On This Day In Comedy… In 1956 Comedian And Actor Angel Salazar Was Born!
On this day in comedy on March 2, 1956, Comedian, Actor, Angel Salazar was born.
Salazar once said that if he had a dollar for every time somebody said to him, “Chi Chi, get the YaYo” he’d be a millionaire. It was the immortal line in 1983’s Scarface uttered by Al Pacino’s drug kingpin character, Tony Montana to Salazar’s henchman during a drug deal gone wrong. That single instructive phrase to grab the almost forgotten cocaine came after a hail of gunfire in an iconic scene that made Salazar a pop culture fixture. Not bad for a Cuban-American comedian in an era when few Latin comedians were on the mainstream radar.
Angel Salazar was 27 years old when Scarface made him a hot commodity. He was a seasoned stand-up comedian, whose style was raw, interactive and manic. Like most ethnic comics he talked about being ethnic; punctuating punchlines as well as set ups with his catch phrase, “Sheck it out”. During his career Salazar opened for the Beach Boys, Billy Ocean, Van Halen, the Miami Sound Machine and Whitney Houston. He also appeared on Last Comic Standing and had numerous HBO specials.
Prior to Scarface Salazar had a productive film career going. He had roles in Boulevard Nights, Walking Proud, Where the Buffalo Roam and A Stranger is Watching. After Scarface he stayed right on track with appearances in The Wild Life, Sylvester, Hot to Trot, Punchline (w/Tom Hanks), Maniac Cop 2, Carlito’s Way (w/Al Pacino again), Vote For Me, Harlem Blues, Rose Woes and Joe’s, Made In Brooklyn, Trust Me, Crumble and The Last Gamble. Angel Salazar liked popping up in documentaries, too such as 2002’s Comedian and The Latin Legends of Comedy featuring Joey Vega and JJ Ramirez in 2006. Though mainly Salazar liked doing stand up and would take year-long extended breaks from films to hit the road and just be a comedian.
On This Day In Comedy… In 2000 The Comedy Film ‘3 Strikes’ Was Released!
On this day in comedy on March 1, 2000, 3 Strikes was released by MGM
Written and directed by DJ Pooh, 3 Strikes stars Brian Hooks as a guy caught up in the system. Hooks gets out of jail after a year for his second offense as he discovers there’s a new three strikes law. If he goes down one more time, it’s for a minimum of 25 years. No problem. He has no intention of ever going back inside. He’s a new man. Changed life. This is what he tells JJ, a guy who picked him up instead of his real friend. So as JJ, the substitute pick-up ride listens to this tale of personal revelation, the cops pull up behind them and this forces JJ into an inconvenient admission. Seems the pick-up car was stolen and now JJ must have a gun battle with the cops. Next thing Hooks knows – it’s on!
3 Strikes is a full-on chase film. Hooks spends most of his time alluding the cops in hopes of proving his innocence. In the meanwhile, JJ has been apprehended, taken to the hospital with buttocks wound (he’s hung in a sling with his bandaged ass hiked up in the air), raped by a gay janitor and vows to pin the crime all on Hooks when the cops come asking. Hooks, during this time, makes a deal to get a tape with JJ admitting wrongdoing. All he has to do is go to bed a woman he does not want to go to bed with. That’s all, but it turns out it doesn’t matter. Hooks is caught and through the miracle of movie storytelling he is only found to be in violation of his parole, goes to jail for 30 days and gets out because the prison was overcrowded.
3 Strikes co-stars David Alan Grier, Faizon Love, N’Bushe Wright, Antonio Fargas, E-40, DJ Pooh, George Wallace, Meagan Good, Mo’Nique, De’Aundre Bonds, Phil Morris and Vincent Schiavelli. Cameos are made by Mike Epps, Anthony Anderson, Jerry Dunphy and Big Boy. The film was poorly received by critics but was nevertheless profitable. On a budget of $3.4 million, 3 Strikes pulled in $3,684,704 in its opening weekend for the #12 spot and an eventual box office take of $9.8 million.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1972 Comedian And Actor Maz Jobrani Was Born!
