Page 28 - Florida Sentinel 12-4-15 Edition

Entertainment
Zendaya Too Busy To Date, But Not Too Busy To Host AIDS Fundraiser
Still The Queen Of Talk: Oprah Winfrey Kicks Off Sold Out Tour In Australia
Oprah Winfrey put on a daz- zling sartorial display as she kicked off the first of her Aus- tralian talks in Melbourne on Wednesday evening.
Superstar, Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to those who came to see her, including Sarah, a 40-week pregnant woman.
She joked: 'This baby is com- ing tonight. Please let me cut the cord. If the waters break just let me know and I'll stop saying whatever I'm talking about.'The long reigning queen of daytime TV couldn't hide her delight at being able to pull in such a large crowd as she said: 'I don't know why you're all here. I don't sing or dance but you came anyway. Thank you so much.
' An Evening With Oprah has been billed as an intimate show, where the billionaire, es- timated by Forbes to be worth $3.2 billion, shares her life in- sights and wisdom with fans who shelled out up to $380 for a stadium seat.
Lil Wayne Announces 19-City Tour To Thank Fans
LIL WAYNE
Lil’ Wayne is reportedly em- barking on a 19-date tour at the top of next year. For “The Dedi- cation Tour,” Weezy is taking Rae Sremmurd along for the ride. The road trip will kick off on Jan. 21st in El Paso, TX and make stops in cities like Fayet- teville, NC, Richmond, VA and Dayton, OH.
“The Dedication Tour is a per- sonal thank you from Lil’ Wayne dedicated to all of his fans in cities he has rarely vis- ited on his past tour runs,” reads a press release.
Tickets go on sale to the gen- eral public on Dec. 4th via Live- Nation.com. For CitiCard and Tidal members, tickets will be available for presale on Dec. 2nd at 12:00 p.m.
Tom Joyner Is Being Forced To Retire?
Tom Joyner is allegedly being forced to retire. His business as- sociate and so-called friend, David Kantor has been promoted and Joyner is allegedly being put on the shelf.
She said this week that she's too busy for dating.
Zendaya Coleman
stepped out to the sound of a thousand breaking hearts on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The 19-year old singer, dancer and actress rocked a stunning all-black tuxedo as she hosted a World Aids Day benefit at Sofitel Hotel.
Disney and generation Z star Zendaya Coleman hosted a AIDS fundraiser in L.A.
Spike Lee Has Strong
Words For Chicago Mayor
According to radio insiders, legendary syndicated radio host Tom Joyner will soon be signing off the air - but not by choice.
The 65-year-old entertain- ment veteran is being forced into an early retirement to not only make room for younger talent, but also to coincide with the departure of President Barack Obama from the White House.
The plan is being put into place by radio conglomerate Radio One (Cathy Hughes) along with his best friend and former business associate, David Kantor, sources claim.
Joyner started his syndi- cated radio show The Tom Joyner Morning Show in 1994. During that time he earned more than seven million fre- quent-flier miles commuting daily between two cities. The vigorous travel schedule earned Joyner the nicknames The Fly Jock and The Hard- est-Working Man In Radio.
Kantor, then an executive at ABC Radio Networks, came up with the idea to launch Joyner into national syndication.
As the first African-American host in national syndication, The Tom Joyner Morning Show became an instant suc- cess.
At its peak it aired in up- wards of 120 markets and reaching more than 15 million listeners daily.
The Tom Joyner Morning Show became the number one syndicated urban morning show and one of the most-suc- cessful syndicated shows in the history of radio.
Joyner's status skyrocketed and he instantly became a mul- timillionaire.
In 2003, he launched Reach Media with Kantor who left ABC Radio Networks to run Joyner's Texas-based media company. In November 2004, Radio One acquired a 53% stake in Reach Media for $56.1 million in cash and stock, which gave them ownership rights of The Tom Joyner Morning Show and Joyner's website BlackAmericaWeb.com.Nearly a year later, in September 2005, comedian Steve Har- vey launched his own syndi- cated radio program, The Steve Harvey Morning Show with Premiere Radio Networks and became direct competition for Joyner in many markets. Harvey had hosted a morning radio program in Los
Angeles for Radio One for five years. But he had an explosive parting of ways with the com- pany's founder, Cathy Hughes and the company let him go before his contract ended in May 2005.
