B13 Peer Review

Comedian Chris Rock was inundated with death threats after he called for tighter legislation for gun control. The funnyman reveals his email inbox was flooded with abuse last year after he spoke at an event in Washington, D.C . to back a campaign demanding stricter rules to govern the sale of weapons in the U.S. following a number of mass shootings. During an appearance on U.S. TV show " Chelsea Lately ," Rock insisted the experience had made him wary of supporting the cause in public again. He told host Chelsea Handler , "I'm not like, 'Get rid of all the guns'... I just don't think people should have machine guns in their house. Is that too much? Same way I can't drive a NASCAR (race car) down Sunset Boulevard (in Los Angeles) because there are regulations, maybe we should have some gun regulations... "(I received all these) crazy emails... (saying) 'I'll kill you b**tard. I'll shoot you in the head!' I was...

  Mary Wilson , the longest-reigning member of the original Supremes , is open to a reunion tour with the legendary pop trio's best-known member, Diana Ross . Ross, Wilson and Florence Ballard made up the first successful configuration of the group. Cindy Birdsong replaced Ballard in 1967. With 12 No. 1 singles from 1964-70, The Supremes (later, Diana Ross & The Supremes) became the biggest female vocal group in chart history. "People always ask if we will ever reunite," Wilson said in an interview in a Hollywood recording studio. "But that's very difficult, because Florence passed away (in 1976). And, unfortunately, Cindy is having a few illness problems. And I think Diane is into her own stardom. She is a diva, a superstar. Sometimes it's hard to go back." But reflections were no problem for the 70-year-old Wilson, who reminisced on a major milestone -- the 50th anniversary of the Supremes first No. 1, m...

  DENVER (AP) — A gunman with a rifle fired on an SUV carrying rapper ScHoolboy Q after a concert at the popular Red Rocks outdoor amphitheater near Denver , but he wasn't hurt, investigators said Friday. Three other people suffered non-life threatening injuries during the attack late Thursday in a parking lot at Red Rocks. Investigators have not released a possible motive for the shooting and said they do not know if ScHoolboy Q was targeted. No arrests have been made. "It just happened 12 hours ago. We have a lot to learn," said Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. ScHoolboy Q, whose birth name is Quincy Matthew Hanley, is from Los Angeles. His most recent album, "Oxymoron," debuted at No. 1 earlier this year and reflects his life as a father and former gang member. He and Kendrick Lamar, who was nominated for seven Grammys this year, are members of Black Hippy . ScHoolboy Q said on Twi...

Dave Chappelle performs at Radio City Music Hall. Kevin Mazur/WireImage) By   David Fear June 19, 2014 10:00 AM ET He jokingly dubbed it "the shittiest comeback in show business," but from the moment that Dave Chappelle swaggered out on to the Radio City Music Hall stage, on the sold-out first night of a nine-date residency at the venue,  you could tell that he had stepped back into the spotlight with a clear goal. Long before he became famous for playing Prince and Rick James on his sketch-comedy show Chappelle's Show, before he walked away from a multimillion contract, before he decamped to South Africa and became a semi-recluse, Chappelle was a stand-up comic — one who could rival Louis C.K. for the best-working-comedian crown. And his aim was fairly clear early on: He wanted to remind the crowd that telling jokes — usually filthy, often racially tinged, always funny — is what he does best.       Dave Chappelle's Rise From Rick James ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- For Ruby Dee , acting and activism were not contradictory things. They were inseparable and they were intertwined. The African-American actress who earned lead roles in movies and on Broadway also spent her entire life fighting against injustice, even emceeing the 1963 March on Washington and protesting apartheid in South Africa. "We are image makers. Why can't we image makers become peacemakers, too?" she asked after she and her husband Ossie Davis accepted the Screen Actors Guild Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000. That legacy of entertaining and pushing for change — in addition to her epic love affair with Davis — made Dee , who died in her New Rochelle, New York , home on Wednesday night, a beloved figure in America and beyond. As a sign of how influential Dee has been to generations of performers, she was thanked twice from the podium at this Sunday's Tony Awards — by six-time winner Audra McDonald and new Tony winner ...

After being accepted into a business program, the producer has his eyes on campus housing. Harvard is, once again, proving that it’s a hotbed for nurturing hip-hop culture. Last summer, the school kicked off a fellowship program in honor of Queens’ finest, Nasir “Nas” Jones . Then, just months later, the school crowned L.L. Cool J, “Artist of the Year,” during the Harvard Foundation’s annual ceremony. And now, producer Swizz Beatz is getting ready to pack his bags and head to the prestigious university for a summer course focused on all things business. “This might be one of the happiest days of my life. From the [Bronx] to Harvard,” Beatz, who’s real name is Kasseem Dean, wrote on Instagram on April 16, after posting a photo of an email sent from school officials  letting him know he was accepted into the Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program . The nine-week course, taught in three-week sections over three years, costs accepted “clien...

Duo could join Idris Elba on vocal duties Jon Favreau's adaptation of The Jungle Book could be about to land some more star power, with Heat Vision reporting that Disney is in talks with both Scarlett Johansson and Lupita Nyong'o. Both actors have been lined up to lend their voices to the forthcoming project, which already has Idris Elba in place to voice the tiger, Shere Khan. Johansson is expected to lend her sultry tones to Kaa, the hypnotic python, while Nyong'o has been earmarked to voice Rakcha, the mother wolf who looks after Mowgli. Favreau's film will be a hybrid of live-action and CGI, although it remains unclear whether the film will make the same use of motion-capture as is being favoured by Warner's competing adaptation, to be directed by Andy Serkis. Production is set to get underway in the coming months, with The Jungle Book set to open in the US on 29 October 2015. Source: Heat Vision Would Johansson and Ny...