On this day in comedy on February 26, 1972, Comedian, Actor, Maziyar “Maz” Jobrani was born Tehran, Iran
Jobrani was part of the Middle-Eastern comedian boom that came to the forefront after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to bring a better understanding of the misunderstood culture in America. He adopted the nickname, The Persian Pink Panther and focused his material on race relations and tolerance. He took his stand-up act on the road with the touring group, “The Axis of Evil”. They were so popular they had a special on Comedy Central.
Funny is funny and with an ever-growing platform and fan base Jobrani could take advantage of other media opportunities. He’s appeared on the television shows: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Talkshow with Spike Feresten, Still Standing, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, The Colbert Report, Malcolm in the Middle, Whitney, The West Wing and CBS’s Superior Donuts (as a regular).
Jobrani has also racked up an impressive film resume in The Interpreter, Friday After Next and Dragonfly. He’s used radio to his advantage as well on NPR, WTF with Marc Maron and his own podcast, All Things Comedy.
Lil Rel Howery Joins BET’s ‘The Bobby Brown Story’!
BET has added to the cast for The Bobby Brown Story, its two-part miniseries starring Woody McClain as the veteran R&B singer. Mekhi Phifer, Lil Rel Howery, T.K. Carter, Laz Alonso, Lance Gross, Alyssa Goss and Sandi McCree also are set to star as production begins toady in Atlanta.
BET
The New Edition Story broke BET ratings records when it aired in January 2017, and The Bobby Brown Story picks up where that pic left off following Brown’s successful solo run. McClain is reprising his role as Brown, one of the genre’s original “bad boys” whose life epitomizes the meaning of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. His hits may have kept him at the top of the charts, but his antics kept him on the front page.
Phifer (Frequency) plays Tommy Brown, Bobby’s brother. Howery (The Carmichael Show) is Brian Irvine, Bobby’s business manager. Carter (The Corner) plays Herbert “Pops” Brown, Bobby’s father. Alonso (The Mysteries of Laura) is Louil Silas Jr, an MCA producer-executive who helps make Bobby a solo star. Gross is set as Steven Sealy, a childhood friend of Bobby’s who is killed in a gunfight after hanging with him at a hometown bar. Goss plays Bobby’s current wife, Alicia Etheridge, and McCree will reprise her New Edition Story as Bobby’s mother Carole Brown.
The Bobby Brown Story is executive produced by Jesse Collins (The New Edition Story) for JCE Films, a division of Jesse Collins Entertainment; written by Abdul Williams (Lottery Ticket, The New Edition Story) and directed by Spike Lee protégé Kiel Adrian Scott.
BET plans a two-night September premiere for The Bobby Brown Story.
Source: Deadline
Vanessa Williams Lands In New ABC Comedy Soap Titled ‘False Profits’!
Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty alumna Vanessa Williams is returning to ABC with a co-starring role in another comedic soap. She has signed for a major role opposite leads Bellamy Young, Shelley Hennig, and Kosha Patel in the hourlong pilot False Profits, set in the world of cosmetics marketing, from former Code Black writer-producer Kayla Alpert, Jason Reed, and ABC Studios.
Written by Alpert, False Profits is described as Desperate Housewives meets Glengarry Glen Ross. It follows a team of down-and-out women in suburban Arizona as they fight their way to the top of the cutthroat world of a multi-level marketing cosmetics business.
ABC
Williams will play Suzanne, chief of a highly successful “tribe” of Brava Natural saleswomen, and she wants to add Laura (Young) to her cluster of money-making devotees. Cast also includes Kapil Talwalka.
Alpert executive produces with Reed and former Desperate Housewives exec producer Sabrina Wind via Jason T. Reed Productions. ABC Studios is the studio.
Williams, who received three Emmy nominations for the role of Wilhelmina Slater on ABC’s, Ugly Betty, co-starred in the final season of Desperate Housewives as Renee Perry and headlined ABC’s 666 Park Avenue and VH1’s Daytime Divas. She also co-starred in the TV movie The Trip to Bountiful opposite Cicely Tyson. Williams is repped by UTA and GEF Entertainment.
