New this week: 'Justice League,' 'Country Comfort' & scandal
This combination of photos shows promotional art for the Netflix series Country Comfort, debuting on Friday, left, "Zack Snyders Justice League," premiering March 18, center, and Operation Varsity Blues, a documentary about the college admissions scandal, premiering March 17 on Netflix. (Netflix/HBO Max/Netflix via AP)Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. MOVIES— Four years after “Justice League” underwhelmed both critics and audiences, filmmaker Zack Snyder has come back to finish what he started. — Loretta Lynn’s new album is a celebration of women in country music and it features collaborations with Tanya Tucker, Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Margo Price. — Katherine McPhee, of TV’s “American Idol” and “Smash,” plays an aspiring country singer, Bailey, who’s suffered career and personal setbacks in the Netflix series “Country Comfort,” debuting Friday.
Delayed Kennedy Center Honors to be rescheduled for mid-May
(Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)WASHINGTON – Five months after they were postponed because of the coronavirus, the annual Kennedy Center Honors are coming back in May, possibly in a series of small events, organizers announced Wednesday. The centerpiece event for Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts normally happens in December, but it was postponed last year amid the pandemic. But even with COVID-19 vaccines gradually rolling out across the country, Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter knew the usual concert would not be possible in May. “It's normally such a festive event, and I'm sure that will come across.”Brooks is no stranger to the Kennedy Center Honors process. Trump and first lady Melania Trump generally stayed away from Kennedy Center events, but Rutter hopes to get President-elect Joe Biden involved this year.
Michael Apted, director of ‘Up’ documentary series, dies
A representative for the Directors Guild of America said his family informed the organization that he passed Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)Michael Apted, the acclaimed British director of the “Up” documentary series and films as diverse as the Loretta Lynn biopic “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and the James Bond film “The World Is Not Enough,” has died. A representative for the Directors Guild of America said his family informed the organization that he passed Thursday night. Apted served as a researcher on the first film and took over as director seven years later, continuing to check in with the subjects every seven years. “The series was an attempt to do a long view of English society,” Apted told Slant Magazine in 2019.
Charley Pride overcame racial barriers as country music star
And he did it by winning over millions of country music fans. Until the early 1990s, when Cleve Francis came along, Pride was the only Black country singer signed to a major label. “Then it was ‘first Negro country singer;’ then ‘first Black country singer.’ Now I’m the `first African-American country singer.′ That’s about the only thing that’s changed. Throughout his career, he sang positive songs instead of sad ones often associated with country music. Even a country singer,” said country singer Rissi Palmer on Twitter.