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Ice Cube Talks A-Team

Posted by Vogt
at May 26, 2008

Ice Cube as Mr T

If anyone out there knows Mr. T, please go check on him to make sure he hasn’t jumped off a bridge wearing his signature 700 pounds of fake gold. The Teddy Ruxpin of American gangstas, Ice Cube, hopes to play mohawked soldier of fortune B.A. Baracus in John Singleton’s The A-Team. While we’re updating The A-Team, why not change the meaning of Baracus’ acronymic initials from “Bad Attitude” to either: “Bad Actor” or “Baby Accident”? The bankable star of the Are We…Yet franchise explained why his “flavor” is best for the role to Blackfilm.com.

“Hell yeah, especially with John Singleton directing! …I wouldn’t try to duplicate what Mr. T did, but I will have the same impact on you when you were little watching the TV show. I’m going to bring my own flavor to it and I am going to do the mohawk.”

Laughably, he goes on to say that while the role can’t be classified as a “dream come true” per se, it’s a good way to earn a paycheck.

“They want me to do it if all the business works out right. I was a fan as a kid and that would be, not a dream come true, but it’s definitely a good thing to do and I would put it on my resume for sure.”

But I think we all know that the real reason Ice Cube wants this role. He wants to be known as Mr. T, thus finally sabotaging the similar identity of rapper-actor Ice T. Isn’t it great to live in a world where David Cross writes a 1,700 word manifesto justifying any guilt over his contribution to Alvin and the Chipmunks, while seconds ago Ice Cube probably sent a three word “Wassup with Alvin 2?” text message to his agent? I think so.

Celebrity Film
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Movie Trailer: Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth

Posted by Vogt
at May 25, 2008

Youth Without YouthThe movie trailer for Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s first new film in 10-years, is now online. Coppola adapted, produced and directed the movie based on the 1976 novel by Romanian-born religious historian Mircea Eliade.

The short teaser trailer looks interesting, but doesn’t really show much, or at least it doesn’t show much in terms of narrative story. And that worries me quite a bit since I have heard that it is somewhat personal and experimental. It has been widely reported that the film was inspired by his daughter Sofia, and shot with a low $5 million budget film last winter in Romania using a Sony High Definition camera. The movie has been screened in front of friends and fellow directors including: Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, Andy Garcia, Matt Dillon, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Spike Jonze, John Singleton, the Hughes Brothers, Alfonso Cuarón, and Gus Van Sant attended the screening. It has been said that overall the film is “Good, but very difficult.”

The movie stars Tim Roth as a 70-year-old who is struck by lightning and suddenly gets younger and more brilliant. The film co-stars Alexandra Maria Lara and Bruno Ganz, and Matt Damon makes a cameo appearance. Coppola’s last time behind the camera was 1997’s Rainmaker which also starred Damon.

Celebrity Film
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Nia Long Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Nia Long Biography.jpg

This stunningly beautiful, rising black actress first began her acting career as a teenager, appearing in several stage productions, including “227″, which was the basis for the NBC sitcom of the same name on which she made a guest appearance. She landed a role in “The B.R.A.T. Patrol” (ABC, 1986), a “Disney Sunday Movie” and appearances in music videos before breaking onto the big screen in “Buried Alive” (1990). In John Singleton’s acclaimed “Boyz N the Hood” (1991), Long played the marriage-minded girlfriend of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Tre. Her three-year stint (1991-1994) as Kathryn ‘Kat’ Speakes on the CBS daytime drama “Guiding Light” garnered her attention and Long used the experience as a springboard to primetime and higher profile features. While still on the soap, she landed the role of Whoopi Goldberg’s daughter in the uneven comedy “Made in America”. Long fared slightly better the following year when she joined the cast of the hit NBC sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, playing the recurring role of Will’s girlfriend, but when the series returned for its final season, her role had been dropped.

Long wasn’t out of work for long. First time director F. Gary Gray offered her a strong comedic role as Debbie, the foxy neighbor who becomes the object of Ice T’s affection, in the sassy comedy “Friday” (1995). Another novice, Theodore Wicher, gave the actress her first real lead in “Love Jones” (1997), as a photographer who has an on-again, off-again relationship with a writer (Larenz Tate). Long and Tate generated real screen heat and both earned high marks from critics. The actress followed with the sleeper hit “Soul Food” (also 1997), playing the youngest of a trio of sisters, a newlywed struggling with her career as a hair stylist and the demands of her marriage to an ex-con (Mekhi Phifer) trying to go straight. After appearing in a pair of urban-oriented action-thrillers, “Butter” (1998) and “In Too Deep” (1999), Long appeared in the predominantly African American ensemble of writer-director Malcolm Lee’s “The Best Man” as the one-that-got-away old flame who reunites with her otherwise committed ex (Taye Diggs) at the wedding of a mutual friend, played the club hopping best friend of Patricia Arquette in the horror-thriller “Stigmata,” starred opposite Jamie Foxx in the hostage comedy “Held Up” and appeared opposite Colin Firth in the low-profile indie “The Secret Laughter of Women” (all 1999). Long next appeared as Mary McCormack’s lesbian girlfriend in the gay-themed ensemble drama “The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy”; as a empathetic receptionist who shares a bond with Giovanni Ribisi in “Boiler Room”; played a member of a protective circle of lesbians in the HBO telepic “If These Walls Could Talk 2″; and played Martin Lawrence’s love interest/faux granddaughter in the comedy “Big Momma’s House” (all 2000).

