Songs, Movies & Moments – September 2026

A Look at Entertainment

by T.J. Moore –

No one wins when family feuds.

Twenty-five years after the tragic death of R&B star Aaliyah, a family feud has reignited with shocking allegations. Barry Hankerson, the late singer’s uncle, claims that his son bears some responsibility for the plane crash that claimed the “Try Again” singer’s life in August of 2001.

After Aaliyah’s cousin Jomo Hankerson sued his dad Barry Hankerson over music rights, the singer’s manager addressed the filing in a countersuit, partially blaming him for her fatal 2001 plane crash.

According to lawsuit documents obtained by TMZ, Jomo Hankerson is suing his father, Barry, and his record label, Blackground Records, over a dispute involving Aaliyah’s music and other artist’s catalogs.

The elder Hankerson was Aaliyah’s uncle and longtime manager.

In a counterclaim, Barry claims Jomo was paid to coordinate travel for Aaliyah’s video shoot for “Rock the Boat” in the Bahamas. It was the trip that ended with the singer and eight others dying when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff. Barry alleges that Jomo “failed in his responsibility” to handle the travel arrangements, claiming the tragedy “may have been avoided” if his son had completed the job he was paid to do.

Also included in the explosive lawsuit, Jomo claims his father violated a settlement agreement concerning music rights and owes him 12% of the money generated from recording masters and publishing copyrights connected to not only Aaliyah but also DMX, Timbaland, and Toni Braxton.

Jomo Hankerson is seeking more than $1.2 million in damages.

Beyoncé is back. Unfortunately, it’s not for a new single. It’s for a lawsuit centering on the spoken-word intro to “Alien Superstar.” The production group claiming ownership of the sampled material says the pop icon needs to pay up.

Beyoncé performs the song “Alien Superstar” in The Renaissance World Tour.

According to TMZ, Hirose Enterprise and producer Shuji Hirose filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Beyoncé and several music companies over the use of “Moonraker,” a song performed by John Holiday, who also performs under the name “Foremost Poets.”

The lawsuit claims that Beyoncé’s team used the spoken-word introduction from “Moonraker” on “Alien Superstar” without getting the proper license before Renaissance was released in 2022.

So what exactly happened between Liris Crosse, Bryan Barrientos, and Spray-Painted Cords?

Project Runway model Liris Crosse said her “spirit was broken” when designer Bryan Barrientos dressed her in a dirty garbage bag during the unconventional materials challenge in the “Battle of the Seasons” episode of Season 22.

On a recent episode of Project Runway “Battle of the Seasons,” remaining designers faced the show’s signature Unconventional Materials challenge. They had to turn discarded scraps like wires, metals, iPods, and plastics into fashion while competing against designers from Season 21.

Creating outfits with unusual and unexpected materials is the sauce of the popular fashion-based series. Designer Bryan Barrientos leveled up the competition when he introduced spray-painted cords.

Bryan designed for Liris Crosse.  Early in the episode, he admitted that working with unexpected materials sat outside his comfort zone. That became clear to everyone by the end of the show.

Bryan moved from bubble wrap to rubber cords and packing tape without developing a strong design. Nothing really worked.

On August 24, Crosse dropped a YouTube video revealing what viewers missed. She spoke about wet spray paint, a garment that weighed at least-50 pounds, and crying backstage before the presentation.

She also shared that she wore five-inch heels for the segment.

“The spray paint was not finished drying,” Crosse shared in the video.

Production assistants rested the hanging cords on chairs and stands backstage to relieve some of the pressure. The cords still hung too low during her walk and caused her to slip twice.

Halle Berry brought the weather-altering mutant Storm to the big screen in the first X-Men film in 2000 and reprised the role in three more films before putting the platinum wig in the closet. Years later, Alexandria Shipp took on the character in two films, playing a younger version of Storm in the rebooted X-Men franchise, but her performance was panned by critics

When Disney purchased 20th Century Fox for $71.3 billion, they also acquired the movie rights to X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool. Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios finally gained control of the franchise.

So with Feige finally in control of the popular movie franchise, everyone began to wonder who would be playing Ororo Munroe in Marvel Studios’ rebooted X-Men.

Enter Maya Boyd.

Meet Maya Boyd, the rising actress stepping into the iconic role of Storm in Marvel’s upcoming X-Men.

The 23-year-old Broadway actress was introduced as the new Storm at the D23 expo. Before graduating from the University of Michigan, Boyd was racking up acting credits. She starred alongside Taraji P. Henson in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Merrily We Roll Along. Boyd also took over the lead in Juliet for eight weeks in the jukebox musical.

Boyd is slated to make her X-Men debut in 2028.