Free Republic

In “Bridgerton,” the new Shonda Rhimes period drama on Netflix, the lords and ladies of early 19th century Britain are depicted as Black as well as White. Why? Washington Post television critic Hank Stuever explains it this way: “A Black character stops to explain, grandly, how and why this society came to be integrated. (Answer: because the queen is a person of color.) Not only does it not make much sense, but it seems like an unnecessary wrench thrown into a completely sensible and revisionary romp: People of color are here because they should have been here all along. Isn’t...

Following weeks of speculation, outgoing ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey is officially joining Netflix in a senior leadership role as Vice President of Original Content, reporting to Cindy Holland, Vice President of Original Content. She is expected to start in February. In this newly created role, Dungey will partner with Holland in setting strategy for Netflix’s original series and will oversee a large and key portion of the slate, including some of the company’s overall deals with such top writer-producers as Shonda Rhimes, Jenji Kohan, Kenya Barris, Steven DeKnight, Marti Noxon, as well as Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground...

Winfrey sat down with Reese Witherspoon, Kathleen Kennedy, Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, Nina Shaw, Tracee Ellis Ross and producer Shonda Rhimes to discuss the impact their campaign has had in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Among the topics discussed during a CBS Sunday Morning segment hosted by Oprah Winfrey on the Time's Up initiative was director and accused sexual predator Woody Allen. Winfrey sat down with Reese Witherspoon, Kathleen Kennedy, Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, attorney Nina Shaw, Tracee Ellis Ross and producer Shonda Rhimes to discuss the impact their campaign has had in the wake of the Harvey...

As expected, stars of film and television blacked out the red carpet of the Golden Globes on Sunday. Women and men across the industry wore black in support of the #MeToo movement and gender equality in light of the recent wave of Hollywood sexual harassment allegations. Many on the carpet also wore pins supporting Time’s Up, an initiative recently founded by 300 prominent women in entertainment to fight harassment and abuse in the workplace. The group, led by stars like Reese Witherspoon, Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington and America Ferrera, was the one to organize the all-black carpet and took...

Whether you like it or not, the Colin Kaepernick kneeling movement isn’t stopping anytime soon. Shonda Rhimes posted a photo of her, Ellen Pompeo, Jesse Williams and other members of the Grey’s Anatomy cast taking a knee while filming their 300th episode. The photo included the caption “…and we took a knee in solidarity of racial justice” to support the long list of NFL teams that have been doing the same over the weekend. The Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, and a long list of other teams have been making headlines for taking a knee, linking arms or doing both prior...

If you ever want to know what liberal Hollywood really thinks, just watch a Shonda Rhimes show. In about every other episode she has characters going off on thinly veiled, self-righteous liberal monologues. Tonight, ABC’s Scandal had two separate characters rant about "white men" and "country people." For those who aren’t unfamiliar with Scandal, GOP presidential primary candidate Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry) is a character intended to spoof Donald Trump. The similarities in this particular show are endless: The opposing campaigns despair that “no matter what he does America loves him,” an ex-wife claims he raped her, he’s asked to...