KIMBERLY ELISE JOINS WINFREY’S ‘DEBATERS’: Film starring Denzel currently shooting in Louisiana. *Actress Kimberly Elise has been added to the cast of “The Great Debaters,” a film produced by her “Beloved” co-star Oprah Winfrey and based on the true story of an East Texas debate team in the 1930s. Elise and actor Nate Parker join Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker in the story of the Wiley College debate team who challenged Harvard for a national title.
Washington is directing and plays the team’s coach. Parker will play the squad’s star debater, whose parents will be portrayed by Elise and Whitaker. Winfrey and Kate Forte are producing through their Harpo films shingle along with Todd Black and Joe Roth, reports Variety.
Production is currently underway in Louisiana. TYRA’S LA-BASED TALK SHOW MAY HEAD EAST: Telepictures seriously considering moving program to NYC. *Telepictures, the production company behind “The Tyra Banks Show,” is said to be “having serious discussions” about moving the program from Los Angeles to New York, reports Daily Variety.
For the past two years, Banks has hosted her talker from sunny Southern Cal. But producers believe a move to the Big Apple would shake things up by bringing a different kind of energy to the show, as well as a different guest pool. As previously reported, Telepictures has already renewed "The Tyra Banks Show" for its third and fourth seasons.
Its major affiliates include Fox-owned stations in 22 markets, as well as some Sinclair stations. Should the talk show relocate in NYC, Banks’ other project, “America’s Next Top Model,” may also return to the city, where the show was based during the first couple of seasons. JERMAINE DUPRI OPENS NEW GEORGIA NIGHTCLUB: Preview of Studio 72 scheduled for tonight.
*Record exec Jermaine Dupri has invited the press and his famous friends to experience his newest business venture, a 12,000-square-foot nightclub northeast of Atlanta called Studio 72, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Patterned after New York’s legendary disco destination Studio 54, Dupri’s venue features a 600-gallon aquarium filled with exotic fish and hues of brown, silver and champagne, according to the AJC. The music producer reportedly spent $1 million renovating the nightspot, located at 3965 Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker.
Studio 72 is scheduled to host a silver carpet grand opening on Saturday. FULL FORCE SUPRISES EDDIE LEVERT WITH POEM: Members attend launch of father/son book ‘I Got Your Back.’ *Eddie Levert got a surprise recently when Bowlegged Lou and Paul Anthony of the group Full Force showed up at a New York party for “I Got Your Back,” a book written by the O’Jays singer with his late son, Gerald Levert.
In the book, which ties into an album of the same name, Eddie and Gerald discuss their failures, concerns, fears, and triumphs as father and son. With a message of reconciliation for broken families, Eddie and Gerald explore the themes of fatherhood, male bonding and male-female relationships. Joined by Full Force’s new “vocalizing talent” Big Shawn, Bowlegged Lou and Paul Anthony surprised Eddie Levert at The River Room in NY and serenaded the audience with hits from Gerald Levert and the O’Jays.
They also read Eddie Levert a poem, reprinted below exactly as it was e-mailed to EUR exclusively by Bowlegged Lou: WE got your back Eddie Levert for being a legendary Father to a legendary son...
...
For guiding and teaching and being an example to not only Gerald,but to everyone...
...
..WE GOT YOUR BACK Gerald Levert for leaving us your musical friendship as u shine above.
...
.For sharing your loud teddy bear laugh and for always showing us love So with this father and son book about to come out tomorrow, one thing we know is a fact..
..Everyone in this room is gonna spread the word while purchasing this book, while we have your back So while Father Eddie is here on Earth doing the publicity--and doing it neat and never sloppy.
...
...
His son Gerald keeps climbing the stairway to heaven as he's already sold books to the angels-Ten thousand copies So to the Levert Legacy may u keep shining and knocking down any negative doors...
...
..May all the positive and optimistic things in life forever be yours.
Eddie Levert...
.we don’t ever have to look for a rainbow that is something we don’t ever have to do..
..Because your presence has graced us, all this time.
...
yes the rainbow is you !!!
