"Precious' Star Gabby Sidibe & Taraji P. Henson at the Hollywood Film Festival
R&B Vocalist Alyson Williams at The Thurgood Marshall Front Row Fashion Event
Mary and Wendy jamming…
Sigh....I'm calling Monif C. right now......
New York, NY, October 26, 2009—The folks at film sales and financing company Cinetic Media have an infamous parlour game they play in advance of a film opening in theaters. John Sloss and his colleagues each try to predict a movie’s theatrical box office. Clearly, the big film they’ll be prognosticating next is Lee Daniels’ “Precious,” which hits U.S. theaters next Friday (November 6th) - nearly ten months after it debuted at Sundance and was sold (by Cinetic) to Lionsgate.
In the wake of a triple award win at Sundance, recent audience prizes at fests in Toronto and Chicago, rousing screenings in Cannes and at the New York Film Festival, intensifying awards season buzz, and now a 5,600 word cover profile in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine, hopes for the film keep getting bigger. But, can it meet these increased expectations?
It was January 16th back at Sundance this year, the first Friday of the festival, and in an aisle seat at the Racquet Club theater, I noticed “Precious” director Lee Daniels, and I noticed he wasn’t talking to anyone - just staring straight ahead. Nearby, against a wall with colleagues, was John Sloss. As the screening time approached, there was a strange lack of urgency to start the showing. A bit of a drama was unfolding behind the scenes because across town a delayed screening of Antoine Fuqua’s “Brooklyn’s Finest” at another Sundance venue was holding up some buyers. Sundance festival folks seemed anxious to get the movie started, but Lee, Sloss & company were stalling. I chatted with Lee who seemed cautiously optimistic about his new movie, but he and his reps feared that a bad first showing at Sundance - without the expected acquisitions execs in place for the whole film - would damage their chances for the right deal.
To read the full article CLICK HERE
(CBS) It's showtime and Mo'Nique is pumped.
Click here to listen to my interview about the modeling industry on Talk About It Today with Mo Stegall.....enjoy fam!
Sherri Shepherd wore teal draped dress with gold strappy heels to the Thurgood Marshall Front Row Fashion Show
Raven Symone looking svelte at a United Nations Event honoring Tinkerbell.
Actor/Comedian Sinbad at the 12th Annual Mark Twain Awards
Lee Daniels, left, is the director of "Precious." At right, Mo' Nique, generally known for stand-up, takes on a tough role in the movie.
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| Robert Maxwell for The New York Times | ||
From The NY Times:
At the Cannes International Film Festival in May, in the loud, chaotic bar at the Martinez Hotel, Lee Daniels seemed, as he often does, both ecstatic and nervous. He jumped, he slumped, his mood changing from giddy to anxious. He was the only black man in the crowded bar, a fact that he mentioned and then brushed away. He was dressed unremarkably in a loose, untucked shirt and slouchy khaki pants, but his hair, an electric corona of six-inch fusilli-like spirals, demanded notice. Although Daniels will be 50 this year, he has the bouncy, mercurial energy of a child. The previous night, at the gala screening of his movie “Precious,” which he directed and helped produce, he greeted the audience by saying, “I’m a little homo, I’m a little Euro and I’m a little ghetto.” The crowd cheered.
Daniels knows what he’s selling: his films combine street-smart bravado with an art-house sensibility. “Precious,” the harrowing story of a 350-pound illiterate teenage girl who is pregnant for the second time by her father and horribly abused by her mother, is shot in an almost-documentary style interspersed with fantasy sequences. (It opens Nov. 6.) Like most independent films, it is character-driven, and at its heart is a spirit of understanding. When Precious’s plight lands her in a special school, she blossoms: the audience’s initial rejection of Precious, even repulsion at the sight of her, slowly gives way to a kind of identification.
At Cannes, the film received a 15-minute standing ovation. “They wouldn’t stop clapping,” Daniels told me as he gulped a vodka. “I’m a director — after six minutes, I’m saying, please sit down. But I’m also a producer, so I’m thinking, what’s the record? Can we break the record for the longest standing ovation at the festival?”
