News

The African American Film Critics Association (Aafca) has selected “The Harder They Fall” as the No. 1 film on their annual top 10 list.

Written and directed by Jeymes Samuel and produced by Jay-Z, the big-budget Netflix western sees Idris Elba, Regina King, Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz and Lakeith Stanfield portray historical Black figures Rufus Buck, Nat Love, Trudy Smith, Stagecoach Mary and Cherokee Bill, respectively.

“Although our top film, ‘The Harder They Fall’ from Netflix is a fictionalized Western,” said Aafca president and co-founder Gil Robertson. “It introduced the world to an incredible array of real-life Black cowboys and cowgirls who helped to transform the West, prompting many to discover the prominent role Black people played in that storied chapter of American history that has been a Hollywood go-to genre.”

In chronological order, the other nine movies on Aafca’s top ten list are “King Richard,” “Respect,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,...

Some would say self-help author and “political outsider” Marianne Williamson’s very presence on the Democratic debate stage constitutes a miracle and Williamson herself would probably agree. She beat out a billionaire (Tom Steyer), a sitting U.S. Congressman (Seth Moulton), a former U.S. Senator (Mike Gravel), and already lasted longer in the race than California Rep. Eric Swalwell.

The foundational text that launched the self-help author’s career is Helen Schucman’s “A Course In Miracles,” but presidential candidate thinks that may lead some to misunderstand her beliefs.

The first pair of Democratic Party debates in Miami created headlines, viral moments, and for a few, hangovers.

There is danger of that again in the second round, to begin tonight. The candidate field remains enormous, if changed. Last time, of 24 hopefuls, 20 participated, with Massachusetts congressman Seth Moulton and Miramar (Fl) Mayor Wayne Messam among those not on stage. A podium was left open for vanished aviator Amelia Earhart, but she did not return.

Messam and Moulton are still on the outs, having failed to reach 1% in the polls as well as secure 65,000 unique donors.

Related: Rs Politics 2020 Democratic Primary Leaderboard

After months of laying out their policy proposals and jockeying for media attention, 20 of the top Democratic presidential hopefuls will step onstage for the biggest moment of their campaigns this week. The first set of Democratic primary debates will be held Wednesday, June 26th and Thursday, June 27th, and though votes won’t be cast in Iowa for another seven months, how the candidates perform behind a podium will go a long way shaping the public’s perception of how they’ll fare against President Trump.

The first Democratic Party primary season debates will be held this week. Because there are two debates, it will require an unusual set of official Rolling Stone drinking game rules, listed below.

We thought 17 candidates was a lot last time. Now it’s 23. Or is it 24? By 2024 running for president will be like a game of Fortnite – a Battle Royale of 100 rifle-toting pols in banana suits. That might even work better for television than the arrangement this week, with debates on consecutive nights that will force Rolling Stone readers to...

A new poll finds that a trio of 2020 presidential candidates stand out — and not in a good way.

The survey, conducted by Data for Progress, offers a glimpse at the Democrats who are truly polarizing the party, by measuring which candidates voters are “Not Considering.” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard top the list of candidates Democratic voters have ruled out as they weigh their decision in the party’s primaries and caucuses.

Sanders, the independent Democratic Socialist, is the...

The satirist Ambrose Bierce, author of the Devil’s Dictionary, once defined radicalism as “the conservatism of tomorrow injected into the affairs of today.”

What Bierce wittily captured — that today’s radicals are tomorrow’s normies — means that at any given moment, the current political establishment will be fighting off the inevitable.

The Brahmins of today don’t battle with ideas, because as Bierce pointed out, their belief systems are usually regressive and unpopular, only they don’t know it yet. The battle is almost always waged instead over personality,...

A trio of teenagers from New York state have successfully drafted former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel into the 2020 primary. The anti-war octogenarian famous for helping put the Pentagon papers in the public record made his debut with a campaign video underscoring the liabilities of other Democratic candidates and highlighting Gravel’s long political career, before cutting to the ex-senator, who now walks with the assistance of a cane. “It’s time to make some waves to change,” he tells the camera. “I’m Mike Gravel, and I’m running for president.

Mike Gravel was a Democratic senator from Alaska from 1969-1981. He’s currently 88-years-old and, reportedly, thinking about running for president.

On Tuesday night, “#Gravel2020” popped up out of nowhere on the long-dormant @MikeGravel Twitter account. A few minutes later, a post laid out what it claimed were Gravel’s presidential intentions. “I am considering running in the 2020 Democratic primary,” it read. “The goal will not be to win, but to bring a critique of American imperialism to the Democratic debate stage. The website (mikegravel.org) is under construction. Official...

Director Steven Spielberg is currently in development on his new film project The Post and today we have our first photo from the film giving us our first look at Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep before the trailer is released.

