Celebrity

Andre Braugher: How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

Published

5 months ago

2023-12-13

Andre Braugher died at 61 and was responsible for some of the show’s funniest moments across its eight seasons.

The police chief at the center of the US sitcom thrived, largely thanks to Captain Raymond Holt, who provided the show’s pounding heart.

Braugher expertly depicted all of Holt’s personality elements, resulting in one of television’s most fully formed and well-rounded characters.

While the actor added heart and humor to the role, his harsh appearance and deadpan delivery endeared him to the show’s legions of fans.

“For me, Captain Holt was the best aspect of that show, bar none,”
Amon Warmann, contributing editor and columnist at Empire magazine, says. “Yes, he could be goofy, like many of the characters, but more than anyone else on the show, he brought the gravitas.”So, when it came time for a scene to hit as hard as needed, and there were several in Brooklyn Nine-Nine where that was the case, you could always count on Andre Braugher to deliver it and have it resonate with audiences.”

Braugher’s ability to keep a straight face while delivering some of the best lines of dialogue was generally applauded, but the rare instances when Captain Holt burst to life will be remembered fondly.

In season four, Holt spends the entire day building a balloon arch for another character’s wedding. Holt becomes deflated after being mocked by some of his coworkers, who think it’s not a good idea and begin popping the balloons.

How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

However, when Rosa, the bride-to-be, comes across the arch in his office by chance, she deems it “magnificent.” “VIN-DI-CA-TION!” shouts Holt, his face flushed with relief and excitement.

This was the scene that many people shared on social media after learning of Braugher’s death.

Captain Holt’s typically expressionless face belied a character of depth and warmth that fans grew to love.
“Holt was a man without expression but never without feeling,” commented Lester Fabiasteven Brathwaite of Entertainment Weekly.

“And he was a wonderfully complicated character, a man full of contradictions.”
He said: “Braugher’s deliciously deadpan delivery as Holt often provided some of the funniest moments throughout the show’s eight seasons, particularly when juxtaposed with the more cartoonish exploits of his cadre of kooky cops.”

Braugher delivered his lines with perfect pronunciation and grammar on all occasions. He insisted on referring to such a mystery as a “who has done this?” rather than a “whodunnit.”

In another incident, his crew realized he had been kidnapped because he used a contraction while on the phone.

How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

His caustic tone was frequently exactly what made a phrase humorous. In the Halloween heist episode, he only used the word “bitch” in the literal sense, referring to a female dog.

Surrounded by a fantastic ensemble cast that wonderfully riffed off each other, the straight-faced Holt found ways to show his friends and colleagues that he cared regularly.

How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

When Terry considers leaving the precinct in the second season, Captain Holt compels him to stay up all night digitizing files – hardly the kind of thing that would influence an employee’s attitude toward their employment.

However, Holt’s motive for compelling him to do so was so that Terry would be forced to reflect on his work memories with his colleagues, making him sentimental and ultimately prompting him to stay.
Although he may not always express his feelings and emotions on the surface, Braugher infuses his lines with comedy, intellect, and heart.

“Andre Braugher had a way of speaking like he loved every weird little clause of a sentence,” Vulture’s Kathryn Van Arendonk stated after learning of the actor’s death.
“Like his voice and gravity could hold more separate thoughts, rhythms, and linguistic turns at once than most people could ever hold.” It was a delight to listen to him.”

However, categorizing him purely as a comic actor may be doing him a disservice. He could also provide seriousness and authority, as Warmann points out, particularly in scenes like the last season when Captain Holt suspends Jake.

Andre Braugher: How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

“The way that conversation comes across, it’s so interesting,” Warmann said, “because Brooklyn Nine-Nine at its heart is a comedy show, but because of performers like Andre Braugher, who had a

Shakespearean background, any time there’s a big speech that needs to be made with gravitas, it could go from comedy and cut right through that and be like, ‘Oh, this is a moment’.”It clicked because you have a performer like Andre Braugher.”

Holt offers a stirring speech explaining why Jake Peralta must be suspended for five months for witness intimidation.
“Do you know what happens when cops are not punished for their mistakes?” “What happens when police are treated as a separate class of citizens above the law?” he wonders.

“It breeds distrust in the community, which means people won’t cooperate with our investigations, testify, or even call us when they’re in danger.” It makes them fear us more than criminals or gangsters. It causes people to regard us as the adversary, which leads to further conflict and distrust.”

It’s worth mentioning, however, that Holt would occasionally fall victim to gay stereotypes, either in jest or to make a point.

