August 2021 Entertainment News Round-Up Super Quiz

NASA footage of the historic Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969, with footage of the 1981 launch countdown of the Columbia space shuttle, and the MTV flag, were the first images to appear on MTV when it launched, on Aug 1, 1981. The moon landing images were shown right before airing the then music station's first music video - the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star."

MTV Moon Person visits NASA

On Sunday, Aug 1, 2021, MTV celebrated its 40th anniversary by revealing a large-scale "Moon Person" during a ceremony at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. In an interview with The Associated Press, MTV Entertainment President and CEO Chris McCarthy said space travel imagery fits well with its young audience's spirit.

Rebel Wilson shared an early glimpse of her forthcoming film Senior Year, in which she dressed like Britney Spears in the music video for the 1999 hit “(You Drive Me) Crazy.”

Rebel Wilson’s Senior Year Facts

Netflix’s Senior Year stars Rebel Wilson as a cheerleader who attempts to reclaim her high-school life after being in a coma for 20 years. The film is due in 2022.

While written and originally recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, “Respect” became a signature hit for the late Soul-Queen Aretha Franklin, who covered a rearranged version of the song in 1967.

Respect News Facts

“Respect,” a definitive Aretha Franklin-sanctioned biopic starring Jennifer Hudson, opens Friday, Aug 13, 2021. The film traces Franklin’s life from age 10 through 29 when she was already a global icon. Watch the trailer.

“Free Guy” is an action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds as a background character in a GTA-like videogame. The movie, released Aug. 13, 2021, opened better than expected over the weekend, collecting an estimated $28.4 million in ticket sales. On Saturday, Aug. 14, Reynolds announced that Disney (which owns 20th Century Studios) already wants a sequel. Watch the trailer.

Kanye West’s 10th studio album is titled Donda, after West’s late mother, Dr. Donda C. West, a professor of English at Clark Atlanta University and the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University, until retiring to serve as his manager. She died in 2007, at the age of 58, after undergoing a cosmetic procedure.

Donda News Fact

Universal Music Group unexpectedly released Donda, Kanye West’s 10th studio album, on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. West said they released the album without his approval, adding on an Instagram post, “THEY BLOCKED JAIL 2 FROM BEING ON THE ALBUM.” Listen to Jail Pt. 2 on YouTube.

Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world's largest music company, with artists such as Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, The Killers, The Weeknd, Kanye West, and the Rolling Stones.

UMG-Aerosmith News Fact

Aerosmith and Universal Music Group (UMG) announced that they signed a global alliance deal on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2021, moving the entire Aerosmith recorded music catalog to UMG ahead of the band's 50th anniversary and UMG's IPO in September.

Nicole Ari Parker (pictured) is known for starring in the acclaimed series Empire and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. She also appeared in this Pine-Sol cleaner commercial.

Sex and the City News Fact

Nicole Ari Parker has been billed as the fourth member of the Sex and the City reboot since Kim Cattrall will not appear in the new series “And Just Like That…”. According to the "Mail on Sunday" Aug. 21, 2021, report, Ari Parker, 50, will play Carrie Bradshaw’s new best friend, documentary-maker Lisa Todd Wexley.

Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Rings series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth — thousands of years before the events of the Lord of the Rings films and the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien on which they were based.

Amazon’s Lord of the Ring Facts:

Amazon purchased the television rights to The Lord of the Rings for nearly $250 million in 2017. Subsequently, the studio made a five-season production commitment, worth around $1 billion - the most expensive TV series ever installed. The Lord of the Rings series will premiere on Prime Video on Sep 2, 2022.

"Jeopardy!" Executive producer Mike Richards hosted 31 episodes of Beauty and the Geek between the years 2006 and 2008. He was also the host of other game shows such as 2008’s High School Reunion, 2012’s The Pyramid,  and 2017’s Divided.

Mike Richards "Jeopardy!" News Fact

After weeks of guest hosts on “Jeopardy!” following the death of Alex Trebek, the daily syndicated quiz show chose its executive producer, Mike Richards, as the successor to the late legendary host, in a statement made Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Richards stepped down two days later, after a report of past demeaning comments he had made about women and others on a podcast. By Aug. 31, Richards stepped down as producer of "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune."

Mayim Bialik "Jeopardy!" News Fact

Sony also named “Big Bang Theory” actor and actual scientist Mayim Bialik as host for “Jeopardy!” prime-time and spinoff series, including “Jeopardy! National College Championship.”The prime-time ABC show will feature 15 colleges from across the country competing over two weeks.

