The jam-packed BET Awards 2024 are just days away, but there are two things host Taraji P. Henson is most looking forward to seeing: the live debut of Will Smith‘s new song and the presentation of Usher‘s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It’s going to be an incredible show,” she says in an interview with People. “You know, it’s Culture’s Biggest Night. The performances are going to blow us all away. We got Will Smith, guys. I am so excited to see what he has up his sleeve.”
As for Lifetime Achievement recipient Usher, she says she’s “honored to host the show where he’s receiving his flowers.”
“I’m just proud of him. It’s just a proud moment,” she continues. “It’s a proud moment for the culture.”
Taraji’s return to the BET Awards marks her third time as host of Culture’s Biggest Night. Yet, she’s still a bundle of nerves — and she says that’s a good thing.
“I love nerves,” Henson shares. “I get nervous on the first day of shooting. It’s a live show. Anything can go right or wrong, you know, but that’s what’s so exciting.”
“If I’m not nervous, I would be nervous,” she adds.
The BET Awards 2024 will air live on BET Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
Actor Bill Cobbs, known for his roles in Night at the Museum, The Bodyguard, Air Bud and more, has died, a rep for Cobbs confirmed to Good Morning America. He was 90.
“We are saddened to share the passing of Bill Cobbs,” his family said in a statement shared by his rep. “On Tuesday, June 25, Bill passed away peacefully at his home in California. A beloved partner, big brother, uncle, surrogate parent, godfather and friend, Bill recently and happily celebrated his 90th birthday surrounded by cherished loved ones.”
“As a family, we are comforted knowing Bill has found peace and eternal rest with his Heavenly Father,” the statement from his family continued. “We ask for your prayers and encouragement during this time.”
Of his many roles, perhaps some of his most notable films were The Bodyguard in 1992, in which he portrayed Devaney and acted alongside Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, the 1997 Disney film Air Bud, Night at the Museum in 2006 and Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013.
He also has several series credits across television, including The Michael Richards Show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Carmichael Show and The Sopranos. His guest starring role as Mr. Hendrickson in Dino Dana: The Movie earned Cobbs a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding limited performance in a daytime program.
As a director, Cobbs directed The Meeting, a story about Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Some of Cobbs’ last acting roles were the 2024 television shows Diarra from Detroit and BMF.
(NEW YORK) — ABC News contributor LZ Granderson is revealing his HIV status, discussing which superstar’s mother inspired him to make that call, and talking about the virus’ disproportionate impact on people of color.
According to the most recent data from the CDC, more than 1.2 million Americans are currently living with HIV.
Thanks to modern medicine, preventing and treating the disease is now possible. However, the stigma attached to the virus persists. In a column for the Los Angeles Times, Granderson reveals that he’s been living with HIV for years.
ABC News’ Steve Osunsami sat down for a conversation with Granderson to hear why he’s speaking out now and how the virus disproportionately affects others.
GRANDERSON: I’ve just told, like, my best friend, yesterday. Told some other close friends yesterday.
ABC NEWS LIVE: It’s like coming out all over again.
GRANDERSON: It was a lot like coming out all over again. And I find myself apologizing a lot.
ABC NEWS LIVE: For?
GRANDERSON: Keeping secrets. I am HIV positive and have been for a long time. I used to hide my pills before the housekeeper shows up.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Wow!
GRANDERSON: In my socks.
ABC NEWS LIVE: You hid your pills in your socks before the housekeeper, because you didn’t want your housekeeper to know?
GRANDERSON: I didn’t want my housekeeper to find out.
ABC NEWS LIVE: You were afraid she would tell someone?
GRANDERSON: I just didn’t want anyone to know.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Yea.
GRANDERSON: My mom didn’t know. Heaven forbid, I have to tell my producer why I need to go to the drugstore now. You know what I mean? Like, I didn’t want any situation in which anyone will be asking me any questions. Like, why do you need to go to the drugstore right now? There were, there were people dying of AIDS in my environment, in my atmosphere.
ABC NEWS LIVE: That you were hearing?
