Remember Christian Cooper, the Black bird watcher who went viral after dealing with a Central Park Karen? Well, he has an Emmy now! That’s right, Cooper’s Disney+ series, “Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper,” won a Daytime Emmy over the weekend.

A quick refresher in case you forgot: in 2020, Cooper went viral in a video where a white woman, Amy Cooper (no relation), called the police on him after he simply asked her to leash her dog (in an area where leashing is required). Amy Cooper said, “an African-American man threatening my life,” on the call, which Christian, thankfully, caught entirely on camera, proving his innocence in the viral video footage.

While the unfortunate incident led to serious consequences for Amy (she was terminated from her job and received charges of false reporting), thankfully Cooper was able to take some pretty sour lemons and make lemonade, landing his own television series with National Geographic and Disney+.

Cooper won in the “Outstanding Daytime Personality – Non-Daily” category, taking to the Daytime Emmys stage to share his gratitude with his peers and those watching at home. The openly gay host said, “This is an unexpected journey from being a closeted queer kid in the 1970s and a Black kid in the almost totally then all-white field of birding, which makes this all the more thrilling.”

He continued to say in his speech that the “world has changed” and that, “no matter what anybody says or does we are not going back. We will only move forward together.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Root

Recently Revolt revealed new leadership since Sean “Diddy” Combs—who founded the media and television company—stepped down and sold his majority stake. Try guessing who will take over.

The company’s current employees are set to become the biggest shareholder group of Revolt.

CEO Detavio Samuels explained the change in a statement. “We are stepping into the most revolutionary chapter yet for Revolt. When I joined in 2020, I quickly realized two things: Our mission is bigger than any individual, and we are the largest engine for transformative change that just so happens to be a media company,” Samuels said.

He continued:

“Over the past four years, this engine has created countless opportunities to build wealth for our community and empower creators and entrepreneurs globally, which includes our reinvestment of $50 million annually into the Black community, funding Black entrepreneurs with no exchange of equity, and ensuring creators have upside participation in the content IP we co-create…We are most proud of the transformation that our teams will experience as they shift from being employees to owners of the business they are helping to build. Black culture is global culture, and REVOLT’s superpower is being the home for creators that move culture globally, allowing us to build the most powerful storytelling engine for Black voices.”

Under the new structure, Revolt will stay Black-owned (around 80% of the staff are people of color). Combs left the company in November 2023 following a damning lawsuit from his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Ventura stated that Combs sexually and physically abused her throughout the course of their relationship.

“Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment in the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action comedy series, opened with an estimated $56 million in theaters over the weekend, handing Hollywood a much-needed summer hit and Smith his biggest success since he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.

Expectations were all over the map for “Ride or Die” given the dismal moviegoing market thus far this summer and Smith’s less certain box-office clout. In the end, though, the Sony Pictures release came in very close to, or slightly above, its tracking forecast.

“Ride or Die,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is Smith’s first theatrical test since his 2022 slap of Rock earned him a 10-year Oscar ban. The “Bad Boys” film was in development at the time and ultimately went forward with about a $100 million production budget.

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Associated Press