In one episode, he tries to get Terry to ride a motorcycle, but Terry refuses since bikes are “death machines.” Instead, he advises Holt to do so.

“Are you saying that my life is less important because I don’t conform to society’s heteronormative, child-centric ideals?” inquires the self-aware police captain.

“Are you really playing the gay card right now?” Terry reacts. “Yas, queen,” Captain Holt says. Rare occasions like this demonstrated Holt’s ability to use humor and snark when warranted.

Few argue that the figure was both creative and influential. “Andre himself was a big factor in that,” Warmann says, “playing.

Captain Holt is a person first, with real ambitions, real desires, a real sort of want to make change for the better, and that’s the sort of thing that comes across long before they start talking about gayness or blackness in any explicit manner.”

And they eventually do it in various episodes because that is a part of who Captain Holt is, but it doesn’t define him in the way it could in other series and other media.”

“That’s partly why Captain Holt resonates with everyone on some level, not just the black man or the gay man,” he concludes, “because he’s a person first.” He’s played that manner and written that way, so the word “groundbreaking” is accurate. I hope more media will study that and draw cues from it because we will have better art.

SOURCE – (BBC)

Celebrity

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Files Motion To Dismiss Some Claims In A Sexual Assault Lawsuit

Published

11 hours ago

2024-04-27

Kiara Grace

AP - VOR News Image

Los Angeles – In response to a complaint from a woman accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual assault, his attorneys have responded. They have submitted a petition to dismiss some claims that were not legally applicable at the time of the claimed incident.

The application submitted in a New York court asserts that Diddy is immune from being sued due to the absence of specific legislation when Joi Dickerson-Deal brought the accusations against him in 1991.

Hollywood Reporter – VOR News Image

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Files Motion To Dismiss Some Claims In A Sexual Assault Lawsuit

The attorneys representing the music entrepreneur are seeking the dismissal of specific allegations made by Dickerson-Deal, including revenge porn and human trafficking, with prejudice.

In a previous legal submission, she alleged that Diddy deliberately administered drugs to her, subsequently took her to her residence, and engaged in sexual assault during a date in Harlem during her time as a 19-year-old university student.

The lawsuit claims that Combs surreptitiously recorded the attack and subsequently distributed it to multiple acquaintances inside the music industry, all without the victim’s awareness. He refuted the accusations, asserting that she was attempting to take advantage of the New York law that temporarily prolonged the period in which legal action could be taken.

Dickerson-Deal’s assertion was made almost thirty years after the supposed wrongdoing, and the New York State Revenge Porn Law was not officially established until 2019, according to Combs’ legal team.

In addition, his legal representatives highlighted several additional laws, such as the New York Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Law, enacted in 2007.

Page Six – VOR News Image

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Files Motion To Dismiss Some Claims In A Sexual Assault Lawsuit

The standard practice of the Associated Press is to refrain from disclosing the identities of those who claim to have experienced sexual abuse unless they choose to make their allegations public, as Dickerson has done.

Recently, federal police conducted raids on Combs’ houses in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a sex trafficking investigation. The criminal probe represents a significant increase in the examination of Combs, who has faced multiple recent lawsuits regarding sexual assault.

Combs resolved a case the day after it was filed in November, in which his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, accused him of sexual abuse, including rape, over several years. The lawsuit alleges that he coerced her into engaging in sexual acts with male escorts as he recorded the encounters.

In February, a music producer initiated legal proceedings claiming that Combs exerted undue influence on him to engage in the act of soliciting prostitutes and coerced him into engaging in sexual activities with them.

The Mirror – VOR News Image

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Files Motion To Dismiss Some Claims In A Sexual Assault Lawsuit

One of the individuals who accused Combs was a lady who alleged that he sexually assaulted her twenty years ago when she was seventeen.

Combs and his legal representatives have refuted all the accusations made in the cases.

SOURCE – (AP)

News

Rapper in Iran Sentenced to Death For Criticizing Regime

Published

1 day ago

2024-04-26

Geoff Thomas

Rapper in Iran Sentenced to Death For Criticizing Regime

A rapper in Iran who rose to prominence for his rhymes about Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022 and criticism of the Islamic Republic has been sentenced to death, his lawyer and rights campaigners said Thursday.

The death sentence handed down to 33-year-old metal shop worker Toomaj Salehi remains unclear, as even Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and judiciary have yet to formally announce it.