*Rapper Yukmouth, formerly one half of the Oakland duo The Luniz, was arrested in Los Angeles Sunday and charged with driving on a suspended license, reports MemphisRap.com. A source told the Web site that Yuk, born Jerold Ellis, was picked up at around 4 a.
m. and had bond set at $40,000. The misdemeanor charge may have been coupled with an outstanding warrant, which would explain the high bond amount.
Yukmouth and his Luniz partner Numskull reached platinum status with their debut single, “I Got 5 on It.” The artist is currently working on a new album entitled "Million Dollar Mouthpiece," due sometime this summer. DRUG CHARGES PLAGUE TWO RECORD EXECS: Lupe Fiasco’s 1st 15th partner in prison; Ruff Ryder CEO caught with cocaine in the car.
*Two record label execs – one in Chicago, the other in New Jersey – have made headlines this week over serious drug charges. Rapper Lupe Fiasco saw his 1st and 15th record label partner Charles Patton receive a 44 year prison sentence in the Windy City last month after he was caught with six kilos of heroin he had stored in a suburban storage locker, reports the Chicago Sun Times. Meanwhile, Ruff Ryder CEO and Gulf War veteran Darrin "Dee" Dean was charged with various drugs and weapons offenses after New Jersey cops on Thursday (May 31) found over a kilo of cocaine in a customized SUV.
Patton, whose sentence came down last month in a Cook County courtroom, reportedly had about $1 million worth of heroin in the stash when he was arrested in 2003. Investigators believe he had been dealing since the late 1980s, before he linked with Fiasco to begin their music careers. Investigators also believe Patton’s path to becoming a Chicago's drug kingpin went through dealings with Nigerians as well as the alleged use of profits from record deals to purchase heroin before packaging it to be sold on Chicago streets.
As for Dean, the Ruff Ryder exec was riding shotgun in a customized Chevrolet van when it was pulled over on Palisades Interstate Parkway for a broken taillight. Police smelled marijuana upon approaching the vehicle and called in the K-9 unit, reports New Jersey newspaper The Record. The dogs eventually detected weed as well as 1 1/2 kilos of cocaine in a trap door built into the van’s rear wall.
A loaded .45 pistol was also recovered. Dean and Jerry Gilbert, the driver, were charged with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of a handgun and possession of a handgun while conducting narcotics violations.
Both men were released from the Bergen County Jail on Friday (June 1) after posting $342,500 bail. Ruff Ryders, founded in 1988 by Dean, his brother Joaquin "Waah" Dean and sister Chivon Dean, has been the home of such rappers as DMX, The Lox, Eve and producer Swizz Beatz. ITTY BITTY BITS: Wyclef visits Cartel; Story on ‘Surfer’; Mayor Ray J?
; Tank suspended; *Wyclef Jean will visit the rock band Cartel who are literally living inside of a bubble on Hudson River Park’s Pier 54 in New York as part of a promotion by soft drink Dr. Pepper that give fans a look at how an album is made – from start to finish. Clef is to stop by on June 7 and help the band produce a track for their sophomore album.
The Boys Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble made an appearance on June 2 to perform with Cartel on two tracks. The bubble is set to burst on June 12. View the band on live web-cam streams at www.
drpepperbubble.com. *”Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” director Tim Story gives an in depth interview about his new film here at BlackFilm.
com. The USC grad discusses the film’s storyline, the rabid fan following of the comic book series, production design and lots more. *Singer Kelly Rowland tells You magazine that she stays in shape only to look good without any clothes on.
I work out because I want to look good naked, simple as that,” she said. “My least favorite part of my body is my butt, because it has stretch marks.” *In another excerpt from his rambling interview with Sister 2 Sister magazine, Ray J says he wants to run for mayor in the city of Carson, Calif, despite the fact that he actively promoted a sex tape with ex-girlfriend Kim Kardashian.
"I might do it at the next election and let all of this controversy die down and then hit them harder,” he says. "I want people to look at other things besides rapping and singing..
. That's why I didn't run for mayor this year..
. I think I can still win. I've been through the ups and downs in Carson.
They need somebody young, not only to make a statement and win all eyes from all over the world...