Just a few months before its premiere at Cannes, “Precious” won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including a special jury prize for Mo’Nique, who plays Precious’s monstrous mother. Graphic as the film is, it is less so than “Push,” the 1996 novel on which it is based. Written by an African-American poet and writer known as Sapphire, “Push” relied on intentionally misspelled, broken and slangy English to convey Precious’s sense of despair and rage. The novel mixes poems by Precious with sexually extreme scenes, like those in which she is forced to perform oral sex on her mother. It is almost relentlessly bleak: when Precious discovers she is H.I.V.-positive, she is certain of her imminent death. Daniels’s movie, by contrast, offers a greater sense of possibility. He doesn’t ignore her disease, hardships or struggles, but he also liberates her from them. Precious is a stand-in for anyone — black, white, male, female — who has ever been devalued or underestimated.
To continue reading this article: Click Here
A little while ago, The National Enquirer said that Rosie O's partner in pussay, Kelli Carpenter, moved out of their home and shuffled off to Manhattan. At the time, Rosie didn't say much about the rumor. Well, now she's talking to USA Today and says the two are having problems. Doesn't it make you sad in the heart thinking about Rosie's strap-on collecting dust because Kelli isn't around to give it a little attention? That one was for Donald Trump.
When asked about the gayelle drama, Rosie O said, "We're a family. We will remain a family forever. And we are working on our issues. Kelli and I love each other very much and we are working on our issues. Those are the only words I am ever going to say. Ever. And that is something that has been agreed upon by all parties. But everything's fine and everybody's good and we're still both raising them together. We will both continue to parent them and we're friendly and everything's all right."
Wanna read more? Go HERE
Forget cheese- these mice want cheesecake.
Fans of Junior's cheesecake got an unwelcome surprise over the weekend when photos that appear to show a mouse in the cake display at its flagship downtown Brooklyn location began multiplying across the Internet.
The eek-inducing images of the tiny vermin peering from between two cheesecakes and another of a mouse lounging between two trays were posted to the Web site Brooklynian.com Saturday afternoon by someone using the pseudonym "Rachel Rae."
"Rae" said a friend took them and posted on Facebook.
By Tuesday, the photos were picked up far and wide - sparking an outpouring of posts from Junior's cheesecake lovers.
Wanna read more? Go HERE
Amber Riley's character Mercedes Jones is sort of the Jennifer Hudson of Fox's "Glee," a sitcom about the go-go world of high school music and theatre. She's cute and spunky with a glass-shattering. She also happens to be full-figured. Amber recently spoke to Life & Style magazine about body confidence.
“You’re not your dress size, you’re not your shoe size, you’re not your pants size," she said. "If I’m going to wear a name tag, it’s going to say ‘Amber Riley,’ not ‘Fat Girl’!”
Amber also spoke to the mag about fashion, which is one of her passions. She said that she loves shoes and prefers shapely silhouettes instead of "plus-size clothes that look like a tent."
To read more about Amber Riley CLICK HERE
But in the midst of mapping this new direction, Stone encountered a shock that even she didn't see coming. Mid-way through the recording process, her father – Stone's spiritual anchor and creative mentor since her childhood in South Carolina – passed away very suddenly. "It was totally unexpected," she says, "and that's where I came up with the title of the album. I really didn't think I could finish the project, because I was so grief stricken…I had to do a lot of the vocals a second time. I had to lean on my dad's wisdom and energy, and try to be open to what he would have wanted me to do in order to finish the songs. I can say that his spirit was literally there in the studio with me, and I'm grateful for that."
Denise Rich hosted her 2009 Angel Ball to Benefit Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation last night at NYC’s Cipriani’s Wall Street. Jennifer Hudson looked great on the red carpet and was there to perform.
Sherri Shepherd (Sherri!, The View)
J.Hud chats backstage with Natalie Cole
BET's CEO Debra Lee made an appearance.
Jennifer Hudson hit up the 2009 Whitney Museum Gala at The Whitney Museum of American Art in NY last night. Jenifer Hudson in Versace. 
Whoopi Goldberg
The leopard print is back! Wendy Williams made an appearance on the red carpet with her leopard print accessories, and her Giuseppe Zanotti for Balmain crystal-encrusted boots.
Queen Latifah, and Black Girls Rock! Awards founder, DJ Beverly Bond, posed on the red carpet.
Lisa Raye and her beautiful curvy daughter Kaienja
(Who knew she had a curvy daughter? Gotta give her some love here!)