However, the announcement attracted immediate worldwide criticism from US and UN experts, who saw it as a symptom of Tehran’s ongoing assault on all dissent following years of large rallies in the country.

“Art must be allowed to criticize, provoke, and push the boundaries in any society,” a panel of United Nations independent experts on Iran said in a statement Thursday.

The news broke on Wednesday, following a report by Iran’s reformist The Shargh newspaper reported that Salehi had been sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in Isfahan, a key Iranian city recently attacked by an apparent Israeli attack. Closed-door sessions, secret evidence, and scant rights for people on trial are common in Iran’s revolutionary courts.

Rapper to Appeal Sentence

Amir Raisian, Salehi’s lawyer, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had received notice of the death sentence against his client. Raisian said he intended to seek an appeal.

Salehi’s case arises from Amini’s death in 2022, following her arrest by police for not wearing a hijab to their liking. According to United Nations investigators, Iran was responsible for Amini’s death and forcefully suppressed mostly peaceful rallies during a months-long security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and jailed over 22,000 others.

Salehi rapped about Amini in one YouTube video, saying, “Someone’s crime was dancing with her hair in the wind.”

In another lyric, he prophesies the end of Iran’s theocracy. “Your entire past is dark, the government that sucked the light out of your eyes. We begin at the base of the pyramid and work our way up. This is the year of failure after forty-four years in power.”

His other songs were obscene, criticizing the all-volunteer Basij component of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and mentioning Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Salehi was first sentenced to six years in prison, but he was released after Iran’s Supreme Court returned the case to the lower court due to irregularities in his original sentence.

Released on Bond

Salehi was released on bond, but was arrested again in November after claiming in a video message that he had been tortured following his detention in October 2022. At the time, state media aired a video of him blindfolded and apologizing for his statements, which were most likely uttered under duress.

Iran’s judiciary refused to acknowledge the death sentence, despite IRNA referring to “reports” that he had received it.

A death sentence based on the reversal of a lesser sentence is exceedingly unprecedented in Iran, presumably indicating how seriously Iran’s theocracy took Salehi’s statements. It also comes after other journalists, activists, and singers have been targeted after the “Women, Life, and Freedom” protests against Amini.

An Iranian artist, who received a Grammy presented by US first lady Jill Biden, was condemned to more than three years in prison for his hymn supporting the 2022 protests Activists quickly denounced the rappers sentence.

“This grotesque manipulation of the judicial process aims to silence dissent,” Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran stated. “Toomaj’s detention arises from his public opposition to state tyranny. It is critical that supporters of free speech and dissent come together to demand his immediate release.”

Washington criticized the sentencing as well.

“This is just another example of the Iranian regime’s horrific and pervasive human rights abuses,” said State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel on Wednesday. “We once again condemn the Iranian regime’s … use of the death sentence as a tool to suppress people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Music

Police Say There Was No Foul Play in Mandisa’s Death

Published

2 days ago

2024-04-26

Geoff Thomas

The Franklin police department in Tennessee has provided an update on the death of Christian singer and former “American Idol” contestant Mandisa, who died last week.

Mandisa, whose full name is Mandisa Hundley, was discovered dead in her Nashville home on April 18, according to a statement on the artist’s official Facebook page. She was 47.

According to a post on X, the program formerly known as Twitter, the Franklin police department stated that there is currently no evidence that Mandisa’s death was the result of suspicious or criminal conduct.

“The Franklin Police Department sends its condolences to Hundley’s family, friends, and fans,” the department said on X.

Mandisa rose to notoriety

K-Love, a Christian music station, was the first to announce the artist’s death. Mandisa rose to notoriety after standing firm in the face of criticism from “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell during season five, according to K-Love.

After finishing in the Top 10 on “American Idol,” she released her debut album, “True Beauty,” in 2007.

She began her singing career with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African American vocal group, while attending Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, according to K-Love. After her stint on “American Idol,” she collaborated with various musicians, including TobyMac, Matthew West, Michael W. Smith, and Kirk Franklin.

According to her website, She had published five full-length albums throughout the course of her two-decade career, including one Christmas album. Her hit album “Overcomer” won her a Grammy in 2014 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.

K-Love said that she has great relationships with her fellow singers, including TobyMac.

“Since the first day I met Mandisa, she has been nothing but original and courageous,” Toby told K-Love in a statement. “My touring family benefits from her presence. She sincerely encourages each performer on stage and every crew member behind the scenes. In a single word, I would describe her as one of the most authentic persons I have ever met. Her passion desires to help others.”