On Aug. 23, 2021, Sony Pictures Television announced that Bialik would also guest-host the daily quiz show for three weeks of episodes. “Jeopardy!” returns for its 38th season on Sept. 13.

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are hosting NBC's "Family Game Fight" (Wednesdays, 9 EDT/PDT), which premiered on Aug. 2021, right after the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

Family Game Fight News Facts

In their first TV collaboration, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, who wed in 2013, host and compete against each other as members of dueling foursomes compete for a chance to win $100,000. In the competition, contestants can be hit in the face with a sweet treat in "Pie Rollers" or punished with a “Brain Freeze.” The show is inspired by the couple’s 2019 appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Ed Asner is the most honored male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, having won seven. He is also the most nominated actor for the Emmys, with 17 nominations - a tie-in with Michael J. Fox. Asner won five of his Emmys for portraying Lou Grant (three in the comedy series "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and two on its dramatic spin-off "Lou Grant"). His other Emmys were for "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976) and "Roots" (1977).

Ed Asner News Fact

Ed Asner died on Sunday, Aug 29, 2021, at age 91. His family confirmed the death on the actor's Twitter feed, writing, "We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully. Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight, dad. We love you."

The character English actor Dominic West played on HBO’s The Wire was named Jimmy McNulty. He played Noah Solloway on Showtime’s The Affair, but soon you’ll know him as no other than Prince Charles on Netflix’s The Crown.

The Crown Season 5 News Facts

On Aug. 17, 2021, Netflix released the first photos of Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Dominic West as Prince Charles for Season 5 of The Crown. Also appearing in the season will be Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II and Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip. Season 5 of The Crown is expected to stream no sooner than 2022.

John Lyndon is best known as the Sex Pistol’s frontman, Johnny Rotten.

Sex Pistols News Fact

A UK high judge ruled Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, that Director Danny Boyle’s (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) Disney-backed “Pistol” series can feature music by the Sex Pistols. The series is based on a memoir by Sex Pistols’ guitarist Steve Jones. The decision comes after former frontman John Lydon refused to release the songs’ rights, expressing concerns the series would show him negatively. The judge ruled that the other two band members were entitled to invoke “majority voting rules,” which the band agreement outlined. The six-part drama is due to air in 2022.

“The Beautiful Collection: Prince’s Custom Shoes” at Paisley Park exhibits more than 300 pairs of the artist’s high heel shoes. Visits to “The Beautiful Collection,” a limited-run exhibition that opened to the public in July 2021 as part of the more extensive tour of Paisley Park, are kept to 15 minutes.

The Everly Brothers were Don and Phil Everly.

Everly Brothers News Fact

While Phil died of pulmonary disease at the age of 74, on January 3, 2014, Don Everly, the last surviving member of the Everly Brothers, passed away at his home in Nashville on Saturday, Aug 21, 2021. He was 84.

Kunta Kinte is a character in the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. Haley based Kunta Kinte on one of his ancestors: a Gambian man born in 1750, enslaved and taken to America, who died in 1822. “Roots” earned Haley a Pulitzer Prize and was turned into a TV miniseries watched by a record-setting 130 million people in 1977.

Alex Haley News Fact

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, Alex Haley’s legacy is being invoked at the renovated Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center, which opened Friday, Aug 13, 2021. Visitors are welcome to view a short documentary film, visit a galley that includes a life-size replica of a slave ship, and tour the boyhood home of Alex Haley.

Ten new works by Banksy appeared in the coastal towns of Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England over the week ending Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. The artist’s website has depicted images of the works under the title "A Great British Spraycation," a play on the word staycation.

Star Wars: Visions is a Star Wars Japanese anime anthology series scheduled for release on Disney+ on Sept. 22, 2021. The series includes nine short films produced by six Japanese animation studios, each telling their original stories based on the Star Wars universe.

Star Wars: Visions News Fact

Disney+ has released the trailer and unveiled the voice casts for Star Wars: Visions on Aug.17, 2021. Lucy Liu, Neil Patrick Harris, George Takei, Alison Brie, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are among the English voice cast for the series, which has an original Japanese soundtrack. Watch the trailer.

Demi Lovato celebrated her 29th birthday on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021, with a beach vacation in the Maldives, and shared a white one-piece swimsuit photoshoot of the occasion on her Instagram account.

Madonna celebrated her 64th birthday on Aug. 16, 2022.

Madonna Bonus Fact

Madonna announced a partnership with Warner Music Group that will see her entire catalog reissued beginning in 2022, marking the 40th anniversary of her recording career. Madonna will "personally curate expansive deluxe editions for many of her landmark albums," WMG said.