Source: Deadline
Tiffany Haddish To Star In Tyler Perry’s New Movie ‘The List’
Tiffany Haddish has signed on to star alongside Tika Sumpter and Omari Hardwick in Tyler Perry’s The List, Perry’s next film which is in the works at Paramount Players. Perry wrote and is directing and producing, and the Paramount label has already set a November 2, 2018 release date.
The pic’s logline: When her wild sister (Haddish) gets released from prison and re-enters her life, Danica (Sumpter) is forced to accept that she may be getting “catfished” by an online boyfriend whom she has never met in person.
Haddish, who was all over the place at the Oscars last night and had one of the show’s best presenter moments with Maya Rudolph, most recently starred in Universal’s Girls Trip, which earned a Critics’ Choice nom this year. She’s been on a roll since, making Saturday Night Live history in November by becoming the first black female stand-up comic to host the show. She also will host the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards in June.
Haddish is set to star opposite Tracy Morgan in the TBS sitcom The Last OG, and alongside Kevin Hart in Universal’s Night School, the later of which bows in September. She and Perry reteam from his OWN series If Loving You Is Wrong, on which she appeared during the 2014-2015 season.
In February, word came that Haddish and Melissa McCarthy were finalizing a deal to star in The Kitchen — a female-focused drama, not the pair’s usual comedy pic — on which Andrea Berloff will make her directorial debut. New Line Cinema and DC Entertainment are making the film, with a screenplay that Straight Outta Compton scribe Berloff wrote based on the 2014 comic book series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle for DC’s Vertigo.
The Kitchen is an Irish mafia story set in Hell’s Kitchen, New York in the 1970s. An FBI sweep catches mob leaders, and while they are under arrest and their criminal enterprise is jeopardized, the mob wives take over. They end up running the illicit business in more vicious fashion than their husbands ever did.
Paramount Players has been expanding its slate since AwesomenessTV founder Brian Robbins came aboard in June 2017. Devoted to producing films derived from the Viacom flagship brands, it has in the pipeline What Men Want starring Taraji P. Henson; Action Man, based on the Hasbro toy line; the horror pic Eli; a Dora the Explorer movie; and a 48 Hrs redo.
Source: Deadline
Jordan Peele Is First Black Screenwriter To Win Best Original Screenplay At The Oscars!
Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” has placed him in the Oscar history books.
Peele was crowned the winner in the the best original screenplay race at Sunday’s Academy Awards, making him the first black screenwriter to receive the honor.
In his speech, Peele thanked the people “who raised my voice and let me make this movie.”
Heading into Sunday, Peele and his film were nominated for a total of four awards, including best picture.
Only four black film writers have been nominated in the best original screenplay category in Oscars’ 90-year history: Suzanne de Passe (“Lady Sings the Blues,” 1972), Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing,” 1989) John Singleton (“Boyz n the Hood,” 1991) and Peele.
In the adapted screenplay category, three films with black writers have won in the past — “Precious,” “Twelve Years a Slave,” and “Moonlight.”
This year, Peele made history, becoming the first black director to receive nominations in the writing, directing, and best picture categories for his directorial debut.
Only two other people have accomplished that feat, according to the Academy. Warren Beatty with “Heaven Can Wait” (1978) and James L. Brooks with “Terms of Endearment” (1983).
Beatty walked away empty handed in his nominated categories and Brooks won all of his.
“Get Out,” a social thriller that received praise for its thought-provoking take on race in America, grossed $176 million domestically.
Speaking to CNN recently, Peele explained that part of “Get Out’s” success came from its ability to put viewers in the shoes of Daniel Kaluuya’s character Chris.
In the film, Kaluuya, who earned a best actor nomination, plays an African-American man whose weekend getaway to meet his white girlfriend’s parents takes a disturbing turn.
“I think the biggest thing ‘Get Out’ taught me about the power of story is that one of the few ways we can promote empathy is by seeing the world through somebody else’s eyes, and that’s what that’s what great story does,” he said. “That’s what a strong protagonist does.”
