There’s no doubt that 2013 had its share of exciting and heartbreaking entertainment news. From the good news like Cicely Tyson winning her first Tony Award, the bad news such as Jay Z’s public intergenerational feud with Harry Belafonte, and the ugly like TLC’s former manager Perri “Pebbles” Reid denouncing their VH1 biopic, there was no shortage of events to talk about.
Here’s a look back at the top Black entertainment news stories of 2013.
Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson’s much-anticipated return to Broadway in the revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful” garnered a tremendous amount of acclaim within the theater community. So much that she received her very first Tony Award for best leading actress in a play.
Black movies
The year 2013 brought Black experience and history to the forefront of Hollywood’s biggest releases. Films such as “42,” “The Butler,” “Fruitvale Station,” “12 Years a Slave,” and more recently “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” have all garnered critical-praise and Oscar buzz.
During an appearance on HuffPost Live, “12 Years a Slave” star Chiwetel Ejiofor shared his thoughts on whether or not major movie studios will continue to produce Black films.
“I don’t know. I think time will tell. We’re just going to have to figure that out, I think. It’s possible,” he said. “What I hope for like anybody else is that, there’s not an unnatural block to filmmakers and actors telling stories … I think great stories should be told and I don’t think there should be anything that intervenes in that. And if people want to go see these films then there shouldn’t be any reason why they aren’t getting made.”
Beyonce
Last year got off to a rough start for Beyonce Knowles. However, after admitting that she lip-synced her performance during the 57th Presidential Inauguration, the pop star managed to redeem herself a month later during her Super Bowl halftime performance, and capping the year off with the surprise release of her self-titled visual opus, “Beyonce.” The album has sold more than 1 million worldwide copies in the iTunes stores. #BowDown
Kanye West- Kim Kardashian
After the birth of their daughter, North West, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian shocked the universe with, yet, another announcement … they’re getting married.
Kerry Washington
Perhaps one of the most surprising news items of the year came from none other than Kerry Washington. News broke on July 3, that the “Scandal” actress got hitched to San Francisco 49ers cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha on June 24 in Blaine County, Idaho.
The notoriously private actress and football player reportedly had been dating for a year, since summer 2012. The marriage is the first for Washington, who was previously engaged to actor David Moscow in 2007.
“Blurred Lines”
Although Robin Thicke netted one of this year’s biggest hits with his single, “Blurred Lines,” the song also found its way in the middle of a legal battle between the blue-eyed-soul crooner and Marvin Gaye’s estate due to some of its sonic similarities to Gaye’s timeless classic, “Got To Give It Up.”
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill fans received an early Thanksgiving treat, as the singer-songwriter kicked off her first performance on Thanksgiving Eve since serving a three-month federal prison sentence for tax evasion charges. The tour, which went through Dec. 31, resulted in the postponement of the eight-time Grammy Award-winner’s three-month home confinement mandate to Jan. 1.
Jay Z and Harry Belafonte
What initially started in 2012 boiled over into 2013 with the public feud between Jay Z and Harry Belafonte. And as expected, Hov responded to Belafonte’s previous comments on celebrities ignoring social responsibility.
Chris Brown
The year 2013 marked another year of Chris Brown making headlines because of his public misbehavior. However, this year the troubled R&B singer was ordered by a judge to spend three months in rehab after reading a report that said a facility discharged him because he threw a rock through his mother’s car window.
Arsenio Hall
Nearly 20 years since the final episode of his last show, Arsenio Hall made his highly-anticipated return to late night television in September. Before his first episode back on the air, Hall admitted during an interview with the Associated Press, that the return was a dream come true, despite criticism. “I hear all the long-shot talk: ‘This is an impossible thing to do after all this time. The field is so crowded.’ But I still have to pursue my dream!”
