davidson to check in, and ended up putting her mom
Tommy Davidson opens up about surviving addiction in Red Table Talk.
Thousands Of Johnny Depp
Fans Petition To Drop Amber
Heard From ‘Aquaman 2’
A petition to remove Amber Heard as the female lead in Aquaman 2 has garnered over 35,000 signatures from disgrun- tled Johnny Depp fans.
• The Change.org page dubs Heard a "domestic abuser", amid the messy legal battle that continues to wage on with her ex-husband Depp.
The former couple has each accused the other of several counts of physical abuse. In July, Depp made fresh accusa- tions against Heard alongside a photo of him lying bloodied on a stretcher with injuries allegedly caused by his then-partner.
In 2016, People magazine published a photo of Heard's bruised face, as the actor claimed she had "endured exces- sive emotional, verbal and phys- ical abuse" at Depp's hands.
The petition to have Heard dropped from the DC film al- leges the 33-year-old actor has left Depp "scarred for life".
"[She] punched him twice in the face... she shattered his fin- ger with a vodka bottle, and his
AMBER HEARD
finger had to be surgically reat- tached," it claims.
"He will bear the scar from that for the rest of his life."
Heard also "fabricated" ac- counts of Depp's abuse and has "crusaded to ruin him in Holly- wood", the petition states.
"Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment... must not ig- nore the suffering of Heard's victims, and must not glamorise a domestic abuser."
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