Get Out wins the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Jordan Peele’s horror film “Get Out” has won the Academy Award for best original screenplay, making Peele the first African-American to win the award.

“Get Out” topped Greta Gerwig for “Lady Bird,” Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor for “The Shape of Water,” Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for “The Big Sick,” and Martin McDonagh for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

“I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible,” Peele said in his acceptance speech. “But I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, people would hear it and people would see it.”

Peele thanked Universal, Jason Blum, the cast and crew, and his wife and mother.

“To everybody who went and saw this movie, everybody who bought a ticket, who told somebody to buy a ticket — thank you!” Peele said.

Backstage, Peele was jubilant as he shared his journey to his first Oscar. “I almost never became a director,” he said. “There was such a shortage of role models.”

He added, “I’m so proud to be a part of a time at the beginning of a movement where I feel like the best films in every genre are being brought to me by my fellow black directors.”

[SOURCE: VARIETY]

Candice Lewis-Carter Wins Figure International Class at 2018 Arnold Classic

In a repeat of 2017, Candice Lewis-Carter of Katy, Texas won the Figure International by besting second-place Cydney Gillon of Douglasville, Ga. Lewis-Carter received the champion’s trophy from Arnold Schwarzenegger and $16,000, a Tony Nowak Official Champions Jackets and congratulations from Catherine Colle of Midway Labs USA and Eric Hillman of Europa Sports.

The remainder of the Figure International top six:

2nd place: Cydney Gillon of Douglasville, Ga.

3rd place:., Heather Dees of Lehi, Utah.

4th place: Michele Silva of Brasil.

5th place: Bojana Vasiljevic of Palm Desert, California.

6th place: Maria Luisa Baeza Diaz of Melrose, Mass.

[SOURCE: Arnold Sports Festival]

William Bonac Wins 30th Arnold Classic

William “The Conqueror” Bonac, a Ghana native now living in the Netherlands, dominated all three rounds of judging in cruising to his first major professional victory. It was the fourth career win for Bonac, who was third at the 2017 Mr. Olympia.

Bonac won the 30th Anniversary Arnold Classic in his first professional appearance on the famed Arnold Classic stage.

Five-time Arnold Classic champion Dexter Jackson of Jacksonville, Fla., the winningest bodybuilder in history with 28 career wins, finished second and defending champion Cedric McMillan of Heath Springs, South Carolina was third.

Bonac received congratulations from Arnold Schwarzenegger, a check for $130,000, a Tony Nowak Official Champions Jacket and the champion’s trophy from Catherine Colle of Midway Labs USA and Eric Hillman of Optimum Nutrition.

Third Place: Cedric McMillan Fourth Place: Roelly Winklaar Fifth Place: Steve Kuclo

[SOURCE: BODYBUILDING.COM]

Philando Castile Charity Covers Entire School District's Lunch Debt

Two years after he was fatally shot by a police officer in Minnesota, Philando Castile is still helping students afford lunch.

A charity created in Castile’s honor has paid off the lunch debt for every student in the 56 schools in the St. Paul Public School District, including the school where Castile worked as a cafeteria supervisor.

“That means no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt,” a charity organizer wrote on the “Philando Feeds the Children” fundraising page.

Castile had worked as a cafeteria supervisor at the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in St. Paul for two years at the time he was killed.

Pam Fergus, an educator who launched the charity, told CNN she delivered a $35,000 check to the St. Paul Public School District this week. The charity, which had an original goal of raising $5,000, now has more than $117,000 in donations, according to the YouCaring page. The funds will continue to pay for student lunches “for years to come,” Fergus wrote in a fundraising update.

Read more: Philando Castile Charity Covers Entire School District's Lunch Debt

Kamala Harris & Yvette Clarke Call For Statue of Shirley Chisholm In U.S. Capitol

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) are sponsoring legislation to put a statue of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, in the U.S. Capitol.

Multiple Democratic senators are already co-sponsoring the measure, including Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Tim Kaine (Va.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is also on board. The bill would direct the Joint Committee on the Library to enter into an agreement to obtain a statue within five years of the bill’s passage.

On the heels of Black History Month and at the beginning of Women’s History Month, Chisholm is perhaps the perfect candidate for the honor. Over her groundbreaking political career, she became the first black candidate for a major party’s presidential nomination and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination. She served seven terms in the House from 1969 to 1983.

Now the question is whether a Republican-controlled Congress will honor this “unbought and unbossed” black woman.

[SOURCE: HUFFPOST]