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https://www.essence.com/holidays/beauty-stocking-stuffers-under-ten-dollars/

You don’t always need a big Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale to save some cash when holiday shopping. Between the crowds, hosting family, and finding the perfect gifts, the holidays can be the most stressful time of the year. At least you can ease the stress on your wallet and your feet with wonderful beauty gifts that don’t break your bank.

They might be stocking stuffers, but something to add to the skincare or wellness routine beats a lump of coal any day.And lots of little gifts can go a long way. These finds are all under $10, so you can fill those stockings until they’re spilling over with beauty and grooming goodness.

The post 15 Beauty Stocking Stuffers Under $10 appeared first on Essence.

https://nerdist.com/article/e-t-elliott-reunion-commercial/

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. It has the power to reboot franchises on screens big and small. The sheer force of well-placed nostalgia can practically move mountains. Or can–at the very least–get us in our feelings for a minute or two. Holidays are fuel for nostalgia. Big movies like Star Wars come out, playing on our childhood loves, while Christmas commercials prey on our memories of yesteryear. But you can’t exactly blame the companies that use old characters to sell us new things–it works.

Which is why we’re here to admit we’re total suckers for this new commercial from Xfinity. Not only does it feature characters we’ve known and loved for almost 40 years, but it also reunites them in a truly special way. Behold, the reunion between E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and his dear friend Elliott, with Henry Thomas back as the adult version of the beloved character.

We’re not crying, you’re crying!

First of all, this about the last thing we expected to wake up to on Thanksgiving morning. What a pleasant surprise. The special commercial is called “A Holiday Reunion” and works as a sort of mini-sequel to the 1982 Steven Spielberg movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In that film, a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas) befriends an alien from another world and hides him in his suburban home. He calls him E.T. and slowly introduces him to his family: brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton), sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore), and mother Mary (Dee Wallace).

Eventually, the government catches wind of E.T.’s presence on Earth and the little alien escapes and flees back to his home world. His goodbye scene with Elliott and his family ranks up there as one of the more tear-jerking moments in the history of cinema. “I’ll be right here,” E.T. tells Elliott, placing a finger on the young boy.

In “A Holiday Reunion,” an older E.T. comes back to Earth and thinks he’s stumbled on Elliott once again. But it’s actually Elliott’s children, who look a lot like him and Gertie as kids. Henry Thomas comes out of his home, excitedly reuniting with his old friend. (Who’s chopping onions?) The two connect, with E.T. once again welcomed into Elliott’s home. But exactly like before, the alien’s time on Earth is limited.

The commercial is for Xfinity, owned by Comcast, which also owns Universal Pictures–the company that originally brought us E.T. A shortened version appeared on TV, but the full 4-minute version is available online.

“The audience is going to get everything they want out of a sequel without the messy bits that could destroy the beauty of the original and the special place it has in people’s minds and hearts,” Thomas said of the ad, via io9. “It’s really a win-win.” Thomas also said that Spielberg was apparently on board for the commercial, “because the integrity of the story isn’t lost in this retelling.”

At the end of the day, it may be a corporate-branded way of tapping into nostalgia, but it works. Thanks for phoning home again, old friend.

Featured Image: Xfinity

The post E.T. And Elliott Reunite 40 Years Later In A Commercial Sequel appeared first on Nerdist.

https://www.essence.com/fashion/common-talks-the-importance-of-giving-back/

This time of year is often the cheeriest but, for some, it can be a remembrance of what they don’t have. While we are enjoying Thanksgiving and cashing out on Christmas gifts this year, it’s also important to equally give back. “One of the most fulling things that I can do for my life is to be able to give back. Because I feel like I have been blessed and able to pursue so many dreams,” Common told ESSENCE.

Earlier this month, Burlington Coat Factory and entertainer Common continued their long-standing partnership where they kicked off the 13 Annual Burlington Coat Drive with Burlington Stores and Delivering Good in Chicago. Common and Burlingtons’ joint mission is to help people in need stay warm this holiday season by donating a gently worn coat at any Burlington store which will be distributed by local agencies through their partnership with Delivering Good.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – NOVEMBER 13: Common and kids from the Common Ground Foundation attend the 13th Annual Burlington Coat Drive at Burlington on November 13, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images)

Common’s organization, the Common Ground Foundation – which helps underrepresented youth in Chicago, is also a partner. “I think what makes this special is our intention with this partnership is to truly to give back,” he exclaimed. “The fact that Burlington is giving me a platform to give back, in my hometown, and including Common Ground Foundation is really important to me.”

“Our intention with this partnership is to truly to give back.” – Common

To date, more than 2.2 million coats have been donated through this program. “I want other people to experience the dreams that they want. I look at the scope of the land, people deserve good things in life,” concluded Common. With a number of 86k homeless individuals, this partnership was created in hopes to make this season a little better by giving back to the less fortunate.

As far as what the Emmy-Oscar-Grammy winning artist is doing for the holidays. One word, relaxing. “I’m most excited about the holidays to spend time with the fam, going to see some theatre and watching basketball.”