I can bring all of the youth into being inspired to do something different in life." *Chicago Bears' defensive tackle Tank Johnson was suspended Monday for the first eight games of the 2007 NFL season, the third player sidelined this offseason under commissioner Roger Goodell's personal-conduct crackdown. Johnson, who recently spent two months in the Cook County jail for violating probation on a gun charge, will be allowed to attend training camp and play in the preseason.
"I think it's an opportunity for me to move forward," he told AP. "It's not my call to say whether it's fair or unfair. He took everything into consideration that he and I talked about, and what he came up with is what he came up with it.
If it's in the best interest of the NFL, then I'm all for it, too." Goodell said the suspension could be reduced to six games if Johnson has no further involvement with law enforcement and undergoes counseling. One-Night Stand Leads to Unplanned Pregnancy in Battle-of-the-Sexes Comedy Film Review by Kam Williams *Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) and Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) are polar opposites with nothing in common other than being twenty-somethings living in Los Angeles.
She’s an ambitious, aspiring journalist who just landed her big break as an on-air reporter for the E! Television Network. He, on the other hand, is an unemployed underachiever who’s sharing a bachelor pad with four equally-immature couch potatoes intent on delaying the onset of adulthood.
Ben and his roommates typically hang out in their living room in a weed-induced haze, making grandiose plans which never materialize to launch a raunchy website called Flesh of the Stars. Straitlaced Alison, by contrast, is on the fast track to the top of the showbiz ladder. Well, she is at least until the fateful moment that a flirtatious, curly-headed stranger approaches her in a pickup bar.
She isn’t actually into the singles scene, and is only in the club to celebrate her promotion with her big sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann), a jaded housewife stuck in a bad marriage. But that doesn’t discourage Ben from inviting himself to join them and trying to lower Alison’s resistance by plying her with beer. At the end of the evening, against her better judgment, she invites him back to her apartment, where she compounds that mistake by assuming a compromising position without first making sure he’s using protection.
The next morning, as their hangovers wear off, they instantly grate on each others nerves, making it abundantly clear that their ill-advised abandon had been the result of an alcohol-fueled, temporary insanity. So, they part company never expecting to set eyes on one another again. Eight weeks later, however, after Alison has missed a couple of periods, she determines that she’s expecting and tracks down her sperm donor to let him know he’s going to be a daddy.
Needless to say, Ben, a sleazy slacker who would rather be chasing his next conquest than changing diapers, takes the news of his impending fatherhood very badly. This contentious premise provides plenty of opportunities not only for further acrimony but also sows the seeds for potential post-coital romance in Knocked Up, a coarse yet curiously charming battle-of-the-sexes comedy written and directed by Judd Apatow (The 40 Year-Old Virgin). With this, just his second feature film, Apatow establishes himself as a master of the delicate art of offsetting lowbrow humor with enough convincingly tenderhearted moments to produce a picture with universal appeal.
For fans of bodily function humor will undoubtedly relish all the bawdy boys’ behavior back in Ben’s flat, as well as shocking sight gags involving pregnant Alison barfing and giving birth. Meanwhile, audience members inclined towards more sophisticated fare will undoubtedly appreciate the badinage between her and Ben as she desperately endeavors to make him over into marriage material before the arrival of their bouncing bundle of joy. The film relies heavily on a parallel subplot involving the strained marriage of the ever-vigilant Debbie and her emotionally-exasperated spouse, Pete (Paul Rudd).
Debbie suspects him of cheating on her, and cries on Alison’s shoulder while enlisting her assistance in her effort to catch him in the act. The females’ spying hijinks are simultaneously offset by Pete’s periodic male-bonding opportunities with commitment-phobic Ben, who’s understandably reluctant to take advice about walking down the aisle from a Knocked Up adds up to a hilarious family values flick which manages to convince you that it’s possible to transform a misogynist into a doting father on the guilt of an unplanned pregnancy. Sometimes, it’s fun to pretend, and this just happens to be an excellent example of one of those occasions.
Rated R for premarital sexuality, coarse humor, frontal nudity, drug and alcohol abuse, profanity and mature themes. KIMBERLY ELISE JOINS WINFREY’S ‘DEBATERS’: Film starring Denzel currently shooting in Louisiana.
News RSS