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Viola Davis Responds to Criticism of ‘First Lady’ Michelle Obama Portrayal: ‘Critics Absolutely Serve No Purpose’

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Viola Davis has responded to critics of her portrayal of Michelle Obama in Showtime’s “The First Lady,” admitting that “not everything is going to be an awards-worthy performance.”
In an interview with BBC News to promote her new memoir, “Finding Me,” the Oscar, Tony and Emmy-winning actor spoke candidly about her turn as the former First Lady, which drew barbs from audiences and critics for Davis’ take on Obama’s facial expressions and pursed lips.
Davis said it was “incredibly hurtful when people say negative things about your work.”
“How do you move on from the hurt, from failure?” she said. “But you have to. Not everything is going to be an awards-worthy performance.”
Davis also told the BBC: “Critics absolutely serve no purpose. And I’m not saying that to be nasty, either.
“They always feel like they’re telling you something that you don’t know,” she continued. “Somehow that you’re living a life that you’re surrounded by people who lie to you and ‘I’m going to be the person that leans in and tells you the truth,’ so it gives them an opportunity to be cruel to you. But ultimately I feel like it is my job as a leader to make bold choices. Win or fail it is my duty to do that.”
Davis, one can argue, had the toughest job of the three leads in the Susanne Bier-directed series, as Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson were both portraying White House matriarchs from decades back. Pfeiffer played Betty Ford, who served as First Lady from 1974 to 1977 and who died in 2005, and Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt, who was First Lady between 1933 and 1945, and who died in 1962.
Davis, who said she hasn’t had any personal contact with Obama, noted that playing a globally recognized contemporary figure of Obama’s ilk was “almost possible”: “Either you’re doing too much, or not enough,” she said.
The actor won the best supporting actress Oscar in 2017 for her performance in Denzel Washington’s “Fences,” and has been nominated for turns in “Doubt,” “The Help” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Davis is also a two-time Tony winner for “King Hedley II” and “Fences” (the play upon which Washington’s movie was based). In 2015, she won an Emmy for “How to Get Away With Murder.”
Source: variety.com
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Pragyia rider gets 3 months prison term for biting Police Assistant

A 24-year-old tricycle (Pragyia) rider, has been jailed three months by the Nkawie Circuit Court in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region for biting a Community Police Assistant (CPA) at Nkawie.
Abdul Aziz pleaded guilty to the charge of negligently causing harm and was convicted on his own plea.
Police Inspector Kwaku Frimpong, prosecuting told the court presided by Mr Robert Addo that, complainants in the case were officers from the Nkawie Divisional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.
He said on September 3, at about 8:40am, the complainants led by Chief Inspector Abedi Larbi, were on their official patrol duty to ensure safety at Nkawie township and met the convict, who was in-charge of a Pragya tricycle with registration number M-25-A-3722.
He explained that, after a careful inspection, it was detected that the convict was without licence and other required documents, so Alhassan Seidu, the CPA, was instructed to lead him to the office for the next action.
On their way to the office, the convict took a different direction, so the CPA directed him to take the right route to the police station, but he disobeyed and attacked the CPA, resulting in a struggle between them.
In the process the convict bit the CPA on the chest, so he shouted for help and some nearby youth rushed to the scene and helped him to arrest the convict.
In his caution statement, he admitted the offence and after further investigations he was charged and brought before the court. –GNA
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Place all 54,985 affected BECE candidates in schools and publish final outcome – NPP urges govt

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the government to place all 54,985 candidates affected by the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placement exercise in schools and publish the final outcome.
The party says the government must ensure that the affected candidates secure actual school places rather than merely being allowed to access the self-placement portal.
In a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party expressed concern about the situation facing the candidates.
The NPP said the government had announced that 53,887 of the affected candidates could use the self-placement system after initially being told that they had not qualified for secondary school.
It, however, argued that access to the portal did not guarantee that candidates would secure their preferred schools or programmes.
“Ghanaian parents and candidates will judge the resolution of the challenge by one thing only: how many of the original 54,985 are sitting in a classroom, not how many were allowed to open a website,” the statement noted.
The party said the government’s own figures showed that the country had 859,828 declared vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.
It explained that the main challenge was the concentration of demand in a small number of highly subscribed schools.
The NPP noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, while those schools had 76,417 declared vacancies.
It therefore called on the government to explore ways to improve schools with available spaces, including providing teachers, laboratories and better programmes.
The party urged the government to use the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme to absorb candidates who remained without placements.
The NPP further called for clarification of the rule and pass mark used for this year’s placement exercise, saying parents were entitled to know the standard before their children sat the examination.
It urged the government to take urgent action to ensure that the affected candidates were not left behind in the transition to secondary education.
By: Jacob Aggrey