GRANDERSON: So I definitely didn’t feel like I was in a place where I felt strong enough that I could do all of that, plus that. So I kept it to myself. Plus the, the guilt. You know, try to figure out who was it. Why did you do it? Like all these thoughts in my head?
ABC NEWS LIVE: Were you worried you were going to have to share that with people, or people were going to ask or you would need those answers?
GRANDERSON: I was worried I was going to shine a bad light on my community. And it’s killing all of us, but it’s really killing Black people, and it’s killing Black people because we’re afraid to talk about it. We whisper about it. You have queer Black people who are dying. You have heterosexual Black people who are dying and no one’s talking about it. So if you’re not having a conversation and we’re dying in silence, I don’t see a path of joy coming out of that.
[Granderson discussed how Tina Knowles, mother of singer Beyoncé inspired him to reveal his status.]
GRANDERSON: She flew from wherever Beyoncé was to Birmingham, Alabama, to tell Black journalists to get the word out about this virus that is still killing us and especially Black women. So I’m sitting there. And I’m like, she talking to me? I was like, I have to do my part.
ABC NEWS LIVE: When did you learn that you were HIV positive?
GRANDERSON: So, we were in Grand Rapids. I was with my partner, who’s now my husband, and I was getting my hair done. And I started to get these huge of wave of heat. I started to sweat, and then everything got black. And I woke up in the ambulance. Got to the hospital, I’m all hooked up and everything. And the doctors think I’m having a heart attack.
And so my husband’s rushing to the hospital. And they ran a bunch of tests. And the only thing that came back was that I was positive. The thing that went through my mind was the fact that my son was there in the room. And I remember saying to God, ‘I’m not done yet.’
ABC NEWS LIVE: And you weren’t by any means.
GRANDERSON: It was just about him. I had to take care of him.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Yeah I hear you.
GRANDERSON: That was the only thing I was thinking about.
[Granderson discusses telling his son about his HIV status just weeks before the ABC News interview.]
GRANDERSON: It went really well.
ABC NEWS LIVE: OK.
GRANDERSON: First thing he said was, ‘wow.’ And he says ‘I’m proud of you, pops.’ So I’m very grateful that God kept me. So I can get him across that finish line, because, that was the only thing I could think of that day.
My hope in doing this, Steve, really is to encourage people to be the hero in their own lives, especially queer Black men like us. You know, who are afraid of finding out or afraid of people thinking of them as less than.
When you saw me covering Wimbledon, I was HIV positive then. Pretty sure I was looking happy. So we can stop this. We can take care of ourselves. We can live healthy, productive lives. We can’t do any of that if we don’t get past the shame to ask for help.
(NEW YORK) — ABC News contributor LZ Granderson is revealing his HIV status, discussing which superstar’s mother inspired him to make that call, and talking about the virus’ disproportionate impact on people of color.
According to the most recent data from the CDC, more than 1.2 million Americans are currently living with HIV.
Thanks to modern medicine, preventing and treating the disease is now possible. However, the stigma attached to the virus persists. In a column for the Los Angeles Times, Granderson reveals that he’s been living with HIV for years.
ABC News’ Steve Osunsami sat down for a conversation with Granderson to hear why he’s speaking out now and how the virus disproportionately affects others.
GRANDERSON: I’ve just told, like, my best friend, yesterday. Told some other close friends yesterday.
ABC NEWS LIVE: It’s like coming out all over again.
GRANDERSON: It was a lot like coming out all over again. And I find myself apologizing a lot.
ABC NEWS LIVE: For?
GRANDERSON: Keeping secrets. I am HIV positive and have been for a long time. I used to hide my pills before the housekeeper shows up.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Wow!
GRANDERSON: In my socks.
ABC NEWS LIVE: You hid your pills in your socks before the housekeeper, because you didn’t want your housekeeper to know?
GRANDERSON: I didn’t want my housekeeper to find out.
ABC NEWS LIVE: You were afraid she would tell someone?
GRANDERSON: I just didn’t want anyone to know.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Yea.
GRANDERSON: My mom didn’t know. Heaven forbid, I have to tell my producer why I need to go to the drugstore now. You know what I mean? Like, I didn’t want any situation in which anyone will be asking me any questions. Like, why do you need to go to the drugstore right now? There were, there were people dying of AIDS in my environment, in my atmosphere.