After the middling haunted house film “Sightings: Heartland Ghost” (2002) and joining the cast of the NBC drama “Third Watch” in 2003, she scored as Melvin Van Peebles lover Sandra in “Baadasssss!” (2004) writer-director Mario van Peebles’ well-received account of the making of his father’s breakthrough film. She was also enticing in her supporting role in the 2004 remake of “Alfie,” playing the should-be-forbidden girlfriend of Alfie’s (Jude Law) best friend (Omar Epps) who proves too great a temptation. In the family-friendly “Are We There Yet?” (2005), she had a small, thankless role as a devoted mother of two children taken on a road trip by a smooth operator (Ice Cube) intent on getting a date with her. Long’s considerable talents were wasted in a role giving her little to do. And despite being panned by critics, “Are We There Yet?” opened number one at the box office and subsequently filled the coffers at Sony Pictures.

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Janet Jackson Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Janet Jackson.jpg

This black pop diva of the 1980s and 90s is the youngest of the nine members of the Jackson musical dynasty. Janet Jackson enjoyed her first multi-million seller with “Control” in 1986, an album which produced hard-driving, danceable hits including “Nasty” and “What Have You Done for Me Lately?”. She followed up with the even more successful “Rhythm Nation 1814″ in 1989, which produced seven Top Five singles (including “Miss You Much” and “Escapade”), four of which made it to Number 1.

Jackson began performing with her family at age seven (doing a Mae West imitation as part of a Las Vegas stage act), and acted during the 1970s and 80s in recurring or supporting roles on the TV series “Good Times”, “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Fame”. She made her feature acting debut as the sensitive poet Justice in the John Singleton misfire, “Poetic Justice” (1993). Her hit single “Again” (which was also featured on her wildly successful album “janet.”) was prominently featured in the film and earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song. She returned to the big-screen in the summer of 2000 as the scientist fiancee of Eddie Murphy’s Professor Klump in the comedy “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps”. Once again, a Janet Jackson song (”Doesn’t Really Matter,) was included on the film’s soundtrack album.

Although an effective supporting player and pleasant minor comedienne, Jackson displayed her real passions and talents through her music and dancing. Virgin Records acknowledged this in 1996 when it offered her an $80 million deal that made her the music industry’s highest paid performer. She justified Virgin’s faith by releasing “The Velvet Rope” (1997), a collection of highly personal, very emotional songs that went triple-platinum within a year of its release. The album addressed Jackson’s battle with depression, her own self-image problems, family woes and how she escaped an abusive relationship. The recording also set the rumor mill a-spin when two of her songs hinted at a romantic interest in women. Whether drawn to the album’s honesty or controversy really didn’t matter, Jackson’s fans turned out for her “Velvet Rope” world tour en masse. In addition to her usual energetic singing and tireless dancing, Jackson treated audiences to a show she “created and directed” and which looked more like a splashy Broadway musical than a rock concert with its eight back-up dancers and enormous video screens.

Unlike her siblings Michael and LaToya, Janet Jackson had largely avoided courting controversy throughout her career (minus a long-secret nine-year marriage to Rene Elizondo Jr.), until February 1, 2004. While Jackson was performing a duet with pop star Justin Timberlake during the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVIII, Timberlake reached over at the climax of the segment–on the lyric “Gonna have you naked by the end of this song”) and pulled off a breakaway black leather bustier cup on Jackson’s bustier, exposing her right breast (and sunburst-shaped nipple clamp) on live global television. The incident incited a massive media frenzy and much public uproar: broadcaster CBS announced its outrage and disavowed advance knowledge of the stunt, blaming its corporate sibling and halftime producer MTV, which had promised a “shocking” show; Timberlake issued a public apology and called the incident a “wardrobe malfunction,” explaining that a red brassiere cup under the black bustier intended to cover her breast had inadvertantly been torn away as well; and the NFL and FCC launched investigations into the incident. A day after the furor erupted Jackson announced that she had privately concocted the stunt on her own and issued her own public regrets in a videotaped apology.

In the wake of “Boobgate”–which to some seemed suspiciously timed as Jackson had a new album pending after several years of professional inactivity–Jackson was asked to withdraw from an appearance on the Grammys to deliver an award to Luther Vandross, although Timberlake was allowed to perform on the show. It was later revealed that CBS would have allowed her to appear if she issued another apology from the Grammy stage, as Timberlake did. The various broadcast tlelevision networks also had knee-jerk reactions to the stunt, with NBC and ABC adding stricter censoring of partial nudity on series such as “ER” and “NYPD Blue,” and ABC issuing the first-ever five-second broadcast delay on the Academy Awards ceremony.

In 2005 Jackson was at the center of two new scandals which broke within days of one another: first, reports claimed that at age 18 the singer was the mother of a secret daughter born during her brief 1984 marriage to James Debarge and allegedly raised by her sister Rebbie, which Jackson vehemently denied, and a paparazzi video clip showing Jackson sunbathing nude made the rounds of the Internet before the popster’s attorney had it removed, threatening legal action to anyone showing it.

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