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INSIDER

SAMUEL L. JACKSON

In 'Ma Rainey,' channeling the blues of August Wilson

Following “Fences” and “Ma Rainey,” he intends to continue adapting Wilson’s famed American Century Cycle, a 10-play series spanning each decade of the 20th century. All of Wilson's plays hum with the sorrowful beauty of the blues but “Ma Rainey" is soaked through. On a sweaty, summer day, a band has gathered at a white-owned recording studio to cut a new record with Ma Rainey (Davis), the pioneering “Mother of the Blues,” and an unapologetically liberated woman from the South. It’s Cutler and Slow Drag and Ma Rainey talking," says Wolfe. For Davis, Ma isn't a character she wants to let go of, or stop admiring.

Final 'Miss Peregrine' novel to be published in February

NEW YORK – We'll soon be saying farewell to peculiars, non-peculiars and ymbrynes: Ransom Riggs has written his final tale of “Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children." Penguin Young Readers announced Tuesday that “The Desolations of Devil's Acre” will come out Feb. 23, again featuring young Jacob Portman and the pipe-smoking headmistress Alma LeFay Peregrine. “'The Desolations of Devil’s Acre' was many years in the making,” Riggs said in a statement about his sixth Peregrine novel. “I spent a decade in this world, building and tending to these characters, and it’s a bittersweet thing to finally bid them goodbye. The first book, “Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children,” was adapted by director Tim Burton into a 2016 feature film starring Eva Green, Samuel L. Jackson and Asa Butterfield, among others.

BET Awards highlight Black voices as artists went political

The BET Awards served as an extension of the voices of Black people protesting in the streets about the inequalities Black people face daily, as artists used their performances to highlight the Black Lives Matter movement, civil rights and the lives of those lost because of police officers, including George Floyd. The BET Awards kicked off with Black artists rapping and singing anthems about the Black experience and fighting for equal rights. Nipsey’s family, we love you.”The BET Awards, one of the first awards shows to air virtually, featured performances that were sharp with artsy stage production, giving extra life to the songs being performed. “I used to watch the BET Awards all the time thinking, ‘One day that’s going to be me going up there accepting my award’ — and now it is.”Though the BET Awards are technically about handing out trophies, the awards were an afterthought. Beyoncé won the BET HER award for “Brown Skin Girl,” shared with daughter Blue Ivy Carter as well as Wizkid and Saint JHN.

Alexa can now respond in the voice of Samuel L. Jackson here's how to set it up

You can now hear the voice of Samuel L. Jackson respond to some of your questions when you talk to Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. It's a feature that was announced during Amazon's big hardware event back in September, but it just rolled out this week. It's pretty easy to set up, but you have to pay $1 to get started, and it doesn't completely replace Alexa's voice with Samuel L. Jackson's for everything. Instead, it just allows you to ask Alexa to "ask Sam Jackson" for something, like the weather, or to tell a joke. But Amazon often experiments with new ideas, then doubles down if they're successful, so celebrity voices could someday help Amazon make a few extra bucks from Alexa.

cnbc.com

Your Amazon Alexa can sound just like Samuel L. Jackson

(CNN) - Alexa is about to get real Samuel L. Jackson. Amazon will introduce Jackson as the first celebrity voice for its Alexa virtual assistant later this year, the company said Wednesday. Here are a few fun requests Amazon suggests you try after setting up Jackson's voice on your Echo:"Alexa, ask Samuel L. Jackson where he is from." "Alexa, ask Sam to wake me up at 7 a.m.""Alexa, ask Sam Jackson to sing happy birthday." They can just head over to the settings menu of the Alexa app to select between clean and explicit content.

Here's everything Amazon just announced

Amazon announced more than a dozen new Alexa-enabled products at its annual hardware event in Seattle on Wednesday. Amazon hardware chief Dave Limp stands next to a photo of new hardware products the company unveiled in an event in Seattle on Sept. 25, 2019. To bring Alexa mobile outside the home, Amazon announced a competitor to Apple's AirPods called the Echo Buds. The Amazon Echo Flex, plugs into any outlet, allowing Echo functionality almost anywhere. Amazon also announced two new updates to Alexa Hunches, which makes suggestions based on your daily behavior.

cnbc.com

Movie prop auction offers axe from 'The Shining'

In this 2006 photo, a woman looks at a display from the movie "The Shining" at an exhibition of items from 13 movies of director Stanley Kubrick in Ghent, Belgium. Jack Nicholson's axe from "The Shining," Russell Crowe's armor from "Gladiator" and a lightsaber used by Samuel L. Jackson in "Star Wars" are among 900 items going under the hammer next month in a massive auction of movie props. A Tantive IV Stormtrooper helmet from "Star Wars: A New Hope" is among the headline items, with an estimated sale price of between 120,000 and 180,000 ($145,000 and $218,000). The sale is the sixth annual London auction put on by movie-themed auction house Prop Store, set to be held over two days on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Last year's headline item was Han Solo's jacket, worn by Harrison Ford in the "Star Wars" film "The Empire Strikes Back," but the outfit failed to sell after bidding stalled.