Erik Estrada Co-Hosting This Weekend’s Hollywood Christmas Parade

Erik Estrada is helping people get in the holiday spirit, Hollywood style.

The 74-year-old Puerto Rican actor and former CHiPs star is serving as the co-host of this year’s Hollywood Christmas Parade, a grand Hollywood tradition will kick off at 6:00 pm on Sunday and winds through the streets of the movie capital.

Erik EstradaEstrada, co-hosting the parade with Dean Cain, will be joined by Montel Williams, Laura McKenzie and Elizabeth Stanton.

Pre-parade entertainment will include the Village People, pop-opera singer Anna Azerli, and The Grinch. Parade performers will include the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and California Springs Rhythmic Gymnastics.

Joining them are Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, dancer-singer Paula Abdul, singer Dwight Yoakum, radio host Kerri Kasem, pop duo Aly & AJ and actors Chris Kattan, Craig Robinson, Ernie Hudson, Brandon Routh, Ming-Na Wen, Denise Richards and Tatyana Ali.

Overall, the 3.2-mile route will showcase 90 celebrities and VIPs, 14 pre-parade and parade performers, 10 bands, six four-story-high character balloons, three floats, 39 movie cars and eight novelty vehicles. The show ends with an appearance by Santa Claus and his reindeer.

The parade supports Marine Toys for Tots. The event starts at Orange Street and Hollywood Boulevard, traveling east on Hollywood Boulevard to Vine Street, south on Vine Street to Sunset Boulevard and then west on Sunset, back to Orange.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Paris D. Davis, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in March, nearly 60 years after being nominated for his heroism during the Vietnam War, will be the grand marshal. The 84-year-old Davis was one of the first Black officers to serve in the Army’s elite Green Berets, recognized for the rescue of two severely injured soldiers during an intense battle in the Vietnam War.

Local marching bands taking part will include the Los Angeles Police Emerald Society Pipe and Drums; the Oaxaca Philharmonic Band of Los Angeles; the Golden Valley High School Band of San Clarita; the PAVA World Traditional Korean Band of Los Angeles; the Compton High School Band; and the Los Angeles Catholic Schools Band of Torrance.

The parade has been held every year since 1928, except from 1942 to 1944, when World War II broke out, and in 2020, when it was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was first held in 1928, then known as the “Santa Claus Lane Parade.” Comedian Joe E. Brown was the first grand marshal in 1932, a role later filled by Bob Hope, Gene Autry, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, among others.

The parade will be rebroadcast on December 15 at 8:00 pm on The CW Network.

Peter Gadiot to Star on Season Two of NBC’s “Quantum Leap”

Peter Gadiot is taking a leap

The 36-year-old half-Mexican actor and Queen of the South star and Eliza Taylor have been named series regulars for the upcoming second season of Quantum LeapNBC’s reboot of the popular 1990s sci-fi drama starring Raymond Lee. Both deals closed before the strikes began.

Peter GadiotPer the Season 1 logline: it’s “been 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.”

Gadiot portrays Tom Westfall, a U.S. Army Officer, former special forces, who is now high up in Army Intelligence.

Taylor will play Hannah Carson, a complex young woman who may be more than she appears.

In addition to Lee, Quantum Leap stars Ernie Hudson, Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park and Nanrisa Lee.

Martin Gero serves as executive producer along with Dean Georgaris, Don Bellisario, Deborah Pratt, Chris Grismer, Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt.

Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, produces in association with I Have an Idea! Entertainment, Belisarius Productions and Quinn’s House Productions.

Season 2 of Quantum Leap premieres on October 4 on NBC, with episodes streaming the next day after airing on Peacock.

Sheila E to Appear on Season 3 of BET+’s Series “The Family Business”

Sheila E is joining the family business

The 63-year-old half-Mexican American percussionist, singer, author, and actress has joined the cast for Season 3 of Carl Weber’s BET+ series The Family Business.

Sheila E.

Trailer Released for Orrantia’s New Film “God’s Not Dead 2”

Hayley Orrantia’s career’s not dead… It’s booming.

A new trailer has been released for the sequel to God’s Not Dead, the faith-based film starring the 21-year-old Mexican-American actress/singer.

Hayley Orrantia

The original film, released last year, earned more than $60 million on a budget of $2 million.

God’s Not Dead 2 stars Melissa Joan Hart as a school teacher who ends up in a lawsuit for answering a student’s question about the similarities between Jesus’ teachings to those of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

In addition to Orrantia and Hart, the film also stars Ernie HudsonJesse Metcalfe, PureFlix CEO David A.R. White, Sadie RobertsonRobin GivensMaria Canals-Barrera and the late Fred Thompson in one of his final film appearances star alongside cameos by Pat Boone and Ray Wise.

It will be released on April 1, 2016.