The post Common Talks The Importance Of Giving Back appeared first on Essence.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/renee-elise-goldsberry-on-motherhood-and-working-with-sterling-k-brown-in-waves/

From becoming a bright shining star in Broadway’s Hamilton to breakout in roles in both TV and film, actor Renée Elise Goldsberry is carving an indelible place in Hollywood.

Starring in the upcoming A24 film Waves, Goldsberry plays Catharine, the stepmother of a family slowly falling apart as tragedy strikes and she loses her son Tyler (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) through a violent act that leads to his incarceration and adds further stress on her marriage to husband Ronald (Sterling K. Brown).

Goldsberry also delivered a remarkable performance in the unforgettable story Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the HBO adaptation brought to life with the help of Oprah Winfrey. BGN had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Goldsberry about Waves to discuss the themes of motherhood and her attraction to the script.

Catharine, Waves perfectly embodies how to be a step-parent. Can you speak to how you were able to portray being a loving stepmother to Tyler and Emily, versus what it might have been to be their biological mother?

I relate to Catharine because there was a long period in my own personal life where I questioned whether or not I was going to be able to have children. I read the script and I assumed that she also was wondering, ‘Will I ever have children?’ Then she needs Ronald with these two young kids who desperately need a mother, their biological mother having died when they were very young. So I feel like she feels that they are an answer to her prayers, and I believe that they feel that she is an answer to their prayers. That’s really beautiful. That’s pretty much the extent of it in terms of being a stepmother.

There are many roads to being a mom. She is their mother because of the role that she plays in the family. I think the only reason why it’s relevant in the film is that it just shows how much pain the son is in.

In one scene, we see Tyler essentially reject Catharine and the amount of love that she has for him. Being a mother yourself, was that a difficult moment to tackle?

I have young children, a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old. My assumption is that as children go into adolescence, you have to brace yourself for greater battles. The stakes are higher. There are greater battles ahead, and there’s a possibility of really saying hurtful things. You have to brace yourself. I’m bracing myself for the possibility of that in my future as a parent, and I’m ready to love them anyway. I love the fact that there is absolutely nothing that [Tyler] could throw at her or do that would stop her from being his mom.

You have an extensive body of work in film and television but are perhaps most recognized
for your stage performances. What are the differences in preparation for a Broadway show versus onscreen drama such as Waves?

We have an opportunity to work all together as a cast in the theater. We get to see everyone else’s work because we’re pretty much there most of the time. We have a tremendous amount of information at the beginning when you’re doing theater. We get to tell the story in order, and we get an immediate response from an audience. That’s really the difference. That’s pretty much the only difference in film.

One thing I miss is that I don’t really get to see the genius work that other people are doing until I see the film because I’m not really there. I’m not shooting that day. You have to make some decisions about the emotional journey because you’re probably going to shoot it based upon the location as opposed to in order. But it is lovely in film that our work is preserved. If you didn’t see me [on stage], I just have to tell you that I think it was really good.

Were you immediately attracted to waves after you read the script?

I was immediately attracted to the idea of getting to work with Sterling K. Brown. How quickly can I get to Florida?

[Laughter.]

He’s just a beautiful human being. You can tell that even if you don’t know him. You can see his spirit, and he’s just everything you want him to be. So that was the most attractive thing for me. I’d heard that the filmmaker [Trey Edward Shults] was a genius because everybody I know that saw his first film realized the talent that was there and were so excited about him.

I didn’t know that the world needed to see any other imagery of a young Black man doing something violent. We were all very concerned about that. We spent a lot of time talking about it. Kelvin Harrison, Jr. and the director spent a lot of time creating an authentic character. I’m grateful that they chose to take the risk and cast this film with a Black family in spite of the potential danger of revisiting some stereotypes that we don’t want to see.

What do you hope families will gain from Catharine and Ronald’s marriage and how they treat their children?

A friend of mine saw the film last night. She was really shook as a parent, and she said, “I’m taking from this film that I need to be more mindful of the silences of my children.” I think we need to make sure that children understand that we are not the judge, that we are their advocate, and that we need to give them the room to disappoint us and to fail and to make bad mistakes. We need to communicate to them that my disappointment or frustration from whatever happens is not what you need to worry about.

There are real consequences in this world. This world can be a dangerous place and the world can be very dangerous to you. It is my job as your parent to advocate for you. That is my first job. That is my last job. I hope that parents can work together in their different parenting styles to figure out how to be better.

Also, just in the grieving. [You] don’t know when you marry somebody that you have to be compatible in grieving, and this couple has to figure that out. They have two different styles of dealing with tremendous pain. It seems to me in the end of this film that they’ve learned to stay together and work on it. I hope that’s an example for couples out there that are also dealing with tragedy.

Waves is now playing in select theaters. Everywhere December 6.

The post Renée Elise Goldsberry on Motherhood and Working with Sterling K. Brown in ‘Waves’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.