Source: CNN
Katt Williams Settles With Actress Claiming He Burned Her With Cigarettes & Had Women Attack Her
We just discovered the news that the website theJasmineBRAND is exclusively reporting that a lawsuit accusing Katt Williams of physically abusing an actress and organizing an attack on her, has ended. Court documents were filed explaining that Katt reached a settlement with the alleged victim, Jamila Majesty. Jamila was paid more than $10k and as a result, the entire lawsuit has been dismissed.
Here’s the backstory: In 2016, the comedian was sued by Jamila Majesty, an actress. Majesty explained she went to the comedian’s Malibu home 2 years ago. She claims that she was invited to the home and when she arrived, 5 other women were there and things quickly went south after she used the bathroom.
She says that Katt immediately told her that “no one uses [my] bathroom” and then the other women began punching her. She claimed the beatings lasted for 3 hours, during which she lost consciousness several times, was left bloodied and the comedian even burned her in the face with his cigarette.
Jamila Majesty
One of the women involved in the beat down … allegedly had a book open which contained the “teachings on sorcery and spells” and that she had a fire that was being fed “unusual things”.
Majesty was eventually able to escape around 1:30am and drove home without calling the police, fearing what Katt would do. She later sued for assault, battery, emotional distress and false imprisonment.
Source: The theJasmineBRAND
Kerry Washington To Produce New Comedy Pilot For ABC Titled ‘Man Of The House’!
ABC has made a late pilot pick up, ordering the comedy “Man of the House” starring Alyson Hannigan.
The multi-camera hybrid series will follow two recently divorced sisters who decide to move in together to raise their kids under one roof. The oldest kid and only son is left to figure out what manhood means in a world where he’s now completely surrounded by females.
Hannigan will portray Jessie, described as a caring social-worker who was shocked when her husband left her. With nowhere else to turn, and against her better judgment, she moves her teenage football-star son and pre-teen daughter into the home of her narcissistic, ball-busting sister Charli and her even more-wicked daughter.
Frank Pines and Vijal Patel are the writers and executive producers. “Scandal” star Kerry Washington will also executive produce via her Simpson Street banner, with Simpson Street’s Pilar Savone also executive producing. Gail Berman and Joe Earley of The Jackal Group will also executive produce. ABC Studios will produce the series with The Jackal Group.
Hannigan is well-known for her leading role in hit CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” She also famously appeared in the popular series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as well as the “American Pie” film franchise. She is currently the host of “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” on The CW.
Washington currently stars on ABC’s “Scandal,” which is preparing to end after seven seasons. She is also an executive producer on the upcoming Facebook series “Five Points.”
Hannigan is repped by APA and McKuin Frankel Whitehead LLP. Pines is repped by CAA, Think Tank Management, and Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein. Patel is repped by APA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush & Kaller, LLP. Washington is repped by CAA, Washington Square Arts, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush & Kaller, LLP.
Source: Variety
Viola Davis And Lupita Nyong’o To Star As Mother And Daughter In ‘The Woman King’
Hot on the heels of Black Panther, a huge movie has just been announced starring Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o.
They will star in The Woman King, which is “the powerful true story of an extraordinary mother-daughter relationship.” TriStar has just acquired the worldwide rights.
“There’s no-one more extraordinary than Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o to bring them to life,” said Hannah Minghella, president of TriStar Pictures, in a statement.
The film is inspired by true events in the Kingdom of Dahomey, a powerful state in the 18th century. It will tell the story of Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit known as the Amazons, and her daughter Nawi (Nyong’o), who together fought the French and neighboring tribes who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.
The story is an original from Maria Bello and Cathy Schulman’s Welle Entertainment. Davis and her husband Julius Tennon, under their JuVee Productions will produce.
“The Woman King has the potential to be a game changer for women of color everywhere. Viola and our team at JuVee are beyond excited to partner with Sony/TriStar to bring these fierce women to the big screen,” said Tennon.
“Black Panther just showed us how the power of imagination and lore could reveal a world without gender and racial stereotypes. The Woman King will tell one of history’s greatest forgotten stories from the real world in which we live, where an army of African warrior women staved off slavery, colonialism and inter-tribal warfare to unify a nation,” said Schulman.