Harvey originally ap- proached Joyner and Kantor about syndicating his show na- tionally after falling out with Radio One, but Kantor told him 'he would never work in syndication' because Harvey had a reputation for 'being dif- ficult and nasty to fans.'
After a short time in syndica- tion, Harvey's morning show became a hit and began to pose a serious threat for Joyner.
In recent years, Steve Har- vey’s radio program has eclipsed Joyner's with larger markets and more listeners.
In 2012, Kantor encour- aged Joyner to sell more stakes in Reach Media to Radio One.
In December of that year, Radio One increased its stake to80%.
While both Tom and David made millions each time a new deal was done with Radio One; Tom had less control of the company he once owned, while David gained more power.
'Each year they would make Tom lay off long-term employ- ees and comediennes like Miss Dupree and Myra J.
In 2014, a quiet plan was put into place to phase Joyner out of radio completely by the end of 2016.
Joyner - whose current radio contract with Radio One ends in December 2016 - actu- ally learned of his friend Kan- tor's plan to end his show next year from some radio insiders who tipped him off.
Those who work in his of- fices in Dallas say that he's been distraught about it ever since.
According to sources, Joy- ner said ‘I should have never listened to David and sold that stake to Radio One.'
On October 19 Radio One announced that Kantor had been named the new CEO of its radio division.
Reach Media however has now responded saying: 'Any stories that suggest major changes to the Tom Joyner Morning Show are inaccurate.
'Tom Joyner is under con- tract with Reach Media until the end of 2017. We expect that Reach will continue to syndi- cate Tom’s show beyond that date and for as long as he would like to be on the air.
At Premiere Of Movie
Chi-Raq In Theaters Friday
Kind words were in short supply for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the pre- miere of Spike Lee's "Chi- Raq" (Chicago/Iraq) on Tuesday night.
Emanuel fired the city's po- lice superintendent Tuesday after tensions flared over the release of a graphic video that showed a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, being shot 16 times by a white police officer.
Lee predicted at the pre- miere, held before he and cast members participated in an anti-gun violence march, that "some more heads are gonna roll."
When Spike Lee went to Chicago in April 2015 to dis- cuss plans for his film Chi-Raq, Mayor Rahm Emanuel re- quested a meeting where he and other Chicago politicians expressed their strong disap- proval of the film’s title. Ac- cording to Lee, Emanuel and city aldermen bullied him, denying city permits to the pro- duction and threatening to withhold $3 million in tax breaks unless Lee abandoned that title. Their concern was that he would drive away tourists by portraying the city as a dangerous war zone where innocent people get gunned down on a daily basis.
But in all their protestations, Mayor Emanuel and com- pany came across as more reac- tionary and image-conscious than concerned about the ac- tual violence in the city. Chi- Raq goes in the opposite direction. It isn't just affection- ate about Chicago; it's a pas- sionate, rhythmic love letter to the city and its South Side resi- dents. And Lee and screen- writer Kevin Willmott aren't just calling for gang violence to end. They're trying to evoke prayer, passion, and anger in and on behalf of Chicagoans
Director Spike Lee and actor John Cusack on Orange Car- pet.
who routinely see more than 40 people a week shot in the city, leading to a higher death toll for Americans in Chicago over the past 15 years than in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. Chi-Raq is a rowdy, remarkably funny film that isn't particularly concerned with how tourists see the city, or where they spend their money. Lee wants results, and he's willing to go broad and over the top if that gets people talking, thinking, or best of all, taking action.
Lee's satire is based on the ancient Greek play "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes. This mod- ern adaptation is about the murder of a child hit by a stray bullet in Chicago's South Side, and the group of women that organize a unique way of deal- ing with the ongoing violence; they hold back sex.
The film embraces the fan- tasy of everlasting peace, while repeatedly acknowledging the reality of inner-city blight.
That may be a message Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel doesn't want anyone to hear. But Lee has his re- venge, by portraying Chi-Raq's fictional Chicago mayor (played by D.B. Sweeney) as a selfish, unreasonable clown who bullies his underlings with rhetoric, and has no real an- swers himself.
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