PLAYWRIGHT PAUL CARTER HARRISON DIES AT AGE 85: Playwright and theatrical scholar Paul Carter Harrison has passed away at age 85. His daughter, Fonteyn Harrison, informed The New York Times that Paul died on December 27th at a retirement home in Atlanta, Georgia. Harrison’s play The Great MacDaddy won him an Obie Award, and according to the Times, his scholarly work “provided a theoretical structure for the Black performing arts.” His cause of death has not yet been revealed.
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER RESUMES FILMING: According to The Hollywood Reporter, filming will continue for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever starting this week. Production was stalled due to Letitia Wright‘s onset injury as well as cast and crew members testing positive for COVID-19. Sources informed The Hollywood Reporter that the highly-anticipated sequel has “about four weeks” of filming left.
BBC ANNOUNCES THE FALL OF THE DINOSAURS: Sir David Attenborough will examine findings from a prehistoric graveyard known as Tanis in North Dakota for a BBC1/PBS/France Télévisions feature film called The Fall of the Dinosaurs. For three years, a team led by paleontologist Robert DePalma has been examining fossils from Tanis dating back 66 million years in order to unlock the mystery of what happened the day the asteroid hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. Sir David Attenborough, the 95-year-old documentarian who will join this team for the film, said, “Dinosaurs were nature’s most extraordinary creatures, dominating the planet for over 150 million years before they became extinct. Tanis could be a place where the remains can give us an unprecedented window into the lives of the very last dinosaurs, and a minute-by-minute picture of what happened when the asteroid hit.”
JEOPARDY! POSTS TRIBUTE TO BETTY WHITE: On Instagram Sunday (January 16th), Jeopardy! posted a series of clues to honor the late Betty White, just ahead of what would have been her 100th birthday. One clue read, “At 88, she became the oldest primetime Emmy winner ever, taking the prize for hosting ‘Saturday Night Live.'” Another clue was, “This TV ‘Golden Girl’ was nominated for the first ‘Best Actress’ Emmy in 1950 but lost to Gertrude Berg.” Jeopardy! captioned the post, “Betty white is always the correct response.”
