O’Brien to Host This Weekend’s Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day Rally

Soledad O’Brien is rallying for the planet…

The 48-year-old half-Cuban American broadcast journalist is set to host the free Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day rally alongside will.i.am.

Soledad O’Brien

The all-day Earth Day rally and concert will take place on Saturday, April 18 at the National Mall from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm ET near the Washington Monument.

Usher, Mary J. Blige, Gwen Stefani, Common and Train are scheduled to perform during the event.

Earth Day organizers also are announcing plans with developers of the popular Angry Birds game to create a new in-game experience about climate change. Angry Birds has been downloaded 2.8 billion times worldwide. The game’s climate change campaign will coincide with the United Nations General Assembly in September as world leaders tackle sustainability goals.

Earth Day Network president Kathleen Rogers says the game and celebrity power will help more people focus on solving climate change.

The rally is a joint initiative with the Global Poverty Project to end extreme poverty and coincides with meetings at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington. Top officials from the World Bank and United Nations are expected to speak at the rally.

Eliminating poverty will require solving climate change, Rogers said. So advocates on both issues are collaborating to push for sustainable international development.

“Whether it’s the big migrations we expect to see or soil depletion or emptying the oceans, loss of species, loss of timberland — all these things are creating poverty at the same time that they are also creating climate change issues,” Rogers said.

While Earth Day is officially on April 22, the Saturday rally will ask participants to commit to making environmentally friendly “acts of green” this year. Organizers also are asking attendees to sign petitions for a U.N. conference on climate change planned for Paris in December.

Daddy Yankee’s “Born to Rule” Appears on HBO’s “Game of Thrones” Mixtape

Daddy Yankee has some serious game

The 37-year-old Puerto Rican reggaeton singer-songwriter has provided a track to HBO’s Game of Thrones mixtape, which has been released in preparation for the fantasy show’s season 4 debut.

Daddy Yankee

Daddy Yankee’s “Born to Rule” appears as the fifth single on the 10-track mixtape.

In addition to Daddy Yankee, Catch The Throne: The Mixtape includes tracks from Wale, Big Boi, Common, Snow Tha Product, Bodega Bamz and Magazeen.

Catch the Throne: The Mixtape

The release from Launch Point Records features songs inspired by the storylines of the show’s first three seasons.

It’s available for download at www.soundcloud.com/catchthethron.

Game of Thrones returns to HBO April 6 at 9:00 pm ET.

Here’s the complete track list:

01 Big Boi: “Mother of Dragons”
02 Magazeen: “Iron Throne”
03 Bodega Bamz: “Win or Die”
04 Kilo Kish: “Magical Reality”
05 Daddy Yankee: “Born to Rule”
06 Dominik Omega: “Arya’s Prayer”
07 Dee Goodz: “The Parallel”
08 Snow tha Product: “Fire”
09 Common: “The Ladder”
10 Wale: “King Slayer”

Ferrera to Star in the Relationship Drama “X/Y”

America Fererra didn’t have to go far to audition (and land) for her latest role…

The 28-year-old Honduran-American actress and former Ugly Betty star has landed a role in her husband Ryan Piers Williams’ latest film X/Y.

America Ferrera

The writer-filmmaker previously directed his wife in 2010’s The Dry Land, a film that earned Ferrera an Imagen Award nomination for best actress.

X/Y, which is being called a relationship drama, will take a look inside the lives and minds of an interconnected group of friends in New York City. The character-driven film explores the challenges people face in communicating and connecting.

In addition to starring Ferrera and Williams, the film stars Melonie Diaz, Jon Paul Phillips, Dree Hemingway, Adam Rapp, Ann Dowd and Common.

Production on the film has already begun in New York.

Ferrera will next be seen in Diego Luna’s Chavez, a biopic about labor leader and civil right advocate Cesar Chavez.

 

Saldaña to Announce This Season’s Spirit Award Nominees

“And the nominees are…” That’s a line Zoë Saldaña will be repeating several times in the near future…

The 34-year-old half-Puerto Rican & half-Dominican American actress, who was recently named to Vogue’s 2012 Best Dressed list, will be announcing the nominees for the 2013 Spirit Awards on Tuesday, November 27.

Zoe Saldana

Saldaña will be joined by Anna Kendrick and Common at the special nominee announcement event at the W Hollywood.

“Anna, Zoe and Common have become an integral part of the Film Independent family and we are honored to have them join us for this big moment to announce and celebrate the best independent artists of the year,” said Film Independent’s Sean McManus.

Categories for the Spirit Awards include Best Feature, Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay, Best Director, Best Screenplay, John Cassavetes Award (given to the best feature made for a budget under $500,000), Best Male Lead, Best Female Lead, Best Supporting Male, Best Supporting Female, Best Cinematography, Best International Film, Best Documentary and the Robert Altman Award.

In addition, there will be special Filmmaker Grants prizes that include the Someone to Watch Award, Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award, Piaget Producers Award and the Jameson FIND Your Audience Award.

Winners of the awards will be revealed on February 23 next year at a ceremony in Santa Monica that will air later that evening at 10 P.M. ET/PT on IFC.

Saldana, who has previously served as a presenter at past Spirit Awards events, will next appear in the highly-anticipated film Star Trek Into Darkness.