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Eddie Murphy
LOS ANGELES -- Eddie Murphy will be inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame this month.
The NAACP announced Thursday that Murphy will be inducted during the March 27 ceremony, which will air on CBS. The actor-comedian will be presented the award by his longtime friend and "Coming 2 America" co-star Arsenio Hall.
The hall of fame induction is bestowed on an individual who is viewed as a pioneer in their respective field and whose influence shaped the "profession for generations to come."
Previous inductees include Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Spike Lee, Ray Charles and Sidney Poitier. The most recent honorees to be inducted were Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Paris Barclay in 2014.
"To this day, Eddie Murphy's work continues to bring joy and laughter to individuals around the world, and he is an amazing example of Black excellence, creativity, and artistry," said Derrick Johnson, the president and CEO of the NAACP.
Murphy began his career as a stand-up comic while a teenager and eventually joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live."
He starred in the box office hit "48 Hours" and made his mark in a slew of films such as "Beverly Hills Cop," "Coming to America," "The Nutty Professor," "Dr. Dolittle" and "Dolemite Is My Name." His latest film "Coming 2 America" released on Amazon last week.
Soleil Moon Frye
NEW YORK -- One thing to understand about Soleil Moon Frye is that she is a historian of her life.
While many people may have saved diaries from their past, Frye can do people one better. She has diaries, videos and voicemails. It's all documented and recorded.
Frye says occasionally over the years she would pick up a diary and "skim through" and "then put it back." She stashes her keepsakes away until she's ready, sometimes decades later, with fresh eyes and a clear head.
Such is the case with "Kid 90," a new documentary available on Hulu.
Soleil, now 44, who is best-known for playing the plucky, mismatched star of "Punky Brewster," only a few years ago felt a pull to open the vault to her teen years -- coming of age in the 1990s in Los Angeles and then moving to New York for college.
She knew she had enough for a documentary and at first she didn't want to be in it at all.
"When I started the doc, it wasn't meant to be about me. I tried to make it about everybody but me," she said in a recent interview.
When watching, viewers will see she really did know everybody. It's a who's-who of young Hollywood at the time. There's Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Connelly, Brian Austin Green, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Jenny Lewis and even Charlie Sheen.
At one point Frye listens to a voicemail from a sweet-sounding Mark Wahlberg and she remarks she's nervous to call him back.
Frye cherishes watching them all just being regular kids in the days before TMZ, camera phones and social media.
There's also pain. Frye's friend group experienced an extraordinary amount of loss. She was close with both actors Justin Pierce and Jonathan Brandis, who each died by suicide, and Harold Hunter who died from a cocaine-induced heart attack.
Frye says this process of looking back led to a real discovery of self-love. She's embracing her past, present and looking forward to the future.
A " Punky Brewster " revival dropped its first season on Peacock in February. Frye plays a grown-up Brewster who is a single mom. (Freddie Prinze Jr. plays her ex-husband.) She's still as sunny as she was as a kid. Her longtime BFF, Cherie Johnson, is back, too.
"I love Punky so much," said Frye. "She is the superpower that I lean into."
As for the future, Frye has more documentaries planned, and naturally has material she's saved already.
Peter Max
A New Jersey appeals court on Thursday ruled against famed pop artist Peter Max in a dispute over millions of dollars' worth of his works that were damaged in a warehouse during Superstorm Sandy.
The German-born Max, whose distinctive psychedelic drawings have been widely reproduced on posters and postage stamps and exhibited in museums since the 1960s, has claimed an arbitrator's $48 million insurance award was too low.
Thousands of his paintings, posters and other works were damaged at a warehouse in Lyndhurst in northern New Jersey when Superstorm Sandy hit the area in late October 2012, according to court documents.
When Max and his insurers, Great American Security and Lloyds, couldn't agree on a cost for the damages, a former New Jersey Supreme Court justice was designated to resolve the dispute.
Max and his associated companies allege the justice incorrectly calculated the worth of the damaged works by applying a discount to some entire categories, including posters.
By The Associated Press