ABC NEWS LIVE: That you were hearing?
GRANDERSON: So I definitely didn’t feel like I was in a place where I felt strong enough that I could do all of that, plus that. So I kept it to myself. Plus the, the guilt. You know, try to figure out who was it. Why did you do it? Like all these thoughts in my head?
ABC NEWS LIVE: Were you worried you were going to have to share that with people, or people were going to ask or you would need those answers?
GRANDERSON: I was worried I was going to shine a bad light on my community. And it’s killing all of us, but it’s really killing Black people, and it’s killing Black people because we’re afraid to talk about it. We whisper about it. You have queer Black people who are dying. You have heterosexual Black people who are dying and no one’s talking about it. So if you’re not having a conversation and we’re dying in silence, I don’t see a path of joy coming out of that.
[Granderson discussed how Tina Knowles, mother of singer Beyoncé inspired him to reveal his status.]
GRANDERSON: She flew from wherever Beyoncé was to Birmingham, Alabama, to tell Black journalists to get the word out about this virus that is still killing us and especially Black women. So I’m sitting there. And I’m like, she talking to me? I was like, I have to do my part.
ABC NEWS LIVE: When did you learn that you were HIV positive?
GRANDERSON: So, we were in Grand Rapids. I was with my partner, who’s now my husband, and I was getting my hair done. And I started to get these huge of wave of heat. I started to sweat, and then everything got black. And I woke up in the ambulance. Got to the hospital, I’m all hooked up and everything. And the doctors think I’m having a heart attack.
And so my husband’s rushing to the hospital. And they ran a bunch of tests. And the only thing that came back was that I was positive. The thing that went through my mind was the fact that my son was there in the room. And I remember saying to God, ‘I’m not done yet.’
ABC NEWS LIVE: And you weren’t by any means.
GRANDERSON: It was just about him. I had to take care of him.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Yeah I hear you.
GRANDERSON: That was the only thing I was thinking about.
[Granderson discusses telling his son about his HIV status just weeks before the ABC News interview.]
GRANDERSON: It went really well.
ABC NEWS LIVE: OK.
GRANDERSON: First thing he said was, ‘wow.’ And he says ‘I’m proud of you, pops.’ So I’m very grateful that God kept me. So I can get him across that finish line, because, that was the only thing I could think of that day.
My hope in doing this, Steve, really is to encourage people to be the hero in their own lives, especially queer Black men like us. You know, who are afraid of finding out or afraid of people thinking of them as less than.
When you saw me covering Wimbledon, I was HIV positive then. Pretty sure I was looking happy. So we can stop this. We can take care of ourselves. We can live healthy, productive lives. We can’t do any of that if we don’t get past the shame to ask for help.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be underway in one month, and Snoop Dogg is ready to take on his role as a correspondent for NBC Sports. Speaking to Time, he says watching the Olympics was something he began to do as a child.
“Back then we only had so much. It’s not like right now, where you got so many different things you can watch and social media and all that s***. We only had TV,” he says. “There was only one TV in the house, so whatever one member of the family was watching, we were all forced to watch it.”
The Olympics, he adds, were a family favorite that “would take over the whole house whenever it would come on.”
“And it’s special ‘cause you’re seeing athletes for the first time in three, four years and they’re representing the country,” Snoop continues. “So that meant a lot, watching it as a kid.”
His love for the Olympic Games, however, isn’t the only reason he decided to take advantage of the opportunity.
“This is what I do, you know what I’m saying? I love being in front of the people. I love sports. I know what I’m talking about,” he shares. “The network is appealing enough to understand that we deserve each other. So we’re gonna make magic.”
While some may assume the creation of Snoop’s “magic” will include the consumption of cannabis, he says he’s putting that aside to focus on the job.
“I plan on going out there and doing NBC Olympic work. Being clean as a book, clean as the athletes,” Snoop says. “They can test me if they want to. I’m going to be out there doing what I’m supposed to be doing to make sure I bring home the gold. Which is me.”