The movie will tell the 1971 story of the Washington Post's role in exposing the Pentagon Papers and how the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks) and publisher Kay Graham (Streep) challenged the federal government over their right to publish them.

This is such a powerful team of talent coming together for a film and they are sure to deliver an incredible film. Some of the other cast members include Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Matthew Rhys, Bradley Whitford, Carrie Coon, Jesse Plemons, David Cross, Alison Brie, Bruce Greenwood, Tracy Letts, Michael Stuhlbarg, Pat Healy, and Zach Woods.

For those of you not familiar with the Pentagon Papers, here's an explanation:

In...

Steven Spielberg is set to team up with Tom Hanks once again for a film project called The Post, which will also star Meryl Streep. This is a powerhouse of talent and it will tell the 1971 story of the Washington Post's role in exposing the Pentagon Papers and how "the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Kay Graham challenged the federal government over their right to publish them."

According to Deadline, Hanks will take on the role of Bradlee, "the editor who would figure in the movie classic All The President’s Men," and Streep will take on the part of Graham. Thanks to the report, we have some detailed information on the history of the Pentagon Papers:

In an age where rampant web leaks of emails has left it difficult to figure out whether they are fair game or privacy invasion, the Pentagon Papers is the whistle blower equivalent of WWII,...

Who says there's no room for both Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann in the 2012 presidential race-men? Michelle Cottle on why it is important for women to run and why we shouldn't dismiss a potential matchup between the two Gop pols as a catfight.

Run, ladies, run! That's my mantra for the 2012 presidential campaign.

Related story on The Daily Beast: How Palin's Winning the Media War

Sure, I grasp the political calculus that says there's not room for both Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann in the Republican primary: As two bomb-throwing, tea-partying, socially conservative, screw-the-establishment mama grizzlies, these Gop soul sisters would be battling over a very similar slice of the base.

Likewise, I sympathize with the angsty grumbling I've heard among those who fear that two such colorful women out there frenetically chumming the waters could reflect poorly on the gender. With so few gals having braved this particular arena,...

Wonkette has uncovered shocking evidence that Tiger Woods’s new advertisement for Nike-brand sorrow is very similar to a commercial from former Alaska senator Mike Gravel’s doomed presidential campaign! True, Gravel did not edit in the judgmental voice of his dead father, nor did he encourage us to shop at Nike, but the lip-quivering, audience-facing blank stares are exactly the same. Gravel also throws a rock into water for some reason (because it’s contemplative?), which is more athletic than anything the golfer did in his commercial. Is this the most scandalous thing Tiger Woods has ever done? Watch and judge for yourselves.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- ABC News -- and its president, David Westin -- fended off a last-minute challenge from Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who tried to get a state judge to force the network to include him in Saturday night's debate.

Under the ground rules of ABC News/WMUR's dual debates ahead of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, only candidates who either finished in the top four in Iowa or polled 5% or more support would be included. That gave an entrance pass to U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson but barred Kucinich and another marginal candidate, former Sen. Mike Gravel as well as

GOP candidate Duncan Hunter. The change would make for better conversation, the network said.

Kucinich didn't take the news lying down, threatening to bring the FCC into the fray and on Saturday evening persuaded a New Hampshire judge to hear his case against ABC News. He wasn't seeking to stop the debate but instead to force ABC News to allow him to participate.

PHILADELPHIA -- One Hollywood type played a part in Tuesday night's presidential debate. And it wasn't Fred Thompson.

Shirley MacLaine was channeled by debate co-moderator Tim Russert when questioning Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Russert asked if, as MacLaine claims in her new book "Sage-ing While Age-ing", Kucinich saw a "triangular craft, silent and hovering" at her home in Graham, Wash.

"It was an unidentified flying object, OK?" Kucinich said in a way that looks a lot more testy in print than it did live. "It's, like, it's unidentified. I saw something."

Such is the lot of Kucinich, who is making his second run at the nomination but is making no headway. He was at the bottom of the polls among the seven presidential candidates who were invited to appear at Tuesday night's MSNBC debate, held at Drexel University. Kucinich squeaked by -- barely -- under newly imposed NBC rules that barred fellow fringer Mike Gravel from participating. Gravel was a block away at a self-styled "anti-debate." Kucinich, an Ohio congressman and former mayor of Cleveland, had to wait nearly 22 minutes before getting a question in the two-hour debate. But at least he was onstage.

UFOs were the least of the candidates' worries Tuesday. Matching the host city's reputation for being somewhat rough and tumble, Tuesday night's debate was lively and more combative. Maybe it was Barack Obama's declaration in the New York Times that he would take the gloves off against front-runner Hillary Clinton. Or maybe it was the setting, which at times was fit more for the old Veteran's Stadium instead of a storied university like Drexel.

Much had been made about Obama's willingness to go after Clinton, and he didn't disappoint.